CA aims deeper in white box channel

Computer Associates (CA) is set to launch a broad international effort to drive its entire product line further into the OEM space, with an emphasis on capturing white-box PC and server market share.

However, CA's local channel sales manager Vicki Bain said the vendor had not yet decided whether to roll out the strategy in Australia. A decision would be made in coming weeks, she said.

"It's early days. We are doing some investigation into it at the moment," Bain said. "In the US, they make some great decisions but they do give us the opportunity to review it before adopting it for the local market."

In the US, the company has hired Sean Aryai, formerly the director of OEM marketing at systems builder Systemax, to serve as CA's new OEM channel marketing manager, a position Aryai said will cater primarily to the white-box OEM market.

Aryai will spearhead CA's attempt to use its antivirus products to penetrate a market that so far has been dominated by Symantec, McAfee and Trend Micro, according to Aryai.

CA then will attempt to cut even further into the white-box channel by offering what most of its antivirus competitors do not have: antivirus system, storage and software management tools.

"The strategy is to get CA's foot in the door with antivirus, then offer the full breadth of CA's products to grab as much market share in the white-box space as possible," Aryai said.

CA is committed to providing significant support to make this happen, Aryai said, and a new white-box OEM channel program is already in the works.

"About 45 percent of the PCs sold to enterprises are not built by the top 10 vendors. So if you don't take advantage of that 45 percent, that's the size of a market you are missing out on," said Aryai.