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AMD India is on a war path. The vendor is trying to ensure that government, enterprises, OEMs and channel partners are not arm-twisted or lured to favor archrival Intel when it comes to purchasing decisions.
In November 2009, the vendor even took the State Government of Maharashtra to court for failing to mention AMD processors in a tender, and won an injunction from the Bombay High Court in its favor.
“Intel for long has been indulging in unfair practices to entice channels, OEMs and large enterprise customers. There have been independent enquiries in Japan, European Commission and several states in US, and every verdict was in AMD’s favor,” said Ramkumar Subramanian, Managing Director and Regional Vice President, Sales and Marketing, AMD India.
Internationally, in November 2009, AMD had an out of court settlement with Intel for $1.25 billion, where both vendors decided to drop all cases against each other. The pact signed included Intel’s commitment to discontinue its monopolistic practices, where the vendor indirectly funded both channel partners and OEMs through rebates and market growth for not doing business with AMD.
“Intel has agreed to start training their sales team on fair practices, and we are allowed as a part of the agreement to review the progress. In India, we plan to hold Intel to its word,” said Subramanian.
AMD is betting on making inroads into the public sector, center and state departments. The vendor hopes that the price advantage on AMD SKUs should help AMD partners and OEMs win tenders.
“It has been a struggle for many years working through the bureaucracy to ensure that when a tender is announced both AMD and Intel processors are mentioned as part of the tender. We have been doing our bit to see that our processors are part of the specification, so that our OEM and channel partners have level playing field,” added Subramanian.
Talking about the Bombay High Court ruling in AMD’s favor, Subramanian said, “The initial Rs 200-crore IT tender had specified only Intel’s dual core processors. The High Court directed the Maharashtra government to ensure that it included AMD specifications. While this was an extreme case, we are hoping that government officials see the benefit of competition in the future. Competition ensures lower TCOs and acquisition costs.”
Additionally, AMD has also been organizing workshops targeted at CXOs and IT managers educating them on virtues of AMD’s products. “Today, we have managed to penetrate 90 percent of Fortune 1000 companies,” he informed.
Subramanian is hopeful that these activities will help AMD partners and OEMs find better acceptance in 2010. |