Judson Althoff Blog

You've been working hard at getting Specialized and you deserve a bit of a Sun-day break. Oracle finalized the Sun deal and we held our launch event yesterday. Take a breather from your Specialization regime and learn a little bit more about Oracle's plans for Sun partners.

Want more information? Larry Ellison talked about the plans for Sun and specifically addressed the plans for partners.

We caught up with Judson after the event yesterday and captured his thoughts - listen in to what he had to say:

You can catch up on all of the Oracle + Sun Product Strategy Webcast Series here.

Enjoy the Sun-day break; We will be checking back in on your Specialization progress soon.

The OPN Communications Team

At the very least, our ears are burning. The analysts are talking, and the first reviews are in on OPN Specialized. We're pleased with the launch and all the efforts undertaken to offer our partners the best program possible. The analysts seem to think we're on the right track as well.

Gartner's Tiffani Bova felt the program has significantly improved providing our partners with a more robust partner program that's "consistently scalable globally" and "more flexible", read the article here. Darren Bibby from IDC said the new design will "more quickly identify partners to potential customers," click here to see what else he said about the program.

Stay focused on getting Specialized,

The OPN Communications Team

Hi there. Your personal OPN Specialized trainer here. Checking in on your New Years resolution of getting Specialized. Not quite sure if you are signed up for this specialization thing? Sometimes it is hard to get motivated, so put on a little "Eye of the Tiger" and check out what Nick Kritikos had to say to The VAR Guy about some trends he is seeing with IT spending and how specialization is key.

Feeling inspired? Good. Gear up and find out how to get Specialized here .

We'll be checking in on your progress,

The OPN Communications Team

It's the first work day of the new year - what are your resolutions? Swearing off chocolate? Hitting the gym? To stop using text messages as your primary form of conversation? Getting Specialized? While we can't help you with the first few we can get you started with getting Specialized - consider us your personal Specialization trainer!

Week 1: The Basics
We recently held our live launch event and you can watch the topics that interest you from that event here. We've also taken the time to answer your top questions from the event. Listen in as Judson walks you through the event FAQ:

Now that we've covered the basics, dig in here for more information to get Specialized. We'll be checking in regularly to keep you on track in your goal to get Specialized (but don't worry, we won't be asking you about the chocolate).

The OPN Communications Team

Hi everyone. My name is Darren Bibby and I run our software channels research practice at IDC, the IT research firm. Congratulations to Judson, Penny, Lydia and the entire team on the December 2nd launch of OPN Specialized.

The last time I saw Judson was at Oracle OpenWorld in October. Actually - I saw him but I'm sure he didn't see me. It was at the first annual partner fun run. Judson was leading the pack and I was making sure no one got left behind at the back. Well that's my story...

We all learned a lot about the new OPN program at OpenWorld. I believe it's a great program the team has come up with for partners. It's a bold yet simple program that doesn't try to be more than it needs to be. It's not gimmicky. It makes sense for many reasons.

The old program made sense for the Oracle of old. But this isn't your father's Oracle-mobile... After almost 60 acquisitions, the Oracle of 2010 doesn't look much like the Oracle of the millennium year. Specializations were needed to allow partners to be recognized for what they're good for.

• Customers can find partners more easily


• Oracle field sales can find the best partners for specific deals


• And partners can more easily find other partners to work with, knowing they can't be all things to all people

Some of the early criticism on the program was that it seemed a little too familiar; that it contained some "borrowed" concepts from other vendors. But who really cares - if it's the right thing to do for partners and customers. Even Oracle's new program levels aren't original. From my quick analysis of twenty of the top software partner programs, 12 (60%) of them have "Gold" and "Silver" as tiers. And 8 (40%) of them have the exact same "Platinum," "Gold" and "Silver". Maybe it's not a lack of creativity or innovation but rather it's just making things easier on customers.

And that's what OPN comes down to for me. It helps customers engage with partners. It makes sense.

Good luck to all the partners out there who will be gunning for some new Specializations. And also to the team at Oracle. Keep up the good work.

Happy Holidays to all. Cheers.

Happy Holidays from the entire Oracle PartnerNetwork team! We hope you are able to enjoy the season with your friends and family.

If you would like to donate to the Second Harvest Food Bank click here and in the donor type box select company 250 or more employees > Oracle Corporation.

Happy Holidays,

The OPN Communications Team

We held our launch for OPN Specialized yesterday and it was quite the event. With over 4500 of you joining us live we got into some of the details of the new program and answered your questions as they came in via Twitter, Facebook and chat.

Not to worry if you did miss the event, we set the DVR for you and you can catch up on all the live programming from yesterday's event on-demand.

You asked a lot of great questions and there just wasn't enough time to answer them all; however, we are pulling together an FAQ specific to yesterday's event to respond to all of your questions and point you to the resources you need to join OPN Specialized.

As we said yesterday - Carpe Diem!

The OPN Communications Team

Join us today as we launch OPN Specialized with Judson Althoff, Penny Philpot, Nick Kritikos with special guests Stein Surlien, Manny Marrero, Ted Bereswill and George Wong.

We've been busy preparing for this event; listen in as Judson talks to you from backstage.

Enjoy the show,

The OPN Communications Team

The OPN Specialized message is making its way around the globe. With stops in Macau and Paris the next destination is your desktop. Join us on December 2nd as we launch OPN Specialized with a live event streaming throughout the day.

Can't wait that long, then listen in as Judson shares his views of the Paris OPN Day and what partners had to say there.

Want it straight from the horse's mouth? Judson had a chance to talk with Occam about what OPN Specialized means to them.

Now that you have had the past few weeks to learn about OPN Specialized, we look forward to the launch event and helping you specialize.

See you on December 2nd.

The OPN Communications team.

The countdown is on to the launch of OPN Specialized - just 2 weeks until you can join the new program. With a completely re-designed framework offering upgraded benefits, a new portal, and access to the Partner Business Center, OPN Specialized will allow you to differentiate yourself from the competition.

This news is making its way around the world with its first announcement at the OPN Forum followed by a special call for NAS Partners, serving as a highlight at the APAC Executive Partner Forum (EPF), and being discussed in detail in the EMEA Virtual OPN Days there is no denying that OPN Specialized is big news.

Listen in as Judson tells you a little bit about what APAC partners heard at their EPF in Macau.

Judson and George Wong at the EPF in Macau...

There will be more news to come on this from the EMEA OPN Day in Paris. Until then, mark your calendar for an event of global proportions as we host a live OPN Specialized launch event on December 2nd. This event will begin for our EMEA partners at 3:00 PM GMT and continue on live throughout the day for all of our partners globally.

Check out the schedule and registration details and we'll see you at the show.

The OPN Communications Team