An Interview with Ron Heinz
Novell's Sales Chief Takes Aim at New Markets
By David Martinez
Ron Heinz, senior vice president for worldwide
sales, is a Novell veteran who has seen a lot
during his 12 years with the company, and today
he has the daunting challenge of growing
revenue streams, breaking into new accounts,
and managing a sales force that reaches
around the globe. He has also been involved in
several of the new initiatives Novell has rolled
out in the past few months, including
ShopNovell, the company's online store, and the
Novell Internet Caching System, a new caching
appliance sold through OEM partners like
Compaq and Dell.
Recently I had the chance to sit down for a
conversation with Heinz. We talked about
Novell's turnaround, its new technologies and
new initiatives, its battle with Microsoft, and
more. You can watch or listen to the entire
conversation using the RealMedia player. Or
read the edited excerpts of the interview below.
DM: You've been with Novell since 1987. What
have been some of the highlights?
RH: The growth of Novell in the early days was
a wonderful experience for anybody who was
here. But I think just as exciting is going through
the turnaround. And as hard as it was for a
couple of years to get Novell back on track,
that's been probably the most rewarding part of
my journey here at Novell.
DM: Before the turnaround, there must have
been times, frankly, when you wondered if it was
all worth it.
RH: Well, yes, frankly speaking. I think anybody
who was here during what I call the "dark
tunnel" probably wondered whether it was going
to be worth it or not. And I think that probably
makes it even more gratifying to stick in here
and have that happen.
DM: Let's talk about the present. One big piece
of news is Novell has announced some major
new partnerships.
RH: The partnerships that are coming to pass
are phenomenal. We're going to drive the whole
caching market [through the Novell Internet
Caching System], and in particular the
announcements with Compaq and Dell are very
exciting. It leads us into a new market that we
haven't been in before. It also leads us into the
beginning of new revenue streams and new
customers around caching and around
directory-enabled applications. I think that's one
of the most exciting things about being at Novell
at this time: the new markets and new
opportunities that we have right now.
DM: As a salesperson, that's what you really
must enjoy: having new markets to go into, new
products to sell.
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RH: It makes it a lot of fun. We're engaging heavily with Compaq, IBM, Dell, HP,
and a whole list of other major OEM players around the world in addition to
telecommunication providers. The reception is outstanding; the excitement level
is very high. So, yes, from a sales and marketing perspective it doesn't get any
better than this right now.
DM: What are customers saying about Novell's direction?
RH: I think customers are beginning to
understand where we're going. If you go back
to two years ago, most of the account calls I
went on went something along the lines of,
"What's happening at Novell? We're about to
throw you guys out. It looks like there's not
going to be a long-term future." That has
changed dramatically over the last two years
to, "Congratulations on the turnaround, we're
beginning to understand the directory, keep going, great job." I think all of our
customers, even through the turnaround, wanted us to succeed. They like doing
business with us, so in many regards, many of those customers during the
turnaround were really pulling for us.
NOVELL VS. MICROSOFT
DM: You're on the front lines of the battle between Novell and Microsoft. Talk
about how that works. It's not really Novell or Microsoft anymore.
RH: The Microsoft battle is an interesting one. It's clear that we compete head on
in some markets. My strategy has been to help take Novell where Microsoft can't
go, or can't go as quickly, and to position that to our customers. As an example,
the directory. We have such a great lead, and customers, who are beginning to
understand the directory-enabled applications, really begin to look at this thing
much differently.
A couple of years ago this was much more of an intense problem than it is today.
We were losing market share from an application server standpoint. We were
being compared much more directly with Microsoft, and I don't care who you are
in this industry, that's a position you don't want to be in. But I think with the new
products we're bringing to the market—the directory-enabled applications, the
advancements with NetWare 5—all are ground-rule changing products that make
that comparison less easy for our customers to look at. I think our positioning is,
"We make NT run better." And that story is a lot easier to tell today than it was a
couple of years ago.
Also, the caching market and the network appliance marketplace that we're now
beginning to enter, I think, gives us such a great opportunity in that market. That's
another key differentiator that says, "We're different. We're going to take you
where they can't go or can't go as quickly." And most of our customers are
beginning to grasp that.
DM: Now let's talk about ShopNovell, Novell's
e-commerce initiative. Can you tell us how it
works and how it fits in with the rest of the
way Novell sells products?
RH: We have two goals for ShopNovell. The
first is to automate our existing business
processes. For example, we'd like to have
almost all of our orders come in via
ShopNovell, whether they're from distributors, OEM partners, licensing customers.
And we've set up ShopNovell to make the ordering process and the interaction
with Novell more pleasant, easier, and more effective—not only for our customers
but for ourselves. That's phase one.
Phase two is to begin to introduce broad, overall solutions that the customer can
order from Novell or from partners. We have some of this online today, so if a
customer is interested in buying, and they're not currently a licensing customer or
distributor or OEM partner, they can visit one of our partner sites and very
efficiently place an order through our partners.
The opportunities are endless. We'd like to introduce more consulting services,
technical support offerings, and give our customers a place to interact with Novell
and obtain any type of product or service, whether it's from Novell or from our
channel, using a very effective and enjoyable and easy mechanism.
INTERNATIONAL SALES GOAL: 60% OF NOVELL REVENUE
DM: Finally, let's talk about international sales. How are sales doing in other parts
of the world, especially the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region?
RH: Last quarter, we had a record quarter in EMEA that far and away exceeded
our forecast. We're really starting to see a couple of things happen in Europe.
One is the economy is very robust. Second is that there tends to be a real uptake
in directory-enabled technology as more accounts come online with the Internet
and with the overall concept of network management. We believe we're just
getting started there in Europe.
We've had serious macroeconomic issues
around the world, in particular in Japan, Asia
Pacific, Latin America. But it's safe to say that
we're coming out of those cycles. We've
fought our way back from a couple of tough
quarters, and we're starting to see economic
stability.
I think what we at Novell need to do is to
continue to work on becoming more of a global oriented company versus a U.S.
company doing business abroad. So I chair an international awareness
committee for the company that interacts with executive staff, with product
development, with marketing, that talks about the things we need to do to better
understand the needs of our customers outside the U.S. I think if we execute
crisply in that space over the next few years, we're going to meet my goal of
having 60 percent of our revenue come from outside the United States and
continue to grow overall business for Novell.
You can watch or listen to the entire conversation using the RealMedia player.
Published April 21, 1999 |
