Joe
I wasn't trying to flame anyone, and was simply stating what has become very obvious to me as a Computer Telephony Reseller (small systems). You can pick up any of the latest industry publications, including TeleConnect, Computer Telephony Magazine, VAR Business, etc., and you will find that increasingly more and more vendors are betting the farm on Windows NT as the platform of choice be it a small platform or large. Granted, Novell has and probably will continue to have niches, but that is it. Just as they are likely to maintain niches and marketshare in the OS market for the foreseeable future.
The point is that they failed to get enough vendors to "bet the farm" on TSAPI, and now Microsoft is going in for the kill. Reasons cited (just pulling examples from recent articles) include, and these are quotes:
"In the Netware World some functionality is provided by the NLM. But there is a huge difference between NT as an applications server and Netware NLMs. NLMs are a "hack" tacked onto the top of a special purpose (print and file share) network operating system. NLMS lack protected memory, preemptive multitasking i.e. I'm sorry I can't take your call right now, I'm busy spooling a big print job".
"Netware is not a good choice as a platform for mission critical real-time applications, like phone calls".
Here are some of the reasons cited for Windows NT:
"Cruiser Class Client/Server and true SMP architecture"
"Scalability"
"Preemptive Multitasking and Multi-Threading"
"Redundancy and disaster recovery
"Erector set-type development platform"
"Great administration, including the ability to remotely administor the box'
"Great development tools"
"Big and growing array of building blocks like voice processing cards, databases, messaging systems, etc."
"ECTF S.100"
and on, and on and on. Hardware vendors like Rhetorex, Dialogic, Brooktrout, and most all of the software vendors like Applied Voice, Apex, Active Voice, and integrated messaging companies like Octel, etc are creating their newest generation of products around NT. Like it or not, that seems to be the way it is.
Of course, when we speak about Computer Telephony, it means different things to different people. When I think of telephony, I think of the market which is expected to triple in the next 5 years. This market includes not only the SOHO market, but also call centers, international callback, fax over the internet, etc. Very little is being said about Novell playing a big role in these booming markets. However, you cannot pick up a CTI based magazine without reading something about NT as the platform of choice.
I have lost lots of money on both Novell, as well as PBX companies who invested heavily in the TSAPI platform (i.e. Comdial), only to see these companies move towards the NT & TAPI direction. The reasons cited in quarterly reports of why these companies TSAPI based sales were not meeting expectations have included the high cost of implementation and support of TSAPI based systems. Since that time, most of these vendors have introduced lower priced, more fully functional systems based on Windows NT.
I still have a signficant investment in Novell, as I believe that there is still a small shred of hope that the company will turnaround. However, one must realize that mindshare, along with superior products = marketshare, and in the telephony marketplace, NT has totally taken the mindshare, and vendors are rapidly introducing new products.
This post is in the spirit of constructive argument. Our business has been heavily focused on Netware since 1987. We are rapidly seeing that part of our business decline, with more and more of our customers wanting NT and NT based solutions. Blame on the press, Microsoft, or anyone else for that matter, but the facts are that Microsoft NT is going to be the OS of choice for Computer Telephony Servers during the huge CTI boom which is currently just beginning.
On a side note, even Artisoft, the little Lantastic software vendor, sees the potential in CTI, and has made a significant investment recently by purchasing an application generator and building alliances with Dialogic, the leader in telephony hardware. Granted most of the business they are going after is small companies, but, they are being very aggressive about it, and so far the results seem positive. In order for Novell to succeed in the CTI market, they must not only get the large enterprises, but also the smaller markets as well. The small market is what built Novell, and it is in the smaller markets that NT is eating their lunch.
Final thought....Novell has a good product in TSAPI, unfortunately, it is not viewed as a large, mass market platform like Netware was, is very expensive to implement, and is not as robust an OS as NT for telephony applications. That prevents many developers from developing new, innovative products for it. Look what happened to Apple and their OS. It was always respected, unfortunately, they could not get enough people to develop for it. I see the same thing happening with TSAPI. Maybe, Novell sees it differently. Perhaps they see more potential with the Telcos like Deutche Telecom (recent announcement) and AT&T. If that is the case, that is great. They can win in those markets. However, that does not change the fact that in the small to mid-sized business that need robust computer telephony, they are quickly losing the battle.
My opionion as a CTI reseller and Integrator, for what it is worth. |
