Not everyone was shocked or disappointed by the Novell announcements that two of its senior executives were departing the firm.
Leaving are Christine Hughes, former head of marketing for Novell, and Jeff Waxman, longtime Bob Frankenberg colleague and confidant and former head of the Business Applications Division.It was Hughes who was responsible for the death of Novell's red and white "shark's teeth" logo and the birth of the new logo consisting of 25 spheres.
If true, the numbers I've heard suggest that Novell spent in excess of $15 million over the past year to create and roll out its new corporate identity program.
And that only counts the money spent inside Novell, not the countless dollars spent by its resellers and partners to update their marketing and sales materials to incorporate the new and improved ID.
Although as a technology marketing consultant I can appreciate the apparent reasoning and beauty behind the new Novell logo, I'm still not convinced there was a compelling need to make such a change.
In fact, Novell's most successful advertising and marketing efforts probably occurred in the late '80s when Salt Lake advertising agency Dahlin Smith White launched the "You should be selling red" and "You should be seeing red" campaigns.
For now, many of Hughes' responsibilities will fall under Joe Marengi, head of sales for Novell, although some will apparently be splintered among several groups and divisions inside the networking company.
Unenviable tasks
For his part, Waxman was given the unenviable jobs of first trying to resurrect the WordPerfect product line inside a company that had already abandoned it, and second, finding a suitable purchaser for the remaining WPCorp. assets once it became apparent that Novell and the former word-processing giant would part ways.
Although given a senior special projects role at Novell and a slot on the Corel board of directors after the spring acquisition of WordPerfect, it was fairly clear that Waxman was a senior executive in need of a compelling position.
Without one at Novell, he will likely seek more challenging pastures elsewhere.
UITA forms foundation
With the announcement this week that the Utah Information Technologies Association has received an 18-month, $750,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Labor, UITA formally launched the UITA Foundation.
First proposed more than two years ago, the UITA Foundation was formed to "increase the quality and quantity of a world-class work force for Utah's IT (information technologies) community," an association news release said.
According to a recent industry survey sponsored by UITA, high-tech entities in Utah anticipate hiring more than 6,600 new employees during the next three years, an increase of more than 19 percent over today's 35,000 information technologies employees in the state.
Heading up the UITA Foundation will be Jeffrey Hatch as the foundation's executive director. Hatch served as president and general manager of KUTV Television from 1988 to 1995 during the waning days of the Hatch family ownership of a mini-media empire that at one time included KUTV, the Ogden Standard Examiner and several radio stations.
UITA summit planned
Speaking of UITA, the association will hold its annual two-day summit next month in Provo.
National industry leaders will serve as keynoters for three main presentations, while local experts will fill out 15 sessions addressing issues facing those interested in finance, marketing and management topics.
The yearly event will be held Monday and Tuesday, Aug. 12 and 13, at the Provo Park Hotel.
As a past presenter and an attendee at each previous summit, I highly recommend this event to anyone interested in the technology field. Interested parties should contact UITA at 801-568-3500 for more information.
Service improving?
Finally on a personal note, after moving to our new offices less than two weeks ago, we arrived this Monday to find our main fax line dead.
One phone call to US WEST generated a verification that the line was dead and a promise that it would be operational by day's end.
And you know what? It was.
Boy, was I pleasantly surprised. Maybe things really are improving at US WEST.