System-Pro, a Hong-Kong based computer reseller recently swallowed by IT competitor Jardine Pacific's JOS Technology Group, has promoted Nelson Chan to general manager of the Computer Products Unit.
After Michael Wan left to become managing director at Novell, Mr Chan chalked up another entry on his list of promotions within System-Pro. He earned a degree in marketing from Lingnam College in 1987 and after a brief stint with software vendor Sanyo Extended transferred to System-Pro.
'Sanyo just offered software for Wang,' he said. 'I wanted to change to understand IBM-compatible. I saw the trend for Wang going down because the PC market was starting to catch on.' In 1990, he became sales manager for PCs. He eventually moved into the general products department, where he worked closely with customers on Unix, Sun Systems and training.
Mr Chan said he hopes to see System-Pro maintain its independence from JOS, noting that the two businesses, although now dealing with some market overlap, had focused on separate areas. System-Pro has predominantly targeted large corporations, whereas JOS is better known in the home market and small/medium enterprise (SME) range.
'The System-Pro culture has been very much a corporate culture,' he said. 'Before JOS, we were looking at expanding into the SOHO [small office, home office] market. Now we will probably extend our focus on corporations.' Adamantly expounding the market benefits of remaining an independent entity, Mr Chan stressed the idea that although the two companies could now look at cutting costs, the threat of vendors seeing them as too large could push them to bring in smaller competitors to balance the market.
He said the combination of the two companies allowed him to concentrate on developing his business by forming a consultancy team to give clients solutions rather than just implementing those already in place.