Storm clouds over Sun direct bonuses

Latest software initiative angers resellers

Resellers have been angered by Sun's latest initiative to promote its software by awarding large bonuses to its direct sales teams, leaving its channel out in the cold.

The vendor is offering its own sales teams triple bonuses on sales that include software.

For example, if £100,000 worth of servers and £100,000 on software are sold, commission is paid as if it was £100,000 worth of servers and £300,000 worth of software.

But the decision not to offer similar bonuses to resellers has left Sun's channel unimpressed.

"It's just not good practice," said Nigel Fitton, services business manager at distributor tplc.

"With margins falling on hardware sales and Sun's recent enthusiasm for 'complete solutions' that incorporate its hardware and software, it makes sense for Sun to push its software. But it needs to co-ordinate its efforts."

Philip Anthony, Sun business manager at reseller Repton, said: "Traditionally Sun resellers are hardware specialists. Unless there is an incentive for them to change they are unlikely to push software."

Part of the problem Sun faces is in convincing its internal staff that it is serious about promoting its own software, he said.

However, the shift in emphasis to software is starting to make an impact in the channel. Anthony said that Sun's accreditation courses now test for more knowledge of software.

"It will take some time to filter through, but within six months you'll see a big difference in behaviour in Sun's channel," he said.

Sun said in a statement that it was "in the process of looking at a suitable way of incentivising our channel sales people". However, the vendor refused to comment further.