Novell Inc last week announced its latest reorganisation, which will see its three business units – the Information Access & Management Group, the Systems Group, and what will be left of the Applications Group once WordPerfect is sold – pulled into a unified Novell Products Group. In fact, naming it the Products Group seems unnecessary, since Novell is effectively putting all its operations into the unit. It will be headed by Steve Markman, who is currently in charge of Information Access and was the first executive brought in by Robert Frankenberg when he took over the company. The Information Access & Management Group was itself restructured just last September, and that followed hard on the heels of a much more extensive reorganisation in June. The strategy was decided on, according to Peter Troop, senior director of investor relations, to try to increase project co-ordination and communications between the existing product groups, especially in the light of Frankenberg’s new grand vision, the Smart Global Network. There will be no job losses as a result of the reshuffle, since this is not really viewed as a consolidation for the organisation, it’s a way of thinking about things says Troop. He added that the reorganisation would not have made sense before Novell divested itself of its Unix business (and decided to sell Wordperfect Corp) but what used to be our core business – network software – will now be the business. He denied the move could be a precursor to a sale of the whole of Novell, reiterating that the company is not for sale. Meantime Novell says that the fate of Wordperfect will be announced by the end of the month.
