Corel's careful strategy shift
Saturday 23 August 1997
Corel does have a plan for Java, writes
James Bagnall. But anyone outside the
firm's circle can be forgiven for not
knowing what it is.
James Bagnall
The Ottawa Citizen
One of Corel Corp. chairman Michael Cowpland's greatest
strengths is his ability to spot new trends in technology and
instantly redirect his efforts to gain an advantage.
It's equally true one of his biggest weaknesses is his perplexing
inability to communicate his plans to a wider audience.
When Mr. Cowpland surprised financial analysts and journalists
this week by outlining a series of significant changes to Corel's
Java strategy, the result was a public-relations nightmare.
Newspaper headlines declared (incorrectly as it turned out) that
Corel -- one of the industry's biggest promoters of Java technology
-- had decided to nix its Java engineering program.
Analysts complained publicly about Corel's inconsistent strategy.
And Lotus president Jeffrey Papows couldn't resist the opportunity
to tell PCWeek: "I don't want to paint this particular disaster on
Corel's part as a Java thing. It's a Corel thing."
In fact, Corel does have a coherent game plan for building a suite
of products with Java. But anyone outside Corel's immediate
circle can be forgiven for not knowing what it is.
"If I had been Jeff Papows, I probably would have said the same
thing," says Chris Biber, Corel's director of strategic alliances.
"I'm not blaming anybody, but some people took what they wanted
from our announcement this week and said we had killed Java.
Nothing could be further from the truth," he added.
The confusion arises over Corel's decision to abandon a project to
deliver Corel Office for Java. This is a suite of word processing,
spreadsheet and other applications that -- thanks to the magic of
the Java programming language -- will work on any computer.
For months, Corel has been marketing a test version of the
product to large corporations while working on alternate
technologies in the background. When Mr. Cowpland got enough
feedback from his corporate customers, he opted for plan "B,"
which involves a more gradual move to a world of pure Java.
It was an exercise in prudence, not a fundamental re-assessment
of Java technology. Yet, while Mr. Cowpland carefully explained his
move in advance to U.S. technology analysts at Gartner Group and
Forrester Research, the ground was not as carefully prepared for
financial analysts and mainstream media.
Indeed, Mr. Cowpland waited until late yesterday to install a copy
of Corel's revised Java strategy on his firm's web site. For all this,
he paid a short-term price in negative publicity. "Corel created an
expectation about Corel Office for Java and backed down from it,"
said the head of one Ottawa-based software company.
But it may not matter. Mr. Cowpland is in the fight of his life,
pressing for advantage wherever he can find it. If he errs on the
side of speed, so be it, seems to be his view.
His goal is to get Java programs into a new class of relatively
inexpensive machines known as network computers. If he can't do
it directly through Office for Java, he'll get there eventually through
his backup plan.
His frustration is understandable. Mr. Cowpland, never patient to
begin with, can sense the momentum in the computer industry shift
to network computers. And he's determined to be a leading player.
More than a dozen firms, including a Corel subsidiary, Corel
Computer Corp., are making network computers. And they are
doing so for a very good reason: corporations are tiring of the
huge cost and complexity of running computer networks that can
include thousands of heavy duty desktop computers -- each of
them requiring regular maintenance calls by well-paid computer
professionals.
In the world of Java, these professionals will have much less to do.
Applications like Office for Java are stored on large computers
known as servers. When employees on the network need to use
the program, they call it up from the server and load it onto their
network computer.
Programs can be upgraded quickly on the server.
Then everyone on the network instantly has access to the new
version. Clean and simple. But for this kind of setup to work, there
can't be a lot of large programs shuttling back and forth between
the server and the desktop computers.
This is why Corel Office for Java was designed with substantially
fewer bells and whistles than Corel's other software suites, such
as WordPerfect Suite 8.
But, as Corel's marketers presented Office for Java to prospective
customers, especially in the corporate world, it became apparent
that the software would have to do a lot more.
"People were telling us that Office for Java was a great first cut,
but then they'd say we need this feature or that. The model can
only be stretched so far," said Mr. Biber.
One difficulty is the relative immaturity of the Java language, which
burst out of the basement of California-based Sun Microsystems
Inc. slightly more than two years ago.
While some 400,000 Java software developers are swiftly
strengthening the language's features and adding new
applications under a massive, Sun-led effort, Java isn't quite ready
for prime time in major corporations.
Still, there's little doubt Java will eventually become the industry's
language of choice -- especially for companies operating lots of
different types of computers.
Corel's Office for Java suite was one of 53 applications that had
already received Sun's stamp of approval as being "100-per-cent
pure Java." And giants like IBM Corp., Netscape Communications
Corp., Oracle Corp. and Novell Inc. are all backing the Java
language in an industry-wide battle against Seattle-based
Microsoft Corp., which currently supplies most of the globe's office
suite and Windows-based operating system software.
But the Java backers face a conundrum. While corporations love
the idea of simpler networks, there's little sign yet they are
prepared to abandon the rich features usually associated with
Windows-based applications.
Corel tried to squeeze as many features as it could into Corel
Office for Java and still keep the program small enough to run on a
stripped-down network computer.
When it discovered this wouldn't do the trick in the corporate
market, Corel opted for a compromise. Its new approach will allow
computer users to call up the parts of the program they need from
the server when they need it.
Thus, Corel Office for Java is being disbanded, then reassembled
into two new products known as Remagen and Alta (based on the
current CorelCentral product).
Remagen is a stopgap measure. It's a technology that will allow
anyone with a network computer to call up applications written
either in Java or for Windows, the ubiquitous operating system
developed by Corel rival Microsoft Corp.
In this, Corel is simply acknowledging there's a lot of Microsoft
software out there and that even people who use network
computers want to be able to use it. Several innovative firms --
including New Moon Software Inc., a two-year old outfit based in
Santa Clara, California, and Citrix Systems Inc., an eight-year old
Microsoft ally based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida -- have figured out
how to deliver Windows applications to network computers.
Applix Inc. of Westboro, Massachusetts, is doing something
similar on networks driven by Unix, as well as Windows.
Put simply, their technology opens the application -- a word
processing program, for example -- on the network server, then
sends the display portion of the program to the network computer.
The important point is that this sort of technology allows
corporations to begin building networks using network computers.
This, in turn, will create an infrastructure Corel can take advantage
of.
"Once you get these network computers out there, they're all
software upgradeable," says Dan Dodge, the co-founder of
Kanata-based QNX Software Systems Ltd., a top contender to
build an operating system for Corel's network computer, due out
this autumn. "You can go to Java-based applications in the future,"
he says.
This is where Alta comes in. It's a group of Internet-based products
aimed at people who will use their network computers as a kind of
glorified Web browser. The software will call up only those parts of
each program most frequently used.
Corel hopes to have it ready by mid-1998. The first versions of
Remagen are being readied for this October.
In short, Mr. Cowpland has adapted his firm's Java strategy to
short-term conditions.
"This is part of Michael's modus operandi," says a Corel executive
who did not want to be named. "He reassesses decisions at every
stage based on new information coming in. This business moves
so fast, there's a lot to be said for this approach."
ottawacitizen.com
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