Enhancing the BMC Helix Observability and AIOps solution with application and network management capabilities

It is my pleasure to welcome Netreo team to BMC. Today, BMC officially announced our intent to acquire Netreo. Netreo is a software company that helps organizations deliver digital experiences through real-time visibility into performance and availability of applications deployed in the cloud, on-premises, and within hybrid networks and infrastructure. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2024, subject to customary closing conditions.

Full-stack open Observability and AIOps on the BMC Helix platform

The acquisition marks a strategic leap forward for BMC as Netreo products will accelerate our OpenTelemetry-based observability capabilities and enhance the full-stack, open BMC Helix Observability and AIOps solutions with Network Performance Monitoring and Diagnostics and application performance management capabilities. The combined power of the BMC Helix platform and Netreo solutions provides IT Operations, DevOps practitioners, developers, and network teams with comprehensive insights spanning applications, infrastructure, and networks, helping them increase the overall reliability and performance.

Netreo’s strong presence within developer and DevOps teams, coupled with standards-based OpenTelemetry tracing (including logs and metrics), positions BMC to effectively lead the observability segment, facilitating deeper visibility into modern microservices-based applications. In addition, Netreo’s approach to network performance and diagnostics is noteworthy, extending beyond conventional methods such as SNMP, NetFlow, and sFlow to incorporate API-based insights from network elements alongside SD-WAN monitoring. As a result, networking teams can deliver new network services, increase customer satisfaction, and maximize overall network performance.

Expanded Observability and AIOps add even more value to BMC ServiceOps, which includes industry-leading service management capabilities. It enables teams to predict incidents and disruptions from changes and continuous releases, helping customers reduce risk while accelerating innovation.

We are excited to offer our customers full-stack, open observability and AIOps to increase reliability and performance of their entire IT environments.  Building on top of our ServiceOps, innovative AI and ML technologies such as the BMC HelixGPT solution, BMC is uniquely positioned to help enterprises transform the way they deliver critical services, helping them prevent incidents, and accelerating their journey to becoming an Autonomous Digital Enterprise.

Jasmin Young, CEO of Netreo, is looking forward to joining forces with me at BMC. We share excitement about seeing Netreo’s observability vision come to fruition within the BMC family as both organizations have bold plans for observability, AIOps and applying machine learning across the portfolio.

With this acquisition, at BMC, we continue to accelerate our focus on investing in strategic innovation and technologies that drive IT and digital transformation, furthering the adoption of machine learning and observability across the enterprise.

Netreo offers both on-premises and SaaS solutions. To learn more about Netreo, follow www.netreo.com, and to learn about the BMC Helix Observability and AIOps solution, follow www.bmc.com/it-solutions/bmc-helix.html.

As the first vendor to embed generative AI, and specifically, BMC HelixGPT across the entire service and operations management portfolio, BMC continues to make significant advances with the technology to remove friction and augment human intelligence. In this blog post, learn how the BMC Helix Service Management 23.3 release is delivering conversational virtual agent experiences with BMC HelixGPT; enabling more personalized workplace portals; reducing HR complexities; and improving security response handling.

Save time training chatbots

The use of generative AI to power chatbots is going to play an even bigger role in the workplace, driving higher levels of employee self-service and automation. BMC HelixGPT provides prompts and guardrails to significantly reduce the time spent on training large language models (LLMs). BMC Helix Virtual Agent, powered by BMC HelixGPT, ingests company owned PDFs, Confluence and SharePoint files, and knowledge articles to give BMC Helix Virtual Agents the best source of company information. Live chat is a powerful way for an agent to engage with the end user in real time to resolve an issue quickly. BMC HelixGPT automatically generates a high-quality summary of the live chat once the issue has been addressed, saving the agent time and accelerating productivity.

Redefine workplace portals

Every time an employee engages with a workplace portal or process, it’s an opportunity to reinforce the company’s culture, values, and priorities. BMC Helix Digital Workplace can be easily customized without complex coding. Within this release, it is now easier than ever to fine-tune the workplace portal so different employee types only see the content that is most relevant to them. This saves the employee time, improves self-service, and reduces delays from rerouting tickets to the right teams.

