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IBM Tivoli Business Service Manager vs ServiceNow IT Operations Management comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 23, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

IBM Tivoli Business Service...
Ranking in Event Monitoring
12th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
ServiceNow IT Operations Ma...
Ranking in Event Monitoring
5th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
46
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Management (17th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (16th), AIOps (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Event Monitoring category, the mindshare of IBM Tivoli Business Service Manager is 4.8%, up from 2.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ServiceNow IT Operations Management is 5.6%, down from 15.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Event Monitoring Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
ServiceNow IT Operations Management5.6%
IBM Tivoli Business Service Manager4.8%
Other89.6%
Event Monitoring
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer847356 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Manager at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Good technical support, and efficient for working with business data
We use this solution for working with data. The most valuable feature of this solution is the efficiency. This application should be made easier to use because it usually needs training and it is not easy to operate. We have been using this solution for fourteen years. The stability of this…
AB
Associate Vice President at AWL
Unified workflows have centralized ticketing and have provided real-time visibility across companies
ServiceNow IT Operations Management can be improved by focusing on adoption, as some companies still use other tools, and we had to onboard them initially, addressing challenges such as data migration and consistency, especially since we have 14,000 users in my group company utilizing this for multiple purposes, emphasizing workflows defined so that onboarding processes can be streamlined into a single tool. To improve ServiceNow IT Operations Management, I believe incorporating natural language processing is essential, allowing users to type queries such as 'I need this' and receive responses based on AI and data. Furthermore, enhancing analytics is crucial, as we have seven years of data providing a substantial history of past ITSM and non-ITSM business tickets that can help predict and reduce the volume of calls.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The most valuable feature of this solution is the efficiency."
"TBSM is a rock, and our house would have crumbled without it."
"I like the tool's discovery feature."
"It is very stable and reliable; there aren't bugs or glitches, it doesn't crash or freeze, and it offers good performance."
"The reason is it's cost-effective, number one."
"The solution allows you to subscribe to the features you need and utilize CMDB, ITSM, and discovery on the same platform."
"ServiceNow IT Operations Management's biggest plus point is that it is a platform, and they provide seamless integration of ITOM with their other modules such as ITSM, where we can leverage the AIs for discovery, perform impact analysis, which essentially helps to enhance the overall IT operations and reduce the downtime and MTTR."
"The software asset management features — especially around discovery — are the tools I find to be the most valuable."
"Feature-wise, it is a very good tool, especially when it comes to upgrades; upgrades are seamless—you will not even notice an upgrade is happening, and mostly all these upgrades happen after office hours, making it seamless."
"The most valuable features of the solution are discovery, cloud governance, event management, and service mapping."
 

Cons

"This application should be made easier to use because it usually needs training and it is not easy to operate."
"Yes, Event Storms and other less traumatic triggers the JVM to hang requiring recycles."
"It didn't provide as much value as we thought it would."
"The CMDB part of ServiceNow IT Operations Management is a little bit too complicated, and it is a bit slow at our company."
"The out-of-the-box reporting feature has room for the improvement, it can be make more user friendly as other tools."
"The solution's subscription model could be improved."
"The most complaints we have received from our clients are the solution's discovery aspect. I've heard a few concerns from the customers where we have to integrate with a third-party tool to make a full-fledged discovery along with ServiceNow. ServiceNow alone does not do the total capacity of the discovery. The discovery portion of ServiceNow IT Operations Management is not in-depth as what the customers are looking for. The information that it gathers from the assets is a little more limited than what other tools provide."
"The pattern part can be improved. Patterns are used in the Discovery feature. Although it is easy to create new patterns and modify the existing ones, it would be better if this solution can have more out-of-the-box patterns. In terms of new features, they can include artificial intelligence, something like machine learning."
"ServiceNow IT Operations Management is not very affordable. It is affordable for organizations with a minimum of 5,000 users plus."
"ServiceNow could be more prescriptive on how customers can leverage some of the benefits."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"While not entirely sure, I believe the solution costs at least a million dollars annually."
"The cost of ServiceNow is much higher."
"It is expensive. It is around 10 Euros per server per month."
"It is moderately expensive. The pricing itself and the licensing options are depending on the model and the customization."
"There are additional costs, you have to pay more for everything."
"ServiceNow IT Operations Management is a costly solution. I'd rate the price at ten, on a scale from one to ten with one being the lowest and ten being the highest price. Some clients do have a problem with the price, but most find that the solution is worth the cost."
"We obtained discovery licenses at about seven dollars Australian per unit, which we found to be reasonable and competitive."
"It has different subscription models."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Manufacturing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
Outsourcing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business12
Midsize Enterprise6
Large Enterprise29
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ServiceNow IT Operations Management?
Regarding pricing, while I initially felt the prices were high when we moved, I now see that it is reasonable considering that we are not just using an ITSM tool; we are improving processes and com...
What needs improvement with ServiceNow IT Operations Management?
ServiceNow IT Operations Management can be improved by focusing on adoption, as some companies still use other tools, and we had to onboard them initially, addressing challenges such as data migrat...
What is your primary use case for ServiceNow IT Operations Management?
As an implementation expert and former CIO, I handled implementation from an IT best practice perspective for different companies.
 

Also Known As

Tivoli Business Service Manager, BSM
ServiceNow ITOM
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

SSGC
servicenow, TransAlta, NATS, Symantec
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Tivoli Business Service Manager vs. ServiceNow IT Operations Management and other solutions. Updated: November 2026.
920,929 professionals have used our research since 2012.