# Best Incident Management Software for Small Business ## How Many Incident Management Software Products Does G2 Track? **Total Products under this Category:** 132 ### Category Stats (Jul 2026) - **Average Rating:** 4.43/5 (↑0.01 vs Jun 2026) The average rating of products in this category, based on all submitted ratings - **Top Trending Product:** SAS Fraud, Anti-Money Laundering & Security Intelligence (+0.9%) - Among all products in this category, SAS Fraud, Anti-Money Laundering & Security Intelligence recorded the largest rating increase compared to last month _Last updated: July 25, 2026_ ## How Does G2 Rank Incident Management Software Products? **Why You Can Trust G2's Software Rankings:** - 30 Analysts and Data Experts - 17,300+ Authentic Reviews - 132+ Products - Unbiased Rankings G2's software rankings are built on verified user reviews, rigorous moderation, and a consistent research methodology maintained by a team of analysts and data experts. Each product is measured using the same transparent criteria, with no paid placement or vendor influence. While reviews reflect real user experiences, which can be subjective, they offer valuable insight into how software performs in the hands of professionals. Together, these inputs power the G2 Score, a standardized way to compare tools within every category. ## G2 Grid® for Incident Management Software ![G2 Grid® for Incident Management Software plotting products by satisfaction and market presence](https://www.g2.com/categories/incident-management/grids.png?focus%5B%5D=25671&focus%5B%5D=27129&focus%5B%5D=71310&focus%5B%5D=5231&focus%5B%5D=139215&focus%5B%5D=2864&focus%5B%5D=124535&focus%5B%5D=5036) Highlighted products: NinjaOne, xMatters, ServiceNow IT Service Management, Jira Service Management, New Relic, Freshservice, Better Stack, and Pulseway. Underlying data: [Grid® JSON](https://www.g2.com/categories/incident-management/grids.json?focus%5B%5D=ninjaone&focus%5B%5D=xmatters&focus%5B%5D=servicenow-it-service-management&focus%5B%5D=jira-service-management&focus%5B%5D=new-relic&focus%5B%5D=freshservice&focus%5B%5D=better-stack&focus%5B%5D=pulseway&segment=small-business) **Sponsored** ### Rootly Rootly is the AI-native on-call and incident management platform that helps you resolve incidents faster, improve system resilience, and streamline on-call operations. It’s your always-on production AI agent that automates root cause analysis and identifies patterns that drive continuous improvement—trusted by thousands of companies like NVIDIA, Replit, Elastic, Canva, Clay, DoorDash, SoFi, and Superhuman. [Visit website](https://www.g2.com/external_clickthroughs/record?secure%5Bad_program%5D=ppc&secure%5Bad_slot%5D=category_product_list&secure%5Bcategory_id%5D=1040&secure%5Bchosen_at%5D=2026-07-28T11%3A08%3A23Z&secure%5Bdisplayable_resource_id%5D=1040&secure%5Bdisplayable_resource_type%5D=Category&secure%5Bmedium%5D=sponsored&secure%5Bplacement_reason%5D=page_category&secure%5Bplacement_resource_ids%5D%5B%5D=1040&secure%5Bprioritized%5D=false&secure%5Bproduct_id%5D=164922&secure%5Bresource_id%5D=1040&secure%5Bresource_type%5D=Category&secure%5Bsource_type%5D=category_page&secure%5Bsource_url%5D=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.g2.com%2Fcategories%2Fincident-management%2Fsmall-business&secure%5Btoken%5D=dc0f35ebc31bbc32fb6c24335ebfb2845f2adf73fbb641e1e9a7716eb9b29cd6&secure%5Burl%5D=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.rootly.com%2Fdemo&secure%5Burl_type%5D=custom_url) [ NinjaOne ](https://www.g2.com/products/ninjaone/reviews) By [NinjaOne](https://www.g2.com/sellers/ninjaone) [ 4.7/5(4,880) ](https://www.g2.com/products/ninjaone/reviews) What do users say? Users consistently praise the ease of use and powerful automation features of NinjaOne, which streamline IT management tasks and save time. The intuitive interface allows for quick deployment and effe Pros and Cons [ Ease of Use (1373) ](https://www.g2.com/products/ninjaone/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons)[ Missing Features (792) ](https://www.g2.com/products/ninjaone/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons) [ xMatters ](https://www.g2.com/products/xmatters/reviews) By [Everbridge](https://www.g2.com/sellers/everbridge) [ 4.5/5(788) ](https://www.g2.com/products/xmatters/reviews) What do users say? Users consistently praise the automated escalation features of xMatters, which significantly enhance incident response times by ensuring the right personnel are notified promptly. The platform's seaml Pros and Cons [ Alerting System (62) ](https://www.g2.com/products/xmatters/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons)[ Complexity (26) ](https://www.g2.com/products/xmatters/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons) [ ServiceNow IT Service... ](https://www.g2.com/products/servicenow-it-service-management/reviews) By [ServiceNow](https://www.g2.com/sellers/servicenow) [ 4.5/5(1,909) ](https://www.g2.com/products/servicenow-it-service-management/reviews) What do users say? Users consistently praise the product for its centralized ticket management and automation features, which streamline IT operations and enhance efficiency. The platform's ability to connect various IT Pros and Cons [ Ease of Use (168) ](https://www.g2.com/products/servicenow-it-service-management/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons)[ Learning Curve (72) ](https://www.g2.com/products/servicenow-it-service-management/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons) [ Jira Service Management ](https://www.g2.com/products/jira-service-management/reviews) By [Atlassian](https://www.g2.com/sellers/atlassian) [ 4.3/5(988) ](https://www.g2.com/products/jira-service-management/reviews) What do users say? Users consistently praise the seamless integration with other Atlassian products, which enhances collaboration across teams. The platform's customizable workflows and automation features significantly Pros and Cons [ Ease of Use (46) ](https://www.g2.com/products/jira-service-management/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons)[ Learning Curve (33) ](https://www.g2.com/products/jira-service-management/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons) [ New Relic ](https://www.g2.com/products/new-relic/reviews) By [New Relic](https://www.g2.com/sellers/new-relic) [ 4.4/5(586) ](https://www.g2.com/products/new-relic/reviews) What do users say? Users consistently praise New Relic for its real-time insights and comprehensive observability, which streamline monitoring across applications and infrastructure. The intuitive dashboards and seamles Pros and Cons [ Ease of Use (150) ](https://www.g2.com/products/new-relic/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons)[ Expensive (83) ](https://www.g2.com/products/new-relic/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons) [ Freshservice ](https://www.g2.com/products/freshservice/reviews) By [Freshworks](https://www.g2.com/sellers/freshworks) [ 4.6/5(1,342) ](https://www.g2.com/products/freshservice/reviews) What do users say? Users consistently praise the intuitive interface and powerful automation features of Freshservice, which streamline IT operations and enhance ticket management. The platform's ability to centralize v Pros and Cons [ Ease of Use (158) ](https://www.g2.com/products/freshservice/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons)[ Missing Features (54) ](https://www.g2.com/products/freshservice/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons) [ Better Stack ](https://www.g2.com/products/better-stack/reviews) By [Better Stack](https://www.g2.com/sellers/better-stack-3c077b8c-37c5-4d79-9e19-15cf3bd1960b) [ 4.8/5(331) ](https://www.g2.com/products/better-stack/reviews) What do users say? Users consistently praise the ease of use and intuitive interface of Better Stack, highlighting how quickly they can set up monitoring and receive real-time alerts. The platform's ability to centraliz Pros and Cons [ Ease of Use (118) ](https://www.g2.com/products/better-stack/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons)[ Expensive (22) ](https://www.g2.com/products/better-stack/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons) [ Pulseway ](https://www.g2.com/products/pulseway/reviews) By [MMSoft Design](https://www.g2.com/sellers/mmsoft-design) [ 4.6/5(123) ](https://www.g2.com/products/pulseway/reviews) What do users say? Users consistently praise the product for its ease of use and powerful automation features, which streamline IT management tasks and enhance productivity. The intuitive interface and responsive custom Pros and Cons [ Intuitive (9) ](https://www.g2.com/products/pulseway/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons)[ Limited Features (4) ](https://www.g2.com/products/pulseway/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons) [ Sherlocks.ai ](https://www.g2.com/products/sherlocks-ai/reviews) By [sherlocks.ai](https://www.g2.com/sellers/sherlocks-ai) [ 4.9/5(28) ](https://www.g2.com/products/sherlocks-ai/reviews) What do users say? Users consistently praise Sherlocks.ai for its real-time visibility and seamless integration with existing tools, which significantly enhances collaboration and incident management. The platform's abi Pros and Cons [ Slack Integration (15) ](https://www.g2.com/products/sherlocks-ai/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons)[ Bug Issues (2) ](https://www.g2.com/products/sherlocks-ai/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons) [ SolarWinds Service Desk ](https://www.g2.com/products/solarwinds-service-desk/reviews) By [SolarWinds Worldwide LLC](https://www.g2.com/sellers/solarwinds-worldwide-llc) [ 4.3/5(786) ](https://www.g2.com/products/solarwinds-service-desk/reviews) What do users say? Users consistently praise the intuitive interface and ease of use of SolarWinds Service Desk, highlighting how it simplifies ticket management and streamlines workflows. Many appreciate its ability to Pros and Cons [ Ticketing System (8) ](https://www.g2.com/products/solarwinds-service-desk/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons)[ Missing Features (5) ](https://www.g2.com/products/solarwinds-service-desk/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons) [ Alloy Navigator ](https://www.g2.com/products/alloy-navigator/reviews) By [Alloy Software](https://www.g2.com/sellers/alloy-software) [ 4.8/5(110) ](https://www.g2.com/products/alloy-navigator/reviews) What do users say? Users consistently praise the product for its flexibility and centralized management, allowing teams to efficiently handle IT tasks across departments. The intuitive interface and robust automation fe Pros and Cons [ Asset Management (32) ](https://www.g2.com/products/alloy-navigator/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons)[ Learning Curve (13) ](https://www.g2.com/products/alloy-navigator/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons) [ Xurrent IMR ](https://www.g2.com/products/xurrent-imr/reviews) By [Xurrent](https://www.g2.com/sellers/xurrent) [ 4.5/5(191) ](https://www.g2.com/products/xurrent-imr/reviews) What do users say? Users consistently praise the intuitive interface and quick alerting capabilities of Xurrent IMR, highlighting its ease of use and seamless integration with existing tools. Many appreciate the platfor Pros and Cons [ Ease of Use (50) ](https://www.g2.com/products/xurrent-imr/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons)[ Missing Features (12) ](https://www.g2.com/products/xurrent-imr/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons) [ PagerDuty ](https://www.g2.com/products/pagerduty/reviews) By [PagerDuty](https://www.g2.com/sellers/pagerduty) [ 4.5/5(968) ](https://www.g2.com/products/pagerduty/reviews) What do users say? Users consistently praise PagerDuty for its reliable alerting and efficient incident management, which help teams respond quickly to critical issues. The platform's ability to streamline communication Pros and Cons [ Alert Notifications (21) ](https://www.g2.com/products/pagerduty/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons)[ Alert Issues (12) ](https://www.g2.com/products/pagerduty/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons) [ Grafana Labs ](https://www.g2.com/products/grafana-labs/reviews) By [Grafana Labs](https://www.g2.com/sellers/grafana-labs) [ 4.5/5(161) ](https://www.g2.com/products/grafana-labs/reviews) What do users say? Users consistently praise the customizable dashboards and intuitive interface of Grafana Labs, highlighting its ability to visualize complex data from various sources effectively. The platform's flexi Pros and Cons [ Data Visualization (18) ](https://www.g2.com/products/grafana-labs/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons)[ Learning Curve (16) ](https://www.g2.com/products/grafana-labs/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons) [ Oh Dear ](https://www.g2.com/products/oh-dear/reviews) By [Oh Dear](https://www.g2.com/sellers/oh-dear) [ 4.7/5(33) ](https://www.g2.com/products/oh-dear/reviews) What do users say? Users consistently praise the ease of use and quick setup of this monitoring tool, highlighting its ability to provide timely notifications and comprehensive performance tracking. Many appreciate its Pros and Cons [ Easy Setup (17) ](https://www.g2.com/products/oh-dear/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons)[ Expensive (5) ](https://www.g2.com/products/oh-dear/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons) - ‹ Prev‹ Prev - 1 - [2](/categories/incident-management/small-business?order=g2_score&page=2#product-list) - [Next ›Next ›](/categories/incident-management/small-business?order=g2_score&page=2#product-list) Spotlight Categories [Low-Code Development Platforms](https://www.g2.com/categories/low-code-development-platforms) [Social Media Listening Tools](https://www.g2.com/categories/social-media-listening-tools) [Online Community Management Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/online-community-management) [Accounting Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/accounting) [Compensation Management Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/compensation-management) Similar Categories - [Application Portfolio