The Forrester Wave™: Enterprise Service Management Platforms, Q4 2025

Enterprise Service Management Platforms Vendor Product Comparisons 2025

Key features and pros and cons of top Enterprise Service Management Platforms products:

Atlassian - Leaders

Pros:

Strong capabilities in process workflow and task management
Collaboration tools stand out for velocity and ease of use
Rovo powers numerous agents and AI experiences inside Jira Service Management
Early investments in agentic AI and orchestration
Agile knowledge management through Confluence

Cons:

Weaker in service and end-user experience-level management
Lags other market leaders in AIOps and observability capabilities
Customers request better adoption support and addressing long-standing feature requests
Need to enhance functionality of acquired tools such as asset management solution

BMC Helix - Leaders

Pros:

Advanced infrastructure monitoring with anomaly detection and health score prediction
Strong collaboration capabilities that enhance team coordination
HelixGPT Insight Finder and service dashboards provide clear visibility into trends
Clear vision targeting transformative change beyond simple productivity improvements
Effective AI executive dashboards and unified employee experience focus

Cons:

Some competitors are more mature in remote endpoint management and virtual agent/chat
Costly transformation for customers to achieve the vision
Without transparent public-facing pricing, requires negotiation at each renewal
Customers request faster issue resolution and better data quality management
Need more user-friendly portals to improve customer and agent experiences

ServiceNow - Leaders

Pros:

Superior strategy with clear growth in ITOM and AIOps
Virtual agent capable of multiturn, context-aware conversations
Strong change risk assessment with predictive intelligence
Dual low-/no-code options designed separately for business users and IT specialists
Robust innovation capability with high level of investment in product advancements

Cons:

Costly transformation for customers despite improved pricing transparency
Weaknesses include remote endpoint management
Missed opportunity to lead with analytics such as service mining and AI agent performance
Complexity and cost of licensing cited by customers
Only one reference customer responded to Forrester's outreach for this evaluation

Freshworks - Strong Performers

Pros:

Strong process workflow and task management with employee journey mapping
Freddy AI Copilot assistant enhances productivity
Autodiscovery and visual service mapping tool bolster asset and configuration management
Unified employee portal makes self-service intuitive and user friendly
Customers praised ease of use, intuitive design, and robust API capabilities

Cons:

Offers only a multitenant SaaS option
Lacks robust AI capabilities in prevention and remediation, relying on rules-based anomaly detection
Vision lacks transformative aspects that encompass both AIOps and ITOM
Agentic AI solutions are highly use case specific, focused on productivity improvements
Customers request enhancements to project management tools and IT asset management capabilities

HCLSoftware - Strong Performers

Pros:

Strong capabilities in remote endpoint management with comprehensive AI-driven tools
Self-service portal, catalog, and request management unified under AI-powered layer
Mature service and employee experience management
Robust analytics and dashboards to drive visibility and continuous improvement
Customers view as reliable innovation-driven provider, particularly strong in AI and analytics

Cons:

Vision remains more narrowly focused on ITSM compared with Leaders
Weaker in agile knowledge management and work collaboration
Features less advanced than peers that prioritize team-based innovation and swarming
Some customers find onboarding, technical setup, and support responsiveness could improve
Communication around updates needs enhancement

Ivanti - Strong Performers

Pros:

Strong asset and configuration management with Neurons platform
Excels in remote endpoint management with real-time monitoring and predictive analytics
Service and employee experience management is a differentiator with comprehensive DEX score
Provides proactive improvement suggestions for digital experience
Customers praised intuitive platform and strong integration capabilities

Cons:

Overall strategy lags market frontrunners, lacking focus on agentic AI
Roadmap investments largely focus on catching up rather than leading transformation
Collaboration tools are limited, lacking intelligent swarming
Customers identified search functionality, UI enhancements, and mobile app performance as areas for improvement
Communication during updates needs enhancement

ManageEngine - Strong Performers

Pros:

User-friendly interface for process workflow and task management
Native integrations to ITOM solutions for infrastructure monitoring
Strong asset and configuration management
Virtual agent enhances user interactions
Analytics and dashboards provide AI-driven insights

Cons:

Focus on improving workflows rather than innovating how organizations operate
Change risk analysis remains limited, relying on questionnaires
Little visibility into change collisions
Agentic AI capabilities still in early stages of development
Customers cite unintuitive UI, limited reporting capabilities, and challenges with permissions

Matrix42 - Strong Performers

Pros:

Solid capabilities in process workflow and task management
Supports ESM and cross-functional workflows
Reliable service asset and configuration management
AI-generated retrospectives provide valuable insights into past issues
Good device support and favorable cost-to-value ratio

Cons:

Weaknesses include lack of intelligent swarming and proactive remediation
Self-service portal is on par but not differentiated from market
Steep learning curve during implementation
Some usability and UI rough edges
Reference customers did not respond to Forrester's outreach for this evaluation

OpenText - Strong Performers

Pros:

