CA to phase out sub-brands as part of integration
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(InfoWorld) - CA's move to focus all its product names around a single "CA" master brand and a clear product descriptor is being driven by the company's ongoing strategy to more tightly integrate its software, according to a CA executive. The vendorÂ alerted its customers earlier this weekÂ that over the next 12 to 18 months it will gradually rename its hundreds of products, doing away with sub-brands and individual product names. For instance, eTrust Access Control becomes CA Access Control. "Customers told us that they just want simplification," Brian Bell, senior vice president of worldwide product marketing for CA, said Friday. Users want to know from a quick glance at a product's name what it does, he added. In surveying customers, CA discovered that having multiple sub-brands gave the sense that the vendor's various product families weren't well integrated with each other. Simplifying the product names is in line with CA's continued push under its Enterprise IT Management (EITM) road map aiming at more tightly integrating its systems management, security, business services optimization, and storage management software, Bell said. So far, the early response from customers has been very positive, according to Bell, with some users relieved that CA has "finally" taken a step they saw as much needed. Going forward, it's key that the vendor continues to keep customers in the loop about the progress of the name changes, he added. CA has been assessing its branding for over a year. In some discussions with customers, it became obvious that users weren't always clear about what CA stood for. The vendor plans to further elaborate on its EITM strategy at its upcoming CA World conference in Las Vegas in April, Bell said. At that time, "the logic and rationale of this branding strategy will become more apparent," he added. CA will tend to change product names as it comes out with new versions of its software, Bell said. He doesn't expect the rebranding will result in a significant cost burden on the company. In the future, the focus on a single master brand may even enable CA to save money that would have been previously spent promoting its sub-brands, he added. Over time, CA has changed the way it runs its business, Bell said. In the past, CA tended to highlight products families it considered to be homegrown like its Unicenter systems management software and ran much of the rest of its largely acquired software business as a portfolio of separate products. In recent years, the distinction between internally developed and purchased technologies has tended to fade away in favor of bringing together different product families and rapidly integrating any acquired software to fill the holes in existing products, he added. Â
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(InfoWorld) - Transmeta will stop offering engineering services in order to focus entirely on developing and licensing intellectual property, the Santa Clara developer of chip technologies said on Monday. The move follows aÂ restructuringÂ in early 2005 that cut its chip sales business in order to focus on engineering services and intellectual property licensing. "Over the past year, the level of activity for engineering services has declined dramatically due to the completion of programs and our customers' declining staffing requirements," said Les Crudele, president and CEO of Transmeta, during a conference call to discuss the change. "As a result, the billable time for our engineers has declined to the point that the projects are no longer sufficient to cover the costs associated with that business." On Friday, Transmeta laid off 75 employees, mostly engineers in the services business, and expects to let go another 25 to 55 people in the next few quarters. The majority of Transmeta's engineering business came from Microsoft and Sony. Last year, SonyÂ reduced its deal with TransmetaÂ and its contract ends in March. Transmeta has also completed a services contract with Microsoft on theÂ FlexGo project, a program that enables customers in developing economies to buy computers and software on a pay-as-you-go basis. Transmeta plans to retain some staff in order to support that program as it progresses past the trial phase. Transmeta also plans to close its sales and support offices in Taiwan and Tokyo. Without the drag of the engineering services business, Transmeta hopes that it can build its licensing business by attracting more customers. Currently, companies including NEC, Fujitsu, Sony. and Toshiba license technology from Transmeta. The company has been talking to chip makers outside of Japan about licensing deals but isn't ready to make any announcements yet, Crudele said.
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A major restructuring process has pulled this respected audio company into penny land.
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The software vendor will do away with the names currently denoting its various software families, like Unicenter systems management, in favor of the company's name and a descriptive term for the particular piece of software.
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Sources say the two companies will likely dissolve their 8-year-old subsidiary sometime this year.
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The new measures are due to AT&T's retreat from selling services to consumers, the company said today.
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The Lazarus nameplate, a fixture on the retail landscape for 153 years, is coming off department store signs, joining Shillito&#39;s as a defunct brand.
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By Clint Swett, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.  Sep. 15--Calling off a merger it had announced last March, Sacramento  software maker Unify Corp. said Thursday it will remain independent and  instead buy a piece of its erstwhile merger partner.
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King-size candy bars that have helped fuel Britain&#39;s expanding appetite and waistline will be phased out by some food companies, in compliance with an official campaign against obesity.
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The discount retailer's forced to reorganize its flagging apparel business.
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Eastman Kodak Co. will close a plant in England, shut down product lines in France and make other shifts in the two countries as part of the company&#39;s historic push into digital imaging.
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Dixons, the UK&#39;s largest electrical retailer, has today announced plans to phase out the sale of video recorders by the end of the year.
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The company said the cuts are part of a move to consolidate three regional divisions and decentralize buying in an effort to reduce costs and lift sales.
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NEW YORK -- AOL will disband a unit that handled subscriptions and give product managers more autonomy over designing services for consumers as the company increases its emphasis on generating advertising revenue.
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Automaker Chrysler LLC aims to cut its product lineup by around a half and dramatically shrink its dealership network so it can sell its three brands under one roof, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the plan.
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Credence Systems Corp., a maker of chip-testing equipment, on Wednesday said it plans to shut down two testing facilities and eliminate about 8 percent of its work force as it reshuffles its operations.
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Software vendor CA expects to continue restructuring its operations, which is likely to result in further reductions in its headcount, according to the company's CFO.