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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
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 (15th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (15th), AIOps (3rd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2026, in the Event Monitoring category, the mindshare of IBM Tivoli Business Service Manager is 4.7%, up from 1.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ServiceNow IT Operations Management is 6.5%, down from 17.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Event Monitoring Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
ServiceNow IT Operations Management6.5%
IBM Tivoli Business Service Manager4.7%
Other88.8%
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 like the tool's discovery feature."
"The initial setup is very straightforward. A person just needs to join a team to access the network and that's all."
"The solution allows you to subscribe to the features you need and utilize CMDB, ITSM, and discovery on the same platform."
"The most valuable features of ServiceNow IT Operations Management are ease of use, intuitive design, and ease of management, and it's based on IT practices which are good."
"The solution allows you to subscribe to the all required ITSM modules, asset discovery and service mapping on a single platform, its guided setup provides easy implementation process and I found these features most valuable."
"The reason is it's cost-effective, number one."
"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."
"It provided out-of-the-box integrations, requiring only minimal effort, typically a couple of days, to massage those systems into a seamless operation."
 

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."
"I would like more manual issues to have automated report-facing options."
"ServiceNow could be more prescriptive on how customers can leverage some of the benefits."
"The pattern part can be improved. Patterns are used in the Discovery feature."
"The service discovery tool should include HR automations that automatically remove an employee who is leaving."
"The setup and deployment could be simplified, and the pricing could improve."
"The out-of-the-box reporting feature has room for the improvement, it can be make more user friendly as other tools."
"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."
"It should have better integrations with other solutions."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"The cost of ServiceNow is much higher."
"I would rate the product's pricing a five out of ten since there are vendors who are cheaper."
"While not entirely sure, I believe the solution costs at least a million dollars annually."
"It has different subscription models."
"We obtained discovery licenses at about seven dollars Australian per unit, which we found to be reasonable and competitive."
"The price of ServiceNow IT Operations Management is expensive."
"It is moderately expensive. The pricing itself and the licensing options are depending on the model and the customization."
"This solution offers good value but comes at a very high premium. Pricing could be reduced by 10 to 20%."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
No data available
Manufacturing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
10%
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
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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: September 2026.
913,924 professionals have used our research since 2012.