IBM Tivoli Identity Manager [EOL] vs OpenText Identity Manager comparison

IBM and OpenText are both solutions in the User Provisioning Software category. Additionally, 100% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 87% of OpenText users who would recommend it.

IBM Tivoli Identity Manager...

Read 14 IBM Tivoli Identity Manager [EOL] reviews

100% willing to recommend

OpenText Identity Manager

Read 18 OpenText Identity Manager reviews

2,524 Views
984 Comparison Views

87% willing to recommend

IBM Tivoli Identity Manager...

OpenText Identity Manager

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 21, 2025

IBM Tivoli Identity Manager [EOL] and OpenText Identity Manager compete in the identity management space. OpenText Identity Manager seems to have the upper hand due to its advanced automation, scalability, and streamlined processes enhancing its overall offering.

Features: IBM Tivoli Identity Manager [EOL] is recognized for its strong integration capabilities, administrative controls, and a rich set of adapters allowing for extensive customization. OpenText Identity Manager offers advanced automation, scalability, and adaptable frameworks, which set it apart with more comprehensive management capabilities.

Room for Improvement: IBM Tivoli Identity Manager [EOL] could improve in deployment complexity, customer support, and reducing implementation time. OpenText Identity Manager might benefit from refining pricing strategies, enhancing its initial investment appeal, and expanding adapter support.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM Tivoli Identity Manager [EOL] has a complex deployment process requiring significant technical resources but provides adequate customer support. OpenText Identity Manager, with its cloud-based model, simplifies deployment and offers more proactive customer assistance, improving satisfaction.

Pricing and ROI: IBM Tivoli Identity Manager [EOL] generally offers a lower upfront cost but longer implementation times may reduce ROI efficiency. OpenText Identity Manager involves a higher initial investment but is offset by faster deployment and improved operational efficiencies, leading to better ROI over time. OpenText's comprehensive value proposition enhances its appeal for adoption.

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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 Identity Manager...

Average Rating

8.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

OpenText Identity Manager

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

User Provisioning Software (9th), Identity Management (IM) (15th), Identity Governance Administration (IGA) (7th)

Featured Reviews

it_user711912

Founder at a tech services company

Ease of configuration is the most valuable feature.

The engine is getting a bit long in the tooth, the UI should be redone to be a bit more modern and flexible. The software has been running pretty much on the same UI for a long time. The self-service UI was not a good enough improvement due to the "self-only" part. Lately there's been improvement, but other vendors seem to have much slicker UIs. Users want wizard-like UIs nowadays (in my experience). They don't want to navigate endless menus and selections. The engine is still the same clump of Java it was long ago as Enrole. But now it's a notably larger collection of extensions, and IBM has it reasonably documented. When done correctly, customizations are stable, but when done incorrectly they may cause hangs in the database that are difficult to resolve. Outside of that, the Adapter Development Tool (ADT), an old and (officially) unsupported tool made and maintained by an IBMer seems to no longer be maintained. A lot of people used this tool to create customized adapters for ITIM, expanding it further than IBM ever could. Now it seems all gone.

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reviewer2401464

Architect at a consultancy with 51-200 employees

Updates systems quickly and does not have a limit on the number of users

NetIQ does not have a limit on the number of users. The tool is secure by nature. It can have more than one billion users. Event-based systems know what has to be changed. SQL-based systems can only change using time and date. Event-based systems provide immediate results, while SQL-based systems need time to sync. It is totally different from a security perspective. Event-based systems can update all the systems in seconds or minutes. Other systems do it within 24 hours. The basic event-based system is AI-driven. It has some kind of robotics and programming. Other tools need programming. I like systems that have prebuilt ideas of security. NetIQ has been in the market for a long period. It has all the systems and connectors. There is not much coding. We just need to configure the products. We need not do any programming. I haven't seen any other product that needs only configuration to do the job. Most products in the market are SQL-based. They need programming. Some service providers who sell other products to customers do not sell NetIQ because they can make more money by selling solutions that need more consultancy and programming. More hours lead to more money.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"When correctly configured and tuned, it can scale up to 100,000 operations per day with a simple HA infrastructure."

"Customer Service: 10/10 - the best."

"The provisioning is now automated via TIM."

"Go for it as it is one the best solutions in its class for identity management."

"Tivoli is one of the best available products in the market of Identity Management, implementation and management is quite straight-forward."

"It is a big repository of identities, allowing administrators to manage them and their accounts."

"GUI has improved significantly from the previous version Role management has improved"

"The ROI of IAM projects and platforms is to enable our employees to work on their application in a short time."

More IBM Tivoli Identity Manager [EOL] pros

"The Identity Engine is event-based and provides real-time synchronization and password synchronization to more than 40 different applications and services."

"To my knowledge it is the only event based IDM system."

"Identity and access management processes have developed to become automatic and fast."

"The stability of the NetIQ Identity Manager is good."

"The main value lies in the simplicity of implementation, as well as its customized look and feel."

"The greater strength was to keep the identities synchronized without failures in both attributes and passwords."

"The most valuable feature of NetIQ Identity Manager for identity synchronization is the ability to provide users with all necessary access on day one through automated provisioning, facilitated by approval workflows."

"It's a very flexible tool, so you can synchronize multiple sources of data and you have multiple connections to various kinds of systems."

