Authorized distributors of electronic components transferred to professionals

The semiconductor industry has been ups and downs, and the division and integration have continued. The distribution industry as an intermediate link has also changed with fluctuations. As far as authorized distribution is concerned, we observe that there are hundreds of agents authorized by large aircraft carrier distributors. They are called “wide line agents”. They are taking the “generalist” route and have more medium-sized authorizations. Distributors have changed from small initial “geniuses” distributors to “specialist” distributors, and the line of agency has changed from a small amount to a specialized one, and the application field has become more focused.

Most distributors also agree with this view that future authorized distributors will pay more attention to the development of vertical markets and technical support. According to Yang Suchuan, regional director of South China Pacific Group, “First of all, the industry gap is getting bigger and bigger. In the future, the so-called generalist will also be a combination of professionals. Second, the industry’s centralized development trend will be able to accommodate more and more distributors. Less, need to focus on specific industries and markets to have advantages.The original generalist is only a wide coverage, service is out of the initial stage; behind professionals are in all areas to go deep, distributors want to improve their service level and scope Can be fully competitive."

Ethan Wang, general manager of EDOM Technology China, observed that some semiconductor suppliers are developing products for a wide range of applications. Their products can be applied in various fields. Some vendors are specially developed for specific popular applications and are constantly upgraded according to market changes. Or transformation; some are to strengthen their own product lines by way of mergers and acquisitions. And similarly, the client also presents different development strategies and value propositions. Therefore, he pointed out: “In this diversified development situation, we believe that if we are a generalist or an expert, we can create our own value as long as we can be top-notch in this field and gain the recognition of our customers. We believe that we have a complete product line and can grasp the hot trends and provide corresponding products and services. Keeping pace with the original plants and customers and growing together will be the key to success.” This also means that the current industry situation requires distributors. We must first prepare our talents and then develop the growth path of generalists.

Focus on one of the directions: Product types Start from the product type to create expertise is a way of thinking, such representatives of the distributors are Patai Group and Helende Electronics Group. The former product line focuses on discrete devices and passive components. In recent years, it has increased the integration of some active IC product lines to form resources. The latter mainly focuses on interconnect products, and also expands switches, sensors, and circuit protection products. The characteristics of such distributors are that they cover a wide range of applications and customers are dispersed so as to avoid excessive customer concentration.

Passive and discrete components of the PATI Group almost include most of the well-known brands, especially Japanese suppliers, including ROHM, OKI, MURATA, OMRON, JAE, Rubycon, KDS, JST, Sunny Optoelectronics. Yang Suchuan said that Patai has been actively adjusting and optimizing the product line, closely following the market hot application market, including mobile phones, tablet computers and other handheld devices, but also very concerned about home appliances, automotive electronics, new energy and industrial control market. "If sales are concentrated in a certain area or a certain product line, it is bound to encounter a problem of high dependence, and Patai Electronics has realized this very early." He said, "In addition to consolidating and improving our own industries In addition, we will enter the fast-growing industry and focus on new industries, such as new energy, reaching new and old replacements, while also avoiding the risks posed by the concentration of industry customers, both to ensure sales growth and to avoid falling into the price of Red Sea and low-end homogenous competition. ”

At the same time, he also pointed out that in addition to a clear product strategy, all types of services must also keep up. He said: "With regard to technical support, the combination of original technology reserves and services and the responsiveness of distributors determines the effectiveness of technical support. Sometimes, the process of technical support is more important than the result, and the response speed must be faster." Yang Suchuan He also said that customers often need a comprehensive package of high requirements, "We can only optimize the product line and customer resources, improve the market share in the entire industry in order to get a good price, stable and efficient delivery and technical support."

As a professional distributor of connected products, all applications of Helend Electronics Group have coverage, whether it is in the automotive, power, industrial, broadband communications, consumer electronics, medical electronics, aerospace, etc. Too many industry customers bring about the risk of concentration. It can be said that from the outset, Helende did not go the "generalist" path. Since the creation of 1974, Helende has focused on doing "specialists" and focusing on vertical market distribution services.

"Our business model is to focus on all application markets. Customers can order only one device or they can purchase in large quantities. Helende will accept and deliver on time. From small quantities to large quantities, we can all be in our company." Germany and the advantage of the price of a station to buy together." Helende president of Asia Pacific, William Sim pointed out, "At present, Hellend has a total of five warehouses in the world, inventory turnover is only about 3 times, this is a very impressive data. The electronics industry has reached the optimal level."

