* Reader's respond to recent newsletter on Novell GroupWise
My recent newsletter on Novell GroupWise generated more mail than I think I have received on any other topic. This newsletter and the next will highlight the responses I received along with some commentary on the responses:
* “I thought it was clearly stated at GWAVAcon that GroupWise is in second place in new sales. You could have taken this opportunity to spread that message instead of the misleading statistic that you presented. In addition, it was very clear that Novell heard the message that people want the bells and whistles. That was the whole idea behind Bonzai, right? The improvements are for the users.” [Interestingly, this is the only comment I received on the article that disagreed with my position.]
* “VERY well said. It sure makes it hard to hold off the march to Exchange. About the ONLY argument that management gets is the one regarding viruses. And that one is getting less traction than ever before. IMHO, if Novell doesn’t do something soon, it won’t matter about Bonzai; GroupWise and Novell will be so marginalized that fewer and fewer will give them the time of day. Already my shop is being forced to move to Windows because management feels Novell won’t be around in any significant way much longer. While this argument has been around for quite a while (I have been hearing it for over 8 years here), Novell’s lack of change on the PR side (and frankly the technical side) makes counter arguments seem defensive and specious.”
* “You are dead on! As a long-time Novell Platinum Partner the single most frustrating experience with Novell is their inability to clearly market technologically superior products, they constantly change product names, group them into obscure ‘categories’, change their marketing message (and agency) more than I change my underwear, and they continue to push their partner’s to deliver their message with no air cover and are surprised when the results aren’t there at the end of the year! Thanks for allowing me my Thursday morning rant, those who work with me will appreciate that they didn’t have to hear it this morning!”
* “GroupWise is elegant, flexible, reliable, fast and cross-platform. Simple to set up, simple to relocate/expand/consolidate, runs on anything, unbelievably efficient (I’ve seen 200 user post offices running using a paltry 35Mb of RAM on a 2.5Ghz Xeon Windows server, idling at only 15%-25% CPU utilization), but it has no brain-share.”
Thank you to everyone who provided their comments on the article.
