Some additional points we may want to consider:
1. BMC Remedy appears to be tracking to ITIL standards rather closely. If
ITIL is the objective, then the strategy should lean toward fully developed
applications with little room for customization (thus ensuring ITIL
compliance). If your organization is not moving towards ITIL, then BMC
Remedy's product strategy may indeed appear to be out of synch with your
operational requirements.
2. The long-term Remedy sales people (so few are left!) probably remember
the .com era, when every startup thought nothing of dropping $100K or more
to install a Remedy system. Unfortunately, when the .com bubble burst,
Remedy was left with hundreds of customers who could no longer pay their
annual support fees. That hurt Remedy financially, but it also reduced
Remedy's budget for future product enhancements. Could be Remedy learned a
painful lesson, and no longer wants small- and mid-sized customers to be its
primary customer base.
3. BMC Remedy may also be taking a lesson from IBM and their acquisition of
Lotus Notes. When Notes first rolled out (more a document repository and
collaboration tool, backed by an object database with a great search engine
-- messaging was almost an afterthought) it was a unique toolkit that
allowed creative developers to deploy dozens of applications. But Lotus
(and later IBM) never offered any pre-built ready-to-use applications, and
the Lotus Notes product began losing market share. While some may argue BMC
Remedy doesn't adequately promote the ARS toolkit, others may argue it would
be suicidal if BMC Remedy didn't aggressively market pre-built ready-to-use
applications.
4. Personally, I don't understand why BMC Remedy doesn't market (directly
or through a third-party partner) their products under a
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model. Seems like a win-win situation for BMC
Remedy and their customers -- the customer needs a little training and then
BAM! they are off and running, while BMC Remedy collects a nice monthly fee
for every user connection. This would also make it simple for BMC Remedy to
showcase new products. And imagine, never going through another upgrade!
Comments/questions/corrections/complaints/rants welcome, on or off the
ARSlist.
-- Bing
Bradford Bingel ("Bing")
ITM3 California
http://www.itm3.com/
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (email)
925-260-6394 (mobile)
_____
From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList)
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Susan Palmer
Sent: Wednesday, February 06, 2008 6:19 PM
To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG
Subject: Re: Company Dropping Remedy
**
We are in a similar place as Axton. Ours was a HD v5.0 application but I
now consider is custom since it has been customized about 85%. We have a
lot of very specific business enhancements in the system and to go to
another version would be a total new implementation. I have a current
backlog of 48 requests that I estimate could take more than a year to finish
and more get submitted near every week. They are very business specific and
are not included in ITSM so I'd have to do them no matter what my core
application was.
We're on 7.0.1 platform and will continue to upgrade the platform. Although
I still have nightmares about that 5.1.2 to 7.0.1 upgrade.
Susan
On Feb 6, 2008 6:20 PM, Axton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
The problem we have with upgrading is that we have so many of our
internal business procedures bound to the 5.6 applications and the
customizations that have been introduced over the lifetime of the
product. We've extended the applications exhaustively in certain
areas, and we can't simply disband those processes and the functions
on which different departments that have come to rely. To upgrade
change, asset, and help desk is too much for one bite. I'm afraid we
may be stuck with the 5.6 apps; the cost comparison, in terms of
business disruption and licensing, of writing our own apps and
disbanding the packaged apps is looking to be far less than performing
a cliff upgrade, with another cliff upgrade in sight. To perform
cliff upgrades (a.k.a., comparable to a replacement) disrupts our
mission in several key ways:
- we can no longer extend or adapt our apps to meet the business needs
(a freeze is in order to move customizations to the new version)
- the turnaround, considering the level of involvement from department
heads, process owners, data owners, data warehousing, reporting,
remedy development, integrations, ... is too long, and the end result
is a frustrated user pool because the apps don't do what they used to
do
One of the things I've been pondering is the competitive advantage
attained by having in-house applications. The business knows how to
make money and do things to the level they need to (in terms if IT).
