Until I read the 66-page Vendor Landscape: IT Asset Management (ITAM) report from Info-Tech Research Group (which you can download below), I had no clue what Harvey Balls were. And the report is chock-full of them.

Created in the 1970s by Booz Allen Hamilton consultant Harvey Poppel, Harvey Balls are round ideograms of qualitative information commonly used to indicate the degree to which a certain item meets a particular criterion.

Harvey Balls and Harvey Ball aren’t the same thing.

I also learned that Harvey Balls are not to be confused with Harvey Ball. Turns out Mr. Ball was a graphic designer and WWII vet who received the Bronze Star for bravery on Okinawa, started his own ad agency in 1959, and designed the original “smiley” in 1963 that has become an enduring, international icon.

The bottom line is this: As you’ll discover in the Info-Tech report, if a particular IT asset management solution—like Ivanti IT Asset Management Suite—strings enough “solid” or “nearly solid” Harvey Balls together, it lands in the “Champions” quadrant of leading products from leading vendors. And that puts a “smiley” on the faces of a lot of people.

Well I (be) TAM’d. Ivanti’s a champion!

Info-Tech evaluated 15 competitors in the ITAM market, focusing on those vendors that offer capabilities across multiple platforms and “that have a strong market presence and/or reputational presence among enterprises.”

The report states, “table stakes represent the minimum standard features that determine whether a product even gets reviewed. If table stakes are all you need from your IT asset management tool solution, the only true differentiator for the organization is price. Otherwise, dig deeper to find the best price to value for your needs.” Indeed, the report (with all of its Harvey Balls) is a chance for you to dig deeper.

The Champions quadrant features Ivanti and five other notable performers: Aspera, BMC Asset Core, IBM Control Desk, Scalable Software, and Snow Software. Though not quite in the Champions quadrant, ManageEngine was recognized for its overall value.

As the report recommends, each vendor offers a different feature set and organizations should concentrate on what their genuine needs are and balance the individual strengths of the solutions evaluated to meet those needs.

Ivanti ranked as an exemplary performer along with IBM, BMC Remedy, and ManageEngine in offering ITAM solutions along with integrated desktop management and systems management tools for IT operations. The report states that Ivanti's IT Asset Management Suite “is designed to work alone or in full integration with the service management suite, including CMDB, with auditing to validate against proposed changes.”

The report continues, “Ivanti takes a practical approach to asset management, considering end-to-end processes for technicians and managers. Ivanti has a strong focus on systems and service management with discovery built in. Where a complete asset and systems solution is needed, this could be a good fit. However, on its own, Data Analytics is not a complete asset solution.”

The greatest differentiator? Green.

Perhaps the greatest differentiator is that only Ivanti offers every single feature that Info-Tech evaluated. Only green lights. No yellows or reds.

In the report, Info-Tech uses green, yellow, and red traffic lights or “stoplights” as visual representations of individual features. Fully present (green light) means “all aspects and capabilities of the feature described are in evidence.” Partially present (yellow light) means “some, but not all, aspects and capabilities of the feature as described are in evidence, OR all aspects and capabilities of the feature as described are in evidence, but only for some models in a line.” Fully absent (red light) means “all aspects and capabilities of the feature described are missing or lacking.”

Download the report to learn more!

No solution is the right fit for every organization, but Ivanti IT Asset Management Suite is definitely worth a serious look. The suite encompasses Asset Central, an on premise or cloud-based solution designed to manage your assets’ lifecycles from purchase through allocation and usage and eventually to disposal.

In addition, the Suite includes Asset Intelligence, a product built to discover and inventory owned hardware and software, connect with vendors to monitor new purchases, and track how your users interact with your IT assets.

When combined, Asset Central and Asset Intelligence deliver a complete view of your IT asset management position in a single ITAM suite.

Plot your roadmap to itam success