More OpenText Identity Manager pros

Cons

"It's highly dependent on the database connection, if there would be even a slight network glitch in the connection between Tivoli and, mostly DB2, databases and the system was not able to recover and re-establish the connection, it would require a complete environment restart."

"There is no way to clone or copy policies."

"Handling bulk requests is very difficult to configure as it creates a lot of issues."

"Sometimes ITIM bus doesn't configure properly. Need to monitor the system health periodically."

"UI could be more user friendly and it could allow more customization."

"Little complicated - needs technical skills to setup - later version are being moved to appliances."

"The technical support is slow and inflexible."

"For 5.1 version (older version) of Tivoli the user interfaces were not as user-friendly as other products on the market at that time."

More IBM Tivoli Identity Manager [EOL] cons

"It needs some modern features. They should improve and modernize their management interface. It has been created over years and by different persons. You can see different applications, different management consoles for different things. There should be an integrated interface."

"The user facing interfaces are not too friendly and they are also fairly hard to configure."

"We have another system that is using the SAML system, and we also integrate with Active Directory only. If NetIQ Identity Manager can integrate directly, we would not need to use the Active Directory directory."

"If it works, Designer is a charm, but it can be a pain to keep updated because of all the Java stuff that regularly goes wrong."

"There are some limitations in the custom workflows, mainly in the GUI presentation, but the latest release improved."

"Areas for improvement are further enhancing the access granting process to reduce time and improve accuracy."

"The integrations must be made easier."

"The UI for requesting and approving rights have been a little outdated, however, in the most recent version that has been addressed."

More OpenText Identity Manager cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available

"Micro Focus is flexible when it comes to price. The cost varies from customer to customer. There are no additional costs, though. Everything is included."

"I would rate the pricing a two out of ten, with one being low price and ten being high price. It is significantly more cost-effective than the major players in the market."

"The price of the solution is a bit high and could be reduced."

"The solution is quite affordable."

"It would easily help them in getting more market and more customers if more consultants knew about their software. If they could keep it free for schools for teaching purposes, it would be good. I had to pay myself to get it and use it for training. Their competitors are giving it for free. I had to pay for it myself. They are losing market to their competitors."

"You just need to be aware that the more systems you connect, the more license fees you have to pay."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

No data available

Financial Services Firm

10%

Outsourcing Company

Manufacturing Company

University

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	3
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	11

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	6

Questions from the Community

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NetIQ Identity Manager?

The pricing depends on whether we buy the solution as a service or a license. The license is expensive. If we buy it as a service for a large number of users, it is the cheapest tool we can get. Th...

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What needs improvement with NetIQ Identity Manager?

The tool is used mostly in big systems to understand what is happening. There are not many technicians who know how to use the product. The vendor must provide an easier console for configuring thi...

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What is your primary use case for NetIQ Identity Manager?

NetIQ Directory is the main function of the product. As far as I know, it is the only event test directory that exists. It has all the potential for event-based testing. It has rules, connectors, a...

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Product Reports

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User Provisioning Software

April 2026

IBM Tivoli Identity Manager [EOL] report

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Buyer's Guide

OpenText Identity Manager

April 2026

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Also Known As

Tivoli Identity Manager, IBM Security Identity Manager

Novell Identity Manager

Overview

IBM Security Identity Manager enables organizations to drive effective identity management and governance across the enterprise for improved security and compliance. Now available as a virtual appliance, IBM Security Identity Manager automates the creation, modification, recertification and termination of identities throughout the user lifecycle.

IBM

OpenText Identity Manager provides event-driven capabilities with real-time synchronization and integration across multiple systems. Known for its flexibility, it offers features like password sync, access management, and directory synchronization.

OpenText Identity Manager is a comprehensive identity management platform, designed to support role-based provisioning and seamless integration of external systems. Its notable features include the Designer and Analyzer tools and robust self-service password management, enhancing its usability. Organizations leverage its event-driven architecture for real-time synchronization and detailed tracing, facilitating efficient identity management across different data sources. However, enhancements in Windows OS compatibility, user interface modernization, and cloud support are needed. Training remains crucial, given the system's complexity and unique language.

What are the Key Features of OpenText Identity Manager?

Real-time Synchronization: Event-driven architecture enables instant updates across systems.
Role Based Provisioning: Streamlines managing roles and permissions within organizations.
Flexible Integration: Connects with multiple data sources, enhancing system interoperability.
Password Synchronization: Simplifies password management across platforms.
Access Management: Offers tools to manage permissions and security with ease.

Why Consider OpenText Identity Manager in Reviews?

Comprehensive Support: Offers identity lifecycle management, enhancing user experience.
Security Enhancements: Improves compliance management and access control.
Scalability: Efficiently supports large-scale enterprise environments.
Integration Capabilities: Connects seamlessly with existing infrastructure.

In industries ranging from large corporations to local banks, OpenText Identity Manager supports account provisioning and access management, primarily through Active Directory integration. By connecting with applications like Oracle, PeopleSoft, and Office 365, it facilitates lifecycle and compliance management. Its deployment aids training and real-world application with single sign-on options for internal applications, providing a comprehensive identity management solution for diverse environments.

OpenText

Sample Customers

Whirlpool Corporation, EXA Corporation, Arla Foods, Iceland Government

Sheetz

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April 2026

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