Novell India to launch PartnerNet in November

Novell will launch its global partner program — PartnerNet — in India in
November, 2009. The revised version of this program was launched globally a year
ago globally, to translate the company's aggressive push of its open source
solutions in the indirect channels space since 2008.

Snadeep Menon Country Head, Novell, India

Partners are graduated on three levels. They get access to deal registration
program so partners bringing deals first are rewarded. This aside, they have
access to all the technical information about the company's solutions and
technical support. Novell in India is now trying to engage with the right
partners who can be part of its ecosystem and PartnerNet program. To do this, it
engaged a consultant who mapped out the parameters and criteria on which the
right profile of partners could sell Novell's solutions.

Said Sandeep Menon, Country Head, Novell India, “Of the 20 names we finally
picked up, most were emerging players who were clear that they want to be in the
service delivery space and infrastructure software is a component of that.”

To support these partners, Novell will appoint a team of channel managers,
each of who will be responsible to 5-odd partners. These channel managers makes
their money only if his set of partner can get the business and he can't bill to
any other partner outside his set.