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

To: Paul Fiondella who wrote (21207)	3/17/1998 11:07:00 PM
From: ToySoldier	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42771

Paul, I think for once in all our discussions we agree on something! Novell staff are too much a bunch of bashful good guys. What we have told them several times is to show the world that your ready to fight for your marketshare. Some tactics they should try: 1) Expose the Microsoft weaknesses to the world. The NT horror stories are being experienced by any reasonable sized NT shop, but these horror stories are not being made known. Find them and publish them for the industry to see - even if its in the form of an ad. Build up a database of these stories for all to peruse on the web site. 2) Openly challenge Microsoft to a high publicity, high stress, technology solution competition. For example, everyone knows that Novell's product line ran the entire Comdex (an amazing feat!). But openly challenge Microsoft to use their technology to perform the same feat. The media would love to host an open challenge like that (makes for great reading). Repeat these challenges. If Microsoft backs down on the challenge - publish it! 3) Like you said, NDS for NT should be given away for the first year as a promotion. Hook those NT server clients onto NDS! If one experiences the true benefits of NDS for all platforms they will be see how severely limited Domains and even Active Directory is/will be. (Short term pain - long term gain!). 4) At all costs - release NetWare 5 earlier than the expected release date. If there are any trouble points in NetWare 5's roll out, remove them and re-introduce them as "Service Patches" (does the term sound familiar) or free upgrades. IMO - an early release date will have a huge positive impact to the industry and the market. 5) Actively help the other industry partners integrate NDS into their respective platforms and then demonstrate its value. Most people - even those in the industry don't know exactly what NDS integration into other platforms will give them (like NDS for MVS or HPUX). 6) Novell has to get into as many open debates in the press as is possible against Microsoft. Microsoft's strategy right now against Novell is to COMPLETELY IGNORE THEM. If Microsoft doesn't even mention Novell as a competitor then the industry begins to believe that Novell is a non-player in the industry - this has been working (don't they are doing this - watch whenever Microsoft talks about Exchange competition - GroupWise is not mentioned in most cases). Novell must break Microsoft's "silent treatment" strategy. A Good Example: In January when Microsoft went into the press to announce that it would not support NT customers that implement NDS for NT. Lots of trade press and Microsoft did what they are really good at doing - they put their foot in their mouth. Novell got a ton of great press! The media openly challenged Microsoft's accusations and won. Now many would say that Microsoft won't play into this but there are ways. This may sound a bit dirty but its done in football all the time - "Pssst... Microsoft...I slept with your wife". Make statements in the press that Microsoft cannot stand by quietly and not have responded. AHH - these examples could go on for ever. But you are right. They have to learn to play aggressively and even a bit dirty - like their competition plays. Paul, I think you and I should walk into Novell and take over their Marketing Department! By the way Don, I agree with you also in that Novell has a bad tendency to try a marketing strategy for too short a time. I also wish they would advertise on TV (like CNN). I have seen some of their videos they have made for TV and they were SUPER! Wish they would let the world see what they show forum attendees. Ohh well, that it for me for the night. Later Folks! ToySoldier