Samsung plans to cater better to corporate clients with B2B advanced tools.

WorldWide Tech & Science. Francisco De Jesús.

Samsung Electronics has been launching a strategic attack on business-to-business (B2B) markets with plans to hire more experienced experts and to fine-tune strategies.

B2B is quite an old term but the concept is apparently back with a bang this year with new and advanced tools to enable firms to mine data, communicate better, target customers and analyze their own performance on a real-time basis.

Such moves have come after top decision-makers, including company chief executive officer Choi Gee-sung, reached a broad consensus to further boost revenue of the technology heavyweight to achieve its revenue target of $400 billion by the end of 2020, according to Samsung officials.

Its B2B business accounted for less than 10 percent of total revenue last year, Samsung said. 

Some results have been achieved from businesses with corporate clients by continuing focused and targeted approaches in this area, officials said. 

But a rise in Samsung’s brand recognition from products to corporate values is urging it to do more in B2Bs. 

``Samsung is planning to establish some 100 B2B support centers in places where the firm’s sales offices are located,’’ said a company spokesman, Tuesday.

The centers were created in last year’s annual management overhaul. It is thought they will significantly help boost the sales of products to corporate clients, while the world’s biggest technology company stressed that it will diversify its profit-earning structures.

``In order to achieve the $400 billion sales target by 2020, focusing only on retailers such as BestBuy is not enough. We should also effectively handle and care our corporate clients, as well,’’ the spokesman added.

Samsung Electronics is the world’s biggest manufacturer of TVs, smartphones, memory chips and flat screens. By launching new dealer partnerships and expanding distribution deals, it has maintained stronger relationships with top retailers globally, helping sell more devices.

The spokesman said the company was in a phase of setting up its new roadmaps for B2B markets with help from Accenture, a well-known management consulting firm.

Choi is now giving more authorities to the newly-hired Cho Beom-koo, who moved to Samsung in November after working at Accenture and as president of Cisco Systems Korea.

Cho has been entirely handling B2B strategies since then, according to company officials.

``Although Samsung’s finished goods have been selling well in key and emerging markets thanks to on-time releases with big promotional campaigns, growth was slowing as distribution strategies were heavily dependent upon B2C (business-to-customer) markets, pushing us to realign our B2B strategies,’’ said another company official familiar with the matter.