PwC Consulting, a business of PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Sun Microsystems, Inc. will join together to capitalize on their individual areas of expertise to deliver a customer relationship management solution to the market. The companies have collaborated for more than 10 years, providing complex business solutions and this particular alliance was designed to deliver end-to-end, cross-industry solutions to address critical business functions.
“We’ve had many years of success working together with Sun, and we see this agreement as an important new extension of our relationship and market focus,” said Scott Hartz, CEO of PwC Consulting. “In order to compete more effectively in today’s volatile markets, companies need to be more customer-centric. Through our collaboration, companies will have the ability to define and implement across-the-board CRM capabilities that will enable them to quickly integrate CRM into the heart of their business in a seamless, end-to-end solution incorporating new strategies, processes and technologies.”
Utilizing PwC Consulting’s business strategy and integration services and Sun’s Open Net Environment (Sun ONE) architecture that includes iPlanet Software as well as Sun Enterprise Servers and Sun StorEdge and complemented by select Sun consulting, training and support services, the alliance will deliver differentiated services to Global 2000 enterprises. Joint client engagements are underway in key industries, including: communications, consumer and industrial products, energy and utility, financial services, government, and oil and gas sectors. Together, PwC Consulting and Sun will provide business strategy, technology architecture and platform integration.
Sun and PwC Consulting are employing a joint executive steering committee for overseeing the relationship, as well as a three-year commitment for combined sales goals, and combined sales methodology and account targets featuring in-depth account analysis designed to identify customers.
“PwC Consulting and Sun have had a long and very successful history of working together. This alliance extends that strong relationship and represents a considerable commitment of resources from both organizations,” said Ed Zander, president and COO of Sun Microsystems. “Together we can offer a best-of-breed solution that increases return on investment for our customers. With the combined strengths of PwC Consulting and Sun, customers get hardware, software and consulting services that best meet their business needs, and work with their existing systems.”
The CRM component of the alliance will focus on PwC Consulting’s CRM ACCEL, which is built on Sun’s scalable platform and features integrated involvement of new and traditional marketing, sales and service channels with back office systems.