By Dick Stark

On April 29, BMC held a Remedy Version 9 webinar for its customers, quickly maxing out the 500 WebEx attendee limit, forcing those (like me) not able to login to settle for the pre-recorded version.  On April 30, Version 9 went G.A. and on May 19 BMC will host a Remedy 9 launch event, hopefully again with well more than 500 attendees ….

Hard to believe, but it’s been two and a half years since Remedy version 8 first debuted.Version 8 offered a totally revamped SRM and user interface with a best picture view and fewer fields on the screen. Chat and social media support were built-in. Now, much improved and built 100% on top of Java, Remedy 9 offers the most innovative ITSM solution available.  Here’s a few reasons why:

Persona based user experience. Smart IT version 1.1, also released April 29, is standard with Remedy 9. Smart IT now offers user focused personas for Service Desk, Change, and Knowledge.

Context and location aware. Remedy 9 knows who you are and where you are, and it will present information that’s relevant, whether you are a business user (MyIT) or IT user (Smart IT).

Smart Reporting.  Arguably, the best new feature, Smart Reporting, like reporting inSalesforce, enables users to build custom reports with ease. Even better, users can share, follow, and comment on graphs and charts to get the whole team engaged in making better decisions.

Mobile first. Remedy 9 offers the full experience on iOS, Android, and HTML5

A Change Request Wizard makes change simple. An on screen guide helps users be more productive by creating Change workflow faster.

A new archiving feature provides a way to remove obsolete records from the production database using a regular, controlled, and predictable process.

A new dev to production tool enables administrators to promote workflow customizations and data effectively and reliably across environments

New pricing. BMC announced last Thursday a new greatly simplified and revamped Remedy ITSM pricing model with much lower list prices.

Will our customers want to upgrade and what is the process?  According to an independent benchmark study, users with Smart IT were on average 79 seconds faster resolving calls.  This faster call resolution translates into a 75% increase in productivity.

Upgrading gets easier with each new release. Remedy 9 includes an interactive upgrade tool that guides users through the upgrade process.  Included is a new customization reconciliation tool that allows users to understand what has changed and easily make changes when conflicts arise.

Based upon our experience with one of our beta customers, Remedy 9 is a real winner.  They will go live as soon as Solaris is supported by BMC later this summer.