Sun Microsystems and SAP AG
Monday
expanded the bounds of their longstanding strategic
alliance, creating three programs designed to establish a rigorous new
standard for quality and aid mutual customers design,
implement and manage mySAP.com e-business platform solutions on Sun
infrastructure.
According to Carsten Benecke, Global SAP Alliance marketing development
manager, Sun sees the launch of these “customer-centric”
programs as a first step toward the development of a standard for
interactions between infrastructure vendors and system
integrators.
The first program is the creation of the SAP Infrastructure Solution Center,
which will serve as a “central repository for best
practices and bring together expert teams of solution architects and
specialists.” The center is located in Walldorf, Germany, and
is intended to provide customers with information and best practices about
SAP Reference Architecture, SAP Platform Solutions, SAP
Horizontal Solutions and SAP Vertical Industry Solutions, all gathered from
building, testing, integrating and improving performance
of mySAP.com solutions on the Sun platform.
The center will tap Sun’s global network of iForce Ready Centers and iForce
Competency Centers to give customers a risk-free,
real-world environment in which to build prototype solutions, then size,
configure and scale them for their specific requirements.
“We have established a center that is focused on combining all of Sun’s
products and services along a customer lifecycle
engagement,” Benecke said.
Stuart Wells, vice president of Market Development for Sun, added, “Sun is
committed to staying ahead of customers’ business needs
by developing close advisory relationships to help them deploy the right
solution for their unique business needs and through tight
integration of mySAP.com on the Sun platform. The Infrastructure Solution
Center methodology is a driving force behind Sun as the
go-to trusted advisor and reliable business partner for our SAP customers.”
The other two programs — a best practices reference program and the new
QUEST (Quality Using Expertise for SAP Technology)
certification process — exist to support the first.
Sun and SAP worked together to develop best practice for managing joint
customer references, dubbed Sun Shot, based on Sun Sigma,
Sun’s adaptation of Six Sigma (a data-driven approach and methodology for
eliminating defects in any process). Sun Shot is intended
to enable team members to share lessons learned on previous implementations
in order to speed new customer solution development and
deployment.
Sun Sigma seeks to establish measurable customer requirements and back
decision-making with hard data.
“This is really one of the first Sun Sigma products that we are rolling out
with that shows an end user benefit in such a visible
way,” Benecke said. “This is the first established and defined process that
ensures quality.”
Finally, the QUEST certification process will ensure that Sun’s personnel
are qualified to provide accurate and consistent sizing
guidance to customers according to the rules and recommendations laid out by
SAP. QUEST will be implemented through Sun’s iForce
Competency Center for SAP.
