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To: BI*RI who wrote (12059)	2/8/2001 12:48:00 AM
From: Gus	Respond to of 17183

Sun tries to unscrew its channel.<g> Sun To Channel: 'We Messed Up' By Elizabeth Montalbano, CRN Santa Clara, Calif. 8:00 PM EST Wed., Feb. 07, 2001 Sun Microsystems is reinforcing its commitment to the channel with new incentives, after admitting competitive practices in the past year, sources say. At the iForce System Providers Leadership Forum held here Tuesday, Sun met with 60 of its top iForce integrators and told them that its move to embrace nontraditional partners created a climate in which its sales people were competing with the channel. "[Sun Executive Vice President of Global Sales] Moshood Jabbar basically got up there and said, 'I've been on the job for six, eight months, and we've been screwing the channel the whole time,' " says Bill Ames, president of Sun integrator partner GoBosh, who was at the meeting. The vendor also said it "incentivized" sales representatives when it began engaging new types of partners, such as ISVs, ASPs and Web integrators last summer, Ames says. "[Sun] basically said, 'We messed up and we're going to get it fixed,' " Ames says. Joe Womack, vice president of Americas eSun partner sales at Sun, has told CRN that Sun's shift in strategy to embrace less traditional partners last year stemmed from new sales models and the dot-com phenomenon. According to Sun documents obtained by CRN, "To ensure that customers have access to a full range of professional services, Sun has augmented its professional service offerings by structuring close working relationships with other professional services suppliers." The documents also state that Sun will "deliver new and enhanced [solution provider] offerings in the next 90 days" and that "our end users do not fully understand the Sun/[solution provider] business proposition." At the meeting, Ames says Sun outlined what it called "two big rules" when it comes to the channel--first, no special discounts to favor Sun salespeople over the channel; and second, all Sun programs must be channel-friendly. Sun also is offering its integrators better percentages for marketing-development funds (MDFs) for all products until June 27, retroactive Jan. 1, Ames says. *Sun raised the MDFs rate to 4 percent on all hardware products from 2.36 percent on some computer hardware products. It also raised the rate to 10 percent from 2.36 percent on storage products.* "I think it was a great presentation in how they are embracing the channel," Ames says. crn.com