Although in Herrend's business, it will also involve switches and sensors, circuit protection and thermal management, as well as wire, cable, and tube products, Sim stressed: “One thing is for sure, that is, we are constantly developing. The business outside the connector, but not the company's product line to achieve large and complete, which is the biggest difference between Hellender and other distributors.Our business model is: professional, dedicated, currently, He Lian Germany is the world's most professional connector distributor with the most abundant connector inventory."

Sim said Helende is worth mentioning is that usually has four months of inventory, has a very prominent advantage in the stocking, delivery is also very timely and stable. “Helende will also prepare the goods in advance according to the customer’s purchase record, even if the customer has not placed an order. This is very meaningful for the Asia-Pacific electronics manufacturers whose demand forecast is weak.” In particular, he pointed out, “What is most proud is that We have been rated as the best customer service provider for all electronic device distributors by Bishop & Associates, a North American market research company, for 3 consecutive years."

In addition, Helende also collaborates with many suppliers on new product introduction procedures, and organically integrates online purchasing with traditional distribution services to form a set of flexible technology services, bargaining, and accumulative procurement services. Sim said: "We use the cumulative method of procurement to provide small and medium-sized customers with preferential prices and flexible services. Each purchase of customers has a record, like points, customers can be based on historical procurement records to get the discount of the current purchase. In the purchase process, customers It is also possible to propose bargaining. With the increase of order quantity, we can provide the same low price as the bulk supply. If the production is later put into production, large quantities of products can also be provided at one stop."

Focus on the second direction: More medium-sized distributors in the application field have chosen to focus on specific application areas, such as Fengbao and EDOM Technology. In fact, the choice of these companies is also an opportunity issue in a specific historical period.

Fengbao's long-term commitment to the development of smart phones and tablet PCs is not a sought-after behavior in a short period of time. After years of in-depth research, Fengbao has accumulated certain hardware resources and software development resources in the smart phone business. In addition, the industrial control industry with a relatively strong trade volume also accounts for 50% of Fengbao's business. Therefore, even if the mobile phone business in the consumer industry is declining, it can make up for the normal operation of the entire company.

Feng Bao pointed out that the company’s slogan is to be an expert and to be an expert, which fully reflects its status as a distributor in the industry. Jiang Hua, deputy general manager of the marketing department, believes: “In the rapidly developing future of the electronics industry, only those who are more professional in the competition and who are more recognized by the customers will have room to become an irreplaceable factor in the industry.”

As a mainstream IC distributor who has been deeply cultivating the Chinese market for many years, EDOM in Taiwan has been paying close attention to market hotspots and has been actively planning. Yideng Chen Yuze pointed out: "The semiconductor industry will reshuffle every few years, in order to obtain sustainable development in the ups and downs of the industry cycle, companies must accurately grasp the pulse of the market." Smartphones, tablets, the Internet of things Markets such as green energy, set-top boxes, LED lighting, smart homes, RFID, LCD TVs, and portable personal payment terminals are all areas of concern. Many industry-leading product line resources, together with integrated sales teams and streamlined procurement channels, have made EDOM has accumulated a good customer base in some areas.

Chen Yuze also gave an example, saying that the supply chain system of the mobile phone industry is quick to say that all aspects of design, supply, and production can only be won quickly. In order to respond quickly to customer's technical support, EDOM has offices in Xi'an, Chengdu, Wuhan and other inland cities to keep up with the market and customers and solve customer problems quickly. For the LED lighting market, EDOM Technology actively caters to the market demand, and actively introduces products with distinctive LED drivers, strives to provide customers with overall solutions, accelerates customer design to market time, and also helps establish long-term reliability for all OEMs and customers. Business relationships to meet the growing demand of the LED lighting market.

On the other hand, the Chinese government has included the Internet of Things in the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" development plan. RFID, smart sensors, etc. have become the focus of support. This area will involve various different subsystems and components, such as sensors, wireless transmission, Information analysis and storage, as well as RFID tag chips with the largest demand. It is expected that in the coming years, the IoT market will maintain its high growth momentum. In particular, demand for products such as RFID and related sensors will continue to have higher growth rates in the coming years. As a result, EDOM has strengthened its cooperation with RFID chip suppliers and has continuously expanded its own team to provide a variety of flexible, effective and cost-effective RFID solutions for customers to choose from.

Deep plowing technical support Regardless of whether or not the direction of focus is different, one of the authorised distributors is surely the same, that is, spare no effort to strengthen technical support, because it is a very important factor for upstream and downstream selection of distributor partners.

EDOM Technology has continued to increase its technical support, strengthen its engineering design solutions and regularly train technical support teams. The company also provides specialized technical support personnel for different application areas to meet customers' needs for designing and developing products.

