ACADEMIA

Sun's business is all about innovation. In today's complex world, innovation is increasingly about collaboration. You can see that spirit of collaboration at work in the new ISV program. Sun is starting to replace its 5-year-old iForce partner program with a new offering, known as the Sun Partner Advantage Program. 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. It should come as no surprise that the buzz surrounding the new Sun Partner Advantage Program is that it's forward leaning, cutting edge, and--most of all--collaborative. "From the beginning, Sun has focused on relentless innovation and delivering technologies that ignite the computing industry," says Janet Waxman, VP at IDC Research. "Sun has taken that same innovative spirit and applied it to the development of the Sun Partner Advantage Program, reinvigorating its partnerships. "We've always looked to Sun for technical innovation," says Eric Skinner, VP, Business Development at Entrust. "Now they're showing us real innovation in their partner program as well." One Year at No Cost With the new Sun Partner Advantage Program, Sun is focusing all our resources on increasing the pace of innovation by encouraging ongoing dialogue and increased collaboration across the partner ecosystem, with: * Plenty of cross-teaming opportunities for generating and leveraging new revenue streams * Easy, Web-based access to resources, profiled to your needs--in more than 20 languages * Personalized support from our international, multilingual Sun Partner Advantage Program Contact Centers Best of all, the ISV implementation of the Sun Partner Advantage Program is based on what partner community's executives, engineers, marketers, and sales forces told us they want. That's resulted in a program that's easy to access--and afford. Sun delivers on its vision of creating value and innovation through sharing by providing ISVs with offerings valued at over US$250,000 (program offerings and value may differ by country) for an annual cost of US$495, waived for one year from program inception on September 7, 2005. One year at no cost. Can you think of a better way to encourage innovation and collaboration?