Channel Chief Erdman Leaves Novell

Novell channels and alliances vice president Steve Erdman has left the company and this week Novell appointed a former Hyperion executive to a newly created position of vice president of global channel sales.

A Novell spokesman confirmed late Wednesday that Erdman had left the company, but he did not have information on why and when the channel chief departed. He also said Bernard is not specifically replacing Erdman, but he couldn't say if the company will fill Erdman's specific job.

Erdman was named Novell's vice president and general manager of channels and alliances in February 2006. He joined Novell from Dell where he was a vice president. Before that he worked at 3Com for three years and in IBM's PC and server group for 13 years.

Although details on Bernard's background weren't immediately available, she was most recently with performance management software vendor Hyperion, which was acquired by Oracle earlier this year, where she held the post of vice president of the company's global IBM alliance.

She has reportedly also held channel management positions with other IT companies including Siebel Systems and Compaq.

The spokesman said the creation of the global channel post reflects Novell's increasing reliance on solution providers in Europe and in other areas outside the U.S. to market its Netware and Linux software.