Paul,
Peter and I were yapping today. He recapped me on all I missed at Brainshare. I specially am envious not to have been able to meet you all at the RedRock.
The one thing that we also discussed is that I really think Steve A. and marketing tribe will have a very difficult job ahead of them with their new DENIM initiative. I have been working on a potential ASP services opportunity using core Novell technologies (specially NW51, NDSv8, GW55). What one realizes in all the work in trying to develop a cohesive solution is the small but very annoying gaps in technology when converting Steve's Jacuzzi Plumbing into an actually functioning Jacuzzi!
What I mean is this. Steve used the analogy of Novell having to sell the underside of a Jacuzzi. Where Steve A.'s analogy falls apart is that he, David, and his marketing team made the assumption that the "Novell" plumbing is all connected and working together to function as a working Jacuzzi - the only problem is that the Jacuzzi must be flipped over. BAD ASSUMPTION!
In fact the real analogy and problem is that the "Novell" plumbing is all laying on the floor spread out in front of the prospective Jacuzzi customers. The Jacuzzi customer scratches his head and is confused how all these parts will actually turn into a functioning Jacuzzi. Then Steve and David must explain how the Jacuzzi would look so great IF you put this PVC pipe into this joint, and take this pump and plug it into the tub this way, etc. etc. etc. In fact, many of the other sales reps even scratch their head along side the customers. They are not sure how to sell this.
Normal ending to story - the customer walks out because either he could not envision how this Jacuzzi would actually work or he is not convinced he has the ability to put all the "Novell" parts together. "I cant be bother" and he walks out of the Novell Jacuzzi parts store!
What am I saying here you ask? Novell has a ton of great products (even though there are critical little weaknesses in many of their products) that if they were assembled into a complete Customer solution it would be much easier to sell. But Novell does not seem to understand this. They seem to keep their solutions seperate to stand basically on their own.
What Novell should do is to develop a team (or reorganize their teams) within Novell that develops COMPLETE customer solutions off the shelf. I think Novell was trying to do this with the NSP (Novell Service Provisioning) team in Boston but I have not seen a cohesive solution from them which could be marketed and sold off of a brochure. And this would be the closest example of a complete soluton that I can think of at Novell.
All of the attempts of Novell creating a COMPLETE sellable solution were either half-baked, under-funded, not intended to be a complete solution, or not injected with resources with non-product experience. They dont understand what a "Complete" solution is. They think they know - but they dont.
I think DEMIN might help the customers get a better understanding of how in theory the wide variety of Novell products fit together, BUT, Novell has to start creating some cohesive and complete marketable solutions that they could demonstrate as a complete answer to a business/technology problems. These complete solutions would be able to sell almost as a "Red-Box" type of solution.
For example, a complete "Red-Box" solution that is dear to my heart would be an "ASP-In-A-Box" solution. It would have the OS, Firewall, Caching, FTP, Web Serving, email, integrated billing, etc. all bolted together as a suite of products. The "Red-Box" would even have all related and required assistance and services like: detailed assembly instruction, a small block of Integration or consultancy services time, a block of 5-10 free support incidents, Novell Nodal Licensing structure, etc.
If Novell could assemble an "ASP-In-A-Box" red-box solution, it would be vastly more easy for ANY Novell sales/account rep around the world to sell to either an ASP wanna-be or Corporate environment. It would be sooo easy for the potential Novell customers to wratp their minds around a physical "Red-Box" solution.
But - alas - Novell does not have "Red-Box" complete solutions that I can recall. If they do, then I would say Novell's marketing is doing a real bad job because if I cannot recall a complete solution in a box, then you can just forget the vast majority of the industry that does not follow Novell's products and announcements.
The other issue I have is the little annoying technology weaknesses that need to be addressed in order to stop turning people like me off when I try to develop complete solutions. Things like NDSv8 trees that cannot merge, IP protocol with no mature load-balancing, BorderManager Enterprise Edition that ironically does not take advantage of more than one CPU (the same can be said with GroupWise), Clustering Services and NSS which cannot handle many of the same functions of the older legacy volumes (ie. disk space restriction), etc. etc. etc.
I think Steve and team must address the actual products they are putting to market. At first I said to Steve that DENIM would flip the Jacuzzi over, but I think that is wrong. DENIM is simply the assembly instructions for Novell, partners, and customers to build their own Jacuzzi with Novell parts. Novell must try to build some "pre-assembled" Jacuzzis and sell them as a complete unit.
Ahh --- but I must get off my soapbox.
Enough for now!
Toy |
