Developing Programs To Fit VARs

So the fact that Sun Microsystems managed to win ARC awards in both categories this year shows how deep the company's relationships are in the channel, says Joe Womack, vice president of central area sales at Sun. Womack spoke to VARBusiness about the wins and what's in store for Sun partners in the near-term.

VARBusiness: What do you make of Sun's strong ARC performances this year in network storage and advanced desktops and workstations?
Womack: The fact that we could win something that we've been a recognized leader in almost since the inception of Sun and something we're [just getting involved in]--that typifies the strength and breadth of our relationship with our partner community. The words we hear back a lot are consistency, focus on presales, training and business model, and having a compatible approach to the customer base.

VB: How has the role of Sun's solution provider channel changed in the last year?
Womack: Roughly 18 months ago, we had a lot of our channel partners trying to line up with the services economy and really asking us to be a lot more flexible in the ways we work with them. So, we devised programs for partners who wanted to look more like services companies. We've had other long-term partners who bought into the managed services business model. They wanted the flexibility to sometimes buy product and resell it, sometimes host it for customers, and other times have us sell it and compensate them for their involvement. We've developed programs to work with our [VAR] partners any way that they and their clients want to operate on an engagement-by-engagement basis.

VB: How has the economy affected Sun's business this year?
Womack: The economy has affected everybody in the technology sector. Our point of view is that we are not going to defy gravity any more than anyone else. But whether it's a slumping economy or a boom, we continue to act under the belief that we are in the very early stages of a 10- to 15-year societal disintermediation that will rival the introduction of the telephone. The economy has not changed our commitment to the R&D investments and business development, and it certainly won't affect our commitment to the i-Force community of partners.

VB: What are the key trends that will affect your business next year, and how are you adjusting your business to fit them?
Womack: CIOs and CXOs are looking for ways to use the Internet to save money. The Internet is being viewed as a technology, not as some separate business in and of itself. Some of the successful companies are focusing on the not-so-sexy stuff like inventory tools, online sales of spare parts and automated configuration kinds of things. In the consumer market, we are seeing this proliferation of network devices. Another big trend we see is context-aware Web services. We see a great, profitable opportunity for our partners because customers want to know how these Web services can adapt to location, activities and behavior traits.