John A Swainson was faced with a difficult agenda when he took charge as president and CEO of CA, earlier known as Computer Associates. When he moved from IBM (where he was vice-president) in 2004, there were many who felt Swainson was risking his reputation, perhaps even his career, as his responsibilities at CA would be a little too hot to handle. But he has proved them wrong. Swainson has led CA's growth into a $4 billion IT giant that now figures among the Fortune 500.On his first visit to India, Swainson spoke to Business Standard at the weekend. Here are excerpts from the interview. How important is India to CA and what exactly is the agenda of your visit? India is a strategic market for CA on multiple fronts. During this visit we will be opening our new research and development (R&D) centre in Hyderabad, which will have an initial capacity for 1,600 developers. Our India Technology Centre (ITC) is a critical part of CA's global development strategy and it is working on some of our most important products and solutions.India is a fast growing market for Information Technology and large users of IT are leveraging CA products and solutions. Finally, India is home to some of the top global IT services providers in the world. In addition to our new R&D centre opening during this visit, we'll also be holding our first-ever CA Expo "� the trade event that runs throughout Asia Pacific - in Mumbai. Finally, we will be meeting with a number of government officials. What are CA's plans for India? Like on further investments, ramping up capacity of R&D facilities and headcount among others. India is clearly a key growth market for CA and we recognise the opportunities this presents to us, from customers to partners to our R&D capacity. This is a core development centre, with a deep pool of expertise in one of our top markets in Asia Pacific. We have nearly 1,600 people in India in R&D. You have been often quoted as stating that CA is in the business of creating products that change the way people manage technology. What does this really mean, especially when CA is being considered as a software company? We focus on Enterprise IT Management (EITM) and create products that allow our customers to manage large, complex, heterogeneous IT infrastructure efficiently. EITM is all about products and associated services that help customers ensure that their IT systems support their business goals, and are secure, available and reliable. Part of CA's advantage is our independence... we are not in the business of selling hardware, or applications, or services... all we do is produce IT management, governance and security software. Globally CA is strong in infrastructure management and security segments. Is the company looking at replicating this in India? We are known throughout the industry for our leadership in enterprise systems management and business service optimisation solutions. In the area of security, CA is a leader in identity and access management and security infrastructure management. In addition, CA also has threat management products for both the enterprise and consumer markets. These are our focus areas and complement our EITM strategy well. We are already seeing strong interest from customers in India. What are CA's plans on the Internet security front, considering that the segment is crowded with a lot of players? Internet security is very important to CA. More and more of our customers are using the internet as the access point for customers to their business, or to connect to their business partners. They need to be able to assure themselves that only people with the right authority have access to critical business functions, and that the data stored in their systems is protected from attack. Our security software does this, for many of the world's largest companies. CA was harping on data protection software for the SME segment, and had announced plans of rolling out low-cost and efficient suite for this segment.How important is the SME segment to CA and how many products would you be rolling out? To align our effort to grow more revenue from the indirect channel, we have created the mid-market and storage business unit. The unit focuses on supporting our channel strategy, targeted at companies that have between 500 and 5,000 employees and revenues of $100 million to $1 billion. By creating this new business unit, we are demonstrating our commitment to this very important segment of the market. Acquisition was always the growth strategy for CA, and would be the company be looking at taking the inorganic route for growth in India? We are always evaluating where we are in our market and what is needed to round out our technology portfolio. We make decisions whether to build or buy. We will make acquisitions if we see an opportunity to contribute meaningfully towards building out our EITM strategy. You were always against legacy IT systems and had once commented that legacy architectures impede growth and functionality. Are you an advocate of open source movement and how do you think OSS would help in transforming the industry? CA supports the widest range of systems of any vendor in the industry. My comments about legacy systems have nothing to do with the platform they are running on, and everything to do with the flexibility and adaptability of the applications running on those platforms. Some of the most flexible, modern systems in the world run on mainframes, and some of the most rigid and difficult to change ones run on "open" platforms. My point is that the particular brand of hardware customers use does not matter all that much, as long as people use it for the right things in an architected way. A lot of good things have come out of open source...as well as from so called "proprietary" platforms. What is important is having a modular, services oriented architecture that uses each to its best advantage. At CA you had a mammoth task of reviving the company, which was facing a $2 billion accounting fraud case. Taking over its reins in 2004 and growing it to a company with more than $4 billion in annual revenue, you have come a long way. Looking at the company as a whole, CA is a different company today, evidenced by a new, compelling value proposition for managing IT in increasingly complex IT environments, a strong management team, improved financial performance, realigned business units and strong partnerships. We have sharpened our focus on several business lines with strong customer demand and in markets where we enjoy leading competitive positions, setting the stage for further growth. Our enterprise IT management vision gives our customers comprehensive solutions that help them govern, manage and secure their existing investments. When I began at CA, I outlined six priorities which still ring true today: Continue To Build Strong Customer Partnerships Build Strong Business Partnerships Market Leadership"� Focus on Markets we can lead (EITM, Mainframe, Market leadership in Geographies, etc.) Align CA For Growth Build a Strong Foundation for Growth Create a Performance-based Culture that Rewards Achievement of Goals, Accountability and InnovationWhy was the earlier name change from Computer Associates to CA? Was this an attempt to salvage the lost image of the company after the accounting fraud case? The timing and name change, from Computer Associates to simply 'CA' made practical sense. "CA" is what our customers, partners and other influencers around the world already called us. In addition to helping to describe our compelling value proposition (called EITM) for managing IT in our customers' increasingly complex environments, the new brand message reflects that CA is a transformed company on many fronts.We are led by a strong, industry experienced management team; we are delivering enhanced financial performance; we are realigned our business units; and we are meeting our customers' needs internationally.
