BMC Software Introduces Service Assurance Center.

HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 19, 1999--

Service Assurance Center Fundamentally Shifts IT Focus

from Managing Technology Components to Managing Application

Services from the End-User's Perspective

BMC Software Inc. (Nasdaq:BMCS), the leader in delivering Application Service Assurance (ASA) solutions that improve the availability, performance and recoverability of business-critical applications, today introduced the Service Assurance Center (SA Center) at the BMC Software Business Partner Executive Conference in Lake Tahoe, Nev. The SA Center is a comprehensive implementation of ASA that consists of equal parts methodology, software and professional services which optimizes true service delivery to the end-user. The SA Center product streamlines overall business operations by enabling IT organizations to know exactly how its customers are using its application services, how these services are performing and whether they are available at any given moment around the world.

By delivering the SA Center via proven best-of-breed software products, management methodologies and professional services, BMC Software's customers experience:

-- improved application availability and performance to the end-user; -- an IT organization aligned with the business goals; and -- a rapid return on investment.

"Duration of business interruptions have been reduced and more importantly eliminated as we detect potential disruptions prior to an actual loss of service," stated Scott Mott, Open Systems Infrastructure analyst at Texas Instruments. "The SA Center solution promoted customer focus by integrating our IT functional teams and all business service technology. We know immediately when our customer's productivity is in jeopardy and where the problem lies."

BMC Software has completed successful implementations at Texas Instruments and GE Power Systems and projects are currently underway at HBOC as well as other Fortune 500 sites. SA Center allows the enterprise to look at application performance and availability across all of the technology components required to deliver the application service (e.g. server, database, network, internal application components, etc.).

The SA Center continuously monitors application services from the initiating point (workstation) through the network and each component of the application service. Using this approach, BMC Software works with IT organizations to configure the SA Center to automatically discover problems, pinpoint the cause and recover before the customer experiences any delay in service.

Paradigm Shift from Infrastructure Management to Service Management

IT organizations are managing increasingly complex, highly distributed and heterogeneous business applications by focusing on the technology components rather than managing the application services from the end-users' perspective.

This infrastructure management focus has led to dissatisfied end-users, a slow response to problem resolution because of the time it takes for problems to bounce from one technology group to the next, and an IT department that is trapped in a highly reactive mode.

"We think BMC Software's Service Assurance Center is a very innovative approach to management," said Wayne Simmons, director of technology for Enterprise Systems Management at Ernst & Young. "I think it is the missing link that looks at management from the customer/client perspective as opposed to a technology perspective. It is the key to making enterprise management viable."

Today, IT is critical to business success in highly competitive markets. To win, IT organizations must embrace a shift towards service management that incorporates the people, the management processes and IT organizational changes required to deliver optimal service to the business. This necessitates the ability to manage application services from the end-users' perspective.

Tried and True Approach

First developed for and used by BMC Software's own IT management, the Service Assurance Center maintains service levels by constantly monitoring efficiency in the enterprise from the end-user and business perspectives. At the core of the SA Center is BMC Software's industry-leading PATROL Application Management suite of products that oversees and reports on the performance and availability of enterprise applications. This information is available in the SA Center, where IT managers are now able to troubleshoot any problems early on, before they pose a threat to the health of the enterprise. Accessibility to this kind of information enables managers to shift from a reactive mode to allow for a more proactive, team-oriented approach within the IT organization.

By using the Service Assurance Center, BMC Software and early adopter customers were able to:

-- align business and IT initiatives and goals -- prevent expensive business interruptions -- achieve rapid ROI  -- improve end-user productivity -- shift to proactive vs. reactive management -- decrease help desk calls -- improve teamwork and communication -- use IT as a competitive advantage

BMC Software realized the benefits of the SA Center could be reproduced within other corporations, and thus the SA Center is now offered to customers.

"We're excited about the Service Assurance Center because it is another demonstration of the company's progressive innovation and vision to deliver true business productivity and value to organizations in today's dynamic world markets," said Wayne Morris, vice president of corporate marketing, BMC Software. "We believe Service Assurance Center will become the strategic cornerstone for companies seeking to gain, maintain or enhance their competitive advantage."

SA Center Technology -- Open, Flexible and Customizable

The foundation of SA Center implementations is built upon the company's PATROL Application Management suite of products. PATROL products coupled with SA Center templates give IT organizations flexible options to customize their environments to quickly adapt, incorporate and populate any changes to support the service and user oriented management perspectives. Because of the SA Center product's open architecture, additional management tools can be integrated easily into existing service management environments, thereby protecting current technology investments.

SA Center Methodology and Architecture - Complete Application Services

The SA Center methodology provides improvement that enables IT organizations to drive defects from the company's business by capturing knowledge and self-healing processes into SA Center technology. The methodology enables customers to develop service level agreements (SLA) for complete application services rather than independent technology components. Organizations use the SA Center to monitor, manage and exceed these SLAs. Using Web-based communication tools, the SA Center enables IT organizations to communicate to its customers the real-time status of any application service anywhere in the world.

The ability to pinpoint and recover from these problems is the result of carefully defined problem discovery and recovery dialogues. These dialogues are developed and extended by experts from each of the technology groups within IT working together as one service assurance team. In the event of service disruptions, both planned and unplanned, IT can communicate with the impacted user group immediately.

By discovering problems and recovering from them automatically, the company has simplified requirements to achieve an environment's maximum level of availability.

SA Center Implementation -- Collaborative Effort

BMC Software Professional Services and Certified Partners utilize an iterative implementation approach where applications can be instrumented and added to the SA Center one at a time or in phased groups to achieved the fastest return on investment. BMC Software Professional Services and Certified Partners can deliver a turnkey solution for all critical business applications or they can work with IT staff to make an organization self-sufficient as quickly as possible. To support these implementations, BMC Software is developing a strategic SA Center partner team with a highly select set of industry-leading systems integrators. These systems integrators will work with BMC Software to deliver the SA Center.

About BMC Software

BMC Software Inc. is the industry leader in delivering ASA solutions -- enterprise-level software and support that improves the availability, performance and recovery of critical applications and data in complex computing environments. BMC Software is the world's 12th largest independent software vendor and an S&P 500 company, with revenues exceeding $730 million in fiscal 1998. The company is headquartered in Houston, Texas, with offices worldwide. For more information, please call 800/841-2031 or 713/918-8800 or visit BMC Software on the Web at www.bmc.com.

BMC Software Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer. BMC Software, the BMC Software logos , Application Service Assurance, ASA, Service Assurance Center, SA Center, and PATROL are registered trademarks or trademarks of BMC Software Inc. in the USA and in other select countries. (R) and (TM) indicate USA registration or USA trademark. Other logos and product/trade names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.