How to Conduct an ITSM Product Comparison: Key Considerations and Examples
You company relies heavily on technology to function properly and to introduce innovative solutions into your market space to gain a competitive advantage. As such, you need IT service management (ITSM) solutions in place to ensure your standard of quality performance is met at all times. The challenge is determining the vendors to include in your ITSM product comparison. To ease the process, learn what criteria you should develop in your needs assessment and how ITSM products from FrontRange, BMC Software and Numara can meet those needs.
Your ITSM Product Comparison Should First Meet Your Needs
Every organization has a list of “must haves” and “like to haves” when it comes to an ITSM product comparison. The standard “must have” list is likely to include specific requirements for service level and productivity improvements, as well as it help desk best practices expectations and standardization expectations. How do these needs align with your budgetary restraints? Is there enough room to select the ITSM product comparison solution that best meets your needs, or will you have to settle for the next best thing? Have you identified those processes that will benefit the most from this implementation to align them properly with vendor offerings?
ITSM Product Comparison: FrontRange
FrontRange, as one of the ITSM product comparison providers, has done well to secure its market placement, building on the power of a common architectural platform. By providing your company with an integrated dashboard for reporting and analytics, a multi-tenant structure, and a next-gen customization platform that allows you to build out your solution around your company’s specific needs, FrontRange provides continual service improvement.
FrontRange Benefits in Your ITSM Product Comparison
Every ITSM product comparison provider will promise to meet your needs, but FrontRange’s common platform approach has been proven to reduce the overall complexity of your ITSM infrastructure. This platform can also effectively streamline your business processes, while lowering your total cost of ownership (TCO). Additionally, all of your IT business processes have direct access to the shared IT asset repository and enterprise service model as a result of the FrontRange Configuration Management Database.
ITSM Product Comparison: BMC Software
You are likely to find in any ITSM product comparison that BMC Software offers many of the same benefits as FrontRange. The company has a dedicated and measurable approach to reducing complexity and cost, while also delivering visibility across your activities, resources and priorities. The primary focus for this company is on the mid-sized and enterprise based customer, delivering the solution on-premise or through a SaaS (software as a service) platform.
ITSM Product Comparison Offers Four Areas of Support
BMC Software has designated four areas as their primary support goal, including optimization for the service desk; management of the service catalog and all requests; total management of the supplier and asset lifecycle; and comprehensive change management and release management. ITIL best practices are also embedded in this solution, and pre-set policies and customized integration is assured.
ITSM Product Comparison: Numara
Numara takes a more simplified approach to ITSM, providing service desk and desktop management monitoring and control through a single, unified console. The purpose is to eliminate the process of putting out one first after another and truly taking a proactive approach to service management. The company’s solution, FootPrints Service Management is Web-based and allows you to handle all incidents and requests submitted through any channel through one portal.
ITSM Product Comparison: True Visibility
One of the key selling points for Numara is the visibility delivered through a customized service catalog. As a result, all of your customers will have a clear view of your IT services, capturing the full scope of what is readily available, when it can be delivered, the Service Level Agreements in place and the total cost. This open approach could help you to achieve the desired level of differentiation.
Final Word on ITSM Product Comparison
Your size, needs and culture can easily dictate which of the three providers in the ITSM product comparison presents the best choice for your environment. If your culture cannot support a migration to the cloud, Numara is not the right pick. If you want a single architecture with an integrated dashboard, FrontRange can be a solid choice. If you like the idea of introducing cloud computing down the road, BMC may be the right fit. Examine the solutions according to your needs and you’ll best determine the right ITSM product.