Computer Associates 2005 Annual Report Download - page 35

Table of Contents
Quality
We strive for consistently high product quality. Our goal is to continue to improve our processes to increase efficiency, speed
time-to-market, and enhance customer satisfaction. Our overall commitment to quality helps us deliver software solutions and provide
professional services to meet customers’ needs.
We achieved global ISO 9001:2000 certification in March 2003. This certification is recognized globally as the highest standard of
quality a company can achieve within the ISO 9000 series of standards.
We also compensate many of our senior and management-level employees based upon improvements in customer satisfaction, as
measured by independent customer satisfaction surveys.
And, we support our customers through the following means:
• CA Technical Support — We have highly skilled customer response specialists who provide quality assistance online or over
the phone, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
• CA CustomerConnect — Customers can order and download software products, update their account information, and obtain
support or assistance at any time through our website, ca.com/customerconnect. We have approximately 68,000 registered
users on CustomerConnect. As part of CustomerConnect, we offer “SupportConnect,” which provides web-based problem
diagnosis, program fixes, access to our customer support databases, and other sources of information.
• CA Technology Services — The CA Technology Services organization offers customers a single point of contact for a broad
range of post-sales services, from education and training to consulting and implementation. Our post-sales service engagements
focus on our software products, helping us to ensure that our customers receive the highest level of satisfaction.
• CA Education — Our education programs are designed to help our customers gain better value from our software. These
programs are available at customer sites, CA Learning Centers, and through computer or web-based programs.
Product Development
We continue to invest extensively in product development and enhancements. We anticipate that we will continue to adapt our software
products to the rapid changes in the computer industry and will continue to enhance our products to help them remain compatible with
hardware changes. We expect that we will continue to be able to improve our software products to work with the latest hardware
platforms and operating systems.
We have several programs designed to involve customers throughout our software product development process. The Development
Buddy Program gives customers direct access to our development resources and provides us with feedback to help produce new software
products. Our beta software program involves delivery of new software products to selected customers for testing before we make the
products generally available. Our Product Advisory Council of experienced IT professionals acts as an independent adviser for software
design and development. We also work with approximately 250 recognized worldwide user groups, comprised of licensed customers,
who actively communicate with each other and with us about our software products. Each of these programs provides us with valuable
information that we use to develop and enhance our software products.
We also pursue “next-generation” technologies that we believe our customers need to enhance their businesses. Our research and
development efforts, across all of our product areas, include emerging technologies such as:
• Linux — We continue to support all widespread enterprise software product technology platforms available to our customers,
including the Linux operating system. Linux is an operating system developed by volunteers on the Internet and distributed
freely in electronic form. We offer Linux-based software across all of our solution areas for distributed (desktop or server
environment) and mainframe computing systems.
• Wireless — We have extended as well as developed new software solutions to help customers manage, secure, and provide
information access throughout a wireless environment. Our products are designed to help customers integrate enterprise
management capabilities, secure wireless networks, increase performance and productivity, and improve service levels.
• Web services — Web services allow communication over the Internet regardless of the operating system or programming
language. Our software products are designed to help customers manage, secure, and integrate Web services into their
computing systems.
In the United States, product development is primarily performed at our facilities in San Diego, California; Lisle, Illinois; Leawood,
Kansas; Framingham, Massachusetts; Waltham, Massachusetts; Mount Laurel, New Jersey; Princeton, New Jersey; Islandia, New York;
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Plano, Texas; and Herndon, Virginia. Internationally, we also
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