Proof of success

The "proof-of-concept" strategy has worked very well for Sun Microsystems and its MENA partner Tech Access whose common goal is to transform their partners from traditional box selling to a solutions-based approach. Their success, though, is not only attributed to this re-engineering but to the synergy that has developed over their long-term partnership.


Sun Microsystems' and Tech Access's relationship stands out among the other channel partnerships in the region mainly because of its unique and innovative approach to the channel. Their story began in 1999 when Tech Access was just a country reseller for Sun in the Middle East. Back then, Tech Access operated as a typical reseller, pitching Sun's technology and selling its hardware. But a shift in market direction and strategy, and because of the very nature of Sun's offerings — business applications and integration — forced the company to rethink its channel structure.

"The whole distribution model of Sun before was around technology and the moving of hardware," says Quentin Cornelius, COO of Tech Access. "But as with other companies, Sun had to look at where the future growth of the market lay. It found that it was around solutions."

That revelation led Sun to reorganise and transform its channel organisation globally, and between 1999 and 2000, it started appointing select resellers as its channel development partners or CDPs. Tech Access became one in 2001.

"Sun moved from transactional products to solution selling. One key element of the solution-selling approach is to sell through the partners. The CDP plays an important role in changing the attitude and mentality of the partners from product selling to solution selling," says Stavros Vougas, Channel and Marketing Manager, Sun Microsystems MENA.

By being a CDP, Tech Access was given the responsibility of  handling Sun's existing resellers in the region. It covered ten countries, expanding to North Africa six months later, giving the company an additional six countries to cover. As a CDP, Tech Access was tasked with managing the channel for Sun.

"We became an extension of Sun," Cornelius explains. "One of our major roles as a CDP is to focus more on developing partners who offer applications and solutions that provide an answer to the problems that customers are facing rather than just selling hardware."

"Tech Access is changing our channel for us. It is moving them away from box selling to a more solutions-focused approach, and aligning them to what Sun is doing," says Vougas.

Part of its role as CDP includes providing demand creation, marketing, planning and support to resellers, running workshops and seminars, and developing co-branded go-to-market campaigns. It also provides pre-sales technical support to them, and operates logistics and warehousing facilities as well.

"We are the channel's first point of contact for Sun. We handle both traditional resellers and solution partners for Sun. If there are solutions that Sun or its partners do not provide, we find the vendor that complements the 'total solution' that Sun offers to customers," elaborates Cornelius.

"On the traditional reselling front, we brought the order desk and logistics services closer to the resellers. We handle the logistics and fulfilment, making sure that orders and deliveries are seen right through its arrival to the city or country of destination. Before, they had to order in Europe. We simply eased the process of ordering, delivery, logistics, fulfilment and credit for the resellers," he adds.

The recruitment and evaluation of partners are also some of the major roles Tech Access play as a CDP. It takes the market's needs and Sun's focus areas into consideration when identifying the type of partners it needs. It oversees the yearly renewal of contracts, which require the partners to undergo a certification programme, and reviews the resellers' revenue targets quarterly.

As Sun's virtual marketing team, Tech Access is responsible for localising  the various channel programmes that come from Sun. Together with some select partners, they decide on what programmes makes sense to bring to the region. Solution-driven initiatives, which should cater exactly to the local market, are mostly driven by Tech Access, with Sun's involvement, understanding and agreement.

Proven Concept

Perhaps Sun's and Tech Access's biggest and most successful initiative to date is the Tech Access Solutions Centre. It is the region's first Authorised iForce Ready Centre. It's a US$1 million investment located in Dubai Internet City as part of a global Sun initiative, which brings together Sun and its partners to deliver proven solutions to customers. The Centre provides customers a real-world environment and hands-on, in-person help to create architectural blueprints or guidelines for the design, development and deployment of solutions on the Sun platform.

According to Martyn Molnar, Tech Access MEA Solution Sales Manager, the idea for the Centre was conceived when Sun set up a testing lab in Menlo, California about five years ago.

"The idea of the lab was to invite big system integrators, such as Accenture, EDS and PricewaterhouseCoopers, to install their application on Sun boxes and take a look at how to build specific applications on Sun," says Molnar. "It has evolved considerably since then. What started as some applications sitting on boxes, which was very technical and lab-orientated, was transformed into a facility where customers can evaluate solutions both from a technical angle and a business prospect aspect, and have an intimate technology experience with regards to how applications run on Sun infrastructure."

Getting Sun to invest in an iForce Centre here was not straightforward. Early in 2001, Tech Access, with the help of the alliances team in Sun's ME office, had to submit a business plan to Sun's Geneva (Switzerland) office as part of a bid that took place across the EMEA region. Other CDPs, including those from Greece and Turkey, have also participated in the bid.

"Sun was actually looking for a region within EMEA where it could set up an iForce Centre. It looked at the region that had the largest ROI potential, considered the type of solutions it could develop there, and the types of partnerships and facilities it could create in that region. and on that basis made a decision," says Molnar.

