FYI - Important Update on Novell Patch, Service Pack and Knowledgebase Access

Last week, Novell sent an email to its partners that has suddenly become a HUGE source of traffic on Novell’s Community Chat forum, as well as various mailing lists such as the NGWList, TTP, etc.

Could this be the nail that finally seals the Novell Coffin?

More info:
http://www.caledonia.net/blog/?p=216

http://forums.novell.com/novell-community-forums-stuff/community-chat/386700-upcoming-support-changes-post1858218.html

http://forums.novell.com/novell-community-forums-stuff/community-chat/387009-novell-support.html

If you are a concerned customer, consultant, employee or supporter of Novell in any way, please take the time to let Novell know that this is a really bad idea!

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Valued Partner,

We continue to look for opportunities that enable you to increase the profit potential of your Novell business. Earlier this year, we began requiring the purchase of maintenance with product licenses. This provides you an additional revenue stream while ensuring that your customers have access to the award-winning support services, training resources, version upgrades and other benefits that maintenance delivers.

Update on Patch, Service Pack, & Support Knowledgebase Access for Customers

To further encourage more customers to take advantage of the comprehensive benefits a maintenance contract provides, Novell is announcing that as of November 15, 2009, maintenance or subscription authorization will be required to access service packs and patches (excluding stand-alone security patches) for most Novell products. In early 2010, we will extend this initiative to include Technical Information Documents (TIDs) in the Novell Support Knowledgebase for products in the general support phase of the product lifecycle. For details on this policy–as well as a list of products not subject to its provisions–please consult the resources listed below.

Increasing Value and Opportunity for You!

This policy not only provides continued value to your customers who have already chosen to purchase maintenance with their products, but also creates a purchase incentive for those customers who would be well-served by having access to a continuous stream of value-added patches, service packs, and knowledgebase assets, as well as the comprehensive benefits a maintenance contract provides.

With this exclusive benefit for maintenance customers in your arsenal, you:

• Now have an excellent opportunity to contact and re-engage dormant customers
• Can more easily facilitate renewals—and capitalize on revenue and service opportunities related to product upgrades in the process
• Now have another compelling reason to promote a variety of maintenance-related offers valid through October 31, 2009–located on the product home pages of Novell.com

We will be informing non-maintenance customers of this policy on September 24, 2009. The resources below will help you address questions and capitalize on leads generated by this advanced notification.

Where Can You Learn More?

To provide you with a chance to ask questions and get additional details on this policy, join us for a live sales enablement webcast on Tuesday, September 22 at 11:00 a.m. ET. You can join this webcast by clicking here at the appointed time.

PartnerNet Community Resource Page

You can also visit www.novell.com/communities/node/8991 to access comprehensive information regarding this policy, including a detailed FAQ, collateral on the value of maintenance, slides you can use to communicate this policy with your customers, and much more!

We invite to take advantage of this new policy and see it as an excellent opportunity to build your business while delivering even greater levels of satisfaction and value to your customers.

Sincerely,

John Dragoon
Senior Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer & Channel Chief