Samsung holds first business roadshow in Australia

Samsung is hosting its first roadshow for the Australian IT channel, as it looks to make itself known for more than phones and tablets.

Around 100 resellers and system integrators as well as retail partners and AV integrators are expected at the event in Sydney’s Doltone House today, following a similar event held in Victoria recently.

The event marks something of a milestone for Samsung, which around three years ago established a business division in Australia. The division has now reached enough traction to warrant a partner event, said director of enterprise and small medium business Todd Lynton.

“While we have a sales force and engage with many enterprise customers directly, once they are ready to deploy they go through channel partners,” he told CRN.

Samsung's target market covers small business through to enterprise. In the enterprise market, it was awarded a place on the Victorian government’s mobility supplier panel last year. NSW Police has also deployed 500 Samsung phones.

The product range

Printers are one of several product categories for Samsung - its range covers small business devices through to a recently-introduced enterprise-class copier. The vendor has been building a partner network of office automation dealers.

The monitor range includes hardware for home office through to corporate use. Signage is another key area, including an electronic sign package for small business at under $1,000 that includes software for updating content wirelessly.

Samsung also has a portable SSD backup device with 1TB storage called the Samsung Portable SSD T1.

The commercial display range also includes a 105-inch 5K display for boardrooms and lobbies, tablet-sized dsplays for customer environments that can be locked down, and commercial displays for hospitals, aged care and hotels, as well as digital signs for shopping centres.

For the education market Samsung has a system called Smart School, which includes an interactive whiteboad and allows teachers to mirror the content on the class screen with each student’s tablet, as well as take control of students’ tablets.

Samsung’s phones and tablets play a key role in the vendor’s business strategy. Today’s event showed the Samsung Tab Active, which is marketed for environments where dust, water and bumps are a concern. The Samsung Tab A and Note 10.1 were also being demonstrated, with demonstrations showing tablets being used as POS devices or for hotels.

Samsung is also pushing its high-end Tab S for business use, with demonstrations showing the device docked to a monitor and running Office for Android and Windows in a virtual environment.