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IT MANAGEMENT RESEARCH,
INDUSTRY ANALYSIS AND CONSULTING
Executive Summary
Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) – a leading industry analyst and consulting firm 100%
dedicated to the IT management market – has completed a new primary research study of the
Business Service Management (BSM) space. For this groundbreaking study, EMA surveyed 160
North American and global IT and business professionals involved in selecting and using BSM
solutions for their organizations. This report covers the results of that research and is written
specifically for the BSM vendor audience.
As part of the research, EMA has developed a revised BSM definition:
BSM is a strategic approach to managing IT that aligns business and IT goals by helping business and IT
managers understand how the performance and availability of IT resources, including both infrastructure and
services, affect and power their business processes. BSM includes the processes for managing IT services from
the business perspective. BSM may also refer to products and enabling technologies used to manage IT services
from the business perspective.
Some of the key conclusions from this research are summarized below. They are divided into
two groups. First are the overall takeaways which are broadly applicable to most participants in
the BSM market segment. Next are the key takeaways for vendors that develop, deliver and sell
BSM solutions.
BSM is a strategic initiative for the majority of organizations adopting it.
Overall Takeaways
• BSM is a strategic initiative for the majority of organizations adopting it. In fact, 57%
or organizations adopting BSM have c-level roles responsible for the BSM mission and
strategy.
• 77% of respondents chose definitions that describe BSM as a process or approach to
managing IT, leaving out the role of IT products.
• On the other hand, IT management products are clearly instrumental in implementing BSM
strategies. For instance, 71% of respondents indicated that associating business metrics with
end-to-end IT services is a critical technical capability that must be supported in BSM
solutions.
• BSM solutions are becoming increasingly important, with 19% of adopters viewing them as
very important today and 41% of adopters expecting them to be very important one year
from now.
Business Service Management: Strategies for Vendors in 2009
©2009 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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IT MANAGEMENT RESEARCH,
INDUSTRY ANALYSIS AND CONSULTING
BSM vendors should focus on improving cost, deployment
time and complexity of their BSM solutions.
Key Takeaways for IT Vendors
• BSM vendors should focus on improving cost, deployment time and complexity of their
BSM solutions.
• BSM adopters seeking BSM-lite solutions do not want dumbed-down, low cost versions
of the BSM solutions they can already buy. They do want solutions that can grow with
their needs. And, like adopters of traditional BSM solutions, they want lower cost, faster
deployment times and reduced complexity.
• BSM messaging and positioning is viewed positively by adopters. In general, vendors should
continue to make use of BSM messaging – as long as their offerings truly deliver on the
BSM promise. Additionally, vendors should go beyond BSM messaging to both a) clarify
their offerings to prospects and b) differentiate their solutions from competitors.
• BSM vendors should develop roadmaps to ensure their solutions meet future needs including
a) end to end transaction management and b) predictive analytics.
Business Service Management: Strategies for Vendors in 2009
©2009 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Page 2
IT MANAGEMENT RESEARCH,
INDUSTRY ANALYSIS AND CONSULTING
Introduction
Business Service Management (BSM) is all about improving business performance through business-
aligned IT services and IT service management processes. While this conveys some of the value
BSM can provide, it leaves many questions unanswered from both vendors and IT organizations.
As the use of BSM terminology spreads, vendors want to know whether BSM messaging makes
sense for their particular offerings, as well as how to optimize it. Do customers understand the
value of BSM and do they associate it with a particular group of products? Will my BSM message
be credible? How can I differentiate my BSM offerings versus those of my competitors?
As the use of BSM terminology spreads, vendors want to know whether BSM
messaging makes sense for their particular offerings, as well as how to optimize it.
As IT service management practices are becoming widely adopted, IT professionals want to under-
stand the additional benefits of BSM and how to realize them. What products or solutions deliver
on the BSM promise? And which do not? What else does my organization need to do in order to
most benefit from BSM solutions?
To answer these questions and more, EMA has completed a new primary research study of the
BSM space. For this groundbreaking study, EMA surveyed 160 North American and global IT
and business professionals involved in selecting and using BSM solutions for their organizations.
Several of the survey respondents also participated in follow-on focal interviews to gain a more
detailed understanding of their BSM experience and perspectives. Questions explored included:
•
Are BSM messages from vendors clear or confusing? Which BSM definitions best convey
the value expected from BSM?
•
Are there really BSM products? Which products are most closely associated with BSM?
•
What are the most important benefits IT managers and business managers associate with
BSM solutions? Where installed, do vendor solutions deliver on the BSM promise?
•
What methodologies or best practices do IT organizations utilize to gain the most from
BSM solutions?
•
What are the primary drivers for selecting BSM solutions over other IT management
solutions?
•
How well does deploying a BSM solution support other strategic IT initiatives?
•
How do BSM solutions need to evolve to meet future requirements?
EMA is presenting the findings of this study in two research reports. This report (Business Service
Management: Strategies for Vendors in 2009) is targeted at vendors in the BSM space, and explores
strategies for communicating and differentiating BSM value to prospective buyers. The other
report (Business Service Management: Strategies for Success in 2009) is targeted at enterprise IT leaders,
and shares best-practices advice for delivering real business value with BSM solutions.
