Article updated on 20/07/26

Disclosure: This analysis is written by Keith Andes, Product Marketing Manager at EasyVista. While the market observations draw on independent research and the author’s prior experience at Gartner, readers should be aware that EasyVista is one of the vendors discussed in the Gartner Market Guide for IT Service Management Platforms.

Gartner recently published its latest Market Guide for IT Service Management Platforms, and as Keith Andes — a former Gartner analyst who co-authored the Magic Quadrant for IT Service Management (ITSM) Platforms and current Product Marketing Manager at EasyVista — I have some thoughts.

Market Guides aren’t about ranking vendors. They are about helping IT buyers understand market trends and make informed decisions. And one of the biggest takeaways from this year’s guide? Most organizations are overspending on IT Service Management tools and failing to get ROI.

Overspending on ITSM tools isn’t a new problem, but it is getting worse. IT teams are buying advanced features with the hope of using them, but most organizations don‘t have the maturity — that is, the process discipline, data quality, and team capacity — to implement them effectively. As a result, IT teams end up stuck with bloated, expensive tools that don’t deliver the value they expected.

I want to break down what is happening in the ITSM market and, more importantly, how buyers can avoid this trap.

Why Are Most IT Buyers Overspending on ITSM Tools?

Gartner’s research confirms what I have seen for years: eight in 10 IT buyers overspend on their ITSM tools (Gartner, Market Guide for IT Service Management Platforms, 2025). This figure reflects Gartner’s findings on the gap between purchased features and actual implementation rates among surveyed IT organizations.

Why? Because IT buyers purchase based on a wish list of features rather than the real needs and capabilities of their IT team.

IT buyers are frequently sold on a long list of advanced features: automation, AI-powered service management, advanced change management, asset discovery — the process of automatically identifying and cataloguing IT assets — and dependency mapping, which documents how those assets relate to and rely on one another. The reality is that most IT teams are not yet mature enough to implement these capabilities effectively. Most IT teams still process tickets manually through email and phone.

The appetite for advanced capabilities is strong, but IT maturity — a measure of how systematically and effectively an organization manages its IT processes — often isn’t there yet. As a result, companies overbuy, under-implement, and waste budget.

Which ITSM Vendors Are Right for Your Organization?

When it comes to IT Service Management platforms, most organizations end up choosing between:

1. The “Big Three” (ServiceNow, Ivanti, BMC). These platforms are built for the most mature, complex IT environments — the top 10% of organizations. While a significant share of IT teams are using one of these tools, the reality is that most will never fully utilize them.

2. More modern but lightweight options (Freshworks, Atlassian). These tools are great for simple ticketing and come at a lower price point. But based on observed market patterns, many organizations outgrow them quickly, realizing they need more advanced capabilities sooner than expected.

I should be transparent: I joined EasyVista because I believe the mid-market ITSM segment is consistently underserved by both ends of this spectrum. The Big Three tend to oversell complexity that most organizations cannot operationalize. The lightweight options leave growing IT teams without the governance and process depth they need.

In third-party reviews on platforms such as Gartner Peer Insights, EasyVista consistently ranks among the top-rated mid-market ITSM platforms for value for money — but I encourage you to benchmark pricing and capabilities directly against your shortlisted vendors. What matters is that you find the right fit for where your organization actually is today, not where you hope to be.

How Can IT Teams Avoid Wasting Budget on ITSM?

If you are evaluating ITSM solutions, here is my specific recommendation for the buying process:

Engage with vendors for a demo, but come prepared.

• Don’t just sit through a sales pitch. Come with a clear list of your organization’s current critical IT objectives and a realistic assessment of what your team can actually implement within the next two to three years.

• Ask how each vendor‘s tool aligns with those objectives and what their typical customers actually implement within the first year.

The Reality of ITSM in 2026

Download the 2026 ITSM Trends Report for a research-backed look at the balancing act enterprise teams are facing, and what the trends shaping security, AI, and complexity mean for the year ahead.

Prioritize what you need today while leaving room to grow

• The goal isn’t to buy every feature you hope to use someday. It is to buy a solution that matches where you are today, with the ability to scale into additional features when you are ready.

• Look for a vendor that allows you to add functionality over time rather than forcing you into an all-inclusive package upfront.

Be extremely thoughtful about pricing and contracts

• This is where the big vendors tend to trap buyers. Their sales teams will push the whole enchilada, locking you into large, expensive contracts for functionality you aren’t ready to implement. And once you realize you’re paying for more than you can actually implement, it is not a very good-tasting enchilada.

• Make sure the vendor you are interested in is willing to sell you what you actually need, not just what they want to bundle.

At the end of the day, overbuying is the fastest way to waste budget, and 80% of IT buyers fall into this trap. The smartest approach is to buy based on reality, not aspiration, and ensure your ITSM tool fits your current needs with the flexibility to grow into additional capabilities over time.

ITSM Is Hard, but Smarter Buying Makes It Easier

ITSM isn’t easy, and no tool is going to magically fix that.

What is most important is that you get the right mix of features and pricing for your organization. Too many IT teams end up stuck with tools they can’t implement or outgrow too fast. The key is to be thoughtful about what you actually need, what you can realistically implement, and how flexible your vendor is with pricing and scaling options.

If there is one thing I have learned from years of analyzing this market, it is this: success in ITSM does not come from buying the most expensive or most feature-rich tool. It comes from buying the right tool for where you are today, with a clear path to grow into the features you actually need in the future.

That’s how you avoid wasting budget and actually get ROI — a measurable return on your ITSM investment — over the long term.