Computer Associates gains momentum in EMEA SMB sector

Computer Associates International, Inc today announced that it is broadening the geographic reach, increasing sales staff and establishing the first of its specialist technical sales groups at its Customer Interaction Centre (CIC) in Cornell`a de Llobregat, near Barcelona, Spain.

The expanded role for the CIC further strengthens CA`s strategy to drive market share growth in the small and medium business (SMB) sector in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

During the third quarter of CA`s 2005 fiscal year - and less than six months since its opening - the Barcelona CIC, together with its counterpart in Datchet, near Slough, UK, has brought in $4.4 million in incremental revenues, excluding maintenance renewals. It has also generated a business pipeline with a potential value of approximately $25 million. This momentum has been driven by CA`s "Total Protection" marketing and advertising campaign which has been targeting SMBs throughout EMEA over the past six months.

To further increase revenues and market penetration in the SMB sector, CA is broadening the CIC`s reach into five new markets, including Czech Republic, Hungary, Israel, Poland and SA, bringing sales coverage at the CIC to 20 countries.

"In a relatively short period of time CA has demonstrated its ability to deliver on a key element of its growth strategy in EMEA," said Hayley Tabor, CA`s senior vice-president and general manager, EMEA. "We will continue to enhance the resources available to our partners through the CIC, and broaden our portfolio of tailored IT solutions for SMBs as we further expand our business in this critical market sector."

The initial phase of CA`s growth plan for the SMB sector has been focused around sales of its best-in-class anti-virus, backup, anti-spyware and desktop migration software solutions. In phase two, the company is establishing specialist technical sales groups to help further accelerate growth through other areas of CA`s business.

The first such group is focused on CA`s AllFusion suite of modelling products where CA has the industry-leading data modelling solution that helps users create and maintain databases, data warehouses and enterprise data models.

CA expects sales of its AllFusion modelling suite business to grow by 20% per annum in EMEA, helped by the company generating complementary sales leads through the CIC and expanding its business into investment territories. The 10-person team, all of whom have technical expertise in working with databases and database tools, will provide value-added support to CA`s 200 licensed partners in EMEA. Further technical sales groups will be set-up in the future.

To support the continued growth of its CIC operations, CA has boosted its recruitment efforts, increasing sales staff by more than 30% since October 2004. The CIC sales team now includes more than 100 employees, speaking nearly 20 languages, and this number is expected to double over the next year. The new hires also include a dedicated post-sales staff that will provide support to end-users.

CA plans to expand its $1 billion-plus annual EMEA revenues faster than the overall market by implementing a three-pronged growth strategy. In addition to its focus on the SMB market, the strategy calls for deeper penetration of selected emerging markets such as the Arab countries and Central and Eastern Europe, and increased business with original equipment manufacturers.