Computer Associates 2004 Annual Report Download - page 32

BrightStor®for Storage Management — These products are designed to enable companies to centrally manage
enterprise storage, while helping to ensure continuous availability and integrity of data. This increases storage efficiency
and mitigates risk.
BrightStor solutions help control escalating costs, increase the effectiveness of storage resources, and support
business continuity and regulatory compliance. Solutions include BrightStor®ARCserve®Backup, BrightStor®Enterprise
Backup, BrightStor®ARCserve®Backup for Laptops & Desktops, BrightStor®SAN Designer, BrightStor®SAN Manager,
BrightStor®Storage Resource Manager, BrightStor®CA-Vantage™Storage Resource Manager, and BrightStor®CA-1®
Tape Management.
AllFusion®for Application Life Cycle Management — These products are designed to automate the life cycles of
systems and applications, from design and development to deployment and maintenance. These products integrate
with existing environments and infrastructures, and provide management of the software development process for
any platform, from the mainframe to the Web. Products include AllFusion®ERwin®Data Modeler for application and
data design, AllFusion®Harvest Change Manager for distributed platforms, AllFusion®Endevor®Change Manager for
mainframe platforms, and AllFusion®Gen for application generation.
Advantage™for Data Management and Application Development — These products are designed to help customers
store and manage large amounts of data; and automate, standardize, and improve the processes they use to build and
maintain vital company information. Products include Advantage™EDBC®, Advantage™CA-Datacom®, Advantage™
Ingres®, and Advantage™CA-IDMS®Database.
CleverPath™for Portal and Business Intelligence — These solutions enable businesses to centralize information
access; refine, analyze, and sort data; create and distribute informative reports; and develop executive dashboards that
mirror their business processes. Products include CleverPath™Portal, CleverPath™Aion®Business Rules Expert, and
CleverPath™Dashboard Option.
Business Model
Customers face challenges when trying to achieve their desired returns on software investments. These challenges are
compounded by traditional software pricing models that often force companies to make long-term commitments for
projected capacities. When these projections are inaccurate, the desired returns on investment are not achieved. Many
companies are also concerned that, due to short product life cycles for some software products, new products may
become available before the end of their current software license agreement periods. In addition, some companies,
particularly those in new or evolving industries, want pricing structures that are linked to the growth of their businesses
to minimize the risks of overestimating capacity projections.
We believe we can service our customers better by offering more flexible licensing terms to help ensure they realize
maximum value from their software investments. In October 2000, we formalized this philosophy and refer to it as our
Business Model.
Our Business Model offers customers a wide range of purchasing and payment options. Under what we call “FlexSelect
LicensingSM,” customers can license our software products for relatively short periods of time, including on a monthly
basis. By offering more flexible licensing agreements, customers can evaluate whether our software meets their needs
before making larger commitments. As customers become more comfortable with their software investments, they
typically license our software for longer terms, generally up to three years.
Some customers prefer to choose cost certainty and sign longer-term agreements. Under FlexSelect Licensing, customers
can also license our software products under traditional one-, two-, or three-year licenses. We provide our
customers with the option to change their product mix after an initial period of time to mitigate their risks. We also
help customers reduce uncertainty by providing a standard pricing schedule based on simple usage tiers.
We also offer software licenses to customers based on the value created from our customers’ business processes by
linking our pricing structure to the growth of our customers’ businesses. For example, an airline company may choose
to license our software based on the number of passenger miles flown during a defined period. Although this practice is
not widely utilized by our customers, we believe this metric-based approach is unique in the software industry and can
provide us with a competitive advantage.
As a result of the flexible licensing terms we offer our customers, specifically the right to receive software in the future
within defined product lines for no additional fee, we are required under accounting principles generally accepted in the
United States of America (GAAP) to recognize revenue from our license agreements ratably over the license term. For a
description of how ratable revenue recognition has impacted our financial results, refer to “Results of Operations” within
Item 7, “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations.”
CA 2004 FORM 10-K | PAGE 4