Acer pins hopes on Var-studded line-up

Wale Azeez reports from PC manufacturer Acer?s West European headquarters in Denbosch, The Netherlands

Taiwanese PC vendor Acer is to sign up more corporate Vars within the next few weeks to gain wider exposure in the UK and capture a significant share of the SME market.

The company said it was satisfied with the number of distributors it has ? it inherited additional wholesalers when it acquired Texas Instrument?s notebook division. But the vendor intends to expand its premier reseller channel by another 50 by the end of the year.

Acer will attack the SME market, comprising firms of between 150 and 1,500 users, by launching an accreditation scheme on 29 September. The scheme will coincide with a #2 million marketing and advertising campaign, run by recently appointed marketing director Anita McCabe, which will last for six months.

McCabe said: ?It?s all part of our strategy to drive the Acer brand into the corporate sector. We?ve been extremely dependent on the channel over the past seven years and have not given the right degree of support and push to them.?

Acer will increase marketing dollars and demo equipment as well as generate leads for its Vars.

It will also pilot a Web-based communications, ordering and configuration system for the channel within the next six months and introduce a European-wide build-to-order strategy. Resellers will be able to access Acer?s inventory system, and individual users will be able to configure products to their own requirements.

The company insisted that it would not be selling direct and will pass any purchasing interest from users accessing the Web site on to resellers.

CEO cultures relations with software houses

Acer president CEO and founder Stan Shi has revealed that the vendor will enter the software development market to differentiate its hardware products and will be looking to acquire major stockholdings in existing companies.

The vendor already produces systems management and remote diagnostics software for its servers. It will now develop systems for integrating hardware, packages with culturally related content for the mass market and, exclusively in Asia, software services for IT appliances and e-commerce.

Shi indicated that Acer would invest in up to 10 companies by 2010.

Shi said: ?We need to develop software to help create value for our hardware, but we are not prepared to compete head to head with large software vendors. We?ll find our niche. As IT products become more accessible, the demand for software will rise. Local, culturally differentiated software will be required.?

Shi emphasised Acer?s local touch, saying it would partner with local firms in various markets. But he admitted: ?We do not have a clear direction right now. In Asia we can leverage our brand name for software now. But worldwide, investment in local companies is the way to go.?

Flotation to buoy local aspirations

Acer Europe will float on the London Stock Exchange by 2000 to gain local branding in order to raise credibility in its name on the continent.

The move has been prompted by the lack of equity in the Acer brand name in Europe.

It forms part of a plan to give the manufacturer?s subsidiaries the independence to operate as local concerns so they can react better to their market conditions. Issues of corporate identity and global strategy, however, will still be addressed from Asia.

Graham Jackson, MD of Acer and a member of the Acer Europe board of directors, said the flotation will go ahead on schedule provided certain performance requirements are met by the operation.

After flotation, the company will consist of local shareholders, but Acer will retain 35 per cent or more of the stock. It hopes to float 21 subsidiaries within the next century.

Explaining Acer?s decision to float its European operation in London, Jackson said: ?The UK will be the largest PC market in Europe before the year 2000.?

According to IDC, Acer is the ninth largest PC vendor in Europe in terms of sales for the second quarter of 1997.

As part of its ongoing European expansion plans, Acer is opening a plant for the production of monitors in the UK next year. No decision about the location has been made yet, but the presence of a major supplier of cathode ray tubes in Scotland will no doubt influence the final destination. The monitor plant will be in addition to a second PC and notebook plant in Tilburg, The Netherlands, which opened this month.