Rediff On The Net, Infotech: Onward Novell begins e-commerce thrust


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September 25, 1998

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Onward Novell begins e-commerce thrust

Onward Novell, the Indian arm of the US software major Novell Inc, has kicked off an initiative to attract software developers in the country by encouraging them to develop software applications for facilitating electronic commerce on the Internet.

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As part of the effort, Novell Inc has raised a $50-million venture capital fund, a substantial portion of which is expected to find its way into the country too.

Novell's initiative in encouraging local software developers comes at a time when the government has announced its intentions to make the country an IT superpower.

Also, the National IT Task Force has suggested that India has a big opportunity in developing electronic commerce applications that facilitate business on the Internet.

The company is, at present, encouraging its 500-odd independent software vendors who regularly develop application software around its Novell Netware network operating system, to write software applications for business on the Internet.

According to company officials, the decision to encourage ISVs to develop applications for e-commerce has been taken since the latest version of its NOS, Netware 5.0, is fully compliant with all the standards and protocols used in the Internet.

"The applications developed by the ISVs have to work on the Internet, as even we function on the Internet," Onward Novell Vice-President Nandu Pradhan said.

Novell provides its software development kits to these ISVs for writing applications, he said.

According to Pradhan, the ISVs opting to develop e-commerce applications will be supported by Novell by ways of investment in their equity and extension of project finance, besides providing the software tools and technology.

In addition, Novell will help these companies in marketing their application software by demonstrating these applications in Novell's roadshows. Also, these developers will be able to participate in Novell user group meetings, which is a gathering of users of Novell's software, thus giving instant access to a particular target audience.

Besides, details of these applications will be put up on Novell's Web site, which will allow the developers to target a global audience.

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