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Ximian, Inc.Ximian, Inc. (www.ximian.com) began as a group of talented software developers who led an open source community project to build a Linux equivalent to Microsoft’s graphical desktop interface and its email and calendaring program. The choice Ximian offered was simple: We give you the power, cost effectiveness and flexibility of Linux plus a graphical interface that you intuitively understand and can use. For the first time, a switch from Windows to Linux on the desktop became possible for business users.Schwartz Communications represented Ximian until its acquisition by Novell in August 2003 for more than $40 million. IndustryWhen Ximian was founded, IT administrators were already rapidly adopting Linux for servers. However, Linux had not found any real market traction in areas such as day-to-day business productivity (i.e., writing documents, sending emails) or software management. Industry observers believed the challenge from Microsoft in this arena was too strong. But Linux had one significant advantage—its open source nature made its code more stable and flexible than Windows.Business Challenge- Ximian’s software worked. Companies could use the company’s open source Linux desktop applications as an alternative to those of Microsoft. Ximian’s founders, Nat Friedman and Miguel de Icaza, were respected within the open source world. They recruited the best programming talent to work with them, and they were involved with several open source community projects. Their challenge was to build a company to continue the products’ development and to sell and market them.
- Ximian conducted research into the market potential for its solutions and identified a strong need for Linux desktop productivity applications to lower the cost of ownership for PCs. In particular, its applications eliminated the “two-machine” problem—many developers have two machines, one for coding and one for checking email and corresponding with the rest of their companies. Ximian also determined that its software could help companies manage complicated Linux upgrades and installations.
- Ximian’s overall messages centered on software productivity, management and interoperability for enterprise customers. One of Ximian’s founders, Miguel de Icaza, furthered the interoperability message by launching the Mono Project, a community effort to build a Linux version of the Microsoft .NET development platform.
Schwartz PR StrategyDuring the tenure of the Ximian assignment, Schwartz’s PR efforts where centered around several key program elements that repeatedly proved successful:
- Impeccably executed product launches—Each new product or upgrade required a significant planning process. Schwartz led efforts to plan appropriate pre-launch briefings with media and analysts and to explore beta review opportunities. The launch of Ximian 2, a new desktop environment, typified this successful approach. Schwartz handled the PR aspects of this launch from cradle to grave. In particular, to help drive downloads of the new product, the public relations agency recommended a launch centered on product reviews. Schwartz identified three reporters who knew Ximian well and offered them an early look at the upcoming product. It coordinated the three reviews, in non-competing publications, to appear the day of the official product announcement. News reporters were briefed for coverage to appear on this day as well.
- Exhaustive use of trade shows—LinuxWorld is the biggest trade show for open source companies, and planning for each event began at least three months in advance. With each appearance, Schwartz suggested a comprehensive set of activities and then worked with Ximian to identify news for the show and schedule pre-briefings as well as meetings at the show. Often, the PR agency worked with Ximian partners to capitalize on their presence or news at the show. In addition, Ximian and Schwartz worked with the PR staff of the open source GNOME Foundation to capitalize on open source community activities.
- Creative promotion of Ximian’s founders—Beyond scheduling appearances at major trade shows for the company’s two founders, Schwartz capitalized on notoriety of the two within the industry to generate positive media coverage. The agency offered both founders for commentary on open source issues, as well as the ongoing Microsoft anti-trust trial.
- Tight execution on the fundamentals—No missed editorial calendar opportunities. No forgotten reporters. No Linux media left behind. No analysts out of the loop.
Results- One Ximian partner asked how big Ximian was. To Ximian’s response, the partner responded, “You guys seem a lot bigger than that.”
- PR for Ximian product launches drove so much traffic to Ximian.com that it was inaccessible the day of one product launch as developers came to the site to try to download the new product.
- The team regularly packed the trade show schedules for Ximian, averaging 20 meetings during a typical show—leading to more than a dozen articles per event.
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"You have been absolutely tremendous and I've been consistently pleased with the level of professionalism and execution of the entire Schwartz team."Reid Walker
vice president, global marketing communications, Global eXchange Services |
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