Now more than ever, mobility, social tools and the drive for better productivity are transforming the business landscape. To help employees be productive no matter where they are and to collaborate with their colleagues and partners, we have added some powerful new features to Novell Vibe 3.3.

Some of the most important feedback we received from our customers was their desire to simply and easily work with other users in real time on the business documents they use everyday. To meet this demand, Novell Vibe 3.3 includes the Novell Vibe Add-in for Microsoft Office. With it, users can open, modify and save Word, Excel and PowerPoint files directly from their Vibe workspace. The Add-in also helps people work on documents together: a live comment stream aids discussion and decisions about content; each user can edit a file and be notified when another person’s edits are available to preview and merge; and the group can see document history and compare versions.

To further enhance the collaborative experience – anytime, anywhere – Vibe 3.3 also features Vibe Desktop, which enables users to easily access and sync files offline. Users simply download Vibe Desktop and can then connect and sync any folders and files from their Novell Vibe system to their desktop. They can then access these files offline, with any changes automatically syncing between their desktop and Vibe once they are back online.

Check out the Novell Vibe website to see what else is new in Vibe 3.3—the latest of a series of rapid releases to deliver what our customers need. We hope our commitment to developing solutions that work the way our customers want to work results in even more success for your business! To learn more about Novell Vibe 3.3, visit www.novell.com/vibe.

There’s nothing like attending a sales conference when you have a lot to celebrate. I recently had the chance to spend time with Novell’s global salesforce in Orlando, FL to kick off our fiscal year, train on the hottest industry topics and recognize those who made the greatest strides reconnecting and building relationships with our customers in the past year.

The annual fiscal year kickoff is a great time to look closely at what’s driving success, what our challenges are and where we’re headed. I want to hone in on one of the items Novell President, Bob Flynn, named a success: Novell’s “re: focus” campaign.

As a Novell marketing leader, I was gratified to see this campaign make the cut. But reveling in congratulations is a passing pleasure. Understanding why our “re: focus, re:turn, re:kindle” campaign was, is and will continue to be a success is the key to why you should continue your relationship with Novell or try us for the first time.

From my perspective, re: focus is more than a marketing campaign—it’s Novell’s approach to doing business. The campaign merely distilled what Novell is about, what we’re committed to and what our customers can expect. In short, the campaign is about Novell’s ideals: build great products, deliver exceptional value and nurture lasting relationships.

But words are only words. Success comes from saying what you’re going to do then going out and doing it. This is why I make the claim that re: focus is a way of being for Novell—not just a campaign.

How do I know?

We recently asked our customers this question: Why are you with Novell? The responses were like a mirror to our ideals of great products, exceptional value and lasting relationships. Watch this video on why our customers are with us. How many of our competitors can hang that on their wall?

To see our brand ideals reflected back at us in the reality of our customers’ experiences is heartening. Are we perfect in every way, all the time? Heck no. But the point is, these ideals are the beacon that illuminates our target as we move forward with long-time customers—and the road we traverse as we earn new business relationships.

Eventually, you’ll see our re: focus campaign replaced with a new message, but our brand ideals—our commitment to you to build great products, deliver exceptional value and nurture lasting relationships—will endure. Thank you to all our customers for helping us see what it is that makes Novell great and for standing up to say, “I AM Novell!”

We know there are a lot of people who have been looking forward to this milestone, as GroupWise is the email platform of choice for many organizations across public and private sectors, and, according to a recent Forrester Research report, “The State Of Workforce Technology Adoption: U.S. Benchmark 2011,” Blackberry has the largest installed base of smartphones for work at a 42 percent majority.

With this certification in place, BlackBerry users can upgrade to GroupWise 2012 with full confidence – and take advantage of new GroupWise features like relevance sorting, graphical busy searches, integrations with Novell Vibe and Skype, and much more. Whether they are working from a desktop, a web interface or their BlackBerry device, these users will have access to powerful GroupWise email, calendaring, contact, and task management features that will keep them connected, productive, and operating at peak performance. For more updates on GroupWise and related products, check out our new interactive product roadmap.

Designed for organizations with up to 200 employees and five physical servers will gain the ability to install new products as soon as they are released and enjoy the quality that comes with a full, stand-alone deployment. Novell Open Workgroup Suite for Small Business provides everything small business employees need to work efficiently and securely from anywhere, including:

Collaboration

• Novell GroupWise
• Novell Vibe
• LibreOffice
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop

Endpoint Management

• Novell ZENworks Linux Management
• Novell ZENworks Configuration Management

File and Networking Services

• Novell Open Enterprise Server

In addition to what Novell Open Workgroup Suite Small Business Edition 2.5 delivered, Novell Open Workgroup Suite for Small Business includes:

• Novell Cluster Services™ (2 free nodes)
• Xen Virtualization
• Novell ZENworks Endpoint Security Management

The Novell Open Workgroup Suite for Small Business is licensed on a per-user or per-device basis. Check out everything the Novell Open Workgroup Suite for Small Businesses has to offer.