Business Service Management: Strategies for Vendors in 2009
©2009 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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IT MANAGEMENT RESEARCH,
INDUSTRY ANALYSIS AND CONSULTING
Understanding and Defining BSM
Technology and related terminology in the IT management market is often confusing. Sometimes
definitions evolve, and sometimes there are simply different definitions representing different per-
spectives. For instance, cloud computing is gaining in awareness in 2009. Along with this increased
awareness comes a variety of definitions. Some market participants believe that cloud computing
is limited to providing server capacity over the Internet. Others take a broader view and believe
that complex services like on-demand applications or Software as a Service (SaaS) are also part of
cloud computing. It can be challenging for both vendors and IT organizations to navigate a quickly
evolving market that lacks consensus on certain fundamental definitions.
BSM terminology still suffers from confusion.
Unlike cloud computing, the BSM market has been established for many years. Yet BSM terminol-
ogy still suffers from confusion. IT organizations can speak with three different BSM vendors
and encounter three different definitions for BSM. Can they all be right? Similarly, three different
IT organizations may each determine that they need BSM solutions. Do they all need the same
capabilities? The answer for both of these questions is, “it depends.”
BSM is sometimes used when discussing technologies like the Configuration Management
Database (CMDB) and the larger Configuration Management System (CMS) in ITIL v3. The CMS
is essentially a federated system of CMDBs working together to maintain a single, unified view of
IT services and their underlying Configuration Items (CIs). But the CMS alone is not what delivers
BSM. The CMS is instead a key enabler of BSM. And like any enabler (whether an enabling tech-
nology, an enabling process, or an enabling organization), the CMS needs to be aligned with and
help deliver to a higher purpose in order to provide value. To realize the business value of ITIL
v3, adopters need to make sure their CMS federates business data as well as IT infrastructure and
services data.
BSM is also used to describe technologies like the Service Portfolio or Service Catalog which drive
business success more directly than enabling technologies like the CMS. The Service Portfolio, for
example, makes use of the portfolio concept often associated with financial investments to ensure
that an optimized mix of services, with the right set of capabilities, along with well chosen service
levels, and an appropriate amount of risk are delivered by IT. Can the term BSM be appropriately
associated with both IT management products and the underlying technology components?
Describing BSM
To gain clarity on how IT professionals are using the term BSM, respondents were asked which
statement from a list of choices most closely describes BSM. 41% of respondents believe “BSM
refers to processes for managing IT services from the business perspective” and another 36%
believe “BSM refers to a strategy, philosophy or conceptual approach to managing IT.” This means
that fully 77% of respondents selected definitions that do not directly include IT management
products. On the other hand, there certainly are IT management products that support the pro-
cesses and strategy of managing IT from a business perspective.
Business Service Management: Strategies for Vendors in 2009
©2009 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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IT MANAGEMENT RESEARCH,
INDUSTRY ANALYSIS AND CONSULTING
Some respondents chose BSM definitions that are more related to products. For example, 13% of
respondents indicated that “BSM refers to products used to manage IT services from the business
perspective.” Another 10% believe “BSM is marketing terminology used to describe products that
manage IT services from the business perspective.”
Brief Definitions
As part of the survey, respondents were given the opportunity to briefly define BSM in their own
words. The request was for ten words or less, although some respondents provided more. Here are
a few fairly representative definitions, edited only for spelling and punctuation:
• “Management of people, process and technology to provide services that directly support our business processes.
Aligning the infrastructure services to those business processes.”
• “BSM is the new focus of IT driven by the business it supports.”
• “The proper focus and alignment of IT to meet business objectives.”
• “Strategy and approach for linking key IT components to business goals.”
• “Technology that helps link IT and business objectives and deliver to promise.”
• “Process of linking business and information technology for the betterment of the company.”
• “Methodology for monitoring and measuring IT services from a business perspective.”
• “A methodology for monitoring and measuring IT services from a business perspective. It is made up of both
structured process and enabling software.”
• “Helps you understand how technology impacts business and how business impacts IT.”
An Updated BSM Definition
EMA has previously defined BSM. However, based on this research, some changes are in order.
Here is an updated BSM definition:
BSM is a strategic approach to managing IT that aligns business and IT goals by helping business and IT
managers understand how the performance and availability of IT resources, including both infrastructure and
services, affect and power their business processes. BSM includes the processes for managing IT services from
the business perspective. BSM may also refer to products and enabling technologies used to manage IT services
from the business perspective.
BSM fuses the goals of IT and business, providing real-time monitoring of business service health
and status, using a set of tools designed to help organizations meet their corporate objectives and
business goals. It is clear to EMA that BSM is not just a toolset that can be purchased, but rather
an approach to managing IT within the business framework. BSM itself is often implemented as
a combination of best practices and processes, multiple layers of management technologies, and
a top layer that presents the status and results of business service quality to IT and non-IT execu-
tives. BSM offers streamlined solutions for complex management issues by leveraging the power
of technology to process large amounts of data, and transforms that data into information that
is meaningful to business and IT managers. While IT management products alone do not define
BSM, there are parts of BSM that can be expressed via a toolset. BSM vendors use BSM terminol-
ogy to describe and convey the value of their solutions, whether focused on products, services or
some combination.
Business Service Management: Strategies for Vendors in 2009
©2009 Enterprise Management Associates, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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