BMC Software Advances Service Support Leadership
for Mid-Sized Businesses
Magic Service Desk Suite Version 8.0 Delivers Key
Capabilities to Address Today’s IT Service Desk and IT
Support Challenges
SUNNYVALE, Calif., November 15, 2004 – BMC
Software (NYSE: BMC - News) today announced the
availability of the Magic Service Desk Suite, version
8.0 (Magic 8.0). Largely based on customer input, Magic
8.0, a Remedy® IT Service Management
solution, expands the breadth of the product while
simplifying the user experience. Magic 8.0 includes more
than 45 new features and functionality updates designed
to address two key issues facing IT organizations of
mid-sized businesses: to align IT operations with
overall business objectives, and to lower the cost of
support operations.
The Magic Service Desk Suite provides the tools to
run a highly efficient and cost-effective support
operation, even in the most complex IT environments.
This customizable, browser-based service management
solution combines best-in-class help desk software with
core Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL®)
best practices, the industry-standard framework for IT
service delivery and support. Magic 8.0 enables
mid-sized businesses to:
·
Align
IT operations with business objectives through a
significantly upgraded reporting system that includes
more than 20 new key management metrics to prove
business value, while QuickViews provides business and
system users with instant access to important service
support data; and
·
Lower
the cost of support operations by adding usability
features such as Active Directory integration and an
updated search capability allowing Magic users to
quickly locate and pinpoint information, reducing
overall problem resolution time.
“The IT department, like other departments within an
organization, must prove its business value,” said Cliff
Parker, systems engineer for Landata Systems, Inc., a
wholly-owned subsidiary of Stewart Information Services
Corp. “The simple efficiency of the Magic Service Desk
Suite has allowed us to manage our IT resources with
effectiveness that rivals less user-friendly systems.
The new features of Magic 8.0 will make it even easier
for us meet our service levels, increase user
productivity levels, further decrease our support costs,
and increase customer satisfaction.”
“Magic Service Desk 8.0 underscores BMC Software’s
commitment to delivering products designed specifically
for mid-sized business. It builds on what we have heard
from our customers and our understanding of their
needs,” said Mitchell Myers, BMC Software’s director of
product management for Magic. “These companies care
about ease of use, ease of implementation, enhanced
security, increased ability to meet service levels, and
keeping the cost of support low. We have provided these
capabilities by enhancing usability, allowing for more
extensive reporting, and eliminating many of the manual
processes from a technician’s perspective.”
According to a recent Gartner report, CIOs place high
priority on finding ways to deliver high quality IT
service and support while maintaining the line on cost.
Kris Brittain, vice president and research director at
Gartner elaborates by stating that, "A major challenge
for IT organizations is how to evolve antiquated service
and support process models, and the underpinning
consolidated IT service desk (CSD) tools, to support the
development of a greater services management
architecture within IT."
Magic 8.0 Enables IT Support to Meet Business
Objectives
Magic 8.0 has added two new components that enable
mid-sized businesses to gain better visibility to the
performance of their operation against key business
objectives. QuickViews puts key tactical information at
the fingertips of business leaders and system users,
allowing instant access to important data that is key to
the business. QuickViews provides wizard-based
capabilities for customizing the queries that deliver
this information, easily taking the user through the
entire process. Magic 8.0 also contains significant
enhancements to reporting capabilities, including more
than 20 new reports that focus on business value
metrics, trend analysis and management summary reports
with charting and graphing capabilities. These reports
provide new visibility into IT operations, allowing
management to make quicker, better-informed decisions
pertinent to the advancement of the organization as a
whole.
Magic 8.0 Increases Security and Lowers the Cost
of Support Operations
Magic 8.0 includes Microsoft Active Directory
integration, which allows for the employee database in
Magic to be automatically populated and updated from an
organization’s Active Directory System. This capability
removes a significant manual effort required in other
service desk systems and provides enhanced security for
Windows Integrated Authentication. It simplifies the
login process and allows users to log in to the Magic
application without requiring additional log in ID’s or
passwords. Magic 8.0 also includes enhanced searching
technology, new infrastructure enhancements, and a new
modernized user interface. This interface enhances the
Magic user experience by providing a more intuitive and
configurable set of user interface components and
updates to improve workflow. Other enhancements include
new simplified utilities for installation and
configuration, which reduce the effort required to
install and administer the system, and increase system
stability and scalability.
About BMC Software’s Remedy Solutions
Remedy Service Management software solutions enable
organizations to align internal and external service and
support processes to business goals. More than 10,000
customers worldwide, from small and mid-sized businesses
to global enterprises, have chosen Remedy IT Service
Management and Customer Service and Support software to
automate their support processes, improve service
levels, manage assets, and lower costs. The highly
flexible, best-practice applications enable
enterprise-wide Business Service Management, and allow
customers to easily adapt to unique and changing
requirements.
BMC Software customers using Remedy solutions include
80 percent of Fortune 100 companies and 50 percent of
Global Fortune 500 companies. Customers worldwide have
employed solutions developed throughout the 14 years of
Remedy product evolution. Locate additional information
at
www.remedy.com.
About BMC Software
BMC Software, Inc. (NYSE:BMC) is a leading provider of
enterprise management solutions that empower companies
to manage their IT infrastructure from a business
perspective. Delivering Business Service Management, BMC
Software solutions span enterprise systems,
applications, databases and service management. Founded
in 1980, BMC Software has offices worldwide and fiscal
2004 revenues of more than $1.4 billion. For more
information about BMC Software, visit
www.bmc.com.
About Stewart
Stewart Information Services Corp. (NYSE: STC) is a
technology driven, strategically competitive, real
estate information and transaction management company.
Stewart provides title insurance and related information
services through more than 7,800 issuing locations in
the United States and several international markets.
Stewart meets the needs of the real estate and mortgage
industries through the delivery of information services
required for settlement using e-commerce. These services
include title reports, flood determinations, document
preparation, property reports and background checks.
Stewart also supplies post-closing services to lenders,
automated county clerk land records, property ownership
mapping and GIS for governmental entities. Stewart
provides expertise in tax-deferred exchanges. More
information about Stewart can be found at
www.stewart.com.
BMC Software, the BMC Software logos, and all
other BMC Software product or service names are
registered trademarks or trademarks of BMC Software,
Inc. All other trademarks or registered trademarks
belong to their respective companies. © 2004, BMC
Software, Inc. All rights reserves.