FACE TO FACE - SUNNY SIDE UP

Ever wondered who put the dot into .com? Jim Hassell, partner sales director at Sun Microsystems is hoping that the answer on everybody's lips is Sun.

Sun Microsystems is the internet, or so it would like you tor sales director at Sun Microsystems is hoping that the answer on everybody's lips is Sun. believe.

It has everything - the software platform, the hardware to run it on, and a list of strategic alliances as long as your arm. A pact with Netscape in November 1998, shortly after the browser software company's acquisition by AOL, gave it muscle in the convergence between IT and information access.

A technology alliance with Motorola announced in June, gives it further influence in the IP-based wireless networking sector. And so now, lest you forget, Sun is the one who put the dot into .com.

'The .com thing has worked well for us,' says Jim Hassell, UK partner sales director at Sun. 'Most of our partners have taken it on board. We had a party a few weeks ago and it was themed around .com. We had things that were round - burgers, beer glasses and so on. The marketing side of things has taken off very well.'

'Strategic alliances are very important to us, both on a commercial and technological basis. Alliances make it easier to get to places in the market where you can't get to on your own. If you look at companies that have failed, you will find that they have tried to diversify and they've lost their focus. We have a very clear focus about our product set, open systems, and investment to provide the best platform to the market. When you do that it's great for business and that has made us very strong and very easy to work with. The industry is littered with people who jump on someone else's bandwagon and don't make it - it's too much of a fast changing environment to be able to do that.'

Hassell's role at Sun is completely partner and channel intensive, he says, and accounts for almost 80 per cent of Sun's UK business.

He joined the manufacturer in June 1996 as divisional sales manager, responsible for the retail, media and commercial sector and he took on his current role at the start of the year.

A thoroughly approachable, softly spoken Mancunian, Hassell brings to Sun about 15 years of expertise in IT sales. Prior to this, he spent 12 years at IBM in a variety of sales and management roles. He also spent six months at Big Blue's European headquarters in Paris.

But selling computers isn't exactly what he thought he'd be doing after he graduated from Nottingham Trent Polytechnic with a degree in business studies. 'My first job after graduating was at a small accountancy firm in Manchester. You had these guys come in and drop a Cornflakes box stuffed full of receipts on your desk, and were told to produce a balance sheet and VAT returns for the year,' he says.

'I was told I had to really knuckle down and start studying for professional qualifications, but I couldn't stand the thought of slogging my guts out during the day at work and slogging my guts out in the evening for four years. I thought I've got to change and do something else.'

And change he did. After a stint selling office furniture, Hassell made the leap into IT and he hasn't looked back since.

But one element has remained constant throughout his career - dealing with the demands of customers. 'That's why there will always be a direct side to Sun - because customers demand it. It's a relatively small amount - about 20 per cent - but it's entirely customer driven. Even in our indirect business we ensure that we give our customers contact because it's really important not only to them but also to the reseller community.'

The other common theme running through Hassell's career is his desire for variety, and there has been no lack of that during his time so far at Sun. The organisation borne out of the Netscape alliance, which so far has been referred to as nothing more than the 'Sun/Netscape Alliance', has pulled together 2,000 employees worldwide - 1,000 from each company, and a specific channel programme for the organisation was unveiled in April.

The Sun Software Alliance Program aims to bring together the best elements of the respective vendors' channel initiatives, with three levels of accreditation aimed at improving sales leads for Java and other cross-platform enterprise software products. Sun's Software and Technology division has been integrated into the Alliance.

A massive undertaking, there has been speculation recently that Sun and Netscape have been dragging their heels as resellers and distributors await the Ts&Cs fate in the revamped project.

'The hard and fast rules are coming out now as we speak,' says Hassell.

'We've identified the products that the Alliance will sell, and the Alliance will use Sun itself as a big channel. We will treat the Alliance as one of our key ISVs and as one of our key software vendor partners. They will work with some of our existing channel, but they will also start to build relationships with other partners because they need different levels of skill and expertise.'

Hassell remained deliberately sketchy on how Sun's UK distributors would line up in the Alliance. 'We haven't got that far yet,' was all he would offer. The reasons for this elusiveness soon made themselves clear, as just a week after the interview, PC Dealer revealed that Sun's UK software distributor, Computer 2000, would not have a role in the Alliance, after it claimed that the levels of business it would derive were not big enough (PC Dealer, 30 June). The Alliance has since confirmed that its UK distributors will be ICL Multivendor Computing (formerly Tplc), Sun's UK master reseller, and Unipalm, Netscape's exclusive UK distributor.

But Hassell gave strong indications that changes to Sun's hardware distribution channel are in the pipeline. 'What we are doing in terms of distribution is trying to harmonise all our terms and conditions across our channels in EMEA. As part of that process, when we looked at the distribution side of things, we've probably got about 35 distributors across EMEA holding stock. That's expensive and also quite inefficient. So what we want to do is reduce those numbers who are holding stock and increasingly get the people who are holding stock to broaden out and become pan-European,' he said.

'We need to work with the guys who are going to be able to provide pan-European distribution. You need to look at the practicalities of the market.

Not everyone is going to be able to go right the way across Europe, but we need to be able to cover it across more geographies than we are currently doing. We need people who can cover much more and we're actively going through that process now.

Hassell stated that it was the need to improve efficiency, rather than the more direct threat of competition, that was driving the distribution review. 'If you have your stock split across 35 different points as compared to a much smaller number of points, you have a greater physical amount of stock out there. But you also have less control, because it's difficult to move stock around - it's a logistics nightmare and you lose efficiency.'

'If you can bring that together to a smaller number of stock points, you have a smaller overall stock level and you have a greater ability to get to your customers. It will increase customer service - that's the real drive behind it.'

