The Novell Small Business Suite 6 Starter Pack Program

Articles and Tips: article

Buck Gashler
Product Manager
Novell, Inc.
bgashler@novell.com

01 Jul 2003

A few days before BrainShare 2003, Novell announced an extraordinary product seeding program called the Novell Small Business Suite 6 Starter Pack program. With this program, qualified resellers would soon be able to deploy a limited licensed version of the Novell Small Business Suite (NSBS) 6 product to the small business customers they service. Novell's Chris Stone highlighted the new program in his keynote address on the first day of BrainShare 2003 ( http://www.novell.com/brainshare/keynotes.html).

Consequently, the Novell Small Business Suite booth, along with the PartnerNet booth, were some of the busiest booths at BrainShare 2003. Staff members answered questions about the new program and assisted resellers on how to become qualified in order to receive and deploy the media kit.

Benefits to the Novell Reseller

The NSBS 6 Starter Pack program is a great opportunity for Novell resellers to introduce their customers to the benefits of Novell's superior set of networking products, at a cost of only the server hardware and the reseller's time.

The reseller feedback we've heard so far is that there are plenty of new opportunities for the reseller as a result of this program, including:

Approaching customers not currently networked with a now very affordable suite of world class networking products
Upgrading customers currently using a peer-to-peer model of networking to the benefits of client/server networking
Providing the means of reducing Outlook-derived e-mail viruses by deploying GroupWise 6 (which is included in NSBS 6)
Approaching new customers in new industries
Making better margins in deployments of the product (by being less concerned about the total cost of product + hardware + reseller time)
Selling peripherals, such as tape backup devices, routers, hubs, printers, NICs, etc.
Introducing total network based solutions including line-of-business applications (see http://www.novell.com/coolsolutions/smallbiz/partner_solutions.html )
And much more.

Starter Pack Specifics

The NSBS product seeding program is a means of getting new small business customers acquainted to NSBS 6 by providing them with a free, full-featured Starter Pack of the Novell Small Business Suite 6 ( http://www.novell.com/products/smallbiz ) with a limited number of user licenses. In most cases, the NSBS 6 Starter Pack is delivered to small businesses through a qualified Novell reseller (any level) who then installs the Starter Pack at the customer's site.

The NSBS 6 Starter Pack is distributed as a three-user or five-user seed product (depending on world region). Qualified Novell resellers can purchase an NSBS 6 Starter Pack kit from Novell through a nominal production and shipping and handling cost of US $50. Information for purchasing the seeding product is available in eight different languages at http://www.novell.com/partners/nsbs_starterpack.

As you advance through the information pages, you are provided with an overview of the program and are allowed to purchase the NSBS 6 Starter Pack by providing your PartnerNet and CNS (Certified Novell Salesperson) 6.5 IDs. If you are not presently registered as a PartnerNet partner, if you are not certified in CNS 6.5, or if you have forgotten either of the IDs, the page provides links for you to remedy any of those problems.

Incidentally, PartnerNet registration at the Authorized level, along with CNS 6.5 certification is free of charge. Then once the PartnerNet and CNS 6.5 IDs are provided, you are given a short quiz, verifying that you understand the specifics of the program. Once you pass that quiz, you can purchase the product for $50.

The product can then be used as the means to deploy the Novell Small Business Suite 6 into virtually any and all small businesses you wish. The exception to this is Novell prohibits the deployment of the NSBS 6 Starter Pack into branch "offices" of organizations larger than 50 employees. This includes traditional branch offices such as banks, but also organizations such as church branches that benefit from a centralized purchasing organization, not-for-profit branches of a large national organization, etc.

Note: The Novell Small Business Suite 6 is significantly discounted for not-for-profit organizations. For details see http://www.novell.com/partners/channel/nonprofit/.

License Activation

It is the responsibility of the reseller that deploys the NSBS 6 Starter Pack to see that the product gets an active license. This is because the NSBS 6 Starter Pack is actually a 90-day, time-bombed version of the software. In other words, the product will only work for 90-days until it is formally registered to the customer. You do this through the Novell NSBS 6 Starter Pack product registration page at http://www.novell.com/nsbs_starterpack/registration.

Like the information page referenced above, the registration page is multi-lingual. Once you have selected your language, you enter the customer's data including name, address, phone number, e-mail address, and so on.

Upon submitting this information, a unique product activation key will be sent immediately to the e-mail address you included in the activation form. With the new non-expiring licenses, run UNLOCK.NLM on the server and input the activation key to fully enable your product.

Expansion Packs

The objective of any seeding program is to gain new customers, who after deploying a seed product, want to grow that deployment through new licenses and additional products. While there will certainly be cases where small home offices never grow beyond the three- or five-user license cap, the growth opportunities for the NSBS 6 Starter Pack in other small businesses are tremendous.

Companies that want to expand their NSBS environment to beyond the three- or five-user limit can do so through an NSBS 6 Expansion Pack. A purchased Expansion Pack is the only way of expanding the unique licensing constraints of the NSBS 6 Starter Pack.

The Expansion Pack unlocks the Starter Pack license count limitations while expanding the number of Starter Pack users by five. For example, if the small business had a reseller-installed version of the NSBS Starter Pack, a purchased Expansion Pack would raise the number of licensed NSBS users from five to 10.

The Expansion Pack purchase is a one-time purchase. Once it is deployed, the NSBS 6 Starter pack essentially becomes the Novell Small Business Suite. At this point, it can now accept additive licenses--just like the regular Novell Small Business Suite product. Those small businesses wishing to purchase more than 5 additional users, must first purchase the Expansion Pack, and can then purchase additional licenses in increments of one, five, and 25.

NSBS 6 Expansion Packs are purchased as VLA products through normal distribution channels. To get an idea of Expansion Pack prices, you can access them from the product page, or view the prices directly at http://www.novell.com/products/smallbiz/nsbs_expansionpack/pricing.html.

Conclusion

The NSBS 6 Starter Pack program is a great opportunity for Novell resellers to introduce their customers to the benefits of NSBS 6, without the cost of the product. More than ever, resellers are moving to a service model for their customers. The NSBS 6 Starter Pack program provides countless service opportunities, from initial deployment, expansion, remote management, and even support.

"I've spoken with so many enthusiastic resellers already about the Starter Pack program," remarks Novell Product Manager Troy Wilde. "The feedback to the program has been very positive. Many resellers are altering their business practices to concentrate on deploying the Starter Pack to new customers in new industries," added Wilde.

Helpful Resources

* Originally published in Novell AppNotes

Disclaimer

The origin of this information may be internal or external to Novell. While Novell makes all reasonable efforts to verify this information, Novell does not make explicit or implied claims to its validity.