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Novells channel partners have not been happy lately. Novell knows that, and on Nov. 19, the Linux power announced a new initiative to increase revenue and profitability for solution providers and consulting partners that specialize in selling Novell technologies.
Among other benefits, Novell will offer enhanced partner education, joint marketing opportunities and free technical support for those partners demonstrating expertise in selling and supporting Novell software. Novell is also creating a new partner executive sales team that will be dedicated to partner success. Working with Novell now gives partners even more compelling options for delivering IT value to their customers, the company said.
A Novell reseller based in the Southeast said, “Its about time. Troy Richardson, former president of Novell Americas, was difficult to reach and he didnt get the channel. I had hopes that Novell would be getting its act together when Richardson went and [Tim] Wolfe came in. Im still taking a wait-and-see attitude, but I like what Im hearing so far.”
Novell certainly seems to be realizing how important its channel is to the companys bottom line. Ron Hovsepian, Novell president and CEO, said in a statement, “A thriving solution provider and consulting ecosystem selling and servicing Novell software is critical to us and a significant investment focus of the company.”
At the highest level, Hovsepian said, “Weve made real progress in expanding our partner ecosystem this last year, with important agreements with Capgemini, Dell, IBM, Lenovo, Microsoft, SAP and more. Were putting even more focus on our solution provider and consulting partners as we move into 2008. Were going to make it easier and more profitable for these partners to deliver Novell-based solutions, and well encourage customers to have their IT needs met by our partners, rather than directly from Novell.”
Novell claims that over the last year it has invested significantly to ensure that it has the right partner sales and delivery capacity to support its key growth markets. Following the introduction of functional specializations in fall of 2006, Novells solution provider community is now almost fully certified in one or more of four PartnerNet categories: Linux, Identity & Security Management, Systems & Resource Management and Workgroup. Todays initiative will further help Novell solution provider and consulting partners increase their revenue and profit growth when working with Novell, the company said.