Swainson also said he was wrong when he said in an interview nearly a year ago that CA has too many products, which several executives have said total more than 1,200. After nearly a year heading up the US$3 billion company, Swainson said it makes sense to concentrate on four major management product areas: storage, security, network and systems management, and a category CA calls Business Service Optimization.

The customer advocate positions that were cut affected about 200 people in the U.S. and another 100 internationally, Swainson said. Nearly all the staffers working in those jobs were reassigned, he said.

The purpose of the move was to "make the sales reps more accountable," Swainson said. Customer advocates fulfilled a role he described as something between a sales person and a technical person, but their functions led them to be the main point of contact for many customers, a role Swainson wants sales personnel to fulfill.

Four customers who attended CA World were aware of the change, and two expressed concern that their calls about software problems and related matters would not be answered in person or by anyone they know. The other customers said that support from CA remains good and that the customer advocate changes were made just recently.

"Yes, I'm worried about losing the customer advocate, since we saw him all the time," said a woman who works in IT for a branch of the U.S. armed forces and who asked that her name not be used. "Yes, I'm worried about having to deal with a guy on the phone."