As we end 2011, a transitional year in the business service management/BMC space, what can we take from 2011 and apply towards 2012? Plenty!  Here are my top 10 current focus areas. 

10. Business Intelligence. Although both SDE and Remedy have separate business intelligence offerings—Crystal Reports and Analytics and Dashboards, it is rare that either is implemented properly to provide the expected benefits—continuous improvement.

9. Cloud Life Cycle Management is the hottest thing going now at BMC.  But does it play in the federal or mid-market space?  Right now, we are in the early stages of a private cloud/storefront opportunity for a large civilian agency.  Hopefully the first of many…

8. Datacenter Automation.  BMC Capacity Optimization teamed with nlyte seems to be an unbeatable combination, yet despite our focus, we only have two new customers.  Our pipeline looks good for a successful 2012.

7. Service Assurance/Automation.  BMC has moved way up the Magic Quadrant grid with its BPPM and ADDM offerings.  We made real progress in 2011, but what about 2012?

6. Consulting and Training.  I think there is untapped potential here, especially with three ITIL Service Experts at RightStar.

5. Service Catalogs/Storefronts.  This should be huge and is another major focus area at BMC. Who wouldn’t want to implement a service catalog providing actionable service offerings delivered quickly and efficiently to the organization?

4. Remedy 7.6 and SDE 11 Upgrades.  Many Remedy customers have upgraded to 7.6 but lots of customers still haven’t.  Likewise, opportunity remains for SDE customers to upgrade to version 10 or 11.

3. Asset Management/Barcode Scanning.  According to Forrester, there is a relatively low adoption rate of customers implementing an asset management/CMDB solution.  This should be a key focus area for RightStar in 2012.

2. SaaS Powered Service Desks, Remedy onDemand and Remedyforce are growing faster than plan.  At RightStar we’ve been involved in more than five Remedy onDemand jobs, and are currently balancing 15 Remedyforce jobs at the same time.

1. Customer Support/Remote Admin. Gary Vaynerchuk’s book/concept, The Thank You Economy is real and every one of us is doing business in it every day, whether we choose to recognize it or not.  At RightStar, our mantra is and will continue to be every customer a reference.  Indeed, valuing every single customer is mandatory now and for the foreseeable future.