At a time when business is demanding more and more from technology, CA Technologies, formerly CA, Inc and Computer Associates, is helping create agile businesses with its offerings across all IT environments?from mainframe and distributed, to virtual and cloud. ?Technology will continue to grow as our choices are expanding. Companies need to be prepared to manage an ever-increasing selection of technologies across public and private IT environments,? says William E McCracken, CEO, CA Technologies. He became CEO in January 2010 and has since given a new business focus by broadening the company?s strategy beyond its core franchise of mainframe software into new tools that help enterprises manage their technology in what the industry calls the cloud. Prior to joining CA Technologies, McCracken held numerous executive positions at IBM during his 36-year tenure. In a conversation with BV Mahalakshmi, he talks about the company?s new growth strategy. Excerpts:
How has CA technologies evolved over the years, in terms of innovation?
Over the last five years, we have seen a rise in credibility and added innovation. Our growth has been organic and inorganic which has helped us move into the market space aggressively. We believe that business service innovation will be the differentiator in 2012. Business services will allow companies to be more flexible and adaptive, which will lead to a competitive advantage and ultimately growth and innovation. Embracing new IT strategies to deal with the normal economy where IT is fundamental to business success.
Over the past year, we have bolstered our product portfolio with addition of new technologies from nine acquisitions and combined these acquired capabilities with our own development to provide customers with the solutions they need to help manage and secure their IT environments. This is driving our growth and establishing the base for growth going forward.
Given the current volatile global market circumstances, how do you plan to expand R&D spend both in India and other CA development centres?
CA Technologies has a strong presence in Hyderabad with the India Technology Centre which contributes 30% in CA Technologies? global R&D work. We have invested a total of $60 million since 2007 in the building. This R&D centre is the largest development facility for CA Technologies globally and is essential for our continued ability to deliver industry-leading solutions to our customers. In October 2010, we opened a $30 million facility to expand the ITC campus in Hyderabad. The new building has taken ITC footprint to some 4,40,672 square feet and has reinforced the facility?s stature as a role model IT campus.
What are the new technology trends which you foresee?
Technology will continue to grow as our choices are expanding. Companies need to be prepared to manage an ever-increasing selection of technologies across public and private IT environments. Most of the IT environments will be a combination of on-site and off-site; cloud and legacy; private and public; physical and virtual; social and secure; enterprise and consumer; desktop and server; mobile and static. IT will find a way to deliver a 360-degree service assurance across all facets of end-user experience.
Some areas that we see potential growth are technologies that drive cloud computing, simulation applications, mobile device management, application lifecycle management, security, service assurance and infrastructure management, SaaS, virtualisation.
Is cloud computing a reality now?
Cloud computing is changing the way business operates and the way the IT functions. IT is no longer a back-room activity, but rather a major business enabler shaping every aspect of how an organisation operates. CA Technologies believes that in 2012, the talk will become a reality, and cloud computing will become the predominate way that organisations operate?via private or hybrid clouds. This will combine to create a new era in IT? the consumerisation of IT.
We also see a trend that businesses are moving to cloud-based apps which will be a strong differentiator for 2012 and the years to come.
What are the growth plans for the company in India?
The Indian economy is fast growing and is definitely a key market in the growth economies that we are focused on. More importantly, India provides brilliant engineers to bring about the necessary innovation in various technology areas. As a geography, India is a big enough market and hence we have made additional investments here. Over the years, we have increased our investments by 25% as we see a much more opportunity in India.
Is CA open to acquisition of Indian IT companies?
We invest around $600 million a year in our own organic development. We have earmarked upto $500 million a year for acquisitions. CA Technologies believes that the number of potential buyouts targets in India would be in ?double digits?. The targets include firms with India headquarters or companies who have substantial operations in India.