Reduce HR onboarding and offboarding complexities

A smooth and positive experience for onboarding and offboarding makes employees feel welcomed, motivated, and valued from the time they start to the time they leave. The BMC Helix Service Management 23.3 release provides an out-of-the-box solution to automate onboarding and offboarding processes from pre-boarding to everyday employment to offboarding and alumni status. The solution includes a detailed manager view and out-of-the-box dashboards to improve reporting activities. HR teams now can filter by country and location, assess new hire statistics, and have a drill-down view per employee with data on their tasks and statuses.

Respond to security events quickly

BMC Helix Security Incident Handling is a ready-to-use solution within the BMC Helix Service Management 23.3 release that tightly aligns with industry and government standards based on NIST 800-61 and ISO 27001. Security events are automatically created through integration with security information and event management (SIEM) tools so that each phase of the incident management lifecycle—identification, investigation, response, and remediation—is methodically addressed. Preconfigured runbooks address common security scenarios and help standardize the activities in each phase. The solution shortens the duration of breaches to minimize associated impacts, reduces manual tracking activities, and provides a way to formally track lessons learned. It enables teams to share critical information around prevention, corrective actions and associated policies and controls.

Start your journey today

Learn more about the exciting developments in the BMC Helix Service Management 23.3 release by watching the latest webinar. Speak to your account manager to start your journey today.

During the month of March, we celebrate International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month. “Inspire inclusion” is the International Women’s Day theme for 2024, and in honor of that, we surveyed members of the BMC Women in Technology and Business (WiT&B) employee resource group (ERG) about inclusion and mentorship. Establishing ERGs is a powerful way to foster open discussions and promote inclusion by creating safe spaces for employees to have open, authentic conversations, and the WiT&B ERG has had a significant impact on its members.

For Brianna Steensen, who manages the BMC Champion Academy sales training organization, it’s been integral to building a stronger and broader network. “I’ve made great connections with female leaders and have been able to tap their time and expertise for my program,” she shares. She also appreciates the support that comes with that, specifically, “seeing female leaders like myself being supported and promoted by others in the organization. Recognition for hard work goes a long way, even if it’s on a call or in an email.”

Gina Fevrier, a senior program manager in the Beta program at BMC, highlights communication as key ingredient of inclusion. “Inclusion, for me, means being listened to and being asked for my input during meetings. It’s about being invited to meetings, including lunch and extracurricular activities, and not feeling left out due to my gender,” she explains. “It’s being given opportunities to lead and participate in special projects. It’s being asked for my feedback on team, organizational, and corporate initiatives.”

Fevrier also appreciates the inclusion that the WiT&B ERG affords her as a remote worker. “I’ve liked our live webinars with internal and external speakers, like Carla Harris, who talk about their real-life experiences in their careers,” she says.

“I loved our book club, where a smaller group of us met on a monthly basis to talk about the books’ themes and how they relate to our lives. These smaller, non-recorded groups are really helpful to people like me who work from home and miss out on the “water cooler” and lunch conversations in the office. I like being kept up to date on women’s work issues and opportunities.”

Deepak Chopra, a senior manager of product development at BMC, says the ERG has helped broaden his understanding and awareness about issues related to inclusion, and where he can help foster discussions. “Inclusion is including anyone and everyone in [the] mainstream, everywhere, which can be home, community, workplace, etc. There is no reason not to follow inclusion,” he shares.

“I started becoming more vigilant towards inclusivity and making sure I remain supportive and help in this area. [Through the ERG I have] learned lots of best practices, which I am implementing in my day-to-day life.”

ERGs give their members a safe space for genuine dialogue, and Rebecca Beatty, a senior solution engineer at BMC, says that’s the very definition of inclusion for her. “Inclusion in the workplace means that I get to show up to work as my authentic self and be comfortable with it,” she explains. “[I have a] community of coworkers who I know I can reach out to for mentoring or advice, as well as [gain] access to information and meet new people.”

