HOUSTON - August 30, 2005 - BMC Software®, Inc., [NYSE: BMC],a leading provider of enterprise management solutions, today announced the acquisition of KMXperts, a leader in knowledge management solutions for IT service and customer support centers. The acquisition builds upon the market share leadership position in service desk software held by BMC Software, and furthers the company's strategy to provide the most comprehensive service desk solution worldwide. The acquisition of KMXperts empowers BMC Software offerings with a full-featured knowledge management solution that dramatically improves efficiencies for both internal and external service desks. KMXperts product functionality will enable customers to quickly achieve their Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) and Business Service Management (BSM) goals with robust knowledge management integrated seamlessly within BMC Software service management solutions.
In a recent Gartner report titled Implementing Web Chat Improves IT Service Delivery, Kris Brittain, vice president and research director, notes, "Companies that seek to implement self-service solutions for technical support should be aware that it requires patience, time and attention to cultural inhibitors. To be effective, develop solutions on a mature, proven and well-defined problem and knowledge management solution." ¹
KMXperts, a privately held company headquartered in American Fork, Utah, has approximately 50 customers with a strong channel sales focus. KMXperts solutions reduce the time necessary to resolve incidents and answer customer questions by providing service desk personnel with quick access to the collective knowledge of the IT service organization. In addition, KMXperts decreases the number of issues that must be handled by service desk staff via its Web-based self-service options, allowing employees or customers to find solutions 24 hours a day, seven days a week using natural language search. KMXperts will enable BMC Software customers to quickly improve staff efficiency, customer service and satisfaction, and business service quality through reduced incident and call volume, faster time to resolution, higher first call resolution, and shorter incident duration
"The enterprise service desk is rapidly evolving from a help desk function to a more strategic, central coordination point between the business and IT," said Jim Grant, vice president and general manager of the Service Management Business Unit at BMC Software. "This is generating increased demand for more holistic, automated service desk software solutions which BMC has already been addressing through stronger infrastructure event correlation, service impact prioritization, and BMC Atrium CMDB integration. Providing world-class knowledge management to reduce incident volume and improve service levels is the latest way BMC will help our customers increase the strategic business value of their service desks."
As a result of this acquisition, BMC Software offers powerful knowledge management solutions that plug in as part of an internal help desk or external service desk, utilizing the same user interface and platform, eliminating significant time and expense of additional training. KMXperts has had a close relationship with the BMC-owned Remedy® product line since 1998 and has been a BMC Software partner since 2003. Out-of-the-box integrations for BMC Remedy Help Desk and BMC Magic Service Desk Suite are available today.
The new solutions can also be quickly integrated with all BMC Remedy Action Request System®-based applications including custom applications, BMC Remedy for IT Service Providers, BMC Customer Service and Support, and BMC Remedy Citizen Response.
BMC now offers four products based on the KMXperts knowledge platform:
- BMC Remedy Knowledge Management, BMC Magic Knowledge Management (formerly KMR & KMM Professional) provides support personnel with quick natural language search through the latest approved knowledge. New knowledge solutions can be easily authored from incidents, passed through an approval process, and published for use - all within the service desk user interface.
- BMC Remedy Knowledge Management Self Service, BMC Magic Knowledge Management Self Service (formerly KMR & KMM Web Self Service) reduces ticket and call volume while improving customer service by giving end users the power to help themselves - with 24x7 Web-based natural language search through an approved knowledge base. If customers cannot find immediate solutions, their incident submission can include a history of viewed solutions so the service desk technician starts with knowledge of what has already been tried.
