A battle looms over system apps

Computer Associates (CA) has predicted the swift demise of rival Tivoli's management software, IT Director, as it rolled out its own workgroup edition product line.

Launched at CA World last week, CA released details of its workgroup product, which will see it go head-to-head with IBM's TME 10 system management software. But CA is effectively playing catch-up as the two vendors embark on a race to corner the SME market through a two-tier distribution strategy.

Yogesh Gupta, CA senior VP of product strategy, told PC Dealer: 'Tivoli will not be an important player in the long term because it has no idea how a channel product should be priced. It is licensing IT Director for $9,000 for a local network of up to 20 PCs.'

CA's Workgroup edition of 12 systems management applications will support up to 250 clients, with each product priced between $695 and $2,995 per workgroup.

Mark Marron, head of CA's European channel development team, insisted that IT Director did not pose a threat to CA's indirect operation, despite the fact that Tivoli had already struck a deal with Ingram Micro and Tech Data.

When asked whether CA would push its products through the same distributors as its rival, Marron said: 'I wouldn't walk away from Ingram, but I would insist that our partners focus on the CA range of products. Right now, no partners sell both Tivoli and CA.'

CA chairman and CEO Charles Wang was unable to resolve the confusion over who its partners were going to be. He said: 'No one does exclusives in this industry. All the distributors are going vertical. All the major distributors will take advantage of these products.' IBM was not available to comment.