NEC Australia has decided to back out of delivering bespoke projects for clients and will instead focus on repeatable offerings that often-as-not use its AI assets.
Executive general manager for solutions Sam Iacono told CRN the company has come to realise that end-customers want rapid deployment and fast time to value. Bespoke projects by their very nature can be slower and riskier, so NEC feels the time has come to focus on projects that leverage its expertise in fields like public safety, customer experience and network infrastructure. Whenever possible and/or sensible, the company will also offer its AI-infused facial recognition assets.
Those tools can offer functions like helping casinos to detect customers they have excluded from their premises, helping retailers to track individuals thorough stores to better understand where to place stock, or using face recognition to greet guests and enroll them when entering an office.
NEC plans to use those assets itself, but also to offer them to channel players in the hope they find uses for the technologies. The company may also consider dedicated distribution for the AI assets, as while it already has distie relationships for its communications products it may be useful to work with specialists as the AI portfolio gathers steam
The company’s key vendor partnerships with the likes of Cisco, HPE ad Microsoft, won’t be affected by the new channel push. Relationships with other service providers will also remain unchanged: CEO Mike Barber told CRN that NEC Australia knows its strengths lie in technology, so it will leave wider consulting opportunities such as change management to specialists.
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