SOUTHFIELD ? CA demonstrated this week at the Microsoft Management Summit the integration between its service management and asset management solutions with Microsoft’s Systems Management Server 2003. The combined products help customers unify their IT systems and also figure out how to buy, allocate and retire their current information technology assets.

By managing enterprise assets from a centralized console with a unified reporting structure, IT organizations can stretch their budgets through better investment planning, just-in-time licensing and maintenance payments, improved cash flow, and elimination of over-payments. Centralized, real-time asset management also delivers critical operational advantages, such as optimized resource allocation and faster problem resolution.

For example, with the new integration, an IT organization using CA?s Asset Management to track all aspects of software license management can reconcile software discovered by SMS with its inventory of licensed software. This reconciliation provides immediate insight into end-user compliance, pinpoints any cases of over/underutilization, and ensures readiness for software audits.

This first phase of the joint initiative will integrate asset data collected by SMS 2003 into CA?s Management Database (MDB), an integrated repository for enterprise IT management. The integrated solutions will be available to select customer sites beginning this fall.

?The integration between CA?s MDB and Microsoft technologies will provide our mutual customers a solution to manage their Windows and non-Windows resources more effectively, helping them meet service levels and maximize their investments in the Microsoft platform,? said Felicity McGourty, director of product marketing in the Windows Enterprise Management Division at Microsoft.

?Because so many enterprise IT organizations have significant investments in both CA and Microsoft solutions, we are working together to ensure seamless integration between our respective technologies,? said Allan Andersen, director of product management in CA?s Business Service Optimization business unit. ?This collaboration will provide mutual customers with a cohesive view of resources across the enterprise, thereby eliminating information ?stovepipes? and supporting the adoption of service management best practices such as ITIL.?

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