Oracle To Ex-Sun VARs: Opportunities Abound For Specialization

Oracle's acquisition of Sun is bringing new opportunities to solution providers who embrace the idea of selling the combined software and hardware stack resulting from the acquisition, but only if they move quickly to get the right specializations and prove their commitment to the vendor.

That's the word from Judson Althoff, senior vice president for Oracle's worldwide alliances and channels and embedded sales, to solution providers attending Arrow Enterprise Computing Solutions' Net@Work Partner Forum, held this week in Pasadena, Calif.

Althoff, in his Monday keynote at the Net@Work conference, called Oracle's January acquisition of Sun Microsystems a game changer in that it provides Oracle's partners the opportunity to sell a complete software and hardware portfolio.

That acquisition, along with about 60 other acquisitions Oracle has done in the last five years or so, gives Oracle the opportunity to integrate a variety of products into end-to-end solutions which no other vendor can offer and which take away the efforts needed to integrate in the field, Althoff said.

"This is work you don't have to do, the mundane process of making things work together... (Customers) can focus on taking technologies to build a better business," he said.

Next: Oracle's Acquisition Record And The Channel

In all of Oracle's acquisitions, the company has not acquired a single services company or consultant, Althoff said. This is important for solution providers, as services account for about 50 percent of their total revenue, and is their "greatest source of revenue, profitability, and long-term business relationships," he said.

In addition to not competing with its channel on services, Oracle is also seeing its indirect sales revenue grow faster than its direct sales revenue, Althoff said. "I would challenge you," he said. "Your other vendor partners could give you their products for free, 100 percent margins, and you would do better with Oracle," he said.

Prior to the acquisition, Oracle's solution providers sold software to about 330,000 customers worldwide, compared to Sun partners who sold mainly hardware to about 35,000 customers worldwide. That leaves legacy Sun solution providers about 300,000 Oracle customers where they did not previously sell hardware, Althoff said.

Those partners can go into their existing and new customers to talk about such technology as running Oracle databases on Oracle's flash-based storage technology to increase performance by a factor of 10, or show customers how to take advantage of Oracle's multi-thread server line to add performance to the company's middleware, he said.

However, to do that, partners need to move fast and get their Oracle specializations, Althoff said.

Next: Getting Oracle Specializations

Oracle currently offers over 50 specializations in five broad areas, including databases, middleware, applications, servers and storage, and industries, Althoff said. And it is important to work with Oracle to get competencies in those specializations in which they wish to do business in order to differentiate themselves, he said.

"We are seeing customers with RFPs (requests for proposals) that request certain specializations," he said.

Althoff also told partners to take advantage of two new programs Oracle recently introduced to differentiate themselves even further.

The first is the new advanced specialization for gold level or higher partners who have at least 50 Oracle-certified implementation specialists for a specific specialization on their staff.

The other is the new diamond level, which is awarded to partners who have received at least 20 specializations and who have at least five advanced specializations.