After warning yesterday it may fall short of Wall Street expectations in the second quarter, Computer Associates International Inc is taking steps to reorganize its sales force and divide itself into business units, according to a report from analyst Morgan Stanley & Co. The Islandia, New York- based software firm’s new structure includes a mainframe accounts division – in which customers are assigned to a single sales person; a mainframe products division and a technical services group. The last will serve as a liaison between development and sales. CA has also split into Independent Business Units (IBUs) similar to Oracle Corp. Morgan Stanley expects the IBUs to attract third party companies which previously didn’t want to work with CA on Unicenter because they were applications competitors and feared internal technology-sharing. CA says it has 6,500 Unicenter sites and Unicenter/TNG will ship on track at the end of this year. Unicenter has gained ground slowly, but the market education period is ending and third-party support is increasing. The analyst also approved of CA’s next Ingres release, which will add a 64-bit architecture and mobile client database. Justice Department approval for the Polycycenter products which CA bought from DEC is expected in the next few weeks, which should help CA maintain its VMS base and over time help customers migrate to Unicenter under Unix or NT. Despite the recent profits warning, CA expects to see strong growth into its fiscal 1997 year (CI No 2,919).
