By Dick Stark
RightStar’s mission is to be our client’s expert advisor in the Business Service Management (BSM) space. Additionally, it’s to return value back to our clients in terms of the investment they make in BSM products and services. How do we do this and what is the best way to make this happen?
When I hosted a webinar with Northwestern University a few weeks back, their IT Director informed me that the ROI that he received after purchasing BMC End-User Experience Management (EUEM) was the highest of any product they have ever purchased. I asked for specific numbers, but he didn’t have any. He just knew based upon his years of experience, that EUEM was a real winner. Northwestern is like many other organizations that may analyze ROI’s as part of the procurement process, but then do not follow up after the purchase is made to determine the real ROI
Because IT budgets are so tight, it is often only those projects with a well-documented ROI and hard dollar savings that get approved. Here is my list of potential budget saving BSM projects:
- Virtualization Management. We recently rolled out BMC’s BladeLogic Server Automation (BBSA) at the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The reason for this investmet was to automate server compliancy reporting and management that currently requires several full time systems analysts.
- Asset Management. At our Lockheed/844th project we have improved asset management effectiveness from 60 to 85%. By comparing the IT assets required with what is actually on-hand, the Air Force was able to identify surplus software and hardware and realized significant cost savings.
- SaaS based service desk. In addition to the saving from any process improvement, SaaS based service desks, like Remedyforce offer an immediate savings as illustrated below:
| Old Way | Year 1 Cost | New Way | Year 1 Cost |
| Buy 1 Server w/ Software | $10,000 | Software as a Service | $0 |
| Admin /Operating Personnel (50%) | $40,000 | Admin/Operating Personnel (25%) | $20,000 |
| BMC SDE 10 Users | $30,000 | BMC Remedyforce 10 Users | $10,500 |
| SQL License | $2,000 | ||
| SDE Implementation | $20,000 | Remedyforce Implementation | $8,000 |
| Total Cost | $102,000 | Total Cost | $38,500 |
The comparison is between the first year cost of a new SDE or FootPrints on-Premise system versus Remedyforce. Of course, the on-premise cost will go down in subsequent years, but the initial savings is significant. Even the cost of upgrading SDE to Remedyforce is approximately equivalent to the annual maintenance charges:
| Existing SDE Account | Year 1 Cost | New Way | Year 1 Cost |
| Admin /Operating Personnel (40%) | $32,000 | Admin/Operating Personnel (25%) | $20,000 |
| BMC SDE Annual Maintenance | $5,250 | BMC Remedyforce 10 Users | $10,500 |
| Server Depreciation, Maintenance | $2,000 | Remedyforce Implementation | $8,000 |
| Total Cost | $39,250 | Total Cost | $38,500 |
The savings are even more significant when considering the reduction in annual admin support and upgrade costs.
Nearly every BMC product offers a significant ROI, but four in particular offer very rapid returns: EUEM, Virtualization Management, Asset Management, and Remedyforce. Of the four, the hard dollar savings from a new or upgraded Remedyforce installation are substantial.
Dick Stark's Blog 