Asked whether he would continue with the marketing of the category his predecessor tried to create before Burton became CEO in March, he said, No. I’m a simple guy. We’ve got to talk about application lifecycle management, ALM, not IT Change Governance.
Computer Business Review has questioned in the past whether Serena is large enough to create a new category on its own. You’re spot on, said Burton. A company of our size does not have the luxury of being able to create a new category. We may not do testing, or programming tools, but we do put a layer around those things and with our products enable companies to get to grips with ALM.
He said the company still believes in IT Change Governance as an admirable goal, but conceded that the company’s marketing and the term IT Change Governance in particular had got slightly ahead of the products and services that it is actually selling to the market.
He noted that the firm’s strength in software configuration management, version control, and collaborative software development, combined with its creation of the open source Application Lifecycle Framework project that promises integration between 16 vendors’ tools, puts it in a unique position to offer customers a complete ALM capability.
Our View
Burton seems to be taking a more pragmatic approach. We have said in the past that IT Change Governance was a step too far given the firm’s capabilities.
ALM is now an established segment (some vendors are even talking ALM 2.0) and one that Serena has a far stronger claim to with its products and creation of the ALF project.
Of course rather than just backing off the IT Change Governance mantra, Burton has some cards up his sleeve in terms of new products, that will form the basis of a separate news story in the next few days. Telelogic, Borland, MKS: watch this space. Serena may have been taken private but it is not fading into the background.
