Microsoft and Novell Announce Cooperative Support Agreement

Companies Will Collaborate on Support for Joint Customers

REDMOND, Wash. and OREM, Utah -- May 17, 1995 -- Microsoft Corp. and Novell Inc. today announced an innovative cooperative support agreement that will meet the specific needs of mutual customers whose installations include products provided by both companies. The two companies have put in place a comprehensive system for sharing customer service and support expertise, which will allow customers to work more efficiently in integrated, multivendor environments.

Key elements of the agreement include jointly authored technical support and enterprise support notes on integration issues; a management escalation program to more efficiently resolve complex support issues; cosponsored support forums; a product exchange program; a technical information exchange; and a mentor exchange and cross-training program to ensure that support engineers at both companies are highly educated on integration issues.

The agreement was jointly proposed by Novell Chairman Bob Frankenberg and Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates in recognition of the fact that millions of customers use both Novell and Microsoft products. Both companies agree that a coordinated approach to support will lead to increased customer satisfaction and enhanced product supportability. Gates and Frankenberg will remain actively involved in evaluating the success of the programs detailed in the agreement.

"This agreement is designed to fill the needs of the enormous base of mutual customers who use technologies provided by both companies," said Frankenberg. "In an open-systems environment, the need for cooperative technical support is acute. Through this partnership, both Novell and Microsoft are taking direct action to see to it that customer demands are being met."

"As the multivendor distributed computing environment expands, our customers have asked Microsoft and Novell to work together behind the scenes to provide accurate, coordinated technical support and to help them successfully deploy technologies from both companies," said Gates. "Our support agreement is an excellent example of how two leading companies can take the first steps to make cooperative technical support a reality for our customers."

Chief among the new offerings that will result from the agreement is a series of technical support notes that will be co-authored by support experts from both companies. These notes will be used by the companies' technical support engineers. In addition, this information will be available on both companies' online technical support services. This information will be available from Novell on NetWire on CompuServe, NetWire on the Internet, and the Network Support Encyclopedia Professional Volume (NSEPro); and from Microsoft via its World Wide Web site, CompuServe, the Microsoft TechNet CD-ROM, and The Microsoft Network. In addition, Novell has announced that it will be placing its NetWire online information service on The Microsoft Network.

The agreement will not change the way customers access technical support, but it will improve the quality of support for customers whose installations include products from both companies. For instance, mission-critical issues can now be escalated from one company to the other at any time of day or night, which will help ensure that the customer has the appropriate resources working on the problem as quickly as possible.

The two companies already are sharing access to products, technical support materials, technical resources and training materials. The cooperative support agreement is expected to be fully operational in North America by June, and worldwide rollout is planned for the end of the year.