"I know that's just the tip of the iceberg but you get the picture I'm sure. Creating an
Internet Division is great marketing but marketing alone will only drive Novell so far.
There needs to be some substance in any re-organization. That means shifting the core
business from NetWare to NDS. Once NDS becomes the CASH COW for Novell,
everything else will flow from NDS to other products."
I'm all for substance with marketing to match. Substance means killer applications. There seems to be pressing need for an Internet division that can really push aggressively with the opportunities afforded by NOVLs new technologies.
"If you have everything flow through NDS, you don't
necessarily need to develop an "Internet Division" but rather make your products
"internet-ready" through NDS. Then the WHOLE company becomes a pure
INTERNET company."
I think that in the consumer arena the flow is in the opposite direction. The products should be created to resolve Internet e-commerce consumer needs. This requires a set of people thinking about these issues exclusively. Schmidt is seating on a very good position now, he has the technologies, he has the cash he needs to put a very aggressive plan to push with NOVL.COM
Take the 50 mill Internet initiative. I guess a few quarters ago this amount of $$ was ok in view of NOVLs position at that time. IMHO now we need to be much more aggressive. Hate to see companies like Oblix, now also working with BNYN, when NOVL could have bought it cheaply sometime ago, for example.
We have been discussing for a while the possible applications of Digitalme technology. But let's look at what happened in the short period of time since NOVL announced that it had developed this technology. First MSFT said that it was a good idea to try to address privacy concerns on Internet. Then immediately MSFT started to market their half baked and probably technically unsound solution! NOVL is still not saying much at all..
But obviously privacy is the tip of the iceberg. The issue of been able to establish your identity in cyberspace has far reaching implications. We have discussed credit cards. IDs passports drives licenses etc etc. As I was saying the other day a lot of paper that is pushed around the world constantly via snail mail, of one type or another, has to do with making sure that papers are signed and certified to be so by the people that claim to have signed them. So now with Digitalme you could open a virtual Public Notary.COM, you could establish an internet UPS/FDEX delivery system of authenticated paperwork, etc, etc, etc.
NOVLs current position seems to be let's have other people develop the consumer applications they will have to use our directory anyway. I don't think this is the optimal strategy. To be able to go for this untapped market NOVL needs to have a division to work with the Banks, Credit Card Companies, etc, etc, etc, etc to develop products in partnership. This probably requires a special division with a special mentality.
"Once we go back and see that directories are the key, then the new revolution (the
Quiet one) will take place with NDS right in the middle of things. Let's face it, the
internet does one thing REALLY great, it connects disparate systems and allows
them an avenue with which to communicate. When you break it down to this level, it
doesn't matter what the hardware is or the OS that's riding on that hardware. It's all
about finding each other, defining the rules and communicating (sounds alike like
what NDS does).
NDS is the play."
Agree! That's why I wrote the piece above.
Victor |
