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

To: Paul Fiondella who wrote (31064)	4/16/2000 4:20:00 PM
From: PJ Strifas	Respond to of 42771

Can NOVL develop the right tools for the ASP market that it has developed for Corporate Networks? Can ZENworks for Servers and ZENworks for Networks become the tools for hetergeneous networks that ASPs need (that don't cost your first born to implement)? If so, that could be a move in the right direction but I'd much rather see NOVL develop products that ASPs would BUY to provide services to their clients. Turn this into a subscription base of revenue that each ASP would pay for the product & management tools -- it could be VERY profitable. The thing is the ASP market is defined in such a narrow pie-in-the-sky manner (like renting MS Office in piece-meal fashion for a fee on a per user basis or an email package). I feel this tends to disuade people from investigating the ASP offerings. There are many "fringe" ASP models that have yet to come to light because they aren't as "exciting"...?? I think web-enabled appliances will become more common in the near future for many reasons and the ASP people should be leveraging these systems NOW. For instance, internet kiosks will begin to proliferate as wireless access becomes cheaper and since the landline model (with excessive telco installation charges) restricted widespread introduction in a profitable manner. This will bring a boom to web-based unified messaging solutions (email/voice/fax/video, documents, calendaring, etc) - a typical ASP marketspace.[One example] Tie this service into wireless phones, PDAs et al and the model begins to transcend the device for access. This is the key to "services" - no dependence on a specific DEVICE. These internet kiosks can become indispensible if implemented in the right fashion (leveraging a Directory service, smartcard or token authentication and personalized content). Would not be a far stretch to turn this internet kiosks idea into fully functional service centers within vertical markets (visit the pharmacy, log onto kiosk, check prescription from doc, pharmacy fills it, charges your debit card, get drugs, log off, go home). You could even do some of the steps from your home, your PDA or your wireless phone! I sat in a presenatation at BrainShare where the speaker explained how "settop" boxes for cable TV companies would be Directory-enabled with a smart card for your subscription services. This smart card could be carried with you to your friends house or say to a hotel who also subscribes to the same cable service...imagine that? Watch TV while on vacation with the channel subscriptions you have at home at no extra cost!?!?! Anyway, I stray from my intention here -- as Toy has touched upon, the ASP model is not always about the right mix of product & services but getting into the right markets (with the right partners) that will get your company into a leadership role. There are quite a few approaches that would jump start an ASP company's subscription base -- it's all about the partners -- and I'm not talking about software, telco or any other computer/internet companies either :) Regards, Peter J Strifas