Page II: BEA's new product chief says executive exodus won't keep the software maker from moving ahead with key projects.
Wong, who was general manager of Computer Associates International's Unicenter systems management product, also said he intends to apply his experience in management and security to BEA's WebLogic line of Java server software. In the next version of WebLogic, the company has said that ease of administration and management will be one of the top priorities.
The product organisation will also look for new hires in specific areas, Wong said.
"Do we intend to grow capacity? Absolutely. We will certainly be an organisation that is going to continue to bring in top talent where we need to," he said.
Fear that the ship is sinking
Analysts who follow BEA have voiced concern over the executive departures and disappointing financials, which the company blamed on poor sales efforts. The company saw explosive growth in the late 1990s but has seen its revenue and profit growth cool substantially over the past three years.
"Not only were Dietzen and Bosworth leaders within BEA's development organisation and within the Java community at large, but they played key roles in evangelising BEA's technologies to customers," said Charles Di Bona, an analyst with Sanford Bernstein, in an August research note. "Their loss is likely to impact both development and sales efforts and morale in both departments."
Some analysts have said that unless it can expand revenue and profits, BEA could become the target of an acquisition. Indeed, during trial testimony around Oracle's hostile takeover attempt of PeopleSoft, Oracle indicated that BEA was one of its take-over candidates.
The internal tumult is perhaps the most difficult test that CEO Chuang has faced since he co-founded the company 10 years ago. Although Chuang is known as a talented engineer, he is currently trying to sort out major organisation changes in an increasingly competitive field.
The employee departures appear to stem from an internal dispute over the company's direction, according to John Rymer, a Forrester Research analyst who follows the company closely. Some executives argued for a more expansive product strategy, which may have included large acquisitions to fuel growth, while Chuang favored organic growth through its existing product line, Rymer said.
Although BEA's technology gets high marks from customers, the company is seeing escalating competition, notably from IBM, Oracle and open-source alternatives.
The company's strategy has been to compete based on the technical strength of its software and collaborate with other companies, such as Hewlett-Packard, to deliver a complete package of software, hardware and services. Wong said BEA will continue to innovate to compete, rather than try to become a low-cost provider.
"The downward pressures from other products...their capacity or capabilities are not as rich and not as significant," Wong said, "especially if you look at the trends around ease-of-use development, deployment across the whole (Java) stack."
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