Six weeks later, Sun awarded the project to Tech Access. Eight and a half weeks later after that, the Centre was built.

"I feel it was the investment that we planned to put in that won the day," Molnar says. "But there are a number of factors to consider as well. Sun, for instance, stood to gain a huge market share in this region. And it also had to do a lot with the fact that by putting a solid footprint and a solid solutions engagement framework on the table for our partners and customers, Sun would have a very robust corporate presence in the region."

"The speed of execution, the ROI, and the fact that this is a region where Sun was looking to gain significant market share were the three major factors in that decision," he summarises.

Tech Access and Sun pooled together the investment needed to establish the Centre. It was a 50/50 strategy. Mainly used for pre-sales activity, the Centre comprises a presentation/meeting area, project briefing rooms and a 'glasshouse' where the data centre is located. The Sun servers being used there are upgraded regularly. Currently, the Centre uses eight-way CPU, SunFire V880 machines.

Three architects — one solutions sales and two pre-sales solutions architects — are dedicated to the Centre. They are supported most of the time by a virtual team — comprised of people from Sun, Tech Access and its partners — when there's a client project.

The Centre runs under the "Test before you invest" concept where the result of the collaboration between the customer, Sun's software partner, its systems integrator, and Sun and Tech Access engineers, is presented as a working, fully operational prototype of the solution the client needs.

"We have the capability to do end-to-end solutions in the Centre but we don't execute high-end benchmarks," explains Molnar. "We offer proof-of-concept work. We can do full three-tier proof-of-concept projects, which can either be on high availability, clustering, storage area networks, disaster recovery, tape backups or desktop infrastructures. Of course, there are limitations on what we can do here. Obviously, we cannot string together 600 systems. We focus more on the enterprise mid-market. That is the capacity of the machines here.

The Centre is also home to some of the applications from Sun's software partners. Oracle, for instance, has about 90% of its technology running in the Centre. Since most of its products are developed on Sun, Tech Access has the privilege to get Oracle's latest technology first.

"We probably have here the most complete Oracle solutions environment outside of Redwood shores," he claims.

When asked about how effective the Centre is in convincing clients about Sun solutions, Molnar confidently claims that they haven't lost a deal yet. "The customers who have come in and physically tested the solutions have always walked away with something," he comments.

Indeed, the success of the Centre is remarkable. Tech Access's initial revenue forecast of US$300,000 per quarter, which refers to the solutions-orientated revenue where the Centre was used as part of the sales engagement, has quickly and easily been achieved. And in July of last year, the company has exceeded the target, achieving close to US$500,000 in quarterly revenues.

The Road Ahead

Moving forward, Tech Access plans to expand to other areas and markets. Already, it has established satellite offices in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Morocco. It will also continue to add more partners, introduce a series of new offerings for the mid-market sector, and take the iForce Centre's "Test before you invest" concept across the region via a showcase initiative.

"We'd like to be doing something in Saudi Arabia. That was always been the plan," says Molnar about Tech Access's ambition to establish a similar centre in the Kingdom. "Some of our partners want to mirror what we are doing here in Dubai and take it back to their own land. We will be rolling out some small programmes with some select relationships that will allow us to take specific solutions for specific markets on board a smaller version of the iForce Centre to be established in different parts of the region."

Overall, according to Cornelius, Tech Access's targets are on expansion of its market, its partners and sun's revenues.

"Our objectives going forward are to continue to provide incremental revenue for Sun and to grow Sun's partner community, specifically on the solutions side," adds Cornelius. "We want to be in a position where we have between 20 and 30 partners who are actually familiar with Sun's technology value proposition, who have comfortable working relationships with Sun's existing partner community, and who can effectively take Sun's value proposition out to market."

Another main focus for Tech Access this year is to drive Sun's Linux vision in the region.

"Linux is extremely important for Sun because it delivers a low-cost approach in providing almost-commodity services at the edge for large companies. That's an area that Sun is focusing on, and as its partner, Sun's objectives become our objectives as well," says Cornelius.

Part of its Linux strategy was to partner with local Linux communities. Tech Access aims to elevate the status of these groups by establishing them as a forum where customers can interact with people about Linux and understand its value proposition even more.

"Linux is the core product of our volume strategy. We've announced recently a set of products on the Linux OS. The role of Tech Access is to promote this new product to our partner community. The idea is to change their mindsets, re-train them, and if they don't have Linux in their portfolios, make sure that they have solutions that tie with our Linux products," adds Vougas.

Tech Access has also recently installed a team of solutions specialists in its Dubai office who will provide Sun's resellers with access to best practices expertise in key areas such as storage, disaster recovery, Web services, networking, security and backup. The team will also assist partners in implementing support level agreements to client sites, especially in cases when there are system failures.

"We're very happy with the commitment that we have with Tech Access," says Vougas. "Nowadays, you cannot find a lot of partners who are willing to invest heavily on a specific vendor. Tech Access is a partner who feels and works for you as an extension of your mindset. Both the structure of our organisations, our commitment and mindset are focused on a common goal."

