We noted that BMC’s strategic
plans and tactics were both “aggressive and impressively ambitious”. And
commented that BMC must maintain extraordinary focus and impeccable execution to
successfully assist such client transformations. Finally, we said documentation
of successful results were necessary to confirm their differentiation and
expertise at this task.
At BMC Exchange
2019, we heard numerous clients describe their success as BMC pursued its plan.
With its solutions and services, BMC demonstrated their ability to support successful
enterprise digital transformations across multiple market segments. BMC
delivered across multiple areas, including management of hybrid cloud development,
design and implementation of process and operational change involving intelligent
automation, mainframe modernization, service management, implementing
transformation strategies, etc.
BMC had a strong history of delivering innovative solutions
and services. They had been less effective at getting the credit and revenue
associated with such leadership. With its new owners and C-level management
adjustments, BMC achieved its lofty ambitions while delivering impressive
results. The evidence appears in captured market share, increased customer
attention, replaced competitors, and rising revenues.
Exchange 2019 presentations, and informal follow-on chats
with clients gave us additional evidence of the effectiveness of BMC’s forward-looking
strategy; one that emphasizes close attention and response to client wants and needs.
In our discussions, clients mentioned both as much appreciated strengths. Let’s
look at what BMC plans to do going forward.
Digitization = Continuous, Pervasive, Disruptive Change
No one, least of all those involved in IT, but also those providing
or consuming IT products and services can be unaware of the disruptive changes
taking place at all enterprise levels and functions. As a direct result of
pervasive digitization of the enterprise that is driven by the rapid evolution
and implementation of powerful new technologies. No matter the business,
product or service, be it education, banking, research, medicine, chemistry,
services – operations, delivery, content, access and application – powerful new
capabilities are forcing rapid change.
Blockchain, pervasive automation, augmented/artificial
intelligence, machine learning, DevOps, optimization, predictive management, 5G
networking, IoT, cyberwarfare, the list goes on. All are becoming more
accessible, useful, and fundamental to enterprise competitiveness.
Some have been around for a long time, but with access
limited to specialists/experts. In a break with the past, technology is being
democratized. Non-technical staff are leveraging powerful technologies such as
AI, machine learning, automated intelligence, etc. to make technology even more
accessible and easier to apply. Business users are increasingly using sophisticated
modeling, analytics and visualization with data sets without involving experts.
Roles and responsibilities of IT are changing at every level
of development, operations and delivery. IT continues to become more intimately
and immediately involved in enterprise operations than ever. IT must respond
more broadly, quickly and reliably as existing infrastructure is replaced, and its
capabilities extended.
No single vendor will provide solutions and guidance in all
technologies and areas. The challenge for them is to identify where to place
their efforts to most effectively and best serve their customers as technology
and its application evolves. This requires identifying which technologies will
have lasting market utility and impact. It also involves understanding and
managing the shape of internal efforts and organization to best deliver solutions
and services that remain viable for the long-term. Finally, they must help
clients to prepare for and adapt to the radical change in relationships and
functioning of IT.
This then is the point of BMC’s “Run and Reinvent” strategy.
Let’s take a look at what BMC has planned.
Run and Reinvent Foundation
BMC itself continues its internal transformation as deals
with the rapid changes and evolution of diverse, new technologies and market
conditions. Transformation drives changes in
organizations, employee relations, as well as in department operations
related to development, production, marketing, sales and delivery of products
and services.
The pace of work has sped up,
while the cost of lagging transformation escalates due to inefficiencies, mistakes,
miscues, etc. BMC learns from its own transformation. It then applies the
resulting expertise to help clients identify opportunities for change
(consolidation, integration, extension, elimination) to optimize activities without
sacrificing quality or security. Figure 1 summarizes BMC’s solution set.
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AI, machine learning and analytics provide powerful
opportunities to gain predictive and actionable insight. Complex, widely
distributed networks of hybrid cloud service provide enviable service
flexibility and immediacy, as well making vast amounts of data accessible and
consumable.
However, so many opportunities to improve operations,
increase efficiencies, and avoid problems can be overwhelming. It can also add
new levels of risks to security, confidentiality, service disruption and
outages resulting from infrastructure failure, mistakes or sabotage.
BMC’s Helix-based solutions and services facilitates
infrastructure discovery, service creation and delivery, optimization of cost,
processes and workload management, monitor and remediate problems to assure
that users have the best experience possible.
BMC identified five areas of experience, expertise and
deliverables that provide them competitive advantage as they work with clients
to achieve long-lasting benefits. These are:
·
Transformation
Strategy – early-on BMC recognized that transformation requires detailed
strategy and planning. Products, processes, even the workplace must be reworked
to be radically user-driven and service oriented to achieve the rapid design
and delivery necessary to fulfill user/customer expectations and demands. BMC
shares their expertise to define, plan and implement the client’s transformation
strategy.
·
Cloud
& Datacenter Optimization – hybrid clouds are and will continue to be the
de facto model in enterprise infrastructure. BMC Helix solutions provide a
common platform of functionality that supports discovery, security, operations
management and optimization, vulnerability assessment, predictive analysis and
remediation for on-and off-premise server, network and cloud
infrastructure.
