The software company lays off 300 people as it gears up for life after the development tools business.

Borland Software has announced a new organizational structure, including the layoff of about 300 employees, or 20 percent of the company's work force.

Borland, based in Cupertino, Calif., announced its new structure on May 3, saying the changes are part of the new direction it embarked on in February when the company announced its intent to divest itself of its development tools business.

Indeed, to ease the execution of the divestiture, Borland's Developer Tools Group will begin to operate as a separate entity within the company with its own leadership, sales, marketing and product teams, Borland said.

Following the layoff, geographic consolidation and divestiture of its Developer Tools Group, the company said it expects to see annual cost savings of approximately $60 million.

Also as part of the new structure, Borland has combined its Sales and Professional Services sections to create a new Field Operations section to focus on the company's ALM (application lifecycle management) offerings, the company said.

Click here to read about how the popularity of open source has forced Borland to retrench.

In addition, Borland has folded Customer Support into Research and Development to improve responsiveness to customers and create a tighter feedback loop between product engineering and customers, the company said.

Guru Jakob Nielsen offers advice on designing applications for usability. Click here to watch the video.

Borland has also created a new Business Operations section to align internal processes and systems, led by Chris Barbin, a Borland senior vice president, who will report directly to Borland's CEO, Tod Nielsen. Borland also announced the hiring of Paul Taylor as vice president of its EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) group. Taylor is a former head of worldwide sales at Vitria Technology.

"Tod's doing good work trying to streamline the company," said Anne Thomas Manes, an analyst with Burton Group, based in Midvale, Utah.

"Borland is continuing to execute on the plan we outlined in February," Nielsen said in a statement. "We believe these changes will not only streamline operations, but will also better align our resources for success in the enterprise. These changes are designed to get us to an operating model that can more effectively support our long-term strategy for growth and profitability."

This article was originally published on eWEEK.com.

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