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Year 2005 has been a year of new products and solutions for Sun. Is the
channel well equipped to handle these constant introductions of new products?
Truly, 2005 has been a year where Sun has further entrenched its position in
the industry through new products; be it Solaris 10 or the Galaxy range or the
'Niagara chip.' Sun's innovations have paid off very well with each
product launch. We believe that the sheer functionality of these technologies
already has competition scrambling to come up with alternatives to match our
technology. At this juncture I must indicate that the channel has played a very
significant role in Sun's overall scheme of things and even on that front
there have been several developments over the last one-year.
What were the most significant developments in 2005?
One of the most significant developments has been the appointment of eSys
Information Technologies as Sun's Channel Development Partner (CDP). This will
further expand our reach into tier II and III cities across the country. Also,
Sun has launched a new partner program to replace the earlier iForce program. We
have initiated programs last year that has helped Sun reduce the cost of channel
operations and hence improve profitability of our partners considerably. Our
decision to join TCS, Wipro, Infosys and Satyam for Solaris 10 Global Migration
Program will help global customers migrate proprietary data center environments
to the Open Solaris 10 OS.
What would be Sun's key growth verticals this year?
We have been very strong on the BFSI and telecom verticals. We would
continue to grow there. Other verticals of focus are manufacturing, government,
education and research, defence, healthcare and retail. As far as partners for
these go, we would chose the city and partner based on the verticals we target
there and would include SIs and SPs.
We would be looking to sign up with partners who bring us a value proposition
and have specific technical skills or are willing to acquire them. A sound
financial background and good track record are a must to sign up, in addition to
the fact that would focus more on partners who can help expand our reach.
How would you equip your partners to help you in expansion plans in India?
Sun has always been a partner-friendly organization. Given that we have a
whole new range of products and technologies for partners to sell, we will offer
partners all the required training to make them more competitive.
As a first step, we have started 'Partner boot camps' across the country.
These are week-long residential training programs whereby the partners get hands
on training from Sun both on the technical aspects as well as soft skills and
selling expertise, besides specializations. In the last 12 months we have
trained over 200 people and we hope to add about 150 more in the next two
quarters. Partners have also been facilitated with an online 'Partner
portal' whereby they get access to all training programs that are conducted.
Besides training what other initiatives would your partners get to help
them sell better?
Whether it is training or any other program, we need to create an excitement
for the partner to work with us, especially when we deal with value added
products. Through our program called 'Sun Surge,' we target pre-sales and
sales personnel, we allot the partner a set of points for the sales that he
does. Based on the points gained he could win a trip abroad and meet up with
Sun's team there. In addition we also invest in the partners' business
development activity and provide all required infrastructure to help them in new
lead generations.
Among other initiatives that Sun has undertaken to motivate its partners, is
a one-year program during which team members of the partner organization would
work very closely with our team to learn all the required skills, technology,
processes even while he sells for his organization. We have about 10 partner
representatives for this program already. They then
use this learning to grow their business.
Subbalakshmi BM
subbalakshmibm@cybermedia.co.in Page(s) 1
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