Novosibirsk hosts Merlion Business Channel

On July 14-15, MERLION, the leading Russian distributor of computer and digital products, held its regional MERLION Business Channel Forum (MBC). The Forum was supported by the leading IT companies such as BenQ, Hewlett-Packard, Kingmax, and Panasonic. It welcomed fifty-nine representatives of thirty-five computer companies from eight Siberian cities that included Barnaul, Bysk, Gorno-Altaysk, Leninsk-Kuznetsky, Mezhdurechensk, Novosibirsk, Omsk, and Tomsk.

The MBC in Novosibirsk is the third huge partner conference to be held by MERLION in different regions of Russia since the beginning of the year. The first forum for partners in Southern Federal Russia took place in Krasnodar in March.  The second one welcomed representatives of Moscow retail business at the Red Sea in Hurghada in June.

The focus of the MBC in Siberian Federal Russia was to ensure a closer cooperation and further business growth with partners from that part of Russia. Since MERLION assigned a new team to be responsible for business in the Siberian region, the main thing was to develop personal contacts and friendly relations with the partners from that distant region. In the official part of the forum MERLION reps made a passionate speech about their vision of the market, the company and changes it is undergoing, as well as key growth areas.

Mr. Sonk, President of MERLION, emphasized some long-term IT business development strategies. These included collaborative efforts with market leaders, a tight focus on a particular product range, and a boost to the service provision sector.

Mr. Petrov, CEO of MERLION, told the existing and potential partners about the objectives for MERLION and its partnership policy development. “The company is growing and the changes are mainly to boost the company’s flexibility and be able to respond more quickly to our partner demands. From the regional policy to the partner policy – this is our guiding line for further growth”.

Siberian partners could enjoy presentations about the following MERLION special offers: Acorp modems, IPPON UPS, Oklick mice and keyboards, and also key fastest growing product categories in the MERLION’s portfolio; these include laptops, digital photo and video. There was one particular presentation dedicated to MERLION System Solutions, a separate company’s department responsible for business with corporate clients.

Within the MBC format, the forum schedule included separate meetings and different discussions that allowed the participants to talk over important cooperation issues in more detail and come up with new opportunities for moving forward together.

In his closing speech, Mr. Raskolov, Commercial Director for the Siberia-Far East Russia regional office of MERLION, said: “Today Siberian Federal Russia has a professional team. These are experienced sales managers, managers for profitable product categories, knowledgeable logisticians, marketing managers, and financiers. The forum in Novosibirsk made it possible for us to provide our partners with complete information about the company’s advantages. Moreover, it gave us an opportunity to get a feedback from them and find out more about the computer market in Siberia. The Forum proved to be a success. The MBC format allowed us to coordinate our business partnership and, what is more, to develop now a closer cooperation”.

The next MERLION Business Channel will be held in Ekaterinburg (the Urals) in September.

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