Novell's New Strategic Direction Under Robert J Frankenberg: A Shift from Competition to Collaboration?

Novell, under its new president and CEO, Robert J Frankenberg, is embarking on a significant strategic shift, marking a departure from its previous confrontational approach towards Microsoft. Frankenberg envisions a future where Novell focuses on connecting people to people and to information, rather than just computers to computers. This approach, dubbed Pervasive Computing, bears a striking resemblance to Microsoft's "Information At Your Fingertips" strategy introduced in 1990.

Key Takeaways:

• Novell's new strategic direction, Pervasive Computing, aims to connect people to people and to information, rather than just computers to computers.
• This approach is similar to Microsoft's "Information At Your Fingertips" strategy announced in 1990.
• Frankenberg has brought a focus on quality assurance and HP's business philosophy, where every product has to stand on its own feet, to Novell.
• Novell is looking to divest two programs acquired under Ray Noorda's tenure, Novell DOS and Foundation AppWare.
• The company is abandoning development of Novell DOS, despite previous opposition to Microsoft's "per processor" option for MS-DOS pricing.

Statistics:

• Novell acquired 10 companies in four years under Ray Noorda's leadership.
• Frankenberg has been Novell's president, CEO, and chairman for five months.
• Microsoft released its "Information At Your Fingertips" strategy in November 1990.
• The target date for Novell's SuperNOS microkernel-based network operating system is 1997.
• Novell will include TCP/IP as a core NetWare protocol alongside SPX/IPX starting next year.

Sources:

• Business Week, "Novell vs Microsoft: What's behind the hate?"
• Digital Research,
• AT&T's Unix System Laboratories
• WordPerfect
• Borland