Novell Announces Expanded Premium Support Program

• Premium Service program provides faster, more personalized support connection to customers
• Provides more training and self-help options
• Seven levels allow customers to match support program to individual company requirements

Novell, Inc., the leading provider of Net services software, today announced an expanded Premium Service(SM) program in North America that will provide faster, more personalized support to customers. The new program allows customers to choose an appropriate level of software support for their enterprise, from occasional support to ongoing service from a dedicated support engineer. The new Premium Service advances Novell's commitment to provide its customers and partners with the support they need to efficiently deploy and manage Novell Net services products across all types of networks and all leading operating systems.

Through the Novell Premium Service program, the nature of response and scope of resources provided to customers will be based on their level of subscribed services. For example, the program is designed to provide customers who purchase the highest-level Premium 700 service a response to a support request from Novell engineers within 15 minutes during business hours, while other levels will see maximum response times ranging from 30 minutes to four hours. In addition, Premium Service includes education and training vouchers, self-help resources such as the Novell Support Connection CD and the LogicSource Library, and access to DeveloperNet and BrainShare conferences as standard features to customers.

"Novell's Premium Service program will further enhance our experience with support services that have traditionally been excellent and well-suited to the efficient operation of our enterprise," said Sandy Bateh, CIO for the City of Jacksonville (Fla.). "Having even greater access to support engineers we know and trust means we receive the outstanding service we need at the time we need it."

Premium Service Support

The seven levels of Novell's Premium Service are designed to meet the needs of Novell's wide range of customers. Premium Service allows customers to choose the level that best fits their business, while making it easy for them to make incremental upgrades to their support program as their support requirements change. Features include:

• Faster and more predictable response times. To ensure timely responses to technical issues, response times are based on level of subscribed services.
• Increased interaction and availability of dedicated resources. Depending on level of subscribed services, Premium Service provides access to dedicated resources such as service account managers, primary support engineers and dedicated support engineers.
• More training and self-help options. Premium Service resources including education vouchers, Novell Support Connection and LogicSource CDs, and access to DeveloperNet and BrainShare conferences - help IT professionals hone their skills by resolving problems themselves.

Michael Lyons, vice president of Novell Technical Services (SM), said, "This comprehensive offering is designed around our customers. The Premium Service program gives customers more choices, more standard services, and more contact with dedicated resources to give a higher quality support experience to businesses as they use their Novell technology to accelerate their transformation to e-business."

For more information about Novell's Premium Service program, see http://services.novell.com/premium. Novell and its partners provide industry-leading technical support around the clock to Novell customers worldwide. From Web-based support and online forums to e-mail and telephone inquiries to FaxBack materials and CD-ROMs, Novell programs ensure customers receive the technical support services they need when they need them. For more information, visit the Novell Support Connection Web site at http://support.novell.com.

Novell's technical support is just one part of the business ecosystem Novell is building for customers and partners. The company's leading Net services software, combined with global channel, consulting, developer and education programs, makes Novell a strategic networking partner for organizations of every kind and size. Reaching virtually every country on earth, this distribution and support infrastructure includes more than 20,000 authorized resellers and 500,000 networking professionals certified to administer and maintain Novell networks.

About Novell

Novell, Inc. (NASDAQ:NOVL), is a leading provider of Net services software that delivers services to secure and power all types of networks the Internet, intranets, and extranets; wired to wireless; corporate and public across leading operating systems. Novell's Net services software provides the foundation for one Net a single global network that supports new applications and forms of business. Net services software gives IT organizations a way to adapt and accelerate their transformation to e-business, simplify the management and control of all networks, create a secure foundation for doing business on the Net, and help deliver a consistent and high-quality experience to end users in all locations. Worldwide channel, consulting, education and technical support programs, along with strategic alliances, combine Novell Net services software with third-party products and services to form complete Net solutions.

For information on Novell's complete range of products and services, contact Novell's Customer Response Center at (888) 321-4CRC (4272), or visit Novell's Web site at http://www.novell.com. Press may access Novell announcements and company information on the World Wide Web at http://www.novell.com/pressroom. In addition, detailed comparisons between Novell products and competitive offerings from other vendors are available on the Web at http://www.novell.com/advantage.

Novell, BrainShare, DeveloperNet and Novell Support Connection are registered trademarks or service marks, and LogicSource, Novell Technical Services and Premium Service are trademarks or service marks of Novell, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All third-party trademarks are the property of their respective owners.