IBM to add agents to tap enterprise market

Taipei, Feb. 26, 2003 (CENS)--International Business Machines (IBM) Taiwan Ltd. Will sign up new agents this year and enhance ties with existing dealers in a bid to win a 50% share of the enterprise server market in Taiwan.

IBM Taiwan will triple its number of its sales agents to six from two now. The new agents will include Bestcom Infotech Corp., CGS International Inc., Stark Technology Inc., and Mirle Automation Corp. The company's current agents are Sysage Technology Co. and Pacific Digital Technology Inc.

IBM Taiwan's system business unit, which specializes in a variety of server products, outperformed Sun Microsystems in server sales last year. According to a survey by International Data Corp., IBM Taiwan ranked No. 1 in the Unix server sector with a 47.6% market share last year. In terms of the entire server market, the company had a 45.4% share last year. In the past, the domestic Unix server market has been dominated by Sun.

Yeh Wei, president of IBM Taiwan's system business unit, noted that his company decided to increase the number of sales agents in order to foster closer relations between suppliers and enterprise customers. "We will also enhance our relations with distributors to tap the domestic enterprise server market," he said.

IBM Taiwan said it would launch a brand-new marketing and service system focused on responding to the actual demands of customers, rather than just promoting the sale of products.

IBM Taiwan also recently announced it has gained a 70% share of the domestic online game developer market and half of the procurement contracts from the Central Trust of China.

More recently, IBM Taiwan also signed a contract with Ta Jung Transportation Corp. to supply eServer iSeries mainframe computers. Ta Jung is the fifth company in Asia to adopt the new computers.