Novell Revamps Program

The demand agent program, which will be available only to Platinum partners beginning Jan. 1, will give partners a rebate for influencing a Novell software purchase, regardless of whether they take title to the software or recommend another source of fulfillment. Novell's 600 Gold partners will not be eligible for the program.

"It's icing on the cake," Nancy Reynolds, vice president of North American channels at Novell, said of the demand agent program. Novel also is offering new incentives and services engagements via its new Ngage professional services, she added.

Novell's plan to turn over between 1,500 and 2,000 of its direct accounts to Platinum partners is slated to take effect Jan. 1.

In an effort to revitalize its channel, Novell late last year instituted a named accounts-named partners model and has cut the number of Platinum partners to about 200.

As part of PartnerNet 2003, Novell has created new specialization programs for partners that focus on Novell's exteNd Web services and Nsure secure identity management solutions.

Platinum partners said they are pleased about Novell's new agent model and its plans to turn over some direct accounts. They hope the new incentives and fees will offset the expected loss of revenue due to changes in the fulfillment process for enterprise customers.

As first reported in CRN, Novell last month changed its Master License Agreement fulfillment program to a Software Services Agent model in which the number of resellers was cut to about a dozen from 200. To offset that, Novell promised an agent model that would allow partners to continue earning revenue for making Novell deals.

"If you generate new business, even in existing accounts, you're incented at a higher rate, say 10 percent of gross margin," said Michael Carey, chairman and CEO of IT Systems, a Farmingdale, N.Y., Novell Platinum partner. "If a partner creates an Nsure opportunity, they get 5 points of the deal," he said. "And if you're a named partner in an existing account Novell handed to you, and there's a [license renewal, you still get a cut of the action."