Computer Trade Show: Solutions build business
Computer Reseller News is sponsoring the Solutions Centre at this year's Computer Trade Show. Simon Meredith previews the presentations and debates.
This year's Computer Trade Show (CTS) will be the UK's largest ever channel event, with well over 200 exhibitors and about 8,000 people expected to visit the NEC over two days.
As well as being able to see all the latest products and talk to partners, system builders and resellers will be able to look at the kind of solutions they will have to deliver in future if they are to prosper in a competitive environment.
Computer Reseller News is sponsoring the Solutions Centre at this year's event, which is planned for 2-3 April.
Those who attend will hear presentations from top vendors and distributors and, on the first day, can sit in on a CRN panel debate on the future of the system building business (see below).
The first day will kick off with an update on the storage market from John Fox, business development manager at Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, the company formed by the merging of the disk-drive businesses of IBM and Hitachi.
Fox plans to give the audience a comprehensive review of where we are right now with storage technologies.
Hitachi has a series of 1.8in drives designed for use in standard notebook form factors ready for release, and Fox will be talking about these in the Solutions Centre.
These drives will come in the same form factor and with the same connectors as conventional 2.5in drives, but they will be about 40 per cent shorter.
They will also be even more rugged and use less power, so they should be ideal for sub-notebook designs. According to Fox, the major OEMs already have plans to use them in new units this year.
Fox will also talk about the new 4GB micro-drives that Hitachi is releasing, which go into removable PC-card type products, and the imminent arrival of more Serial ATA and ATA Raid drives aimed at desktop builders.
For the servers, serial-attached SCSI is now on the horizon and a 2.5in SCSI is not that far away, Fox says.
He will be trying to give system builders some guidance as to when the right time will be to make the switch to these new technologies.
"The question is when to adopt these new drives, because there is a premium to pay at first," says Fox. "You need to look at where the market is going and when you should look at moving to these new technologies."
Dave Everitt, European product manager at AMD, will be talking about making the switch to 64bit processors. He says that system designers have absolutely nothing to fear in this regard.
"I will be talking about the Opteron and the Athlon-64. The key message is that it is nothing to worry about. We have simplified the architecture and all existing software will run out of the box," he says.
Everitt will concentrate on the features and benefits of the Opteron, which AMD plans to launch on 22 April. He wants to reassure system builders that the move to 64bit will be almost seamless.
Thirty-two bit software will run on the new processors, allowing easy upgrades to 64bit operating systems and applications later. "It is a real evolutionary step, not a massive change," he says.
The change is going to come pretty soon anyway, he claims. AMD expects most of the processors it sells next year and all those it sells in 2005 to be 64bit.
Robert Epstein, general manager of Computer 2000's (C2000's) PC components business unit, is giving a presentation entitled 'Zen and the art of buying PC components' in which, he says, he hopes to convince the audience that there is much more to getting a good deal than price.
"The critical issue is to give back some time to yourself. How can you spend more time getting more money from your customers, being productive and reducing stress?"
Epstein will explain some of his ideas for cost reduction, such as outsourcing of some services, and will look at financing and marketing issues and how they relate to system builders. He will also discuss how C2000 can help system builders implement some of these measures.
Following C2000's presentation on the first day, CRN will stage its own panel debate. This will put four system builders and suppliers on the spot in a 45-minute discussion that will ask, 'Who builds the boxes?' in a tightening market.
The audience will also be invited to put their own questions to our panel, so come along if you want to take part.
In the afternoon, Salim Wilson, business manager at Hugh Symons Computing Solutions, which produces the Centrex and DreamSeries ranges, will turn around the above theme and look at who might buy the boxes in the future.
Hugh Symons believes that it has identified an untapped part of the consumer PC market. "There is a new type of consumer that has not been woken up yet, due to lack of awareness or fear of technology," he says.
Some of these are so-called Silver Surfers, he says, but this group also includes many young families and others who have not yet understood the potential for use of the PC in the home, for digital imaging and video, for web access and even hosting.