Sheila Mullen, a global strategic account manager at BMC, shares that inclusivity spans everything from elevating your presence where key business decisions are made to sharing and learning from diverse views, including, “celebrating our differences and actively learning about people who are different from you.”

She adds that the ERG helped her grow personally and professionally. “No matter what is going on in my world, every time I join a WiT&B call, I am energized, inspired, and in awe of the talented women at BMC. I leave the call knowing anything is possible,” she says. “Participating has allowed me to advocate for myself, be a sphere of influence in my piece of BMC, and positively support the promotion of women in the workplace.”

Rosie Huth, a global alliances manager at BMC, says inclusion is about “collaboration and mutual respect for your professional counterparts.” “No one has to prove why they should have a seat at the table because we are already here together,” she shares. “[With the ERG], I have built a community with professionals that span region, departments, and roles, which, by default, helps to foster a rich sense of inclusion across traditional silos.”

Each of the members also shared how mentorship relationships have been instrumental for them. “I have an incredible mentor at BMC! She is someone who listens, gives great advice, and continuously advocates for me,” says Steensen. “We’ve had crucial conversations about career trajectory and paths, which have helped shaped my own professional goals.”

Fevrier has had a mentor for two and a half years and been a mentor for two years, and both have been enriching experiences. “My mentor has helped me affirm my value at this time of my career where I’ve had some self-doubts, and she helped me rebuild my self-confidence. She has helped me with networking across the company, which has led to new opportunities at BMC that match my skills and interests,” she explains.

“As a mentor, I’ve been there to listen and provide career guidance. My mentee knows that she has a safe place to talk about her concerns. There have even been moments of reverse mentoring, which I’ve really appreciated. My mentee has been someone I could rely on for confidential discussions about any work issues and career advice.”

Chopra is also on both sides of mentoring, explaining. “I am mentoring individuals for their personal and professional growth, including their career and helping them in their day to day life.”

Beatty benefitted from mentoring earlier in her career, sharing. “[Years ago], I had the opportunity to complete a leadership training academy at a previous employer and be mentored by my then manager, who was also the only female leader in my organization.”

Mullen is both a mentor and mentee and she loves it. “I have mentored several women. I love to see them grow and progress in their careers. I have been mentored and supported by some amazing professionals in my career. Each one added to my professional toolbox. I am the woman I am today because of each of their gifts. I am truly fortunate and grateful,” she says.

“[As a mentee], I learned that I did not want to be a leader or manager, in a see-try-learn way, where I found out that my strong skillset and what motivated the best version of me was in the weeds working with customers versus leading a team of people who do that. I feel very fortune to have a supportive mentor willing to grow with me and help me figure out which direction I wanted to go, even if it wasn’t the same path they were on.”

Huth has enjoyed being a mentor, particularly for women transitioning into the tech sector. “I have had the absolute pleasure of mentoring professionals at BMC [to whom] I can transfer my knowledge, insights, and experiences,” she explains. “Especially where they have come from non-tech backgrounds or veterans. It has been a joy to help them recognize they have a fresh perspective to business discussions and the industry because it’s not all they have known. They don’t have to unlearn anything and their resiliency to adapt is what is most valuable.”

If you’re looking for ways to expand inclusion across your business, and build employee resource groups, check out our DEI blog series on these topics and more, and to learn more about International Women’s Day, visit www.internationalwomensday.com.

BMC is committed to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) practices that create a more sustainable future. We are guided by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and believe that our business success is intrinsically linked to the well-being of our planet and people.

We have a long-standing commitment to environmental sustainability, and we take concrete steps to reduce our environmental impact. We are also actively engaged with several organizations that promote environmental responsibility, including:

• EcoVadis: We are proud to participate in EcoVadis’ annual sustainability assessment, consistently achieving a gold rating.
• Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP): For the past three years, we have participated in the CDP’s annual climate change disclosures, demonstrating our transparency and commitment to measuring and reducing our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
• Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi): We submitted our 2023 GHG reduction goals for validation by SBTi, with the aim of exceeding their GHG reduction mandate of 50 percent by 2030.
• ISO 14001 certification: We maintain ISO 14001 certification, an internationally recognized standard for environmental management systems. This certification demonstrates our commitment to continuously improving our environmental performance and reducing our impact on the planet.

