Hewlett-Packard Company (HP) and the International Business Machines Corporation (commonly referred as IBM) are in a battle for the soul of server market in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

Result of overall server market standings by vendor released by the International Data Corporation shows that HP held the number one spot in 2Q13, despite annual revenue declines of 13.2% due to weaker demand for x86-based ProLiant servers, which were challenged by competitive pricing pressure and continued weakness in Itanium-based Integrity server revenue.

On the other hand, IBM held the number two spot with a 27.8% share for the quarter, with a slight factory revenue decrease of 1.3% compared with 2Q12.

Demand for IBM’s System z systems grew 59.6% annually, although the System x family generated more revenue for the vendor.

Meanwhile, IDC’s EMEA Server Tracker indicated that factory revenue in the EMEA server market reached $2.9 billion in the second quarter of 2013, a decrease of 3.3% when compared with the same quarter of 2012.

In euro terms, revenue reached €2.2 billion, a decrease of 4.9%. Shipments reached 483,000 units, an annual decline of 4.7%. 2Q13 was the seventh consecutive quarter since 4Q11 of annual revenue declines in EMEA, but it must be noted that quarterly server sales grew 6.8% in dollars and 8.0% in euros.

EMEA performance therefore compared favorably to the overall worldwide server market, which saw revenue declines of 6.2%.

x86 server revenue reached $2.1 billion, a decline of 4.5% year on year in 2Q13, a sharper decline than in the previous quarter, when revenue was down 1.5% annually.

Non-x86 server revenue was virtually flat, down just 0.1% annually, in stark contrast with the 34.8% yearly decline during the first quarter of 2013. x86 server sales reached 71.3% of the total in EMEA, down from 80.4% in the previous quarter, when industry standard servers reached the highest market share ever recorded by IDC.

Volume and midrange servers were down 6.4% and 5.6% year on year respectively, while sales of high-end systems increased 7.5% in the same period.

Server class performance was consistent with the direction the market took this quarter, driven by a temporary spike in mainframe refreshes.

“With new products and refreshes coming up in 4Q13, x86 server spending has proceeded at a slower pace in the quarter, especially in the volume SMB sector,” said Giorgio Nebuloni, research manager, Enterprise Server Group, IDC EMEA.

“Vendors are battling for share in that part of the market — typically distribution-driven — as new entrants continue applying pressure on established players. Stabilization and some growth in x86 spending is expected for 2014, when local cloud service projects will combine with broader refreshes and a less negative macroeconomic scenario.”

 “Mainframe performance enjoyed quite an uptick this quarter, driven by strong demand in Western Europe, particularly the U.K., France, and Germany, as well as pockets in other countries of EMEA, such as South Africa and Poland,” said Beatriz Valle, senior research analyst, Enterprise Server Group, IDC EMEA.

“This trend was driven by demand for refreshes on previous-generation mainframes. With the release of the zEC12 in 3Q12, focusing on security and analytics, IBM introduced important updates to keep the platform relevant. Mainframes are increasingly being deployed on Linux operating systems and high-availability needs remain a primary market engine in some industries.”

 On CEMA highlights, “Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa [CEMA] combined continued to record negative growth. Server revenue reached $721.97 million, declining as much as 10.5% year on year in 2Q13 with both x86 and non-x86 servers seeing contraction,” said Jiri Helebrand, research manager, IDC CEMA.

“The Central and Eastern Europe [CEE] subregion was down 20.4% to $363.42 million. Continued weakness in the Russian market is weighing heavily on the CEE region, which saw the weakest performance over the past three years. An increase in demand was seen in Poland, Czech Republic, and Hungary thanks to several large upgrades of existing server infrastructure in the financial sector.

 “The Middle East and Africa [MEA] subregion showed resilience despite the geopolitical tension, and server sales increased 2.3% year on year to $358.54 million. A focus on technological transformation and improving IT infrastructure is supporting server demand in countries such as Kenya, Nigeria, and Pakistan, which are all growing at double-digit rates. The Turkish server market also grew in double digits, benefiting from strong demand in the government and financial sectors.”

 Other overall server market standings by vendor highlighted that

Dell maintained third position and was the only vendor in the top 5 to see revenue increases, with sales growing 7.9% year on year and a 1.5 percentage point increase in market share year on year, helped by strong demand from its density optimized datacenter solutions business.

Oracle was in fourth place, with revenue flat year on year, after benefiting from growth in sales of the Engineered Systems family as well as refreshes on its SPARC Enterprise line.

And Fujitsu was in fifth place, with a decline of 6.1% annually, and enjoying good performance of its BS2000/OSD family of mainframes, whose sales were up 11.2% year on year.

Etisalat Partners Brimass on Leadership Seminar for SMEs
Etisalat in partnership with Brimass Limited hosted a section of entrepreneurs, executives, business owners and other decision makers to an interactive leadership seminar with Mr. Brian Tracy, Leadership Expert and Business Coach

According to the company, ‘this is a way of reiterating its support for the growth of emerging businesses as well as providing businesses with the right platform to communicate ideas and grow their business enterprise’.

The event tagged, “The Remarkable Leaders’ Conclave with Brian Tracy” with the theme The Making of Innovative Leaders: Winning Leadership Strategies for Building World Class Organizations and Societies, was designed to expose delegates to Tracy’s best productivity secrets to help them maximize their leadership positions and ultimately produce excellent results in their businesses and other spheres of life.

The three part seminar which started with the Entrepreneurs’ Breakfast Conclave, followed by the Executives’ Lunch Conclave and climaxed with an exclusive Executives’ Dinner, delivered tips and keys for growing a successful business as well as the role of management in building effective leaders.

During his teaching on the seven responsibilities of a leader, the top selling author of over 45 books said that an effective leader is one who can provide customer satisfaction and this can happen by offering innovative products and services.

He added that businesses should continually seek better ways to acquire and keep their customers.

Reputed for its role in bringing innovative offerings in the telecommunications sector in the country, Bidemi Ladipo, Etisalat Nigeria’s head, Business Segment, said the platform was one of many ways Etisalat is showing its commitment to the growth of small and medium scaled businesses who require necessary information to succeed in their various industries.

“As a company we pride ourselves in innovation and building businesses, an attribute similar to Brian Tracy. We have created a number of products that address the communication needs of these emerging businesses of note is the Easybusiness, a pre-paid package which gives business owners and their customers and partners an effective communication experience at cost effective rates”.

Speaking further, Ladipo said that Etisalat in partnership with the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) organizes a quarterly business networking meeting known as Market Access which has held in major cities in Nigeria.

“We also are involved in the Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) together with the Enterprise Development Centre of the Pan-Atlantic University, the world’s largest celebration of innovators and job creators. As the fourth entrant to the Nigerian telecoms market, we have grown, accruing over 15 million subscribers in just about five years in operation so we are passionate about connecting entrepreneurs, small and medium scaled with businesses with the resources they need to grow and succeed”, he said.
Commenting on the workshop, Stephen Ojji, chief operating officer of Brimass Limited, said the essence of bringing Brian Tracy was to create sustainable change in leadership and innovation in doing business especially for SMEs as well as senior management and executives of different organizations. 

He said the company decided to take the event to a larger scale due to sponsorship from business minded companies like Etisalat who gave them the required mileage that made the event a success.