To put a cookie-cutter application in place that drives cookie-cutter
processes dilutes the value of the business. It adds unnecessary
overhead (new processes we never needed and still don't), creates a
diversion from what's important (how we run our business, what we know
needs to be done), and generally is a waste of time and money and
source of frustration. To use the new version of the applications is
to completely abandon what makes ARS unique and successful.
My final thought on this is that it's time to find some brains to
develop a method by which the benefits of a purchased application and
the benefits of customization can be merged into a product line that
doesn't commit suicide every time a new release of the applications
comes to fruition.
Axton Grams
On Feb 6, 2008 5:34 PM, Steve Burke <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> ITSM 7 is just too darned complex for what you get out of it...".
>
> we have been running it now for nearly 8 months and still sorting out
> issues with incident, havent even touched the other modules thus the
> reason we are cutting our losses here. Sadly the local support in
> Australia is not through BMC but a partner and they do not even know
> the ITSM products well and focus on development
>
>
> On 2/7/08, Jason Miller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > ** I have been wondering about the custom market myself. The list has
> > largely turned into an ITSM7 list. The percentage of posting trying to
> > figure out how to do xyz in ITSM7 are through the roof. I am not
> > complaining, that is exactly what the list is for, but personally I have
> > lost interest in some of these postings and my eyes cross when I see
> > CTM:People and HITSM 7
>
> is just too darned complex for what you get out of it..."
> PD:IncidentInterface_Create and all of the hoops to gently
> > work with ITSM7.
> >
> > It appears that Remedy developers are a dying bread (not the first time
it
> > has been mentioned). From what I have seen (granted I do not do the
> > travelling consulting thing) there has been a such a huge push for ITSM7
and
> > many people have been sent to the ITSM classes to learn how to install
and
> > configure. I was working with a fellow how had been doing ITSM7
> > implementations and when I asked how did he handle customizing ITSM7 to
meet
> > the client's needs he basically said you try and do it through
configuration
> > and try to talk the customer out of customization.
> >
> > When purchasing a OOTB system it is hard to get anything other than
ITSM7
> > anymore. On multiple occasions I have specifically stated that I want
ITSM6
> > but end up receiving ITSM7 licenses and software. I then have to work
and
> > get pre ITSM7 licenses. There is the huge push for ITSM7 and the do not
> > customize trend, yet we are anticipating a shiny brand new development
tool
> > so I can't believe the end of custom development near.
> >
> > There are number of people who have been doing this for 10 plus years (I
am
> > not there yet) and they seem to be quieter than ever and whole lot of
new
> > names with ITSM7 questions. Don't get me wrong you are absolutely
welcome
> > here and it is the right place for these questions, I am just noting my
> > observations over the past few years and trying to figure out the
direction
> > things are going. Are we going to end up with a lack of experience
> > developers at some point? Will there be a need or much of a market for
> > developers. The beginning of this thread bothers me. While I have just
> > returned to stable, extremely custom and highly integrated shop and the
> > value of our development is recognized by management, I still get
concerned
> > when I see companies who have been using Remedy for a long time
switching
> > products. You never know when your company is going to jump on the
latest
> > cost saving trend.
> >
> > Jason
> >
> > On Feb 6, 2008 11:06 AM, Kaiser Norm E CIV USAF 96 CS/SCCE
> > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > >
> > > > I think there will be a greater demand for custom applications that
> > > employ the "KISS" rule.
> > >
> > > I don't know about that. While it certainly seems logical from where
I
> > > sit, I just don't see a lot of demand for custom Remedy apps anymore.
> > > Virtually every job I see posted nowadays is for ITSM. I think that
> > > might be a bit of wishful thinking...
> > >
> > > Don't get me wrong, though--I'm right in there with you wishing!
> > >
> > > I really thought I'd be hearing more people saying things like, "ITSM
7
> > > is just too darned complex for what you get out of it..."
> > >
> > > But evidently not. Maybe people are just reaping all sorts of
benefits
> > > from it...
> > >
> >
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