Novell lifts lid on post-acquisition channel plans
Almost four months after its acquisition by Attachmate Group, Novell’s EMEA channel chief has opened up about the vendor’s vision for its indirect channel.
Ian McKay, who heads of the EMEA channel for Novell, SUSE and NetIQ, says the reaction from the channel to the acquisition so far has been “very positive”.
Last year McKay’s predecessor, Dan Veitkus, reassured Channel Pro of the firm’s “solid commitment to the indirect route”. Since then, however, Novell was acquired by Attachmate, the connectivity solutions and security software company that also owns NetIQ, in a $2.2bn (£1.4bn) deal.
When the deal was announced, Novell's president and CEO at the time, Ron Hovsepian, commented that “Novell, SUSE, Attachmate and NetIQ have complementary product portfolios and many shared customers”.
McKay also points to the expansion of its global presence through the acquisition, which offers “much improved reach into key markets.... and an expanded portfolio of solutions.”
While McKay is looking to reassure resellers that there will be no immediate changes, he revealed the vendor plans to “refine” its existing channel programme for its new fiscal year in November, although at this stage he can’t reveal any details. He did, however, say improvements will introduced, and then “the whole group will sync in the new fiscal year in April 2012.”
He did admit the firm was looking to increase the number of number of “committed partners – those adding value.” He adds: “Knowledge is valuable and we want to adapt the channel programme and activities to invest in those partners.”
He continues: “We want to refine and improve what we do with the partners. [They] are interested in making more money and revenue streams based on Novell products. We can continue to enable them to do that with an expanded portfolio.
“There a number of leading partners in EMEA – we want to get as close to them as quickly as possible and set out what they can expect from us.”
As part of the group, Novell, SUSE and NetIQ will operate as three separate brands. “Instead of a broad brush focus it is now strictly by business unit,” adds McKay.
