No more typing reviews! Try our Samantha, our new voice AI agent.

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
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
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
46
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Management (9th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (10th), AIOps (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2026, in the Event Monitoring category, the mindshare of IBM Tivoli Business Service Manager is 4.9%, up from 0.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ServiceNow IT Operations Management is 7.7%, down from 19.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Event Monitoring Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
ServiceNow IT Operations Management7.7%
IBM Tivoli Business Service Manager4.9%
Other87.4%
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

"TBSM is a rock, and our house would have crumbled without it."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is the efficiency."
"I am impressed with the tool's ability to track information in an easy way."
"I like the solution mostly for CMDB discovery."
"The dashboard maintenance is very good, and the tool doesn't get stuck."
"Provides everything in one solution."
"I like the tool's CMBD connection with Discovery. The solution is also flexible."
"It has been very useful for tracking. It has evolved a lot over time, and there is a single pane of glass where you can track and see everything."
"The solution is easy to use and has great orchestration and automation capabilities."
"The solution allows you to subscribe to the features you need and utilize CMDB, ITSM, and discovery on the same platform."
 

Cons

"Yes, Event Storms and other less traumatic triggers the JVM to hang requiring recycles."
"This application should be made easier to use because it usually needs training and it is not easy to operate."
"We are facing difficulties with service mapping of CIs from the end users, and are seeking help from third-party vendors."
"I advise others not to customize a lot while using the solution."
"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."
"There is room for improvement in service mapping within ServiceNow ITOM. When we have more time, we'll look to extend that and apply it to business-critical services like email."
"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."
"ServiceNow IT Operations Management could do a little bit better with integrations. Integrating ServiceNow IT Operations Management with CMDB processes needs a little more work."
"There are times the application has some performance issue, but it could be because of our network. There should be something done to resolve this."
"There is room for improvement in the stability of ServiceNow."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"There are additional costs, you have to pay more for everything."
"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."
"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."
"I would rate the product's pricing a five out of ten since there are vendors who are cheaper."
"This solution offers good value but comes at a very high premium. Pricing could be reduced by 10 to 20%."
"The cost of ServiceNow is much higher."
"It is moderately expensive. The pricing itself and the licensing options are depending on the model and the customization."
"It has different subscription models."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Event Monitoring solutions are best for your needs.
900,747 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Manufacturing Company
12%
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: June 2026.
900,747 professionals have used our research since 2012.