Novell UK says sales up sharply

Living up to new management's promise of ditching its 'if-they'd-invented-sushi-they'd-have-called-it-cold-wet-fish' marketing reputation, Novell UK yesterday promised to lead the company's overseas expansion plans.

Adding beef to recent comments by president Joe Marengi, Novell UK director of technology Dominic Storey said UK unit sales had shot up 35 per cent since shipping IntranetWare and there was every opportunity for further growth.

"Novell revenues are already 49 per cent international and, if you look at the Intranet market being worth $8 billion, there's a huge stake up for grabs," Storey said. "Then if you look at the penetration of IT as a whole, it's still quite US-centric. By offering a lower cost of connection through cheaper hardware and easy set-up network software we can open new markets. Add to that the directory services deals we're doing with Oracle and Sun with Solaris and we can explode all over again. What we tend to see in the US is new product exhaustion. People are taking a break to see what's happening. Here we can take a look now and jump."

Storey added that Novell UK has recently completed two public sector deals that connected 23,000 new seats.