CA to Focus Channel Marketing on a Limited Product Set

Software maker CA will limit its major go-to-market channel resources to just nine enterprise and commercial product areas out of its vast portfolio, allowing it to target resources at the hottest products and markets.

Sales and technical support will continue for the rest of the Islandia, N.Y., company’s 1,200-plus products, but major marketing, advertising and sales spending in the channel will be limited to strategic product groups, Gary Quinn, the newly installed executive vice president of worldwide partner sales and marketing, told Channel Insider.

Going forward, channel focus will be on products that are No. 1 or 2 in the market or in Gartner’s “Magic Quadrant,” Quinn said.

“The idea is to put the best resources on the best pieces of technology in the market,” Quinn said. “Partners want products people know and think are standard.

“You can’t focus on 15 to 18 products and expect to be familiar with everything and make money,” he said. “Some products don’t need to be covered in the partner community. It didn’t make sense for us to be supporting them with marketing resources and taking them from other areas.”

CA opens thousands of direct accounts to the channel. Click here to read more.

The strategy will initial focus channel resources on:

• Identity & Access Management
• Service Desk
• eHealth
• iLumin
• Business Protection Suites
• ARCserve
• Integrated Threat Management
• ERwin
• XOsoft (acquired by CA in July and to be distributed as a CA offering Oct. 1)

CA will add product areas as the strategy rolls on such as enterprise application management solutions from Wily Technologies, acquired by CA in March and Clarity, the project and portfolio management solution from Niku which CA acquired in June 2005.

Consumer and small-business lines, including CA’s Internet Security Suite, Antivirus, PestPatrol and Desktop DNA, are unaffected by the strategy shakeup, the company said.

Partners have often complained that CA owns too many offerings, some seemingly competitive, and the company has continued to expand through development and acquisition.

The remainder of the portfolio remain supported by CA’s sales, technical and engineering resources, Quinn said. “Plenty of solution providers have built successful businesses around niche products and niche markets,” he said. “But does it make sense for us to be doing advertising spending for all 1,200 products?”