Success Stories

On-Budget and On-Time

Some customers demand more than just a good product at a fair price. When a major catalog retailer needed to upgrade an entire call center in two months, Sun Installed Base Business (IBB) consultants devised a pricing and delivery strategy that gave the customer the numbers that worked - on-budget and on-time.

"Once we looked at the figures, it was clear that the IBB solution was the only way to keep costs in line and provide all 2000 units"

Catalog retailers always need to find ways to improve the shopping experience for their expanding customer base. This goal requires leveraging technology to stay ahead of one's competition and keeping costs low to protect margins.

Direct mail is a notoriously competitive environment for any retailer. As a high profile catalog retailer, this Sun IBB customer couldn't afford mistakes, delays, or down-time. They had been using Ultra Classic workstations for several years, but in July 2000 decided to upgrade their entire Ordering Control Center (OCC), integrating the call center with their online operations, offering customers new and improved services, and speeding the ordering process.

From Test to Sale

Dave Johnson, Sun Account Executive, Global Sales Operations, spearheaded the sales process, "Initially, we sent five loaner systems to the customer for testing. Everything looked good, so we were ready to go ahead with the purchase." Settling on the Ultra 5 workstation turned out to be the easiest part of the process. To meet the customer's budget, Mr. Johnson would have to shave nearly $400 dollars from the cost of each workstation. "Once we looked at the figures, it was clear that the IBB solution was the only way to keep costs in line and provide all 2000 units," explained Mr. Johnson. The aggressive IBB pricing strategy and a liberal trade-in policy brought the sale within the retailer's budget.

Sun IBB: Ready for the Rush

October 1st marks the beginning of the busy holiday season for catalog retailers. Not only are catalogs sales lines inundated with customers, sales during this period make up the bulk of their yearly profits. At first the task seemed daunting: install 2000 workstations in 60 days, and make sure users were proficient enough to handle the flood of new business. "We were really biting our nails on this one. Any holdups in the plan would cascade down the schedule and cause us to miss our target - jeopardizing our customer's sales," observed Mr. Johnson.

Sun IBB sales staff devised a strict schedule to meet the start date and then worked closely with Sun business units to ensure that everyone stayed on course. The rigorous schedule was a success as IBB, engineering, QA, and installation staff came together to meet the goal - with two days to spare!

The Ultra Workstations themselves helped meet the tight schedule. System Administrators readily embraced the Solaris operating system, making the conversion a seamless exercise. Re-training costs were low and the transition to the Ultra 5 Workstations was intuitive because users were already familiar with their business applications and the Solaris environment. Happily, the new workstations and operating environment provide them with the performance and capacity to keep up with the holiday orders.

"Our customer stayed with Sun for three reasons: Our product, our sales and support staff, and our commitment to meeting their schedule and price targets."

Effective Sales Lead to Residual Business

After the tremendous conversion, the catalog managers were clearly impressed. Within two months IBB engineers had done the impossible: they had completely upgraded the OCC and gotten the operators ready for the holiday season. The entire sales process ran so smoothly that the retailer immediately ordered an additional 100 units for an auxiliary call center.

Jeanette Burke, an Installed Base Business Consultant, worked closely with Mr. Johnson on the sale. "IBB offered the customer investment protection with the ability to purchase their systems today and trade them in tomorrow for newer products at substantial savings. Without this feature, this customer would not have been able to afford to upgrade," says Ms. Burke. "Based on the positive feedback I've received, I fully expect to hear from this retailer the next time they want to upgrade."

Mr. Johnson is also confident, "Our customer stayed with Sun for three reasons: Our product, our sales and support staff, and our commitment to meeting their schedule and price targets."

The stable Solaris operating system and Ultra workstations were only half of the success: because the IBB sales staff committed to meeting daunting price and scheduling challenges, they proved that a large portion of the product value is the service behind it. Sun IBB consultants allowed this retailer to go to market with robust and scalable Sun workstations, making it easier to increase sales and reduce costs.

Key Selling Points Included:

• Proven architecture with the Solaris 2.6 Operating System
• Dedicated Sun IBB sales, engineering, and executive-level support
• Ability to deliver under severe budget constraints and timetable

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