Gung-Ho Partners

The company that pioneered the networking channel is making a dramatic bid to build a bullet-proof, services-driven Linux channel capable of delivering customized solutions to businesses of any shape or size. Last week in a sit-down with CRN, Novell Chairman and CEO Jack Messman reaffirmed the company's commitment to re-engage the channel now that it has completed the $210 million acquisition of SUSE Linux.

"There is nothing more clear in my mind: We need to leverage the channel in order to be successful," Messman said. "We lost that leverage some years ago, and we are going to get that back." (See the interview with Messman and Novell Vice Chairman, Office of the CEO Chris Stone on ). Messman, by the way, sent a note to partners last week assuring them they will get "a more personal touch than in recent years" as a result of the new Novell sales model (see related story on ).

If the company truly does make the investment to build a broad-based Linux channel and executes on top of that, the IT landscape will be changed forever. A wave of open-source applications will emerge that can be shared and customized by solution providers of all stripes. The number of open-source applications already out there is staggering. How about an open-source ERP/CRM offering called Compiere at compiere.org or a general accounting package called SQL-Ledger at sql-ledger.org?

For Novell, the war will be won or lost with an army of partners that build customized services and solution sets in sharp contrast to Microsoft. The shortest route toward convincing any IT buyer or CIO to take the Linux plunge is to go through the solution provider, who acts as the trusted confidante and outsourced provider for many businesses. Novell has 500 top-tier partners and SUSE has another 500, predominantly overseas,1,000 top-tier partners does not a channel program make. Novell needs to cast a wider net or failure is a foregone conclusion.

Lesley Taufer, president of Boulder Corp., says she is seeing more Linux traction than ever. Boulder's engineers came back from a recent Novell Linux training session on a "gung-ho" mission to step up Linux adoption. Gung-ho, as in ardent, avid, crazy and eager. Novell can look forward to harnessing that energy and muscle if it executes. But that's a big if.

Are you gung-ho for Linux? Let me know at (781) 839-1221 or via e-mail at [email protected].