Novell highlights new solutions at BrainShare 2002

Novell, Inc., the leading provider of Net business solutions, today kicked off BrainShare 2002, Novell's annual user conference, with announcements around new solutions designed to help organizations simplify, secure and accelerate their business as they extend their operations to the Net (see today's accompanying announcements). BrainShare 2002, with more than 5,000 participants, is a weeklong conference that includes keynotes from Novell® and partner executives, hundreds of business and technical presentations, and an extensive hands-on one Net business solutions lab highlighting Novell solutions. Novell Chairman and CEO Jack Messman launched the conference today with a discussion of key industry trends, how Novell is meeting changing business demands, and a perspective of the company moving forward. BrainShare 2002 illustrates important progress in Novell's efforts to extend its leadership in Net business solutions.

"BrainShare 2002 is a great opportunity for Novell to update our customers, partners and industry observers on the latest solutions we're bringing to market," said Jack Messman, chairman and CEO of Novell. "This is my first BrainShare as CEO. It provides a great opportunity for me to lay out my vision of why Novell should be the partner of choice for customers for Net business solutions. It'll be a great week."

Designed to bring into focus Novell's one Net vision, BrainShare 2002 provides a window into how companies are meeting the challenge of doing business on the Net. Novell made a series of announcements today around solutions aimed at helping companies succeed in an increasingly Web-based world. Novell announced two new technical solutions - Novell Workspace™ and Novell ZENworks Synergy™. With organizations increasingly turning to geographically and functionally distributed teams to get jobs done, Novell Workspace provides an easy-to-use, complete Web-based team solution, with information exchange, messaging and other critical features that make it easy for teams to be built and dismantled quickly as circumstances dictate. ZENworks Synergy bundles a series of Novell services into a powerful suite that allows organizations to get information and applications out to employees anywhere they are, whether on desktops, laptops or PDAs, using thin-client, fat-client or Web, connected or disconnected from the network. ZENworks Synergy makes employees more productive while also centralizing and simplifying the complex network administration tasks that today's organizations face.

Novell also laid out its plans to further leverage services such as Novell eDirectory™ and Novell DirXML™ for solutions in the user provisioning area. Having successfully deployed provisioning solutions to large enterprises both directly and through partnerships with consulting firms, Novell will develop specialized provisioning solutions for specific target groups — employees, students and customers — that address those groups' particular needs right out of the box. Novell will make these packaged identity provisioning solutions, which will begin rolling out later this year, available for delivery by Novell solution provider partners.

Extending its leadership in core networking technology, Novell also announced at BrainShare a series of new core network management and security advances that will make it easier for companies to move their business processes onto the Net. Novell's latest version of its industry-leading eDirectory, with more than 300 million licenses distributed worldwide, provides new features to allow Web-based management of key networking functions, freeing up IT resources and providing greater flexibility for network administrators. It also supports emerging Web services standards and lays the foundation for driving the industry adoption of UDDI.

Novell continued progress in its transition to a Net business solutions focus with the announcement of its Business Process Management (BPM) for Government solution. Developed in partnership with Metastorm, Novell BPM for Government helps local governments automate key internal processes and provides new, more efficient ways for citizens to interact with government to get their problems resolved. Delivered with consulting services from Cambridge Technology Partners, Novell's eServices division, BPM for Government is built on best practices, removing the guesswork for local governments and helping drive down their costs.

Finally, on the partner front, Novell announced it has signed an agreement with BEA Systems to build solutions that quickly secure and empower relationships across the Internet. The first result of this partnership is the Novell Secure Partner Portal solution, announced in November, that integrates Novell eDirectory and iChain® with the BEA WebLogic Enterprise Platform* to provide a secure, cost-effective way for organizations to manage and expand relationships with key partners, suppliers, and customers. BEA and Novell are exploring ways to deliver additional best-of-breed solutions leveraging their respective strengths.

For more information about Novell BrainShare 2002, please visit http://www.novellbrainshare.com.