"One hundred percent of our focus is committed to ensuring that our partners perform and succeed. These are our customers. For them to succeed, they need to perform. They need to achieve their objectives. Their objectives become our objectives. If they reach their objectives and their businesses grow, by default our business increases and Sun's market share increases. By then, all three have achieved their objectives," concludes Cornelius.

Partnering for tomorrow's world

NOTE: In March 2010, Fujitsu announced worldwide a new brand promise. In line with that Fujitsu Hong Kong wanted to develop a brand story that would explain the four core value propositions — human-centric, innovation, reliability and green — that encompass the new brand promise and what these means to the company's PC business. The article will be distributed to its offices across the Asia Pacific region and to relevant stakeholders, such as the media and key customers and partners.  

Given the short amount of time allocated for the project and to expedite the approval of the article by its global headquarters in Japan, Fujitsu Hong Kong wanted all the content to come directly from information derived from its company web site. The company made it clear that they want all the text to be taken verbatim from the web site. With only a brief outline as a guide, I was given free rein to find and select the information I deemed relevant and piece them together to make a cohesive and concise brand story. 

As source materials, I used press releases, company profiles, technical documents, annual reports, product brochures and various other documents.



To commemorate the 75th anniversary of its foundation, Fujitsu has created a new brand promise as a pledge to its customers: "shaping tomorrow with you".

"shaping tomorrow" reflects Fujitsu's desire to contribute to the success of its customers and to society by harnessing the power of information and communications technologies. "with you" conveys Fujitsu's customer-centric approach to business, inherent in its corporate philosophy, the FUJITSU Way. "shaping tomorrow with you", therefore, communicates Fujitsu's commitment to working with customers to bring about a prosperous future.

Significance of Brand Promise
A brand promise expresses the value a company delivers to its customers. The Fujitsu Group’s new brand promise, “shaping tomorrow with you”, articulates the importance Fujitsu places on working with its customers to contribute to their success, building long-term partnerships, and harnessing the power of information and communications technology to enable people to expand their possibilities.

One Fujitsu Strategy
Business today is increasingly fast, competitive and global, and that requires ever-greater adaptability and efficiency from a company’s IT department so as to keep cost, quality and speed in step with the needs of a global business.

“Business has become borderless. The world has become increasingly flat as more of our customers expand their business globally. Our mission must be to support the global strategies of those companies as a trusted partner. At the same time, this represents a tremendous opportunity for us. To expand on a global scale with our expertise in delivering quality, technology, and solutions, and to expand globally the bonds of trust with our customers that we have built up over many years, the entire Fujitsu Group must work together as one team,” said Masami Yamamoto, President, Fujitsu Limited.

Think Global, Act Local
Fujitsu has traditionally operated with an “Act Local” mindset, where the focus was on the specific market environments and local customer needs, and business was conducted differently in each region. This approach is extremely effective for engaging with local customers, and is an important mindset in its own right. However, this approach alone is not sufficient to continue to support growth globally. To survive in a global IT industry, the Group has also added the “Think Global” element to achieve a shared way of thinking around the globe.

Fujitsu now places a dual focus on services and products as drivers for growth, providing globally standardized products while offering sales, services and marketing support close to its customers and tailored to local needs.

The Road Ahead
Fujitsu has unified its personal computer line-up into two global product series including the LIFEBOOK notebook PC series and ESPRIMO desktop PC series which standardizes its global support structure to ensure that its PC customers receive the same high level of support and service around the world.

In tandem with the product line-up unification, Fujitsu has refreshed the product logos to reflect the attributes that underlie all of Fujitsu’s award-winning PC products: Human-Centric, Innovation, Reliability and Green.

Human-Centric
Fujitsu places the “human” in the centre of its processes. By adopting a human-centered approach, Fujitsu aims to enhance human experiences and bring comforts to lives.

Users’ typing experience is of utmost importance as Fujitsu firmly believes that the stroke on a keyboard could make a huge difference to their computing experience. Built with the users’ convenience in mind, Fujitsu designs its keyboards ergonomically; featuring keys with a concave top for easy typing, wide key for typing without a sense of inconvenience and a convex shaped keyboard for easy blind typing. 

Fujitsu has also developed the Scroll Wheel, a unique one-finger dual scroll function that allows document zoom in/out and page up/down. This innovative feature offers convenient and fast scrolling for web pages or lengthy documents.

The Raku-Raku PC* is a perfect example of Fujitsu’s human-centric design philosophy. With the concept of “easy to use”, “simple” and “secure”, the Raku-Raku PC is designed to target Japanese customers such as seniors and first time computer users. Users can easily boot their intended application just by clicking what they want to do on the “Raku-Raku Menu”, which allows starting with one click of a button. Commonly used functions such as the Internet and email are easily accessible via a special menu and a pre-installed Internet search software supports users who struggle with character input by enabling them to progress through a search by clicking the mouse. In addition, the letters on the keyboard are enlarged for easier viewing. Vowels and often-used letters are also colour-coded for easy identification.   

