Buying new software might not be a top priority for many IT managers working to get more from their current infrastructure and deploying more free tools. But management software makers argue that their business service management (BSM) products designed to monitor IT components and automate actions so as to optimize business services become even more relevant in tough economic times.

According to Gartner, the worldwide enterprise software market will experience flat growth in 2009, seeing just a .3% uptick over 2008. With nearly $222.6 billion expected in software revenues in the coming year, IT buyers are looking at software-as-a-service, cloud and other alternatives to purchasing annual software licenses, Gartner says. Yet such forecasts aren't stopping vendors such as BMC, ManageEngine and Zyrion from separately updating their software products designed to reduce manual labor, speed problem resolution and improve IT service delivery across enterprise and other companies.

"BMC is helping IT staff do more with less by reducing manual work, automating tasks and introducing efficiencies in IT operations," says Gerry Roy, director of solutions management for service support at BMC. "Customers have to reduce costs not just in the tools they do decide to buy but also in how they work. By reducing the costs associated with IT operations, automation and service management, they can cut costs for their companies and potentially invest savings in growth areas."

BMC recently updated its Remedy IT Service Management (ITSM) suite to version 7.5, which now includes enhanced software license management capabilities and tighter configuration management database integration to provide a holistic and detailed view of software assets. BMC also added automation capabilities that the vendor says increase consistency, minimize errors and result in 20% to 40% efficiency gains in change and release management activities.

"The updates in this release reduce manual processes and makes running operations far more efficient," Roy says. BMC Remedy ITSM 7.5 is available now, with pricing starting at $12,000. [See a screen capture in this week's Products of the Week slideshow.]

While the company is credited for coining the term BSM, BMC is not alone in the market. Companies such as Novell (which acquired Managed Objects), ManageEngine and Zyrion also develop BSM software applications.

Denise Dubie is senior editor with Network World.