Sun Revamps VAR Council, First Meeting Next Week

Sun in the past had a traditional VAR council in which members were selected to serve for a specific term, said Mike Walsh, director of partner marketing for the company.

However, the company dropped its VAR council a couple of years ago, solution providers have told CRN in the past.

Under the new VAR council procedures, each region has already held meetings, during which two local solution providers were chosen to represent the region at the national level, said Walsh. Regional representatives will attend national meetings, the first of which will be held Sept. 17, Walsh said.

The meeting will be held in Redwood Shores, said a solution provider who did not want to be named.

Walsh said that as part of the national meeting, solution providers will meet with Sun briefly, and then Sun officials will disappear for two or three hours. The solution providers are expected to come up with three to five topics of special importance to them, and then discuss them with Sun in the afternoon. At the second meeting to be held in April 2003, Sun and the VAR council members will review the topics to see if any progress was made, he said.

"It's a test," Walsh said of the new format. "Let's see how it works."

In addition to the eight solution providers, two each from the four regions, the national VAR council meeting next week will include a representative from solution provider Forsythe Solutions Group because of its nationwide presence, as well as representatives from GE Access and MOCA, Walsh said.