Solution allows Société du réseau informatique des colleges (SRIC) to help the colleges improve student record management for over 50,000 students, faculty and staff

MARKHAM, Ontario — May 30, 2002 — Novell Canada, the leading provider of Net business solutions, today announced the Société du réseau informatique des collèges (SRIC), the main supplier of management software to Quebec colleges, has selected Novell's campus provisioning solution to improve the efficiency of the student record management for 24 colleges including CEGEPs (Collège d'Enseignement General et Professionel). Based on Novell software and professional services, this provisioning solution, in collaboration with SRIC, is an important component of a broader identity and access management solution and will help the colleges effectively and quickly manage student, faculty and staff user accounts

The student community is very dynamic and highly changeable as a result of both fall and winter student registrations, program changes during the school year and the increasing number of network services available to students. One of the main challenges faced by the colleges' IS department is to manually create thousands of new records during the back to school periods. They needed a provisioning solution that could perform these functions easily and automatically.

"The constant change in student account information makes it difficult for the colleges to keep user accounts up-to-date," said Jean-Guy Létourneau, Customer Service and Technology Deployment Co-Ordinator at the SRIC. "Novell listened and worked with us and consultants from Complys technologies to find a solution that met our needs. The campus provisioning solution will allow administrators to link and synchronize different data sources together so the most recent information is always available, saving us valuable time, resources and money."

The Novell campus provisioning solution selected by the SRIC is based on Novell eDirectory™ and Novell DirXML™, which enables the seamless integration of a wide range of applications and databases, including Oracle, on which the colleges' human resources and student management applications are based.

The new solution's benefits include:

• Simplify the management of user identities by reducing the burden associated with manual creation of thousands of student accesses every year - user accounts and access privileges will be created and assigned just one time, instead of individually for each application.
• Ensure information flows quickly and automatically to every connected system and application on the network
• Effectively track student profile changes during the school year
• Eliminate delays associated with network services access by students, full-time and part-time faculty and staff
• Enhance security and eliminate unauthorized access by providing user account creation and deletion through a single authoritative source
• Reduce administrative costs

"We are pleased the SRIC has selected Novell to solve the challenge of student record management for the 24 colleges," said Don Chapman, Vice-President and General Manager, Novell Canada. "Providing educational institutions with up-to-date information means higher employee productivity levels, increased administrative efficiencies and improved cost savings, generating an immediate return on investment."

The installation of the campus provisioning solution is scheduled for completion this fall.

About the Société du réseau informatique des colleges (SRIC)
Located in Longueuil, on the South Shore of Montreal, the Société du réseau informatique des collèges is a private organization aimed at developing and deploying an integrated college management application suite, including administration, school management, and technology. Established in 1998, the SRIC works with 24 public colleges, 21 of which are shareholders of the organization. SRIC is a Novell PartnerNet® Authorized partner for integrating and reselling Novell solutions. For more information, visit http://www.sric.ca.

About Complys technologies
Complys technologies is a Novell PartnerNet® Gold partner. Based in Montreal, Complys technologies allows companies to focus on their core business with an array of services designed to solve business problems with innovative information technology solutions. For more information, visit http://www.complys.com.

About Novell
Novell, Inc. (Nasdaq: NOVL) is the leading provider of Net business solutions designed to secure and power the networked world. Novell and its eServices division, Cambridge Technology Partners, help organizations solve complex business challenges, simplify their systems and processes and capture new opportunities with one Net solutions. Novell provides worldwide channel, consulting, education and developer programs to support its offerings.

Novell Canada http://www.novell.ca, with its head office in Markham, Ontario, has sales offices in Halifax, Montreal, Quebec City, Ottawa, London, Calgary, and Vancouver. Press may access Novell press releases and information on the company at http://www.stratamp.com/novellpr. Visit Novell Canada's news portal at http://www.onenetnews.ca.

Novell and PartnerNet are registered trademarks, and eDirectory and DirXML are trademarks of Novell, Inc. in the United States and other countries.

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Shawn Dickerson
Novell, Inc.
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