Computer Associates puts two into one

Computer Associates (CA) has reorganised its internal sales structure, consolidating the separately managed sales organisations for CA's eTrust security and BrightStor storage products. The new entity, called the Data Protection Group, provides a centrally-managed sales structure.

John Ruthven, managing director for CA in Australia said the division will “further enhance footprint to market” for the channel.

Ruthven described the reorganisation as a “tweak” for management efficiencies. CA has cut three positions, and created several new positions, including a data protection manager for Canberra. Ruthven said the Canberra position reflects that Canberra is “obviously” looking at data protection.

Under the restructure, CA's storage and security sales specialists will continue to concentrate on their product areas however they will also work as a team under the Data Protection Group when customers require products from both areas.

The change in sales structure locally demonstrates that the relationship between security and storage of data are connected from a customer's viewpoint, and are no longer seen as standalone solutions, Ruthven claimed.

CA has also regionalised its sales team. The Data Protection Group will report to the same regional management team as CA's Enterprise Management group, a Northern and Southern region sales manager which Ruthven said will mean CA can offer data protection products as part of an overall managed solution.

“This is something single-solution vendors will struggle to do,” he said. “Our competitors and major players are having trouble growing revenue through acquisition of network storage management offerings. We already have a strong network system management solution, so we can pair it with our security and storage offering to continue to grow more aggressively.”

In early April, CA cut 450 jobs worldwide by combining two existing units to form a technical services unit called CA Technology Services.

CA was listed as the only independent storage management software provider to achieve revenue growth in the global US$4.7 billion dollar storage management market in 2002, according to a new Gartner Dataquest Report, released on Monday. The 2002 Storage Management Software Market Share report stated that CA grew its storage management license revenue by 16 percent from 2001 to 2002.