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Vendor Landscape: IT Asset Management (ITAM)Choosing the right tool to manage the complexity of your environment will make all thedifference in gaining access to great data.Vendor Landscape: IT AssetInfo-Tech Research Group, Inc. is a global leader in providing IT research and advice.Info-Tech’s products and services combine actionable insight and relevant advice withready-to-use tools and templates that cover the full spectrum of IT concerns. 1997-2016 Info-Tech Research Group Inc.ManagementInfo-Tech Research Group1
IntroductionIT asset management (ITAM) has been around for 20 years, but there arestill new vendors entering the market and a wide variance of capabilities.This Research Is Designed For:This Research Will Help You: IT asset managers and IT executives who Identify and document requirements.need to formalize and significantly improvehow they’re managing assets. Select a commercial ITAM solution that is themost appropriate for your organization’s sizeand technical environment Understand the ITAM solution vendorlandscape. Plan an ITAM solution implementation thataddresses common risks and opportunities.Vendor Landscape: IT Asset ManagementInfo-Tech Research Group2
Executive summaryInfo-Tech evaluated 15 competitors in the ITAM market,including the following notable performers:Info-Tech InsightChampions: Snow Software – an enterprise-level, standalone ITAM solution with a1. Over 1,000 executives surveyed by InfoTech have identified asset managementas significantly important to theirorganization.strong software focus. LANDESK – a mid-market, enterprise-level product that focuses on IToperations. IBM Control Desk – an enterprise-level solution that integrates withmultiple IBM and competitive solutions to provide an overall view of IToperations. BMC Asset Core – a mid-market solution that integrates with BMCService Core and Remedyforce. Aspera – an enterprise-level, standalone software management tool. Scalable Software – an enterprise-level asset management tool.Value Award: ManageEngine provides comprehensive asset management withintegration to ManageEngine ITSM, desktop management and IToperations modules, at a fraction of the price of other tools.Trend Setter Award: ASG offers IT asset management for hybrid environments who arelooking to combine service and asset management with an apps storethat deploys on-premises and SaaS applications seamlessly to users.Vendor Landscape: IT Asset Management2. Over 20,000 business stakeholders haveidentified 12 top services where 11involve IT assets, yet this is one of theareas that receives the least amount offocus within many organizations.3. Automated tools vary dramatically incapability, discovery, and ability to supportyour environment. Ensuring they meet thecomplexity needed is key to success.4. Cooperation and engagement of anyonewho is handling assets and ensuringprocesses are automated whenappropriate will help drive accuracy ofinformation.5. Integration with service desk andconfiguration management tools canincrease automation to reduce manualinputs for moves, adds, and changes inservices that involve IT assets.Info-Tech Research Group3
Market overviewHow it got hereWhere it’s going License complexity has risen dramatically over theyears, including a need to manage hybrid and SaaSenvironments. There are still a number of vendors who have somewhatimmature solutions and new vendors entering themarket with basic solutions. These vendors can stillprovide value for primarily Windows-basedenvironments. Contracts have become more complex and softwarevendors have increased the frequency of audits. Many organizations are finding issues around process,security, and regulatory requirements cannot be solvedwithout automated and integrated asset managementtools. Many ITAM vendors have been building connectionsbetween the service desk and asset management byimproving workflow capability and communicationsbetween modules. SaaS environments are now starting to be addressedwith tools designed to collect data from vendors andintegrate into on-premises asset repositories. Some vendors are starting to consolidate the CMDB andasset repositories into a single database, enabling theservices team to gain access to better information fordependency mapping as well as understanding thefinancial and licensing side of assets. This provides anopportunity to have service data and asset managementdata managed by the same team.ITAM tools are most effective when used in conjunction with policies and processes that will supportappropriate governance, workflow, and dataflow. To fully realize these benefits, consider the Info-Techblueprint Implement Asset Management. If you still need to build a business case and project charter toimplement an ITAM solution, consider our project Create an Effective Plan to Implement IT AssetManagement to gain sign-off on the project.Vendor Landscape: IT Asset ManagementInfo-Tech Research Group4
