Network Associates is planning to roll out software that combines various flavors of its desktop user interface, McAfee VirusScan, with antivirus software from recently acquired Dr. Solomon's Software.
"We are not discontinuing the Dr. Solomon product line" as has been reported, said Gene Hodges, Network Associate's vice president of marketing for antivirus and security, adding that the Dr. Solomon Toolkit is available for sale and will continue to be sold as a merged product. Network Associates is not planning to discontinue support for existing versions of Dr. Solomon's Anti Virus Toolkit, he said.
Network Associates last week completed its acquisition of Dr. Solomon's Software, in a stock swap valued at approximately $700 million. The U.S. company first announced it was to acquire U.K.-based Dr. Solomon's Group back in June of this year in a bid to ramp up its presence in Europe.
Network Associates makes antivirus software designed to work on the desktop, file servers and Internet gateway levels. The company has plans to incorporate the Dr. Solomon antivirus search engine across all its products, Hodges said.
Integrated product lines are scheduled to begin shipping during the fourth quarter of this year. Network Associates plans to combine the Dr. Solomon antivirus search engine with its Windows 95, Windows 98 and Windows 3.1 desktop products in October; with its Windows NT desktop and desktop file server for NT in November; and with its integrated groupware products in December. The company also intends to integrate the Dr. Solomon antivirus software with its Internet gateway products in early 1999.
The integration of the two product lines will be 100 percent complete by the first quarter of 1999, said Hodges. "We have found that the Dr. Solomon engine is modular and easy to integrate," he added.
Current users of the Dr. Solomon antivirus software kit will be able to get new drivers and technical support indefinitely, Hodges said. "The product set isn't going away," he added. Users of Dr. Solomon software will be able to acquire the VirusScan upgrade for free using the Dr. Solomon engine.
"What will change is the user interface," said Hodges, adding that this was the area in which Dr. Solomon antivirus software was weak.
"Network Associates is truly integrating the product line going forward, not shooting one in the head," he said. One exception is that the company plans to replace its Macintosh product entirely with the Dr. Solomon Macintosh desktop product, called Virex, according to Hodges.
The company decided to integrate the product lines in order to give users the best possible technology, namely, Dr. Solomon's high detection cleaning rates combined with Network Associates' update capabilities and user interface, Hodges said.
"The resulting product, we claim, will have the best detection, cleaning, management tools and be the easiest to use," he added.
The combination of Network Associates and Dr. Solomon's should results in the merged company eventually having its antivirus software running on 60 million desktop PCs, Network Associates CEO Bill Larson predicted back in June of this year.
Dr. Solomon antivirus users have expressed concern about future product support, but Hodges said product support hasn't "dropped a beat." Network Associates has retained the entire Dr. Solomon product support group and has worked to strengthen it, he added.
As the company moves forward, Network Associates is not especially worried about its largest competitor, Symantec Corp., trying to steal away skittish Dr. Solomon users, Hodges said.
"I don't think that they will behave any differently than they did before the acquisition," he said of Dr. Solomon customers.
Network Associates believes that its acquisition of Dr. Solomon's and its impending rollout of merged products will strengthen the company's ability to support customers worldwide, Hodges added.
In the corporate market, the combined product will appear only under the Network Associates brand name McAfee VirusScan. In the retail markets, both the Dr. Solomon's and McAfee brand names will be used, Hodges said.
Network Associates itself was formed in October of last year following the merger of McAfee Associates with Network General Corp.
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