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January 1, 2001

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Innovators And Influencers 2001

Ready To Take On The ASP Market

Nancy Li's mission at CA: To bring customized service-level management to ASPs

By George V. Hulme

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he year ahead may prove to be Nancy Li's greatest challenge. Last August, Li left her position as Computer Associates' chief technology officer to become CEO of its latest initiative: iCan-ASP Inc. CA, among the world's largest software developers, charged Li with bringing customized service-level management, application provisioning, and operations management to application service providers.

Li is very bullish on the ASP market, pointing to an International Data Corp. statistic predicting 91% growth to $8 billion over the next five years. "These numbers are just too conservative," she says. "They say the Internet came to its present state in seven years, compared to 25 years for desktops. ASPs are going to grow at an astounding growth rate. I don't want to do any projections, but this is going to become as pervasive as the Internet in a very short time."

Photo by Edward Santalone Li wants to be at the center of the ASP revolution. She strives to create technology that will have a tremendous impact on the way businesses function. "Nancy likes to make a difference with what she does, and she doesn't think small," says one co-worker. Li was the first executive who identified and targeted the ASP opportunity for CA, and she drove its early efforts in the market. Li has spent more than 18 months developing ASP management solutions, and her efforts were the foundation for iCan-ASP. Taking the top spot at iCan-ASP was a natural move for Li.

If anyone can spearhead the new initiative, it's Li, says CA CEO Sanjay Kumar, who worked closely with her for years. "She has that increasingly rare quality of raw determination to see everything from start to finish," he says. "She's very tenacious."

That tenacity and personal drive are among Li's most noted traits. "Years ago, when I first joined CA, the first few times I heard Nancy's name it was regarding all the projects that were falling off of the cliff," Kumar recalls. "Where problems arose, they'd send in Nancy. She had a really good knack for bringing them back."

The New York University computer science graduate began her CA career as a systems programmer in 1980. She led her first major project in 1986 when she developed Unicenter for the mainframe environment, which proved to be a very strategic product for CA. In 1990, she directed the Unicenter for Unix development effort, with responsibilities for product development, marketing, and sales. Li was named chief technology officer in 1997.

FAVORITE STOCKS :
Akamai Technologies, Cisco, and Nortel

FAVORITE CHARITY :
The Smile Train, which helps eradicate the problem of cleft lips and palates. "I'm very proud that we're going to train local doctors to perform the procedures."

MUST-HAVE TECHNOLOGY :
Wireless. "I don't know what I'd do without the instant ability to reach someone or some data."

FAVORITE SPORT:
Ice hockey

Li identifies two industry luminaries whose leadership philosophies have deeply influenced her approach to management as she has scaled CA's corporate ranks: One is very dear to her, the other she respects from afar. CA founder and chairman Charles Wang, Li's husband, is the executive who has swayed her thinking the most. "Watching Charles and really seeing how he built the company and the process it takes absolutely influences me," Li says. She also "secretly" admires Apple Computer founder Steve Jobs. "He's one person who thinks outside the box," Li says. "He's really creative and really innovates technology, not just for the sake of technology but for how it fits with the user."

In discussing her new role as iCan-ASP CEO, Li says most people underestimate the complications ASPs must endure. Successful ASPs not only have to implement, maintain, and manage the applications, Li points out, but tackle all aspects of data-center management, including network and data management, security, and all of the customer-service details such as accurate billing, service provisioning, service-level management, and training. "They have a lot of hidden complexities," she says. "It's much more than simply hosting the application."

Although Li wasn't ready to go into detail regarding the applications iCan-ASP will unveil early this year, the goal of her company will be to help alleviate many of those ASP pain points.

The 43-year-old mother of two elementary school-aged children says she feels excitement, determination, and trepidation toward her new role. "Just the other day," Li says, "I was thinking this is like the first time I brought my daughter home from the hospital. After the family left the house, there was a moment I looked at her and said, 'Oh, my God, what am I going to do now? I'm going to be responsible for everything about her for the rest of her life, for my life.' This is just like that. This is a big change, and now I'm responsible for everything."

But if there are any hints of anxiety toward running the iCan-ASP ship, they aren't seen as a weakness. "She's a tough manager," Kumar says. "If she pulls up a chair to talk to you, you'd better have your homework done. If there are problems, she's going to drill down into a lot of detail. I don't think there are many sales calls going on over there at iCan that she isn't involved in."

It's that ability to think of technology from the users' perspective in a way that solves real-world business problems that Kumar says is one of Li's strengths. "With Nancy, it's not technology for technology's sake," he says. "It's how can technology solve the customers' problems as easily as possible. She has a way of nailing that home."