Attachmate has high hopes for Novell products

A new management team for the Novell business unit has been put in place

Attachmate intends to revitalize the sales and technical development of the end-user computing products that it acquired when it purchased Novell, such as those for virtualization and enterprise collaboration.

In general, Novell end-user computing products, which include Zenworks, Groupwise, File Management Suite, Open Enterprise Server and Vibe, could perform much better in the market and have untapped technical potential, according to the executive taking the reins of the Novell business.

"Novell technology wasn't getting the attention it needed and deserved. We're going to give it that attention," said Bob Flynn, a veteran Attachmate official whose appointment as Novell business unit President and General Manager was announced on Wednesday.

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Attachmate intends to revitalize the sales and technical development of the end-user computing products that it acquired when it purchased Novell, such as those for virtualization and enterprise collaboration.

In general, Novell end-user computing products, which include Zenworks, Groupwise, File Management Suite, Open Enterprise Server and Vibe, could perform much better in the market and have untapped technical potential, according to the executive taking the reins of the Novell business.

"Novell technology wasn't getting the attention it needed and deserved. We're going to give it that attention," said Bob Flynn, a veteran Attachmate official whose appointment as Novell business unit President and General Manager was announced on Wednesday.

Attachmate has three other autonomous business units: one specifically for Novell's Suse open source OS, another one for the NetIQ family of systems management tools and a fourth one for Attachmate products for areas like terminal emulation, legacy modernization and enterprise fraud management. Flynn is also president and general manager of the Attachmate business unit.

Novell's identity management, security and data center administration products will be handled by the NetIQ unit.

The implementation of this new corporate structure with the four units under the umbrella of The Attachmate Group also involves layoffs, but Flynn didn't have specifics of how many people are losing their jobs.

Flynn has been with Attachmate since 1998.

Attachmate agreed to buy Novell in November 2010 and completed the US$2.2 billion acquisition last month, while Novell senior executives, including its CEO Ron Hovsepian, left.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.