While BMC does an exemplary job of keeping FootPrints at the top of its game, the idea that Asset Core is simple to implement is clearly off base.
To continue with the analogy, you can’t play baseball until you know how the game is played. I have spent the last three years of my life doing nothing but Asset Core implementations and I’ve witnessed first-hand how organizations strike out in the first inning thinking they can implement Asset Core without outside help. The truth is, Asset Core has a tremendous learning curve and even the most seasoned IT pro can find themselves wallowing in how-to manuals and wasting huge amounts of time learning the solution when hiring the expertise to do it for them just makes more sense.
At the risk of sounding like I’m tooting my own horn, I’ve had customers tell me after the fact that they regret not hiring us to begin with rather than wait until they ran into problems that ended up costing them more to fix than had they brought us in at the start. That’s what you call “learning the hard way.” But, as I like to say, “You don’t know what you don’t know.”
Without having the experience of implementing Asset Core, how can you know if it’s done correctly until you find out that it isn’t? Hiring people who are experienced with FootPrints can lay a strong foundation and train your people so that you don’t run into roadblocks and find yourself calling in emergency help. With that foundation in place, you’re in a position to leverage the very best Asset Core has to offer.
Over the years, I’ve replaced many different vendor products and, in my humble opinion, FootPrints Asset Core comes closest to being the perfect solution in its category. However, unless it’s built on a firm foundation, even Asset Core won’t perform like you want it to.
My next article will discuss how to handle enterprise software distribution and satisfy the prerequisites for a successful installation.