Novell Inc."s REDucation partner conference took place near Parys on February 4 and 5. Unlike other years, the event took place over a day and half (as opposed to two), and, as per previous years, featured a very intensive conference agenda. In his keynote address on the Friday morning, Novell SA MD, Stafford Masie, emphasised strongly that Novell"s focus for this year will be on revenue generation. "2004 was the year we focused on our partners," he said. "The year was spent getting the core internal team at Novell into shape, and reviewing the channel in terms of determining which resellers are dedicated partners and finding BEE partners. This year we will be getting away from focusing on what Novell is about and focusing on revenue." Also critical in 2005, Masie says, will be demonstrating to partners that they can make money from Linux. Certainly this was a topic that received extensive focus in the break-out sessions held after the keynotes, conducted by Allison Singh (Novell Linux Solutions) and James Thomas (Novell Identity-Based Solutions) respectively.

Petra Heinrich, vice-president of EMEA Business Partner Sales, focused on Novell"s new partner programme, PartnerNet 2005, in her keynote. PartnerNet is a three-tiered partner structure, which, Heinrich says, will enable Novell to build the partner eco-system that it needs to be able to satisfy the requirements of its clients worldwide. She says the company has worked hard at eliminating the old structure of selling directly into clients, and that the company"s sales team has been extensively trained in working with partners. "We will have to work hard to get our partners" trust and loyalty back," she notes.

The new partner programme has three levels - silver (entry level), gold (qualified partners) and platinum (by invitation only). This structure incorporates solution provider, training and technology partners into one programme. Novell has also introduced specialisations into the programme, in a bid to allow partners to clearly differentiate themselves to customers, and to ensure that Novell sends the right business to the right resellers. Specialisations include Linux, networking services, secure identity management, resource management and collaboration. Novell is currently putting a support infrastructure in place around the programme, including a formal training programme. Says Rainer Liedtke, EMEA Partner manager: "Novell is currently developing its Partner Enablement Curriculum. This involved Novell looking at what kind of training each type of partner (solution provider, training or technology) needs, and we looked at what kind of training our partners want, and developing curricula accordingly. This will be completed this year and will cover sales, pre-sales and technical training."