SUN'S STAROFFICE NOW PROGRAM EXPANDED TO OFFER NEW DISTRIBUTION AND CO-MARKETING OPPORTUNITIES FOR PARTNERSSUN'S STAROFFICE NOW PROGRAM EXPANDED TO OFFER NEW DISTRIBUTION AND CO-MARKETING OPPORTUNITIES FOR PARTNERSStarOffice NOW Program Targets Educational Institutions, Small Office/Home Office Users and Select EnterprisesPALO ALTO, CA -- June 20, 2000 -- Sun Microsystems, Inc. today announced the new StarOffice NOW program that can be used by educational institutions, magazine publishers, OEMs, service providers, resellers, integrators, user groups, small businesses and end users that want to redistribute or use StarOffice, the full featured office productivity suite, in low volume. The StarOffice NOW program allows us to partner closely with our customers by giving them the opportunity to add significant value to their products and ultimately their customers at little or no cost," said Marco Boerries, vice president and general manager, Webtop and Application Software, Sun Microsystems. "Service providers, educational institutions and businesses can now participate in a number of CD distribution and co-marketing activities that take advantage of both the Sun Microsystems and StarOffice software brands." Distribution MethodsBy accessing the StarOffice NOW Web site at http://www.sun.com/software/star/staroffice/starofficenow/index.html, companies can select the method of StarOffice software distribution that best fits their business needs. Distribution methods include:
"As added value to our 5 years in developing and delivering applications, we plan to package Sun's StarOffice Suite with industry specific ASP services combined with DSL services," said Chad Kissinger, President, Onramp Access, Inc. "As a partner of the StarOffice NOW program, we are able to enhance our solution offerings, adding significant value to our end users." Moreover, as a free product, distribution of StarOffice software via the StarOffice NOW program incurs no upfront costs to the distributing company. "As a member of the StarOffice NOW program, we can provide our users with the highly regarded office productivity suite, StarOffice, at no cost to us or to the user," said Asaf Maruf Ali, CEO of PING Systems. "As network consultants and providers of Linux-based solutions, this program provides a value offering to our business while allowing our customers to better leverage our existing business model." "The StarOffice NOW program offers our students and faculty the opportunity to use the robust StarOffice productivity suite," said Mike Jones, Director of Information Technology at Moreland School District. "Our district is comprised of K-8 public schools in which students working on different platforms need to have a productivity suite that runs on almost all of them." Sun Co-marketing BenefitsThe StarOffice NOW program offers members a host of co-marketing opportunities that help build a direct relationship and corporate exposure with Sun. These benefits include:
These co-marketing benefits coupled with the selected distribution strategy empower companies to provide their customers additional value when offering their final product. "Through our membership in the StarOffice NOW program, the StarOffice productivity suite will help empower our customer base with more creative offerings from our company," said Michael Kary, Vice President of Content at Yummy.com. "The StarOffice NOW program allows our small and home office customers to enhance and take advantage of the StarOffice business solutions adding considerable value to our existing products and services." Service and SupportSun offers StarOffice NOW members and their customers options for training and support. Utilizing Sun's SunSpectrum support portfolio, customers have a broad range of support programs to meet the needs of their organizations. These include direct access to Sun's multiplatform expertise, with the flexibility of access to software support from Sun's Solutions Centers worldwide via telephone, fax or email.Live online, person-to-person support is also available through Expertcity.com. Expertcity.com's personalized, hands-on approach is the ideal complement to StarOffice software as users only pay for support, as needed, and the prices are established in a free market setting based on experts' bids. In addition, members can also offer their own type of customer support if they choose. Educational ServicesSun's educational services provide a comprehensive, customizable program to help project teams plan, design, implement and manage the transition to StarOffice software. Services ranging from education consulting to free web-based training to the cost-effective instructor-led training for end users, administrators and help desk personnel, give customers a variety of options for enhancing their StarOffice skills. For more information on Sun's customer educational services, visit http://www.sun.com/service/about/staroffice.html.How to JoinFor more information or to join Sun's StarOffice NOW program, visit http://www.sun.com/software/star/staroffice/starofficenow/index.html.About Sun Microsystems, Inc.Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision - The Network Is The Computer - has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW), to its position as a leading provider of industrial-strength hardware, software and services that power the Internet and allow companies worldwide to ".com" their businesses. With $14.2 billion in annual revenues, Sun can be found in more than 170 countries and on the World Wide Web at http://www.sun.com.
Sun, the Sun logo, Sun Microsystems, "The Network Is The Computer," Solaris, StarOffice and SunSpectrum are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and in other countries.PR Contacts for Press and Analysts:
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