Finally, Steve Feacey, regional manager at distributor Midwich, will talk about how the company's Mfinance programme can help system builders make more money from selling peripherals.
Karen Doughton, marketing manager at Midwich, says that this will be an opportunity to learn more about how distribution finance schemes work.
"It is an education session from our point of view, rather than a sales pitch. We will not be talking about finance in a direct way, but as an enabler for system builders. It is another way for them to stretch their business further," Doughton says.
Key areas that will be covered in this session include ways to present the customer with multiple finance options and control the sale by eliminating the bank or other financial resources. And, perhaps most importantly, it will look at how to use finance and maintain profit margins.
On day two, all of these sessions, except for the CRN panel debate, will be repeated but in a different order (see timetable below).
If you will be attending the show on the Wednesday and will miss the panel debate, look out for the article covering the debate in a later issue of CRN.
THE CRN SOLUTIONS CENTRE PANEL DEBATE
With consolidation gone about as far as it can go in the PC market, margins at all-time lows and direct vendor Dell taking more market share, it has become harder for everyone to compete in the system-builder market.
With fewer tier-one and tier-two vendors now competing for the wider market, we will soon be forced to find new ways to reduce costs.
Some indirect vendors have already introduced their own white box building schemes, and some larger distributors have also dabbled with assembly work.
By doing this, they argue, they are taking cost out of the channel and making it easier for front-line system builders to provide cost-effective, quality offerings to their customers.
Is this the best way to take cost out and keep the white-box share of the market up, or should most of the work still be done on the frontline?
Who should be building the boxes, and how can we build systems that will appeal to the hearts and minds of the customer - as well as their pockets?
SOLUTIONS CENTRE TIMETABLE:
Tuesday 2 April
11.00-11.30: Hard disk drive business update - John Fox, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies.
11.50-12.20: 64bit, no worries - Dave Everitt, AMD.
12.40-13.10: Zen and the art of buying components - Robert Epstein, Computer 2000.
13.30-14.15: CRN Panel Debate - Who builds the boxes?
14.30-15.00: Centrex built for your world - Salim Wilson, Hugh Symons Computing Solutions.
15.20-15.50: Profit from peripherals using Mfinance - Steve Feacey, Midwich.
Wednesday 3 April
11.00-11.30: Profit from peripherals using Mfinance - Steve Feacey, Midwich.
11.50-12.20: Zen and the art of buying components - Robert Epstein, Computer 2000.
12.40-13.10: Centrex built for your world - Salim Wilson, Hugh Symons Computing Solutions.
14.30-15.00: 64bit, no worries - Dave Everitt, AMD.
15.20-15.50: Hard disk drive business update - John Fox, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies.
Four shows in one
Visitors to this year's event will be attending not one show but four. Running alongside The Computer Trade Show will be the Computer Retail Show, Mobilexpo and Comms Channel Expo, which incorporates the Convergence Summit.
This is a separate zoned area featuring key players in the convergence market such as Toshiba, Nortel Networks, Siemens Communications and MTV, to name but a few.
CRN is staging a Foundation seminar at CTS focusing on the opportunities presented by the convergence of voice and data technologies. Entry is free and the event begins at 3pm on 2 April in Concourse Suites 32 and 33.
It will feature presentations by Quocirca and Canalys as well as a debate and Q&A session featuring leading players in the voice and data market. For details contact Tim or Tracie on (01952) 417 811, or email [email protected].
What else to see
Further presentations will be made in the Business Solutions Theatre at the show. These will cover commercial strategies and give system builders advice on how they can maximise business potential.
There will be presentations from leading independent consultants such as NOP Business, IDC and industry observer Bob Emmerson. For the full Business Solutions programme visit www.imark.co.uk.
How to register
To pre-register for CTS and for more information about the event, visit crn.vnunet.com and click on the CTS logo or call (01635) 588 867.