I would love to see the results if anyone does followup with these OEM's on ICS solutions.
No, I didn't do this but I am here to report second hand that the Dell rep came in today to sell some caching stuff. He made it clear that he was selling the "Dell Caching Solution". When my husband (who reported to me as soon as the meeting was over) mentioned that this was Novell's ICS underneath and inside where it's dark, the rep implied that yes, there was some element of Novell in the box but that this was indeed Dell's solution. This rep knows exactly what this place needs, as he is the one through whom many many servers and workstations were sold in the past year, so I would guess that he was fully prepared to pitch what was necessary. Actually his response was perhaps the best one as there have been snide comments going around recently regarding the Novell revenue situation and whether the company will be around much longer. I've said it before, Dell will get invited in to pitch their stuff here. Not everyone does get this invitation.
Which brings me to another topic, still in the vein of what is being discussed and with kudos going to Paul and Peter and Toy for reasonable and tangible ideas for marketing and sales...and I know it's been said before, but my husband mentioned it last night when I picked up one of those Infoworld or whatever rags and there was a blurb about FedEx and Hellmans using NDS. Not advertising, just short paragraphs on the side of the page. Novell really must now tell the world that there are real businesses that rely on Novell solutions and they must name them (the businesses). And as one of the posters mentioned (was it Paul?), describe how the Novell solutions were implemented. But obviously they have to do it in public, not just on the website. They have to get the idea out that these products are in demand, that this company is viable. I just saw an ad for SQL that said something about 96% of the Fortune 500 run Oracle, and that 96% of them also run SQL, that the internet is big enough for both of them. I personally am not in the market for a database thingy but I certainly know who the players are by that ad.
I have more to say, because very possibly the directory choice here is not as solid as I thought, I do just know that the powers who make the decisions want to know there are other big big places putting their trust in Novell. Just in case NDS and eDirectory start to look real good for the large scale.
Sorry , I'm getting carried away and writing too much. If or when I get more info on the Dell Caching Solution, I'll be sure to post it :) |
