Former Novell exec's firm supports SUSE Linux, rebrands

IDG News Service - StreamServe Inc., which is helmed by the former second-in-command at Novell Inc., announced on Wednesday that its software now supports Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9. The move is part of StreamServe's revamping of its image, an effort put in place since former Novell executive Chris Stone took over as president and CEO in April. It's also a way to garner more business, particularly in Europe.

In recent months, StreamServe has rebranded its software, now calling it an enterprise document presentment (EDP) application instead of a business communications management application.

"It's a better explanation of what we do," Stone said in a phone interview Tuesday. "Think of us as the last mile of ERP and CRM. We're the presentment guys, converting data to a readable form."

Stone was previously vice chairman in the office of the CEO at Novell. He left the company in November 2004 after driving the vendor's embrace of open-source software, including its acquisition of German Linux distribution company SUSE Linux AG in late 2003.

StreamServe's EDP software enables customers to take information generated by enterprise applications from the likes of SAP AG and Oracle Corp. in any format and present it on any device in a readable online or print form, primarily in relation to generating invoices.

EDP can save customers substantial time and money, according to Stone, since they no longer have to write code to facilitate data presentation and can also save on paper costs by putting their information online. StreamServe cites the example of Skanska AB. The Swedish global construction services firm estimates that it has cut handling time of its Oracle documents by 50% using StreamServe's EDP software.

"Oracle, IBM, EMC with Documentum are beginning to realize that the presentment piece is missing from their applications," Stone said. He describes StreamServe's software as what Microsoft Corp. has promised with its business integration software, BizTalk Server. "We're like BizTalk on steroids," he said. "We can print, e-mail, fax in any format from any format, the dream Microsoft had with BizTalk."

StreamServe's EDP software already runs on Windows, Solaris, AIX, HP-UX and Red Hat Linux, Stone said. "Personally, I always felt SUSE was the best technically of the Linux distributions," he said. "Customers tend to use it in an enterprise fashion." He also sees SUSE as the dominant enterprise Linux in Europe. Stone expects StreamServe to support localized versions of Linux, particularly in Asia.

For Novell, having StreamServe run on SUSE is part of the company's strategy to "build a platform with the critical