BMC Today - Mobile App

1. What is it for and what is the audience?

BMC Today is currently an Apple iPhone/iTouch application created to make it simple to monitor and filter BMC Software news, blogs, podcasts, videos and Thought Leadership white papers to the mobile user.

This application is intended for use by IT professionals, enterprise executives, BMC employees and partners, customers, stock holders and students interested in products and services of BMC Software.

2. What is the availability?

The BMC Today mobile app is available now from the iTunes store. It is free.

3. How can you get us feedback?

We want to know how you are using the application and what else you would like it to do for you. We're considering improvements to the application for 2010 so your inputs are important to capture. We want to hear your thoughts, impressions and suggestions. We cannot stress enough how much we would appreciate anything you have to say about the application. We feel strongly that the users will know best what is needed for mobile use in 2010 and beyond and we want to learn from you. Send us feedback!

4. Why is there a delay the first time I run the application?

The first time you use the application BMCToday spends sometime pulling in 200-300 pieces of content. Updating after that is optional. You can wait to update any one of the 6 screens to give yourself time to review, save or share them.  Once you've done new updates occur more quickly.

5. What does the app do?

The BMCToday app makes available in once place a way to access, read, download and filter content originating from BMC.com, BMC Communities and EnterpriseLeadership.org.

The content is organized into categories:

• What's New
• News
• Whitepapers
• Blogs
• Audio Podcast
• Video Podcasts

6. Explain the What's New Screen

This is the What's New screen so you'll receive at least 5 of the most recent blogs, podcasts, whitepapers, videos or news items since the last time you hit the refresh button. You can see the time and date of your last refresh also.

The Filter button is discussed below at #10.

7. What are the menu buttons at bottom of the screen?

What's New

The first screen that comes up will show you the 30 most recent blogs, new items, podcasts and white papers. When you come back to the app the same items will remain on the list. Select the Refresh button in the upper right corner to get the most recent updates.

Blog

The 30 most recent blog articles will be listed here. These are pulled from the following location on BMC Communities ...

Audio

The 30 most recently audio podcasts from BMC Podcasts (show link) along with audio podcasts from www.EnterpriseLeadership.org are shown

Video

The 30 most recent videos are shown.

More

This area gives you direct access to NEWS, White Papers, Preferences, Feedback (give link) and Credits.

8. What Can I Do in Preferences?

Be sure to explore the Preferences area. You can select the number of entries shown (need to explain this better).

In the upper right there is a button called 'Filter Tags'. Click there and notice you can create a filter that can be applied everytime you do an Update for any area of the BMC Today app. For example if you only want media that is about "ITIL" then put that tag in and that will be the filter that is applied. Only media items (blogs, white papers, podcasts, news ..) that have ITIL in the title or description.

9. Will there be updates?

Yes, periodically and based on feedback from the community we will release updates.

10. Why don't I see all the blogs listed at this time?

To get started we selected the top 10 most active blogs to get a feel for performance and content preferences that people want.

11. Where are the Thought Leadership White Papers?

At the bottom of the home screen click on "More". You'll see it listed on the next screen.

12. Is there a News only catagory?

At the bottom of the home screen click on "More". You'll see it listed on the next screen.

Notice on the second menu bar there are two buttons - Download and Play.

The Download button will save the audio or video podcast file directly to your iPhone or iTouch. You can then play it later even if you're not connected.

13. Why does it take a while to load videos and some audio podcasts?

When possible use a WiFi connection if you're wanting to watch download the audio or video podcasts. These media files are often 20MB or larger in size depending on length of the show. If you have something you'd like to see and you're in a hurry the best idea is save it to the iPhone while you are in range of a WiFi connection and listen or watch the podcast later. The podcasts will stream also but you will need to wait a few moments for it begin. Both audio and video wills stream over the ATT 3G network.

14. Can I share anything I find interesting with others?

Yes, you can email someone or post on your Facebook or Twitter account from within the application. On any piece of content click the Share button in the upper right hand corner of the screen and the three options will appear.

15. Is there a way to filter for specific terms so you only display items that have those terms in the title or description?

Yes. We specifically included this to help you zero in on just the media items you want to see in the 6 content categories:

• What's New
• News
• Whitepapers
• Blogs
• Audio Podcast
• Video Podcasts

Select More on the bottom menu. Then select Preferences. The example below shows what the Filter Tags page will look like if you have added "ITIL" as a tag.

This screenshot shows a button called Filter Tags.

This screenshot shows where you add the filter tags.

16. How do I use Filter Tags?

Once you have created your filter tags you can use them individually in the six content categories.

Notice Each category has a filter button in the upper right hand corner. You can toggle this button to apply the Filter you created. The example below shows the most recent videos. The screen next to it only show videos that have ITIL in the title or description. You can toggle back and forth between Filter and Show All on each content category screen.

This screenshot show non-filtered content.    

This screenshot shows filtered content with the tag ITIL.  

FEEDBACK

We want feedback. Please let us know what you think and what your thoughts are for improvement.

Tom