Raku-Raku PC 3 Series

Innovation
To ensure that Fujitsu’s computing products provide true efficiency and effectiveness for its customers, the Fujitsu Design team carefully calibrate every single item that goes into each product. Every innovation is tested to assess its usability and reliability before it is, or is not, integrated into the product.

Proving its leadership in innovation, Fujitsu has developed the world’s first PC with three types of 3D functions. The ESPRIMO FH550/3AM* is an all-in-one entertainment desktop PC and is the world’s first model to be integrated with three types of 3D functions: 3D contents viewing, conversion from 2D to 3D, and 3D contents creation. 

Over the years, Fujitsu has not only dominated the notebook computer market, but also the related technological advancements. Fujitsu is proud of its tradition of introducing new technologies into its notebook PCs. Fujitsu has been responsible for most of the “giant steps” the industry has taken. In the coming months, Fujitsu will introduce more advanced features to its range of LIFEBOOK notebook PCs such as:

• Touch Zone
  This is a second screen that allows users to handle/change the movie/image on the big screen with just a slide of a finger. This feature can be found in LIFEBOOK NH900.
• 3-way 5 Speakers 
  Featuring in LIFEBOOK NH900, high realistic and theatre-like surround sound is achieved where users can enjoy movie and music with five speakers, including tweeter and subwoofer.
• Scroll Wheel
  Unique one-finger dual scroll function is featured in LIFEBOOK MH380, SH760 and SH560. This feature allows fast zoom in/out and page up/down which users can view website easily and conveniently. This human-centric feature offers convenient scrolling for web pages or lengthy documents.
• Resistive Type Multi-touch Display
  Multi-touch functions in LIFEBOOK UH900, enables two-finger output that features handwriting recognition capability.
• LIFEBOOK Lock
  Fujitsu’s original security feature that allows users particularly today’s busy executives to set a password to secure their notebooks from unauthorised use. It is not possible to power on the PC until the button is pushed as set. There are 800,000 kinds of combination for setting the number code. It’s available in corporate models such as LIFEBOOK TH700. 

Reliability

Fujitsu has built its foundation and reputation by manufacturing most of its PCs in Japan — renowned worldwide for their quality — which guarantees customers top-level reliability. It takes a unique approach to product development which addresses the concerns of customers who are frustrated with reliability issues when using notebook PCs. Fujitsu combines innovative designs, world-class manufacturing, and rigorous testing to drive higher quality and increased reliability.

Technology improving reliability — Many Fujitsu notebooks come with a Spill-resistant Keyboard, providing users with a complete peace of mind from accidental spills. There’s also the dual system of protection that Fujitsu builds around hard drives, which helps reduce vibrations, minimize errors, and extend drive life. Some models come with intelligent 3D Shock Sensor technology that protects the hard drive from accidental bumps, vibrations, and drops that could otherwise destroy valuable data.

Service commitment - In April 2001, Fujitsu launched its Qfinity program with the goal of providing a wide range of world-class services that enhance the customer experience. 

The name Qfinity combines the “Q” of quality with the “finity” of infinity, and thus expresses the idea of pursuing quality to infinity. The Qfinity program follows the Plan, Do, Check, Act (PDCA) cycle not only in the exhaustive pursuit of functionality and enhanced reliability, but also in improving quality in many aspects of work, including customer response, product delivery, and costs. 

In order to achieve the highest stability and quality while fulfilling the various certifications, Fujitsu LIFEBOOK and Tablet PCs are tested and evaluated in the company’s own certified test centres. Quality tests include:

• Drop test — ensures notebooks are durable and can withstand impact from accidental falls. 
• Shock test — ensures notebooks can withstand shock impact while maintaining functionality.
• Vibration test — ensures notebooks are resistant and enduring even if subjected to rigorous vibrations. 
• Concentrated pressure test on LCD cover — ensures screens do not crack or break easily under moderate pressure. 
• Open-and-shut test — hinges are tested to exceed a lifespan of opening and closing. 
• Repeated pressure test — a specified load is repeatedly imposed on. notebooks to make sure that all keyboard parts are unaffected by the loads
• Connector tension test — durability of connector ports is tested on respective interfaces such as AC adaptor, USB, PS/2 and PC card. Testing involves repeated insertion and removal, and pulling of cables with considerable force. 

Green
Fujitsu recognizes that the environment is a vitally important business issue and takes its corporate citizenship responsibilities seriously. This includes providing more environmentally-friendly products and services and extends to the ongoing pursuit of green activities in every area of its operations. Fujitsu observes all environmental regulations in its business operations and actively pursues environmental protection activities on its own initiative. 

