CA finds its inner green
Friday, January 30th, 2009
Software maker CA (which everyone keeps mistakenly still calling “Computer Associates” - so perhaps that attempted name change was a little less then successful) is amongst those which have more recently found their inner verdant. The NYC headquartered vendor, most famously known for a past period of shaky corporate governance hopes to brings its expertise in IT and Enterprise governance to the world of “sustainability”. More however on the product and go-to-market strategy later.
CA has in fact been prominent through its lack of action toward “green IT”, especially compared to those vendors which the company considers its natural competitors. IBM and BMC have now long had a noticeable greenness to their product marketing messaages, both for existing products which have newly found their environmental benefits, and also in proposed new product developments from the vendors. IBM for instance touts their credentials in regard to the greening of datacentres. Both vendors have highlighted the potential electricity savings that may arise from better server and desktop management, Meanwhile IBM has focused (and delivered on) power efficient versions of their hardware, and OS virtualisation capabilities that are positioned to improve the electricity to performance figures of Wintel servers. Even Oracle, with which CA competes with gusto in the Identity Management arena, has managed to keep Larry Ellison’s mouth shuttered long enough to slip out some green positioning.
CA, meanwhile has been…. ….quietly…. ….up to something….
CA has chosen to find its way forward in the space by first focusing on getting its own environmental house in order. The company has reported under the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP4, CDP5 and CDP6) and has made significant gains in lowering their own GHG emissions, as well as focusing on the ecological footprint of the company’s operations. They do have a long way to go, as do almost all enterprise IT vendors. CA’s sales, marketing and executive staff still travel by plane as a standard part of their business routine. The large footprint and consumptive lifestyles of the average high flying software sales person is still encouraged, again like their peers. Gone however are the dreadful throwaway plastic trays that ALL meals were served in in the company’s HQ staff canteen. From paper waste to electricity usage to water the company has reviewed its position and brought out the knives to trim away excess.
Along the way, CA has learned just how potentially complex the execution of a corporate wide Sustainability Strategy is. Especially one that is being introduced into a multinational company. Such strategies require the balancing of a lot of simultaneously spinning plates.So much so that effective green governance will likely become a major area of concern and effort for the coming years. CA are now taking the knowledge they have gained and are now embedding that into their products, focusing foremost on enabling companies to more effectively understand and manage the overall portfolio of sustainability related projects and initiatives. Meanwhile, expect to see the vendor sprinkle a little green sparkle on their desktop and data centre management product lines.
CA’s inside-outward approach may arguably lost them traction in a fast moving market. At the same time the cautious approach is also a little less cynical than the arguably out and out green-marketing approach taken by an all too long list of IT HW/SW/Services vendors with which CA competes on a regular basis. CA must put no small effort toward communicating its newly minted green credentials in order to make up lost ground, in the meantime its focus on getting its own house in order should win it respect amongst buyers, while its recognition of the need for effective “green governance” should play well for it in the longer term.
A note of disclosure: the author worked for CA from 1996 to 2007. He currently holds no financial interest in the company.
