CA makes case for federal business

To maintain its competitive edge, Computer Associates International Inc. recently re-organized itself to target six product areas in the federal space and is focusing on building relationships with agencies' business managers.

"In the process of selling to federal agencies, you have to advertise and have the right kind of PR, but we also focus on the business managers as opposed to just the CIOs and IT departments," said Otto Guenther, general manager of CA's federal group. "Before, we'd look at the lower-end technology folks and the IT managers to [build momentum]. But now it's paramount for e-businesses and e-government to look at business cases in an organization and to see what they are responsible for managing."

Guenther said a recent meeting with representatives from the U.S. Postal Service underscored this strategy. They insisted that CA understand "how they were doing business now and how they would be doing it in the future," he said.

CA attempts to reach such an understanding and develop a rapport with federal customers by focusing on e-government process management, information management and infrastructure management though its six solution sets.

CA's six solution sets for the federal space are:

Enterprise management Security Storage Electronic business transformation and integration Portals and knowledge management Predictive analysis and visualization CA has traditionally done well in enterprise management, storage and security in the federal space, and the company recently has seen a lot of interest in its portal business, Guenther said.

"The portal technology is also big because you can take six or seven databases and look at what you want and see it all in one shot, or a couple of shots, on a daily basis," he said.

But remaining competitive is the key for Islandia, N.Y.-based CA, he said. "We must be No. 1 or No. 2 in all those areas or you won't see us there."

Guenther said he expects to have some federal contract wins to announce before the end of CA's fiscal year in March.