Handheld distributor goes full-blast in networking biz

Talk about Microwarehouse and what immediately comes to your mind? Palm Pilots.

Can’t blame you. This company based in Pasig City has been the only source of Palm handhelds and accessories in this part of the world.

But a visit to its small but well-organized bodega at the second floor of its 500-square-meter head office revealed one thing: Microwarehouse is not just a house of Palms – it is also a house of routers, switches, modems and other networking tools that connect computers to each other.

"We are in the business of networking, of connecting people, and we want our customers to know us that way" said Inch Veloria, the company’s president and CEO. "Whether at work, at home or at play, we want people to be connected and live more productive and meaningful lives."

Spun off from Micro D, its mother company which opted to concentrate on computer systems integration in 1995, Microwarehouse has grown to become the number one distributor of computer networking products in the country over the years.

It carries different networking brands – 3Com, Nortel Networks, Linksys, US Robotics, and Brand Rex – which curiously complement each other in different aspects. Some are considered high-end and are used for high performance networks, while others are of the more affordable type and are best suited for smaller businesses.

Veloria revealed that business has been brisk for Microwarehouse that its workforce has ballooned from merely a dozen to more than 70 at present. The company has warehouses in Cebu and Davao, and its dealers have mushroomed to over 600 throughout the years.

Hitting the LAN mine

Microwarehouse was born at a time when local area networks or LANs are the hottest stuff in the corporate world. Most companies, especially the big ones, were then scurrying to have their computers interconnected. Microwarehouse and its dealers were there to supply these companies’ needs.

Eric Sulit, Microwarehouse sales manager, said networking technology changes so fast that Microwarehouse does not have a choice but to evolve to remain competitive.

He said the times are calling for an "affordable bandwidth," meaning cheaper and faster ways of transmitting and receiving data.

"We feel that networking this year will move toward affordable bandwidth as more companies try to rationalize their spending in the wake of the global economic slowdown," he said. "We intend to capitalize on this by promoting technologies that can bring down the cost of bandwidth and make networks more pervasive."

Despite the technology explosion in the past five years, Sulit said a number of Filipino companies still have yet to fully ride the networking wave. Many are still afraid of putting up their own networks, and some have not even tried using the Internet in their businesses.

"They’re worried about the cost," he said, adding that many establishments – particularly the small and medium enterprises – are still trying to weigh the cost vis-a-vis the benefits of networking.

"Cost versus benefit has always been the primary concern and some companies lack the technical expertise to decide," he said. "But rapidly changing technology is altering all that."

Going wireless

The cost of setting up and and maintaining LANs has considerably gone down over the years. And Sulit believes it will continue to go down as newer, more efficient technologies are introduced to the market.

"Right now, gigabit ethernet over fiber or copper is a lot cheaper, and virtual private networks are already allowing companies to establish their own wide area networks while greatly lessening the cost of leased lines," he explained.

In the near future, Sulit sees the cost of networking to further drop as networks do away with some costly components, starting with wires.

In traditional LANs, cables eat up a hefty part of the budget and going wireless would definitely allow companies to maximize their resources.

This early, Microwarehouse is looking at Bluetooth as the technology that would connect computers without wires.

"We expect Bluetooth to be commercially rolled out by the end of the year. Because of its targeted affordability, we expect this technology to lessen customers’ dependence on costly networks," Sulit said.

For now, Microwarehouse is pushing the main product which made it popular – the Palm. Sulit said many companies now buy Palms for their salespeople on the field to "connect" them to their LANs through mobile phones.

"The Palm and other handhelds will play a vital role to businesses as more and more companies realize the value of connectivity," he said.