BMC Footprints for Indiana Campus

BMC Software Inc. (BMC - Analyst Report) recently announced that it will provide information technology service management (ITSM) support to the Indiana University for an undisclosed amount.

The University is a public research institution and accommodates more than 1,30,000 students. With increasing student enrollments, the institution is facing growing demand for more efficient information technology (IT) infrastructure. The University sought a system, which would reorganize data into information and thus prioritize resources to enable quick decision making. The decision would, in turn, help the institution to better allocate resources within the campus.

After evaluating the urgency of its situation, the University found BMC Software’s FootPrints solution to be suitable. FootPrints is easy to deploy, maintain and upgrade. The solution facilitates automated data and process integration thereby improving overall IT operations. At a glance, the solution will offer support in effectively managing areas such as service, helpdesk, security and compliance, lifecycle and desktop.

BMC Footprints’ popularity can be gauged from the continuous customer wins. The solution has been deployed by State of Connecticut, The Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities, payroll service provider Cast & Crew, EasyStreet, Hill International, Seneca College, Ryanair.com, Selex Systems and so on.

BMC Software inherited this solution from Numara Software, which was acquired in Jan 2012. With this strategic acquisition, BMC Software has been able to access more than 13,000 service and asset management solutions that have enabled it to improve the services offered. Also, it will help the company to make headway in the SaaS service desk offering for the fast-growing small and medium business (SMB) segment in the market going ahead.

The popularity of BMC Software’s ITSM suites is growing. We are encouraged by the continuous product launches. We also believe that the company’s growing exposure into the cloud space will prove to be a catalyst.

However, weak third quarter 2013 results, soft guidance, weaker expenditure from different governments, ongoing European economic turmoil and stiff competitive environment pose concerns.

Currently, BMC Software has a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell). But not all software companies are performing as badly as BMC. We would recommend investors to consider Symantec Corp. (SYMC - Analyst Report), which has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). CA Inc. (CA - Analyst Report) and Compuware Corp. (CPWR - Analyst Report) have Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) and are also performing well.