VII MERLION Conference of IT Industry’s Best Players

Traditional MERLION Spring Dealer Academy was held on May 13-15 in the Atlas Park-Hotel located in the Moscow region. The Company’s 140 best Russian partners from 55 towns and cities of Russia have gathered in the year of 2005 under the flag of MERLION. GIGABYTE and NVIDIA were the golden sponsors of the conference. Such well-known manufacturers of computer and digital hardware as APC, BenQ, Canon, Jetbalance, IPPON, Oklick and WESTERN DIGITAL produced their reports at the conference. Representatives of MERLION held the presentation of the Company’s major suppliers of consumables (Verbatim, TDK, Philips, Imation, Digitex).

The format of the conference included both formal and informal communication.

In the course of the business program section, representatives of MERLION summarized the year-end results and expanded on the Company’s business prospects.

When addressing to the Academy participants, Mr. Igor Petrov, MERLION General Director, reported that the Company keeps on holding the leading position on the IT-distribution market. MERLION distribution mix was complemented with 15 new agreements. The Company’s new suppliers include the well known IT-market players: Foxconn, Western Digital, Konica Minolta, Verbatim, Imation, Mitsumi, Hewlett-Packard etc. “The construction of the regionally-oriented sales system is now completed, - noted I. Petrov, - Currently the Company’s regional managers are the key element in the cooperation with dealers. These are the ones who determine the product line, price and marketing policies on local markets and bear personal responsibility for the success of each MERLION’s partner”.

Mr. Aleksey Sonk, the President of MERLION, expanded on major development trends of the consumables market and turned the partners’ attention to the Company’s high-priority product groups to be actively developed by MERLION: digital audio and photo hardware, portable computers, uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) etc.

Mr. Viacheslav Simonenko, the Head of the Project Distribution Department, presented to the partners a new trend of the Company’s activities and explained the specificity of business process organization in the new subdivision.

In the course of traditional presentations, the old-established partners of MERLION - Gigabyte and NVIDIA corporations, presented their new products and expanded on the changes in the marketing policy, while the top-100 profitable companies obtained the authentication certificates as Gigabyte official dealers in Russia.

The second year on end, MERLION Dealer Academy is attended by Jetbalnce (multimedia acoustics), APC and IPPON (uninterruptible power supplies) and Canon with their new models of photo/video and office equipment.

It has been for the first time that BenQ with their newly-designed monitors attended the event, as well as Oklick – a new player on the market of computer mice and keyboards, as well as Western Digital corporation, the global manufacturer of hard drives.

Another presentation was dedicated to information-carrying media manufactured by Imation, TDK, Philips, Verbatim and Digitex, whose products are now plentifully available in MERLION product line.

The proposed communication format was the novelty of the Academy-2005. The conferees could independently schedule their attendance at presentations based on the specificity of their companies’ activities. Besides, this year Russian partners of MERLION for the first time obtained the opportunity to discuss any relevant issues of cooperation with the Company’s top managers responsible for various business aspects, such as sales, purchases, marketing, finances etc.

In the course of the informal section of the conference, during the breaks between the hot events of the oriental show program and the Tough Guy Party, they summarized the results of marketing programs called “Gigabyte: On the crest of the wave” and “Insist on NVIDIA".

The drawing of Nissan Primera auto (the Grand Prix of “Insist on NVIDIA") has been fortunate to KS Space company from Ekaterinburg. The first evening was amazingly completed with the performance by charming girls from Blestyashchie (The Splendids) group.

The jackpot of the program called “Gigabyte: On the crest of the wave” (BMW 318i auto) was broken by MEIPL company from Barnaul. The performance of Bravo group with their traditional twists, romantic ballads and rock-n-roll has been an enjoyable surprise for the winners and other guests.