# Interview of ZDNet with Mark Andreessen (abridged)

Marc Andreessen (25, is the senior vice president of technology Netscape Communications Corp.) said that Netscape's goal is to become the de facto supplier of "the net" -- an open computer environment in which the Intranet, Extranet and Internet are blended into a single entity fronted by customized browsers to different categories of users -- each with different levels of access to information.

In addition to new server and client products Andreessen the company's primary means for accomplishing that goal is to expand its worldwide professional services organization.

He noted that the market has changed. It went from an Internet orientation to an Intranet orientation. But at the same time large percentage of the people on the Internet, they're actually the same people. Usually use, who is using Netscape Navigator at work takes it home.

The now world looks like one big network with just different levels of security, access, reliability and performance. That's the ultimate playing field. The Net reaches all businesses, reaches all consumers. Our message last year was the full-service Intranet. The message this year is the networked enterprise: Take the full-service Intranet and take it outside.

He mentioned new concept of software distribution "The crossware concept" that in his opinion replaces the old model of developing software.

It's developed to be used by both internal users and external users. It's accessed on demand. It doesn't require installation ahead of time. That means it has to be managed and deployed centrally. That means it scales up a lot further. It has to be very easy to use because you can't run user training courses. So that means it has to be a very content-centric or content-oriented application.

I would argue it's a superset of the general category of client-server applications. It replaces the client-server model, where you had all the application logic on the client. Any Web site is already a crossware application.

IT [information technology] spending as a percentage of revenue is going up. And it's shifting away from hardware, shifting toward software and services. This stuff is simply getting more complex at a rapidly accelerating rate, and there's a shortage of skilled people in the world who are able to integrate businesses at this point.

What we're seeing is that the customer gets increasingly interested in buying complete solutions.

There are two stepping stones to providing a complete solution on top of the core set of products that we have -- one is applications, and the other is services consulting and integration services.

And we're going to spin up our own consulting bandwidth as quickly as possible in recognition of the fact that the market landscape is changing. Our growth is going to be gated, I believe, by our ability to expand professional services. That's the key execution issue we have.

When questioned "How would you describe your competition with Microsoft Corp.?" he answered that two levels of competition happening. One is product vs. product. Another form of competition is competition in a "model of the universe". Netscape model is not friendly to a lot of Microsoft historical strengths.

Currently MS is in the traditional position of the monopolist with a very, very nice business. They can let go part of that business as long as they know they can pick it up on the other side of the chasm. It looks like Microsoft's investing in media and consumer services: automotive, health, travel and other consumer services. What they're proving is that, at some point, the software business as a definable business dies and turns into more of a media business, a content business in the long term.

If they do that, it actually turns out to be quite positive for Netscape because it turns into the dominant software supplier to companies that want to compete with Microsoft in all those spaces. E.g. the arms supplier to all the other combatants, which is most of the world outside of Redmond, Wash.