Developing plant-based plastics - Fujitsu has developed a new plant-based plastic with better heat resistance, and has incorporated it into its notebook computer model where it forms 70% of the notebook’s case. Based on corn and caster oil plant bean to PC housing, Fujitsu helps save oil resources and reduce greenhouse gas emission.

In addition to plant-based plastics, Fujitsu is incorporating other advanced environmentally-friendly materials to its LIFEBOOK, such as: 

• Magnesium alloy (the first in the world)
• Halogen-free plastic
• Recyclable painting
• Chrome-free copper plate
• Recycled plastic
• Mercury-free and energy-efficient back-light LED that allows for brilliant viewing and enables longer battery life. Without using mercury and low power consumption, the back-light LED contributes to environment conservation
• ECO Button (shift to power saving mode), a one-touch button that shifts the PC into power saving mode.

Promoting product recycling - Fujitsu recognizes the responsibility of manufacturers to process end-of-life IT products appropriately, and it began the recycling of business IT products in Japan in 1995, well before the legal requirements for such recycling were enacted.

Using this as an opportunity, Fujitsu has worked proactively to construct recycling systems for end-of-life IT products outside Japan as well. As of fiscal year 2007, Fujitsu has constructed its own recycling systems in Europe, North America (the US and Canada) and Asia (Singapore, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Australia).

Fujitsu has committed to the promotion of a cleaner environment and complies with the European Union’s Restriction of Hazardous Substances directive (RoHS) across its products. In addition, Fujitsu has established a set of commitments that goes beyond RoHS requirements, thus allowing it to stay keenly focused on its customers’ health and well-being as well as to embrace a healthier environment for all. By adopting a green factory concept and being committed to the cause of energy-efficient computing, Fujitsu also fights to sustain the Earth as a sponsor and a member of the Climate Savers Computing Initiative.

The Infinity Mark

Fujitsu is a name trusted by customers worldwide to deliver quality, reliability and affordability. The central Infinity circles of the Fujitsu’s Infinity Mark, symbolizing “earth” and “sun”, represent the ever-evolving technology and the infinite possibilities of Fujitsu and its customers. 

A Quick History of Fujitsu PC
The company’s strong history of quality, service excellence and innovation dates back to 1981 when it introduced its first personal computers. That was followed by the FM TOWNS with image processing capabilities in 1989. 

In October 1993, Fujitsu changed direction and introduced its first IBM PC/AT-compatible computer. The release of the FMV series in 1995, pre-installed with all the necessary software, was a turning point for Fujitsu’s personal computer business. With the FMV, Fujitsu aimed to become a major player in the personal computer market.

Thus, Fujitsu ventured beyond the business-use computers into the personal computer market. Strong profits from the semiconductor division at the time propelled Fujitsu to make this jump.

Fujitsu PC Milestones

• 1981 – Introduced Fujitsu’s first personal computer, FM-8, and its first business-use personal computer, FACOM9450
• 1984 – FACOM K series led small business computer market
• 1989 – Unveiled FM-TOWNS 32-bit “hyper-media” personal computer
• 1993 – Introduced FMV Series of personal computers supporting Microsoft Windows
• 1995 – Released FMV-BIBLO, B5-size software preinstalled notebook computer
• 1999 – Announced Fujitsu Siemens Computers, a joint venture with Germany-based Siemens AG
• 2001 – Released FMV-BIBLO LOOX, world’s first mobile computer offering built-in 64Kbps wireless data transmission
• 2002 – Announced expansion of global alliance with Microsoft and pioneered the use of energy-efficient, biodegradable plastic in notebook computers
• 2006 – Delivered castor oil-based biodegradable plastic

Awards Received
Over the years, Fujitsu has garnered numerous awards from internationally acclaimed publications. This has led to the further explore the sphere of avant-garde PCs, to meet the expectations of users of which they have not yet realized they actually have.

Some of the awards Fujitsu have received for its notebook PCs include:

• Good Design Award 2009: Fujitsu Notebook PC FMV-BIBLO R Series (LIFEBOOK P8110)
• Good Design Award 2009: Fujitsu Tablet PC STYLISTIC TB15/B 
• IF Award 2007: Ultra-mobile PC concept
• Good Design Award 2006/IF Award 2007/Red Dot Design Award 2007: LIFEBOOK Q Series 
• Good Design Award 2006/IF Award 2007: LIFEBOOK P Series
• Good Design Award 2006,2007: LIFEBOOK S Series
• Good Design Award 2007/IF Award 2007: LIFEBOOK T Series

A LIFEBOOK for Every Need
Customers can choose from a wide selection of LIFEBOOK models, ranging from the all-round LIFEBOOK A Series to the ultra-portable LIFEBOOK P Series for frequent travellers, and the superior lightweight LIFEBOOK S Series.

Over the last 20 years Fujitsu has consistently used the LIFEBOOK to showcase groundbreaking first-to-market features, such as the first notebook with embedded 3G/UMTS technology, the first modular notebook, and the first use of eco-friendly system parts made from plant-based materials. Across the entire LIFEBOOK line-up, customers can expect industry-leading reliability, state-of-the-art connectivity and the highest security, even including Advanced Theft Protection to make sure that data stays secure.

