1. SUMMARY
Diligently worked with Lucent on a couple of opportunities (IP polling and IP mediation) from Rogers Cable, and on a RFP (security) from Rogers Wireless with AT&T Canada. At the same time, kept a close eye on the account activities and drove any revenue generating opportunities in Q4.
Successfully completed Sun Sigma and Business Conduct web-based training.
2. Accounts Activities (AT&T, Rogers and Sun Life Financial)
2.1 AT&T Canada
1. AT&T Canada's UNIX team is in the process of gaining control of the production systems one by one, which used to be managed by IBM GS. This process is expected to be completed in the middle of April, then it will be a perfect timing to move forward the server consolidation assessment on the two application environments, one is Collector (data collection from telco switches) and Freds (fraud detection system). As far as the configuration of the two applications to work with: there are two 7 Sun servers (E4500/4000, SS1000, etc.), all of them are running Solaris 2.5.1 and the database is Adabas. I am waiting for the actions from SunPS (Keith Goobie).
2. Teamed with AT&T Canada (security sales) for a RFP from Rogers Wireless, proposed 47 x Netra servers (t1 DC100 or T1 DC200, 5 data centres across the country) to Rogers Wireless data network security project, promptly validated the technical issues (late into nights). As a further step to enbrace the sales opportunity, I also arranged a meeting between John Wellwood and the rep. from AT&T Canada in Mississauga. For this specific RFP, the only competitor is Cisco, but we are in a very favorable position and should know the result at the end of April or early May.
3.
The Internet and E-Business (IES, the ISP division) is continuing the Cluster
3.0 evaluation, and we also shipped a Sun Fire 280R loaner for Solaris
8 and database (Oracle). Once the Sun Fire V480 (Cherrystone) is ready,
I'd expect a few V480s from this division.
2.2 Rogers
Lots of activities happened at this account, and it has been gaining interests from different parties within Sun. It will be more hectic in the coming months.
1. IP Polling and Mediation opportunites (Cable Engineering): Rogers Cable is looking for management tools that provides billing/utilization information concerning their new services. Some components they are looking for:
2. Cable IT: the manager of Gateway Systems informed me instantly when the re-engineering project was approved, and a PO was cut on that day. Though it is not a big project, a couple of Sun Fire 280Rs, a few Netra T1 AC200s, and some storage arrays to replace PC based Cable Gateway systems, it is just an another success that I have driven the whole sales process to a good outcome.
3. Rogers Wireless (OSS)
4. Rogers Wireless (data engineering)
5. Rogers Wireless (new product development)
2.Rogers Cable Network Shared Services: gave the manager a brief product update, and how Solaris 8 and Sun Fire servers fit into their environment. Some of new management tools like BMC Patrol are running on Sun Fire server and Solaris 8, but due to the special requirement of APRISMA's Spectrum (Solaris 2.6), a few more E420Rs instead of Sun Fire were ordered.
3.Proactively work with a few key technical guys at Rogers Wireless OSS, updated product roadmap with server and storage, new storage array D2 is being ordered to feed the extra storage need of V880. I am also evaluating a possible storage opportunity of SE 9960 or SE6960, registered with Wayne Hogan as Sun opportunity instead of HDS.
4.Attended quite a few meetings with senior managers at Rogers Wireless, the customer is looking for solutions to leverage current SMS network. Wireless system architect Daniel Legault from Ottawa is helping us with this opportunity.
5.With John, we had meetings with Lucent account teams of AT&T Canada and Rogers respectively, shared with account information with each other. Rogers is looking for a performance management tool that provides billing/utilization information concerning their new services. As VOD service is rolling out, the newly added set-top boxes are using IP for data communication; besides, the Internet Lite will also increase the demands for IP management and mediation. It is a great opportunity for both of Sun and Lucent.
2.3 Sun Life Financial
1.Have influenced the UNIX managers of Sun Life. There is some uncertainty due to the merger between Sun Life and Clarica, since Clarica is basically an IBM shop, and there is some function overlap in the IT department of both companies. I discussed with Dave, synchronized our approaching strategy: The more business critical applications are running on Sun, the easier the UNIX manager and his team of Sun Life secure their job.
2.An on-going project is Oracle Financial. The total Financial user count is estimated to be 850 total users, of which 285 would be concurrent. We proposed Sun Fire 6800 for the Database Server, the App and Web Servers were proposed to be Sun Fire 280 as of sizing result last year. With Dave Mason, we moved forward with this project quickly. We met the director of accounting and finance, upon finishing the meeting; I suggested another meeting with the project leader (Eric Fayoux, director of software engineering). In the presentation, I conveyed SunONE vision and strategy when I talked about Sun product and technology (to educate the customer).
3.The Internet division of Sun Life recommended Sun servers as the standard web hosting platform, I promptly got hold the UNIX manager Gord Cook. With Dave, we wanted to facilitate their internal communication, and create a pro-Sun atmosphere, and bring more business to Sun.
4.Introduced CiRBA to Sun Life, and hopefully CiRBA can bring some value to Sun Life.
3. TRAINING SUMMARY
3.1Mainframe rehosting;
3.2Cherrystone sneak peek.
4. MISCELLANEOUS ACTIVITIES
5. PLAN FOR THE UPCOMING MONTH
5.1AT&T server consolidation with SunPS;
5.2Identify IP mediation/billing opportunity with Lucent at Rogers Cable;
5.3Storage/Sun Fire opportunity at Rogers Wireless;
5.4Mainframe rehosting initial assessment (Ron Marshall) at Rogers;
5.5Oracle Financial project at Sun Life;
I am also thinking of a training course on Wireless/Telecom in the coming month in Toronto at SunEdu.