CA announced eight new and/or updated solutions that deliver on CA’s Enterprise IT Management (EITM) vision to enable customers to govern, manage, and secure their IT environments. CA’s new offerings include products for managing compliance and risk across mainframe and distributed computing environments. The offerings also include products that enable enterprise IT organizations to implement management policies and processes across computing platforms and organizational boundaries, streamline essential IT operations, and implement best practice frameworks.
Our take: This is the kind of workmanlike software that we’re beginning to associate with the new CA. In a market that’s dominated by vaporware, CA has been focusing on the nuts and bolts of software infrastructure. It’s almost as if the company’s problems with corporate governance turned into a "wake-up call" for the entire company.

IBM announced new consulting offerings that can help clients understand and improve their societal impact from carbon management to labor practices increasing their competitive position and appeal to consumers and other interested parties. These consulting offerings help firms more accurately assess how well they are meeting societal expectations, and where and how to make improvements.
Our take: People are watching company behavior more closely than ever on a whole range of issues the environment, fair wages and workplace safety, international trade, product safety and reliability, philanthropy, and so forth. And with the Internet, people organize and act quickly to punish brands that don’t toe the line. IBM is smart to get into the business of helping companies avoid PR disasters and leverage whatever socially responsible practices they have in place.

MICROSOFT’S integrated digital entertainment brand, Zune Arts, released "The Lost Ones," a graphic novel written by writer Steve Niles. For the Zune-commissioned novel, Niles was paired up with visual artists Dr. Revolt, Gary Panter, Kime Buzzelli and Morning Breath to "take the reader on an epic journey through time and space. Each artist illustrated a different chapter of the novel, resulting in a blend of artistic styles that is emblematic of the unique creative collaborations for which Zune Arts has become widely known."
Our take: Does the phrase "we’ve totally lost focus on our core business" ring a bell? How far do they think they can spread the Microsoft brand name?

ORACLE announced it would acquire Skywire Software’s application software business. Skywire Software is a provider of insurance software and document management business applications, which assists insurers in managing the life cycle of an insurance policy, including insurance policy creation, rating, insurance agent/broker management, and information exchange solutions. With Skywire Software and the pending acquisition of AdminServer, Oracle intends to create "the most complete software suite for the insurance enterprise."
Our take: We find it a bit confusing that Oracle feels the need to "own" these rather "small bore" vertical applications. While a vertical industry focus can be a good thing, Oracle is primarily a horizontal vendor. Trying to cobble together suites of industry-specific applications doesnt play to Oracle’s strength.

SAP announced its intent to acquire Visiprise, a privately held, leading provider of manufacturing execution software solutions delivering integrated manufacturing operations to companies of all sizes. With the addition of Visiprise, SAP is attempting to "bring together core SAP solutions with the software, hardware, and services offerings to drive innovation for discrete manufacturers."
Our take: In contrast to Oracle’s acquisition above, SAP is buying a smaller firm in order to fill out a horizontal software strategy that can provide value to multiple industries. This makes more sense, in our view, than purchasing a series of point applications for specific vertical industries.