Symantec: Stealthily Entering The IT Management Software Market

Symantec has now stuck together a sort of portfolio of IT management software businesses through a series of acquisitions. The series was time-based, lacking any apparent overriding market or product strategy other than to grow the corporation through acquiring successful companies with customer bases. Symantec has now organized the acquisitions into business units to address different market segments, but it will realize only minimal synergies, as solution opportunities in one business unit are not being developed for the other customer segment. Each unit has its own sales force, with a promise of some compensation for "referrals" if project opportunities are passed across. Strong products like Precise, which Veritas acquired and was therefore part of the Symantec acquisition, were quickly "launched" with Symantec product names, but they have suffered from a lack of tender, loving care in the meantime. Forrester feels that Symantec is not a serious contender as a strategic supplier for IT management software unless it takes a more strategic approach — consolidating and combining product lines and leveraging its security brand.