Tech Arsenal 1/Tech Arsenal (Arsenal Computer).ISO/tek-07/selling.txt

Text File | 1992-02-07 | 16KB | 405 lines

Artisoft Research      p. 1


WHY?

Q.    Now that Novell has its NetWare Lite peer-to-peer network, why
      should anyone buy a LANtastic system from Artisoft ?


A.    Because in terms of price, performance and overall capability,
      the LANtastic network wins hooves down.  All you need to
      remember is that we WAPPEM.


Windows support

The LANtastic Network Operating System fully supports Microsoft
Windows, the point-and-shoot operating environment thats taken the
DOS world by storm.  Run your network as a non-Windows application
or, with the LANtastic for Windows utility, as a full
Windows application with icon selection, pull-down menus and
on-line help.

NetWare Lite  is accessible as a non-windows application, but only
in real mode, which addresses up to one megabyte of memory.  Beyond
that, Lite doesn't do Windows.  Pity.


Added value

The LANtastic  4.0 system is a fourth-generation product with
built-in benefits that blast Novell's newcomer network.

The LANtastic network's NET_MGR program sets up highly individual
security accounts with personal or group passwords.  Limit access
to a specific length of time, time of day, day of the week,
available devices or file areas.  Lite  offers security feat
ures in a binary mode; instead of picking and choosing the security
you want for particular users or stations, the security feature is
all or nothing--completely limited or wide open..

A LANtastic network has electronic mail built into the system,
including capability for voice-mail with optional Sounding Board
adapters.  If you want e-mail on NetWare Lite, be prepared to shell
out more money for an add-on mail system.

A LANtastic network has built-in, easy-to-use CD-ROM support.  It
can't be done in NetWare Lite.

Full-featured LANcache , Artisoft's disk caching program, is an
integral LANtastic component built into the system to speed
performance.  For comparable performance, you'll spend more on
third-party disk caching software to run in NetWare Lite.

The LANtastic system has built-in support for uninterruptible power
supply (UPS) devices, warning all users when outside power has gone
down and immediately saving data from RAM to disk to protect it
from loss.  NetWare Lite has no such feature.

On a LANtastic  network, you can use a more secure and less
expensive diskless workstation, including capability for optional
boot PEROMs to store the server's boot image.  Not so with Lite.

You can run a LANtastic network server without a hard drive.  The
Lite way requires hard drive megabytes.

Performance

Network speed tests consistently rate a LANtastic network as 25 to
30% faster than NetWare Lite.  (See attached chart)

Price

List price is $99 per node for NetWare Lite software.  The same $99
buys the software for an entire LANtastic network, which can cover
hundreds of nodes.

Watch what happens to your costs as the network expands.  The
LANtastic network includes an AE-2 thin and thick Ethernet network
interface card in each node, which has a suggested retail price of
$299.  Merisel's August 1991 catalog lists Novell's Anthem/
Eagle 10Mbps 16-bit thin Ethernet adapter for $270 per card, or
$369 per node for the requisite hardware and software.  Look what
happens as the network expands up to and beyond the Lite 25-node
limit.

Nodes         2       5       10      15      25      40      100
NetWare Lite  $738    $1845   $3690   $5535   $9225   NA      NA
LANtastic     $697    $1594   $3089   $4584   $7574   $12,059
$29,999

Which conveniently leads us to...

Expandability

A NetWare Lite network is expandable up to 25 nodes.  Beyond that,
you must convert to regular NetWare and be tied to its
straight-jacket reliance on an expensive dedicated server.
A LANtastic system grows as you grow.  You can expand to 300 nodes.
The network can run on multiple adapters, so one computer can run
on several networks simultaneously.

Memory

A LANtastic workstation uses 12K of the computer's RAM, a
server/workstation 40K, making it 22K to 51K lighter than Lite.
You can make more RAM accessible to your application software by
loading a LANtastic system into high memory when using
industry-standard DOS 5.  Load the NetWare Lite program into high
memory and watch your network crash.



WHO?

Q.  With the industry giant and so many other companies, big and
small, offering network products, why should I do business with
Artisoft?

A.  Because Artisoft, the heavyweight champion of peer-to-peer, is
the heavy hitter in serving the customer.  In fact, matching
corporate policy head-to-head, we SOCCEM.


Support

Artisoft prides itself not only on trouble-free products, but
outstanding technical support when a problem does come up.  Forget
those calls that cost you $20 or even $100 per incident.  Artisoft
tech support calls are free and unlimited from 7 am to 5 pm
Mountain Standard Time and routed directly to technicians trained
to solve your particular problem. The Arti-Facts BBS allows users
to download fact-filled  and binary files .  Our Fast Fax
information system  faxes back product information and answers to
frequently asked questions.  Both are available 24 hours a day.


