MESSAGE
| DATE | 2004-09-22 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [hangout] Novell recruit MS talent for GNU/Linux marketing
|
Novell South Africa yesterday announced it has appointed ex-Microsoft
employee Garry Hodgson as its OEM Business Development manager. Hodgson
during his time at Microsoft was a key architect of the company's
Windows 95 OEM strategy which established the company as the dominant
player in the software market in South Africa. Hodgson was also the
driver of Microsoft's programme to offer all schools in South Africa
with free software. Hodgson left Microsoft 18 months to establish the
Digital Hope Foundation with the idea of providing communities and
schools with low-cost access to computing technology.
Novell MD Stafford Masie said the company intends to deliver Linux to
end users through a channel that Hodgson and his team are already in the
process of developing. Masie said they intend to have pre-installed
Linux PCs on the shelves of major retailers within the next month. And
he said all of the key distributors and systems builders already had
access to the SuSE Linux software and most had already signed up to
distribute PCs with certified SuSE Linux installed.
For consumers this means that by Christmas time in South Africa they
will be able to purchase Linux pre-installed PCs at PC retailers as well
as major general retailers. "The response from the systems builders and
retailers has been overwhelming," said Masie. "No-one has said no and we
have already signed up half of them."
"Our intention is to offer consumers a choice," he said. "They can
either buy a PC and pay R3000 to R4000 for the proprietary software. Or
they can buy the same PC with the open source software which will only
cost around R500 and will include every application they could ever
want."
"We want to drop the cost of software for end users to just 10% of where
it is now," he said. "Which is where it should already be."
Hodgson said that one of the key lessons learned at Microsoft was "how
important the system builder channel is." He said the Novell OEM
strategy will be centred on this sector of the market and that Novell
has already staged a road show to meet systems builders across the
country and introduce them to SuSE Linux and teach them how to install
and maintain the software. Of the currently estimated one million PCs in
South Africa, around 60% of those are local brands built in South
Africa. It was these that the Novell OEM team signed up first, said
Hodgson. They include companies such as Rectron, Mustek and Pinnacle
Micro. Hodgson also expects to sign up companies representing
international brands such as Acer and Fujitsu Siemens.
"We intend to take what is good from the Microsoft OEM programme and use
that," said Hodgson. This includes signing up distributors such as
Workgroup and Axis as well as including royalty reporting which allows
distributors to have product in stock all the time and only having to
pay for copies sold. Local manufacture of the CDs will be done by
Bowline.
Where things aren't working so well for Microsoft, Hodgson said, they
intend to improve the model. This includes allowing for royalty
reporting in local currency as opposed to dollars to minimise exchange
rate fluctuations. He said they will also be including the smaller
systems builders in the OEM programme which accounts for a significant
portion of the market.
Call centre support
Novell SA also yesterday announced the launch of its nationwide Linux
support call centre. The call centre (interview here) will be run by
Choice Sourcing and will provide Linux support for both Novell SuSE
Linux clients as well as for other Linux users. Choice Sourcing, which
provides outsourced call centre services, initially entered the market
in South Africa by providing technical support call centre services for
Microsoft.
Alek Zdziarski, director at Choice Sourcing, said the support services
offered will range from OpenOffice.org users on Windows through to
Linux-based datacentres. Initially the support centre will only support
Linux enquiries but may well be extended to provide broader Novell
support as well.
Zdziarski said the call centre will offer two types of support: one for
customers of Novell or clients with support contracts; and the other for
end users who purchase the SuSE Linux OEM package. For Novell clients or
support contract holders a call to 0861-NOVELL will be free of charge.
Customers without a support contract can call 0861-SUSEOS which is a
premium rate call charged at R3,61 minute.
Zdziarski said the training of support centre staff was already well
underway and the roll-out of the Linux Support Centre services would be
done in tandem with the OEM programme.
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