“A rising tide lifts all the boats. And a partnership, by definition, serves both parties…”

—-John F. Kennedy

By Dick Stark

I have three good reasons why I’m more optimistic about the ITSM space than ever before.:  (1) BMC is making good progress on many fronts, (2) the RightStar pipeline looks very strong now, and (3) ServiceNow continues to outperform on a continual basis.

Let’s start with ServiceNow (SNOW). On April 23, SNOW reported another breakout quarter by exceeding all expectations: $139M in total revenue in Q1, with an expectation of $665M in 2014. Hard to believe, but in Q1 alone SNOW added 115 new sales and marketing people. SNOW also disclosed a 97% customer renewal rate and announced nine new annual contract value (ACA) deals worth more than a million. BMC is private and is no longer required to disclose revenue, but my guess is that SNOW is quickly approaching BMC in terms of total ITSM revenue. Since both BMC and RightStar compete against SNOW, how can this be good news?

Competition is always a good thing. As a result, BMC has responded with more innovative products like MyIT, and a soon-to-be beta tested new version of Remedy.  Also thanks to SNOW, more attention than ever before has been focused on ITSM, especially  in areas beyond the traditional service desk. Additionally, we can all thank SNOW for pushing the benefits and value of a SaaS solution, especially just as Remedyforce is getting much better. Although our win rate against SNOW vs Remedyforce has been low, that’s changing. Remember, SNOW did not get to be a $665M company because their products are inexpensive.

After going private last year, BMC is making good progress on many fronts. BMC has consolidated some sales functions and is looking for more partners to sell to the lower mid-market.  FootPrints v12 shipped on April 29, amid some glowing reviews.  Especially interesting is the personalization and customization capabilities that FootPrints v12 offers.  Likewise Remedyforce Winter 14 is more competitive than ever. Included now is a gamification options featuring Bunchball’s Nitro.

Finally, RightStar’s pipeline looks strong for our SMB team and the Remedy forecast shows several significant opportunities as well.   I also look forward to the Forrester ITSM consultancy Wave report and reading about RightStar.  This report should be out in the next 30 days or so.

Additionally, I’m encouraged because industry pundits are optimistic.  According to Gartner, IT services is expected to total $964 billion in 2014, a 4.6% increase from 2013.  And SaaS still remains the hottest growth sector of all. Stay tuned–it’s a good time to be in the ITSM space.