AUSTIN, TEXAS - Tivoli Systems will soon sell its line of service desk products to Peregrine Systems, Network World has learned.
Neither company would comment on the impending sale, but according to an internal Tivoli document obtained by Network World this week, "Tivoli Service Desk Suite will become a Peregrine product, and Peregrine will provide product support for all customers of Tivoli Service Desk."
Peregrine also will take over sales and maintenance contracts for the Service Desk Suite products. Although no specific takeover date was indicated, the document says the transition for Tivoli customers to Peregrine is scheduled for this month.
The products affected by the sale, according to the document, include Tivoli Problem Management, Tivoli Asset Management and Tivoli Change Management. The products provide base system and network management, help desk workflow management and configuration, and fault management automation functions.
Tivoli introduced the Service Desk Suite in May 1998 following its acquisition of Software Artistry. Peregrine provides infrastructure management products including ServiceCenter. The firm's service management workflow software includes service, problem, inventory and change management components. According to the Tivoli Web site, ServiceCenter can work with Tivoli Enterprise products.
Industry analysts speculate that Tivoli might be selling this product line to focus more on the wireless and mobile market and shed an installed base that may no longer be a significant source of revenue.
Peregrine might be expanding its reach in that market and purchasing the line to gain access to the installed base of Tivoli Service Desk customers.
But considering Peregrine's product suite, Tivoli's offerings may eventually fade away, as they are similar to Peregrine products, observers say. The key difference between the two products is that Tivoli's help-desk offering is an add-on to its network management framework product and Peregrine's is stand-alone software.
"Even though they both have solutions for enterprise level help desks, I wouldn't say they overlap," says Fred Broussard, an analyst with IDC. "When you speak to the vendors, they don't seem to quote each other as direct competitors in sales deals."
Tivoli: www.tivoli.com; Peregrine: www.peregrine.com
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