On-line referrals

Members of our Artisoft Authorized Five Star DealerSM program get
daily customer referrals directly from Artisoft headquarters.  From
the hundreds of end users who call us each day, the names and
companies are compiled by zip codes and faxed overnight for
quick dealer response.


Cross-shipping

Artisoft understands the urgency of avoiding down-time.  So we ship
replacements to the occasional defective adapter immediately on
dealer request, or when an end user has received RMA authorization
from technical support.  Unlike other companies, we don't wait for
the problem hardware to arrive before we ship the replacement.

Enhanced marketing

Artisoft is fully committed to helping our dealers market our
products.  So, in addition to the standard product literature, we
have compiled all our product literature on SpecDisk , our
electronic product information guide, which we update monthly in
dealer and end user versions.  We offer dealers free product
seminars several times a year and maintain an active staff of
Business Development Group representatives to keep dealers up to
date.  We are intensifying our efforts with end users as well,
helping them to form LANtastic user groups to exchange information.


Money-back guarantee

We insist that the only good customer is a satisfied customer.  So
if, for any reason, a customer is dissatisfied with any Artisoft
hardware, it carries an unconditional money-back guarantee and a
five-year limited warranty.


THE SCORECARD
ArtisoftBrand                                   N
Support (technical) free and unlimited          N/A
On-line referrals                               N/A
Cross-shipping                                  N/A
Enhanced marketing                              N/A
Money-back guarantee                            N/A



TOTAL SOLUTIONS

Artisoft is the leader in peer-to-peer networking, dedicated to
total solutions by providing both hardware and software for
one-stop network shopping and devoted to advancing business
communication through computer technology now and long into the
future.





THEY SAID IT

Quotes from the war of words between LANtastic and NetWare Lite

Quote:
Unquote:

"NetWare Lite focuses on small businesses that need something very
simple to connect together two to five users.  This is a market
that Novell created back in the early 1980s, and we're coming back
to it because of the acceptance now at the small end."
Darrell Miller, Novell executive vice president, quoted in LAN
Magazine, November 1991 "Novell attempted to position itself as a
leader in peer-to-peer networking.  It stated that NetWare has had
peer-to-peer capabilities since version 1.4 and that NetWare Lite
was part of its natural product line evolution.  While it's
undeniably the leading server-based network operating system,
NetWare has never had peer-to-peer capabilities."

Craig Burton, from Clarke Burton News Analysis, Sept. 20, 1991

Artisoft comment:
Not until Artisoft introduced the DOS-based LANtastic Network
Operating System in 1987 were the needs of the small business
market addressed successfully and affordably.  This democratic
peer-to-peer system, in which all PCs can share every peripheral
and every resource on the network, has brought about many changes
in the computer industry.  Most notably, the peer-to-peer network
has become an established connectivity alternative.

"NetWare Lite helps provide an additional level of functionality
and reduces the complexity that some of the small businesses are
looking for."Darrell Miller, Novell executive vice president,
quoted in LAN Magazine, November 1991 "We've followed their
suggestions to the letter.  If you do a [directory search] of
someone else's drive across the net [under DOS], it looks like
normal performance. When we did it under Windows, it slowed to a
crawl."

Performance improved in Windows real mode, but that solution was
unacceptable because that mode addresses only 1 Megabyte of RAM.


"Our machines have 8 Megabytes of RAM apiece; we can't afford to
run Windows in real mode." Lee Boekelheide, director of Insight
into Action, a PC and multimedia consulting firm, as quoted in CRN,
Nov. 4, 1991,

"Novell has added into NetWare Lite things no one else has done for
peer-to-peer.  We have gone overboard in making it simple."
John Edwards, Novell director of product marketing quoted in LAN
Magazine, November 1991

"We should have known not to buy a computer product from a
furniture store, but we thought we wouldn't need much dealer
support for NetWare Lite.  It was pretty easy to install.  It just
didn't work, and we found no path to resolve our problem.  Our
hunch is LANtastic won't have as much trouble with Windows."
Thomas Clarkson, NetWare Lite user at Insight into Action, quoted
in CRN,Nov. 4, 1991

Artisoft is "not one of the major players in the peer-to-peer
market.  Novell created this market, and IBM came in with their
peer-to-peer PC LAN program.  TOPS [from Sitka] was also a major
player."

Darrell Miller, Novell

"Artisoft was making and said go ahead and develop it,' said a
Novell source."

Jodi Mardesich, CRN, July 15, 1991
"Novell is belatedly entering a market controlled by a number of
small players, including Artisoft, Inc. and Sitka Corp."
Artisoft's LANtastic is "the leader in the peer-to-peer market."
Computer Systems News, Sept. 16, 1991

"According to Artisoft, it has built up an installed base of almost
500,000 units in the four years LANtastic has been shipping.  We
wouldn't dismiss Artisoft so quickly."