ITAM vendor selection / knock-out criteria: market share,mind share, and platform coverage Vendors included in this report provide a comprehensive, innovative, and functional solution for IT asset management. For this Vendor Landscape, Info-Tech focused on those vendors that offer broad and large-sized capabilities acrossmultiple platforms and that have a strong market presence and/or reputational presence among enterprises.Included in this Vendor Landscape:Agiloft. Focuses on enhancing asset management processes with code-free asset management workflows.ASG. Notable for its inventory capabilities and support for environments with heavy Citrix investments.Aspera. A full-featured, on-premises or SaaS tool that uses a “license management as a service” approach to enterpriseasset management.BMC Asset Core. Offers asset management alongside desktop support features that fit in well with BMC’s larger ecosystemof products.BMC Remedy. Aims to provide the CIO with reliable information that can help organizations understand and optimizelicensing obligations.Cherwell. Stands apart for its laser focus on asset management and software recognition capabilities.Eracent. Offers customers a complete, detailed lifecycle repository and license/entitlements reconciliation tool.Flexera. Has become a pillar of excellence with its best-in-class licensing compliance and contract management.IBM. Control Desk is prepared to handle IT assets in an increasingly distributed enterprise setting. When paired with IBMEndpoint Management, it offers a full-featured, end-to-end monitoring and management solution.Vendor Landscape: IT Asset ManagementInfo-Tech Research Group5
ITAM vendor selection / knock-out criteria: market share,mind share, and platform coverage Vendors included in this report provide a comprehensive, innovative, and functional solution for IT asset management. For this Vendor Landscape, Info-Tech focused on those vendors that offer broad and large-sized capabilities acrossmultiple platforms and that have a strong market presence and/or reputational presence among enterprises.Included in this Vendor Landscape:LANDESK. Leverages its service management solution to start the discovery process, then adds asset managementfunctionality with an auxiliary module.ManageEngine. Provides an easy-to-use view into licensing compliance, and hooks in seamlessly to its larger family ofdesktop management products.Samanage. A SaaS-based solution that is noted for working with its clients on identifying and implementing new assetmanagement features.Scalable Software. Focuses on providing remarkably accurate SaaS monitoring and inventory capabilities to complementmore comprehensive solutions.Snow Software. A strong contender focused on the needs of software asset managers who are dealing with complexlicensing on and off-premises.Vector Networks. Has thought about the need for quick ROI with its mid-market customers by providing common serviceand asset workflows out of the box.Vendor Landscape: IT Asset ManagementInfo-Tech Research Group6
ITAM criteria & weighting factorsCriteria WeightingProduct Evaluation CriteriaFeaturesThe solution provides basic and advancedfeature/functionality.UsabilityThe end-user and administrative interfaces areintuitive and offer streamlined chitectureImplementing and operating the solution isaffordable given the iple deployment options and extensiveintegration capabilities are available.50%Vendor Evaluation CriteriaViabilityStrategyReachChannelVendor is profitable, knowledgeable, and will bearound for the long term.Vendor is committed to the space and has afuture product and portfolio roadmap.50%VendorViability25%Vendor offers global coverage and is able to selland provide post-sales support.Vendor channel strategy is appropriate and thechannels themselves are strong.30%15%ChannelVendor Landscape: IT Asset ManagementStrategy30%ReachInfo-Tech Research Group7
The Info-Tech ITAM Vendor LandscapeThe zones of the LandscapeThe Info-Tech ITAM Vendor LandscapeChampions receive high scores for most evaluationcriteria and offer excellent value. They have a strongmarket presence and are usually the trend settersfor the industry.Market Pillars are established players with verystrong vendor credentials, but with more averageproduct scores.Innovators have demonstrated innovative productstrengths that act as their competitive advantage inappealing to niche segments of the market.Emerging Players are comparatively newervendors who are starting to gain a foothold in themarketplace. They balance product and vendorattributes, though score lower relative to marketChampions.For an explanation of how the Info-Tech Vendor Landscape is created, see Information Presentation – Vendor Landscape in the Appendix.Vendor Landscape: IT Asset ManagementInfo-Tech Research Group8