If you’re local, look for us at Utah Technology Council meetings and events, on the Pillar of the Valley billboard as you drive south on I15 or in nearly any business in Utah Valley by picking up the current issue of Utah Valley BusinessQ. In the magazine, Bob Flynn talks about Novell’s long history in Utah Valley’s software industry and the company’s formula for longevity. It’s all about finding and maintaining the right balance across trusted relationships with customers and partners, innovative and battle-tested technology and an uncompromising commitment to engineering excellence.

Novell employees are the real pillar behind our longevity and in the past eight months, Novell has opened over 70 local job opportunities — more than half of them technical — and is currently hiring in numerous departments.   We know that our success depends on our ability to listen to our customers, take their feedback and work with them to develop innovative solutions to better their businesses.

We’re looking to Utah Valley to help us enter a new era where the people of our local community will once again play a pivotal role in the success of one of the world’s most long-lived and successful technology companies.  With this in mind, we look forward to continuing to reengage with both the Utah Valley community and our loyal customers around the globe.

Six months ago in this post, I outlined Novell’s plans to demonstrate renewed focus and commitment to our customers. As you can see from this video from BrainShare 2011, our future is about getting back to basics. We’re refocused on our innovative and battle-tested technology. We’re rekindling relationships by listening to the needs of our long-time, loyal customers. And, we’ve returned to the innovation and engineering excellence that put Novell on the map.

Novell’s future is tied to how we deliver on our solutions and our word. So how have we delivered since July 2011?

Re: focus:

At BrainShare, we showcased detailed product roadmaps for how Novell plans to deliver more frequent releases of our core products.  You can get the roadmaps here. And mark your calendar for the next BrainShare, February 3-7, 2013 and join us in Salt Lake City.

In 2011 we committed to helping you optimize the value you derive from your current investments by enabling customers to upgrade to latest versions at their own pace.

We’ve lengthened Extended Support for NetWare 6.5 and Novell ZENworks 7 Suite by a year, and extended General Support for Novell GroupWise 8 and Novell BorderManager for the same time period. You can get more details on our Product Support Lifecycle portal here.

Also, we’re packing more value into the products you may already have: we added Novell Vibe and ZENworks Endpoint Security Management to the Novell Open Workgroup Suite and now offer a free Mac client to Novell Open Enterprise Server customers.

Re: turn:

Last year Novell invested in its engineering resources through hiring for its Provo, Utah headquarters. For example, since August 2011, Novell’s GroupWise engineering team grew by 33%. The result of our commitment to engineering excellence is reflected in the major product announcements we’ve made recently, including Open Enterprise Server 11, Novell Vibe 3.2, ZENworks Application Virtualization 9 and Novell GroupWise 2012.

Re: kindle:

We're re-energizing our customer relationships. Last year, for example, our collaborative DNA led to a new way to develop our solutions that put listening at the forefront. The GroupWise Roadmap Project—a global customer outreach program where we ask customers what innovations are most important to them—is helping us build and prioritize our collaboration roadmap. The results of this outreach program assure we’re developing our solutions based on what our customers need most to run their business.

And to keep our customers up-to-date and the conversation flowing, we’ve launched a dynamic and interactive roadmap application to illustrate the features and benefits of each released and planned version of GroupWise and collect input from you. Customers can select which version of GroupWise they currently have so they can instantly determine where they are on the roadmap and see what they’ll get by upgrading accordingly. They can also give us feedback and requests, which go directly to the product management team.

We have a bright and exciting future ahead in 2012. Our focus is first and foremost on customers. I’m looking forward to reporting to you regularly on what we’re doing to continue to earn your trust.

We’re all about paying close attention to the way our customers want to work and striving to deliver deeper value. Last week we opened public betas for two new features we think users will like:

Novell Vibe Desktop saves and syncs files and folders from your computer desktop to your Vibe site seamlessly and easily.

- Check out this video to learn more.
- Join the Novell Vibe Desktop beta here.

Novell Vibe Add-in for Microsoft Office lets you create or update a document in Vibe directly from MS Office. The new Vibe Add-in feature is integrated into the MS Office environment so users can seamlessly edit and save files directly into Vibe in near real time without leaving the comfort of their MS Office environment.