As part of our commitment to continuous improvement, we are actively working towards achieving certification in two additional ISO standards, ISO 45001 to manage occupation health and safety risks, and ISO 50001, which will ensure our current energy management system aligns with the ISO global standard for energy consumption, carbon footprint reduction, and overall energy efficiency.

BMC is on track to achieving our net-zero target by 2030 and continues to demonstrate that commitment through partnerships with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, Reforest’Action, One Tree Planted, GreenThumb, Vashundara, Seabin Project, Ocean Conservancy Project, and TeamSeas.

You can read more about our commitments to ESG and environmental sustainability in the 2023 BMC Corporate Citizenship and ESG Impact Report.

The month of July is designated as Plastic Free July, which is a key initiative of the Plastic Free Foundation to see a world free of plastic waste. That means it’s a fantastic time to consciously focus on being an ally to the environment. But what does that mean exactly?

It takes different shapes and forms, from individual awareness and behavior change to major initiatives, technological interventions, organizational support, and community outreach. One action that’s close to my heart is how Seabin™ is working to positively reduce the impact of plastic waste in water, which is aligned to BMC’s sustainability practices based on the UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs).

It Starts With Me

As a leader at BMC, and also as a member of my coastal community, I am an ally to the environment through my local volunteerism doing clean ups at my beloved beach in Portugal where I grew up, my personal practices, and my work as a sustainability advocate in the company. During my clean-up work, it’s always astounding to me how many pieces of litter and debris we collect. Even further, it’s alarming how much that amount has increased over time.

That’s why I have changed my behavior to be more conscientious about my personal contributions to plastic and other waste. For example, I avoid purchasing many individual-use products such as wipes and sandwich bags. Instead, I find ways to use materials that are reusable, such as cloths for cleaning or wax paper wraps for packing food.

Additionally, as much as possible, I limit my use of bottled water by consistently carrying a refillable water container so that I can stay hydrated without creating waste. I also watch how often I order take-away food from restaurants, and I bring my own shopping bags to the grocery store. Lastly, I choose to invest in the things I need and will use regularly, making every effort to not overconsume—from only buying the food I need to prevent waste and spoilage to wearing my clothes and accessories longer. I also practice a minimalist aesthetic in my home.

At BMC, the Customer Success Organization that I lead partners with Seabin, an organization dedicated to understanding the human impact on our oceans and waterways and providing education and critical impact data through its technology. You can read more about our partnership in our previous blogs here.

BMC has committed to continuing our partnership with Seabin for two more years, and is already contributing to clean up efforts in Sydney Harbour, Australia and Marina Del Rey, California through the sponsorship of Seabin units that remove litter and debris from the water. As you can see in these first impact reports for Q1 of this year, the results of our two bins are compelling.

Educating Through Data

In addition to capturing waste in marinas and ports, the data yielded from Seabin’s collections support research and behavior change. Seabin compiles an annual report on the impact its bins have had on Sydney Harbour and shares out that data to create awareness around the need to reduce single-use plastic and improve other marine related behaviors. From 2020 to 2022, the bins have filtered 15 billion liters of water and collected more than 100 tons of litter. Every day, 1,101 soft plastic items are captured in Sydney, at an approximate rate of one plastic item every six seconds.

The data also shows how regulatory changes can have a positive impact. In June 2022, a state law was passed in Sydney to ban businesses from giving out lightweight plastic bags. Since the ban, Seabin has measured a 70 percent reduction in plastic shopping bags collected by the 34 Seabin units installed around Sydney Harbour. With more data like this, Seabin can demonstrate the impact of community action.

Seabin also uses the data to determine how debris may have ended up in the water, i.e., from deliberate littering, being blown out of bins by the wind, or garbage falling out of overfilled receptacles, which helps educate the public on how their behavior can make a difference. This awareness can also be used to advise corporations on the merits of designing better, more sustainable, and even biodegradable packaging for consumer goods like candy bar and potato chip wrappers that make up a significant portion of waste captured by Seabin units.

