Valuing Product Quality

Messman explained to VARBusiness why Novell was successful this year with its partnering strategies and what it will take to maintain the momentum.

VARBusiness: In 1999, Novell tied with SCO for first place in the enterprise operating platform category, but in 2000, it slid to No. 2, again tied with SCO but behind Microsoft. In 2001, you reclaimed the lead. What do you think accounts for that change of heart among solution providers?
Messman: If you look closely at previous years' results, Novell products have consistently been highly ranked by solution providers. There was a lot of marketing buzz around Windows 2000 last year that, frankly, failed to translate into mass adoption of that platform. This year's results illustrate that, when you cut through the hype, Novell is a valued partner to the channel because it provides stable products and technologies that solve business problems for customers today.

VB: What is your strategy for maintaining momentum and

contentment among solution providers?
Messman: One of the key things Novell has done over the past year was to put together a concerted marketing campaign based around our vision of a unified, global network,one Net,and Novell's promise to customers to give them "The Power to Change" to become e-businesses. We've been faulted in the past for a lack of marketing, and we've certainly made important strides in addressing this. Beyond that, we are working hard to better communicate with our solution providers, offer meaningful education on our technology and motivate more integrators to grow their Novell-related businesses.

VB: How do you plan to compete in the coming year against such rivals as Microsoft?
Messman: Novell products have always been the most technically strong on the market. This remains true today. Look at Novell NDS eDirectory, the only truly cross-platform directory technology, and the products and services that leverage its security and scalability. So we win on product quality.

VB: What do you see as new opportunities for Novell as we move toward 2002?
Messman: Companies today no longer want just products and technologies. They want solutions to their business problems. So we don't just sell NetWare. We sell the best platform for Net-ready storage, security, file and print services. We don't just sell directory; we sell secure identity, access management and e-provisioning. We don't just sell ZENworks. We sell ZENworks as a best-of-breed foundation for network-management solutions. This is the new opportunity for Novell and its solutions providers.