Symantec 1996 Annual Report Download - page 6

In the area of network utilities, we redoubled our efforts to understand the special needs of our
corporate customers. This led us to commit additional re s o u r ces to those products that have demonstrated
success in this segment, such as our No rton Administrator for Ne t w o rks. In fiscal 1996, the Company
reconfigured this product into easier-to-use, easier-to-deploy management suites and a c q u i r ed tech-
nology that enabled us to add to our offerings. In addition, we entered into strategic relationships with
such companies as Hew l e tt- Pa c k a rd, Mitsui, Computer Associates, and Cheyenne to provide our
customers with complete network management solutions. At the beginning of fiscal year 1997, we
a c q u i r ed Fast Track, Inc., to provide a server management component to these solutions.
New products, new opportunities.
During the ye a r, we also introduced our Symantec Café for Wi n d ows and Macintosh, the first
c o m p re h e n s i ve development environment for building Web applets based on Su n’s Ja va pro g r a m m i n g
language. As a programmer myself, I am particularly gratified to see the success of this product, as it
enables developers to build useful, cre a t i ve applications for this dynamic new platform. We intend to
sustain this early presence in the Internet arena with continuing enhancements to Café, as well as,
in the longer term, with Internet-enabled components for many of our applications.
Finally, in fiscal 1996 we explored and focused on a market that represents the most exciting new
opportunity Symantec has yet encountered: that of the home and small-office computer user. With
computing becoming ever more accepted and perva s i ve, we are witnessing a true sea change in the way
that people relate to the information all around them–the way they locate it, the way they access it,
and the way they adapt it to their purposes.
With this new paradigm has come a growing need to educate people on how to get the most
f rom their investments in technology, while at the same time protect themselves against the kind of
troubles– some routine, some serious–that are part of the computing experience. To accomplish this,
over the past 12 months we devoted a significant portion of our marketing efforts to better explaining
the benefits of products such as Norton Utilities and Norton AntiVirus to this new user.
As the P C begins to fulfill its promise of becoming a household appliance–in a truly mass mark et–
Symantec is committed to giving customers the tools they need to be in total control of their computing