Sun Microsystems educates Middle East Channel on Solution Selling Strategies

A number of regional channel incentives, targeted at increasing the market penetration of Sun's channel partners, were launched at the partner summit.

The Sun iForce partner event, held in early September, was attended by high-level decision makers from Sun who discussed topics such as Sun's solution roadmap for the next year, tactics to increase sales in specific industry sectors, and the benefits of Sun's regional channel development partner (CDP) model.

Sun partners including MDS and CNS in the UAE, Jeraisy from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Diyar and ITS in Kuwait, Oman Computer Services and Synergy Log-in from Oman, Omnix from Qatar, Promise from Egypt, Jordan's STS, Lebanese partners ACT and Omnisystems, TMI from Tunisia, Dimension Data in Algeria, and the Yemen Computer Company sent executives from their organizations to the iForce partner summit.

"Because Sun serves end-users in the Middle East both directly and through our certified partners, the strength of our channel is vital to ensure a consistently high level of service across the region. Market share gains in the emerging market segment as well as in industries such as retail and banking can be attributed in part to the commitment of Sun's channel partners," said Sun's newly appointed managing director for the MENA region, Mehmet Iyimen.

"Our aim is to keep the channel network as informed as possible about the company's new solutions and corporate direction, while understanding firsthand any challenges that Sun's channel is facing in the Middle East. The partner summit also gives us a platform to educate our regional partners about the alliances we're forging with global software vendors and systems integrators," added Stavros Vougas, channel and marketing manager, Sun Microsystems MENA.

Sun global partners including Oracle, SAP, Wipro, and StorageTek took part in the recent partner event to update attendees about Middle East-based case studies and innovative concepts in integrating their solutions with Sun's technology offerings. Key regional customer Habib Bank AG Zurich also made a presentation to Sun's partners about its banking infrastructure.

A major component of the partner summit included discussion of how Sun is partnering with independent software vendors (ISVs) to increase Sun's reach in the government, banking, and healthcare sectors, as well as in regional enterprise resource planning (ERP) deployments.

The event, hosted at the Royal Meridien Hotel and Spa, also included expert commentary on Sun's data management infrastructure solutions and support services. Participants heard how Sun technology, combined with the services of its solutions providers, can solve the problems that customers in the region commonly experience.

Vougas concluded: "By bringing together all of our channel partners in Dubai, Sun is able to reinforce the message that it is one of the very few companies, in partnership with key industry players, capable of providing comprehensive solutions, both horizontal and industry-specific, for end-users in the Middle East and North Africa."