I just got back from Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen after a week of back-to-back meetings with Sun teams and key accounts. It was a very productive and insightful trip and I'd like to thank everyone for their hard work and hospitality. My only regret is that I didn't have enough time to take in the sights and learn more about Chinese culture. Here are a few observations and notes from my trip to China.
Sun Team
Our Sun teams in China continue to impress me. Their commitment to their clients' success as well as that of Sun's is outstanding. Our account plan reviews are becoming some of the best. We are seeing a good blend of strategic and tactical engagement with a clear understanding on how to execute.
China Telco Market
The China Telco market is booming. With goverment investment and sponsorship, China will continue to lead in infrastructure deployments, services roll-out and scale. With the economic climate under stress, government support and enterprise investment will be instrumental in the road to economic recovery.
Account Meetings
I met with Huawei, ZTE, Motorola, Ericsson and CMCC. All meetings were memorable and clear with respect to understanding Sun's value proposition. Our relationships at all levels are helping us all to realise opportunities. The key difference from say 3 years ago is that we have moved from info-share to debating value based opportunities. This maturity of relationships and commitment is exciting, especially since we're talking about one of the world's key markets.
Huawei seem a lot more focused and organized than before whilst ZTE are growing rapidly and coming to terms with managing that growth. Ericsson has done the best job in establishing a value added approach while Motorola are sustaining their business and ALU are focusing on innovating.
Cloud Computing
Cloud computing is where the market is headed. It will evolve quickly and before you know it, it will be here. I think that the words 'cloud computing' in China do not conjure up a positive vision but the notion of having dense computer and storage utility certainly does. Hence the importance of keeping explanations as tangible as possible when it comes to selling the 'cloud'.
As per a comment posted on my facebook by Sun colleague Marc Hamilton, ''one of the best
ways to sell cloud computing is to show customers how the software they are already using is cloud-enabled. The easiest way to show this has got to be the OpenOffice 'save to cloud/open from cloud' plug in." For more on the 'cloud', read the Sun guide "Everything You Need To Know About Cloud Computing".
