Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Novell (NOVL) dirt cheap, good buy? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Robert Sloan who wrote (28937)	11/13/1999 7:59:00 AM
From: p friend	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42771

November 1, 1999 Novell Runs In A New Direction Directory service to authenticate and manage e-commerce customers. By Deborah Gage, Sm@rt Reseller Novell is making an ambitious attempt to unify resellers and Internet service providers behind new "Internet business solutions software" that it plans to ship within the next three months. Spearheading the move is VP Dave Shirk, who last month became head of both Novell's product marketing and product management groups after the sudden departure of marketing VP Patti Dock. Shirk acknowledges that he does not have all of Novell's business issues figured out, although he expects his four years spent in building a value-added channel for Macola Software to come in handy. Novell's goal is to offer both ISPs and its Platinum resellers the ability to sell high-margin services based on software that it is beta testing in seven sites around the world. Each site has anywhere from 1,000 to 20,000 subscribers. Called Novell On-Demand, the software allows customers to enter a Web site through a secure connection that is authenticated by Novell Directory Services (NDS). From there, customers can rent software, music or other services. A reseller or an ISP can present his own branded browser to customers and bill them in a variety of ways—Novell On-Demand supports an open-billing API and currently integrates with Authorize.Net and CyberSource. Product manager Michael Brown points out that Novell On-Demand also could be useful to corporations that want to track and manage assets. These assets can be represented in NDS as objects that only authenticated users can access. Novell On-Demand is one element of Novell's iChain, which is due around the same time and is a business-to-business e-commerce framework based on Java and XML. Shirk says Novell is considering ways to proliferate NDS, upon which its entire strategy depends, and that partners should "stay tuned." He believes Novell finally has technology that will allow the company to grow, because iChain is extensible and people will think of new ways to use it. For instance, NDS objects, such as video clips, can be placed on a secure Web site, and customer usage can be monitored. But the business issues are thorny. Shirk told ISPs attending ISPCON in San Jose, Calif., last week that they are the next generation of the indirect channel. "The dot-coms and the IPO software companies of the world all claim a gold-card Fortune 100 account, but there are only so many of those to go around," says Shirk. "You [an ISP] could become the most important person in the world to them ... If [dot-coms] intend to move down the food chain to consumers, you'll become their channel, or they won't be able to deliver services." fool.com