NEW WORLDWIDE PROGRAMS MAKE IT EVEN EASIER TO PARTNER WITH SUNNEW WORLDWIDE PROGRAMS MAKE IT EVEN EASIER TO PARTNER WITH SUNSun Helps iForce Partners Reduce Costs, Differentiate Their Services and Gain a Competitive Advantage
SANTA CLARA, CA -- February 26, 2002 -- Exemplary of Sun's commitment of "Collaborating for Customer Success", Sun Microsystems, Inc. today announced new free programs that make partnering even easier. Designed specifically for Sun's Worldwide iForce Partner Community, the iForce Information Source, iForce Partners Portal, Sun Developer Connection Partner Program and iForce Community Executive Management Forum initiatives provide Sun technology partners with direct access to the people, information and tools they need to help them accelerate time to market, differentiate value and reduce costs. By enhancing partner relationships, Sun is assuring its customers they will get best-of-breed, single-source solutions for financial services, government, healthcare, wireless, customer relationship management, and other key markets. "Sun has always enjoyed a productive, collaborative relationship with its technology partners because we understand their business requirements and priorities, and how those relationships can be mutually beneficial," said Cheryl Kelly, director of Marketing, global iForce Initiative at Sun Microsystems, Inc. "By teaming instead of going it alone, our customers also win with a formidable combination of the right people, the right products and innovative thinking to bring them best-source solutions with our iForce partners." "Sun's iForce Initiative has played an integral role in helping us better serve our customers globally and meeting their business needs," states Paul Krneta, Director of IQ Multiplex at Sybase. "Through Sun's go-to-market partnering programs, we've developed the iForce Enterprise Data Warehouse Reference Architecture, which helps customers lower risk, reduce complexity and accelerate time to deployment when implementing some one of the world's largest data warehouse solutions." Sun continues to evolve its services and programs to better meet the needs of its technology partners, and to make it easier and more beneficial than ever to partner with Sun. New programs for Sun partners include: iForce Information SourceSun's iForce Information Source is designed to provide iForce partners with consistent and increased access to address business-critical information and communication needs via email, phone or the Internet. By efficiently categorizing and qualifying partners' individual needs, the iForce Information Source provides partners with direct access to the most appropriate answer or Sun contact, which significantly saves them time and money and enables them to focus on what's important - mutual customers. iForce partners eagerly embraced this initiative during Sun's preliminary roll-out in the United States, with more than 1600 inquiries. The iForce Information Source is now available in Europe and Africa. Worldwide roll-out of the program will continue through the end of this year. iForce Partners PortalThe iForce Partners Portal provides iForce Partners with a secure, single point of access to information, tools and services tailored to their specific partner-type and region. The portal offers customized views that support the delivery of highly relevant content and business services. Through this portal, iForce partners have access to product, solution and technical information and documentation; quoting capabilities and online configuration validation via Sun Partner WebDesk; online transaction capabilities; partner competency tracking through Profile Tool; Web-based training; patches and manuals from the Online Service Center; and system administration resources, including a comprehensive online system handbook. Currently, more than 5000 individuals from more than 1000 iForce Partner companies are registered for and using the portal. Global rollout is in progress and is scheduled to be completed by July, 2002. Sun partners can sign up for authorized access for the iForce Partners portal by going to http://www.sun.com/iforce/programs/partner_portal.html. Sun Developer Connection Partner ProgramThe Sun Developer Connection Partner Program provides Sun ISV partners within the iForce community with a comprehensive set of flexible resources required to build revenue generating ideas, applications and business opportunities. This program provides a single, worldwide entry point for software development partners to choose their level of participation, access and connection with Sun to successfully build, certify and market a solution. Membership is free, and benefits range from discounted hardware and software to co-marketing and sales services opportunities. More information about Sun Developer Connection Partner Program can be found at http://www.sun.com/partners/sdc. iForce Community Executive Management ForumSun's iForce Community Executive Management Forum is a series of one hour cyber-seminars on topics of business leadership and strategic planning intended to provide iForce partners and their customers a competitive edge. The presentations provide iForce partners and customers with fresh perspectives on complex issues, and provide business and technology perspective, anecdotes and insight, without commercial information such as product or service "pitches". The speakers in this forum address such issues as the impact of emerging technology on business models and the impact of Sept. 11 events on business and foreign policy. More information about the series and the next iForce Community Executive Management Forums can be found at http://partner.sun.com/iforce/events. These new programs build on Sun's other leading iForce partner programs, such as the recently announced SunTone Certified Consulting Services Initiative for iForce Partners. This initiative is comprised of the Authorized Sales and Referral Program and Authorized Delivery Program Initiate and is intended to help partners offer SunTone-branded consulting services to their customers. About the iForce InitiativeThe iForce Initiative is a community of Sun, its customers and best-of-breed iForce partners working together to create and deliver customer-driven solutions that enable our customers to leverage the network to improve business processes. Built around a dynamic relationship model and providing access to iForce Centers worldwide, this program helps customers engage with Sun and its industry partners to reduce risk when deploying solutions. By establishing its iForce Initiative, Sun is able to help its customers improve time-to-market with proven integratable, easy-to-deploy iForce Solutions. 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 take their businesses to the nth. Sun can be found in more than 170 countries and on the World Wide Web at http://sun.com
Sun, the Sun logo, Sun Microsystems, iForce, Sun Developer Connection, SunTone and The Network Is The Computer 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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