Balance individual strengths to find the best fit for yourenterpriseProductIBMBMC - Asset CoreSamanageLANDESKAgiloftAsperaScalable SoftwareVector 2343322322223224444434333442424402Legend Exemplary Good Adequate Inadequate PoorFor an explanation of how the Info-Tech Harvey Balls are calculated, see Information Presentation – Criteria Scores (Harvey Balls) in the Appendix.Vendor Landscape: IT Asset ManagementInfo-Tech Research Group9
Balance individual strengths to find the best fit for C - RemedySnow egend Exemplary Good Adequate Inadequate Poor*The vendor declined to provide pricing and publicly available pricing could not be found.For an explanation of how the Info-Tech Harvey Balls are calculated, see Information Presentation – Criteria Scores (Harvey Balls) in the Appendix.Vendor Landscape: IT Asset ManagementInfo-Tech Research Group10
The Info-Tech ITAM Value IndexWhat is a Value Score?On a relative basis, ManageEnginemaintained the highest Info-Tech ValueScoreTM of the vendor group. Vendorswere indexed against ManageEngine’sperformance to provide a complete,relative view of their product offerings.ChampionThe Value Score indexes eachvendor’s product offering andbusiness strength relative to itsprice point. It does not indicatevendor ranking.Vendors that score high offer morebang for the buck (e.g. features,usability, stability, etc.) than theaverage vendor, while the inverse istrue for those that score lower.Price-conscious enterprises maywish to give the Value Score moreconsideration than those who aremore focused on specificvendor/product attributes.Average Score: *The vendor declined to provide pricing and publiclyavailable pricing could not be found.For an explanation of how Price is determined, see Information Presentation – Price Evaluation in the Appendix.For an explanation of how the Info-Tech Value Index is calculated, see Information Presentation – Value Index in the Appendix.Vendor Landscape: IT Asset ManagementInfo-Tech Research Group11
Table Stakes represent the minimum standard features thatdetermine whether a product even gets reviewedThe Table StakesWhat does this mean?Feature:The products assessed in this VendorLandscapeTM meet, at the very least, therequirements outlined as Table Stakes.What it ion is capable of managing licenses acrossa geographically dispersed environment.Product maintains an ongoing repository ofassets to enable historical analysis.Basic FinancialAnalysisProduct can generate basic financial reports toidentify overall licensing costs and savings.IntegratedDiscovery ToolSolution includes mechanism for automaticdiscovery of assets.Virtual ServerManagementMany of the vendors go above and beyond theoutlined Table Stakes, some even do so inmultiple categories. This section aims tohighlight the products’ capabilities in excessof the criteria listed here.Product is capable of identifying and managingvirtual server installations.If table stakes are all you need from your IT asset management tool solution, the only true differentiator forthe organization is price. Otherwise, dig deeper to find the best price to value for your needs.Vendor Landscape: IT Asset ManagementInfo-Tech Research Group12
Advanced Features are the capabilities that allow for granularmarket differentiationScoringMethodologyAdvanced FeaturesFeature:What we looked for:Info-Tech scored eachvendor’s featuresoffering as a summationof its individual scoresacross the listedadvanced features.Mobile Device SupportIncludes out-of-the-box support for mobile assets such as smartphones and tablets.Software LibraryIncludes built-in software library to enhance recognition of installed packages.Automated or Manual DataImportLicense, warranty, lease, and data can be imported automatically populated with dataconnectors to vendors and software publishers.Vendors were given onepoint for each featurethe product inherentlyprovided.Software Usage MeteringIncludes out-of-the-box support for software usage tracking to identify heavily used orunused assets.Visual Asset MappingCreate maps showing asset location on the network and geographically.Complex FinancialModelingIncludes out-of-the-box support for complex, logical “what if” financial modeling.Application ControlsAbility to block by policy, whitelist, blacklist applications, app portal.Integrated Service Deskand CMDBSolution that enables workflows between service desk and asset management withminimal programming effort.Complex LicensingSupports complexities of managing up and downgrades, concurrent licensing, virtualdesktops and applications, Oracle, SAP, IBM PVU, databases and operating systems.Integration IT OperationsIntegration IT operations tools, CMDB and service desk with asset management toolsto see the full picture of what is happening in the IT environment.Data Center AnalyticsSolution includes advanced analytical functions for datacenter applications and servers.SaaS, IaaS, PaaSMonitoringAbility to monitor traffic to hosted solutions, with the ability to consolidate informationwith on-premises data.Desktop ManagementTools including software deployment, desktop migration, and patch management.Some categories werescored on a moregranular scale withvendors receiving halfpoints.For an explanation of howAdvanced Features aredetermined, seeInformation Presentation –Feature Ranks (Stoplights)in the Appendix.Vendor Landscape: IT Asset ManagementInfo-Tech Research Group13
