“CA’s FlexSelect licensing model differentiates it from other vendors”

A veteran at Computer Associates India, Ninad Karpe has been with the organization since its inception in the country. When CA formed a joint venture with Satyam, the company reposed faith on him and moved Ninad to head the CA-Satyam ASP.

But when the top slot fell vacant at CA recently, the business software major fell back on the leadership of Ninad who had spearheaded the operations of CA-Satyam successfully. Soft-spoken and suave, Ninad has taken up the top slot at CA India with the specific objective of increasing the company’s depth and breadth among channel partners. 

CA calls itself the industry leader in managing on-demand computing solutions. What should partners understand by on-demand computing solutions? 

A lot of people have spoken about the concept of on-demand computing solutions, be it utility computing or service computing. All these concepts have been there for sometime. What CA is bringing to the table is not just a concept but clearly the technology which enables these things to happen. 

We have moved beyond from the fussy ideas about how on-demand computing should happen. We now have elements of software which enable all this to happen. Earlier there were a few missing links. So, our objective was that we should have some pieces of technology which can be used in this area. Now the entire technology gap has been filled by us. Also, the CA technology works platform independent. 

CA has been advocating ‘FlexSelect licensing’ model. How does this work?

This is one of the biggest attempts of CA to distinguish itself from the rest of the software vendors. Traditionally, vendors have licensed software on a time basis. This means, virtually there is no exit available for a person. Every user should have an opportunity to say, “I don’t like this and I want to get out of this software. But this has not been happening because the user is locked in, in terms of investment and commitment. 

This is the reason CA advocates FlexSelect licensing. It allows users to buy licences for traditional CA software on a very flexible basis. It could be either on a monthly basis or any periodic basis. Vendors typically ask users to pay huge amounts towards licenses and annual maintenance. We allow a customer to decide for how long he wants to use our software and we charge accordingly. 

When did you introduce FlexSelect licensing model in the Indian market?

It’s very new in the Indian market place. We offer it as a choice to our customers. The fact that CA offers this licensing model as a choice makes users confident of our software. At the same time, I think it will take some time before people get into this kind of licensing model.

Is this licensing model available for the entire range of CA products or only some particular products?

It is available for the entire range of enterprise products. Box products, in any case, cannot have flexible licensing because these are products that are traditionally used for a longer time.

CA internationally is talking about overhauling its channel business. What will be the nature of this overhauling?

This development is particularly related to the US where CA is working at three different levels with channel partners. At the first level, they are trying to empower partners; at the second, provide innovative incentives to partners; and lastly, they are trying to ensure that there is constant communication with partners. 

Here in India, we regularly interact with our partners and train them as well. We have got a good support team in place for them. We also have got a toll-free helpline. When users call up, they will get support from India itself. The calls don’t have to go to the US. 

This does not explain the reason to go for an overhauling?

Internationally, they have called some senior management people from other regions into North America and that is what they mean by overhauling. There is a new person in charge of channels in the US and he has been very successful.

What is your channel strategy for India?

We have in place an excellent channel strategy and we are looking at huge growth this year as well as in coming years. We are targeting 70% annual growth rate, which is probably is the most ambitious growth in the IT industry. We are also expanding within India and as well as neighboring regions like Sri Lanka. 

So our three-fold agenda for the year is geographical spread, working more actively with partners and taking our technologies to the market. We have got very robust technologies in our portfolio for security and storage market.

From the partner’s perspective, we are really going to work hard on building and strengthening our channel relationship. At the moment we get a significant revenue from the channel, around 30-40%. My aim is to increase this to 72% in the next two years. 

Don’t you think a 70% growth is highly ambitious?

I think what we are doing a good job in India and partners ultimately are closest to customers. That is why, we are ensuring that there is proper partner co-ordination. Our team members, across all regions, constantly interact with partners. 

What kind of challenges do you foresee in handling the channel? Are you confident of overcoming them?

The biggest challenge is gearing partners to sell our products. So we are empowering by talking about the issues that matter most to them. 

SYLVESTER LOBO  In Mumbai