Computers Today June 1998 Front End: An Annual Global Roll-out

The business software giant encashes on its unique position—neutral to any platform camp—with an orchestra of software and strategies

Wear the badge and move on. It's your ticket to the whole bang of CA World 98, the biggest single-vendor-sponsored software roadshow on the Earth. The April-end show at New Orleans, the Jazz capital hosting the famous annual Jazzfest at the same time, was slated to play 'Cool apps' alongside 'hot Jazz', adding high-tech to high-voltage entertainment. As many as 25,000 attendees from 40 countries, 3,000 technical sessions, over 300 partner-exhibitors on a three-lakh sq. ft. showcase, a keynote jam-session a day, 35 hotels, four chartered cruise ships (as additional boarding/training sites for 4,500 Computer Associates' staff) docked on the Mississippi river adjacent to the Convention Centre—all on the house (of Computer Associates International Inc. (CA)). Estimates of the bill range between $60-100 million.

Amidst musical fanfare and applause, founder chairman and CEO of CA, the world's largest business software company, thunders on the value of technology that enables businesses to better serve industrial clients. He announced the 1999 version, TND (The New Dimension), of Unicenter TNG, CA's flagship a-million-dollar-a-piece software for enterprise management solution, with 10,000 clients. Also TNG 2.2 with enhancements such as an add-on option for neural network agents "that learn, predict and resolve problems before they arise." TND incorporates a time-predictive element and an advanced user-interface, the Real World Interface.

Microsoft chairman, Bill Gates' keynote address did not include 'another demo' of Windows 98 as some jovially predicted. However, Gates joined Wang in announcing the inclusion in Windows NT 5.0 of CA's Real World Interface, a WBEM (Web-Based Enterprise Management standard) application based on CA's Unicenter Framework. WBEM enables corporate customers to relate and associate management data from diverse sources to create cohesive views of their IT environments.

The latest pitch is on Harmony, CA's strategy for information management to leverage existing and new technologies with Opel, the Windows-based multimedia authoring and apps integration tool; IngresII, its own RDBMS; and Jasmine, multimedia object-oriented database and development environment.

In a talk-show format complete with music, guests, "documentary" video, and even TV-style commercials, CA president and COO, Sanjay Kumar's keynote was a far cry from the techie speech. He launched into the theme of "breaking all the rules" as the prevailing necessity for companies leveraging IT to promote their business success. Kumar then spelt out his cardinal rule for breaking all the rules: "common infrastructure", which he called the glue tying all of a company's IT and business activities together. Obviously, he leads you to CA's Harmony, the CA's CIO panacea for "managing the mess."

If this sounds like a wonder-solution vendor, look at CA's 500-product list, scores of partners—dealing with technologies as archaic as MVS, CICS, COBOL, or Unix, or the latest NT or what have you, come what platform. No wonder critics grudgingly call CA

"the plumbers." CA thrives on offering 'Swiss army knife'-like propositions to enterprises worldwide in return for its $4.5-billion annual sales. "When we start to apply technology to enable business, we begin breaking the rules. But what is more important is getting tech out of the bottom line and into the top line," declares Kumar.

So, what's CA up to in India? Having launched itself into the country last year, it has opened its accounts with RBI, Reliance Consulting, ISRO, Mastek and recently a $4-million deal (over nine years) with Infosys. "While we focus on the top corporates here, we see a tremendous opportunity in the small and medium enterprises, particularly with our workgroup solutions for that segment," said Ian Hughes, general manager, CA India. CA has also set up a 51:49 joint venture with the Chatterjee group for a software development centre in Calcutta. A venture capital programme for India is in the offing too. Is CA a latecomer to India? By the nature of its main business—enterprisewide computing—it seemed to have timed its arrival right, when a critical mass of 'networking mess' is on hand in many an organisation. "Managing the mess" is what CA seems to sell. There seems to be little competition in such a compelling offer. Solutions may be pricey, but problems are not affordable either.

CA World 98 shows off that there is a world (of CA's own) beyond any platform—Unicenter TNG, Jasmine, OpenIngres and 500 other products for a 'leakless' fix of your apps. Five hundred products? CA has mastered its growth by acquisitions. When asked about its strategy in India, chairman Wang reiterated that CA always looked forward to acquiring good companies. "Same in India. You tell us: who are the good candidates. We shall acquire," he said, seriously.

Good Deal With HCL

Computer Associates and HCL Corp. announced a global agreement to provide CA's Unicenter TNG customers with certified training, professional services including implementation, and onsite and offshore consulting services. "CA's clients and partners around the world will benefit from HCL's tightly focussed education and professional services to maximise the business value of their IT investments and operations," said Sanjay Kumar, CA president and COO. "CA's enterprise management products and HCL's business-oriented service offerings are the ideal combination for our mutual clients," said HCL chairman, Shiv Nadar.

Under the agreement, HCL group company, NIIT Ltd., will provide certified training and education services on Unicenter TNG applications for CA's clients and partners—developers, implementers, administrators, end-users.

The 'roll-out' plans for USA, UK, Hong Kong and India have already been drawn up. NIIT debuted the programme on Framework at CA World conference itself in New Orleans.

HCL 's Global Networking Services Group will offer implementation and support for the Unicenter suite of products in a combination of onsite presence and offshore delivery. HCL will also offer software consulting through 'offsourcing' by development teams that are dedicated to specific clients and individual projects and the establishment of a 'centre of excellence' to support Unicenter users around the world.

Earlier, CA chairman Charles Wang announced the professional services organisation to build up its own service expertise, just like its products business, and expects it to grow also via strategic acquisitions worldwide.