ShadowRAM: July 15, 2002
- SUN'S RULES OF ENGAGEMENT SEEM A WEE BIT VAGUE
- WALTER HEWLETT IS SNATCHING UP AGILENT STOCK
- THE NEW HP: SHADES OF THE OLD COMPAQ?
- An ongoing collaboration between Sun Microsystems' Professional Services Group and The Getty Museum attracted our attention last week for more than just its unique use of Wi-Fi technology.
- In an exclusive arrangement with the museum, Sun is now developing a portable tour system that uses Wi-Fi access points and Java technology to determine which piece of art a patron is viewing and then provide customized information about the piece.
- After a Sun representative bragged that the Professional Services Group won the project against a local systems integrator, we were eager to learn more about the circumstances behind the bidding process.
- Sun, however, declined to reveal the integrator's name. A Sun spokeswoman deferred to the museum's spokespeople, who also declined to comment.
- Sun executives, you'll recall, promised solution providers that its in-house consulting and integration group would directly engage only named accounts and would seek to partner with the channel for other engagements.
- Dan Hushon, director of pervasive Java technology for Sun Professional Services, offered an explanation for the exclusive arrangement. First, he said, the local systems integrator mentioned by the Sun representative wasn't a Sun partner. Second, Sun was using the project to learn more about location-based technology and context rules engines. The company was making a co-investment in the project and hoped to protect any intellectual property developed as part of the process, he said.
- Hushon went on to explain that Sun looked for a solution provider with which to partner but was unable to find a solution provider who would also be willing to make an investment in,that is, reduce its rate for,a project of this size.
- Oh, we get it now. Sun will partner with solution providers unless it decides not to. Those rules of engagement sound like they are straight out of George Orwell's "Animal Farm."
- Meanwhile, Sun is trying a new tack to sell its Sun ONE software. A Sun ONE software solution provider said he was on his way to a meeting with a Sun hardware VAR that the vendor had set up so the VAR could better sell the Sun ONE line. The solution provider said because Sun hardware VARs are facing squeezed margins, they are looking for new sources of revenue. While pushing Sun ONE software may be that alternate source, he said VARs would have a difficult time since they are unfamiliar with not only software technology, but also the culture of selling software. Our source also said it looks like Sun is going to require its hardware VARs to meet software quotas in the future, and teaming them up with Sun ONE solution providers is a good way to help them do that.
- Catch this: Former Hewlett-Packard director and celebrity gadfly Walter Hewlett is gobbling up Agilent Technologies' stock. According to SEC filings, Hewlett acquired some 68,500 shares of Agilent in June, bringing his total ownership in the HP spinoff to 742,239 shares. We wonder what Hewlett has up his sleeve.
- Have you noticed that the new HP looks a lot like the old Compaq? Channel executives say most of the high-profile jobs at HP are being given to former Compaq execs. We wonder if HP Chairman and CEO Carly Fiorina is getting even with those HP lieutenants who tried to sabotage her efforts to merge with Compaq.