This IDC Flash describes Borland's (NASD: BORL) strategic product road map, which the company rolled out under the banner of Software Delivery Optimization (SDO) at its annual user conference in September 2004. SDO is more than just marketing: It marks Borland's shift from a development tools vendor to an enterprise-focused, life-cycle solutions provider. Borland expects to roll out increasing functionality in phases heroically named Themis, Hyperion, and Prometheus.

In fact, Borland already has many of the pieces of the application life-cycle management (ALM) solution set. It understands the needs of developers very well, and its acquisitions over the past two years give it compelling offerings in modeling, software configuration management (SCM), and requirements management. What is needed for Borland's first SDO phase (aka Themis) are: coordinated offerings of "best practices" services and an integration story to make its existing offerings appealing to the enterprise customers it hopes to attract for seven-figure deals. Later phases of the SDO rollout should add the process and portfolio management solutions that will raise Borland's value proposition to a CIO-level message.

IDC believes that Borland is taking the right tack with its new strategy. The SDO initiative should help Borland upsell its integrated development environment (IDE) installed base and build traction in the ALM space ahead of Microsoft's delivery of Visual Studio Team System. Ultimately, the company's new strategy, together with its reorganized sales force and beefed-up services organization, should help it return to more aggressive revenue growth than it can achieve in the (now) slower-growth IDE market.

Situation Overview