Novell’s Open Workgroup Suite Small Business Edition includes Linux server and desktop software, along with a firewall, e-mail, collaboration and other advanced open-source office products. It will be available from Novell’s Irish resellers from September.
“One of the biggest attractions for small businesses is that this suite will be able to run on older hardware platforms, obviating the need for expensive hardware investments,” said Brian Green, Novell technical product specialist for Europe, Middle East and Africa.
Novell claims the Open Workgroup Suite Small Business Edition is more than just a bundle of enterprise products priced for small businesses, as it includes a newly developed integration layer that will make it much easier for resellers and service providers to integrate specialised products. “We’ve done a lot to make this suite much easier to manage – it has a very simple new management interface that makes it simple to add a new employee as a user or to change passwords,” said Green.
The suite is supported by a host of popular business software applications from companies such as low-cost CRM provider Sugar and Intuit, which are both certified to work with SUSE Linux Enterprise.
“Linux has a much smaller footprint than rival operating systems, so it doesn’t require the same hardware resources,” said Green. “When a small business realises that that offers them an alternative to buying everybody new laptops, they get interested”.
Green said the Linux market was growing at 25 per cent per annum, faster than any other operating system, while Novell’s share of the Linux market was growing at 85 per cent p.a. “Novell is shipping the cake already baked while other Linux suppliers are still offering people eggs and flour and butter and saying bake it yourself,” said Green, referring to the recent small business server offerings from rivals Red Hat and Symantec. “Linux is growing at a phenomenal rate around the world and we are offering small businesses something that will allow them to take advantage of that,” said Green.
“Small businesses are increasingly interested in Linux,” said Ray Boggs, vice president of Small/Medium Business Research at IDC. “Lower purchase prices are part of the appeal, but so too is the flexibility and choice made possible through open source solutions. Ease of acquisition and installation will also play a key role in converting small business interest into small business purchases.”
The Novell Open Workgroup Suite Small Business Edition is based on SUSE Linux Enterprise and includes Novell’s GroupWise application for e-mail and calendaring; Novell’s Open Enterprise Server for advanced storage management, user and network rights administration, and clustering and failover capabilities. The desktop components include SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop and the Novell edition of the OpenOffice.org suite for Windows and Linux. Novell’s suite will offer a simple yet customizable installation process, as well as remote management capabilities so IT specialists can remotely manage their small business customers’ IT infrastructures, thus reducing costs and improving service.
Kent Erickson, vice president and general manager of Workgroup Solutions for Novell, said, “IT expenditures are becoming an increasingly large part of the operating budgets of small businesses, and when it comes to reducing budgets, these businesses have had limited choice. This specialised suite from Novell eliminates that lock-in and gives customers greater choice and flexibility, letting them put their business interests and their customers first.”
“At Intuit, we are dedicated to delivering powerful solutions that solve the most important customer needs with the ease of use and affordability people have come to expect from our offerings,” said Angus Thomson, vice president and general manager of the Intuit Mid Market Group. “Offering customers a variety of options by providing them with products and services that work the way they do is one important way of achieving this goal. The Novell Open Workgroup Suite Small Business Edition provides businesses who want to work in the open source environment with a new, powerful option.”
Novell Open Workgroup Suite Small Business Edition is targeted for general availability in September. To accommodate growing businesses, the suite features support for up to five servers and 200 users. http://www.novell.com/smallbiz
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