Each vendor offers a different feature set; concentrate on whatyour organization needsEvaluated seITOMDataCenterSaaSDesktopMgmtIBMBMC Asset ctorNetworksCherwellLegend Feature fully present Feature partially present/pending Feature absentFor an explanation of how Advanced Features are determined, see Information Presentation – Feature Ranks (Stoplights) in the Appendix.Vendor Landscape: IT Asset ManagementInfo-Tech Research Group14
Each vendor offers a different feature set; concentrate on whatyour organization needsEvaluated EracentBMC RemedySnowSoftwareASGLegend Feature fully present Feature partially present/pending Feature absentFor an explanation of how Advanced Features are determined, see Information Presentation – Feature Ranks (Stoplights) in the Appendix.Vendor Landscape: IT Asset ManagementInfo-Tech Research Group15
IT asset management solutions with a focus on end-userdevice and license managementOften chosen by mid-market organizations looking for an all-in-one solutionto take advantage of integrated workflows with a single management console.1ITAM combined with ITSMand desktop configuration234Exemplary PerformersAsset CoreWhy Scenarios?In reviewing the products includedin each Vendor LandscapeTM,certain use cases come to theforefront. Whether those use casesare defined by applicability incertain locations, relevance forcertain industries, or as strengths indelivering a specific capability, InfoTech recognizes those use casesas Scenarios, and calls attention tothem where they exist.For an explanation of how Scenarios are determined, see Information Presentation – Scenarios in the Appendix.Vendor Landscape: IT Asset ManagementInfo-Tech Research Group16
IT asset management solutions with integrated desktopmanagement and systems management tools for IT operationsOften chosen by enterprise organizations looking for a solution to manageservers and desktops through fully integrated components.12Exemplary PerformersITAM, ITSM and IToperations tools34Why Scenarios?In reviewing the products includedin each Vendor LandscapeTM,certain use cases come to theforefront. Whether those use casesare defined by applicability incertain locations, relevance forcertain industries, or as strengths indelivering a specific capability, InfoTech recognizes those use casesas Scenarios, and calls attention tothem where they exist.RemedyFor an explanation of how Scenarios are determined, see Information Presentation – Scenarios in the Appendix.Vendor Landscape: IT Asset ManagementInfo-Tech Research Group17
IT asset management tools combined with servicemanagement solutionsOften chosen by small to mid-market organizations needing to matureservice management, but not necessarily needing all ITIL process modules.123Exemplary PerformersITAM and ITSMWhy Scenarios?In reviewing the products includedin each Vendor LandscapeTM,certain use cases come to theforefront. Whether those use casesare defined by applicability incertain locations, relevance forcertain industries, or as strengths indelivering a specific capability, InfoTech recognizes those use casesas Scenarios, and calls attention tothem where they exist.For an explanation of how Scenarios are determined, see Information Presentation – Scenarios in the Appendix.Vendor Landscape: IT Asset ManagementInfo-Tech Research Group18
IT asset management tools with a focus on managing complexlicensing scenariosOften chosen by enterprise organizations to manage large, complexlicensing installations, working standalone or with ITAM/ITSM solutions.1234Exemplary PerformersITAM onlyWhy Scenarios?In reviewing the products includedin each Vendor LandscapeTM,certain use cases come to theforefront. Whether those use casesare defined by applicability incertain locations, relevance forcertain industries, or as strengths indelivering a specific capability, InfoTech recognizes tho
Vendor Landscape: IT Asset Management Info-Tech Research Group 1 Info-Tech Research Group, Inc. is a global leader in providing IT research and advice. Info-Tech’s products and services combine actionable insight and relevant advice with . Service Core and Remedyforce.
