To increase sales footprint in Emerging Markets

January 31, 2009 - In a move to leverage opportunities and expand its customer base across its Emerging Markets(EM) geography, Sun Microsystems announced the roll out of a regional telecoverage model. The model will help reach high growth SMBs, startups and Web 2.0 companies in emerging economies, fueling Sun's drive toward profitable growth.

The telecoverage model will go live across the EM region and will be implemented by local companies that Sun has partnered with in these markets.

The Emerging Markets region consists of 139 countries spanning Latin America, South and Eastern Europe, India and Greater China.

On this initiative, Peter Ryan, Executive Vice President, Global Sales and Services, Sun Microsystems, said, “Emerging economies are changing the global business landscape, providing incredible opportunities for companies like Sun. To harness these opportunities and accelerate our growth in these geographies, we announced the formation of the Emerging Markets Sales region at the start of our fiscal year. Today's roll out of the  telecoverage model is Sun’s fist major initiative in the Emerging Markets region. This new business tool supports our sales efforts and increases the average number of leads generated, lead-to-order conversion and new customer acquisition. This model also demonstrates the investment we are making in these geographies through our local partners.”

The telecoverage model, first implemented in India, has been operationally very successful  for the last 6 years. It has been instrumental in contributing to a significant part of Sun’s local revenue growth.

According to K.P.Unnikrishnan, Regional Marketing Director-Emerging Markets, Sun Microsystems, ”Organizations in the Emerging Markets region want to grow fast and have the potential to do so. They look towards technology solutions to augment this fast track growth. Our telecoverage model allows our customers in these geographies easier access to Sun and supplements the efforts of our partner community to reach out more easily and effectively to customers. The roll out of the telecoverage model across the EM region will help optimise Sun's sales reach into sectors and regions that would have otherwise been difficult to penetrate. This broad initiative across Emerging Markets will drive our volume products and solutions to new markets and customer segments. Best practices from our implementation of this model in some other GEMS will be leveraged effectively across this regions to increase customer acquisition and our bottom line. ”

 The Telecoverage model will further amplify Sun's relationship with its  partner community, helping grow the partner business in new segments, expanding Sun's customer base and growing the bottom line.

Sun's Emerging Markets sales region was created to drive accelerated expansion and sales coverage across growing markets in India, Greater China, Latin America, South and Eastern Europe. Created in July 2008, this sales region encompasses rapidly developing economies that have embraced Sun's approach to sustainable network computing, open source software and open document formats. The Emerging Markets sales region enables Sun to focus resources and attention to open more opportunities with governments, businesses and developers in these fast growth economies.

As part of Sun's most recent first quarter fiscal 2009 results, the Emerging Markets region grew 12% year-over-year, with India, Latin America and a combined Russia, Middle East and Africa geography growing double digits year-over-year.

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