• LIFEBOOK S Series
  Exude style, quality and excellence with the LIFEBOOK S Series. Among the thinnest and lightest notebooks in the world, they are both lightweight and powerful. The LIFEBOOK S Series is also a stylish mobile companion that offers affordable high performance with a host of user-friendly features that go beyond good looks
• LIFEBOOK U Series
  Revolutionize the way you work, play and entertain with the LIFEBOOK U Series. Delivering robust computing capabilities anywhere you go, take the leap into ultra mobility with the LIFEBOOK U Series.
• LIFEBOOK T Series
  Whether you’re working while on-the-go or jotting down important meeting highlights, have the flexibility whenever you want it. Usable as a Tablet PC or notebook, the LIFEBOOK T Series offers the ultimate in flexibility and power.
• LIFEBOOK P Series
  The LIFEBOOK P Series’ light and elegant design makes it particularly appealing to those who want to travel with light and stylish notebooks.
• LIFEBOOK M Series 
  Targeted at young professionals for leisure and productivity, the LIFEBOOK M Series embraces style and function completely. This range is thoughtfully crafted to meet your needs: always on-the-go and always the best to answer user-friendliness and technological capabilities.
• LIFEBOOK L Series
  The LIFEBOOK L Series is the stylish companion ideally suited to make any Generation Y-er outclass and outperform his or her peers.  It’s a trustworthy solution that caters to your daily essential usage without being hard on your pockets.
• LIFEBOOK E Series
  The LIFEBOOK E Series offers you the extensive features of a secure notebook with excellent performance. Equipped with crystal clear display screens plus the capability for high graphics performance, this range is truly top of the line.
• LIFEBOOK A Series
  The LIFEBOOK A Series is a value-priced yet full-featured notebook for the consumer as well as the business user. From powerful processing technology to a comprehensive connectivity suite, it’s a truly well-equipped system that would not overwork your budget.

Disclaimers:
* ESPRIMO FH550/3AM and Raku Raku PC is solely sold in Japan only.

Trouble in storage

Storage vendors are promising ever-more complex solutions — yet customers say they don't understand their needs or the business issues that need to be resolved


Storage is one of IT's biggest cash cows these days. With the continuous growth of data volume, coupled with new international mandates for companies to keep data for a certain period of time, it's hardly surprising to see why the market is booming. However, while everything looks positive and rosy for vendors, IT managers in the meantime are in a conundrum. Thrown on their shoulders is the heavy burden of balancing the management of swelling storage demand and shrinking IT budgets — and it's a load they're struggling to carry.

This problem was highlighted at the recent StorageWorld event where keynote speaker Jon William Toigo, the managing principal and chief executive officer of Toigo Partners International, pointed out the biggest problems in the market today. For one, he said a lot of storage deployments do not effectively address the business issues they are supposed to resolve. He finds that often times, vendor offerings prevail against customer requirement. It's a problem that both vendors and customers have to be blamed for, he stressed.

Toigo said vendors fail to understand what their customers real storage needs are, while customers are not proactive enough to impose their choice of solutions.

"The reason why storage infrastructure is in such a terrible shape is because customers let them get that way. They didn't demand of the vendor exactly what they wanted," Toigo told IT Weekly.

Several customers who attended the show seemed to agree with Toigo. According to Shoukri Yaghi, head of operation section, information systems department at Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the notion that bigger is better is not always the case for them.

"We don't need to bring in solutions] bigger than what we need. For instance, when we only need 1Tbytes of storage capacity, a vendor will sell us 10Tbytes, which we don't need yet," Yaghi said.

Osman Tantawy admitted that, as senior manager of Vodafone Egypt Telecommunications' procurement and logistics department, he has had his fair share of vendors pitching solutions he deems are not needed by his company.

"For every supply, you have to have a demand. Yes, there is a push but sometimes also there is a pull. It depends. Vendors are pushing [their products]," Tantawy said. "[And] it's up to us to absorb, stop, think and then act."

"Most of the vendors try to sell their ready-made boxes. They are not into certain ideas of change and customisation for the customers. Customers' needs differ; the needs of the telecom industry are different than others. But why do they sell the same box everywhere?" added Tantawy.

Careful selection is the key. However, that is considered a luxury for most IT managers who tend to have limited manpower. Devoting people for the sole purpose of reviewing every single storage solution available in the market is not just possible, said Fawaz Bassim , manager, technology and product development, Wataniya Telecom. Without enough resources to allocate, customers tend to stick to a select number of IT suppliers — those who they have previously dealt with and who have somehow delivered satisfactory results. 

Although this is not an ideal practice — as a vendor can be strong in one are of the industry but not in others — Bassim said he is often left without a choice.

"When you make a decision you look at how it's going to integrate with existing systems, but it's always a lot easier to buy from the same company because we don't have enough resources," Bassim explained. "We don't have enough R&D facility to check different platforms."

