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Emerson Takes Lovelace With Account

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Emerson Network Power Australia has appointed Steve Lovelace to the position of New South Wales Channel Account Manager.

Lovelace joins Emerson following a three-year spell at Ingram Micro where he was responsible for managing the Liebert product portfolio. He has total of seven years experience in the Australian IT channel.

The appointment follows Emerson’s decision to move its national distribution from Ingram Micro to LAN Systems, a move Lovelace says is consistent with the company’s current channel direction.

Lovelace will be responsible for all channel activities in NSW for Emerson’s Liebert range of Micro Uninterruptible Power System (UPS) products, assisting resellers with a range of services including technical support and bid preparation.

“LAN Systems is widely regarded as a channel leader for Cisco, and given our close engineering partnership with Cisco the move to LAN is a logical one for us,” said Lovelace. “It’s also consistent with our focus on power protection for newer technologies like IP telephony, where Liebert has developed Cisco-compatible products for mission-critical applications in the SMB space.”

“We’re delighted to have Steve on board full time,” said Bob Daniel, Managing Director, Emerson Network Power Australia. “Steve’s experience in the channel is second-to-none, and he’s already proven his proficiency with Liebert during his time at Ingram. I personally look forward to Steve’s input in growing our channel presence in the region.”

Fuji Xerox And Iconiq Team Up For Retail Printing

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Fuji Xerox Printers has entered into a strategic partnership with West Australian company Iconiq, a provider of consumer messaging solutions for corporate retailers, to provide an Iconiq branded Managed Print Service (MPS) program to retailers.

Under this partnership, Iconiq will offer retailers its SignIQ in-store signage and labeling solution in conjunction with Fuji Xerox Printers PagePack MPS technology.


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Known as PageIQ, this customised MPS program provides customers with a fixed price per page cost model for printing in-house.  Customers are only charged a fixed cost per page, irrespective of how much toner or other consumables are used, making the cost of printing more predictable, visible to business owners and also easier to manage.

Tom Lewis, Marketing Manager of Fuji Xerox Printers said, “Our partnership with Iconiq means retailers can now enjoy the benefits of printing in-house with a Fuji Xerox printer at an affordable price.  Iconiq’s PageIQ provides business owners a competitive advantage as they do not have to worry about the capital investment associated with hardware purchases.  Retailers can now expand their printing fleet according to their business needs.”

Michael Ursino, Director of Iconiq said, “We partnered with Fuji Xerox Printers after a detailed consultative process where we worked together to develop a unique solution for the retail industry.  Iconiq chose Fuji Xerox Printers as they offer a full range of business-grade devices that produce high quality in-store signage and materials very quickly.”

 

Iconiq’s customers include Woolworths, Terry White Chemists, bottle shop chains – Celebrations and Bottle O, portofolio that Ursino is keen to expand.

He notes that this solution is all about is all about “helping retailers become cost-effective and will allow them to have total control of both quality and cost of their printing”.

Ursino added, “Having access to colour laser printers means retailers have total control over the speed and quality of print jobs.  While these have traditionally been the major drawbacks of colour printing in-house, the Iconiq PageIQ program addresses these issues while also offering many other solutions.”

In terms why Iconiq chose Fuji Xerox, Ursino was complimentary. “We found that Fuji Xerox was the only company that was able to provide an end to end solution. We have worked with other printing solution providers, but none were able to match what Fuji Xerox can offer”, noted Ursino.

And Fuji Xerox’s Lewis pointed out that, “What we are providing is a wholesale program for resale. This is a bundled solution for the reseller and the retailer will be charged directly by Iconiq on the basis of page counts”.

QuickBooks Goes Online For The iPhone

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According to macworld.com, QuickBooks Online for the iPhone has been released, which allows the viewing of all financial information from iPhone’s Safari web browser.


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Intuit’s latest web-based service for tracking expenses, paying bills, and creating invoices, QuickBooks Online is designed for “storing information on bank accounts, employee information, customers and vendors”, according to the Macworld report.
Moreover, a Profit & Loss section for viewing of income and expenses for multiple time periods, such as the last month, quarter, year, or month-, quarter-, and year-to-date is also available, the report notes.

The QuickBooks Online web interface is able to integrate with several of the iPhone’s other applications, like the Maps application, although the report also mentions that the editing of information via the iPhone interface is not possible.

However, one potential hiccup is that “QuickBooks Online requires a Windows-based machine running Internet Explorer”, but Intuit has said that the company is “working on making the service Mac-friendly. In the meantime, the service is limited to those Mac users who also have PCs, or use Windows on solutions such as Boot Camp and virtualization products like Parallels Desktop and VMWare Fusion”, according to macworld.com.

Dell Fights To Maintain Share

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Direct vendor Dell Australia is fighting back in the fourth quarter as third placed Acer threatens to over take it in the client PC stakes.

Dell Computer Australia is discounting heavily in November and December targeting business and consumers with heavy discounts across arrange of machines and display products. A series of special deals run over short periods seems designed to clear out older components suggesting either an inventory build up or some special pricing obtained from component vendors including Intel.