Management](/categories/application-portfolio-management) - [Auto Scaling](/categories/auto-scaling) - [Cloud Cost Management](/categories/cloud-cost-management) - [Cloud Management Platforms](/categories/cloud-management-platforms) - [Cloud Migration Assessment Tools](/categories/cloud-migration-assessment-tools) - [Columnar Databases](/categories/columnar-databases) - [Data as a Service (DaaS)](/categories/data-as-a-service-daas) - [Data Destruction](/categories/data-destruction) - [Data Extraction](/categories/data-extraction-tools) - [Data Governance](/categories/data-governance-tools) - [Data Observability](/categories/data-observability) - [Data Recovery](/categories/data-recovery) - [Digital Employee Experience (DEX) Management](/categories/digital-employee-experience-dex-management) - [Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM)](/categories/digital-experience-monitoring-dem) - [Digital Governance](/categories/digital-governance) [Browse Incident Management Themes](/categories/incident-management/themes) ![Tian Lin](/assets/transparent-ad5be28fbcd25b7b08d2cebe1d957125437fb5407d75ee717965ad22c8808791.gif "Tian Lin") TL Researched and written by [Tian Lin](https://research.g2.com/insights/author/tian-lin) Updated Products classified in the overall Incident Management category are similar in many regards and help companies of all sizes solve their business problems. However, small business features, pricing, setup, and installation differ from businesses of other sizes, which is why we match buyers to the right Small Business Incident Management to fit their needs. Compare product ratings based on reviews from enterprise users or connect with one of G2's buying advisors to find the right solutions within the Small Business Incident Management category. In addition to qualifying for inclusion in the Incident Management Software category, to qualify for inclusion in the Small Business Incident Management Software category, a product must have at least 10 reviews left by a reviewer from a small business. Top Tools at a Glance | | ITIL-aligned incident workflows with CMDB context | User Review "User-Friendly Incident Management Platform That Saves Time" | | | Proactive endpoint incident detection with automated remediation | User Review "Impowered Our MSP to Resolve Issues Quickly and Grow Quickly" | | | Multi-channel on-call alerting with workflow automation | User Review "No-Code Flow Designer and Reliable Multi-Channel Escalations" | | | Atlassian-native ITSM with dev-ops integration | User Review "Jira Service Management for Efficient Ticket Tracking and Support Workflow" | | | Full-stack observability with distributed tracing | User Review "New Relic User Experience Review" | | | ITIL-aligned ticketing with workflow automation | User Review "User-Friendly No-Code Automation with Helpful API Integrations and Reporting" | | | Multi-channel on-call alerting with escalation policies | User Review "Reliable paging that keeps our Azure on-call rotation sane" | | | Asset-linked incident tracking with integrated change control | User Review "Intuitive, All-in-One ITSM That Streamlines Ticketing and Asset Management" | | | Slack-native incident coordination with automated workflows | User Review "Boosted Incident Response with Better Slack Swarming and Clearer Bridge Comms" | | | Multi-channel alert routing with escalation policies | User Review "Fast, Reliable Alerting with Smooth Shift Rotations in Xcurrent IMR (Zenduty)" | * * * Show More * * * ## How Do You Choose the Right Incident Management Software? ### What You Should Know About Incident Management Software ### What is Incident Management Software? Incident management software helps businesses preserve the uptime of their digital assets. IT teams use incident management systems to alert them to major problems or downtime, generate reports surrounding the outage or issue, and guide a plan of action in addressing the problem. These service management functionalities can be especially beneficial in situations where companies have numerous assets to monitor at once or a few mission-critical assets to monitor in real time. Regardless of which scenarios, IT service management automation is the key to fast incident response time. This type of software automatically assigns the tasks to the appropriate teams, provides insights into the cases, and generates actionable reports to optimize the IT incidents handling process. For example, a good incident management system will determine if a case should alert the [DevOps](https://www.g2.com/categories/devops) team or the [IT service management (ITSM)](https://www.g2.com/categories/it-service-management-itsm-tools) teams based on the type of the problem or prioritization.  