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Acer: preferred hardware for banking sector

RECORDER REPORT

LAHORE: Acer has firmly established itself as the preferred hardware source for the banking sector across the Middle East with the company executing several prestigious orders from major banks in Pakistan, Oman and Tunisia.

According to a press release issued by Acer here on Wednesday, Adrian Chang, General Manager, Acer Computer (M.E.) Ltd, said that Acer has always endeavoured to offer the best levels of performance and value in the industry.

"Our central guiding philosophy of providing 'fresh technology' at the right price has been a critical factor in our recent successes," he added.

"We have won orders from five major banks and financial institutions in Pakistan, the Commercial Bank of Oman and Biat Bank in Tunisia to supply a wide range of hardware products ranging from notebooks and commercial PCs to servers for business and mission critical applications," continued Chang.

One of the largest orders that Acer recently executed was for the branch computerisation initiative of Habib Bank, one of the premier banks in Pakistan, which with over 1000 branches has the largest branch network in the country.

According to Ijaz Anwer, Acer's Country Sales Manager (CSM) in Pakistan, the order for 2,000 Acer Power 6100 PCs and 40 Acer Altos 1100 servers and Acer Altos 12000 Xeon servers was in large measure due to the unconditional support that Acer received from its channel partner, Electro Sales & Services.

"Our channel partner on their part deployed dedicated pre-sales and technical engineers to the bank on a round-the-clock basis thereby ensuring high levels of service and support. With just over five percent of Habib Bank's branches being computerised, it continues to represent a high potential opportunity for Acer in the Pakistan market," he added.

According to Khayyam M. Butt, Senior Vice President, Habib Bank, "With Habib Bank going in for a major computerisation drive of its branches, we were looking at a high-end Commercial PCs and server range that, offered us a both high degree of reliability as well as an efficient Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)."

"Now with the majority of PCs in the bank being Acer branded we have drastically reduced maintenance costs while eliminating compatibility issues between PCs," he added.

Other banks and institutions in Pakistan that have placed large orders for Acer hardware are Pakistan's central banking institution, State Bank of Pakistan, one of the country's top commercial banks, National Bank of Pakistan, Muslim Bank, and Al Habib Bank.