Kathleen Owens, President and General Manager – Novell & Attachmate, talks to Pankaj Maru about how the company is rebuilding its brand image in the market, dealing with competition and the changing technology scenario. Excerpts:
What kind of competition does Novell face today in its various markets?
We see some competition across all markets, for example from Microsoft. There are other competitors specific to particular markets. The focus is on making sure that we address those markets and specific customer needs. In India, one of the challenges was that the customers were just not aware of Novell’s offerings.
On the Filr side of our business, there’s competition from Dropbox, NetApp, Citrix and some other solution providers. Filr was developed specifically for enterprises and that’s how we stood out in the market amidst the trends of BYOD and consumerisation of IT. Our focus is to help customers by providing better control of IT with a high level of security by leveraging the existing infrastructure and controlling IT cost.
So, at the moment, where do Novell and Attachmate stand in the market?
Both the brands, in some ways, face similar challenges. Eastern and central Europe are really strong markets for us. A lot of historical Novell technologies, like GroupWise, are much stronger in central Europe than in other parts of the globe. For us, that market has struggled a bit in recent years around Attachmate and some of the Attachmate solutions are focused on connecting back to the mainframe systems. India doesn’t have many of those mainframes. I think IBM left India in 1967 and they returned in 1985. Consequently, there aren’t many mainframes and so the market opportunity in India is not the same as in other parts of the world. So, these are the factors that drive market opportunity and they certainly play out in our business.
How are you pushing these brands?
Based on customer conversations, we will focus on their needs through our solutions. Besides, we are providing our solutions through third-party partners that are hosting them over the cloud or enabling them. Also, we focus on ensuring that those solutions are cost effective, secure and give IT more control. Our cloud-based solutions help our customers with the option to leverage their existing infrastructure and IT investments. Moreover, we are building partnerships that help address some specific customer needs, which creates some positive impact on the brands.
Was there a disconnect between Novell and its customers?
Prior to 2011, when Novell was acquired by the Attachmate Group, part of our strategy was very channel focused and I think we lost direct touch with some of our customers then. We wanted to leverage the channel where we can get scale and have meaningful relationships through good partnerships. But now, we are trying to reconnect with the customers. I think if you somehow lose touch with your top priorities, it’s hard to understand how you can help and add value to customers. I think we have done a much better job in the past few years, reconnecting and getting that value back and that’s probably the one thing which we have done differently.
How can Novell and Attachmate be more relevant today?
It is certainly in the mobility space. I had read something from IBM that 67% enterprises in India are going to invest in mobility related initiatives in the next year. We see that trend across the globe, because that can really impact business competitiveness and there’s a lot to making mobility work. It is about getting the right data out there, in a format that the user is able to consume, making it more secure and enabling your workforce to be productive. Certainly, we continue to focus on the area whether it is about accessing mission-critical information or accessing files. So, the more we can really focus on what our customers are trying to solve, I think the better we will be able to do as a partner. And that’s what we are really focused on now.
How are you dealing with Novell’s brand image in the market?
One of the challenges with Novell is battling a 30-year-old brand, probably with an impression that it’s not as relevant. But I think we have done a good job of tackling it. We continue to develop relevant solutions for both our existing and new customer base. So, when I look at the Novell brand specifically, there’s been a lot of progress made and good work has been done around connecting with customers, understanding their challenges and tackling them.