As you can see, there are many ways to be an ally to the environment. I’m proud to work for an organization like BMC that is taking action to help the environment and giving me the opportunity to raise awareness and support Seabin’s mission for cleaner oceans and waterways.

If you’d like to learn more about Seabin, sign up to receive the monthly newsletter.

Every year, BMC brings together industry influencers, analysts, and media for an opportunity to showcase both our core and emerging technologies. While it might sound really self-serving, it’s an opportunity for BMC to share how current technology trends (think ChatGPT and digital twins) are actually useful and viable for the enterprise.

On June 14, 2023, BMC welcomed 18 media and industry analysts from around the world to share, showcase, chat, discuss, and debate the hot topics for enterprise tech. Regardless of geography, the topics of artificial intelligence (AI) and data emerged as universal considerations in enterprise technology investments.

Guests attended six demos that built on the company’s existing strengths and future investments in AI and applied them to an expanded set of data-centric use cases:

1. 3D visualization with motion-enabled pipeline management and root cause analysis for data pipeline issues
2. Digital twin-enabled solutions for IoT and edge automation and remediation set in a manufacturing environment
3. Next-generation IT self-service and support with augmented reality using a virtual assistant
4. Predictive insights and site reliability engineering (SRE) for hybrid IT through AI-enabled service management and operations management
5. Self-service knowledge support for the enterprise with natural language processing and BMC HelixGPT
6. Cloud to mainframe to edge with AIOps for enterprise-wide automation

Attendees were given an inside look at how our strengths in enterprise service management, IT operations, business process and application workflow automation and orchestration, and mainframe management are evolving for future use cases with AI across the following areas:

• ServiceOps emerged as the way forward to eliminate the silos of service management and operations management to support business speed and agility, as well as the employee and customer experience.
• AIOps was highlighted as a mature BMC capability across hybrid and multi-cloud IT infrastructures to help organizations gain even greater value in their existing investments.
• DataOps showed that data pipeline orchestration offers immense value through insights that could shape front and back office operations.
• DevOps once again reinforced the need to have all supporting IT and operations technologies aligned for true agile practices.
• AutonomousOps was introduced as the way to bring increased automation—driven by machine learning (ML) and AI—into the enterprise for predictive insights and automated remediation.

BMC customers joined in on the fun and shared their experiences in evolving their businesses through enterprise-wide, intelligent automation, ServiceOps, and DevOps enabled by BMC. The summit was held in a historical building in San Francisco, mirroring our own strong heritage and resilience, and the innovations presented reflect the incredible evolutionary journey that we have been on over the past few years—including the best three years of revenue performance in history with the most innovations delivered. And we’re just getting started.

When I joined BMC, I was excited to learn about the partnership we have with Seabin™ because the ocean has been a consistent part of my life since I was very young. From growing up in Lisbon, Portugal, to moving around the globe, and currently residing in Boston, MA, I have lived within a few miles of the beach for most of my life. I love the water and its diverse ecosystem of plants, animals, and sea life that never cease to fill me with awe.

Sadly, I’ve also observed the significant changes to the many shorelines and waterways that I had previously enjoyed because of the encroaching volumes of trash and other pollutants reducing the water quality and impacting the beauty of those areas. As someone who has participated in ocean clean ups since childhood, including efforts to preserve the beach in Lisbon where I have a home, I’m thrilled to celebrate World Oceans Day by sharing how BMC’s partnership with Seabin is having a positive impact on ocean health.

Year one impact

As part of our Smart City Unit Sponsorship of two Seabins in Sydney Harbor, Australia, from March 2022 through February 2023, our sponsored Seabin units have generated the following impact statistics:

• 491 million liters of water filtered
• 1,685 kgs² estimated total marine litter captured
• 81,124 estimated number of plastic items captured (all plastic items including microplastics)
• 44,362 estimated number of microplastics captured (only microplastics)

These results concretely demonstrate our commitment to sustainability and our adherence to the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals for building a better and more sustainable future. You can read more about all our activities to give back in our annual Corporate Social Responsibility Report.

