DUBAI, 18 April 2006 — Fujitsu Siemens Computers (FSC) posted record revenue of 6.7 billion euros for 2005, with the Middle East and Africa proving to be the fastest growing region for the IT giant. That noted, FSC is still far from unseating other top international IT vendors who have a long history in Saudi Arabia. In the GCC, the company is strongest in Dubai, where they have a well-established physical presence. As for competing in the Saudi market, it’s only been in the last four years or so that FSC put forward serious plans to make inroads in the Kingdom.
“Our strategy in the Middle East over the last three years was to push our brand and to let the consumers and SMBs know our brand,” said Habib Bouchrara, Fujitsu Siemens Computers’ VP, ME, Africa and Turkey. “Today you ask people what is Fujitsu Siemens and they say mobile PCs. We recognize also that initially we were stronger in some countries than in others. For example, in Dubai we have an established team. In the last year and a half we decided to invest more and more in Saudi Arabia with FSC people sitting there, not only partners.”
Fujitsu Siemens Computers’ GM for the Middle East Stephane Rejasse picked up the discussion. “The first step to be successful in Saudi Arabia is not only to invest on our own but to bring our partners along. It’s a co-responsibility,” he said. “Putting Fujitsu Siemens people into the market allows us to have a better understanding of the market on the one hand and also to work with the larger enterprises. Consumers and small businesses are happy to deal with our local partners. Enterprise clients are very keen to talk directly to a representative of the vendor. Enterprises do understand that they will not buy directly from the vendor but at least they insist to talk to the international vendor and have a relationship at that level.”
FSC has been working hard for the past few years to promote its products targeting consumers and SMBs, and the company has found success in the retail space. For the products focusing on the higher corporate level though, more needs to be done.
“When it comes to professional items, our partners need to see a demand to carry inventory,” explained Rejasse. “This is where it is necessary to invest as a brand to generate more demand on the professional side. We are talking to big corporations in Saudi Arabia. We believe that if we can convince one or two of them to go with out products, this will show a strong positive signal to the market.”
Why should any enterprise already dealing with known suppliers and products consider taking a look at what FSC has to offer? Rejasse asserted that FSC’s “differentiator for businesses is our technology.” It must be acknowledged, however, that this is a line journalists and businessmen hear from every IT vendor in the Kingdom’s marketplace.
“We aren’t just saying that our technology is superior,” emphasized Rejasse. “We are demonstrating it and proving it. We have won many awards now for our cutting-edge technologies in our Lifebook products. When it comes to cost of ownership, when it comes to downtime, we can demonstrate that our products are superior. We have a three-year warranty on the entire range. As for the tablet PC, we invented the concept and we are still ahead of the competition. Look at our laptops for mobile executives, we don’t want to have a three kilo machine on a business person’s shoulder. Instead by using a notebook in our Lifebook P series an executive can carry an extremely powerful computer that weighs one kilo. The battery in that notebook will work for nine hours. This is where technology makes a difference.”
But it’s not enough. FSC believes that technology alone isn’t the key to success in this market. In the Middle East, corporate customers are demanding service levels on par with those offered in western Europe. FSC has been hesitant to make the leap into Saudi Arabia’s enterprise sector until the company was certain that it could provide the required support for its offerings.
“In Dubai, we have a service partner carrying every spare part for all the models of Fujitsu Siemens machines sold across the Middle East. Any service partner in the Middle East can receive a required spare part within 24 hours,” said Bouchrara. “I should mention that our local service partners in Saudi Arabia do carry a stock of spare parts as well. Our partners focus on specific service sectors, which enables them to effectively target their spare parts inventories. For example, in Saudi Arabia, Naizak is fully empowered and certified to provide service to enterprise customers.”
Additionally, FSC has brought the “Smart Hands” service concept, to the Middle East. Smart Hands, which focuses on strategic hardware and operating maintenance, utilizes a central bank of highly trained service engineers assisted by on-the-ground support through local partners. Developed for all PRIMEPOWER server systems, Smart Hands mixes automation, manual support and recognition methods to continually identify and diagnose problems.
As a starting point, with Smart Hands, a company’s servers are programmed to run predefined system checks to determine potential problems and, if found, the server automatically places a call to the Central Service Factory detailing the problem. Based in Germany and consisting of a core of leading FSC trained experts, the Central Service Factory then diagnoses the problem, which usually takes under one hour. Depending on the nature of the problem, either the Central Service Factory technicians can fix it online, or the local on-ground support team will be sent to repair part failures and initiate hardware exchange.
To ensure quality, FSC has trained its Middle East partners’ field engineers to deal with any hands-on repair. In addition, all local field engineers are guided by a Central Support Engineer in Germany who, if necessary, makes the required administrative system encroachments via remote control. To further increase hands-on efficiency, a spare parts logistics operation also ensures that an agreed spare part kit, tailored to the customer’s system environment, is always available. While acting as a repair service, “Smart Hands” also allows Fujitsu Siemens Computers’ Central Service Factory technicians to regularly update and maintain customer software through its online Back Level Support program.
“We have to face it that we are a challenger in this market, but we are on track to meet our goals,” said Bouchrara. “We are not No. 1 but we think we have unique solutions to offer enterprises. Our service systems are ready. Now we plan to have two FSC representatives in the Kingdom to evangelize our technologies, services and solutions to the enterprise sector. Our goal is to be among the Top 3 IT vendors — not PC vendors, not mobile vendors, but IT vendors. This is because we consider ourselves closer to companies such as HP or IBM rather than a vendor such as Acer, because of our range of products. In order to play seriously in all the lines, consumer, SMB and enterprise, we need to be prepared.”
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