Seller beware. (Editors's Note).Technology is rapidly changing business, but who has time to keep abreast Verb 1. keep abreast - keep informed; "He kept up on his country's foreign policies" keep up, follow trace, follow - follow, discover, or ascertain the course of development of something; "We must follow closely the economic development is Cuba" ; "trace the of what's best? As this month's cover story indicates, "influencers" now help companies sift through the latest and greatest innovations. These server Svengalis--who offer everything from pitching the boss on equipment purchases to installing each and every wire--often hold the key to increased sales. Even during these tough times, technology investment continues in Latin America Latin America, the Spanish-speaking, Portuguese-speaking, and French-speaking countries (except Canada) of North America, South America, Central America, and the West Indies. . The LATIN TRADE Latin Trade is a monthly magazine covering global business in Latin America and the Caribbean. Similar to Forbes and Fortune Magazine in coverage, the magazine was founded in 1993 and now publishes 87,000 copies 1 each month in Spanish, Portuguese, and English. Top 500 Biggest Tech Spenders, our annual ranking of buying plans, shows companies are building, expanding and upgrading systems to keep pace with seemingly never-ending advances. According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. market research firm Harte-Hanks, Brazilian companies This is a list of major companies based in Brazil. Please note that the list is highly incomplete and does not have thousands of companies of different sizes. Links should only point to the Wikipedia article, and not to a web page URL. will account for almost half of the large tech buyers in the next 12 months, with Mexico and Chile combined making up another third of the big spenders Noun 1. big spender - one who spends lavishly and ostentatiously on entertainment; "the last of the big spenders" high roller scattergood, spend-all, spendthrift, spender - someone who spends money prodigally . Tech sellers should be cautious, however, when dealing with influencers. Allowing a third party to intervene in transactions opens the way for confusion, exaggerated expectations and maybe worse. Educational and government institutions represent a quarter of the Top 500 spenders, so the temptation for intermediaries to cut these customers' long sales cycles with a quick FIX will be huge. Only strict ethical surveillance will keep big sales from transforming into mega-scandals. Beyond the pitfalls of ILLICIT practices, tech companies should remember that guiding buyers to the right technology is central to the new selling style. That's because the increasingly service-related business means an invoice is the start of a long relationship with the client. As the Latin American heads of IBM (International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, www.ibm.com) The world's largest computer company. IBM's product lines include the S/390 mainframes (zSeries), AS/400 midrange business systems (iSeries), RS/6000 workstations and servers (pSeries), Intel-based servers (xSeries) and Hewlett-Packard comment to LATIN TRADE in this issue, "This is no longer a business of selling the product, sending the bill and then being happy." The key, they say, is helping customers "reduce costs and be competitive." Mike Zellner mzellner@latintrade-inc.com |
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