The preceding two problems led to the development of a third: Novell’s continuing inability to execute product-marketing fundamentals. Positioning and product naming seemed to be Novell’s particular bêtes noires. In March 1993, with the introduction of NetWare 4.11, Novell decided to change the name of NetWare to “intraNetWare” in a clumsy attempt to take advantage of all the Internet excitement. No good marketing group would have made such a mistake; the confusion this action generated was completely predictable. Everyone immediately assumed that Novell had discontinued NetWare and began to ask what had happened to the product. After all, there was still a huge market for conventional LANs, and it seemed Novell no longer stocked such an item. After a year or so of trying to explain to the market that, yes, Novell still sold LANs and that intraNetWare was also a LAN product, but with intranet capability as well as all those terrific LAN capabilities traditionally associated with NetWare, Novell gave up and returned to the tried, true, trusted, and blessedly familiar “NetWare” (now with intranet capabilities) name.
More deadly have been Novell’s ongoing positioning mistakes. In a reprise of MicroPro’s fatal course, Novell created two competing group-ware product lines, GroupWise and Novell Internet Messaging System (NIMS, a development alliance with Netscape). Both products are close enough in functionality and audience to generate the dreaded “What’s the difference?” question when prospective buyers are considering a purchase, instead of the desired “Why should I buy?” inquiry your sales force needs.
Of course, Novell would have survived all these problems handily but for a single pivotal event: the introduction of Windows NT in August 1993. Despite Novell’s earlier success in stomping down Microsoft’s LAN Manager, Windows NT was a tougher beast. Microsoft had studied Godzilla carefully and learned from its earlier mistakes. Its radioactive ray guns were primed and ready to take advantage of the beast’s weaknesses.