As SMB and other customers look to reduce the financial and human capital resources required to establish an enterprise-level service desk, BMC's product will garner attention and today's caused competitors to add their positions as well. CA reiterated its commitment to on-demand products such as CA Service Desk On-Demand and Service-now.com suggested BMC's technology, while being delivered in a new format, will not directly compete with its offering.

"We've been waiting for four years for them to admit that SaaS was eating their lunch. Today they admitted it in front of a big audience at DreamForce," a Service-now.com spokesman said via e-mail to Network World. "For several reasons, it makes sense that they would put Service Desk Express on Force.com instead of Remedy, but we don't compete against Service Desk Express. We replace Remedy in the large enterprise."

BMC's news also comes prior to the release of Microsoft's , also expected to become available in spring 2010, analysts say. Microsoft has already made management technology available via . 

"BMC's timing is right. Microsoft Service Desk is coming out in April, and Microsoft is going to give their Service Desk licenses away – and Microsoft channel partners will react to that," Hubbert adds.

Separately, CA announced it also had partnered with Salesforce.com to delivery its CA Agile Planner technology on Force.com. The company, which offers management products via as well, said in a press release the partnership will speed development efforts for customers.