Santa Cruz Operations

Company: Silverline TechnologiesCustomer: Santa Cruz OperationsSubmitted by: Silverline TechnologiesDate: Summer 2001(USA) SCO, headquartered in Santa Cruz, California, is the world’s leading supplier of UNIX server operating systems. It’s also the leading provider or network computing software that provides client devices, such as, PCs, terminals, and workstations, with webtop access to business-critical applications running on all types of servers anywhere on the network. With more than 80 percent market share and 26 million users, SCO dominates the market for UNIX servers running on Intel platforms.

HIGHLIGHTS

• State-of-the-art web Partner Store allows distributors to purchase product online 24×7.
• Just in time ordering reduces distributor inventory, saves shipping time & inventory handling costs.
• Lowers product-licensing overhead costs, improves customer service, and saves time distributing and tracking licenses.
• Partner Store, increases the sale of licenses

CHALLENGE

Printing, storing, distributing and tracking software licenses is a time-consuming but extremely important task for software companies. SCO wanted to find a way to streamline the process, one that would cut costs, reduce the number of steps involved, and make life easier for its distributors. “We used to package licenses inside the box with the product,” explained Eileen Murphy, manager, E-Commerce Systems. “But that meant our distributors had to stock and pay for a fairly wide variety of products in order to meet the needs of their customers.

We have active distributors in Australia and New Zealand, and their shipping, duty fees and other transit costs really added up.” About two years ago SCO began to put the licenses online and chose Silverline to build the initial pilot.

SILVERLINE SOLUTION

“We asked Silverline to design and implement an online Partner Store,” said Murphy, “where distributors could purchase SCO product licenses as they needed them, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.” After an initial pilot phase, SCO opened up the Partner Store to its first-tier channel partners. “The Store’s been a big success,” continued Murphy. “We’ve steadily increased the sale of electronic licenses, and each quarter more and more distributors sign up.

We couldn’t be more pleased.”Now, instead of stocking boxes of products with hard-copy licenses, distributors can order a media kit with evaluation versions of all the software. They can let a customer try the product, then purchase a permanent license through the Partner Store that meets the customer’s exact needs. “Our distributors now receive all the benefits of just in time (JIT) ordering,” noted Murphy. “They receive the type of license they need without having to guess what their customers might want or maintaining a large inventory.

That saves them money on inventory and shipping, and saves time. SCO benefits by reducing the amount of physical goods that we have to produce and by lowering our costs: electronic licenses are less expensive than physical ones. And the Silverline solution records the license and other sale-related information on our database, so the backend work is done automatically. We’ve always prided ourselves on providing excellent customer service, and the Partner Store improves on that.”In addition, the Partner Store will allow SCO to offer a wider range of licenses in the future. “The electronic licenses give us much more flexibility,” said Murphy.

“We can fine tune the licenses with just a few keystrokes to accommodate customer needs, such as, the number of users and locations. Silverline built a state-of-the-art system for us. They are a very solutions-driven company and fun to work with. Silverline worked hard to understand our needs and developed a Partner Store that met all of our expectations.”

RESULTS

• Silverline builds state-of-the-art online Partner Store where SCO distributors can purchase product licenses online 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
• The Partner Store allows distributors to carry little or no inventory and receive just in time (JIT) ordering.
• SCO distributors save time as well as shipping, handling, inventory and other associated costs.
• SCO lowers its product-licensing overhead costs, improves customer service, and saves time distributing and tracking licenses.
• The Partner Store will allow SCO to offer a wider range of licenses and better meet its distributors’ future needs.

Each quarter, more distributors join the Partner Store, and the sale of electronic licenses increases.