“Change is inevitable—except from a vending machine.

            –Robert C. Gallagher

By Dick Stark

During our Automation webinar on Wednesday, I described how IT organizations must simplify, standardize, and automate in order to reduce overall costs.  Indeed, at the BMC Forum at the National Press Club, the following day, John Richey, BMC Deputy CIO, delivered the same message. BMC utilizes its own software and tracks very carefully the hard dollar savings as applied to server automation.  The result after automation: 8% cost reduction which equals 21 people! That ‘s significant! What are some other ideas? And how else can similar savings be accomplished?

Simplify. In a world, where employees bring their own smart phones and tablets to work, IT is quickly becoming more complex and difficult to manage. One BMC software tool for simplifying service management is MyIT , a new BMC application for smartphones and tablets. There is no phone number to call, no self-service portal to log into, just an app that’s easy to install on your iPhone, Android, or Tablet.  MyIT empowers your end-users to ensure they always have access to the right technology and support services, no matter where they are:

• They get easy access to knowledge and can receive important information and updates from IT.
• They can schedule an appointment with an expert, and raise new service requests with just a couple of taps.
• And because MyIT knows who and where they are, it can help provide faster, more personalized assistance.

Standardize. For service management, the ITIL framework offers organizations the opportunity to standardize IT processes with the end result being improved efficiency and lower overall costs. John Richey pointed out that having all IT employees certified on the ITIL v3 standard has done more than anything else to advance the acceptance of ITIL processes especially around Incident, Problem, Change, and Configuration Management.  In fact, BMC has established a Service Management Office (SMO), and like a Project Management Office, has really promoted the cause of services management as it relates to organizational change readiness and reporting.

Automate. Virtualization is still hot because of its very rapid ROI. BMC’s BladeLogic Server Automation (BBSA), is the tool that BMC utilized to receive a 21 person reduction. (In actually, BMC did not reduce staff; they were reassigned and focused on new ideas and innovation.) BBSA, by automating processes like patching, configuring, updating, and reporting on servers, enables consistency, compliance, and complete insight into server farms and data centers.

Does all this make a difference?  At BMC, the answer is a resounding yes, and data exists to justify this.  For example, in the four years since automation, BMC has reduced its Break/Fix workload from 70% to 55%. That’s also very impressive and a very positive improvement to the bottom line.