Patricia Martins promises Sun Microsystems business partners predictability, transparency

Newly appointed Sun Microsystems channel director for sub-Saharan Africa, Patricia Martins, is very clear about how to build on the success of Sun's business partner channel in order to create new revenue streams for both Sun and the channel.

"When you go to market exclusively through a channel you have to pro-actively help your business partners take control of the market. In an environment as dynamic as information technology (IT), it's not enough to give your business partners targets backed by a few incentives and say 'go fetch'.

"There's just too much to know about both technology and business - and the consequent need for pooling talent is too great - for that approach to be anything but limiting to your own organisation's potential.

"At the same time, if you want to get into bed for the long-term with the best available partners, you have to have something rather more than the best technology with which to entice them.

"That's why I will be doing a fair bit of research on Sun's market here in Africa and on all our existing business partners - to find out what has been working and what hasn't and why. And then, with my internal team, I will collaborate with our business partners to build a framework of highly targeted strategies that will make it easier for them to invest in selling our products and enable them to recover their costs much faster.

"In other words, I will be dedicating a very high order of skills internal to Sun to the sustainability and profitability of every single business partner. And I will found everything I do for partners on being both predictable and transparent - so that they can not only plan more relevantly and with greater confidence but also be comfortable about committing themselves to us."

These are not empty promises. Martins has done precisely this before, at business solutions provider, SAP Africa, where three years ago she was instrumental in setting up the company's first business partner channel and introducing SAP's first products aimed at small and medium-sized businesses to a mid-market unfamiliar with enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. The process included recruiting and training business partners as well as helping them be more efficient businesses in themselves.

The SAP SME channel has grown significantly over the last two years. "The birthing and innovation phase was over and, as we moved into a maintenance and monitoring process, I felt the need for new challenges," Martins says. "I thrive on being stretched, on creating something that didn't exist before.

"At Sun, of course, I'm not starting from scratch. But significantly improving something that already works well means having to find new things to do or new ways to do old things. That sort of innovation nourishes me. So I really am looking forward to working here."

A passionate person who throws herself 100% into anything she tackles - including golf and oil painting - Martins is comfortable in any business environment. She started out with Nedbank as a member of the first financial services team in the country to initiate private banking - and was a sales manager by the age of 22. She then sold software for Computer Associates before moving to IBM's enterprise resource planning (ERP) division and then its partner organisation, managing the top resellers.

"That's where I learned that it's vital that the interests of vendor and business partner are fully aligned and that the only way to do that is to understand the partner's business and what it costs him, financially and emotionally, to invest in your business. Only then can you build a value proposition that makes sense to both parties."