The IT Skeptic - Comments for "Examining the 2012 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Service Desk"

shortlisting using the Magic Quadrant

skeptic — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 19:07:00 +0000

If one's requirements for a service desk tool meet the selection criteria for the quadrant then yes it might be a useful first cut

but that would be odd. For example only tools that have both a SaaS and an on-premise version are allowed in this quadrant. And only tools that have a global presence.

So if you are a global multinational who is planning to install multiple instances across the globe, but also must have a SaaS option while staying with the same vendor, then yes the MQ would be a useful shortlist

For the other 99.7% of us, no.

Reasonable business practice ?

Philippe — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 09:53:52 +0000

Using the quadrant as the base for the long list when selecting a software can be a reasonable business practice. Especially if you compare it with the other options. It beats a google search by far and questions on LinkedIn easily.

I'm not a Gartner fan but they put a fair amount of work in it. And placing HP and even BMC where they are requires balls of a decent size.

Quadrants are meant to be read?

Osama S. — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 17:35:22 +0000

Does anyone who actually looks at these quadrants read the text? Rob, you only have yourself to blame for doing that.
rgds
Osama

I just might

skeptic — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 10:35:57 +0000

If I can do it online for a few grand - which I can now - I just might.

Take the exam

aroos — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 08:58:22 +0000

I wish I could see even some anti-ITIL movement but what I mostly see is blind acceptance of everything. Even you published text which argues that ITIL is a standard.

Remember that ITIL is also a rigid set of exam and product requirements, based on the 5 books. Maybe you should try to get certified as an ITIL Expert.

Aale

Does this mean that Pink will

not a great strike rate for me. — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 00:48:01 +0000

Does this mean that Pink will offer a "COBIT 5 - verify" stamp?

While everyone has their +ve and -ve ITSM tooling stories, I'm batting 0 and 3 across three vendors listed in the MQ (over the past 6 years) in terms of their tooling actually being able to do what was promised.

Yes, for three different employers.

the death of ITIL

skeptic — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 16:23:21 +0000

I like to think I'm rational about ITIL. I know when it has value and I know when it needs criticism. I'm also able to distinguish between ITIL the body of work and ITIL the movement. At least I flatter myself that these things are true.

The anti-itil hysteria at present is as irrational as the pro-itil hype was, and is as worthy of skeptical demolition. Singing the death of ITIL is as much a fad as declaring it a miracle cure was. Reality is of course complex, grey, and somewhere in the middle, as always. I.e. common sense

Yes and no

aroos — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 11:54:18 +0000

Yes, for awhile ITIL was useful but agree with Rhett that now it is holding things back.

Rob, you should sometimes read your own writings ;) You do an amazing job of ITIL bashing.

Aale

ITIL fan-boy

skeptic — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 09:34:00 +0000

being a bit of an ITIL fan-boy I can't agree that it held back innovation. on the contrary ITIL dragged the tools out of being crude ticket databases and made them understand process, escalation, accountability, reporting, config and a raft of other concepts. You'd be too young to remember :)

Nor - being ex-CA - can I agree about "mash-ups". There's no shame in acquisition, it's a natural part of industry consolidation and a cost effective means of innovating. It's the subsequent integration that counts. I'm talking about distinct parallel products competing for attention and resource.

Bless you Rob

Rhett Glauser — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 07:44:52 +0000

You hit 'em all. Namely:

- Vision isn't really vision per the MQ axis criteria. I have no idea why they call it such and I swear x and y criteria are purposely intermingled to keep anybody from making any justifiable argument over dot location...which is probably a good idea on Gartner's part.
- ITIL has hampered tool innovation and real vision for years, but somehow it magically becomes a strength for a few vendors skilled at following directions. I'm thinking about adding the MQ to the ITIL violations list: http://community.servicenow.com/blog/rglauser/notice-itil-violation
- The MQ is supposed to evaluate one tool from one vendor, which becomes problematic for vendors with six or more. But Gartner doesn't hesitate to give props to vendors for a mashup of acquired, rebranded technologies?! Not good for all the reasons you list. Mark my words though, this trend of 31 flavors of ITSM tools from a single vendor is only just now gaining momentum...both within the analyst and vendor ranks. Nobody has yet to clearly define the benefits to the customer of this approach.

That was therapeutic. Nice work. Thanks, @rglauser

Strengths

skeptic — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 07:19:00 +0000

Before I get accused of pickin' on poor sweet lil BMC, let me say that i used them as the example because
(a) BMC have been wheeling out that ITIL-in-a-box line shamelessly for years now
(b) they came first in the report

To me, a vendor strength ought to be something that differentiates them, or at least something they excel at relative to the other vendors.

But many of the supposed vendor "strengths" in this report are straight out of the brochures and are lame lame lame.

Cherwell Service Management's One-Step actions enable organizations to create and execute microworkflows at any point within the tool.
...
HP Service Manager supports robust executive dashboards available as add-ons to the current ITSSM tool.

And many of the strengths aren't. A feature of the product is not in itself a strength of the vendor, even when it is a strong feature. The report is full of features and pretty limp ones at that, some of them.

EasyVista's modern user interface makes good use of screen real estate and intuitive user interaction, specifically for incident management.
...
The IT service view visualization feature in IBM SmartCloud Control Desk is differentiated from other vendors through the use of a swim lane diagram showing the relation of the different service layers.
...
IBM SmartCloud Control Desk offers good self-service and service request management capabilities.