Low system prices using slightly dated processors are proving a boon for buyers, while price cutting on large LCD displays could attract holiday shoppers looking for well priced large format PC monitors.

The aggressive pricing comes after a 3rd Quarter pasting from number three player Acer Computers, which gained marketshare on the direct vendor in the desktop and notebook space. Dell is also under pressure from the increased number of notebook players including ASUS and BenQ which entered the market last year.

IDC PC hardware analyst Michael Sager said that Dell’s aggressive market stance was not that unusual with at least one vendor or another typically attacking the market each quarter. “In any given quarter you will find that one of the vendors is heavily discounting,” he said. “It’s often either Acer or Dell.”

This Quarter it is Dell.

Sager said IDC Australia’s quarterly tracker results for Q3 2005 were recently finalised and indicated that on a marketshare basis Dell had suffered something of a set back, but is still holding second place in the rankings.

“Dell have very high growth expectations,” said Sager. “They have been second for a long time.”

But Sager said the latest results showed that Dell lost ground to number one player Hewlett Packard over the past year. In third Quarter 2004 Dell was only 2.5 per cent behind HP, in this year’s 3rd Quarter that margin had blown out to 4.3 per cent (for servers, desktops and notebooks combined).

At the same time, Acer has closed the gap between third and second, shrinking the numbers from 4.5 percent a year ago (Q3 2004) to just 1.8 per cent (for servers, desktops and notebooks combined), said Sager.

Globally the company is in great shape, but not good enough for Chief Executive Officer, Kevin Rollins. Announcing Q3 results in the US which showed Dell had record shipments of 9.2 million units worldwide in the quarter, a 36% growth in its fledgling services business (to US$1.2 billion) and revenues of US$13.9 for the three months, Rollins said: “Our operating performance was again exceptional by any comparable measure. However, we hold ourselves to higher standards.”

This has prompted the company to layoff 1000 staff in the US. It has also turned to discount retailer Costco to help it clear out older model desktops and laptops. Dell’s consumer business is suffering from its insistence on Intel only platforms at a time when AMD is enjoying runaway success in the desktop and media centre market of North America.

Though Corporate Communications Manager for Dell Australia, Paul McKeon, denied there had been any redundancies locally, several Aussie staffers have reportedly left the company recently.

Nortel Tries Wireless LAN Products

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Nortel has launched a range of wireless LAN products into the crowded Australian market.

A key differentiator for the range is its ability to support the same sort of converged network services as the company’s wired products, according to Nick Avakian, general manager Enterprise Networks for Nortel ANZ.

The Nortel WLAN 2300 series includes security switches, a multi-mode access point and management software, and is aimed at the enterprise level such as in education, healthcare, government, hospitality and retail.

Avakian said the new series has been specifically designed for today’s converged IP telephony and multimedia applications, adhering to the latest IEEE and de facto industry standards to ensure strong security and Quality of Service (QoS) while maintaining compatibility with user devices.

Built on a centralised architecture the Nortel WLAN products support roaming voice and multimedia applications with QoS and dynamic RF management, and full n+1 redundancy of all network components to protect against service interruption.

Advanced mobility management with pre-defined, user-based security and QoS policy management, access controls, VLAN/subnet assignments, bandwidth rate, QoS priorities and multicast memberships, and time-of-day and location-based restrictions that block access from specific areas add to the enterprise flavour.

Avakian said the new products have been designed with ease of use and deployment front-of-mind, and dovetail neatly with Nortel’s existing portfolio of wireless solutions such as 802.11-based wireless mesh.

“We’re making it easy for organisations to transition their existing wired IP networks to take full advantage of wireless communications, without compromising the features and functionality of existing networks,” said Avakian.

“For example, the 2300 series access points attach to their controllers across the network, and self-configure with minimal user intervention. In addition, one WLAN infrastructure can be securely partitioned to form up to 32 unique service groups, each with their own web-portal, security and QoS policies, making it easy to deploy and extend across small to large organisations as required.”

 

Cellnet Results Worse

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Cellnet Group Limited profit results for the last fiscal year are likely to turn out worse than the company’s previously downgraded market advice.

The distributor has told the Australian Stock Exchange that while the 2005 year results are still being finalised it is already clear that net profit after tax will be approximately $6.1 million. This is less than the Company’s previous forecast net profit after tax of between $7.3 million and $7.5 million.
The second half of the year turned out something of a disaster for the company which despite significantly higher revenues than previous years failed to match last year’s profit levels.
A Cellnet statement to the exchange blamed “lower than expected performance in the markets for the Company’s higher margin products with a decline in the average margin” and a decision to increase inventory write offs.
New managing director, Adam Davenport, has been undertaking a detailed review of the Company’s structures and operations and a comprehensive program to reorganise the structure of business units and management has been approved by the board claims the company.
The Group also plans to make “substantial reductions” to its inventory and will focus on holding that inventory which has both high demand and high profitability.
As part of the reorganisation the Company has created a new role of General Manager Supply Chain. An experienced, senior manager has been identified and it is anticipated he will take up this role shortly.
Cellnet Group expects to announce its results in the week commencing Monday, September 5, 2005.