The issue of deciding between availability and necessity is just the tip of a bigger problem. Standards and interoperability are, unsurprisingly, among customers' major complaints. There is no proper storage planning in place; the tendency for most customers is to add more disk or tape capacities when the need arises, hence resulting to over-subscription and under-utilisation.

"We need standards. It's very important, especially for virtualisation. There's so much talk about it and there's not a single way of implementing virtualisation," said Bassim. "I really believe that virtualisation will help us a lot to cut down our operational costs, cut down the way we provision our storage, and cut down the time we take to do our day-to-day activities."

"However, we have not seen a single approach. I would like to invite all five big vendors right now to come over and tell me how to implement virtualisation in a multi-platform environment," Bassim added.

"I am an HP company but I also have Sun and Siemens systems. I need to integrate these systems with each other, but how? I don't know how. I don't have time to do my homework. They have to tell me how. They have to do it. This is the issue."

"Deliver on what they are saying. It's very hard for us to complete an RFQ (request for quote) exactly stating all our needs when there are always a lot of things that are not there. They [vendors] will always tell you, 'Yes, it's in my roadmap' or 'It's available later on' or 'You have to pay extra for it'," complained Bassim.

"We would like to make strategic relationship with our suppliers, but they have to realise that they shouldn't be pushy with the little things they haven't started yet."

There are so many things that can go wrong when rolling out and operating complex storage deployments. thee need for proper storage strategeis is in order. But until integration concerns are  addressed, accomplishing the true objectives of a data management platform will but remain a pipe dream.

So you want to be an Olympic sponsor?

Hoffman Hong Kong’s Caroline Reynon takes a look at the high stakes of sponsorship at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing (Click here to see article.)


In terms of sheer size and global recognition, the Olympics is, by far, one of the biggest and most lucrative sporting events in the world. Its ability to command the focus of the media and the attention of the entire world is incomparable.

With such influence, the Olympics has become more than just a grand congregation of athletes from all over the world. It has been virtually transformed from a venue of friendly sports competition into a major marketing spectacle.

Companies have realized the brand value of the Olympics and they have been attracted by its strong marketing power. During the past three Olympic quadrennials, marketing revenue generated by the International Olympic Committee has been on a steady increase.

But never has the attraction to be associated with the Olympics been so great as when Beijing was selected as Olympic host. The motivation for sponsorship in the Beijing Olympics goes far beyond linking one’s organization with the Olympics brand and the ideals it promotes, such as excellence and victory. What drives organizations to tie up with the upcoming Olympics is the opportunity to strengthen their presence in the China market.

Sponsors are hoping to leverage the marketing exposure they have in Beijing to further establish their brands in China. Because all eyes will be on the Olympics come August, the event provides a rare but very important venue for companies to quickly get their message across the country’s vast consumer market.

At the Top of the List

Getting such a significant amount of coverage, though, comes at a very high price. Just ask Coca-Cola, McDonald’s or Samsung, to name a few of the 11 brands that each paid several million dollars to become a member of the elite TOP (The Olympic Partners) program for the Beijing Olympics.

TOP is the crème de la crème of Olympics partnership. Agreements under the TOP program are for four years, including one Olympics Winter Games and one Olympics Summer Games. Companies, in return, are granted exclusive global marketing rights, including the use of all Olympic imagery.

Just how much money do TOP program members spend? Well, for the four years ending this August, sponsors have each paid US$866 million in cash and “value-in-kind” goods and services for the right to associate their names with the Olympics.

Other Options

For those companies with smaller marketing budgets, there are other sponsorship categories to consider, including the OCOG (Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games) sponsorship, which gives the sponsor Olympic marketing rights within the host country or territory only.

Another type of sponsorship is the NOC (National Olympic Committee) program. It is managed by local Olympic Committees that support their country’s sports development and national Olympic teams. These programs grant marketing rights within the NOC country or territory only. The U.S. Olympic Team, for instance, is being sponsored by AT&T, Bank of America, General Motors, The Home Depot and Anheuser-Busch this year.

If sponsorship is not in the cards for your company, then you can apply as an Olympics supplier or look at various licensing options available.

The Indirect Route

Becoming a top partner, sponsor or supplier for the Olympics requires some licensing fees. For companies that do not want to take a direct Olympics marketing approach, there are other indirect ways of associating their campaigns with the event.

One such unique initiative is the Virtual Plus Reality Challenge, which was created by Dassault Systemes, a longtime client of The Hoffman Agency. The Virtual Plus Reality Challenge, in partnership with Sports Without Borders, is a five-month charity run covering more than 6,000 miles (10,000 kilometers). The company is sponsoring seasoned marathon runner Philippe Fuchs, who is attempting the ambitious run, that starts in Paris and ends in Beijing in time for the Summer Olympics in August.

