CA outlines unified service approach

CA chief executive John Swainson announces the Unified Service Model at the CA World event in Las Vegas

CA kicked off its user event in Las Vegas this week with the launch of a new unified service strategy and further reassurances to customers about the transformation of the company in the wake of its accounting scandal.

Chief executive John Swainson used his CA World opening keynote to update the 6,000 delegates on the firm’s Enterprise Information Technology Management (EITM) strategy, designed to integrate the CA product line and simplify the management of IT within enterprises.

EITM was unveiled at the last CA World event in November 2005, with the aim of helping customers to manage and secure their IT environments. Swainson said that in the past two years, CA has acquired 15 companies, such as web application management vendor Wily Technology and records management specialist MDY, to help build out its portfolio. He added that the recent acquisitions supported the firm’s EITM strategy and gave it a complete IT management offering.

Swainson said that the growing popularity of technologies such as virtualisation, software as a service and open standards was creating more complexity in the IT environment. “We need to find a way to ensure that as technology advances, it can be governed, managed and secured,” he explained. “But governance, management and security are not the first things that people think about when they are building an application, they’re lagging considerations.”

Going forwards, CA intends to build on the growth of EITM to help customers simplify their IT management. At the show, Swainson announced the Unified Service Model, designed to facilitate the integration of IT assets by offering a common view of technology services across the organisation.

The Unified Service Model is accompanied by a set of Capability Solutions, which help to simplify and automate the governance, management and security of IT. These include CA Project and Portfolio Management, which offers real-time views of investments and resources to help align spending with business strategy; and CA Network and Voice Management, which offers performance management for multi-vendor telephony systems.

Swainson also used his keynote to outline changes in the company over the past 18 months as it continues its efforts to distance itself from the $2.2bn accounting scandal that shook the firm in 2004. Former chief executive Sanjay Kumar was sentenced to 12 years in prison late last year, and this month has been ordered to repay almost $800m to those affected by the financial irregularities.

Swainson told delegates that CA has undertaken a change in the development organisation, sales force, marketing strategy and executive team since he took the helm. He also revisited the priorities he outlined at the last CA World show, which included strengthening customer relations.

“This [priority] has not really changed. If we could only do one thing, this would be it,” Swainson said. To support CA’s efforts to improve customer relationships, the firm is launching a Customer Alliance Program this week, which will ensure CA is delivering the right products for customers and help customers to connect with their peers, he added.