Special Features |
- Trade Show Survivor: Outwit, Outlast and Outplay the Competition
For tech marketers, trade shows can sometimes feel as daunting as two weeks on a desert island. Here's Upstream's "Survivors Guide" on not only on how to outlast, outwit and outplay the competition but also to make a lasting communications impact at Asia's major shows.... Read more»
- Retail Boom Fuelled by IT in India and China
During the last twenty years, the global trend towards outsourcing, first for production within China and more recently for services within India, has been the engine of spectacular growth... Read more»
- By the Numbers -
Performance of China's Electronic and Information Industry in 2006
China's electronic and information industry continued to outpace overall economic growth in the world's fastest-growing economy, as total sales revenue of RMB4.75 trillion in 2006 increased some 23.7 percent over the previous year, and added value of RMB1.1 trillion, up 22.1 percent over 2005. The electronic and information industry is expected to continue strong growth in 2007, with total revenue forecast to increase some 22 percent this year... Read more»
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Cool Work for Hot Clients |
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EDS Ventures in China , Korea
 EDS, the founder of the information technology outsourcing industry, enlisted Upstream to help debut the Wuhan Global Service Center in Wuhan, bolstering that city's reputation as a high tech base. The Center is at the heart of EDS' ongoing campaign to contribute to the development of China's IT services industry, and integrate China's capabilities into its global service offering.
Upstream and Korean partner Briman Communications were enlisted by EDS to announce the news of its joint venture with Daewoo Information Systems (DIS), the largest independent IT provider in Korea. The new venture, DIS-EDS Limited, will boost EDS's ability to delivering its world-class system integration services to Korea's world-leading automotive, manufacturing and other related industries.
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| O2 Rolls Out Xda Atom Life Launch
 O2 tabbed Upstream for the regional roll-out of eagerly anticipated Xda Atom Life PDA-phone. Upstream started by developing a unified core launch concept of sensory stimulation, the first time O2 had deployed such a stratagem, and in a tour de force arranged resoundingly successful media activities in Hong Kong, Australia, Thailand and Singapore. Media activities in each market were tailored to strike a chord with the local culture to reinforce the high-end mobile phone leader's hip, cool personality. Guests were treated to a sensual experience from the moment they entered the venue till they left with thoughtful gifts.
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First Broadband Router customized in China by Linksys
 Upstream organized media activities in Beijing and Shanghai as the division of Cisco introduced the first integrated Wireless G broadband router customized by its Linksys Technology Centre in China. The events attracted more than 60 media and a TV station while the venue featured an impressive decoration framed in router containers and flyers. |
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| Riverbed Technologies Debuts in China with Riverbed RiOS 4.0 Launch
 In a key stratagem for Riverbed Technologies' entry into China, Upstream helped introduce the company's scalable and broad wide-area data services (WDS) solution to China. The launch of Riverbed's RiOS 4.0 software platform and their award-winning line of Steelhead appliances featured an impressive demo about a range of IT.
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Taiwan leads the world for AXS-One
 Taiwan is leading the world for AXS-One in take up of ERP data archiving solutions, enjoying a 75 percent sales increase during 2006. Upstream has been helping AXS-One, the leading provider of high performance records compliance management solutions, in Taiwan for a year now, and has played a role in supporting this growth through a variety of tactics including drafting and localizing press releases, as well as advertorial development. |
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Blue Coat Systems optimizes Inter-Office Communications
 In March, Upstream Australia conducted a "media roadshow" for Blue Coat Systems to demonstrate how WAN optimization technology enables a company's branch and regional offices to accelerate applications, reduce bandwidth consumption and provide Web security and policy control. Since then, the Blue Coat brand has become more recognized in the Australian marketplace. |
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Informatica Debuts On-Demand Data Replicator
 Organizations of all sizes in Australia are better informed about how to automate critical business processes after Informatica tabbed Upstream Australia to help launch the revolutionary On Demand data replicator. The launch generated a great deal of media interest in the product, which replicates the corporate data and data scheme managed in Salesforce.com to an on-premise database without any in-house data integration software. |
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Acrossmedia In-Store Marketing Systems in Taiwan
 Acrossmedia, a leading supplier of in-store TV-based marketing solutions headquartered in Denmark, has selected Upstream to execute its debut in Taiwan through an integrated public relations campaign. Acrossmedia's content creation and screen placement solutions are a breakthrough in the targeted advertising of impulse products in-store that can have not only sell a product quickly and impact the bottom line, but ensure a fast return on investment. |
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Articles |
| Trade Show Survivor: Outwit, Outlast and Outplay the Competition
For tech marketers, trade shows can sometimes feel as daunting as two weeks on a desert island. Here's Upstream's "Survivors Guide" on not only on how to outlast, outwit and outplay the competition but also to make a lasting communications impact at Asia's major shows
From Computex to CommunicAsia the biggest and best known Asian ICT trade shows involve thousands of exhibitors, tens or hundreds of thousands of visitors and hundreds of journalists in a riot of noise, color and excitement. This may be possibly the best and worst time for public relations and media activities, depending on the size of your company and brand reputation as well as the news you are planning to announce.