What makes the Virtual Plus Reality Challenge a one-of-a-kind race is not only the fact that it is an unprecedented event but also that it incorporates some of Dassault Systemes’ 3-D solutions. The company has developed a dedicated Web site that allows Fuchs’ supporters to monitor his progress. Equipped with many advanced 3-D functions, the Web site lets Internet users check Philippe’s real-time position via a geolocation interface based on phone or satellite communications, monitor his biometric data and watch video commentary on his cardiac performance. Fuchs also gives multimedia updates via his 3-D avatar and Dassault Systemes’ online TVnima broadcast application.

On top of Fuchs’ Paris-Beijing run, Dassault Systemes has also introduced a virtual team relay in support of Sports Without Borders, which runs from March to August this year. The virtual marathon is open to individuals around the globe and is made possible via an innovative viral application developed by Dassault Systemes on Facebook. Internet users who want to participate in the game can upload their personal photos onto Facebook, which will generate each participant’s 3-D avatar. Virtual runners can also select a virtual running environment from a photo library of more than 100 images. They can invite Facebook friends to participate in the race as well. Each group of friends that joins gets to see a video of their virtual runs. At the end of the race, Dassault Systemes will feature the longest and funniest videos, in a Virtual Relay Hall of Fame, which will be set up on a dedicated Web site.

Another Hoffman client, Irdeto, has taken a more low-key PR strategy focused on mobile TV, which will make its debut in China during the Olympics. The company has focused its efforts on developing key marketing messages that will highlight its expertise in mobile TV protection, and in actively pitching to the media story ideas related to mobile TV.

The Finish Line

The stakes are high for any company that decides to invest in the Beijing Olympics campaign, but the payoff for those who dare can be even greater. As the world’s fastest growing economy, China is expected to be home to a large middle class with significant spending power by 2025.

While they know that the Beijing Games will not give them back their investments immediately, companies are looking at the long-term potential. The Olympic Games in Beijing set the stage for companies to influence the Chinese market, and they are hoping that once the country’s consumers get a taste of foreign brands, the appetite for those brands could be insatiable … and that’s when they’ll know their efforts have been properly rewarded.

Region missing out on IT boon

Gartner chief: Middle East lacks innovation and risk takers

The Middle East is missing out on the global opportunities of the ICT boom because of a lack of innovation and risk taking in the region, a leading expert has warned. While the region is seeing expansion in a number of areas, it is "lagging behind" in the IT sector, Tony Murphy, vice president, Gartner Consulting Europe told IT Weekly in an exclusive interview.

While Murphy's home country of Ireland, with a population of 3.5 million people, makes an estimated US$40 billion a year from the export of IT products and services, the entire Middle East exports account for only a fraction of that, he pointed out.

Murphy blames cultural issues for the region's failure to make the most of IT. "One of the issues is that in many Arab countries you'll find that there's a structure whereby there isn't a highly competitive or open economy," he claimed.

"A lot of people make a lot of money by being intermediaries. There isn't the same incentive to invest and to take risks in developing and deploying advanced IT."

Murphy, a leading consultant in the strategic exploitation of IT, is currently working with several government bodies in the region to identify how the Middle East can effectively create a knowledge economy.

Among other problems, he cited the prevalence of quasi-nepotism — where favoured people are the ones who normally win the contract — as a factor which holds back the region.

"There are favoured people... that tends to undermine the drive to be innovative and competitive because if you feel that you are going to provide the best and most cost-effective solution, and yet you are not going to get the deal, it's self evident that you are not going to put the effort," Murphy said. "There has to be some sort of cultural change."

Such cultural change is happening in the UAE, Murphy said, and he hopes other countries will do the same.

Murphy urged the region to act quickly in addressing the concerns he mentioned in order to benefit from business opportunities, such as technical help desks and call centres specific to Arab-speaking people, Arabisation of software — which Murphy said is mostly happening outside the Middle East — and the development of Arabic or Islamic web content.

Other figures in the region support Murphy's views. Morten Kvammen, chief operating offices of Injazat Technology Fund, said the lack of infrastructure  to support innovation means the region is lagging behind global drivers such as the US.

"Countries that are really driving global IT development have a whole infrastructure that supports innovation. They have companies with people and resources that are focused in that area. They have education and research institutions, and significant funding for research. More importantly, they have a funding infrastructure that allows entrepreneurs and innovators to go out and get funding from the market," he claimed.

According to Kvammen, Injazat Technology Fund, a venture capital company that targets technology companies, aims to provide the same environment for local entrepreneurs. "We're trying to build a similar infrastructure in the region through our activities... but if you reflect on all the factors I just mentioned, you will see that this region does not necessarily have a lot of the things that would support a very high level of technology and innovation," he said.

However, Kamran Hussein, vice president of sales at Tech Access, said he has seen such issues occur in the past, but he believes that the state of the IT sector in the Middle East is improving. "The issue of not having an equal level playing field was true to an extent some time ago, but now we are genuinely seeing organisations respond and win tenders based on the merits of their response alone," he claimed.