In recent years, Patai Group has also invested in a full-time FAE and set up a marketing department. For some industries, it also provides a package solution to the original manufacturer to increase the viscosity of customer relationships. Follow-up will strengthen product technology promotion, internal employee training, and industry analysis. At the same time, it is planned to increase manpower in some offices with large customer growth potential in recent years. The product line will be integrated by resource management departments and continue to introduce new and valuable product lines.

Feng Bao's Jiang Hua said that this year in FAE's appointment, it is more inclined to set up technical teams in each regional office, or set up radial technical support teams in second-tier cities to take care of customer technical support in third and fourth-tier cities. In addition, product line development is also exploring future market development laws. For example, smart home, Internet of things, and automation control include components used in some national infrastructure projects. In the selection of product line brands, some well-known domestic companies are also included in the selection. In the scope, rather than blindly pursuing international single-brand bridges.

Helend also said that in addition to continuously adding authorized agent product lines and complementing product lines, Helende will expand its FAE team and continue to add representative offices in the Mainland to provide Chinese customers with better local support. Helende’s Sim also stated: “Our supply chain management services also help customers increase the speed, efficiency, and quality of their trading activities while improving their inventory performance. For this reason, we did not adopt a general-purpose system for supply chain management. It is often confusing to use a variety of tools, such as BOM/Excel upload and quoting tools, historical demand and planning analysis, bundling inventory inspection and VMI program management tools, to customize the various supply chain plans to meet the needs of specific customers." Helende was completed at the Value Added Service Center in New Hampshire and Hong Kong. It was able to assemble and deliver the complete kit to the customer, reducing the customer's management fees, inventory storage costs, and material costs due to out-of-stock and scrap. The kit can be pushed into the workshop according to the MRP plan, and can also be dragged and dropped into the shop in the JIT/kanban program.

Collaborate with IDH on Demand Today Distributors are becoming in-depth service providers rather than primary electronic component agents. More and more authorized distributors with strong technical support capabilities have been able to provide customers with detailed solution design services, just like IDH's role, helping manufacturers' customers save costs by optimizing design and engineering processes. In the Chinese market, due to the high reliance of OEMs, distributors, or IDHs on the introduction of new products by local manufacturers, it has also prompted many local distributors to change their strategies or become in-depth technical service providers, or join hands with IDH. Provide a total solution.

Patel and Helende are constrained by the agency product line, destined that they can only be a "bypass" of complete technology solutions. According to Yang Suchuan of Patai, "First, IDH is to accumulate long-term technology, and secondly, our products are mainly composed of discrete components and passive components, and more suitable is the cooperation with IDH. I think the model of cooperation between distributors and IDH It is a trend in the future. There are specializations in the medical industry, and cooperation can fully meet customer requirements for supply, cost, and technical support.”

Similarly, Helend's Sim also said: "Now more and more customers in the Chinese market demand us to do design. Helende focused on interconnect and electromechanical products, so he designed only the most basic part of electronic products. We tend to In collaboration with IDH, we do a good job in the supply chain service and design of the interconnection and electromechanical sector, complementing IDH's strengths, and realizing the optimal allocation of resources. If the customer has its own R&D department, we will work directly with customers to design; if the customer does not have R&D The department needs to cooperate with IDH, so we will design with IDH."

“Customers are willing to choose to collaborate with Helende. I think that designing according to the needs of our customers is our greatest advantage.” He also said that Helende has complete tools for TE Connectivity, Molex, 3M, and FCI. Manufactures, Panduit, Mill-Max, Switchcraft, EDAC, and Alpha products are crimped, cut, assembled, and modified. These value-added services include: parts assembly, parts modification, special marking and packaging, and accessories.

Distributors with strong technical capabilities will take different approaches depending on the characteristics of the project. Jiang Hua said: "Our company is in between the two, in some industries we are very strong, have their own design in the team, and some projects are in a coordinated development trend with IDH. In short to provide more convenient solutions. ”

Eden's strategy is the same. Chen Yuze pointed out: "We will choose the appropriate technical service strategy according to the needs of different programs. EDOM Technology has a professional design team that can provide hardware and software design services for most of the agency products, and even design solutions that are close to the end product. Help customers to speed up the development cycle of the underlying system, effectively reduce research and development difficulties and risks.At the same time, due to rapid market changes, the device features become increasingly rich, the design is also complex, customer needs are constantly changing, and the distributors themselves carry out technical input risks Large, and cooperation with IDH can reduce or even avoid such risks to a certain extent, so we will also choose to cooperate with IDH, collaborate on development programs, and apply our many years of distribution experience, IDH's design resources, and original factory's latest technologies. Integrate and achieve complementary advantages, create a win-win model, provide end-users with strong support, and accelerate time-to-market. This flexible and efficient model can effectively improve design efficiency, reduce design costs, and reduce design cycles.