Sun, Channel Exchange Ideas At Vendor's Partner Council

The council brought together representatives from two solution providers from each of Sun's geographical territories, a representative from each of Sun's two primary distributors, and a representative from Forsythe Solutions Group, a national solution provider and Sun's biggest partner.

Instead of going with the traditional VAR council Sun held in the past, with members chosen by Sun, the company this year revamped its procedures. Each region held a meeting with local solution providers, during which two were chosen to represent that region at the national level, said Mike Walsh, director of partner marketing at Sun.

Sun channel and sales executives met with the council members in the morning and gave a presentation of the company's goals. During that time, non-Sun personnel asked a series of questions about Sun's channels.

Council members then met privately before making a presentation to the Sun executives, including Robert Youngjohns, Sun's new vice president of worldwide sales, and all of the company's area vice presidents, Walsh said.

Among the topics discussed was improving the overall value proposition for partners, including margin improvements and rewards for partners investing in their Sun relationship, Walsh said.

Another issue raised was how solution providers can boost margins from all of Sun's business, including professional services. Partners also said Sun needs to build a better strategy for marketing the Sun story and better position Sun in the marketplace, he said.

The meeting went well, said Oliver Poppenberg, vice president of product sales at Perfect Order, a Harrisburg, Pa.-based Sun solution provider.

"The Sun people were interested in what we had to say," Poppenberg said. "They involved pretty much their entire sales organization, and that was good. . . . Robert [Youngjohns ended up staying an hour to discuss the issues."

During the final presentation, partners brought up concrete suggestions for improving Sun's channel programs, such as offering solution providers deal registration and related special pricing. Also, they told Sun that it needs to improve the way its professional services team works with the channel to combat IBM and its do-it-all message, Poppenberg said.

Rich Severa, president of the MOCA division of Arrow Electronics, said the meeting let partners take a serious look at the topics.

"I've been to these things with other vendors in my career, and not often are there such frank exchanges," he said. "Sun was very interested in our views. . . . Each item had an agreement for a follow-on plan, with one Sun official and one partner working together on each."

Another solution provider, who asked to remain anonymous, said Sun did a good job with the meeting, but whether the vendor will do anything with the findings remains to be seen.

"This is a new mind-set with [Sun," the solution provider said. "They really have to rethink about how to re-energize with their partners."

The solution provider said council members thought Sun spent more time playing politics than selling to the channel. Another member was even more critical, suggesting that Sun will never think of the channel as anything other than the proverbial red-headed stepchild.

All told, it was a good opportunity to discuss the issues with Sun, Poppenberg said. "For me to take three days out of my life to fly out to California and back,it was worth it," he said.