CA to Web-Enable Change Management Applications

by Marc L. Songini

April 26, 2001 —

Computer Associates International Inc. last week announced that it's Web-enabling portions of its change management software line and combining the products into a single suite. The move is aimed at simplifying the configuration and re-engineering of business applications.

Change management software allows corporate IT workers to revise, update and modify applications to keep them in tune with internal business needs and processes.

In adding a Web interface, Islandia, N.Y.-based CA is trying to keep up with competitors such as Rational Software Corp. in Cupertino, Calif., and Merant PLC in the U.K. However, CA boasts that although competitors offer individual products that handle change management on specific operating systems such as Windows NT or Unix, CA offers a wide range of functions under one umbrella.

Among the enhancements is a new Web-based version of CA's Endevor change management tool for mainframes called Webstation.

Tom Brown, source management administrator at American Greetings Corp. in Cleveland, said that Endevor Webstation could make it easier for users to reconfigure applications from remote locations. American Greetings has used Endevor for the past 10 years, but Brown said developers currently have to go to a standard mainframe user interface to make source code changes when new greeting cards are introduced. Endevor Webstation would let them retrieve and reconfigure the necessary mainframe-based source code from a browser, he explained.

Brown said American Greetings plans to evaluate the new release. Meanwhile, the company plans to roll out within the next few weeks a new release of CA's CCC/Harvest 5.0 client/server change management tool that also now includes Web browser support.

CA said CCC/Harvest will now work with any database that supports the Open Database Connectivity specification; previously, it could only be used with Oracle Corp.'s databases. In addition, CA has included the ability to manage and monitor workflows electronically.

CA also announced an upgrade of its Web CM software for managing online content. It will now be able to handle large Web server farms and will have new content analysis features. The new releases are due by the end of the summer, CA said.

Computerworld