Leading Sales Strategies for the AI Era
Sales meeting
Sumitomo Electric Group's Optical Devices Are Being Deployed in Collaboration with Overseas Sales Offices
Sales Companies in the US, Europe, and China Are Promoting Sales Activities
The Lightwave Device Sales Department of Sumitomo Electric's Infocommunications Device Sales Division is responsible for the sales and marketing of optical devices. The majority of customers for the optical devices supplied by SEDI are overseas. The company's sales structure includes sales offices in the US (San Jose), Europe (UK and Italy), and China (Hong Kong and Shenzhen), who actively promote optical devices with emphasis on their performance. The Lightwave Device Sales Department is responsible for overseeing all sales activities, including those of each sales company. Its main customers are manufacturers that develop and manufacture optical transceivers for short-distance optical communications, which are in high demand within data centers, and for high-capacity optical communications between data centers. We spoke to Seiichi Sanada, Department Head of the Lightwave Device Sales & Marketing Department, about actual sales activities.
"A distinctive feature of the data center business is that the product cycle is extremely fast. Unless we quickly develop next-generation products and continue to have them adopted by customers, we will not be able to achieve a stable business. In addition, there are industry standards for optical communications, and we need to participate in the standardization phase and advance our development. For this reason, we are also working to involve optical transceiver manufacturers in our efforts to directly approach data center operators. We explain our proprietary technologies to them and get involved in their planning process from the beginning. I believe that this style of communication is the key to successful sales." (Sanada)
Expanding Business by Continuing to Connect with Customers
Akihito Kudo of the Data Center Network Group is in charge of sales to optical transceiver manufacturers. He is in charge of one of our major clients, a Chinese manufacturer.
"It's very important to understand what customers want and when they want it, and to deliver what they need at the right time. My mission is to increase sales of existing products, promote design-in activities for new products, and lead to the successful introduction of new products." (Kudo)
What kind of approach will be required in sales in the future?
"Historically, the optical communications industry has seen big fluctuations in supply and demand. It's likely that both the technology and players will evolve in the next five to ten years. As we adapt to changes in demands and technologies, we need to stay connected with customers we believe this to be the key to our business expansion." (Sanada)
Standardization of Platforms with the Telecom Sector
Lastly, we interviewed Toshio Higashi, General Manager of SEDI, who oversees the optical device business, about his outlook for the future.
"Currently, the data center market is largely polarized between North America and China. GPUs, the heart of AI data centers, have been almost exclusively dominated by the United States, but GPU development in China is accelerating, and a huge market is expected to eventually emerge in the country. We need to understand the supply chain situation of optical transceiver manufacturers and formulate customer strategies. In the future, we should also consider standardizing platforms not only for data centers but also for the telecommunications sector, including mobile wireless communications and broadcasting. I believe that leveraging our cross-disciplinary expertise in process technologies will reveal new opportunities for optical devices." (Higashi)
The optical devices of the Sumitomo Electric Group that support the advancing AI society will continue to evolve and create a new world of optical communications for society at large. These devices hold limitless possibilities for the future.
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