IT & Telecom
10th Feb 2003
Sharp moves forward
by Timothy Sifert
Sharp Electronics plans to take advantage of corporate demand for more streamlined information technology infrastructure and begin pushing new integration software products, which it says will make up for the shortfall on the country’s electronics market.
The subsidiary is a relatively new addition to the Japanese company. It began operations in 2000, just after the country’s economy and its electronics market hit an apex, according to Jarosław Wensker, product manager for Sharp’s copiers and printers.
“In 1999 the market was better than it is now,” he said. “It was the best year of development of the market in Poland. After, the market slowed down, it began to get smaller and smaller. We started at a bad time.” He pointed out, for instance, that since then sales of photocopiers have dropped at least 6%.
So to counterbalance Sharp’s ill-fated beginnings, he said it is pushing its sales forces at its dealers and beginning to vend software – along with other products – to attract the more technologically savvy customers. This will augment Sharp’s product portfolio, which includes everything from mini-disk players to refrigerators to air purifiers.
“We are moving away from analogue copiers to digital copiers,” Wensker said. “We are moving more into printers and scanners.”
But it’s software products that represent the most divergent move.
“And we are also trying to sell software connected to printers, copiers and scanners, because the market is growing and companies’ IT budgets are growing,” he said.
He pointed out that while most companies are closely vetting operations to cut costs – even in IT – there is also a need to make better use of existing technology.
One way to do this is via software. “We are seeing companies that want to start to spend more money for infrastructure technology,” Wensker said. “They want to make business more efficient and cheaper.”
As for the European Union, accession will provide efficiency for Sharp’s operations in Poland.
“Yes, of course, we think about the EU,” he said. “First, there won’t be borders. Now we are taking our products from Hamburg, Germany.” Wensker explained that EU accession would facilitate the shipment and creation of its goods in Germany. “It will be easier and cheaper,” he said.
What’s more, many businesspeople expect more companies to enter the country.
“There will be more European institutions,” Wensker said. “There will be more investment and more demand for our products.”
The firm’s plans to sell new products and its expectations about the EU allow Sharp to be optimistic, even though it operates in a market that today is shrinking.
“I think that it’s still the beginning,” Wensker said.
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