In bid to win enterprise hearts, Samsung unveils showcase centre: Page 2 of 2

Committed to enterprise space
 
Samsung has 203 offices and facilities across 75 countries, with over 227,000 employees worldwide. It reported revenues of US$187.9 billion in 2012. It set up operations in Malaysia in 2003, and now has over 600 employees here.
 
The company said it has also increased its investment in Malaysia, including headcount and other resources, but declined to provide further details.
 
“In the enterprise space, the number one thing is customer service. Clients want to be reassured that on top of being able to provide a solution, that you are also there to support them,” Varinderjit said.
 
He highlighted the fact that for its corporate customers in Malaysia, it offers nationwide coverage for support along with a Pick Up & Return service for hardware maintenance or repair.
 
“Samsung Enterprise is really addressing true end-to-end solutions for enterprises and we are in a position to be able to do that. The offerings we have, really puts us ahead of the game,” he said.
 
For the coming year, the company is targeting 5% of its business to come from the enterprise sector and by 2020, to have its enterprise division account for 23% of overall revenue.

The company has about 1,000 partners in Malaysia, which the Enterprise Business Division has classified into high, medium or low priority depending on how suitable their solutions are for the enterprise market.

When asked for his opinion on Samsung’s Enterprise offerings and business goals, Clement Teo, senior analyst at Forrester Research, noted that the target was ambitious but may be met, especially via the Korean market share of revenues.

“The problem with showcases is the need to look beyond the 'glam factor' -- of course, everything looks great and works at the Solutions Experience Centre. When faced with competitors like Cisco, Huawei, IBM, Lenovo and Fujitsu however, Samsung needs to showcase customer wins to be convincing, especially customers from outside its home country,” he said.

According to Teo, Samsung is still nascent in the enterprise market -- except for its home solutions -- and apart from its mobile device prowess, the other bits of its enterprise business look to be about equal to other vendors in the market.

“The challenge is to convince their channel partners to recommend the enterprise solutions when these channels have so many other brands to push as well. Samsung must develop an attractive and appealing channel programme, and also deliver a level of differentiated value to potential customers,” he said.
 
When asked what challenges the company must first overcome in order to achieve its reported goal of taking a leadership position in the market,Teo said that Samsung’s Enterprise Division needs to be more visible.
 
“The key task is to gain more mind share, and invest in growing their sales presence in Asia and globally. They also need to take a deliberate effort to distinguish themselves from their consumer division,” he said.

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