It was announced today that Sun Microsystems will sponsor PEIE’s Smart Manufacturing, a two-day international conference scheduled to be held 23 – 24 January 2006 at the Muscat Inter-Continental Hotel.Hisham Al Zubaidi, PEIE’s Marketing Director said Antonio Briguglio, Sun’s ERP Solutions Sales Manager for South East Europe and the Middle East, and Graham Porter (pictured), Sun’s Marketing Manager for the Middle East and North Africa will present at the two-day event. According to Al Zubaidi, Briguglio will discuss the trends and challenges facing the Gulf’s manufacturing sector and the way technology can be used to help – it is reported that Briguglio’s presentation will focus primarily around ERP, Supply Chain Management and Customer Relationship Management. He will also discuss how such applications can be integrated into existing business processes to improve business decision making and as a result improve a firm’s efficiency and profitability. “Briguglio’s presentation will use a number of case studies based on client experiences in the Middle East,” this is something we’re very excited about said Al Zubaidi.
Graham Porter will join Pam McCarthy, Essex University; Jamal Al Asmi, Reality CG; and Dr. Ahmad Irfan, Yahoo! on the Marketing for Manufacturers panel. Porter stated that: “The danger for most manufacturers is that they get caught up in a commodity market which is price centric, this is dangerous as cost becomes the key issue for the business and you can guarantee that Asia and the sub-continent have much lower costs than any GCC economy.” According to Sun’s Marketing Manager: “By using marketing and building a brand, the product can be positioned so that it stands out or is differentiated, thereby making a premium price possible. In the world of exports, image is everything and the Internet has allowed many small manufacturers create a perception of a much bigger enterprise to their end customers.”