From the start, BMC—especially our Professional Services group—wanted to find a tangible way to improve the health of our oceans and waterways. Our partnership with Seabin gives us the opportunity to directly help the environment through the organization’s technology, its Smart City programs, and the data reporting that displays the quantifiable evidence that we’re making a difference. Even further, the data shows that the Smart City program in Sydney has a Seabin capturing one plastic item per minute.

While it’s disappointing that the volume is so high, during the two years that the program has been active, every Seabin combined has filtered 13.57 billion liters of water, the equivalent of 5,429 Olympic swimming pools. All of the Seabins in the area have captured 100 tons of marine litter and an estimated 4,391,542 of plastic items. It’s very inspiring to be part of an impact that significant.

For our second year as a unit sponsor, we decided to broaden our reach.

Going global

As we received our quarterly impact reports and participated in last year’s World Oceans Day events with Seabin in Australia, we wanted to find a way to have more of a global impact. Through a presentation that Seabin did in July 2022 for our One Earth employee resource group (ERG), we learned that its next Smart City would debut in Los Angeles, CA, in October 2022. We met as a Customer Success leadership team last fall and decided we’d like to go global by expanding our partnership to Los Angeles to align to our reach as a company that serves 86 percent of the Forbes Global 50.

It gives me great pleasure to share that our Seabin went in the water in Los Angeles this March and is already contributing to the new Smart City program location. It has yielded an incredible capture rate in its first few months—filtering 1.009 billion liters and capturing 2.185 tons of marine litter, which includes an estimated 3,396,734 plastic items. Leveraging its own technology and data capture measurements, Seabin has determined that every four seconds, a Seabin in Marina Del Rey collects one plastic item. The data is compelling, and the hope is that it will lead to more mindful human practices around protecting oceans and waterways, from making smarter decisions on the disposal of purchased items to reconsidering purchases based on their impact on the environment.

Seabin CEO and co-founder Pete Ceglinski was recently interviewed on the various aspects of improving ocean health and said that by listening, you can do your part in learning about the various aspects of improving marine environments. He also discussed how Seabin is taking a data-driven approach to helping transform the world’s relationship with consumer goods and preserving the world around us.

This World Oceans Day

This World Oceans Day—June 8, I will be taking time to pay back the water environments that bring so much joy and peace to my life. BMC will be participating in Seabin’s outreach activities, both in-person and leveraging our social platforms and employees, to share the message that we must care for our oceans and waterways not only today, but always. Additionally, our BMC Cares employee volunteer program encourages our global workforce to get involved in cleaning up not just around water, but in all areas, because litter on land often ends up in the water if it is not disposed of properly.

If you’d like to learn more about Seabin, sign up for the monthly newsletter.

Back in November, I shared our intention to provide our services from a data center in India to better serve BMC’s customers and government organizations in the region. I am thrilled to announce that we’re now live and able to deliver BMC Helix service and operations management capabilities from Mumbai. It’s always nice to deliver on a promise!

Adding to the satisfaction: we did it in less than three months (I’ve seen others in the space take two years to do the same) thanks to our partnership with Oracle. Our engineering team worked with their Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) counterparts to quickly scope, provision, test, and launch in the Oracle Cloud Mumbai Region so customers can take advantage of the ServiceOps capabilities powered by BMC Helix Service Management and BMC Helix Operations Management.

The rollout on the Oracle Cloud Mumbai Region adds to the list of OCI public cloud regions where we are already offering BMC solutions, which includes Ashburn (U.S.), London, and Frankfurt.

“BMC’s ability to rapidly deploy in our Mumbai region is a testament to the power and flexibility of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure,” says Dave Profozich, senior vice president of ISV Ecosystem at Oracle. “As more data sovereignty requirements come into play around the globe, it’s imperative for partners like BMC to be able to quickly get their SaaS offerings running in a particular region to help meet the security and compliance needs of customers while also achieving benefits around increased performance and availability, low latency, and disaster protection.”

Why India?

