BMC last month acquired a company called ITM Software, an innovator in managing the business of IT. CIOs, IT managers, and IT professionals involved in the day-to-day management of their operations all ought to pay attention to ITM Software's solution, as it represents a combination of functionality that supports the CIO and his or her staff.

Some might argue that it is really a variation on the positioning of “running IT as a business,” playing to the IT governance theme. Having been briefed in January by the company’s executives, my conclusion differs significantly. This team demonstrated independent thinking - and while it covered disciplines such as project and portfolio management, its product set reflected the need for broader functionality to more holistically address IT business management requirements.

The ITM Business Suite covers a range of disciplines all aimed at helping IT management interact with executives and better run their operations. Modules offered by ITM include financial business management, project and portfolio management, vendor relationship management, governance and compliance, and human capital management.

• Financial Resource Management – track total cost of ownership and optimize spending
• Product Portfolio Management – make trade-off decisions across new projects
• Vendor Relationship Management – control lifecycle and spending with vendors
• Governance and Compliance Management – manage, audit and enforce corporate IT policies
• Human Capital Management – track who is working on what

All together, the suite addresses the business and resource needs for IT. No forward-thinking IT manager would consider any of these functional areas peripheral or irrelevant, especially in times where IT continues to be increasingly accountable, finances are tighter and the strategic role of IT is increasing. Underneath these capabilities is an integrated Core Business Management Database (BMDB) providing the foundation for all applications to leverage a common data model and one that serves as a unique point of integration for the CMDB System.

Why should network and systems professionals, architects, group leaders, and all levels of managers care about these seemingly business-focused technologies? IT technologists have been happy to steer clear of day-to-day business operations. For these professionals, the concern has been focused on creating solid infrastructure, keeping up with technologies, developing algorithms for predicting capacity requirements, and connecting the dots between disparate systems - all continuing and important challenges for IT. But the need to “run IT as a business” is moving quickly into that domain and is no longer secondary.