Samsung Inspires Asia

Samsung has achieved notable success in the printer market in recent years and is seen as a strong competitor to the likes of HP and Lexmark. Last December, Samsung initiated its push into the corporate sector by launching the SCX-6345N, an A4 multifunction printer. At the time, Anthony Toope, marketing manager IT Division, Samsung Electronics Australia, said it was the first time they had come to market with a mid to high-end printer. On the back of continued success in the printing sector, Samsung launched another 26 printers at the recent InspirAsia Tour for 2008, with a focus on providing solutions.

The new line comes with a strong ambition, the vendor aims to become the top two vendor in the regional printer market. Jang Jae Lee, senior vice president, strategic marketing team, digital printing division, said that Samsung is the fastest growing printing brand in South East Asia.

“We already became a major player in the printing industry. We have the number one growth rate compared with our competitors,” he said. “The size of the printing market is really big compared with other market sizes. The memory chip market is US$60 billion, the TV market is US$101 billion and the printer market is US$131 billion. That’s a very attractive size,” he said.

Samsung also unveiled its aim to nearly double revenue by “delivering increased efficiency and flexibility to businesses of all sizes.” This isn’t as far-fetched as it sounds considering Samsung registered more than 80 per cent growth in 2007 after an initial foray into the corporate sector. Key areas of growth across the South East Asia region included verticals such as government, finance, telecommunications, retail, energy and automotive. Large contracts were secured with companies such as BP and Vodafone in Australia, as well as 7-Eleven in Singapore and Thailand, and the Ministry of Education in Malaysia and Singapore. Sang-Jin Park, regional CEO and President of Samsung Asia is confident the company can keep growing from strength to strength.

“To achieve these ambitious targets, Samsung will make further inroads into the B2B segment, in particular shifting our focus to digital copier and corporate print business and zooming in on mid to high range colour products,” said Park. “Beyond products and solutions, Samsung will also enhance our channel network, service infrastructure and organisational structure to support and drive the next stage of our business growth. By year end, we aim to expand our channel coverage by increasing our pool of corporate and official authorised resellers. In addition we are extending our presence into non-traditional channels.”

The expansion target is set for 80 percent, and for the first time Samsung has announced that they will start working with system integrators.

In the question and answer session, Lee prematurely mentioned that there will be a new channel program launched in the second half of this year. Australia will be first to market with the SP3 Solution Partner Program; CRN will provide more details when they become available in the next few months.
The solutions

To increase channel coverage by 80 percent, Samsung recognised that they would have to provide the channel with solid selling opportunities. With this front of mind, the vendor has tailored printing solutions specifically aimed at their channel.

By partnering with companies such as IBM, Microsoft and EMC to develop their new range of products, Samsung has created printers with revenue raising solutions such as JScribe Open Architecture. JScribe incorporates IBM and CCP technology to offer a standardised common platform for hardware and software that allows resellers to add their customers’ requirements into java applications that can be executed on multifunction printing devices.

Workflow allows users to digitise and send scanned and faxed documents to multiple locations at the same time, including email, fax, server message blocks and FTP sites. Developed to work with Microsoft SharePoint Portal, and EMC’s Captiva storage solution, WorkFlow allows customers to convert hardcopy documents into a variety of editable formats. This has been created to assist accounting, administration and order management departments in companies of all sizes, particularly in the SMB sector.

SyncThru Web Service is another offering that targets IT managers. The embedded web server allows IT managers to remotely manage a network printer across networks without additional storage installations. The Web Admin Service enables that person to integrate their Samsung products with other printers and MFPs and remotely manage and configure the entire fleet. The new document management system, SmarThru, also provides various network solutions.

The Australian View

Last year Samsung surpassed one hundred billion dollars in sales, and although this figure is worldwide, the Australian landscape is also proving lucrative ground for the vendor.

According to Samsung, they are the fastest growing brand in the IT market, growing over three times faster than the industry as a whole. In 2007, Print and MFPs achieved over 40 per cent unit growth with Samsung Print claiming 300 per cent growth against the previous year. Samsung said their success is due to their commitment to the channel and because 100 per cent of its IT products go through the channel direct.

Ky Choi, managing director of Samsung Australia has confidence that Samsung can penetrate the SMB market for printers locally. “There are a lot of different categories of business that Samsung has handled and this is quite a different stage of business. We have a lot of experience from various countries in building success. We know what is so important – the relationship with the channel and our resellers. For them to develop some corporate business, B2B business, and even incorporating B2C business, this is a lot of potential for Samsung.”

Even though the B2B space is a relatively new push for the vendor, there is already a partner program and training in place to support channel partners.

“In March we launched an Authorised Reseller program, Samsung IT Elite, and to date over 150 resellers have joined the program. They are making the most of all the services we offer them to secure large tenders and sales specifically in the B2B space,” said Toope. “We have an online training module and when we release new products they are able to do a training module on that new model and all the features available, so we have a very high support backend that we offer to the channel.”

Toope has a refreshing outlook regarding his channel partners and promotes working with the company’s existing reseller base as the best model for expansion.

“We do want to grow and we are focused on developing our B2B range and taking that to market, so want to make sure our resellers have the right tools. From that point of view we want to grow as a brand, but it doesn’t necessarily mean we want to keep adding and adding more resellers. It means working with those partners to make sure we do get the sales volume that can support both of us and promote the brand in the market.”

Andrew Boath, chief executive officer, Office National, said that InspirAsia was a good opportunity to see the small to medium business printing and multi-function range and at the same time strengthen their relationship with Samsung.

“The Office National business has only recently started a relationship with Samsung, so the trip was a great way to gain some further insight into the Samsung business strategy and direction, and of course the culture of the organisation. It was great to see the focus the business now has on their printing division and that Samsung recognise this globally as a major opportunity for growth,” commented Boath.

When Samsung ended their InspirAsia Tour they wanted to go out with a bang. The vendor transformed an amazing limestone quarry into a fantastic venue and provided everyone with a sarong to set the mood. Even the 10 Australian partners embraced the evening of festivities and donned colourful sarongs as well as bright headwear.

The gala dinner started with partners being greeted by Balinese women dressed in traditional clothing and lining the walkways. Samsung’s regional CEO, SJ Park, opened the night and was greeted to a warm response. He visited each of the 40 tables and took group photos taking part in a ‘cheers’ at each one. When he reached the Australian partners ‘Aussie Aussie Aussie’ rang out and could be heard from the other side of the quarry.

There was Bali’s signature beer, (and the partners favourite) Bin Tang, for everyone, as well as glamorous girls, including the lovely Miss Malaysia 2004 who played host for the evening.

The entertainment had a very cultural flavour with a great fan display and a performance by a Korean Drumming Duo that involved vibrant pyrotechnics and fireworks.