Sure, if you are a big name like Nokia or Lenovo and have built a spectacular three-story booth of dreams complete with self-service chocolate fountain and free coffee, they will come.
But if you are a smaller brand with a much tinier budget, or, heaven forbid, not even exhibiting, how do you achieve success and compete with the big boys? First, you should decide if you even need to attend the show. Would your budget go further if your PR activities were conducted elsewhere? Are your planned announcements time-sensitive? If not, your marketing objectives might be better served by reaching out to the media at another time and place. In fact, one trend is for companies, both big and small, to eschew trade shows in favor of creating branded events to reach out more effectively to their customers and partners.
That brings us to the next question: what do you hope to achieve? Sit down with your sales and marketing teams and decide on your objectives. Do you need to canvas for new business and establish new partnerships or distributorships? Do you need to publicize your brand and simply make some noise in the market? Or do you need to reach out to local and regional media and make them aware of your role within your industry?
The answer could be one, all or none of the above. Defining objectives helps you decide your next steps, and how effective those steps would be. This will include understanding who your key audiences are, and whether the trade show would be the ideal platform to reach them. If they are show attendees, perhaps you might wish to channel some funds into sponsoring tracks or networking sessions at the show. Media might respond better to highly specific pitches crafted for each individual magazine. And that brings us to the next step – the news.
Media thrive on interesting, relevant news. So are the news stories and information you are going to reveal at the show sufficiently newsworthy? Really?? For example, are you about to launch of a new product developed in that specific region and the first of its kind in the market? Are you embarking on a new global partnership with a major company that will benefit the public in that area? Or is your company expanding into Asia or North America for the first time and making a US$10 million investment to open a regional HQ in that area? All of these activities are news, new and interesting, and can catch the attention of potential customers, partners and the media. Remember, a key word here is "local." The media from China to Australia have a strong local focus, and your announcement should have an angle that is relevant to the local market.
Lastly, make sure you have the right communications team on-the-ground. Your PR team need not have an engineering-level knowledge of your technology, but should understand and be able to communicate what your technology means to your business and how it helps your customers, be they corporations or consumers. Engage them in helping develop your local news angles. And ask for their help in devising smart and inventive ways to cut through the clutter and survive the battle for media attention at the show.
For more information and smart trade show communications, contact Kevin Foo.
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| Retail Boom Fuelled by IT in India and China
By Springboard Research
During the last twenty years, the global trend towards outsourcing, first for production within China and more recently for services within India, has been the engine of spectacular growth. Wealth generated from outsourcing has played a significant part in fuelling the stunning rise of the world's largest and fastest growing middle classes in history, in turn sparking the "retail revolution," requiring IT to tap the full potential of more than two billion consumers.
Now, retailers in these regions are more than ever using IT to secure sustained growth. They are quickly learning that IT systems can enhance their business with benefits like operations integration, real-time data, inventory and merchandising management and reductions in processing and warehousing costs.
As more and more companies enter this sector and rapidly expand their operations, the retail sector will witness robust expansion in IT take-up, with IT revenue expected to grow at a CAGR of 44 percent and 29 percent from 2006 to 2010 in India and China respectively, according to new data from Springboard Research.
Springboard's extensive research among almost 300 IT decision makers at the major retail companies in India and China sheds new light on the transformative power of IT in retail.
IT Revenues in the India retail industry are set to explode with IT revenue expected to grow at a CAGR of 44 percent from 2006 to 2010. In 2006, the Indian retail IT market was US$253 million, and it is expected to quadruple to US$1.07 billion by 2010.
China on the other hand is already a much larger market and while not growing at the same rate as India, it will still be roughly three times the size of the Indian market by 2010 with the IT market opportunity in the Chinese retail segment expected to expand at a CAGR of 29 percent from 2006 to 2010. The retail IT market in 2006 was US$1.13 billion and is expected to reach US$3.1 billion in 2010.
What Is Driving IT Investment?
There are both common and unique trends driving IT investment in each market.
IT investments in the retail industry in India are very much motivated to gain new market opportunities. As the current economic boom in India spreads to Tier II and Tier III cities and towns, reaching potential consumers in these cities is high on the agenda of most retail companies. Retail sector players consider a direct presence in these areas as key to continued growth and profitability. In addition, international retail giants are investing in the Indian retail segment aggressively, and Indian conglomerates are entering the market with ambitious plans. This drive to address new market opportunities – and the pivotal role technology plays in these strategies – is the key driver for IT revenue growth in the Indian retail industry.
