Sun begins replacement of iForce partner program

Sun Microsystems is starting to replace its 5-year-old iForce partner program with a new offering, known as the Sun Partner Advantage Program, the company announced Wednesday. The new program is more global in nature than its predecessor and aims to improve communications between Sun and its partners around the world, according to company executives.

Sun is rolling out the new program in phases, first targeting ISVs (independent software vendors), according to Marsha Cavanagh, executive director of partner program and services at Sun. “IForce for ISVs was one dimensional and limited in its offerings,” she said.

Similar programs aimed at Sun’s channel and systems integration partners will appear on an as yet unspecified date later this year. “What’s already on offer with iForce won’t disappear,” Cavanagh said. “We’ll fold it in [to Sun Partner Advantage Program for channel and system integrators] and relaunch it later in the year.”

Sun Partner Advantage Program for ISVs will feature better localization and infrastructure so it’s much more of a global program than iForce was, according to Cavanagh.

When Sun launched iForce back in March 2000, the brand name for the program resonated with what was going on in the dot-com era, according to Stephen Borcich, Sun’s vice president of partner marketing. “We’re doing so much more with partners now, we wanted to make a tighter linkage [with the branding],” he said. “This [program] has been in the works for the last year to 18 months.”

The fact that Sun Partner Advantage Program for ISVs is debuting shortly before the company is expected to unveil its new Galaxy servers on Monday in New York City is “serendipitous,” Borcich said. However, there will likely be a lot of partner announcements around the Galaxy announcement, so the timing works well, he added.

Sun Partner Advantage Program for ISVs will feature over 20 new offerings in the areas of education, technology, marketing and sales, Cavanagh said. For example, Sun is offering ISVs access to its Sun Learning Platform, 500 online courses previously only made available to Sun employees. The company will also be providing access to its engineering team’s best practices in an Engineering Library, she added. The offerings will cost around US$400 to $500.

There will be four tiers of membership in the new ISV program, with Sun also planning to launch a vertical industry track later this year, according to Cavanagh.

Neither Cavanagh nor Borcich would comment on how much money Sun is investing in its new partner program. When the company launched iForce, it announced it was putting $300 million behind the effort.