Mainframe Blog

BMC Plus Compuware: Laser Focused on a Transcendent Customer Experience

Customer Experience
2 minute read
John McKenny

We’ve all heard the phrase, “the customer is king”. Now more than ever, this applies to innovation-minded enterprises wanting to keep up with customer demand. According to a recent Salesforce Research study, 76% of consumers expect companies to understand their needs and expectations and 56% of customers actively seek to buy from the most innovative companies. An integrated DevOps toolchain allows innovation to shine through – providing a more intuitive customer experience from new apps and services developed, deployed and run on the mainframe.

This is why BMC’s recent acquisition of Compuware, the premier provider of solutions to scale agile and DevOps on the mainframe, has been so well received by industry analysts and customers alike. Prework from a recent BMC Mainframe Executive Council showed that customers felt the acquisition was a “Good move.” and are “looking forward to [future] product integration.”

1+1 = 3

Early findings from our 15th Annual BMC Mainframe survey show that 78% of respondents say it would be useful if they could update mainframe applications more frequently than they currently do. 90% of respondents also say they see the mainframe as a platform for combined long-term and new workload strength. Couple this with increasing digital demands – as with the mainframe handling billions of transactions daily – and the need to implement an integrated DevOps toolchain has become paramount.

The intrinsic value our customers will gain from BMC’s automated intelligence, security and data management solutions will augment Compuware’s developer tool set to ensure new apps and services delivered across the mainframe are done efficiency and with quality. BMC Automated Mainframe Intelligent (AMI), along with Compuware’s portfolio, empower the modern mainframe developer experience (DX) to deliver a more compelling and intuitive customer experience (CX).

Customer Obsessed

Week 3 of BMC’s close of the Compuware acquisition and we’re working towards an integration strategy that’s driven by one very important commonality – we’re both customer-obsessed.

  • Both of our organizations’ customer satisfaction ratings are best in class when compared to any industry – not just enterprise IT.
  • July will ring in Compuware’s 22nd successful quarterly release and BMC continues to deliver innovation – following suit with a more quarterly release cadence as well. A decision made based on customer feedback.
  • BMC and Compuware both make it our mission to understand customer pain points and bottlenecks as if they were our own and are lockstep on their digital transformation journey and priorities.

Our customer obsession carries over to our consistent innovation strategy as well. Change doesn’t stop with success. Sure, it’s important to stop and celebrate milestones, but then you keep moving on and driving forward for further innovation.

In a recent podcast, Compuware CEO Chris O’Malley stated, “Change is a necessary part of the future of the mainframe…” and goes on to advise enterprises not to fight this change. A mindset I’m in complete agreeance with and organizations need to adopt to drive success in today’s digital era.

As a mainframe executive with nearly 40 years’ experience on the platform, I’ve seen a good amount of claims made touting customer value acceleration. New providers, solutions and techniques have rushed onto the market promising exponentially increased productivity – promises that often fall short of customer expectations. What hasn’t fallen short is the track-record of innovation BMC continues to emulate – providing a transcendent customer experience.

Access the 2023 Mainframe Report

The results of the 18th annual BMC Mainframe Survey are in, and the state of the mainframe remains strong. Overall perception of the mainframe is positive, as is the outlook for future growth on the platform, with workloads growing and investment in new technologies and processes increasing.


These postings are my own and do not necessarily represent BMC's position, strategies, or opinion.

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About the author

John McKenny

As SVP and General Manager of Intelligent Z Optimization and Transformation at BMC Software, John leads the R&D, Product Management and Solutions Marketing teams to innovate the mainframe to meet the needs of today’s evolving digital economy. John has over 25 years of management experience at BMC alone and, prior to joining, he led various IT management teams and strategies for 15 years in the transportation and insurance industries.