Novell Announces New OEM Program Designed To Reach New Customers In Vertical Markets

Novell OEM Vertical Industry Partner Program Offers Unique Access to Novell's Products, Marketing Programs and Technical Services to Vertical Solution Providers

SAN JOSE, CA -- March 8, 1995 -- Customers in vertical markets such as retail, telecommunications, hospitality and health care can now get industry specific, enterprise-wide business solutions utilizing Novell, Inc. technology via a new Novell OEM program announced today. The new program, called the Novell Vertical Industry Partner (VIP) program, is targeted specifically at Novell's valued Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) that specialize in vertical industry solutions for corporate clients. With this new program, VIPs now have the ability to custom configure and integrate a variety of Novell products into the vertical solutions they offer while paying only for what is used. This helps the VIP improve margins, reduce costs and offer solutions of greater overall value to customers.

The VIP program enables OEMs to obtain Novell products, programs and services which are tailored to meet their unique requirements. Novell intends to partner with these vertical solution providers to help them build more competitive, industry specific, enterprise-wide business solutions that meet a broader range of customer needs.

The VIP program provides OEM partners with greater flexibility in product licensing, configuration and replication of Novell's UnixWare advanced application environment when used in turn-key systems for specific vertical markets. It also provides VIPs access to Novell's broad range of networking, groupware and application products to give them the ability to add additional value to their vertical solutions. More specifically, the program is tailored to directly meet the needs of vertical solution providers now building their applications utilizing pre-packaged, off-the-shelf or hardware vendor provided UNIX operating systems.

"We created this program to advance and strengthen our already strong relationships with strategic development partners and to meet the needs of customers in vertical markets who have standardized on UNIX platforms," said Jim T. Sullivan, Novell's vice president of Worldwide OEM Sales. "This gives both Novell and our partners a competitive advantage in key vertical markets and supports our corporate strategy of pervasive computing. The partnerships that the VIP program creates will enable us to deliver business solutions that bridge the gap between vertical applications and company-wide networks."

The Novell VIP program also includes products and services from third-party providers which offer VIPs with custom development and product integration services. Novell has partnered with Microport, Inc. to offer VIPs pre-packaged, custom configurations of UnixWare and services including device driver development and application integration. VenturCom, Novell's other VIP partner, offers embedded and real-time extensions plus development tools for integrating and building products that incorporate UnixWare and NetWare. Through these partnerships --also announced today-- Novell extends the reach of its products from the smallest embedded environment to the most highly customized solution. Please see related news releases issued today from Microport and VenturCom.

Benefits of the VIP Program

Other benefits of the program include: Internet access to Novell's technical documents, source code access for support, access to Novell consulting services, participation in Novell's BrainShare Developers Conference, a subscription to Novell's Network Support Encyclopedia Professional Volume (NSEPro) and access to the NetWire Information Service. For more information on the Vertical Industry Partner program, call 1-800-NetWare.