Acer adopts new structure and strategy

After 26 years in the IT industry, Acer has transformed itself. The vendor has announced a re-focusing of its activities to concentrate on the sales, marketing and support of the Acer brand in Africa. Implicit in this has been the appointment of established distributors to carry out the physical distribution of their product range.

The appointment of David Drummond as MD of Acer in September 2002 came as final confirmation that the company has adopted the strategies that have established the brand in the European region, with its sub-Saharan distribution operations becoming part of Acer in EMEA.

SA is a relatively mature market with established channels of distribution, similar to those found in Europe, says Drummond. "This allowed Acer to adopt a similar go-to-market strategy to the one that has been so successful in the rest of Europe, Middle East and Africa."

He adds that fulfilment of the vision took time. "Acer`s change of business focus and channel strategy could not be achieved overnight, which is why we started laying the foundations for restructuring during 2002. However, we believe that the project is on track and hope to end all distribution activities by the end of Q1 this year."

In line with its new channel strategy, Acer has appointed Tarsus Technologies as local distributor of its notebook, desktop and server range, while Jet Distribution will fulfil its distribution requirements in the rest of Africa.

Dismissing the notion that the company will be tempted to engage in both direct and indirect channels; Drummond says the channel is key to the success of Acer`s new strategy.

"It is our desire to provide marketing expertise and services to the channel, encouraging them to do more than simply carry the product, but also to provide the services that the end-user requires. We believe the appointment of Tarsus and Jet will go a long way towards achieving just that."

According to Drummond, the company has been restructured to support a specific channel model. In accordance with this, Acer has spilt the organisation into two business divisions, namely the desktop/server and notebook/peripheral divisions, while also setting up a channel sales organisation with a call centre to facilitate the company`s marketing focus and service provision to the channel.

"In the past, the primary focus was on the physical distribution of products, however, by addressing the business needs of our customers and streamlining operations and delivery channels on a macro and micro scale, Acer is now better able to heed the demands of the knowledge economy through a new focus on innovative sales channels, marketing and services," he concludes.