Craig Burton, Clarke Burton Analysis, Sept. 20, 1991

Artisoft comment: Novell's own  sales document obtained by CRN says
some of LANtastic's current advantages over NetWare Lite are higher
compatibility with Microsoft Windows, better support for CD-ROM and
DOS-compatible applications, free technical support and less
expensive upgrades.


More quotes of note...

"In a move aimed at winning a lightweight crown in the LAN market,
Novell's new NetWare Lite takes on Artisoft's LANtastic."

"Lite is spunky, but weighted down by copy protection and the lack
of sophisticated disk caching; it can't compete with LANtastic."

"At $99 per node, Novell targets NetWare Lite at the first-time
user . . .  Once you add network adapters, the price is $200 to
$450 per node.  Lite's cost-per-node is fixed; other products work
on a sliding-cost scale.  But compared to LANtastic, NetWare
 Lite falls in the middle price range for a three-to-four node
network, and quickly grows expensive in installations with ten or
more nodes."

"Novell complicated administration with a copy-protection scheme
that forces you to install NetWare Lite from a different disk for
each computer.  If two computers on the network have the same copy
of NetWare Lite installed, both computers periodically report a
╘License Violation' on the screen.  [This] poses a long-term
management effort because someone must keep track of the pairing of
each installation disk with each computer."

"While security is simplified, the features are less robust and
flexible than LANtastic's."

"Throughput is good, but Lite's doesn't have the punch of
LANtastic.  LANtastic's superior performance can be attributed to
its caching and its tight integration of hardware and software . .
..  NetWare Lite's rudimentary caching service is no match."

PC Magazine First Looks, Nov. 26, 1991


"Although its name begs comparison with Miller's popular
low-calorie beer, Novell's new NetWare Lite is more like a
non-alcoholic brew: it has the familiar taste but none of the kick
of the real thing."

"In PC Week Labs' tests, NetWare Lite . . . was barely able to keep
pace with other popular peer-to-peer LANs, including Artisoft,
Inc.'s LANtastic and Performance Technology's PowerLAN."

"NetWare Lite also falls short of competitors in network security
features . . . security-conscious buyers will sleep better with
competitive peer-to-peer LANs and not have to sacrifice ease of
use, installation and management."

PC Week Labs' First Look, Oct. 7, 1991


"NetWare Lite is a radical departure from Novell's core technology.
Because it's completely different, users who buy it and then need
to move to a more advanced NetWare operating system will be in for
administrative and upgrade headaches."

"By putting the name NetWare' on a red box that contains a
DOS-based network operating system, Novell is creating the illusion
that NetWare Lite is part of an integrated family of operating
system products."

"Except for the fact that it uses the same transport and the
C-Worthy  interface, NetWare Lite is no more integrated with
NetWare than are LANtastic or other DOS networks that coexist with
NetWare . . .  NetWare Lite users who need to move to a server-bas
ed operating system will have a major transition ahead of them,
regardless of which product they choose."

"There is no upgrade discount for NetWare Lite users who need to
make a transition to NetWare 2.2 or 3.11.  In addition, users who
buy NetWare Lite from a source other than a NetWare system
integrator from one that doesn't sell NetWare 2.2 or 3.11╤may fin
d it difficult to get the kind of support they need when deciding
when and how to upgrade."

"Novell's $20-per-incident technical support program may be an
obstacle for some users.  Practically all other peer-to-peer
network vendors offer free, unlimited technical support.  Artisoft,
for example, offers free technical support and a 30-day money-back
guarantee on its software."

"We think Artisoft is in a good position to retain its leadership
role in peer-to-peer networking, primarily because that is its main
focus.  It can continue to concentrate on making LANtastic as good
a network operating system as possible.  Novell, because of the
conflicts in its product line and its need to dedicate research and
development dollars to its core business, is unlikely to give
NetWare Lite the same kind of dedicated attention."

"If Novell were really serious about providing a peer-to-peer
network operating system worthy of the NetWare name, Novell should
have found a way to use the technology that has established NetWare
as the leading network operating system."

Craig Burton, Clarke Burton Analysis, Sept. 20, 1991


ARTISOFT

Artisoft, Inc.
691 East River Road
Tucson, AZ 85704
Sales/Customer Service 1-800-TINY RAM
Technical Support 1-602-293-6363
Headquarters 1-602-293-4000
Fax [phone]

1991 ARTISOFT, INC.  All rights reserved.  Artisoft, LANcache and
Sounding Board are trademarks, Artisoft Authorized Five Star Dealer
is a service mark and LANtastic is a registered trademark of
Artisoft, Inc.  NetWare Lite is a trademark and Novell and
NetWare are registered trademarks of Novell, Inc.  Windows is a
trademark and Microsoft is a registered trademark of Microsoft
Corp.