But Hassell was eager to avoid the inference that a move to pan-European distribution at a stock level was bad for smaller, local distributors. 'It won't throw up big problems. It will enable partners that hold stock to focus on value add. It will consolidate the expertise so those who have experience in logistics and stock management concentrate on those areas.

'The rest will be in a partner management role. A distributor does inventory and partner management, so we want fewer people doing inventory and more doing partner management. The more you can get on the partner management side, the more specialised and better you are. There will be a role for everyone and we're not planning on axing anyone,' he says.

In light of these proposed changes, Hassell admits that these are challenging and tough times for distributors, where their role in the channel is being re-evaluated across all sectors of the industry. 'It is a very interesting time in the distribution market at present - especially on the PC side, where manufacturers are increasingly going down the direct route. Some vendors have really got the bit between their teeth and distributors are wondering what's going to happen to their business.

'There's a natural shakeout going on in the market with consolidation, but the difference with Sun is that we're not going down the direct route.

We're doing well with profitability and revenue, and our growth has been fantastic, so we don't see the need to adopt someone else's model.

'My guess is that if other manufacturers try to emulate an existing model they're not going to do as well. They're not providing any leadership and the best they can be is second best to Dell. We focus on our value add and how we work with partners, asking questions such as how you can help the small guys with their marketing programmes, support and focus.

Our partner management role is very localised because of this,' he says.

And it's this network of localised partners, says Hassell, that hold the keys to unlock the internet and open opportunities for businesses, consumers and Sun itself.

But is the reseller community doing enough to promote the commercial opportunities that the internet holds, or is it showing reluctance in embracing issues such as e-commerce?

'I think it's probably mixed,' says Hassell. 'Some of them have really taken it on board, but no one is really resisting it. As I said, the .com thing has worked well for us so far on the marketing side. The next thing we've got to look at is how they get their systems and services Web enabled.

One or two are trying to get their head around how they fit e-commerce into the market, but they'll get there. It's important that companies do get there because if not, they're not going to be around much longer.'

Hassell also concedes that the hype from vendors concerning internet opportunities has been enormous, but denies that despite this, there is no demand pull from users and the channel. 'It's fair comment to say there has been an enormous amount of hype. But I think the pull from the market will gather momentum. Customers have spent the past two years in survival mode due to the year 2000, but over the next six months, they will be piloting e-commerce and Web-enabled applications.

'Customers have spent a pile of money on the year 2000, and now they're looking at this area to generate bigger revenue and profit, which I think will take off around February next year. We're catching up with the US, it has reached critical mass, especially in the home PC market, where it has reached saturation point. The next big wave for it will come when Web access is made much easier, so that all the people who haven't bought PCs and don't want to buy them can get access from all sorts of devices.'

Question Hassell on what devices he means specifically by 'all sorts of devices' and you get the usual response - Web TV, internet telephones, smart devices in cars and so on. Sure, Sun isn't the only company guilty of endlessly citing the generic 'Web-enabled device' as the Holy Grail of the IT industry, but how does Sun fit into this Utopian scenario?

'The internet is just another tool. But it will change the way we do business and the way we live our lives in the same way the telephone did.

That's the best analogy I can think of, because of what it enabled us to do. The telephone is also a tool, it's not the end in itself, just as the internet is by opening up another way of communicating. It's not a panacea to everyone's ills - it's not something that can instantly make you rich.

Changing the way we do business is also the marketing message that Microsoft uses, and the relationship between the two companies is fascinating to observe. Sun sees itself as the company that, along with its sidekick Oracle, stands between Microsoft and world domination, and sometimes gives the impression that it is morally obliged to do so. The relationship is very much, anything you can do, I can do better, and to gauge the competition between the two, look at the number of headlines the Java lawsuit has attracted.

'The thing that makes the difference with Sun is Java, and that frightens Microsoft,' says Hassell. 'The thing about Java is write once, run anywhere - you can't do that with Microsoft products.'

Hassell poaches an analogy from journalist and record industry veteran Tony Wilson to illustrate the stage of internet development the industry is at now, and where it needs to go in the future.

'He said that when the film industry first started, they got a camera and pointed it at something. They got the pictures to move and they thought they had a movie industry. That didn't happen until someone figured out how to cut and edit the film. That made the transition from just an image to something exciting that opened up lots of possibilities. The internet is still pointing the camera - we're doing what we've always done, but with a new mechanism. For example, businesses have always sold books in the high street and now they're doing it on the internet.

'That's why the internet is going to explode next year, because that focus on IT budget and IT spend and mindshare will be free from year 2000 by early 1999.'

Clearly Sun is shaping up to position itself at the forefront of the revolution. Whether it will lead the charge or simply follow the footsoldiers largely depends on how it competes with Microsoft.

GET SET FOR THE DRIVE OF YOUR LIFE ...

Jim Hassell

Partner sales director at Sun Microsystems

What was your first job?

Greengrocers assistant.

What was your worst job?

Supermarket shelf stacker.

How long have you been with Sun?

Two-and-a-half years.

What do you enjoy most in your job?

The huge variety of people you meet and the high level of energy for this industry.

Who do you admire most in IT and why?

Scott McNealy, chief executive of Sun, because he has a vision and he sticks to it. He combines business acumen with a real knowledge of the market and uses that combination to great impact.

Should McNealy advertise toothpaste?

No, he doesn't know anything about it.

Where are you going on holiday this year?

Barbados

What would be your dream holiday?

Six months in a four-wheel drive travelling round the Australian coast.

What was the last CD you bought?

Primal Scream - Echo Dek

Your three desert island disks?

Beatles - Abbey Road, Verdi - Rigoletto, The Pogues - If I Should Fall From Grace With God.

Should Microsoft be carved up?

No, it has enough problems.