Novell Announces New Program for National Service and Consulting Organizations
Co-op Funding, Marketing Support Tools Available to Qualifying Partners
Orem, UT -- December 9, 1996 -- Starting today, service and consulting
organizations that work with Novell products will be eligible to qualify for substantial funding and
other support through an ambitious new program offered by Novell, Inc., the world's leading
provider of network software. The National Service Partner (NSP) program, announced today by
Novell, aims to promote the company's partners in the service and consulting industry by
providing technical tools, marketing assistance, and other benefits to qualifying partners.
"Many of our partners have changed their business models from being resellers of shrinkwrap or
licensed products to becoming service and consulting organizations," said Novell's Ron Heinz,
senior vice president of sales, Americas. "The NSP program represents a major commitment at
Novell to help them meet the challenges of servicing large corporate customers."
Novell's service and consulting partners have indicated their support of these efforts. "Novell has
worked with the channel to develop a program that improves competitive advantage for the NSP
partner and adds value for the customer," said Dennis Callagy, vice president of Remote Support
Services for CompuCom Systems, Inc. "This program provides CompuCom with valuable
resources to continue to build our network services business."
Chris M. Laney, senior vice president of Vanstar Corporation's Professional Services
Organization, added, "The NSP program specifically targets Vanstar's Professional Services and
gives us the needed tools and benefits to leverage our growing Novell consulting practice."
Co-Op Marketing Funds Available
The most significant benefit to NSPs is the availability of co-op marketing funds, to be used
exclusively to develop their customer base and enhance their technical and consulting expertise. In
addition, NSPs will be eligible to nominate one candidate within their organization to act as an
"NSP champion," who will be partially subsidized for salary and travel expenses, receive in-depth
product training at Novell, and attend Novell's Brainshare conference. The NSP champion will be
responsible for promoting Novell and its products through demonstrations, mentoring, and
suggesting new service programs for the NSP.
"Having this extra support significantly enhances the level of service we now can offer businesses
with Novell networks," said Bill Bancroft, vice president of technical services for GE Capital IT
Solutions. "By doing so, it also strengthens our overall services portfolio, better positioning us to
deliver the solution best suited for each customer's needs. We are proud to be a charter member
of this new service partnership."
Among the benefits, Novell will also provide these partners with free copies of Novell software
for their internal business use. By standardizing on Novell products, partners can gain a broader
and deeper understanding of IntranetWare, NetWare, Novell Directory Services (NDS),
GroupWise, ManageWise, and the rest of the Novell family of solutions.
In addition, NSPs will have priority access to Novell's top technical support personnel 24 hours a
day, plus proactive account management from Novell account managers and online incident
submittal and tracking over the Internet.
Further, Novell will make available four CD ROM subscriptions, free of cost, to assist with the
partners' marketing efforts:
- Novell Consulting Services Toolkit: Geared toward consulting
organizations and systems integrators, this CD contains a wide array of technical information and
software utilities and provides cutting-edge design methodologies for Novell-based enterprise
solutions.
- Power Partner: This CD provides partners with a variety of demos,
presentations, sales guides, and information about promotions. Novell provides frequent updates
to the Power Partner information system with a dedicated Internet site.
- Novell Support Connection CD: Partners can quickly find answers to
many technical questions with this monthly CD, which contains updated information gathered
from Novell support engineers, partners, and customers.
- Novell Software Connection Library: Shipped bimonthly, this is a
collection of CDs containing the current versions of Novell's most important products, to be used
for internal business, product demonstrations, and training only.
Ensuring that high-quality service is maintained throughout the NSP program, Novell requires
that partners meet several criteria in order to join. Among these requirements, companies must
have at least 15 regional offices with at least 150 field consultants. They must also maintain a
unified service and consulting desk to benefit all regional offices and operate a 24-hour help line
for customers. Other requirements include participating in customer satisfaction surveys and
providing periodic reports on the success of the NSP program.
About Novell, Inc.
Founded in 1983, Novell (NASDAQ: NOVL) is the world's leading provider of network
software. The company offers a wide range of network solutions for distributed network,
Internet, intranet and small-business markets. Novell education and technical support programs
are the most comprehensive in the network computing industry. Information about Novell's
complete range of products and services can be accessed on the World Wide Web at http://www.novell.com.
Press Contact:
Terri Molini
Phone: (408) 577-7887
Fax: (408) 577-5104
Internet: tmolini@novell.com
|