Novell CEO: We're Going To Rebuild Trust One Partner At A Time
At its BrainShare 2005 conference this week, Novell launched Linux Small Business Suite 9 as well as MarketStart initiative. The Waltham, Mass.-based software company also unveiled 20 different "market plays," for six vertical industries that consist of go-to-market plans and prescriptive guidance for building custom solutions based on Linux, said Ronald Hovsepian, president of Novell North America. These market plays will be available to channel partners.
Novell hopes to get VARs to migrate NetWare customers to Novell's recently released Linux offerings: Open Enterprise Server (OES), which shipped earlier this month, and the $500 Linux Small Business Suite, which will ship by the end of this month.
Novell detailed a Partner Opportunity Kit for the Linux Small Business Suite 9 and said its sales team will introduce 20 Market Plays in six verticals. The Market Plays consist of go-to-market plans and prescriptive guidance for building Linux-based solutions for select industries, such as health care, said Ronald Hovsepian, president of Novell North America. They will be made available to channel partners and are different from the solution bundles Novell Consulting Services sold several years ago, he said.
Channel distrust, reluctance to change and worries about moving to a more services-oriented model are obstacles that Novell will try to overcome with partner-focused products and programs launched at BrainShare, Messman said.
"We need the channel, and it hasn't been easy for us to get this done because of internal issues we need to resolve," Messman said in an interview with CRN. Though acknowledging that some partners have misgivings about Novell because of past channel missteps, he said the company's new product lineup, sales model and channel policies will finally make the Linux channel happen. "We're going to rebuild trust one partner at a time."
The long-awaited launch of OES and Novell Linux Small Business Suite 9, as well as tools and programs to boost partner and ISV interest, represent a major turning point for Novell's Linux agenda, which can't go forward without channel partners, Messman said. MarketStart, which will give small open-source companies access to Novell's global support and distribution channels, will enable channel partners to sell validated, certified open-source software stacks on Novell's Linux platforms, he said.
Messman and his two top sales and channel executives said they are in alignment and there will be no conflicts with channel partners moving ahead. "We need consulting services in enterprise accounts, but everything that's not a named account will be turned over to channel," he said, adding that the sales force will provide leads to VARs.
Some NetWare VARs have claimed that Novell pays little attention to them or, in some cases, moved into their acounts. Messman said Novell continues to honor its existing named-accounts policy, which gives Novell Consulting Services the top 1,000 accounts, with the rest being the domain of channel partners. Over the past year, partner subcontracting through Novell Consulting Services has increased from 7 percent to 30 percent of all the services unit's deals today, he added.
Novell's acquisition of Salmon Consulting last year doesn't signal a consulting services buildup, according to Novell executives. Rather, the consulting arm was acquired to serve the needs of Novell's largest U.K. customers, which were being served by North American Novell executives after Novell closed the U.K. office of the former Cambridge Technology Partners, they said.
Although some NetWare VARs have complained about Novell's channel program, many who attended BrainShare expressed support for the vendor.
Duston Miller, president of Network Design and Management, a Novell Platinum Partner in Spokane, Wash., said Novell has been good to him lately. "I've seen more work though Novell Consulting Services," Miller said.
Novell's base of VARs and service partners has grown slightly over the past year to roughly 2,500, including SUSE partners. The number of ISVs in PartnerNet, meanwhile, has grown tenfold to roughly 450. The company also has increased the number of distributors from two to seven during that time, said Mark Hardardt, Novell's vice president of worldwide sales.
Hardardt said he expects to add more partners going forward, given the new tools and resources Novell is providing to the channel this year. For example, the Partner Opportunity Kit for the Linux Small Business Suite includes go-to-market materials such as Web banners, direct-mail templates and telemarketing scripts. Novell also plans to start sales and technical training Webinars over the next few weeks and roll out sales readiness tools, including early access software, a QuickTrain module, a MoneyMaker quick-reference sales tool, and updates to the Certified Novell Salesperson and Certified Linux Salesperson courses.
Some NetWare partners said they are moving to Windows, yet others at BrainShare said they were impressed with the migration facilities in OES, which demonstrated the ease in moving groups, users and settings from NetWare to Linux with one click.
"It's a logical progression," said Dennis Challe, CEO of Infinity Technology, Green Bay, Wis., about the NetWare to OES move.
While the technology may work seamlessly, Novell still faces a challenge to retool NetWare VARs--which until recently enjoyed product margins of 5 percent to 8 percent--for a new business model based primarily on services.
"They have to get comfortable with the fact that the upgrade products and license revenue go away," Messman said. "The [Novell] reseller community has to get focused on services and will provide tech support."