CA's new channel chief has work cut out for him 2 November, 2006 By Patricia Pickett

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Islandia, N.Y.-based CA announced the appointment Wednesday. Lipsin, who has 30 years of experience in sales and operations management, including 19 years with the channel, replaces Gary Quinn, who left the company suddenly on Sept. 7. Lipsin joined CA in 2005 as senior vice-president and general manager for its Western Region sales organization.

Prior to CA, Lipsin was president and chief executive officer (CEO) of enterprise software and services vendor SEEC. Previous positions also include: president and CEO of Ironside Technologies; general manager of Bay Networks Canada; senior vice-president of services and marketing for Canadian reseller/system integrator Crowntek; and positions with IBM Canada's direct and indirect sales and marketing organizations.

Michael Dortch, principal business analyst and IT infrastructure management practice leader with research firm Robert Frances Group of Westport, Conn., said Lipsin's experience, especially growing Bay Networks Canada, could be just what CA needs in order to "broaden and deepen its channel partner relationships and to build upon the structural improvements begun by Gary Quinn and George Kafkarkou," CA's senior vice president of worldwide SMB and consumer channel sales and Quinn's interim replacement. Dortch said that Lipsin, along with Kafkarkou and CA's chief operating officer Michael Christenson, "appear to have the right stuff to help CA's channel partners make the move up the value chain" to deliver higher levels of business value through solutions.

"If the company continues to fine-tune the product mix it moves through the channel to align those offerings closely with user needs and channel partner expertise, CA, its channel partners and their shared customers should all benefit," Dortch said.

Tom Lambro, vice-president of business development with Denali Advanced Integration, a CA partner in Redmond, Wash., said Lipsin is perfect for the role. "The big thing he brings to the table is channel experience" and a very pro-channel mentality, Lambro said.

Still, Rob Enderle, principal analyst with research outfit Enderle Group in San Jose, Calif., said Lipsin will likely face some huge challenges in his new job.

"CA has been through so much...and is clearly struggling with negative brand image, not so much with its products but with what the previous administration has done," Enderle said, referring to "problem after problem" in CA's history, from its "flash-and-burn" acquisition method that turned it into a company that "IT managers would avoid like the plague," all the way up to the recent financial problems the vendor has faced. "If there was a show about ultimate makeovers for companies, I would recommend they take CA first."

Lipsin's job will be about "getting people back to work and excited about the company," Enderle said. "You have to make (employees) feel comfortable, that they have a job, that you are looking after them. You've got to make sure that, whatever hopes and aspirations they had with your predecessor, they have not gone away," he sad. Typically, people who were well recognized by a previous executive feel disenfranchised when a new leader takes over. Lipsin's job, he said, will be about restoring the confidence in the future of individual employees and getting them focused on their jobs rather than company troubles, he said.

As for the channel, Lipsin will need to work hard to reach out to major partners, who need to feel that they don't have to throw out all their previous efforts and start from scratch, which is how some may have felt in the past, with all the executive changes and the lack of a consistent strategy. "Clearly it would help if (partners) have a sense that CA is stable. "

In the end, there are many obstacles the company will face that an executive focused on the channel will not be able to do much about. "No matter how good the channel guy is, he won't be able to fix that (image) problem," Enderle said. "It would help the channel organization a great deal if marketing could put in some big dollars to pick up the slack and take the lead in restoring CA's image. If that's done, a lot of the work the channel organization has to do will get a lot easier."