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IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus 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 NetCool OMNIbus
Ranking in Event Monitoring
4th
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
5.2
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
ServiceNow IT Operations Ma...
Ranking in Event Monitoring
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
42
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Management (11th), IT Infrastructure Monitoring (9th), AIOps (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Event Monitoring category, the mindshare of IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus is 10.2%, up from 8.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ServiceNow IT Operations Management is 17.4%, down from 18.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Event Monitoring
 

Featured Reviews

Ahmed Salman - PeerSpot reviewer
Aids in network performance monitoring and management
I am working as a customer, mainly using IntelliQ and another product, IBM NetCool, Watson AI. These products are used for monitoring network performance and management.  The primary use case involves network performance monitoring, and it is compatible only with IBM DB2 IBM Tivoli NetCool…
PriyankaBachu - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides templates which reduces duplications in rule configuration
Currently, we are integrating LogicMonitor with ServiceNow IT Operations Management to manage IT event management and auto-ticketing for alerts from the monitoring tool to ServiceNow The solution is saving time by providing templates, reducing duplication in rule configuration, and offering…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It is customer-centric. Customers can access the event list from their location or desktop and view the event. There is no need to go and connect to any other server and run events to have a view of all the events happening in the environment. We get a good response from customers about this feature and the main architecture of NetCool. Its processing is very good. Deduplication and correlation functionalities are good in this solution as compared to other solutions. A big advantage of NetCool is that it also supports multi-layered protocols. We can receive multiple events from different protocols like UDP, HTTP, and those events can be captured in NetCool."
"The most valuable feature is the event management capability."
"IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus supports legacy protocols like CORBA, Huawei, and other telecom protocols, which I find beneficial."
"The monitoring is the solution's most valuable feature."
"It's good for managed systems. The end query on the user interface is good. You can view lots of charts and graphs."
"Offers very good event/alert drill-down and statistical reporting capabilities."
"It is an easy-to-use solution."
"The biggest plus points for me are the configurability and scalability of the solution, as well as the multi-tenancy of the platform."
"It is flexible. You can tune it, more or less, as you want."
"The end-to-end ticketing process is most valuable in ServiceNow IT Operations Management because its notification feature is excellent in keeping all users informed on the next step compared to BMC. I also like that ServiceNow IT Operations Management is very user-friendly."
"The most valuable features of the solution are discovery, cloud governance, event management, and service mapping."
"The most important features of ServiceNow IT Operations Management are the discovery service mapping and orchestration."
"I consider the stability to be very high, rating it ten out of ten."
"The auto remediation feature has been most valuable. They have also introduced an AOP feature of ServiceNow that we are keen to explore."
"It's easy to set up."
"The way this solution has helped us is that it improved our communication."
 

Cons

"Its technical support team takes longer to reply."
"They could enhance the visibility to give us a unified view of our entire IT infrastructure."
"I would like for the next release to be more user-friendly and out of date. The next release should focus on the cloud, AI, and ML technologies."
"There should be an easier-to-understand model, more of a flat-structured model rather than different tiers of licenses which complicates licensing."
"Areas that could be better include the fact that the solution is only on-premises, lacks AI capabilities, and support response times could be quicker."
"The solution has limitations in database integration as it cannot integrate with databases other than IBM DB2."
"The cost of the product is quite high. They should work to adjust their pricing models."
"The solution needs to invest in the development of a knowledge base and use of AI services for providing event resolution and intervention directions."
"The initial setup phase was hard and could be made easier."
"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."
"The solution’s licensing cost could be improved."
"I advise others not to customize a lot while using the solution."
"There is room for improvement in the stability of ServiceNow."
"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."
"We are facing difficulties with service mapping of CIs from the end users, and are seeking help from third-party vendors."
"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."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Its license cost is a little bit more than other solutions. Our customers expect a standard market price that is comparative to other products. For each and every NetCool OMNIbus component, we have to purchase a separate license. These components are not free with the product."
"You have to have the right level of budget to afford this solution."
"It is a costly solution."
"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."
"There are additional costs, you have to pay more for everything."
"The solution is costly compared to the products offered by its competitors."
"The pricing is high and may be excluding the small to medium-sized enterprise businesses."
"The cost of ServiceNow is much higher."
"We obtained discovery licenses at about seven dollars Australian per unit, which we found to be reasonable and competitive."
"It has different subscription models."
"The solution offers yearly licenses and a subscription model for add-on features."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
25%
Computer Software Company
15%
Energy/Utilities Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
6%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
12%
Healthcare Company
5%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus?
I would rate the pricing for IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus as three, where one is a high price and ten is a low price.
What needs improvement with IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus?
Based on my experience and my colleagues' feedback, IBM can improve IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus in automation with respect to using AI, as it lacks considerably compared to other tools. The integrat...
What is your primary use case for IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus?
My current use case for IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus is for monitoring the networks.
What do you like most about ServiceNow IT Operations Management?
From my perspective as an asset manager, the most valuable feature of the solution is the configuration management portion, where I can actively add something to the database.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ServiceNow IT Operations Management?
ServiceNow's pricing is expensive. We consider it a Tier 1 product, but it requires significant investment.
What needs improvement with ServiceNow IT Operations Management?
ServiceNow ( /products/servicenow-reviews )'s pricing is expensive. A more streamlined configuration process tailored to use cases and industry would be beneficial. We needed some external help to ...
 

Also Known As

Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus
ServiceNow ITOM
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Consolidated Communications, €sterreichische Bundesbahnen (€BB), Capgemini
servicenow, TransAlta, NATS, Symantec
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Tivoli NetCool OMNIbus vs. ServiceNow IT Operations Management and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
865,295 professionals have used our research since 2012.