Incident management solutions ensure critical IT infrastructures have as much uptime as possible. Once an incident is spotted by monitoring software or an end-user report, the tool automates [notifications](https://www.g2.com/categories/incident-management/f/notifications) to all relevant team members or personnel via email, text, call, or communication software. By notifying the exact people or teams needed to address an issue and preparing an immediate report of the issue, incident management software helps the IT teams find root causes and deal with them quickly. The most reliable incident management software for IT teams and system administrators typically combines fast alert delivery, on-call rotation management, and integration with existing monitoring and collaboration tools into a single platform that runs without interruption during critical incidents. Based on G2 reviews, IT operations and SRE teams evaluate incident management software by comparing MTTR reduction, on-call scheduling flexibility, and how cleanly the platform integrates with existing monitoring, ticketing, and chat tools. ### What are the Common Features of Incident Management Software? The following are some core features within incident management tools that can help users maintain their IT system’s uptime: **Self-service portal:** Before a ticket is submitted, incident management software should provide a knowledge base to answer common problems of employees. This saves the ITSM team time and streamlines repetitive problems. [**Incident assignment**](https://www.g2.com/categories/incident-management/f/ticket-assignment) **:** Designate the reported incident to the right team according to the types of problems. Without this feature, the IT team will need to identify the type of the problems first, which slows down the SLA time.  **ITIL management:** Most incident management software will come with an ITIL, which is a library of volumes describing a framework of best practices for delivering IT services. The software can guide the IT team to follow this framework in their ITSM operation. **Immediate alerting:** With incident management systems, users can mail, text, call, or integrate with team communication software to notify all relevant personnel, notifying them of an issue’s occurrence and any pertinent details surrounding it. **Incident tracking:** The software helps set different SLA policies to track deadlines based on elapsed time and types of problems. This can be further [customized by priority](https://www.g2.com/categories/incident-management/f/ticket-prioritization) so that the ITSM team can allocate appropriate time for every incident. The software should also automatically notify the support team of unsolved incidents before their SLA breaches. [**Standardized workflow**](https://www.g2.com/categories/incident-management/f/standardization) **:** Note what failed and potential troubleshooting steps towards service restoration. Some incident management solutions integrate with monitoring and log analytics software to suggest the root cause of the issue. **Mobile app** : Some incident management software offer a mobile app so that cases can be reported and handled on mobile devices. **Reports and analytics:** Incident reports detail how on-call workloads are distributed and handled. Some software also have customer satisfaction reports to better understand customer feedback and improve service quality. This is necessary to optimize the ITSM team’s work to prepare for future cases.  Based on G2 reviews, the best incident management software for MTTR automation lets IT engineering teams reduce mean time to acknowledge and mean time to resolve through automated alert routing, on-call scheduling, and pre-built response workflows that page the right responder without manual triage. Reviewers describe the best incident management tools for on-call scheduling and alert routing as those that combine flexible rotation policies, intelligent escalation paths, and direct integration with Slack, Jira, and major monitoring tools, so on-call engineers spend less time managing communication and more time fixing the actual problem. SRE and DevOps teams point to automated response chains and incident timelines built in the background as the features that separate platforms they actively use during outages from ones that add operational overhead. Other features of incident management software: [Ticket Creation](https://www.g2.com/categories/incident-management/f/ticket-creation), [Ticket Designation](https://www.g2.com/categories/incident-management/f/ticket-designation). ### What are the Benefits of Incident Management Software? Incident management tools can have a variety of benefits, here are a few: **Save costs:** Downtime can quickly cost businesses money and clients (both potential and current). Incident management solutions help businesses get back to a full capacity more quickly, minimizing losses from downtime. While incident management tools cost money, a manual incident resolution will decrease customer satisfaction and hurt revenue generation in the long run. For example, without the alerting feature from the incident reporting capability, the help desk could miss a case buried in emails and breach SLA.  **Increase productivity:** The IT team can follow the ITIL protocols to handle the problem in the best practices. They can also collaborate with other teams depending on the type of the problems. This takes the guesswork out of the ITSM process by knowing what to do and who to work with.  **Unify visibility:** Both incident reporters and IT managers gain significant visibility to the ITSM process. The incident reporters can track what’s happening to their tickets and when they will be solved. This will keep the end users informed and happy. For IT managers, they can identify what assets are causing the problem (software bugs or hardware malfunction) and fix them appropriately. They can also acknowledge the ITSM team’s performance based on customer satisfaction scores and SLA metrics. This allows them to take action where needed. ### Who Uses Incident Management Software? **IT teams:** Business’ IT teams will be the strongest users of incident management tools. Since the software is specifically designed for reporting any disturbances to proper workflow, incident management can be used to great effect by anyone from dedicated support teams to digital asset teams (databases, virtual servers, applications, etc.) and beyond. These teams can use incident management software in conjunction with other monitoring tools, service desk tools, and more. **Employees:** When employees are having technical difficulties, they can report the problem on the incident management software. Many external IT problems are also spotted by employees before the customers, so it is important to fix them quickly. **Customers:** Customers can report IT problems and track when they will be solved. Incident management is the key to customer satisfaction and revenue generation.  Based on G2 reviews, incident management software with ITIL SLA tracking is a frequent evaluation criterion for mid-size IT teams looking to formalize incident, problem, and change management processes without the implementation lift of enterprise ITSM platforms. Reviewers describe SLA breach alerts, audit-ready incident histories, and structured workflows around incident categorization as the features that move a growing IT team from ad-hoc ticketing into a repeatable service management practice. #### Software Related to Incident Management Software Related solutions that can be used together with incident management software include: [Video conferencing](https://www.g2.com/categories/video-conferencing) **and** [audio conferencing software](https://www.g2.com/categories/audio-conferencing) **:** Video conferencing and audio conferencing software help drive troubleshooting efforts by providing an immediate avenue to communicate with all relevant parties. Since incidents tend to require immediate action to maximize uptime, it’s best to begin troubleshooting efforts as soon as possible.  [Log analysis software](https://www.g2.com/categories/log-analysis) **:** When something fails, the first place to check for a potential failure explanation is in logging. Application logs, server logs, and other logs are great leads to finding the solutions. Log analysis software assists in sorting through those logs, making it easier to find failure points and restore service. [Service desk software](https://www.g2.com/categories/service-desk) **:** Internal transparency is critical to incident management, not only because of auditing but also because it is essential to not repeat troubleshooting steps. Repeating the same (failed) steps means extra time spent not fixing an issue. Service desk tools help with transparency by providing a ticketing system where issues and attempted fixes can be tracked. ### Challenges with Incident Management Software Software solutions can come with their own set of challenges.  **Minor incident detection:** Not all major incidents are going to display an immediate sign that something is wrong. In situations like that, it can be difficult to hit that one "key" factor that’s going to set off an incident alert. For potential issues like those that a company could potentially come across, it’s important to consider setting up some warning alerts for signs of a possible incoming major incident. **Links to known issues:** In IT and development, issues that have occurred before or frequently are called known issues. While some of these might be well known among relevant teams, others might be obscure or even previously considered one-off issues. As a result, knowledge surrounding how to address the issue might be difficult to come by at first. Users can pair an incident management solution with knowledge management software to assist their teams in addressing issues more quickly. **ITIL compliant:** There is no standard or governance for ITIL. Adopting the ITSM processes that worked elsewhere doesn’t mean the company is complying with ITIL. The best practice is that IT teams should regularly review customer feedback and adjust their processes accordingly. After all, ITIL is all about efficiency and performance rather than compliance. Following ITIL blindly will make the ITSM process inflexible and unfit for others. ### How to Buy Incident Management Software #### Requirements Gathering (RFI/RFP) for Incident Management Software Whether a company is looking for its first incident management software or trying to replace an existing one, g2.com can help find the best solution. The company’s needs when searching for incident management software often relate to specifically desired data and metrics. For example, the user may be most interested in analyzing SLA breaches. Buyers should make a ranked list of the features that most directly address the problems they’re trying to solve, then reference G2 reviews to find the right fit. Prioritizing the desired feature set can help narrow down the potential pool of incident management solutions, allowing teams to then apply further considerations for budget, ease of integration with other systems, security requirements, and more. This holistic approach empowers buyers to move forward with a focused checklist, which can be used in conjunction with G2 scoring to select the best incident management tool for the business. #### Compare Incident Management Software **Create a long list** When searching for incident management software, companies need to identify compatibility requirements for existing communication tools, monitoring software, and knowledge management software. Buyers should make a list of important existing software that needs to be integrated, then filter out the incident management tools that can’t be integrated. For example, many incident management software are SaaS solutions that only work with other SaaS solutions on the cloud. If the company's IT operations and incident management process are on-premises, then the company should seriously check if its legacy IT infrastructure fits the incident management software.  **Create a short list** It helps to cross-reference the results of initial vendor evaluations with G2 reviews from other buyers, the combination of which will help to narrow in on a short three to five product list. From there, buyers can compare pricing and features to determine the best fit. Some vendors don’t charge implementation costs while some do.  **Conduct demos** As a rule of thumb, companies should make sure to demo all of the products that end up on their short list. During demos, buyers should ask specific questions related to the functionalities they care most about; for example, one might ask to be walked through what actionable insights are generated from an SLA breach report.  #### Selection of Incident Management Software **Choose a selection team** Regardless of a company’s size, it’s important to involve the most relevant personas when beginning the incident management software selection process. Larger companies may include the ITSM teams, procurement teams, IT managers, and engineers who will be working with the software most closely. Smaller companies with fewer employees might just need IT managers to fill the role. **Negotiation** Many vendors offer full software license platforms that go beyond incident management (on-premises) to include knowledge management and observability platforms. While some companies will not budge on the configurations of their packages, buyers looking to trim costs should try to negotiate down to the specific functions that matter to them to get the best price. For example, a vendor’s pricing page where incident management functionality is only included with a robust all-in-one monitoring package, whereas a sales conversation may prove otherwise.  **Final decision** After this stage, it is important to perform a trial run if possible with a small selection of IT professionals or developers. This will help to ensure that the incident management software of choice integrates well with an ITSM specialist’s systems setup or an engineer’s day-to-day work. If the incident management tool is well liked and well utilized, the buyer can take that as a sign that their selection is the right one. If not, looking back at the other options may be necessary.