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IBM Tivoli Business Service Manager vs ServiceNow IT Operations Management comparison

 

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
13th
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
2nd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
46
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Management (13th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (15th), AIOps (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Event Monitoring category, the mindshare of IBM Tivoli Business Service Manager is 4.9%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ServiceNow IT Operations Management is 6.8%, down from 18.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Event Monitoring Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
ServiceNow IT Operations Management6.8%
IBM Tivoli Business Service Manager4.9%
Other88.3%
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…
reviewer2755671 - PeerSpot reviewer
Solution architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Significant enhancement in operations with powerful discovery and analytics, yet pricing structure poses challenges
ServiceNow IT Operations Management provides out-of-the-box dashboards. Along with the dashboard, it also provides the Operations Workspace, which is very useful for operations teams. There is a functionality called Performance Analytics, which we are also using to develop some dashboards for the senior leadership and operations team where they can perform trend analysis of alerts and events happening across the infrastructure and application landscape. These dashboards are really useful here. ServiceNow IT Operations Management's biggest plus point is that it is a platform. ITOM is just one module that ServiceNow IT Operations Management offers, but 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.

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."
"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."
"I am impressed with the tool's ability to track information in an easy way."
"Has service mapping, impact management, metric intelligence and health of analytics."
"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."
"It is a market leader and is very implementation-friendly. Developers have a clear understanding of how the solution works, and it is mature enough to handle different client needs."
"The software asset management features — especially around discovery — are the tools I find to be the most valuable."
"It's easy to set up."
"The way this solution has helped us is that it improved our communication."
 

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."
"The licensing model of the product is a bit rigid, and it can be a bit difficult to downscale if your needs change while also being expensive."
"At times, it got cumbersome from the project management perspective."
"Service mapping is pretty limited."
"The solution's licensing model is a bit complicated. It should be simple and easy for people to understand."
"It should have better integrations with other solutions."
"We are facing difficulties with service mapping of CIs from the end users, and are seeking help from third-party vendors."
"The time for deployment of ServiceNow IT Operations Management depends on many factors. It's a SaaS application, it should not take too long, but if you want to define the tool based on your processes, then it would take some time. It fully depends on the company's complexity. There are out-of-the-box product flows and if you want to use them, you can from day one. However, if you want to customize it and change it to your company's practices, then it will take more time. The setup could be faster."
"The pricing of some modules is higher because they are sold in packages. If we need something specific, we cannot take it individually."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"It is expensive. It is around 10 Euros per server per month."
"The cost of ServiceNow is much higher."
"While not entirely sure, I believe the solution costs at least a million dollars annually."
"My customers pay for the ServiceNow IT Operations Management license annually. I'd rate the pricing based on value. ServiceNow IT Operations Management is a premium product as it has better features than competitors."
"This solution offers good value but comes at a very high premium. Pricing could be reduced by 10 to 20%."
"The pricing is high and may be excluding the small to medium-sized enterprise businesses."
"The solution is costly compared to the products offered by its competitors."
"I would rate the product's pricing a five out of ten since there are vendors who are cheaper."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Manufacturing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Computer Software Company
8%
Healthcare Company
6%
 

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: August 2026.
908,834 professionals have used our research since 2012.