Strong infrastructure monitoring with anomaly detection and business service mapping
Proactive remediation automation and predictive analysis
Service and end-user experience management with Aviator sentiment analysis
Analytics reporting and bottleneck identification adds visibility
Customers highlighted intuitive interface and AI capabilities

Cons:

Lacks transformative roadmap across agentic AI, ITOM, and observability
Weaker in self-service portals, catalogs, and request management
Asset and configuration management lacks embedded AI capabilities
Customers request enhancements to AI functionality such as live translation
Need to expand out-of-the-box workflows and improve API availability

Serviceware - Strong Performers

Pros:

Strong AI-driven capabilities in incident response and collaboration
Automated ticket categorization and routing with AI summaries
Strong change risk assessment with real-time AI feedback and risk scoring
Agile knowledge management benefits from AI-generated articles and categorization
Vision is spot-on with industry needs and strongly links to transformation

Cons:

While vision is very ambitious, roadmap is in early stages of execution
Weaker in work collaboration, lacking intelligent swarming
Infrastructure monitoring available only through third-party integrations
Customers cite need to simplify setup processes
Only one reference customer responded to Forrester's outreach for this evaluation

IFS - Contenders

Pros:

On-par capabilities in process workflow and task management
Solid asset and configuration management
Good self-service portal, catalog, and request management
Customers see it as capable, cost-efficient ITSM solution with strong core features
Good configurability and supportive vendor relationship

Cons:

Vision is more conservative and incremental compared to other vendors
Limited evidence of integrating ITOM, AIOps, or observability in meaningful way
Weaknesses in intelligent swarming for work collaboration
Reactive, not proactive, detection and remediation
Main drawbacks lie in UI/UX polish, reporting/analytics flexibility, and AI adoption

SolarWinds - Contenders

Pros:

Excels in infrastructure monitoring with real-time service disruption detection
Asset and configuration management with discovery capabilities on par with market
Agile knowledge management capabilities are solid
Strong analytics and dashboards with 360-degree summary reports
Customers appreciate intuitive design and solid ticketing capabilities

Cons:

Platform has not yet embraced expanding landscape of agentic AI, AIOps, and observability
Falls short in change risk automation
Virtual agent and chat functionality lacks maturity compared with AI-driven peers
Deployment and administration can be more complex than modern SaaS-native platforms
Reference customers did not respond to Forrester's outreach for this evaluation

SymphonyAI - Contenders

Pros:

Vision highlights potential of AI and automation of routine tasks
Process workflow and task management broadly on par with peers
Work collaboration and asset and configuration management are solid
Customers appreciate ease of use and automation capabilities
Ability to streamline processes through automated workflows

Cons:

Roadmap highlights beginning of journey and lacks robust service management capabilities
ITOM and AIOps rely solely on integrations, not built natively into platform
Limited capabilities in proactive detection, prevention, and remediation
Heavier reliance on coordination versus true collaboration
Only one reference customer responded to Forrester's outreach for this evaluation

TOPdesk - Contenders

Pros:

Solid incident response and collaboration supporting major incident and problem management
Good self-service portal and request management
Service and end-user experience management is on par with market
Agile knowledge management benefits from capturing knowledge directly in workflow
Customers praised intuitive interface, flexibility, and strong customer support

Cons:

Vision lacks transformative roadmap across agentic AI, ITOM, and observability
No evidence of advanced AI capabilities or real-time analytics
Collaboration limited to coordination without strong swarming
Infrastructure monitoring available only through integrations
Customers cite need to enhance reporting capabilities and modernize features

USU - Contenders

Pros:

Solid infrastructure monitoring with intelligent clustering and impact assessment
Persona-driven self-service portals provide tailored user experience
Takes governance of AI seriously with focus on safely navigating regulations
Recent funding from Thoma Bravo has accelerated AI investments
Customers highlight flexibility, customizability, and stability

Cons:

Notable weaknesses in swarming and collaboration
Depth of agentic AI capabilities is limited
Proactive detection and remediation capabilities are lacking
Incident response depends on human intervention, discovery is nonnative
Customers noted outdated interfaces, lack of intuitiveness, and high customization costs

FAQs

Q: Which vendors are Leaders in 2025?

A: Atlassian, BMC Helix, ServiceNow

Q: What does "Leader" mean in Forrester Wave terms?

A: Leaders in the Forrester Wave evaluation offer the most robust current offerings combined with the strongest strategies for the market. Leaders demonstrate excellence across both current product capabilities and future vision, typically scoring highest in the Current Offering criteria (vertical axis) while also showing strong Strategy (horizontal axis). These vendors are innovating in key areas like agentic AI, ITOM, AIOps, and observability, and are best positioned to help enterprises transform their service management practices rather than just improve existing processes.

Q: How do I interpret a Forrester Wave?

A: https://www.forrester.com/policies/forrester-wave-methodology/

Report:

Top Vendor Products for Enterprise Service Management Platforms in 2025

Enterprise Service Management Platforms Vendor Product Comparisons 2025

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FAQs

Q: Which vendors are Leaders in 2025?

Q: What does "Leader" mean in Forrester Wave terms?

Q: How do I interpret a Forrester Wave?

Reference