1. Summary
2. Loan Period
3. Intended Audience(s)
4. How to Apply
5. SUN seed Initiative Roadmap
6. Questions and Answers




The SUN-seed Initiative is designed to enable Sun and Reseller account teams to offer a low cost, short-term loans of newly-launched Oracle Sun volume products to their end-users.

The SUN-seed Initiative is to be used for driving multi-unit placements by providing an evaluation / seeding mechanism.

The SUN-seed Initiative is available for a range of the latest Oracle Sun servers, workstations and storage products.

Every effort will be made to fulfill requirements, but stock availability will be limited to reduce financial exposure to Oracle. Therefore only the top opportunities generating the greatest volume of units and revenue will be satisfied with this programme.

The loan period is limited and subject to Hamilton Rentals and Oracle’s approval.

The SUN-seed Initiative is available to Oracle and Channel Partners.

• Existing customers, for deployment into application areas usually dominated by Wintel platforms.
• New customers evaluating alternatives to expensive and unreliable Wintel platforms.
  

All requests are made by completing an on-line application form on www.sun-seed.co.uk.

Each application will be considered on a case-by-case basis by Product Sales. You will be notified within 5 working days of the submission of the application whether you have been successful.

The SUN-seed Initiative will be available on selected Volume Systems Products (workstations and servers) as they are launched to the market.

Individual products will be removed from the scheme after 9 months from the announcement date.

What is the difference between Sun Seed and Try & Buy?
Both programs are used to drive incremental business for Sun. Try & Buy offers a deferred purchase on a single brand new unit that is supplied FOC from Sun for a trial period of 60 days. The trial unit is typically supplied 20 working days after the initial web application. At the end of the 60 day trial, the customer has two options: purchase or return. Sun Seed is a flexible way to obtain proof-of-concept evaluation hardware, addressing the need for multiple units, additional options and peripherals where the purchasing requirement is typically shorter than 60 days. All hardware is supplied from the UK and assuming the hardware is in stock, can be supplied on a next/same day basis.

If the evaluation overruns, can we retain the hardware for longer?
Yes. Applications for all extensions must be submitted to Hamilton Rentals before the end of the approved rental period. Extensions under the Sun Seed programme must additionally be approved by Sun Marketing. Alternatively extensions can be funded outside Sun Seed and will be subject to standard rental charges.

At the end of the rental, what will happen to our information previously held on the computer?
Any data contained on hard drives when the rental equipment is returned will be fully erased to highest possibly standards. Alternatively and with the approval of Sun, Hamilton Rentals will be happy to sell any internal drives at the end of the rental.

Should the unit become faulty whilst on rental; will Hamilton Rentals repair /replace this unit?
All Sun hardware owned by Hamilton Rentals is covered by Sun’s Silver Support, so call the support hotline with any issues. Should the rental environment require a higher level of support, this will be available, however will attract a charge.

Will the rental equipment be insured whilst on our site?
No, we would expect the customer to have the rental hardware insured whilst on their site, although all hardware will be covered whilst in transport if arranged by Hamilton Rentals.

Can we look to purchase the hardware at the end of the rental?
The selling of hardware at the end of the seed is not the normal way of operating a seed. The concept of seeding addresses a leveraged opportunity, so would normally direct any possible disposal options direct back to the VAR or Sun.

Once the acceptance form has been completed and signed, how quickly can Hamilton Rentals turn the rental equipment around?
All rental hardware is retained at our head office in Hanger Lane and as a result, can be made available as quickly as the same day, or the day after. Delivery to site depends heavily upon location of the customer and the configuration of the seeding unit.

Can we arrange to have a hardware engineer accompany the Seeding unit?
Yes, although this is normally managed by the VAR. Hamilton Rentals do have a sophisticated technical resource and should this be required, will attract a daily/hourly charge.

My customer requires less/more X Options on the seed. Will this be possible to manage?
Just enter the details of the x options/memory configurations in the comments section of the application page, should this not be available on the options within the application. We will try to accommodate any configurations you require; however, depending upon the request, this may attract additional charges.

I don’t have a Siebel reference for this opportunity. Is this important?
Tracking the opportunity from Seed to eventual purchase is an important part of the Sun Seed process. Should the Siebel reference not be available ... we could speak to Sun to arrange this.

Sun employee Sun Seed requests:
in the absence of a Siebel entry, enter 'NEW' in the Sun Seed Siebel ID field and Marketing will distribute a Sun Opportunity Manager (SOM) notification email for you to accept. Once accepted we will create a new Siebel entry on your behalf for this opportunity.

Partner Sun Seed requests:
in the absence of a Siebel ID, please enter 'PARTNER' in the field and Marketing will distribute a Sun Opportunity Manager (SOM) notification email for you to accept.