Steve,
Why don't you tell us how you think Novonyx is going to steal sales from Novell? Novonyx is going to be selling NetScape SuiteSpot servers for and with IntranetWare. Every sale to a new customer they make is another copy of IntranetWare sold. Every sale to an existing Novell customer just ties that customer more tightly to Novell core products.
For the most part, the individual components of SuiteSpot do not compete with any Novell products. Novell has nothing to compete with Enterprise server (although Oracle's Web Application Server, also being ported to IntranetWare through a different partnership, does compete with Enterprise Server). Novell's current web server is comparable with Netscape's FastTrack server, but Novell gives their's away now with every copy of IntranetWare/NetWare 4.11. Sure, they offer a previous version for sale for NetWare 3.12 and 4.10, but I doubt if it ever was a big seller (even if it was, list price is only $295, which means about $100 profit to Novell for every copy). If someone buys FastTrack from Novonyx, they may also buy a copy of IntranetWare that they otherwise wouldn't buy.
Collabra Server competes directly with Novell's GroupWise. Still, if someone buys Collabra for IntranetWare from Novonyx, there is no way they would have bought GroupWise if Novonyx did not exist; they would have bought Collabra for NT or Unix instead. So a Collabra sale from Novonyx adds an IntranetWare sale that would not otherwise exist.
NetScape's Directory Server is not competitive with NDS in any way; try using it to control access to any NetWare, NT, or Unix server (good luck). The Directory Server can be used for access control for specific LDAP-compliant server based applications, but then so can NDS, either directly or through an LDAP gateway.
Another potential competitive area is Netscape's Proxy Server vs. Novell's BorderManager. Again, Novell's product has so much more functionality, performance, and scalability than NetScape's product that it is doubtful there will be much cannabilizing of sales.
The availability of Novonyx products for resale through Novell's existing distribution channel will strengthen Novell resellers and help keep them in the "fold".
So, come up with a realistic scenario based on actual product plans where Novonyx sales are going to hurt Novell. I enjoy a good conspiracy theory as much as anyone, but I generally prefer them to have a few more facts behind them than this one.
Jerry |
