CRN Interview: Dale Fuller, Borland Software

With the closure of Java tools vendor WebGain, Borland Software, which earns nearly 50 percent of its revenue through the channel, is poised to pick up some new business. Now in its 20th year, Borland, which many thought several years ago was on the brink of closure itself, has been profitable for nine straight fiscal quarters. Borland's financial success has occurred under the leadership of President and CEO Dale Fuller, a former Apple Computer executive who took the company's helm in April 1999. Senior Editor Elizabeth Montalbano recently spoke with Fuller about his plans to keep Borland successful amid today's challenging economy.

CRN: What is Borland doing to fill the gap that WebGain has left in the market?

Fuller: I think that the reality is with BEA [Systems' customers,and this is something Alfred [Chuang, BEA's president and CEO told me,90 percent [of WebLogic developers use our products. The best technology is going to win when it comes to developers, and this is just another example of the user acceptance of our technology in the marketplace. Other [tools vendors have gotten out of the market because their products haven't been able to gain traction in the number of seats with developers in the marketplace. We think Java is going to continue to grow at north of 30 percent a year. Does [WebGain closing help us? It helps us because as long as we build great technology, our customers will buy it from us. It's something we have to earn every day.

CRN: Which partnerships do you think are key for you right now?

Fuller: I would say those [mentioned above are the ones producing quite a bit of fruit. Our reseller and VAR market is very strong. It's been one of the mainstays of success in the marketplace. Our channel business accounts for almost 50 percent of our revenue. Selling through mass distributors to the ISVs and small software developers is our key marketplace. There are a lot of VARs creating their own software using our tools. A lot of software [systems integrators are using our products and matching them up and providing our customers with very interesting solution sets.

CRN: Where is the biggest market opportunity for solution providers to partner with Borland?

Fuller: It would be in Java development,Java integration with ERP applications in major clients today, building Web services to help glue ERP and applications together, the integration of expanding legacy systems across the network. Those are the key areas. And the expansion of Linux. The adoption of Linux is a phenomenon in major Fortune 1000 companies. Most of the customers are saying that. If you look at companies like Oracle, they just changed their back end to Linux. At Merrill Lynch, the entire system is Linux. More companies are converting to Linux because of power and performance. The next major phase of Linux adoption will be native applications written for the Linux OS. I think Borland is well-situated in the hot spot because Borland [offers the only rapid application development tool for Linux in the world and the only commercial C++ program in the world for Linux.

CRN: What are the key factors that have kept Borland afloat?

Fuller: I think what really has kept us alive as a company is that we had really great technology that our customers wanted to use, that really made a difference in their lives. We had great customers that stayed with us for a lot of years. We did go through an absolute rough time, and when I took over the company, we had to really turn it around. Three and a half years ago we had no money in the bank; now we have more than $306 million, all from operations. We have no debt. The company has done an excellent job of executing, and it's all due to our customer base,they love what we do. We have to keep them happy.