- Check out this video to lean more.  
- Join the Novell Vibe Add-in beta here.

Join both betas to test the new features in your environment or learn more about Novell Vibe at www.novell.com/vibe

This week, our team attended a community GroupWise 2012 launch celebration, with participants from all over the U.S. and eight other countries, and we were motivated to hear and see that our hard work has paid off. Our customers and partners are excited to begin using GroupWise 2012.

Much like all on-premise email vendors, we face competition from Google and the cloud, but—as one of the top three enterprise email vendors—we have more reason than ever to believe in the present and future success of our flagship collaboration product:

• GroupWise 2012 still offers the security, reliability, ease of management and cross-platform flexibility that put it on the map 20-plus years ago—a big part of the reason that 10,000 customers and 47 of the 50 U.S. state governments use it.
• GroupWise is enjoying a resurgence of focus and commitment from The Attachmate Group, which acquired Novell in May of 2011. As a proof point, check out what Bob Flynn, Novell President and General Manager, had to say about GroupWise at our recent BrainShare event.
• Novell has increased its engineering staff (based in our Provo, Utah headquarters) for GroupWise by 33 percent in recent months and has a roadmap featuring more frequent releases. Novell and GroupWise leaders have been hitting the streets over the last several months spending time with GroupWise customers around the globe. The purpose of these visits? To rekindle relationships, listen and learn what customers need from the product.
• In 2012, we're going mobile with enhanced iPad capabilities and a scalable web experience. We've also socialized the email experience, creating a synergy with other collaboration products we deliver like Novell Vibe, as well as outside applications such as Skype.

For 2012, we are focusing on what matters most—our loyal customers and engineering excellence. Our customers spoke and we listened, incorporating their needs into GroupWise 2012, and giving them a strong voice in the direction of the product moving forward.

It's a new day for Novell and GroupWise, and the future is bright. For more on what is in store for GroupWise, take a look at our dynamic roadmap application at www.novell.com/gwroadmap.

How did readers respond? Here are the numbers from Hell’s weather report:
- 793 Shared on FaceBook
- 1,776 Tweets
- 299 Shared on LinkedIn
- A lot of readers commented – too many to count

This is not about Mac vs. PC. This perennial debate is about productivity.  Is one truly better than the other? No.  Does this really matter? Yes. Why? Because it’s not about which platform is best, it’s what the user perceives to be the best. If I believe my computer makes me more productive, I win.

At Novell, we constantly ask, “how can we assure IT organizations have the tools they need to do their jobs better without impeding workforce productivity?” Our focus on workforce productivity leads to enhancing interoperability and choice.

Novell Kanaka for Mac helps IT organizations eliminate manual work-arounds to integrate their Mac users. The plug-in uses native Mac* AFP protocol support making it the most comprehensive and advanced cross-platform server for mixed Windows*, Linux* and Mac clients.

Today, Novell announced customers can download the latest, complimentary plug-in. Open Enterprise Server customers with a current maintenance license and can download Novell Kanaka for Mac through the Novell Customer Center at http://www.novell.com/center.

For a complete look at what’s new in Novell Vibe 3.2, check out the list below.  We want to remind you to stay tuned for additional features coming this winter, including off-line file synch for Vibe workspaces and a new Microsoft Office add-in.

To learn more or to download a free Starter Pack, visit: http://www.novell.com/vibe

New features of Novell Vibe 3.2 include:

• New mobile apps for iPhone and Android devices: As a web-based collaboration tool with a mobile interface, people have long been able to access their Novell Vibe team workspaces via their mobile devices. NEW with version 3.2 are actual iPhone and Android applications. Now users can store their credentials for one or more Vibe sites for fast and easy mobile access.
• File management:  Do your files proliferate faster than lightning speed? Ehancements provide more control over files.  Now you can turn file versioning on and off, set a maximum number of minor file versions, set the system to auto-delete old versions and delete multiple versions at once. You can also set quotas on file size.
• Expanded capabilities with landing pages and task management: With our rapid release process for Novell Vibe, each version brings subtle but highly requested enhancements providing users with an upgraded experience.  Vibe 3.2 includes improvements to landing page formatting for tables, background colors and images.  We’ve also made it more efficient to keep team members on track with enhanced task updates through task and calendar sync from Novell Vibe to Novell GroupWise.
• Improvements with workflows and surveys:  Survey builders have more flexibility with the simple ability to move questions up or down in the question list. Workflow steps now change dynamically based on the value of a field in a preceding step, and a workflow can now modify the value of a field entry.
• Performance, usability and quality improvements: Additional asthetic changes include usability improvements and a fresh look and feel for system notifications via email.