Conference 7.286::digital

>As a multi-national company I was hoping there was some sort organization
>that is cross-geographic that could act as coordinator.  I find that once
>you locate the local sales/service office the time zone delay makes it
>difficult to be responsive.

	I thought this is hat the 3x3 model was all about, and the contacts 
	are the account looking after the customer (if the  customer is that 
	big) or the account looking after the industry.


>Any ideas or where to look for such a funtion please?

	Sales

	I have a list that came from Digital Today which covers all the industry
	account entrepreneurs for Europe, I suppose they know who they deal with
	for world-wide in their industry/account.

	Heather

There are International Sales Desks which are
resonsible for coordinating world-wide sales and
services.

The one in the US is headed by Peter Delaporte and
in GIA by Bob Vadeboncoeur in Nagog Woods (AKO).
Don't know the responsible European.

I think that they would be a great place to start.  This
group works well together, having had experience with
the GIA operation.

Regards,

    Contact Dan Gettens in International Accounts. Dan is located in Acton
    at AKO1.

    Ha! A associate of mine consults to a company that is a foreign
    subsidiary of a LARGE DEC corporate account. THey had been running DEC
    PDP-11's for quite some time, and were looking to upgrade. They called
    the local DEC sales office (outlining the several hundred thousand
    dollars worth of hardware that they thought they wanted). No
    response... They called the National Account Manager for their parent
    company... No response. They sent RFP's to the above. No response. I
    found out the "worldwide account manager" for their parent company, and
    asked him to get in touch with them. No response. 
    
    Data General answered their RFP. The day the sale was signed, they
    delivered an Aviion workstation as a loaner for them to start their
    porting. The rest of the configuration was on site within 10 days. At
    that point the local office turned up (without an appointment) at the
    front door, to sell DEC. They were politely sent packing.
    
    When are we going to learn how to sell computers... sigh...
    
    q
    

Thanks to everyone for there response here and the mail messages I have
received.  I will follow up on all of them.

re.4 - that is the type of situation I am trying to avoid!  


Thank you again,
Amy

    A slight tangent. . .
    
    I also work with a multinational account.  They found a very good
    reason for wanting to consolidate all their contacts in the US.  This
    account is a large account, receiving a 21% discount on their DBA. 
    However, they have found that if they buy their computers from us in
    the US instead of buying it in Europe, they save 45%, even when they
    take into consideration the expense of shipping the system over to
    Europe after having purchased it here.  They don't like to do this
    because they feel they will not get the local support they need over in
    Europe if the never buy any of the boxes over there.  But it is hard to
    tell mgmt that they are not buying at the lowest price available from
    Digital.  So much for us being a global company.
    
    tgc

    
    Without knowing who the account is, or where, I have to add the
    following:
    
    It is a violation of their DBA (business agreement) to purchase
    equipment in one country for export to another (this includes even
    Canada and the US).  It most likely violates national import and export
    regulations in both countries, and it requires a co-conspiracy on the
    part of the account team to order the correct (international) part
    numbers from a domestic sales office.
    
    I know all of this because one of my customers insisted on buying a
    Vaxstation in the US for export to Great Britain.  The reason was that
    he was consolidating parts from several vendors into one cabinet and
    wanted to do the consolidation at his home office.  At any rate, we had
    to have the UK Country Manager's permission to do this, and the
    customer had to get export documents and clear the equipment through
    customs himself.
    
    The process ended up taking several months, and costing much more than
    a direct UK order.  The customer swore he would never try it again.  Then,
    about a year later he inquired into exporting a Vaxstation to Canada. 
    It turned out to be just as difficult, so he dropped the idea.
                

    I tend to doubt that it is a violation of law to buy in one country and
    export to another.  As a matter of fact, you do not need permission of
    country managers to do this.  It may be a violation of ones DBA and we
    certainly don't encourage it because of all the systematic problems the
    customer may experience in trying to deal with Digital business
    practices if a customer decides to pursue this approach.  Software
    licencing, updates, warranty, partial shipments are just a few.  
    
    However, we should really try to understand why a customer would pursue
    this approach?  They are the reason we are in business and if our
    uplifts are to excessive then maybe this is the market trying to tell
    us to change.  

