Sun's Channel Business Reaches Five-Year High

When Grimes--who plans to retire in December as Sun's vice president of partner management and sales operations--first addressed iForce partners at New Frontiers in 2002, Sun's programs were too numerous, inconsistent and in conflict with the channel. Three years later, Sun has turned 180 degrees, Grimes said during a keynote at the Keystone, Colo., conference.

"My first days on the job, I felt like an emergency room doctor who had to perform immediate triage," Grimes said. "Our channel was in a state of disarray. In many ways, it was the result of action or inaction on Sun's part. We didn't give a clear direction of expectations of the partner community. We had a confusing business proposition, and channel health and profitability was suffering.

"The most damning element was that you did not trust us and we did not trust you, our business partners. It was pretty much a mess."

GE Access solution providers used to grill Grimes and other Sun executives during every general session. Now solution providers just want the Santa Clara, Calif.-based manufacturer to "keep doing what they're doing."

"Execution is always the proof in the pudding, but I do believe Sun's partner program is the strongest in the business," said Mike Thompson, managing partner of ICSynergy, a Plano, Texas-based solution provider.

Sun's U.S. channel partners reaped $500 million in revenue in Sun's fourth fiscal quarter ended June 30.

"If that's any indication, the trouble is behind us. That was the first quarter in five years that we did half a billion [dollars]. That's 120 percent of the plan for my organization in Q4, and it took us across the top for our fiscal year. We haven't made our number in four years," Grimes said.

"Our people and your people have to engage with a spirit of trust. We spend lot of time working the back end of our organization to ensure we had a cultural change that was embodied in the new coverage model that we rolled out at iForce Summit."