CA Channel In New Hands

Next year, CA plans to move George Kafkarkou, senior vice president of worldwide channel operations, into a role that will oversee CA's consumer, OEM and SMB sales channels and the related Phoenix-based telesales activities, said Gary Quinn, executive vice president of partner advocacy at CA.

Jim Tedesco, vice president of CA's customer interaction call center in Tampa, Fla., will take on the role of vice president of channels and sales for North America. Tedesco will oversee CA's business customers with user seat counts of 1,000 or more and all related telesales activities. Inside partner sales and recruitments and CA's second-tier distribution relationships also will be under Tedesco's watch, Quinn said.

CA also last week opened an online storefront that it said is geared to SMB customers. The direct-sell site offers products from CA's eTrust, BrightStor, Unicenter and AllFusion lines.

CA described the management changes and the new online store as efforts to grow its SMB market share while improving its overall sales channels.

Todd Pekats, national director of strategic alliances for solution provider CompuCom Systems, Dallas, said he was "a little saddened" to see Kafkarkou's responsibilities reduced, but that Kafkarkou's aggressive and personable style make him the right man to spearhead CA's newly concentrated focus on SMBs, OEMs and consumers.

Pekats said he has dealt with Tedesco several times in the past, and the CA executive is dedicated to making sure that being a CA partner is a lucrative experience. "[Tedesco] says what he does and does what he says," Pekats said.

Gary Fish, president and CEO of FishNet Security, Kansas City, Mo., said CA "has certainly sent a mixed message" by pledging to increase indirect sales revenue and then selling products direct online. "I think that any vendor who sells online is silly to say they are channel-friendly," he said.