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IBM Offers IT Service Desk Fix: Page 2 of 2

Included in the new offering are incident and problem management; IT asset management; service catalog, a portal for requesting standard IT and non-IT services; and change, configuration and release management. It also comes with 24-by-7 phone and e-mail support, as well as self-help content.

IBM joins a number of vendors that have been upgrading their capabilities in this segment, including Service-now.com, Dell Kace and ScriptLogic. According to the latest Gartner data, IT organizations are opting for IT service desk tools "based on ease of implementation, pricing flexibility and breadth of integrated IT service management tool offerings." Gartner's analysis of enterprise-class vendors found that most tools are largely commoditized, especially in incident management, where vendor functionality is 90 to 95 percent similar. So IBM's attempt to differentiate itself in this commodity market by addressing features like ease of implementation and licensing model flexibility falls in with Gartner's findings.

Gartner's top five trends shaping 2010, and into 2011, are tool acquisition and service desk business plans, SaaS versus on-premises life cycle licensing costs, process re-engineering projects, IT service support scope and a focus on integration.