NEC’S EUROPEAN PERSPECTIVE

Following almost four years of hard work and successes, SHARE caught up with Managing Director of NEC Europe, Kenji Takano, on the eve of his return to his native Japan. Takano reflects on his tenure, including the partnership that created NEC Philips Unified Solutions, and looks ahead – to a future he feels holds even more successes.

Having worked extensively throughout Europe, Kenji Takano acted as a bridge between NEC’s headquarters in Japan and the exciting and competitive market in Europe. After graduating from the Faculty of Foreign Studies at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, he joined the NEC Corporation in 1970. It was to be the start of a career that would take him from positions in NEC’s Latin American division to becoming Managing Director of NEC Italy and, eventually, to managing NEC Europe from its London-based headquarters.

Leading position

The NEC Corporation has a powerful presence in all continents of the world and is a leading provider of internet, broadband network and enterprise business solutions. Its aim is to fulfil its customers’ needs through constant innovation. Initially, NEC started out as a telecommunications company, but to retain its leading position, the company felt it had to improve its offering with even better products, which meant manufacturing computers, semiconductors, broadband networks, etc. itself. “We have since evolved into a total solutions provider, because we couldn’t rely on other manufacturers to make the equipment that we needed,” explains Takano.

Takano emphasises that Europe is a very important market for the NEC Corporation. It began operating there in the early 1970s, rolling out activities such as sales, manufacturing and R&D functions. It now has 20 companies, employing approximately 4,000 people across the continent. Some 50 per cent of NEC’s overseas activities are located in Europe. Historically, NEC has mainly been active in Western Europe, is now expanding towards Eastern Europe. Competition is fierce, but Mr. Tanako sees this expansion as a great opportunity for NEC. “Eastern European countries are catching up with the latest technologies, but as they don’t have their own suppliers they must import everything."  

Focus on R&D

In terms of manufacturing operations, relatively high costs make the EU region very difficult. However, Europe, together with the US and Japan, leads in R&D, which makes it a really important area for us to focus on. NEC has two research facilities in Europe; the Network Laboratories in Heidelberg and the C&C (Computers and Communications) Research Laboratories in Sankt Augustin, both in Germany. These two laboratories place special emphasis on solutions that meet the needs of European customers. “Importing solutions developed solely in Japan wouldn’t work because to bolster our worldwide presence we need to achieve global standardisation. We therefore have to co-operate with EU regulators and partners,” explains Takano. “And, of course, European R&D has an excellent reputation for telecommunications; GSM, for example, was developed here.”

A promising R&D project is the development of technology for combating SPam over Internet Telephony (SPIT). As internet telephony gets more popular, security and privacy are becoming increasingly important issues. In much the same way that spam has become the scourge of Internet Service Providers and e-mail users, computerised spam telephone calls can become a significant nuisance in the future. The cost of generating a spam call over the internet is 1,000 times less than in a traditional network. By using new technology to prevent the spread of SPIT, NEC wants to help make VoIP networks safer. In future, this technology can be combined with NEC’s UNIVERGE systems.

Multimedia – with a difference

Another technology that’s stimulating the interest of businesses is the Virtual PC Centre thin client system (VPCC). This is a multimedia device with a difference – it has minimal hardware, just sufficient to act as an interface. Data and applications are held centrally on the company’s server. This thin ‘PC’ gives access to the company’s network, but doesn’t have local storage. It’s particularly useful in environments with high employee mobility. Using VPCC, businesses can realise a substantial reduction in installation costs. VPCC also works closely with the UNIVERGE SV7000 communications server, which can manage the call control and provide communication applications. Although a few years old, VPCC technology is gaining momentum now because the infrastructure is ready for it. “Networks have become faster and the technology itself is more workable,” says Takano. It also offers a significant benefit in the area of security. Unlike a notebook computer, which might be full of important data, a VPCC accidentally left in a hotel room would present a company with few problems. “You wouldn’t have to worry about unauthorised people getting access to confidential files, because it doesn’t contain any.”

NEC Europe also co-operates with other partners, such as universities and industrial companies, in projects aimed at strengthening its European business. The company is, for instance, a member of what’s known as the Car-to-Car-Communications consortium, working together with automotive manufacturer DaimlerChrysler and other carmakers to establish a standard for direct communication between cars. At the moment, communication between people in cars still runs via a server or network outside the vehicles. Thanks to the wireless LAN technology being used in this project ad-hoc networks will allow the cars themselves to communicate directly. A useful application is giving warning of unexpected situations and potential accidents. Takano: “NEC has set up a similar programme in Asia. However, the overriding objective is to achieve global standardisation by merging innovations from Asia and Europe into common, advanced solutions.

Top solution provider

In a recent report, the highly regarded research and consultancy organisation, Gartner, placed NEC as the global leader in enterprise telecommunications. However, as Takano points out, it is not yet number one in Europe, and this is driving NEC Europe’s ambition to become the top IT-network solution provider for carriers and enterprises in Europe. “We want to become one of the most important suppliers for Europe’s enterprises. The integration of NEC Philips Unified Solutions into NEC will help us realise this ambition,” says Takano.

The sizeable customer base built up by the former Philips Business Communications, has already enlarged NEC’s footprint in Europe and created valuable synergies for clients. “Dutch telecommunications provider KPN, for example, was one of Philips’ biggest PBX customers and as NEC we supplied KPN with the i-mode technology. We are now better placed to provide customers with total solutions.” concludes Takano.