Sun Microsystems yesterday announced a reorganisation of its operations in a bid to better focus on the needs of customers, according to the US hardware and software maker. The moves include the establishment of a customer advocacy function tasked with watching over companywide product quality and availability.
The vendor is also setting up a single Global Sales Operation and has brought its computer systems and microelectronics group under one umbrella group known as Systems Products, Sun said in a statement. The changes will come fully into effect July 1.
"This realignment will put even greater emphasis on a single face to the customer, a best-of-breed selling model, dot-coming Sun, and increased focus on product execution," said Ed Zander, Sun's president and chief operating officer. Zander added that the reorganisation should help the company in honing both the quality and availability of its products across the board.
The new Sun Global Sales Operations group will bring together all of the company's present sales groups, excluding its iPlanet and Forte software sales businesses. Helming the new sales group will be Masood Jabbar, previously head of Sun's computer systems group.
Mel Freidman, former head of Sun's microelectronics group, will be the senior vice president of the company's new Customer Advocacy function which will have responsibility for directing all initiatives on quality and availability companywide. Freidman will also hold the title of corporate quality officer.
Sun has decided to pool its computer systems and microelectronics groups into a single organization, again with the aim of better focusing its current and future efforts. The new group will cover all Sun's servers, workstations, enterprise appliances and SPARC/MAJC microprocessors and will be under the leadership of John Shoemaker as senior vice president of Systems Products. Shoemaker was previously vice president of Sun's enterprise desktop and server systems operations.
The vendor is also creating a single, global group to manage all supply chain and purchasing operations inside the company. Marissa Peterson will head up the group and report to Shoemaker.