MSI severs ties with eSys, Also Technology

Component manufacturer MSI Computers has severed ties with local distributors, eSys and Also Technology and signed Altech, following a local management shake-up in January.

Harlem Chiang, marketing executive at MSI told CRN the company’s current management team are focused on tidying up its distributor list and cutting down any confusion about the way it deals with partners.

He said MSI and eSys had come to a mutual agreement to stop doing business.

MSI is a major Taiwanese manufacturer of motherboards, video and graphics cards, TV tuners, wireless products and notebook computers.

Chiang claimed the previous management team had sent mixed messages to partners by selling direct to resellers and offering distributors different pricing lists.

“A lot of our distributors have been unhappy with the way we previously dealt with them. We will no longer sell direct to resellers and we will also offer them a standardised pricing list,” he said.

“We have signed on Altech because we believe it can help us take our notebook product to the SMB market. From now on we will use different distributors for different products.

A spokesperson for Also Technology claimed the decision to end the distribution relationship was mutual. “The company’s restructure has never had any bearing on us, but things haven’t improved,” said the spokesperson.

“However one of our customers was so unhappy with their MSI product, they took the company to the Department of Fair Trading,” said the spokesperson.

Altech MD Antony Sheen has brushed off problems surrounding MSI and has gone ahead with distributing a range of its products including, video cards, motherboards, computer cases and its notebook.

“We haven’t started distributing the notebook products just yet because we have been testing them. We aren’t concerned about the problems MSI have had because I have known the current country manager, Frank Chen for more many years,” he said.

“Since he was appointed he has been shaking things up for the better. I know MSI products are very popular overseas but haven’t done as well because of the old management has let company slide locally.”

Chiang said the company was focused on offering better quality after-sales service and the point of having a local branch was to offer faster service on products.

The changes are a directive from management staff in Taiwan who believed the old management team had fallen into too many “bad habits” and caused the “company to lose money over the past three years”, said Chiang.

Chiang claimed once competitors Asus and Gigabyte established local offices, MSI started to struggle as previous local managers weren’t prepared to take on competitors.

Changes to the company’s management team were made at the end of January, said Chiang.

Country manger, Allen Liu, and general manager, Tracy Tsuei departed the company. Frank Chen took up the country manager role and is also heading up all sales, while Chiang is looking after marketing. Cindy Chung continues on as head administration and product planning.

“The next six months will prove to be very interesting for the company. We will start to see what the results are from the company’s changes towards the end of the year,” said Chiang.

altech antony chiang also distribution hardware msi harlem technology esys