BMC Software, one of the world`s largest systems management groups, says it expects to benefit significantly from its purchase of Remedy from the failing Peregrine.
Peregrine, which has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US, announced recently that BMC had agreed to buy Remedy for $350 million.
Peter Armstrong, BMC director of corporate and technology strategy, in SA this week for the country`s third annual BMC forum, says the group is bound by US Securities Exchange Commission regulations and cannot comment in detail on the deal.
However, he says the Remedy acquisition is expected to flesh out BMC`s service offering.
JSE-listed MGX Holdings is also expected to benefit from the deal, as it is the master distributor of BMC`s products in SA. It was also a Peregrine distributor for four years.
"BMC has a country manager who manages us," says Reg Swart, GM of BMC at MGX Enterprise Solutions. "We in turn appoint value-added resellers who can access areas we can`t."
He says BMC`s business model is solutions-centric rather than product-centric, and that suits MGX, as it is also now focusing on that model.
BMC holds 38 forums in 35 countries each year. Armstrong says the $1.5 billion turnover group prefers this approach to holding a single user conference in Texas, where it is headquartered, as it allows the group to interact with customers on a more personal level.
This is also in line with its solutions-driven approach to business, which Armstrong says provides greater return on investment than the product-driven "one size fits all" method used by many software vendors.
"IT vendors earned a bad reputation in past years because they came in with products and tried to sell them rather than listening to what customers actually wanted," says Simon Teager, BMC business development director.
"With a solutions approach you listen to the customer first and then build a solution to the customer`s problem.
"In previous years we were technology-driven. We came up with a product and tried to sell it and then found out it wasn`t needed."
He says the forums allow the group`s representatives to spend time with customers and then feed information back to the factory.
Swart says BMC has a 35% to 40% market share in SA and has a strong presence among the 50 largest organisations in the country. Clients include Telkom, Nedcor, First National Bank, Pick 'n Pay, Woolworths and Old Mutual.
Share