Alternatives to Active Polling for SNMP

What are the best criteria to evaluate a network management tool that will mainly encompass an IP and Windows NT protocol based network? SNMP is viable, and many tools take advantage of it’s wide acceptance, however active polling is an issue for mynetwork. The bandwidth and CPU utilization is far too high and has bad scability factors. Are there reasonable alternatives to network management with active SNMP, perhaps relying solely on passive traps or something? Are there products that fulfillthis well?
I am aware there are no “right” answers, but the marketplace seems very narrow.