---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Florida SunFlash Sun Enters European Unix Integration Market SunFLASH Vol 67 #52 July 1994 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Electronic Journal For Sun Users Since 1988 John J. Mclaughlin, Publisher & Editor - flash@sun.com ____________________________________________________________________________ 67.52 Sun Enters European Unix Integration Market SunService, an operating company of Sun Microsystems, Inc., announced the creation of a new European systems integration business unit that will spearhead the growth of the company's information technology (IT) consulting and integration sales across Europe. This initiative is in response to the growing European commercial acceptance of distributed systems based on UNIX to run business-critical applications. The new European SunIntegration Services business unit is headed by Peter Cunningham, the former president of the open systems standards body, UNIX International. (151 lines) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contact: Robert Aronoff at (415) 688-9479 Rob Fenner Gamester Kenyon +44 71 403 0664 Jeremy Barnish Hi-Tech Communications 415 904 7030 x212 SUN ENTERS GROWING EUROPEAN UNIX INTEGRATION MARKET New Business Unit Headed by Former President of UNIX International Sun(TM) is the leading supplier of networked servers and workstations in Europe based on its popular Solaris(TM) operating system, and the creation of a new European SunIntegration Services business unit demonstrates the increasing importance of platform level systems integration to the company's revenues. "European companies need flexible technology which can support working business solutions, and they are turning to open systems and UNIX," said John Keating of G2 Research, a consultancy and market research firm based in Mountain View, Calif. "To develop an effective solution, they also need access to technical, project management and application expertise." "Europe is a fertile ground for open systems companies and customers will look to IT consultants and integrators with a strong local presence and good reputation," he noted. "Sun has a significant mindshare in this market and should be well received. It will be able to draw on its own unique rightsizing experience, a long history of working with leading integrators, and its thrust into the commercial networking environment." The new business unit will work with Sun's rightsizing customers across Europe to integrate client/server solutions into their existing systems infrastructure. This will include the integration of systems and communications software together with 3rd party components necessary to deliver complete solutions. SunIntegration will provide IT consulting services which will cover the complete customer cycle from business re-engineering and final design to final deployment. The group will work closely with alliance partners, some of the leading independent systems integrators in Europe, to leverage their services and application expertise in a complimentary fashion. Together, Sun with its platform level and high-level I.T. architecture expertise and Sun's partners with their complimentary services and application expertise will provide the complete customer solution. SunIntegration's expertise is based on successful rightsizing, both within its own company and with major customers. The European unit already has contracts in excess of US$7 million with the finance, telecommunication and manufacturing sectors, including customers such as London Life in the UK, DG-Bank and Bayerische Hypotheken und Wechselbank in Germany and Ericsson in Sweden. Outside of Europe, SunIntegration has already achieved significant success with leading commercial customers like NYNEX and Fingerhut in the U.S., and Nippon Steel in Japan. "For most of my professional career I have been working hard to grow UNIX and the open systems movement," said Peter Cunningham, general manager of SunIntegration Europe. "Commercial organisations are now moving rapidly to rightsize and are engaged in the careful process of moving their critical applications -- old and new -- to UNIX. They need a partner who can make the process seamless. As a company that has successfully rightsized itself Sun brings skills that complement -- rather than compete -- with the expertise of our established integration partners, and makes us a natural choice." The European SunIntegration Services is a business unit of SunService and is headquartered in the UK. It provides local resources in countries throughout Europe and works closely with worldwide alliance partners such as Control Data Systems, Cambridge Technology Partners, Unisys and others. About SunService SunService, a Sun Microsystems, Inc. business, provides business re-engineering, IT consulting, systems integration, comprehensive systems support and education services to end users of Sun products worldwide. With headquarters in Milpitas, Calif., it began operating as a separate subsidiary on July 1, 1993. SunIntegration Services is a division of SunService and one of the leading service and integration providers in the open, distributed, client/server computing environment. ### Sun, the Sun logo, the SunService logo, Sun Microsystems Computer Corporation, SunService, SunIntegration Services, Solaris, are trademarks, registered trademarks or service marks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. UNIX is a registered trademark of UNIX Systems Laboratories, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Novell, Inc. All other product or service names mentioned herein are trademarks of their respective owners. Additional Background SunIntegration Services Rightsizing Expertise Sun Microsystems, Inc. Sun also uses its own hardware and software products to deliver products and services to its own customers throughout the world. Sun's network of 28,000 nodes spans 50 countries, supports over 300 production applications, 600,000 daily transactions, and in excess of 1,000,000 daily e-mails. Through the use of Sun's client/server architecture and products from Sun and its partnerships with hardware and software vendors, Sun has been able to rapidly change its business practices to meet the needs of its customers. During the past four years, Sun's rightsizing effort and continual business practice improvement has increased its cash position at year end from under $400 million in FY90 to over $1.1 billion in FY93. It increased its inventory turns from 6 to nearly 12 and shortened the time to collect on a sales order from 67 days to 45 days. In the same time, Sun improved its revenue per employee from just over $200,000 to more than $325,000. Sun currently enjoys the highest revenue per employee for any computer company employing a predominantly direct-sales business model, and amongst the highest revenue per employee of any company in the computer industry.