Acer planning an expansion into the enterprise market

After achieving good results in the local consumer segment last year, Acer Inc is now setting its sights on the enterprise market to push its computer products, a company executive said yesterday.

"Last year was one of the best performing years for us in the consumer market as our laptops were well-received. We will therefore explore the enterprise segment this year for higher growth," Scott Lin (林顯郎), Acer's president for Taiwan and Hong Kong operations, said at a media gathering.

Acer decided to enhance partnerships with local systems integrators -- such as Unitech Electronics Co (精技電腦) and Weblink International Inc -- to promote its portable computers and desktops to businesses, in a bid to increase volumes to boost economies of scale, he added.

"These systems integrators have already established good relationships with enterprise clients and we hope to utilize this advantage," Lin said.

In the past, Acer allocated an internal direct-sales team to handle the local enterprise market, but the company has gradually shifted towards working with systems integrators. As a result, the company downsized its own direct-sales staff to 60 from 100 last year, he added.

Last year, the consumer segment accounted for 63 percent of the Acer's total sales in Taiwan, while the remainder went to the enterprise segment.

Acer intends to balance the proportion of these two segments this year, Lin said.

It also aims to boost revenues to NT$23 billion (US$716 million), up from NT$18 billion last year and increase notebook sales.