Customers Migrating To Award-Winning NetWare 4.1 For Lower Cost Of Network Ownership, Central Network Administration And Global Directory Services

Provo, UTAH -- February 28, 1995 -- As part of first quarter earnings released yesterday, Novell announced that sales of NetWare 4 more than doubled over sales in the fourth fiscal quarter of 1994 and increased to represent nearly 30 percent of the company's total NetWare network operating system (NOS) revenue. Fueled by the shipment of NetWare 4.1 in December and the product's positive acceptance by customers, trade press and the sales channel, this aggressive market growth signals the industry's growing recognition of NetWare 4 as the emerging NOS standard.

According to IDC, in 1994 Novell retained its industry-leading 66 percent market share in the NOS arena, with NetWare 4 continuing as the second-best-selling NOS on the market (second only to NetWare 3, first introduced in 1989). Based on the first quarter data released yesterday, Novell is ahead of plan for meeting its goal of seeing revenue from NetWare 4 exceed that of NetWare 3 in the latter half of 1995. With 40 million users and 2.5 million servers worldwide, Novell remains the industry's leading worldwide supplier of network operating systems.

Novell is seeing NetWare 4.1 sales in three key areas: customers upgrading from previous versions of NetWare, customers expanding existing NetWare networks and customers installing new networks. Representing businesses of all sizes, these customers are turning to NetWare 4.1 to realize the benefits of a high-performance, reliable network solution that greatly reduces network administration time and the cost of owning their network. Through NetWare Directory Services (NDS), NetWare 4.1 provides a single point of network access and a single, central point of network administration. Customer evaluations of NetWare 4.1 indicate that the distributed directory, integrated services, and powerful management tools in NetWare 4.1 deliver network administration cost savings averaging 30 percent--and return on investments of up to 300 percent--based on savings in administrative time and overhead.

"We've had tremendous success selling NetWare 4--in fact, we haven't installed anything but NetWare 4 in the past six months," said Gary Sudin, President of GSI, a Novell Platinum Reseller in St. Louis. "With NetWare 4.1, Novell is making it even easier for my customers to increase the productivity of users and administrators, to get the most out of the hardware investments, and to migrate from previous versions of NetWare. We're seeing NetWare 4 benefit customers from all parts of the spectrum--from a small printing company with one server, for example, to an electric utility with dozens of servers and thousands of nodes."

"NetWare 4.1 is the network operating system that provides the advantages we need to move forward in today's competitive environment," said Niraj Patel, Manager of Networking and Telecommunications for GMAC Mortgage. "NetWare 4.1 offers three key benefits that made it the logical choice: it reduces costs, makes network administration more effective, and provides the network services we need to stay successful."

"With multiple sites co-developing software, we rely on NetWare Directory Services to help our teams work together more effectively and to simplify network administration across separate locations," said Steve Curtis, Vice President of Software Research and Development for Josten's Learning. "Combined with the cost savings we see from disk compression and the inclusion of NetWare for Macintosh, these benefits make NetWare 4.1 by far the most compelling upgrade we've seen since the introduction of NetWare 3."

Customer interest in NetWare 4.1 remains at an all-time high, with Novell's NetWare.com World Wide Web server--an Internet site providing the latest information about NetWare 4-- receiving from 3,000 to 8,000 inquiries per day, making it one of the busiest new web sites on the Internet. NetWare 4 Days--live satellite broadcasts covering NetWare 4.1 and related networking solutions--reach 400 locations and 10,000 people in the United States, Canada and Mexico on a monthly basis.

NetWare 4.1 Recognized for Technical Excellence

Additional publications have also praised the enhancements in NetWare 4.1. PC Magazine called NetWare 4.1 "The NOS You Want to Buy " (PC Magazine, Feb. 21, 1995). According to LAN Times, "NetWare 4 is finally ready for prime time. After taking a close look at the product, we conclude that it is now time for NetWare users to make the switch" (LAN Times, Dec. 5, 1994). Network Computing, calling NetWare 4.1 "The Boss NOS," wrote that "With version 4.1 Novell has removed the obstacles to adoption of NetWare 4" (Network Computing, Jan. 15, 1995). Open Systems Today reported that "NetWare 4.1 should close the window on any dreams Microsoft and Banyan have of overcoming NetWare 4.1 in the near future" (Open Systems Today, Dec. 12, 1994).

NetWare 4.1 Sees Channel Success

"We are very pleased with reseller response to NetWare 4.1," said Roy Applebaum, vice president of networking and mass storage product marketing for Tech Data. "NetWare 4.1 is rich in features, the pricing is very attractive, and Novell has developed an aggressive marketing program to reinforce sales. It's been a highly successful launch from our perspective."

Third-Party Support for NetWare 4 Continues to Grow

To make it easier for third-party vendors to create NetWare 4.1-aware products, Novell recently released the NetWare 4.1 Software Developers Kit (SDK) Special Edition, which allows software developers to build new and customized network applications that take advantage of NetWare 4.1 capabilities. The Special Edition, priced at under $50, includes a full working two-user copy of the NetWare 4.1 operating system. To order the NetWare 4.1 SDK Special Edition, call 1-800-REDWORD or 1-801-429-5281.

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