Corel Taps New Sales Chief

Morley was CEO of Imprivata, a security software maker in Lexington, Mass. Prior to that he was vice president of North America at Macromedia, joining that company when it bought Allaire. Up until now, Corel CEO David Dobson had been acting as top sales executive, according to a spokeswoman from the Ottawa-based company.

"We're delighted to land someone of Patrick's capabilities and experience. He's had many years of experience in both packaged and enterprise software," Dobson told CRN.

Corel which plays David to Microsoft's Goliath in Office productivity suites and also takes on Adobe, another giant, in graphics software, claims to be the "branded alternative" to both.

Dobson said that underdog status is part of what brought him to Corel three months ago. "The opportunity that attracted both of us to Corel is that there are dominant players but Corel offers credible alternatives to both," he said.

"We're seeing more demand now for alternatives. As the price of a PC goes from $2,000 to $500, people aren't willing to spend $400 on productivity software," he said.

He and Morley also said the noise Sun and the open sourcers have drummed up around StarOffice and OpenOffice, are helping raise awareness of other choices and fear of potential vendor lock-in.

"We outsell StarOffice something like 192 to 1 according to NPD," Dobson said.

Corel Office, comprising WordPerfect, Quattro Pro, and Paradox, boasts high interoperability with Microsoft Office file formats, in some cases claiming better interoperability with older versions of Microsoft applications than Microsoft itself offers.

The company retains a respectable presence in law firms and government agencies, where WordPerfect once led the field. It is also concentrating on small business customers and the VARs servicing them. Corel does not take on Microsoft head to head in large enterprises with volume licenses.

John Miller, president of Lansultants, a Philadelphia-based VAR servicing law firms, said WordPerfect still has significant share there. "It's a superior product for law firms and is definitely competitive although we also support Microsoft Office."

While Corel's market share may be small compared to Microsoft's, it has had its influence. Just a month ago, Microsoft finally said it would start to support the Adobe PDF format with the upcoming Office 12, due next year. "Corel has supported that since 2000," Miller noted.

Scott Knight, government sales manager of SaltSpring , a London, Ontario-based reseller, said WordPerfect continues to hold a soft spot in many hearts. "Many people went Microsoft Office because it became the standard, but now with Corel Office 12 being 99 percent seamless with Word, etc., there's more motivation to move back," he said.

Knight said Corel's "cross-grade" option from full Microsoft Office versions is giving it traction. Customers can get the full Corel suite for $125 or so vs. more than twice that for a Microsoft Office upgrade.