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February 15, 2008

In 2008, Samsung is seriously considering itself as a major player in the B2B (business-to-business) segment. Samsung's large IT division, incorporating notebooks, printers and displays, is headed up by David Smith, who joined the company last December following stints at both Canon and Hewlett Packard.

“Samsung has a big consumer presence, but when it comes to IT products it is less well known, particularly in the B2B marketplace. In 2008, our aim is to raise the profile of Samsung’s IT products in the corporate world,” said Smith.

Although the LCD display business is a flat market, Samsung is targeting year-on-year growth of 47 per cent this year, which according to Smith it is already on track to achieve.

The Korean company is also aiming to double its printer sales. In 2007, it achieved about a 40 per cent growth.

Smith is also looking to triple the notebook business Samsung did last year and is looking to the channel to achieve this. “Until now we have had a very thin line-up in notebooks ­ mainly consumer-focused products ­ but we are about to launch a bigger line-up this year, mainly aimed at the B2B area. While we have plenty of VARs selling our LCD displays and printers, we could also do with more selling our notebooks,” said Smith.

Despite its strong brand name, Smith is keen to point out that Samsung is still small enough to be able to turn things around rather quickly. Faster in fact than a larger company would.

“There is not the bureaucracy there is with larger vendors and we have the power at our UK headquarters to make swift decisions based on facts," said Smith.

Smith added "we also have regular contact with Samsung’s research and development facility in Suwon, South Korea, so we have the ability to influence design and pricing.”

Smith also claims that Samsung’s IT products are not overly distributed in the U.K., so resellers can still make good margins on them.

“Up until now, Samsung’s notebooks and printers have been very consumer oriented. It will take a lot for it to establish itself in the B2B sector, particularly with notebooks alongside the likes of Dell, HP and even Lenovo,” said Loay Lawrence, commercial director at VAR Vohkus.

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Source: Biz Report