BMC Software Delivers on Strategic SMB Roadmap

Houston – (March 28, 2006) – BMC Software, Inc. [NYSE: BMC] today announced the availability of comprehensive, integrated systems management solutions built specifically for the small to medium business (SMB) market. These products comprise a cohesive solutions strategy and roadmap designed to meet the needs of the SMB segment.

Small and midsized businesses face all the same IT challenges as their enterprise counterparts, including resource constraints, the lack of automation of key IT and business processes, difficulty in managing change, and the lack of security, visibility and integration. Yet managing these issues inside a small- or mid-market business is often made even more difficult by the tight budgets, thin margins and widely varying levels of IT maturity that these customers experience during their route to growth and profitability.

In the face of these challenges, there is a large demand for a systems management offering that delivers clear, measurable benefits to the business while also reflecting the relative maturity of a customer’s IT organization and the unique budgetary and operational strictures found in small and mid-sized companies.

BMC IT Systems Management Express, BMC Service Desk Express (formerly Magic Service Desk) version 9.0 and BMC Service Desk Express Small Business Edition deliver on BMC’s strategic vision to introduce small and midsized businesses to varying levels of systems management, relative to the current and anticipated future needs of an organization.

With the release of BMC Service Desk Express and BMC Service Desk Small Business Edition, BMC continues to expand upon its industry leading service desk solutions to meet the needs of small and midsized organizations, enabling them to align IT operations with business objectives, improve processes, and deliver demonstrable IT value.

BMC IT Systems Management Express delivers the benefits of industry leading BMC enterprise solutions in a package that creates and supports a pliable infrastructure that drives business services unique to the midmarket, while heralding a comprehensive BMC solutions roadmap for the entire small and midmarket business segment.

These benefits include:

Significant Enhancement of Existing Systems, Availability and Performance
In order to enhance an organization’s existing systems, availability and performance, BMC IT Systems Management Express utilizes BMC Performance Manager Express to remotely monitor servers, applications, storage and network devices, and Web transactions, with no software residing on the component being monitored. The ability to monitor both the infrastructure and transactions enables a customer’s IT department to quickly determine how infrastructure problems affect the end-user experience, while offering greater efficiency and increased business value.

Massive Reduction in the Complexity of End-to-End Identity Management
To assist mid-market companies with cutting identity management costs, BMC IT Systems Management Express deploys the capabilities of BMC Identity Management for .NET to reduce the complexities of securely managing disparate users and resources inside and outside the company for end-to-end identity management. BMC IT Systems Management Express unifies the administration of internal and external identities and security policies, controls access to protected resources, and provides automated workflow and provisioning. The end-result is dramatically increased operational efficiency with quicker access to key applications.

Driving Down IT Costs with Integrated Service, Change and Asset Management
The combination of BMC Service Desk Express and BMC IT Systems Management Express enables customers to plan system changes in a holistic and scheduled way while mitigating risk and potential system downtime. Asset and inventory management also is simplified in order to optimize cash and budget management.  In addition, reporting analysis prevents future incidents and problems. The resulting automation of service, change and asset processes increases overall operational efficiency to the point where the total cost of a customer’s IT operation is significantly reduced over time.

BMC IT Systems Management Express, an integrated suite of solutions, drives down the total cost of IT while guiding business services with robust service, change and asset management, improved security through identity control, and enhanced application monitoring. Since BMC IT Systems Management Express is based on the IT maturity of an organization, it addresses the processes the organization has in place, the complexity of the IT environment, and the goals and objectives of both IT and the business. In doing so, BMC shifts IT’s focus from reactive to proactive processes.

“BMC has worked within the SMB market for several years, developing solutions that reflect the special needs of these organizations,” said Robert Spee, senior manager of SMB solutions at BMC Software. “The BMC IT Systems Management Express solution was developed in response to our midmarket customers’ demand for greater control over security, improved optimization of their IT infrastructure, and a better way for IT to provide value to the business. This announcement today is also the precursor to future solutions for SMB service management needs.”

Enhance IT performance and service for small and midsized businesses
Built on the same familiar, flexible browser-based Magic Service Desk platform, BMC Service Desk Express has new features and enhancements such as expanded ITIL® compliance with the addition of Service Level Management, providing simpler installation procedures, Oracle specific updates, automatic problem identification, preventative maintenance scheduling, and more, to enable organizations to improve their cost of IT support. Also included is a simple and automatic upgrade from previous versions of Magic Service Desk.

BMC customer Susquehanna Media Corp. is a diversified communications company with significant operations in radio broadcasting and cable television, and is the largest privately owned radio broadcaster in the country and a top 20 Cable MSO. Delivering consistent growth since 1995, the company continues to invest in its IT solutions. “Magic Service Desk has worked very well for us over the years, as it’s scaled to meet the growing needs of our organization,” said Steven Johnson, systems engineer at Susquehanna Media Corp. “The new features of BMC Service Desk Express will make it possible for us to continue to evolve our IT environment, and move toward a complete systems management solution.”

The new features and enhancements focus on streamlining the interface, automatically enforcing processes, and consolidating information to make IT Staff and processes more efficient. In addition, BMC Service Desk Express offers new and improved reports, maximizing access to valuable data and information customers need to improve service, manage costs, and ensure proper alignment with business needs.

BMC Service Desk Express Small Business Edition enables small organizations to automate their support processes and improve the level of IT services and support they deliver to the business. Built using the foundation of BMC Service Desk Express, this small business edition provides a seamless upgrade path to Service Desk Express so the solution can grow as small businesses grow, while ensuring that all of the data and processes are kept in tact. Also included is a no-full upgrade for BMC customers upgrading from the discontinued Magic HelpDeskIQ.

BMC IT Systems Management Express, BMC Service Desk Express Suite, and BMC Service Desk Express Small Business Edition and available immediately.

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 2005 revenues of more than $1.46 billion. For more information about BMC Software, visit www.bmc.com.

© 2006 BMC Software, Inc. The BMC Software logos and all other BMC Software product or service names are registered trademarks or trademarks of BMC Software, Inc.