New Lenovo Spare Parts Hub
Lenovo has established a spare parts hub in the UAE for Lenovo’s ThinkPad and ThinkCentre products, in a move to enhance the company’s presence in the regional market. The hub will serve as a strategic resource for critical parts to be identified and stocked locally, and disbursed to Lenovo Business Partners.
“Lenovo is putting in the investment and the resources to ensure that customers in the region receive the best possible support,” said Imtiaz Ghani, GM, Lenovo MEEP. “Today in the Middle East, we are offering our customers the full range of ThinkPad notebooks and ThinkCentre desktops that feature the ThinkVantage Technologies software tools as well as ThinkVision monitors and a full line of PC accessories and options. The size and scale of the regional PC market demands the availability of critical parts close at hand.”
The Dubai-based Lenovo hub will provide fast delivery for the majority of Middle East countries. The stock of ThinkPad and ThinkCentre parts will be replenished on a regular basis from the Netherlands.
10 Best International Web Support Sites
The Localization Industry Standards Association (LISA) and the Association of Support Professionals (ASP) have announced the winners of the first annual 10 Best International Web Support Sites Awards. Open to sites providing support in at least two languages besides that of their home market, the awards recognize excellence in providing web-based support around the world. Selected by a panel of expert judges based on a set of five broad criteria, the winners of this year’s awards are (in alphabetical order): ATI, Dell, HP (Global Consumer Operations), HP (IT Resource Center), Intel, McAfee, Microsoft, Sony, ViaTraining and Xilinx.
LISA’s report on these sites is available from www.lisa.org. The report addresses the techniques and methods used by this year’s winners to develop their international support sites. Readers will learn how to effectively implement a global support strategy, how various organizations have responded to their customers’ support needs, and how to use their international sites to reduce support costs and increase brand loyalty.
The support sites of these companies highlight the recent trend to provide full-spectrum support to international customers and the still-increasing importance of the web in reaching the non-English user base that was traditionally ignored by companies. As companies have seen significant portions of their revenues generated overseas, they have come to realize the importance of Internet support in meeting market demands cost-effectively and in actively supporting customers and partners.
Upcoming Webcasts of Cisco Events
In February, Cisco will be participating in several events of interest with the financial community. Interested parties can view these events on www.cisco.com/go/investors.
Cisco EMEA Investor Day will kick off in London on Feb. 21 at 08:55 GMT. Various Cisco executive speakers will be presenting at the Investor Day. This event will be followed on Feb. 28 in Phoenix with John Chambers, president and CEO of Cisco, speaking at the Goldman Sachs Technology Investment Symposium at 19:00 GMT.
Nortel and Huawei to Establish Joint Venture
Nortel and Huawei Technologies have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the intent to establish a joint venture for developing ultra broadband access solutions for markets around the world. The two companies have also entered into a supply agreement that allows Nortel to immediately begin engaging customers with Huawei’s current industry-leading broadband access portfolio.
Total revenues for the global broadband access equipment market approached $9 billion in 2005 and included a $1 billion IP-DSLAM segment that is forecast to reach nearly $2 billion in 2008, according to Dell’Oro Group. Huawei is ranked as the world’s No. 1 vendor of IP-DSLAM ports for the last seven quarters and currently holds the No. 1 and No. 2 position for BB-DLC voice and DSL ports respectively.
The new company will combine Huawei’s market leading broadband access solutions with Nortel’s voice and broadband networking technologies to create a new product portfolio designed to be a leader in the industry in value and performance. These products will give service providers the ability to converge the delivery of voice, video, data and wireless services to business and residential customers onto a common IP platform that supports copper, fiber and fixed wireless networks.
The parties intend that the joint venture will be majority-owned by Nortel and headquartered in Ottawa. The joint venture will be focused on product enhancements for Huawei’s current broadband access portfolio and the development of a new ultra broadband product portfolio. This portfolio will be sold exclusively to Huawei and Nortel as channel providers.
“We believe the cooperation with Nortel, a leader in the telecommunications industry, will enable us to create greater value for our customers,” said Yafang Sun, chairwoman of Huawei. “The joint venture will combine Huawei and Nortel’s advanced technologies and products, to create leading broadband access solutions to meet customers’ needs. It will bring better value to our existing and potential customers.”
“Nortel is focused on seizing opportunities that will generate new revenue and expand operating margin. This joint venture is a bold opportunity to combine the strengths of Huawei and Nortel into a company that can aggressively target and win share in the rapidly expanding ultra broadband market,” said Mike Zafirovski, president and CEO, Nortel. “This will create a powerful new player in what is a high growth market.”
Nortel and Huawei expect to complete the formation of the joint venture in the third quarter of 2006. Joint development of products has already begun, with availability expected for all markets by the third quarter of 2006.