The BMC Beat Blog

BMC Innovation Labs: A New Path to Market

4 minute read
Sam Lakkundi

Companies of all stripes need to innovate to stay ahead. What does that look like? Imagine these three scenarios:

1) Wouldn’t it be extraordinary to simulate plans or build what-if scenarios for the products, facilities, and processes you wished to change before you put real-world resources behind actual implementations?

What would it be like if we could take the monitoring power of BMC Helix and tie it to a digital twin of a hydroelectric power plant that overlays the plant’s control room operations center on a live video feed of the water dam to model what-if scenarios?

2) A company needs to understand inventory levels to plan and project shipments. What if we could use machine learning to project the inventory? The use case could be that IoT sensors monitor the current inventory and this data is used to project future inventory needs.

3) If you’re experiencing technical difficulties in a conference room, wouldn’t it be nice to simply click a button that creates a ticket in your service management system to report the issue?

What do all of these scenarios have in common? You likely don’t associate them with traditional ways of working in your new digital enterprise. But these are just some of the kinds of innovations we’re thinking about here at BMC.

One of my passions is looking at new technologies and innovations that can help our customers – and their customers – succeed. And even more broadly, looking at how technology can improve and change lives for the better. That’s why I am excited to introduce BMC Innovation Labs, a place to explore all ideas – from those that may fall outside the traditional enterprise IT box to the radical changes that support the future of work – and work on tomorrow’s innovations today.

BMC has a strong history of delivering products to market that help companies run their businesses more efficiently. We’ve always focused on innovating to service our customers better and we know that there is even more innovation possible that we haven’t yet addressed. BMC Innovation Labs will help to reimagine and reinvent how we think about technology – using cross-domain solutions that would bridge the functional silos of IT and beyond, unlocking hidden potential within our customers’ organizations and lives every day.

BMC Innovation Labs is a place to create, nurture, and test ideas to find out if a promising concept could turn into a product or feature. It’s a safe place to fail fast and keep iterating. Initial ideas include fast prototyping of algorithms to address use cases such as AIOps and incubating machine learning (ML) frameworks implemented within BMC AMI, BMC Helix, and other products as we explore even more of what’s possible.

BMC Innovation Labs will also provide a venue for customers and partners to bring ideas that go beyond traditional enterprise IT thinking.

While we’re in the early days of this effort, some fantastic ideas are already percolating:

Enterprise Digital Assistant: An enterprise-grade digital assistant that simplifies everyday activities such as scheduling a meeting, retrieving information from disparate sources, searching for documents, or getting in touch with colleagues using natural language processing (NLP) – an Alexa or Siri at work that provides automation, operations, or IT self-service via simple channels, giving your users complete visibility, control, and responsiveness in a personalized environment.

IoT and Telecommunications: A solution for trend analysis and alerts based on metrics produced by IoT sensors that are derived from cell towers. We’re co-innovating with a large European customer to bring this to life today.

Puppy Robot: Yes, it’s a real idea. There are already a lot of ways to generate trouble tickets in the traditional enterprise, but we think there are more autonomous ways to get problems solved more quickly.

These are just some of the things we’re already working on in BMC Innovation Labs.

We believe that innovation isn’t a one-time thing; it must be continuous. BMC employees, customers, and partners are encouraged to submit innovative ideas they have to BMC Innovation Labs for possible development. When you take the approach that “no idea is a bad idea,” innovation can flourish.

Bringing New Ideas to Life

The BMC Innovation Labs is a critical piece of BMC’s commitment to cultivating new and innovative thinking and ideas. It provides an environment for employees, partners and customers to come together to engage on ideas that will help meet our customers’ future needs.
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These postings are my own and do not necessarily represent BMC's position, strategies, or opinion.

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About the author

Sam Lakkundi

Sam Lakkundi serves as the Global Head of Channels, MarketZone, and Innovations at BMC Software. With a strategic vision and commitment to excellence, Sam spearheads the development and execution of BMC's global partner ecosystem. A staunch advocate for diversity and inclusion in technology, Sam ensures that BMC's global partner network remains dynamic and forward-thinking.