Profit Magazine
We Interview the Founder
To learn the secrets of how Corel has done so well—and what plans it has for
the future—we interviewed the founder and chairman, Dr. Michael Cowpland,
as well as his executive vice president, engineering, Derek Burney, who guides
new software development for the company.
Dr. Cowpland credits the trend toward lower-priced PCs with tilting the
advantage his way. "Microsoft charges everyone as much as the traffic will
bear—both the computer manufacturers and the consumer. Our products are
completely compatible with Microsoft's, have more features, and sell for about
50 percent less. So our deal is much better for these manufacturers who now
need to save money so they can keep their retail prices down. Consequently,
we've already got 20 percent of the pre-installed market."
Since he was talking about Microsoft, we asked him specifically how
WordPerfect was doing in its competition for market share with the industry
colossus. We were surprised by his answer: "Despite all its bundling deals with
computer manufacturers, Microsoft has only about 60 million Word users. We
have 22 million active users for WordPerfect, and that figure has gone up 10
percent in just the last two years.
"During the next year, our new-equipment installations will bring us 20 million
additional users, and the software will give all those new users a direct
connection to our website as well."
The WordPerfect Suite is Sweet
The latest WordPerfect suite is called WordPerfect Office 2000 and includes
the highly regarded Quattro Pro spreadsheet program plus applications for
personal database management, preparing presentations, desktop publishing
and Internet Web publishing.
The Voice-Powered Edition of this suite is amazing. It lets you speak—rather
than type—to create word-processing documents. Take that, Microsoft! You
can speak up to 160 words a minute in this version of WordPerfect and have
those words entered into document files accurately and displayed on the
screen. Furthermore, you can even execute document formatting commands
verbally, as well as enter data into Quattro Pro spreadsheets by voice alone.
For Macintosh, the WordPerfect office suite doesn't have this voice capability,
but it has a different, tremendous advantage over the comparable office suite
sold for Macintosh use by Microsoft. The WordPerfect suite is designed for
use on earlier Macs as well as the latest models. On the other hand, Microsoft
has abandoned support for all Mac computers sold before the introduction of
Apple's PowerPC.
Of special interest to the legal profession is the fact that Corel offers a version
of the WordPerfect suite that is the world's only legal-specific office software
suite. The latest release is called WordPerfect Law Office 2000. In addition to
the programs such as Quattro Pro that are included in the standard
WordPerfect suite, the legal version includes several tools and features
designed specifically for legal professionals. For example, it can convert files
automatically to the EDGAR format in order to file forms electronically with
the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The Corel products have much less stringent licensing restrictions than those
imposed by Microsoft—a big advantage in the corporate world.
The Linux Advantage
As Wall Street has noted—confirmed by the strong performance of Corel's
stock we mentioned earlier—the Canadian contender's release of its major
applications for use on the Linux operating system should mean increased
profits in the future—plus something more for Microsoft to worry about.
Linux is a variant of the Unix operating system and was originally developed in
1991 by Linus Torvalds, a computer science student in Helsinki, Finland.
Since then it has been embraced wholeheartedly by influential software
developers. It is the only operating system that has gained ground against the
operating systems and environments owned by Microsoft: DOS, Windows and
NT. Linux is being developed and improved by top programmers on a
non-profit basis and distributed free of charge. Many believe it could
eventually make the Microsoft products obsolete.
As an indication of the growing popularity of Linux, Corel has been
offering—through its Internet site—free downloads of the Linux version of
WordPerfect. So far, more than a million downloads have been recorded.
The Other Key Products
As far as the other key products are
concerned, we asked Dr. Cowpland
how the company's flagship product
CorelDRAW is doing. "Our
Windows version has a 62 percent
market share," he responded.
The latest CorelDRAW graphics corel.com
suite—CorelDRAW 9—includes
CorelDRAW itself for use in
illustration and page layout, Corel
Photo-Paint for image editing, and
other applications and utilities for
scripting visual effects, managing
fonts, adding realistic background
textures, tracing images, screen
captures, distortion effects, and more. On top of all that, the suite includes
25,000 high-quality clipart images, 1,000 high-resolution photos, and 1,000
free typefaces—most of them even updated to include the new euro currency
symbol.
The Corel Ventura desktop publishing suite includes the powerful Ventura
publishing and page
layout application itself, plus WordPerfect (only the word processor, of
course—not the complete WordPerfect suite), a database publisher, a painting
and photo-retouching program, font management, and utilities for scanning
and tracing images.
Another very successful Corel product line is its enormous library consisting of
millions of clipart images and photos.
Don't Mess with Cowpland!
When a man in the news is not a physician and has a "Dr." before his last
name, visions are generated of some soft, flabby egghead who has spent most
of his life studying in a university library and has little connection with the real
world. Dr. Michael Cowpland does not exactly fit that image.
First of all, he holds a black belt in martial arts, and he plays tennis too. In
fact, he does more than "play" at it. In 1995 he reached the men's quarter
finals in the veterans division at Wimbledon.
Dr. Cowpland was born in 1943 in Sussex, England and studied engineering as
an undergraduate at Imperial College, Britain's leading engineering university.
He moved to Ottawa, Canada, in 1964 and earned a master's degree and a
doctorate in engineering from Carleton University.
He began his business career at Bell Northern Research, where he worked on
electronic telephone systems. Later, he moved to MicroSystems, where he
was manager of silicon chip design. In 1973 he founded MITEL with
Terrence Mathews and served as the company's CEO for ten years. Under his
leadership, the company achieved a phenomenal 100 percent annual growth
rate. When MITEL was eventually sold to British Telecom in 1984, its sales
were over $300 million.
Dr. Cowpland founded Corel Corporation in 1985, and—as we mentioned
previously—launched CorelDRAW in 1989.
Plans for the Future
David Burney, Corel's software-development guru, plied his trade at Atomic
Energy of Canada and Bell Northern Research, among others, before joining
Corel in 1993. We asked him about Corel's work in progress.
"Of course, we'll be releasing new versions of our existing products," he
replied. "But we're also creating unique Internet applications and programs
that will run on the new hand-held and wireless computers. We always want
to be a leader in supporting new developments within the industry."
So Dr. Cowpland is smiling these days as he looks at the progress of the
company he founded and still heads. Yes, it is possible to compete
successfully against Microsoft. And the doctor has even more powerful cards
up his sleeve that will be played at the proper times.
linux.corel.com |
