Novell Recognizes Leading Partners

WALTHAM, Mass., April 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Novell (Nasdaq: NOVL) announced at its recent Partner Summit its 2004 awards for technology, training, and solution provider partners of the year, reflecting the important added value that partners bring to Novell's Linux and identity offerings. The partners were recognized for their best practices, customer focus, demand and revenue generation, and success in building strong customer relationships and profitable businesses using Novell solutions.

Winners of the partner of the year awards were selected for their ability to grow their businesses around Novell's product lines. All these partners contributed significantly to Novell's business while expanding their own Novell-based revenues, a win-win proposition that underpins the business value of Novell's partner-focused approach. Each of these partners contributed significantly in driving forward the global ecosystem supporting Novell's Linux and identity services offerings. Partners honored for their work in 2004 (see attached for more details) include:

North American Solution Provider Partner of the Year

-- Novacoast -- Santa Barbara, California North American Regional Solution Provider Partners of the Year

-- Central -- The Harding Group, Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas

-- Midwest -- Denmac Systems, LLC, Deerfield, Illinois

-- Southeast -- Advanced Logic Industries, Forest, Virginia

-- NorthEast -- Computer Integrated Services of New York, New York

-- West -- Novacoast, Santa Barbara, California

-- Canada -- Terran Innovations, Ontario Independent Software Vendor Partner of the Year

-- Bakbone Software Independent Hardware Vendor Partner of the Year

-- Fujitsu Siemens Computers Training Partners of the Year

-- New Horizons Learning Center, Salt Lake City, Utah

-- Computer Education Services, McLean, Virginia National Reseller Partner of the Year

-- Softchoice National Distribution Partner of the Year

-- Ingram Micro "Novell's channel partners add significant value to our solutions in their relationships with customers," said Mark Hardardt, vice president and general manager, worldwide partners and channels. "In addition, our technology partners provide critical application and hardware support to expand our global ecosystem, and our training partners ensure customers have access to the expertise needed for their Novell deployments. Novell succeeds when our partners succeed." About Novell

Novell, Inc. is a leading provider of infrastructure software and services to over 50,000 customers in 43 countries. With more than 20 years of experience in data center, workgroup and desktop solutions, Novell's 6,000 employees, 5,000 partners and support centers around the world are meeting customer requirements for identity-driven computing and Linux solutions. By providing enterprise-class software and support for commercial and open source software, Novell delivers increased operating flexibility and choice at a lower total cost of ownership. More information about Novell can be found at http://www.novell.com . NOTE: Novell is a registered trademark of Novell, Inc. in the United States and other countries. SUSE is a registered trademark of SUSE LINUX AG, a Novell business. *All third-party trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

NOVELL PARTNERS OF THE YEAR -- North American Solution Provider Partner of the Year -- Novacoast Novacoast has become strategic to Novell's partner-led business model. Over 80% of Novacoast's revenues come from Novell business. Shortly after Novell completed its SUSE acquisition, Novacoast converted its internal business to run completely on SUSE LINUX, including running the Novell Linux Desktop. Novacoast has created packages of multiple Novell solutions to help shorten the sales cycle for Novell products. Called ZENrd, SIMrd, SUSErd and eLearning, each of these packaged solutions makes it easier for customers to clearly see the benefit of the Novell solution -- and to visualize its actual implementation. In response, customers are buying this packaged solution at an accelerated rate -- sales are up over $1 million year over year. -- North American Regional Solution Provider Partners of the Year -- Central -- The Harding Group, Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas

-- Midwest -- Denmac Systems, LLC, Deerfield, Illinois

-- Southeast -- Advanced Logic Industries -- Forest, Virginia

-- NorthEast -- Computer Integrated Services of New York -- New York City

-- West -- Novacoast -- Santa Barbara, California

-- Canada -- Terran Innovations, Ontario The solution provider channel is the face of Novell for many customers, particularly in the critical mid- and small business market. All these regional partners of the year exhibited strong technical and business skills, a commitment to driving Novell's business forward, and an determination to deliver the best solution to solve a customer's business challenge. They delivered expertise on the full range on Novell's networking, identity services and Linux and open source offerings, giving customers new ways to leverage Novell technologies for business value. -- Bakbone Software -- Independent Software Vendor Partner of the Year Bakbone Software, a global leader in storage management solutions, is consistently one of the first vendors to support and certify on Novell operating systems, including SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 9, NetWare and the recently launched Novell Open Enterprise Server. A long-time member of Novell's PartnerNet Program, Bakbone grew their SUSE LINUX revenues by double- digit percentages in just one year. -- Fujitsu Siemens Computers -- Independent Hardware Vendor Partner of the Year Fujitsu Siemens embraced Novell strongly this year, certifying most of their hardware for SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server. Fujitsu Siemens is one of Novell's top revenue producing technology partners worldwide and expects to expand that revenue significantly in the coming year. The company's new FlexFrame solution -- which leverages SUSE LINUX -- is a major step forward in the enterprise grid computing market. -- Training Partners of the Year

-- New Horizons Learning Center, Salt Lake City, Utah

-- Computer Education Services, McLean, Virginia New Horizons Learning Center has consistently demonstrated an exemplary commitment to delivering high quality training programs to Novell's customers -- at its training center as well as onsite at customer locations. New Horizons Learning Center has posted some of the highest customer satisfaction scores of any partner worldwide. Computer Educations Services has demonstrated its commitment to quality results by consistently delivering a superior learning experience to Novell customers. Computer Education Services offered more Novell courses and trained more clients than any other training partner in 2004. Computer Education Services has deployed field sales reps that have built long-standing Novell customer relationships, especially in the Government vertical -- driving increased visibility and credibility for Novell solutions in the markets they serve. -- Softchoice -- National Reseller Partner of the Year Softchoice exceeded its Novell-based revenue targets significantly in 2004, with a growth rate just shy of 100 percent. Softchoice invested in a true partnership with Novell, embracing Linux soon after Novell's SUSE LINUX acquisition as a means to reach new customers. Softchoice also developed innovative financing mechanisms for customers to help Novell close deals in a timely fashion, helping grow Novell's business. -- Ingram Micro -- National Distribution Partner of the Year Ingram Micro is the leading Novell Authorized Distributor in North America. Ingram Micro delivers a high level of Novell knowledge and expertise through its support personnel, providing significant pre-sales technical support as well as multiple qualified sales opportunities. During the course of 2004, this team of eight Novell-focused engineers fielded approximately 6000 pre-sales Technical Support Calls from resellers, identifying some 800 qualified Novell sales opportunities.