CA portal upgrade promises IQ boost

Computer Associates on Tuesday announced changes to its corporate portal software that are designed to help businesses make better decisions.

The Islandia, New York-based company is adding capabilities to its CleverPath product to make the portal software a better mechanism for studying historical data and displaying important business measurements. For example, CA has developed a "dashboard" option for CleverPath that will give executives a consolidated view of operations, by providing up-to-date information on how well a sales team is meeting forecasts.

The company's development plans for better information delivery tools include CleverPath as well as security features and software for aggregating and analyzing corporate data.

Adoption of corporate portals is growing as businesses look to give employees more access to corporate information. A corporate portal presents information from various systems via a Web browser.

CA competes with software makers Oracle and Microsoft, as well as with IBM and portal software specialists such as Plumtree Software and Vignette, which finalized its purchase of portal maker Epicentric in December.

Additions to the CleverPath portal include compliance with Web services protocols based on XML (Extensible Markup Language) for improved data exchange between applications. Base pricing for the upgraded portal software starts at $20,000.

In addition, CA has migrated its Aion "business rules engine" to CleverPath. Aion is designed to streamline transactions and data processing using an "engine" that can reconfigure the application according to its varying inputs. The company has also added to the collaboration capabilities in CleverPath with software for instant messaging, audio and video conferencing, and content sharing.