Like the rest of the globe, Indian enterprises are looking at cloud to help scale and manage costs. According to Forrester’s The State of Cloud in India, 2022 report from August, “Today, 67 percent of Indian infrastructure decision-makers say that modernizing with cloud and new computing architectures is a top priority.”

Data sovereignty is also a consideration. Currently, India’s data privacy laws strictly limit where personal data can be stored and sent. India government agencies are also bound by rules to keep data in-country.

This means Indian companies can now take advantage of BMC Helix for HR Service Management and BMC Helix for Customer Service Management capabilities without having to worry about data exiting the country.

These new SaaS capabilities in India builds on our already strong commitment to the area. Our talented and passionate staff in Pune and around the country are central to our development efforts and our ability to get new BMC Helix features and enhancements out to SaaS customers every month. We’re excited that this latest chapter is being written.

Even in the age of digital business, artificial intelligence (AI), and data-driven automation, employees remain the lifeblood of every organization. Put in a position to do their best work, there’s nothing a motivated and engaged workforce can’t accomplish.

Conversely, an unsatisfying or unproductive work experience can send employees fleeing to the exits—taking valuable skills, experience, and insight with them. Meeting employee needs and expectations has always been critical, but in a world reshaped by rapid innovation, remote work, and soaring worker mobility, it’s become both more urgent and more challenging than ever.

A new episode of The Savvy Innovators, a Voice of America podcast series sponsored by BMC, unpacks the ways people and organizations are redefining the employee experience today. Lynn Moffett, VP of HR at BMC, and Jin Zhang, Engineering Director at Meta, offer their perspectives for navigating the evolution to the future of work—as it rapidly becomes the present of work. Highlights of their conversation follow.

Rethinking the infrastructure of work

Consider how radically work has changed over the last 30 years. In the early 90s, laptops and cell phones were rare perks, meetings took place exclusively in physical spaces, and “working from home” was commonly seen as malingering, fairly or not. As the pace of innovation only accelerates, what will the next 30 years bring—or the next five?

“It really challenges us to think about what infrastructure we are going to need for the future,” says Jin, citing advances like robotic process automation (RPA), process mining, chatbots, low-code workflow platforms, AI, machine learning (ML), and intelligent document processing. And it’s not just about technical innovation; companies also need to consider the ways people work together. “No matter where we are from a technology standpoint, we’re always going to need human connectivity. The pandemic really brought that into focus,” she adds.

The consumerization of technology is a perennial theme in the modern workplace, but it’s important to understand why it matters to employees. It goes beyond comfort and convenience. “People want to be productive,” says Lynn. “They want to be efficient in what they do. People want to add value, and they want to do it much earlier in their career. Meeting their expectations is not just about touchy-feely employee experience. It’s about driving better revenue and becoming a better competitor in the marketplace.”

For non-technical employees, automated tools that eliminate drudgery and deliver the right data at the right time can make a huge difference. For software engineers, more user-friendly development tools with built-in testing can enable shift-left practices and free up time to focus on higher-value work.

Getting distributed employees on the same page

The rapid rise of remote and hybrid work has posed a variety of challenges, from data security to employee wellbeing to the mechanics of blended onsite-remote meetings. “As we evolve, the workplace has absolutely gone beyond [the] reach of the office buildings,” says Jin.

“You naturally worry about the security of the laptop and its data. Things like security procedures and data classifications, if they’re done well, can be seamless for an engineer or a developer. If they’re not done well, and I have to seek permission or check in and out whatever piece of data or code I need to work with, that’s going to be a nightmare. It’s key for us to think about providing high ease of use experiences. The more you can automate, the more you can enable collaboration, break barriers, and drive toward that one single goal to move fast and delight our customers.”

As an HR professional, Lynn emphasizes that remote employees need to feel just as supported, connected, and included as onsite workers. “There’s a large collection of accessible tech that companies can use to help employees with managing at-home office needs, mental health needs, and professional and personal growth, and that foster collaboration and deliberately spread corporate culture in now-disparate work environments,” she explains. “Tech can humanize the remote work experience, allowing employees to connect and learn from each other and build company culture while not in an office.”

