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

To: Paul Fiondella who wrote (26363)	3/30/1999 4:01:00 PM
From: EPS	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 42771

On the subject of LU: from Lu's thread: usnews.com

To: Paul Fiondella who wrote (26363)	3/30/1999 8:14:00 PM
From: DJBEINO	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42771

Novell is on a roll, thriving on new ideas By Steve Fidel Deseret News staff writer Novell Inc. does not want to rest on its laurels as the world's top brand for computer networking software. It wants its name stamped on the very plumbing of the Internet. Observations at Novell's 15th annual BrainShare at the Salt Palace Convention Center last week highlight Novell initiatives involving products, players and "The Pipe." Novell's darker days several years ago saw it labeled as a one-hit wonder, with precious little in new offerings and taking a back seat in the networking arena to Microsoft's Windows NT. Novell is now announcing new products at the rate of at least one per month. Novell's executives are operating under board chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt's iron-clad mandate to keep new products rolling, ship new products on time, and exploit the weaknesses of its largest competitor — Microsoft — which has a lousy record getting major new products out on time. Novell vice president and chief information officer Sheri Anderson said that for the first quarter of 1999 that ends this week, Novell will have announced 26 new products, upgrades or products in beta testing. "The Pipe" is Novell's variation on a corporate in-house innovation rewards theme. Anyone in the company who can convince strategic business vice president Mike Sheridan and his pipeline committee that an idea is worth pursuing is rewarded with a $2,000 bonus. Ideas so far have come from the sales force and from Novell engineers. Engineers who bring promising ideas to the pipeline committee are assigned to a small development team that explores the idea. The further the idea progresses, the more engineers Sheridan assigns to the team. Keeping the innovator involved helps overcome the "not invented here" inertia companies experience when engineers are assigned to explore an idea that originated with somebody else, said Michael Simpson, Novell's director of strategic market planning. Projects in the pipe operate with strict rules: Novell provides in-house venture capital and will recruit as many as 10 people to work on a project's development team. There are six or seven projects currently in the pipeline with no more than 100 people allowed in the pipeline process at any one time to keep initiatives focused. The Pipe has also been a great recruiting tool. "College students just flip out when you start talking about (venture capital) in a billion-dollar company where all of their ideas are open for discussion," Simpson said. Novell does not talk publicly about projects in The Pipe, Simpson said, with one grand exception. A major initiative that got The Pipe rolling in the first place is a network directory-driven idea Novell is calling "digitalme." Besides confusing its own public relations staff with the unique word smash, the gist for digitalme is creating a means for Internet users to maintain greater control over personal information in their forays into cyberspace. Novell blasted digitalme "out of the side of The Pipe" at BrainShare. "Because of the timing issues, it was the right thing to do," Simpson said. That's where the players come in. Novell rolled out a beta version of its NetWare 5.0 at BrainShare one year ago to an audience of 5,000 Novell customers. Thousands more saw NetWare 5.0 when BrainShare went on the road, making stops in Europe, South Africa and Australia. When the product was shipped in the fall — ahead of schedule — Novell credited its BrainShare exposure for adoption rates beyond the company's expectations. Novell took an even bolder step this year, giving BrainShare attendees a look at digitalme, which company officials said is not even a product yet. Microsoft already has an Internet ID product called Firefly in circulation, giving Novell no time to waste as it advances digitalme. Microsoft has seen bad press over Firefly's appearance as more of a marketing tool for e-commerce than a privacy tool for Internet users, so Novell enlisted the entire audience at BrainShare — 7,000 strong in Salt Lake City this time — to test drive digitalme and offer feedback. Novell really cashed in. "What I've learned in the past 24 hours has been incredible," strategic business director Stephen Jessey said of the digitalme feedback he had seen one day after digitalme's BrainShare debut. Novell not only doesn't have to spring the $2,000 for the ideas it is being fed but was charging BrainShare attendees $1,500 apiece just to be there. The fact that Novell can solicit free advice from paying conference participants without looking like it is begging is a sign of the strength the Novell brand has accumulated. "We need feedback before we can make (digitalme) hum," Anderson said. "But we had to be positioned as an Internet player before we could ask for it. We had to build credibility in the Internet space, something that wasn't really consistent with where the company was two years ago." deseretnews.com

To: Paul Fiondella who wrote (26363)	3/30/1999 10:25:00 PM
From: Frederick Smart	Respond to of 42771

What Side of The Fence...... >>Believe me there are idiots in every companies marketing department even now saying let's fool the customer --- he/she will never know the difference. THe minute trust is breached --- say by giving out your name to an on-line vendor, or selling your e-mail address to a email company --- it's all over. Both for Citibank and Novell.>> EXACTLY RIGHT! Question is: who's customer? Novell should not get in the middle on this one. The best way to protect Novell's position is to NOT hedge at all. Give Digital Me away for FREE prior to or concurrent with any big deal such at CitiGroup. If they lead with THE INDIVIDUAL they will be all right. Looks like Citi got their teeth in this thing first, however. So what to do? Hmmmmm. Just make damn sure there is no dual tracking of this technology - same for individuals and corporations. The corporations that embrace the individual FIRST will win over more clients and the word of mouth will be incredible. >>But if they do it right, if they do it to facilitate e-commerce and totally protect the customer's digital identity, if they regard the identity vault as something noone can mess with, without a court order, then its going to be the basis of e-commerce period. Quantify that in revenue and you are looking at infinity.>> GO!

To: Paul Fiondella who wrote (26363)	3/31/1999 11:24:00 AM
From: PJ Strifas	Respond to of 42771

Just to add something to the secure ID thing, last week at BrainShare I read an article regarding something called DigiKey - it was a key in the sense that it had a small handle much like today's new cars have and on the end was a USB connector. Within the handle was a microchip that stored info - all this on a keychain? Not bad when you think that USB will start to proliferate the market by the end of the year.... Yes, I know most USB ports on computers are placed in a bad spot (the back of the tower) but some new devices such as USB hubs or keyboards with USB connection ports are already on the market. digitalme and the digikey...... I'll try and wrestle up that article (which I believe was in Network World). Peter Strifas ps - I'm thinking that $25-26 is the new resistance point until earnings in May. Any comments?