Acting MD at Sun takes over role permanently

Channel business development a key priority over the next year

After three months as Sun's acting managing director, Duncan Bennet, has been appointed to the position permanently.

Bennet came to the vendor through its acquisition of Forte Software in 1999. He has held several roles with Sun including director of sales and managing director of its software joint venture with Netscape called iPlanet.

The main priority over the next 12 months is to develop the community side of Sun's business, Bennet said.

"We now have the broadest product set in our history, so we'll be focusing on our channel, and building and servicing our systems integrators and reseller communities," he said.

To do this, Sun has begun allocating more people internally to focus on indirect growth. Bennet said it had 3-4 additional people focused its channel than in the previous year, and would up this investment in the coming months.

Sun is also putting more funding behind its global partner program, called SPA, and working with Australian distributor, itX, on promotions to the channel. These include a promotion called "pump up the volume", which offers partners rebates and incentives around products.

Bennet said the fastest growth areas for Sun are its storage business, from low-end to enterprise, as well as the low-end server space.

"Taking advantage of the explosion of growth in volume server space is a major reason why we're expanding our channel business," he said.

Register now for the ARN Security Forum 2013 on June 4 at the Sydney Mint

More about: Forte Software, iPlanet, itX
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