Companies should always be alert to ways to efface the difference and distance between remote and onsite employees. “Not only do you need to enable these new remote or non-traditional workspaces. You also have to enable holistic collaboration throughout your entire workforce,” says Jin. Early in the pandemic, she noticed that employees who joined a video call in a conference room lacked an equivalent to the Zoom hand-raising feature. “We invested to give folks in the physical room the same ability to raise their hands in the virtual meeting room.”

Navigating the shift to a digital-first culture

While data science is an increasingly vital element of people management, as talent leaders acquire and leverage knowledge about the workforce and its work practices, it’s important to start with a clear understanding of what you’re trying to achieve. “Before you decide on a digital-first strategy, take a step back and look at how people are working today, how you want them to work, and what they need to be successful and productive,” says Jin. “What is the problem we’re trying to solve? What is the need? What is the want? What is the desire?”

Change management is just as crucial. “We need to think about how we can move fast, but also about how we can bring everyone along, because people are on all different walks of their own journeys,” Lynn points out. “Some people are much further along in their own technological journey versus others. Some people get scared around change and what it might mean for their job. Maybe they’re great employees who need to be reskilled for new needs. You need to be intentional about both moving your company forward and bringing everybody along.”

Making it safe to fail

As people at all levels come up to speed on new digital tools, skills, and ways of working, they need to feel fully supported in their learning process. “Employees have to be comfortable to fail,” says Lynn. “You don’t want failure all over the place, but you can’t let perfection be the enemy of good. You have to give people that space as they’re adopting these new practices.”

Jin values the same willingness to take chances on the engineering team. “Engineers and developers should feel very comfortable in taking risks. As we’re working on a product and making choices about its design and implementation, that first iteration isn’t always going to end up the perfect solution,” she explains. “Just get up and dust off and keep moving. It’s about nurturing that culture, while also enabling building feedback and correction loops into the system so that if you fail, it’s not a problem.”

To hear more of Jin and Lynn’s conversation, including where AI/ML and augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) fit into the changing world of work, listen to the whole podcast here: “Delighting Employees & Improving the Business: Modern Experiences.”

BMC is constantly evolving, continuously seeking ways to be an employer of choice in an increasingly competitive landscape. “Prioritizing people” and “Doing the right thing” are two of our core values, and we’re proud that we’ve been consistently recognized for our commitment to create a better workplace—and attract an extraordinary workforce.

I am thrilled to share the news that BMC has been certified by Fair Pay Workplace (“FPW”) for our efforts to create sustainable fair pay for our employees around the world. FPW certification is a transparent and trusted set of rules and standards of measurement established by leading independent academic and business industry experts to differentiate organizations dedicated to true pay equity. To attain the certification, BMC worked with FPW to review and independently verify the steps we are taking to achieve pay equity across gender, race, and the intersection of gender and race.

In addition to our competitive pay and comprehensive health and wellness benefits, BMC is committed to providing an exemplary employee experience from hiring to onboarding to career growth and beyond. We’re helping our employees continue their personal and professional development by investing in LinkedIn Learning’s free, virtual, on-demand coursework to help our employees grow their skillset.

We regularly conduct Voice of the Employee and manager surveys so our employees have a platform for honest dialogue about working at BMC. We’ve established ten employee resource groups (ERGs) to give our employees a voice and a safe space to foster open discussions, share and learn from individual experiences, and give back to the communities where we live and work. Volunteer time off (VTO) is available to every employee throughout the year, and on our dedicated global International Day of Service aligned to Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

The FPW certification is the latest accolade that positions BMC as a top employer. In 2022 alone, BMC was also recognized on five of the Forbes “Best of” Lists:

• America’s Best Mid-Size Employers
• America’s Best Employers for Diversity
• America’s Best Employers for Women
• America’s Best Employers for Veterans
• America’s Best Employers for New Grads

At BMC, we succeed when our employees are happy and successful. Our people are the heart and soul of our business, and we are continuously improving the employee experience to meet their expectations.

Learn more about Fair Pay Workplace certification here, and working at BMC here.