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

To: Scott C. Lemon who wrote (24140)	10/31/1998 8:17:00 PM
From: DJBEINO	Respond to of 42771

Year 2000, Systems Management, Netware 5.0 Big Sellers -- Productivity apps keep top sales spot Lee Pender Waltham, Mass. -- Although messaging and year-2000 applications are piquing the interests of corporate software buyers, the ever-stalwart productivity suite still is selling stronger than any other application, said resellers and distributors. "Our major bulk is still [Microsoft Corp.] Office," said Mark Bagley, national manager of software marketing at Entex Information Services Inc., Rye Brook, N.Y. Upgrade sales also continue to do well. "People are still trying to upgrade [office suites]," said Melissa Womack, vice president of marketing at Software Spectrum Inc., Garland, Texas. In addition, companies want to ensure they are using year 2000-compliant suites, she said. "Companies are just very focused on ensuring that what they have is going to work for them in the future," Womack added. Year 2000 applications are recent hot sellers, she said. With the fateful date fast approaching, year 2000 application sales should remain strong through next year, she said. Year 2000 concerns also are causing users to buy systems-management applications, such as Microsoft's Systems Management Server and similar offerings from Tivoli Systems Inc., Womack said. "[When addressing year 2000 issues], the first thing they have to understand is what they have out there," she said. "Customers are really wanting to get a handle on what they've got on the desktops and also to have a good way of deploying software once they get it in-house," said Womack. Meanwhile, Bagley said he has seen growth from an unexpected source: Novell Inc.'s recently released NetWare 5.0 network operating system. While Microsoft still heads that category, increased interest in NetWare 5.0 represents a reinvestment by customers in Novell, which has come as something of a surprise to Bagley. "We knew it could happen, but it was even greater than we expected. I thought they were really on the down slope. It's been steadily going down, and all of a sudden it shot up," he said. The increase in NetWare 5.0 sales has been so noticeable that Microsoft has begun to raise its head to the issue, Bagley said. NetWare's spike, he said, could cause Microsoft to speed the development of its long-awaited Windows NT 5.0 operating system. "Microsoft's asking a lot of questions," Bagley said. "They're seeing the uptake in NetWare 5.0. I would think that would put some pressure on them to get something out sooner. "We're going to see a big movement by all the products that need to run on NT 5.0," he said. "We're definitely held up by that. The desktop operating system affects desktop sales a lot." Meanwhile, several categories are coming to the forefront to keep resellers busy. Messaging has been a hot category lately, as Lotus Development Corp.'s Notes fights it out with Microsoft Exchange. Yet, despite these strengthening areas, productivity suites still dominate. Distributor Merisel Inc., El Segundo, Calif., listed Microsoft Office and Corel Corp.'s WordPerfect suite as the two top-selling business applications on its October Hot List. techweb.com