CA World 2007: Governance top of the agenda for CA

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Companies need to bring IT under control if they are to make the most of new technologies.

This was the stark message delivered to delegates yesterday by CA (formerly Computer Associates) chief executive John Swainson during his keynote speech at the company's CA World conference in Las Vegas.

Developing technology is making IT "even more dynamic, diverse but also more complex," he said.

Businesses need to act to improve the governance, management and security of IT, but, according to Swainson, they also need to do this in an "integrated and holistic way."

"There is a growing realisation that IT can be and should be more strategic to business and that IT can be well managed," said Swainson.

"Businesses are moving beyond thinking of IT just as a support function. More and more businesses view IT as a competitive advantage. If the IT dollar is managed more effectively a greater percentage of the IT budget can be used for transformational projects."

CA is promoting its enterprise IT management (EITM) strategy, launched at the last CA World in 2005, as a vehicle for improving the operational efficiency of IT departments, for cutting costs and making technology more strategic to the business. But the EITM vision goes further, extending to security and identity management as well as risk management and compliance.

CA has spent the last two years making as many as 15 acquisitions, including applications management vendor Wily, XOsoft, MDY and iLumen. These have significantly increased the breadth of its product range.

Executives say the company is now the only significant player, aside from IBM, which can offer IT management capabilities across the full range of platforms and systems.

A comprehensive suite of products is not enough, however, to reduce IT complexity and to improve the alignment between IT and the business.

Swainson told CA World delegates that organisations would only be able to fully harness technology through integrated IT management.

"Governance is important, but it is not sufficient," he said. "Nor is management, or security. If you address one or two of those things, that will not be enough."

He cited customer figures pointing to a 400 per cent return on investment from deploying a single CA product. Customers who deployed two or more products, however, saw a 600 per cent return and a 12-13 per cent improvement in downtime. "Investing in CA management, security and governance software can pay for itself in a quarter," said Swainson.

CA has spent the last couple of years reorganising and re-branding the company, as well as rebuilding its senior management structure, following the departure of former chief executive Sanjay Kumar. The company has overhauled its financial management structure and significantly expanded its sales force.

The highest priority for this year, however, is strengthening relationships with customers, which it hopes will come from new vertical industry groups for telecoms, government and financial services and a new Customer Alliance programme.

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