Promise of good faith for Novell

By MICHAEL FOREMAN

Novell Asia Pacific president Rhonda O'Donnell says the software company will operate in a spirit of cooperation after its recent acquisition of Cambridge Technology Partners.

Since March, when Novell announced it would acquire the consulting firm to boost its services revenue, some industry observers have pointed to a possible conflict of interest, saying the Novell connection meant Cambridge could no longer be seen as impartial.

But Mrs O'Donnell, who was previously managing director Australasia at Cambridge, said most information technology projects were the result of partnerships and Novell software would be selected only where it was the best solution.

"No one partner is ever going to be able to say, this is all the solution you need. Some of our competitors will provide partners, some will be provided by us ... It's all about the relationship with the customer."

Ashley Weaver, Australia New Zealand managing director, said: "We are already helping some customers roll out Microsoft products throughout their networks, so it's not a new issue for us."

Nevertheless, relations between Microsoft and Novell are still frosty.

Mrs O'Donnell said Microsoft's cereal box marketing campaign, which resulted in Novell taking legal action against Microsoft in the US at the beginning of the month, had not been used in the Asia Pacific region.

"We haven't seen it in this region yet, but we will react in a similar way to our US parent if we do."

According to Novell, a large number of its customers in the US received a box headlined "Microsoft Server Crunch", which included statements such as "What's the expiration date on that NetWare platform?"

Novell has described the statements as false and misleading.