StarOffice set for big launch in India

BANGALORE: Sun Microsystems in India is ready for a big launch of StarOffice

6.0, the office utility suite that directly competes with Microsoft's Office XP.

Though the product is available on Sun's Web site, the official release of

StarOffice with road shows will take place in the next three weeks. This is

Sun's first product that will take the server giant to the volume-oriented

retails market. As a result, Sun is in talks with two of the largest

distributors - Tech Pacific and Ingram Micro and may appoint both of them as its

channel distribution partners for StarOffice 6.0. According to Sun Microsystems

India, country head-marketing, K P Unnikrishnan, ‘a decision in this regard

would be taken during this week’.

StarOffice will be sold in India at its global price of $75.95 for a single

license, which is less than one-third of the price of Office XP. This price will

include training and support for the product. Sun will offer heavy discounts to

enterprise users which normally buy large number of licenses. The support is for

a year and can be renewed for approximately 15 percent of the cost. Support is

categorized on three levels - response within 4 to 8 hours, response with 24

hours and scaled up support from Germany. The support can be accessed from Sun’s

toll free support number. A broken-down version of StarOffice, Openoffice.org

1.0, can be downloaded free of cost from www.openoffice.org.

Training includes hands on basic training for about half or a full day. Apart

from this, Sun is offering a certified three full day training course on

StarOffice for Rs 3,600 per person. The training will be imparted in all the Sun

authorized training centers across the country.

Sun, however, is not positioning StarOffice against Office XP. "We are

not pitching against Office XP," said Unnikrishnan. "We are giving the

customers a choice. The choice is in terms of pricing, compatibility,

interoperability and increased total cost of ownership. StarOffice is just a

value add that I give my customers and a choice to the users. It is not my bread

and butter. But for the users it is certainly the alternative."

Sun is working on making the product available through its Channel

Distribution Partners (CDP), Tech Pacific or Ingram Micro. "We are in the

process of appointing either one or both our CDPs to push StarOffice 6.0 in the

retail market. It will be finalised in the next couple of days. For the

enterprise segment StarOffice is bundled with systems by Sun Partners giving the

customer’s his much needed choice," said Unnikrishnan.

According to Unnikrishnan, StarOffice has about 26,000 registered users in

India, out of which 2,200 are big corporates. "Enterprises will get a very

competitive pricing with more users. Recently, a corporate with a requirement of

about 3000 user license was given a quote of as less as Rs 150 to Rs 200 per

license. As mentioned earlier this is not Sun’s bread and butter but certainly

a entry point for Sun considering the non-Sun customers," added

Unnikrishnan.