Novell Channel Chief Post Vacant - Again

Just four months after Novell named Javier Colado the company's channel chief, Novell has promoted Colado to president of the company's EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) operations.

Novell did not immediately name a channel chief successor. A spokesman said the company's channel operations would be managed for the time being by John Dragoon, senior vice president and chief marketing officer. The spokesman couldn't say how long it would take to appoint a new channel executive.

Colado replaces Volker Smid in the EMEA president post. The spokesman said Smid "left to pursue other interests." Colado was general manager of Novell's EMEA central region, based in Madrid, Spain, before he was named general manager of Novell's partner operations in early September.

Novell's top channel management job has been something of a revolving door for more than a year now. In November 2007 the channel executive ranks underwent major changes that included the departures of Steve Erdman, vice president and general manager of channels and alliances, and James Simzer, director of North America Partner sales. Former Hyperion executive Pat Bernard was named channel chief, but she "left to pursue other interests" in August after nine months on the job. Colado was named to the post just over a month later.

Colado had embarked on a major overhaul of Novell's channel program, including establishing a deal registration system and a standard product price list for partners and reducing conflict with services provided by Novell and its channel partners.

"We had a lot of complaints from our partners," Colado acknowledged in an interview just before the holidays, after he had spent two months meeting with solution providers. "We had a lot of partners complain about their profitability [and how] they were not able to make money working with us. Most of the partners perceived us as a very difficult company to work with. And partners had the perception that they had to invest more in us than we were investing in them."

At the time of the interview Colado said the first phase of the channel program changes would be completed by the end of the first quarter. A spokesman said the management changes shouldn't delay the initiatives as Colado won't assume his new role until the new program is rolled out.

The changes being implemented to Novell's channel program fall into four buckets: Improving channel partner profitability, making Novell easier to do business with, increasing Novell's financial investment in channel partners, and better enabling partners through training and avoiding channel conflict.

Along with providing Novell's 6,000 partners with a better deal, Colado said the channel program changes are designed to encourage resellers to identify and sell to more new customers. While 60-65 percent of Novell's sales are indirect through partners, much of that is simply fulfillment of deals that were generated by Novell's direct sales force, according to the channel chief. "The goal is to have more business coming through the partners without our sales force getting involved," he said. Or, at least, bring partners into deals earlier after Novell sales reps have identified an opportunity.

To answer the complaints about being a difficult company to do business with, Novell has standardized on a single price list for its product lines instead of the hodge-podge of price lists it had applied to partners based on a solution provider's program status (platinum, gold, silver or non-accredited). A new volume discount schedule with what Colado called "very aggressive" margins is being developed to debut early in the new year. And Novell intends to increase rebates for sales made to new customers.

On the profitability side, Colado heard stories from numerous channel partners who had done the ground work to develop deals with new customers, only to be undercut on price by other resellers. "There was no guarantee that they were going to get the deals," Colado said, adding that such practices eroded profit margins for everyone. To remedy that problem Novell is assembling a deal-registration system that the channel chief said should be operational within the first three or four months of 2009.

On the enablement front, there has been channel conflict in the past between solution providers and Novell's own services organization. Novell has been performing a lot of consulting and systems integration work since it acquired Cambridge Technology Partners in 2001. Novell is downsizing its service offerings, except those built around its Identity Manager security and access management software, and will let channel partners take the lead on providing customer services with Novell playing a backup role.

Under the "enablement" heading, Novell is also developing a new line of on-line training courses for channel partners that Colado said platinum and gold partners could take for free. The channel chief said that until now, Novell's online training opportunities for solution providers have been "very limited."

Marvin Huffaker, president of Marvin Huffaker Consulting, a Chandler, Ariz.-based Novell reseller and service provider, said he'd like to see the company offer the week-long advanced technical training courses it once provided, but discontinued. "That was key to us as consultants to keeping up-to-speed on Novell technology," he said. Huffaker works with Novell's SUSE Linux, GroupWise and Open Enterprise Server products.

And in terms of investment, Novell's plans call for increasing market development spending for partners with the vendor picking up 75 percent of the cost of joint activities such as seminars for potential customers in specific vertical markets. Novell also intends to fund new positions inside larger distributors and systems integrators to serve as liaisons between the vendor and the partners.

While Novell plans to recruit some new channel partners, the real focus now is identifying those partners that can best push Novell products into new accounts.

Colado said Novell's alliance with Microsoft, struck in 2006 to improve interoperability between Windows and Novell's SUSE Linux, has made it easier to recruit and work with Microsoft channel partners. "We are getting a lot of traction from this Microsoft agreement, particularly in large accounts," he said. Novell is also recruiting more ISVs to develop third-party applications for SUSE Linux, an area where Colado said Linux rival Red Hat has been stronger.

This article has been updated.