brian. This is the type of thing Paul was getting at:
March 25, 1997 6:00 PM ET
Novell plays to crowd, but
may need a new audience
By Renee Deger
SALT LAKE CITY -- Novell Inc.'s annual BrainShare
extravaganza, in its second day Tuesday, is one slick
production. The problem with it is the wrong people are
in the audience.
Conference attendees, mostly programmers,
consultants and information services department
heads, say the people who really need to witness
Novell's song and dance are the corporate executives
charged with making or approving large purchasing
decisions.
So conference attendees are turning a deaf ear while
hoping Novell is rehearsing a better number for taking
on Microsoft Corp.'s Windows NT Server.
"It's not enough to get the message to us; we don't get
a chance to influence the buyers. We get a call, and the
client says 'switch us to NT,' because that is the one
they've heard of," said Chris Dixon, a senior consultant
for Interim Technology, an information services
consulting firm in Oak Brook, Ill.
While attendees don't greet incoming CEO Eric
Schmidt with the same excitement as Wall Street, they
do think he is well-suited for the challenges that face
him.
"Novell has great technology, but they have problems
getting it to market," said Ivan Bengtsson, a software
developer. "Schmidt is good for that," said Bengtsson,
who came from Goteborg, Sweden, to attend.
He said Schmidt seemed to play a large role in moving
Java from its beginnings as an esoteric programmer's
language to the mainstream.
"I'm glad to see someone endorsing [Novell], its use of
Java and its technology, especially Eric Schmidt," said
Bill Kenny, a senior LAN systems technician at Caldor
Corp., in Trumbull, Conn.
Kenny, a Certified Novell Engineer who has influenced
every major Novell purchase made by his company
during his tenure, said he is very hopeful that Novell will
repair its broken image.
"I have a lot invested in [Novell], both professionally and
personally," said Kenny. But with greater frequency, he
said, he is finding himself going up against senior
managers who have heard more about Microsoft's
products than about Novell's.
Dixon, Kenny and many others like them attending
BrainShare say they recommend Novell's products
much more often than they recommend Microsoft's.
While bearish to install compared to Microsoft's
servers, Novell's are much easier to maintain and
require significantly fewer pieces of hardware to run,
say people certified to install both kinds of products.
But the clients often won't hear of it.
Upon visiting one client, Gallo Winery, in St. Helena,
Calif., Michael Gough, a consultant with GE Capital IT
Solutions, another consulting firm, was told to pull out
the Novell servers and install Microsoft's.
"Their answer was so they could be like everyone
else," said Gough. None of the executives who have
asked for Microsoft's NT Server, he claimed, could
explain coherently why they wanted that product or what
it could accomplish for them.
Kenny added that Novell also does not seem to make
the rounds among executives the way Microsoft's
marketing machine does, instead leaving that
responsibility to its information services departments.
Joe Marengi, Novell's CEO until April 7, when Schmidt
takes the reins, said he knows the company's
marketing has been lousy.
"The company had nowhere to go," said Marengi. But
this year's BrainShare marks a change in all that.
Going forward, the company will focus on the
interoperability of its products and Novell's support of
open standards, he said.
Marengi added that the company has launched a new
ad campaign as well, but will use its new partnerships
to help brand its products in myriad ways with
customers.
===================================================================
This is REAL STUFF. This is the STUFF that's GOTTA CHANGE!
Regards,
Joe..<and FAST.........>
Oh Yeah, I forgot (from this story Joey)
>> Joe Marengi, Novell's CEO until April 7, when Schmidt
takes the reins, said he knows the company's
marketing has been lousy.
"The company had nowhere to go," said Marengi. But
this year's BrainShare marks a change in all that.
Going forward, the company will focus on the
interoperability of its products and Novell's support of
open standards, he said.
Marengi added that the company has launched a new
ad campaign as well, but will use its new partnerships
to help brand its products in myriad ways with
customers. <<
SHOW ME DA' MONEY JOEY! SHOW ME DA' MONEY! |