    
    While I respect your right to disagree with me, this is a true story,
    and is not something that happened to a "friend of a friend".  I
    personally investigated this issue thoroughly, since the customer
    wanted to be able to consolidate similar equipment going to China,
    Thailand, South America, etc.  I got to learn all about Denied Parties
    Lists, Us Government export regulations for computing equipment, and
    all that stuff.
    
    We HAD to have the UK country manager's approval to order UK part
    numbers in the US.  Ha d we pursued the Calgary export, we would have
    had to have Canada Country Manager's approval.  We also ran into US 
    export law issues around shipping graphics equipment (VAXstation) 
    overseas, and had to get a special export permit, even though the 
    target country was the UK.  We also discovered that there are many
    products available in the US which are not yet announced in other
    countries.  These products can "never" be exported.
    
    Even after playing all the paper games, we got a power cord and power
    supply that did not work with UK public power.  The local field service
    office had to switch power supplies and cords, which they were under no
    obligation to do.
    
    

    I don't doubt your story at all.  I've experienced many horror stories
    regards shipping computer equipment from one country to another.  I was
    just trying to clarify what was against the law (nit - just because we
    offer a product only in one country does not mean a client cannot bring
    it into another country- it's not against the law- there are exceptions) vs
    Digital Business practices in doing business internationally.  Our 
    business practices make it very difficult, cumbersome and hard to hide 
    from the client.  I guess I wasn't very clear and I'm sorry I left you
    with the impression that I doubted your story.  
    
    John

	I'm glad that John got the point.  The point is, the customer wants
	to do business in their local country.  But there are legal ways that
	he has pursued that give him a 45% discount versus the 21% discount
	that his DBA calls for.  It is hard to stand in front of him and
	say that is the way Digital does business.  The system needs to be
	fixed.

	And we are working this with the international account managers and
	the various country managers involved.  Hopefully we can make doing
	business with an international company easier.

tgc

    re .10
    
>    just trying to clarify what was against the law (nit - just because we
>    offer a product only in one country does not mean a client cannot bring
>    it into another country- it's not against the law- there are exceptions) vs
    
    This is not true.  If Digital USA manfactures a product that is subject
    to export restrictions (ie., COCOM) to country A, then neither Digital
    in country A or the customer can re-export it to country B without a US
    issued re-export licence.  If the customer re-exports it it is possible
    for Digital to be penalised for having sold it to them in the first
    place.  Example, if Digital Australia sells a 9000 to a front-firm
    which actually wants to export it to a country on the US prohibited
    list then there are big problems.

    Not to go down this rathole much further but you did see the words -
    "there are exceptions" didn't you?  Without making this tooo complex
    there are items we sell to the client that they can take anywhere the
    client wants and we can't stop them. We can advise, discourage, and
    plead but we cannot stop (excluding government export restrictions).
    I just wanted to clarify that just because Digital or Digital country
    manager forbids something does not mean it is against the law.
    
     

    I work mainly with a huge UK account which has a trading agreement
    with DIgital specifying that the price they are charged will be the
    lower of either (a) Country List Price or (b) World Wide Price.
    
    When preparing quotes, one looks up both and quotes the lower.  Works
    OK as far as I can see.  The customer gets local delivery and support
    yet is assured of the lowest price, so it can be done locally.
    
    Calvin

    
    This approach, of course, makes much more sense than having equipment
    drop shipped to the country with the lowest List Price, for re-export
    to the final destination.

RE -2

World-wide price?  Interesting.  How is this established?  Is it in the price
file?  I can't find a reference to a WWP in AQS.

Bob

    I do not have the knowledge of how the WWP is derived, although if
    your need is supreme I could do some digging around here.  The WWP
    appears on our UK price file about two 'TABS' down from the Country
    list.
    
    As far as AQS is concerned I believe the administrators have to crowbar
    the Customer reference number into it somehow and then when a price
    is requested AQS provides lowest of CLP/WWP.
    
    Calvin

Calvin

Thanks.  It seems as though your AQS differs from mine.  No need to dig any 
more.  I'll pursue this locally.

Bob

    
    Contact John Oelfke @AKO for information on WWP
    

I got my answer.  Account must do $25M annually, of which $10M must be sold
in Europe.  Not many customers qualify for this, I'd imagine.

Bob