Novell's New Channel Chief Targets Faster Transformation

Novell has shaken up its channel ranks—again—naming Javier Colado to the newly created position of general manager of partners. His goal: accelerate

Novell’s channel business and generate more revenue through partners.
Colado, most recently general manager and vice president for Novell's western Europe, Middle East and Africa operations, sales and marketing, will report directly to Novell's president and chief executive Ron Hovsepian. 

Colado, who will be based in Novell’s Massachusetts headquarters, replaces Pat Bernard who left Novell in early August after less than a year with the company. Bernard's charter was to make Novell a more channel-centric company.

"There is no change in the direction we took a year ago," Colado said. "What I will do now is continue to drive things the way they were driven. But we need to speed up some of the transformation processes.

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  "We've never been more serious about transforming the company and becoming a channel-centric company. We will put more of a strain on the entire company to make that happen quickly."

Colado joined Novell 2006 to head the Western Europe operations, sales and marketing – the entire business including indirect and direct. During his time leading that organization he estimates he transformed it from doing less than half of its business through the channel to doing about 80 percent through the channel.

Globally, Novell has more than 9,000 partners, of which more than 3,600 are in North America. Novell expects 2008 revenues of $940 million to $970 million; the company does not publish its indirect revenue.

Prior to joining Novell, Colado spent six years at McAfee, helping it accomplish a similar transformation to more channel-led sales. Colado worked for Lucent—prior to the Alcatel merger—reorganizing that company's customer centers.

Colado's first task is to revisit what Novell is offering today and make it easier for partners to work with the company. He plans to focus on recruiting new solution providers, targeting quality instead of quantity. The ultimate goal is to bring more of Novell's revenues through the channel.

"I've never seen so many people ready to make this happen in terms of marketing and all the different functions in the company," he said.

Novell's channel chief role has changed hands three times in the last few years.

Novell last named a new channel chief in November 2007, less than a year ago, when Pat Bernard, a former Hyperion vice president took the job.  Bernard came in at the same time that Steve Erdman, vice president of channels and alliances for the Americas, considered the company's channel chief, left the company. Erdman had joined Novell in February 2006 from Dell.