Reaching new markets in China is also a strategic focus, but we are also seeing that competition is driving a lot of the IT investments among retail firms. As the market continues to boom and more and more players join the industry, smaller retailers in China are ramping up their IT infrastructure to stay competitive along with the foreign multinationals.
Competitive Environment
In India, SAP leads the IT Solutions landscape, but the market remains open to multiple suppliers. SAP was mentioned most frequently as the primary external influencer by retailers (27 percent), followed by Microsoft (14 percent). Local vendors (19 percent) also have a significant presence, boosted by their focus on customized solutions which has helped them create a niche for themselves in the retail market.
Through end-user targeted research, Springboard found that Indian retailers are looking for IT vendors based on their strong service and support (listed by 22 percent) as the primary reason for vendor selection) followed by good prices (listed by 17 percent). The next three factors were domain knowledge of solutions, the client's business and the retail industry.
A key finding from this study is that in China, local vendors have a significant presence in the market for retail IT solutions. Only two multinational vendors - Microsoft (26 percent) and IBM (19 percent) – have a presence bigger than those of the leading local players.
Another significant difference in China is that strength in the retail industry is cited as the primary selection factor with a 37 percent share of respondents in comparison with only 12 percent in India.
Solution Areas
In both countries we found that retailers are aggressively adopting enterprise resource planning (ERP) to help tie together their operations and to help them expand geographically more efficiently.
In India, Springboard Research data shows that the majority of retail companies have invested significantly in ERP solutions. Of the 149 retail companies that Springboard Research interviewed for this report, 35 percent said they have deployed ERP as the largest component of their IT solution. This underscores the industry's need for streamlining back-end operations affected by the fast-growth of retailers. ERP is also projected to be the application of the future with 38 percent of the retailers stating that they will be investing in ERP solutions during the next 12 months.
While online retail, or e-tailing, is at a nascent stage of deployment in India, it is on the agenda of a significant number of retailers, especially the big ones. These retailers see digital storefronts as a complement to their offline business. Investment in e-commerce during the next 12 months is planned by 16 percent of the respondents.
China has similar dynamics as our research shows that the majority of retail companies have invested significantly in E-commerce and ERP solutions. Of the 140 retail companies that Springboard Research interviewed for this report, 20 percent said they have deployed e-commerce and ERP respectively as the largest component of their IT solutions. This underlines the expectation of Chinese retailers that E-commerce will experience exponential growth in the days to come. They also realize that there is a need for streamlining back-end operations in order to sustain fast growth.
After E-commerce and ERP solutions, Chinese retailers appear focused on managing customer relationships and supply chain management. While many of them have already made significant investments in CRM solutions, a good number of them have also prioritized it for future investments.
An interesting observation in China was that the majority of the retailers claimed that managing or upgrading their IT infrastructure and lack of technical manpower were the two largest IT pain points affecting them.
For more information about Springboard Research, please contact Chris Perrine.
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| By the Numbers
Performance of China's Electronic and Information Industry in 2006
China's electronic and information industry continued to outpace overall economic growth in the world's fastest-growing economy, as total sales revenue of RMB4.75 trillion in 2006 increased some 23.7 percent over the previous year, and added value of RMB1.1 trillion, up 22.1 percent over 2005. The electronic and information industry is expected to continue strong growth in 2007, with total revenue forecast to increase some 22 percent this year.
Currently China accounts for more than 15 percent of the total imports and exports of electronic and information production in the world, and in many categories is leading the world: Chinese mobile phones account for 47 percent of the world total, computers, 40 percent, and color TVs, 48 percent.
Not surprisingly, industrial production of major product categories increased dramatically. Output of mobile phones reached 480 million, surging some 58.2 percent. Computer units manufactured numbered 93.36 million, including 59.12 million laptops. Color TVs produced totaled 83.75 million, of which 9.45 million were FPD and LCD TVs, up more than 100 percent year on year. IC production numbered 33.6 billion, up 26.3 percent.
Income from software has also increased steadily. The total income in the software sector reached RMB480 billion, up 22.9 percent year on year, and added value was RMB183.8 billion, up 22 percent. Software products were still the main source of income of these firms, accounting for more than 50 percent of the total. Income from system integration increased 25 percent. The top five regions in terms of income from software were Beijing, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Shanghai and Zhejiang, which together took up 70 percent of the national total.
Statistics from Hong Kong Trade Development Council |
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Copyright © 2007 Upstream Marketing and Communications Inc. All Rights Reserved. |
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