 

Double Digits For PC Leaders

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IDC says Lenovo has “surged” past HP in the Asia Pacific (Ex-Japan) PC market as it swallows IBM’s PC business.

Reporting a year on year growth of more than 90 per cent put Lenovo on the front foot thanks to the IBM PC division adding to the company’s fortune. It all proved too much for downsizing HP which fell into second place despite a 34.4 per cent unit growth year.
The second quarter results, posted by IDC Asia Pacific this week also showed Dell picked up some points in the quarter. It was year on year growth that delivered the best results for all, with every one of the top five players posting better than 25 per cent growth rate. Acer, Dell, HP and Lenovo all did better than 34 per cent with Dell delivering a healthy 47.9 per cent growth in unit shipments over the previous year.
IDC’s preliminary results show that the Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) PC market totalled 9.5 million units in the second quarter of 2005, representing a sequential growth of 7 per cent and a robust 17 per cent year on year growth.
“The PC market gave another impressive performance this quarter throughout most countries in the Asia/Pacific region,” said Bryan Ma, Associate Director of Personal Systems Research at IDC Asia/Pacific. “Lenovo also took back its top spot by not only riding on the seasonal recovery in China, but through its newly-acquired IBM’s Personal Computing Division (PCD), which provided Lenovo with an even more significant lead over second-place HP.”
As we know Australia performed well on the back of some large tenders and a high level of interest in notebooks, while the Chinese market responded well to lower prices as well as demand for desktop PCs from the government, education, and telecommunication sectors, says IDC.
Singapore unfortunately fronted up a little short sequentially as the new fiscal year rolled around.
The disappearance of IBM from the figures pushed Acer into fifth spot with 4.9 per cent, a marginal improvement from earlier quarters.

Q205 PC Marketshares Asia Pacifc (ex-Japan)

Rank      Vendor     Share
1              Lenovo     19.0%
2              HP            12.3%
3              Dell            9.0%
4              Founder    5.5%
5              Acer          4.9%
Other      Total         49.3%

 

HP Targets IT, Support, HR and Partners

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HP plans to cut jobs, reorganise and put pressure on partners that lead with the HP brand but then “hollow out” the offering with competing products.

Hewlett Packard Chief Executive Mark Hurd outlined a strategy of voluntary and involuntary
redundancies that will reduce the company’s workforce by 14,500 jobs over the next year and a half.
In total the restructuring will deliver Hurd a US$1.9 billion saving each year, US$300 million of which will come from reductions in retirement benefits schemes, the rest from salary reduction.

Approximately half the savings will be used to offset market forces or reinvested in the business to strengthen HP’s competitiveness. The remainder is anticipated to flow through to operating profit. In addition, the company plans to axe the Customer Solutions Group sales, which is responsible for the enterprise and SMB sales function will be dissolved into the individual business sections.

The company will be divided into three groups; the Technology Solutions Group (TSG), Imaging and Printing Group (IPG) and finally Personal Systems Group (PSG). Technology Solutions Group will host a sales force for the enterprise, Personal Systems Group will have an SMB sales force and the Printing and Imaging Group will focus on the consumer sector.

The cuts will cost US$1.1 billion in charges spread over the next six quarters (starting 4th quarter) as the cuts occur. This excludes a previously announced $100 million restructuring charge to be taken in the third quarter.
The company plans to reduce head count by focusing on three principal problem areas, explained Hurd. There are people doing work that simply doesn’t need to be done anymore, then there are staff working to do inefficient processes and then there are areas where there are multiple people looking at the same problem/function.

The majority of staff reductions will come in support functions, such as information technology, human resources and finance. The remainder will be made inside business units, in areas where work can be reduced by improving processes and re-prioritizing existing tasks.

While critical functions such as R&D were spared the axe, Hurd said the executive team had focused the restructuring on HP as it is today and when asked, he would not rule out possibly exiting current business areas. While committing the company to continuing with its hybrid channel model, Hurd showed some frustration with the attach rates of HP product going through the channel.

“Our partnerships really come in multiple types and I would tell you that the data would suggest, that we have and I’ll talk about this to our partners, that we have a fair, we have some number of partners let me say it that way, that would lead with HP as a product, but underneath that lead with HP is a contentless HP offering it is basically lead with HP with the brand and then a series non-HP products that attach to that solutions. That is not an interesting partnership relationship to us.

“We will actually be trying to do a focusing within our partner base, really doubling down on those partners that really do come to the party offering an HP solution.” Hurd didn’t indicate that the company plans to reduce its number of channel partners, or its direct sales force either. He did say: “It would not be a bad thing for us if we kept the same number of partners, as long as we had them all focused on HP content.” Hurd also left some room for changing the compensation model to increase the rewards for partners offering HP solutions that haven’t been “hollowed out”.