An international co-marketing agreement between EDS and Sun is unlikely to compromise the special relationship between EDS and Microsoft here, say spokespeople for the local companies.
Solnet managing director Mark Botherway says his company, which is the Sun agent in New Zealand, already has a strong relationship with EDS.
"Indeed, with EDS-Telecom,” says Botherway.
Telecom is the third partner with EDS and Microsoft in esolutions. EDS and Solnet have been partners in one of the consortia vying for the Work and Income proof-of-concept trial for e-procurement, says Botherway.
The new Sun-EDS arrangement was announced in last week. The "Sun-EDS Continuum of Services" programme will entail Sun providing hardware, software and architecture while EDS will provide services such as systems implementation, integration, consulting and outsourcing, the companies said in a statement. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Botherway says he sees the new arrangement as complementary to what EDS and Solnet already do here, and not likely to make any significant change, “except that it may be easier to get EDS’s corporate blessing for original things we do here.”
Esolutions spokesperson Sue McCarty says the company sees no negative effect from the EDS-Sun relationship. Esolutions has "obviously" discussed the new arrangment with EDS, she says, but EDS's business is "far greater than just esolutions", and the latter can raise no objections to partnerships that EDS decides to take on in other areas of its business.
The EDS-Sun partnership is worldwide, she notes, while esolutions and its products and services are specifically targeted to New Zealand.