Systems & Network: IBM Tivoli

IBM Tivoli’s win in the Systems and Network Management category may best reflect the vendor’s ability to harmonize a massive arsenal of products and services.

Solution providers awarded the vendor an overall Channel Champions rating of 73.6 in a field that included Computer Associates International (71.1), NetIQ (70.4), Hewlett-Packard (70.4) and BMC Software (68.4).

Although IBM Tivoli didn’t quite fare as well as HP, the runner-up on technical criterion, in the heavily weighted area of product reliability, its strengths in multivendor support and diagnostics put it seven-tenths of a point ahead of HP in overall technical satisfaction.

IBM Tivoli’s strength was more pronounced in channel areas, where NetIQ and CA were its closest competitors. IBM pulled ahead of CA by 4.4 points for vendor support over the life cycle of a project—its best showing in the survey—and beat NetIQ by 2.5 points in the area of reducing/eliminating channel conflict.

IBM Tivoli’s ties to the larger IBM organization give it a depth that other vendors can’t necessarily claim, said Jeff Stoddard, president and CEO of Advanced Integrated Solutions, a Los Alamitos, Calif.-based solution provider.

“IBM Tivoli’s overall depth and the underlying concept of having a product that integrates at a deeper level is a good thing for a systems integrator and a good thing for the customer,” Stoddard said.

Still, IBM did not dominate the survey. Rather, its consistent performance was enough to give it the edge over a divided field, with HP coming in second in technical areas, NetIQ second in channel areas and CA second overall.

An IBM Tivoli executive said the company has been working to improve its channel relations. “We’ve had a maniacal focus on automation and easier installation and deployment out of the box, and there’s been a consolidation of the product portfolio,” said Mike Gerentine, director of worldwide channel strategy for IBM Tivoli, Austin, Texas. “This has made Tivoli more channel-friendly and easier to install and support.”

Stoddard agreed: “Do I wish it were better sometimes? Sure. But it gets fixed because it’s IBM,” he said. “Tivoli is a small part of the IBM portfolio, but a critical part. IBM sells big. They want to show an integrated strategy, and Tivoli has to work or that strategy falls apart.”