·
Cognitive
Service Management – Service delivery is undergoing radical change as customer
expectations and demands evolve and escalate. As new technologies emerge and
current ones evolve, BMC works with clients to identify and realize greater
benefits. BMC Helix leverages existing technologies, e.g. AI, ML, IoT,
chatbots, virtual agents, to speed operation, improve accuracy, and increase cost
savings in service creation and delivery. At the same time, BMC looks ahead to
identify and prepare for emerging technologies that will enable new benefits.
·
Automation
& Orchestration – BMC will help
transforming (as well as transforming) enterprises succeed by strengthening
their ability to rapidly move from creative ideation to innovative, competitive
differentiated product/service market reality. Close examination, evaluation
and evolution of existing processes and workflows reveals opportunities to
improve them with orchestration, integration, and automation.
·
Mainframe
Modernization – as enterprises run and invent their way thru digital
transformation, they find must deal with increased workloads, complex
workflows, and security requirements. The mainframe remains the platform of
choice to address these problems. No longer isolated, operating remote from
users and systems with dated, idiosyncratic software and tools. Today’s
mainframe is intimately connected and fully integrated with the on-site and
distributed hybrid data center environment. Connected and functioning across
all IT and business operations, infrastructure, management, development and
delivery. Open, automated, enhanced intelligence accessible via familiar, agile
solutions and tools, the mainframe will provide secure, reliable and powerful
platform to address these problems thru cost optimization and digital agility. The
self-managing mainframe is fully realized in BMC‘s AMI strategy and end-to-end products. Fully automated intelligence will help
assure that the mainframe’s valuable role continues.
These are the areas where BMC is focusing its efforts and
offering to customers today. But also, of interest are the actions BMC is
taking today to assure that it maintains a position as a forward thinking,
pacesetter for the digital enterprise. We recently had a discussion with BMC
CTO, Ram Chakravarti about the steps they are taking today to assure they can
once again be at the forefront of pacesetting innovation and technology
leadership.
Run and Reinvent moving forward
Mr. Chakravarti and his team are responsible for identifying
and planting the seeds of opportunity for future success. They study the future
to determine the decisions and challenges facing enterprises after the winners
of today’s emerging technologies have been settled.
He seeks answers to such questions as: After today’s
superstar technologies have been effectively implemented and applied in 2025
and beyond, what new challenges and uncertainties will fully digitized enterprise
clients face? Where does BMC have to focus their resources and efforts today to
address those challenges? What tools, solutions, services and expertise must
BMC have to assist these customers?
Mr. Chakravarti will unveil his plans in due time. However,
I can share a broad outline. His team focuses their efforts in three broad
areas. These are:
1. Be
the corporate center of ideation – identify unique opportunities in
technologies and innovative solutions that will define the future.
2. Be
the corporate enabler of product excellence – assure BMC has the technologies,
processes, and expertise to assure their solutions and products are the best
available.
3. Support
the creation of a world-class ecosystem of partners, alliances and
collaborators to assure comprehensive integrated product and service offerings
for the fully digital enterprise, heterogeneous, interconnected hybrid business-
and technology-driven.
The predictions are that by 2025, worldwide market
competition will by dominated by fully autonomous digitalized enterprises.
Intelligent IT will have penetrated and be fully, intelligently functioning across all enterprise tasks.
Managing, optimizing, monitoring, detecting and remediating problems will be controlled
with highly pragmatic, hyper-automated capabilities.
Technology will be fully democratized. Evolved versions of
today’s modeling, analytics and forecasting tools will routinely applied by
non-technical business and office staff. IT specialists and experts will focus
on the development and application of the newest technologies to address the
challenges and opportunities they provide.
What are the implications today? Mr. Chakravarti believes
that a foundational capability is the need for Actionability. This is
monitoring and observability to get actionable insight that directly lead to
problem avoidance through product redesign or process alteration. Based on, but
far beyond today’s interesting but relatively modest predictive analytics. AI,
extensive automation, and technologies such as quantum analysis will allow
leveraging of extended data sets to provide detailed and actionable
intelligence to development and operations teams.
It is the vision of AMI 2.0. Today’s actionability extended
forward and backward feeding into product and service development, enrichment, enhancement,
operations and management. It will provide detailed intelligence and insight to
support human action to avoid problems and improve performance. It will access
and leverage data collected from complementary partner activities. It will
extend to the very end of the delivery chain to monitor and report on user
experiences, collecting data that will be used to improve product security,
reliability, operation and functionality. There will be tighter and more
sophisticated integration with 3rd-party and partnership solutions
to gain maximum insight for optimization and problem avoidance.
In Conclusion
Successfully
becoming and competing as a digital enterprise is both challenging and
rewarding. There are significant pitfalls that will change and evolve over time,
preventing cookie-cutter solutions. BMC recognizes and builds its strategy and
products accordingly.
BMC
understands the challenges of becoming a digitalized enterprise. They have demonstrated
success and accumulated expertise with services and products to help clients in
transformation. BMC understands multiple partners are necessary to best meet
client needs. They are actively working to build a sustainable eco-system that
can adapt to the changing environment. Navigating the path through
transformation will require most enterprises work with a trusted, knowledgeable
partner. From what we’ve heard and seen, BMC is an excellent candidate to
fulfill that role.
