Sun's Pointed Effort

That's the crux of the issue Sun Microsystems hopes to address with a new points program it expects to unveil to its iForce community sometime in August.

And although Sun continues to define the program's particulars, company executives have been meeting with VARs around the country to describe pieces of what it likely will entail, CRN has learned.

"We're building a 'partner quality index' that looks at the collective whole of a partner relationship," said Bill Cate, director of the U.S. Partner Program Office at the Santa Clara, Calif.-based vendor. "But this is not some grand new announcement. It's an evolution of two-and-a-half years' worth of work we've done in individual partner programs that will peak in this index."

At its heart, the points program aims to address issues of trust, fairness and conflict—and to reward partners on more than just sales volume.

"We want to look at more than just revenue and fulfillment-based transactions," Cate said. "Instead, we want to look at partners as a whole and say, if the number adds up to a certain level, then their commitment is very strong."

Despite Sun's reticence to go into specifics, Cate did say the index will look at four key metrics: VARs' products and services mix; revenue growth; success at capturing new Sun customers; and customer satisfaction levels combined with partners' investments in areas such as training, certifications, demo centers and ability to deliver advanced solutions.

Notice that just moving lots of boxes takes a back seat in this new equation. "We're trying to remove the subjectivity," Cate said. "You can't argue that a partner's services mix grew 'X' percent and [it] sold 'Y' amount of attached storage. When you look at that collectively, there's a quality element to it."

That sounds straightforward enough, but underlying these metrics are a variety of thorny issues that partners say Sun must address. Among these issues: whether—and how—Sun compensates those VARs that sell only products from Sun and its preferred ISV partners; influencer rebates; and protected accounts. Debates rage on both sides of these issues.

"The big thing we told them at the VAR Council meeting is they have to give more credit for exclusivity, and it has to be easier to be a subcontractor of professional services," said Doug Nassaur, CEO of True North Technology, a Sun-only VAR in Duluth, Ga.

"I hear Sun may double or triple the Sun-only rebate, and I'm unhappy about that because we offer multiple platforms," said the CTO of a large Western reseller. "They've handcuffed us to be a true trusted advisor if we're [going to be] penalized for carrying other vendors. That's unfair. And I don't think it encourages more partners to be Sun-only."

Such issues arise from how current partner programs—such as Sun's Storage Elite, Software Elite and Solar Edge Programs—will be managed to encourage growth. "We aren't looking to modify these much," Cate said. "But we will take our metrics from them, weight them and apply them to the index."

But while Sun's VARs say they welcome a fairer, easier way to work with Sun, they question whether a points program can address the deeper issues swirling around volume discounts, rebates and conflict.

"With Sun, we never know when they will take the account away from us and, at best, give us a minor influencer fee," said one Sun reseller, who requested anonymity. "They are extremely difficult to work with. I have a hard time feeling any trust for them under their current program, and that's what a partner program is supposed to be for."

Still, some VARs are willing to give Sun the benefit of the doubt, even as they acknowledge that Sun could be more adept with its partners.

"They're not as knowledgeable about the channel as some other companies," said John Wood, vice president of New York-based Derive Technologies, which is also a large reseller of Hewlett-Packard, Citrix, Cisco Systems and Microsoft products. "That's OK, though. Everyone has to learn."