BMC Software Announces Award for Outstanding Achievements in Enterprise Management Chosen by Leading Industry Analysts

Business Wire, Feb 28, 2000

Business Editors & High Tech Writers

Assurance 2000

HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 28, 2000

Call for Entries Now Open for Best Practices in Enterprise Management

Award to be Presented at Assurance 2000 Conference in Las Vegas

BMC Software, Inc. (Nasdaq:BMCS) today announced the Call for Entries for the Fourth Annual Best Practices in Enterprise Management Awards. The awards will be judged by an independent panel of industry experts and IT leaders including: Gary Beach, CIO Magazine; Gary Cooper, The Butler Group; Patrick Dryden, Giga Information Group; Paul Mason, IDC; Ray Paquet, GartnerGroup; Rich Ptak, Hurwitz Group; Rick Sturm, Enterprise Management Associates (EMA); and Herb VanHook, META Group. Award entries will be evaluated in several categories - from the planning and the evaluation process, to the scale and creativity of the implementation as well as the results achieved through enterprise systems management. Entries are expected to be received from Fortune 1000 companies from around the world.

"BMC Software is proud to be celebrating and honoring the successes of our customers for the fourth year in a row," said Wayne Morris, vice president of corporate marketing for BMC Software. "It is a great source of pride that we have such outstanding customer success stories. Building solutions that work for the customer is our main goal and these customers prove that we have achieved that goal."

The Fourth Annual Best Practices Awards ceremony will be held in conjunction with BMC Software's first Assurance 2000 Conference scheduled for May 21-26 at The Venetian in Las Vegas, Nevada. Combining all BMC Software user groups - Technical Symposium, BBUG (Boole & Babbage's user conference), Viewpoints (New Dimension's user conference) and the Executive Partner Conference -- Assurance 2000 is the ultimate learning experience for customers focusing on application service assurance(TM).

This year's winning implementations will be announced during the opening session of the conference. Afterwards, the winners will present their Best Practices implementations during the appropriate session.

Assurance 2000 will feature new methods for IT managers to successfully develop and implement leading edge IT management strategies through expert instruction and advice, first-hand business case studies and demonstrations. Learn more about Assurance 2000 and how to register at http://assurance2000.bmc.com/index2.htm.> Entry forms are now available on http://www.bmc.com/bestpractices and the call for entries is open until March 27, 2000. Past years' winners of the award include BACS Limited, Bank of America (UK), First Maryland Bancorp, Ontario Hydro, Siemens Austria, TDS Informationstechnologie, US West, WORLDSPAN and other Fortune 1000 organizations. Visit this link to read more about last year's winners: http://www.bmc.com/bb_doc_final.pdf. The awards program is open to all companies who use the BMC Software application management products as part of their enterprise management solution.

The Judges

Gary Beach, Publisher, CIO Magazine

With over 17 years of IT publishing experience, Gary Beach, publisher of CIO magazine, is dedicated to creating new business opportunities for International Data Group's (IDG) fastest growing publication and its related products. Prior to joining CIO, Beach held several technology-publishing posts at McGraw-Hill and IDG. Additionally, Beach serves on the U.S. Department of Commerce's National IT Workforce Committee; is an overseer at the Computer Museum in Boston; and serves on the Board of Directors of NetDay, a nonprofit organization that focuses on education technology. In 1994, Beach founded the United States Tech Corps, a national non-profit organization dedicated to coordinating the education technology efforts of 10,000 volunteers in the U.S. He currently serves as the organization's chairman. Beach is also a commentator for National Public Radio's "All Things Considered."

Gary Cooper, Research Manager, The Butler Group

Gary Cooper, Research Manager for The Butler Group, has over 30 years experience in the IT industry. Since joining The Butler Group in July 1995, Cooper has been involved in the research and writing of Technical Audits for a wide range of products, including the Internet, workflow, development tools, client/server, and EIS/DSS. In his role as a senior researcher/analyst, Cooper also has had responsibility for the quality control of all technical audits, and interacting with IT industry press. The Butler Group Certification program is also his co-responsibility. Prior to joining The Butler Group, Cooper spent over 20 years in senior management, serving 16 years as the Group IT Manager for a group of companies involved in sales and marketing, retail and manufacturing industries.

Patrick Dryden, Sr. Industry Analyst

- Network Management, Systems Management, Giga Information Group

Patrick Dryden is a senior industry analyst covering topics related to systems and network management, client/server infrastructures, application performance measurement and service quality monitoring. Prior to joining Giga, Dryden worked with IT from various points of view for 17 years. He has developed and supported network products at Tandy Corp./Radio Shack, has promoted diverse vendors' wares at a high-tech public relations agency, and has reported on the industry for weekly trade magazines. He covered products, standards, user issues and business needs at Computerworld, Communications Week, LAN Times and InfoWorld. Dryden received Bachelor's Degrees in English and journalism, both from the University of Texas, Austin.