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Quick Links
Stay tuned for the next issue of Brand Sentinel
where we'll spotlight trends, issues and more news from AGMA!
to view the September issue of Brand Sentinel. |
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General Membership - What's New?
AGMA's annual member meeting of 2012 took place January 18-19 at PwC in San Jose, CA. Effective channel partner contract terms, service and warranty abuse prevention, brand protection in China, and financial investigations involving money laundering and tax evasion were all hot topics at the conference. If you weren't able to make it this time, please read here for a summary and details:
AGMA Points to Four Distinct Threats to the High-Tech Industry
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Dear Colleague,
Goodbye 2011 and welcome 2012!
 The past year was one of the most difficult in AGMA's history. The global economic downturn, mergers and acquisitions, legislative changes and more all impacted our organization. Still, the real strength of our people and our organization became even more evident, as AGMA not only successfully sailed through the rough year, but further evolved. This was largely due to the quality leadership of our Board of Directors and our previous president Ram Manchi, whom we had to say goodbye to in August. That being said, I would like to thank to the entire Board for their efforts in 2011, especially our Vice President, QLogic's Chris LaChapelle, who demonstrated a great deal of leadership as interim President. I would also like to thank our directors whose term expired - Sally Nguyen (Microsoft) and Chris LaChapelle for their outstanding contributions, and welcome our new directors Brian Hayward (Avaya) and Todd Stern (Oracle).
2012 is already shaping up to be an exciting year. In addition to the stock market being on a hot streak, we continue to evolve our expertise in the fundamental pillars of AGMA, which include Gray Market, Counterfeiting, Service Fraud, and the addition of the fourth pillar, which is becoming one of the hottest topics in IP Protection arena, Digital IP. The progress in this area of IP Protection is of concern to all of our members, as IP is becoming more and more available in a digital form.
Among other things, the New Year will bring a new look for AGMA - be sure to check out our new Facebook page "AGMA Global", and we'll launch our redesigned website www.agmaglobal.org in the very near future!
Best wishes,
Peter Hlavnicka, AGMA President |
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Industry Issue: The Global Economy Continues to Affect IT Decisions
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In many ways, today's economic environment echoes the recession of a few years back - for example, people and businesses are still willing to take risks when it comes to their IT purchases. On a mission to find cheaper products and services, low pricing has become a main factor in decision making. AGMA warns that this is a narrow, short term solution - not a long term investment in the future. While there is an initial financial benefit from these IT purchases, it is very likely that these short-sighted purchases will end up costing more in the long run. Why?
 When counterfeit and gray marketed goods are sold to customers, the result can be major data loss or business interruption without any possibility of warranty or service from the OEM. Purchasing new, genuine goods from authorized channels is always the better way to go. AGMA, a non-profit organization comprised of influential companies in the technology sector, is on a mission to mitigate the gray marketing and counterfeiting of technology products around the world. With the global economy continuing to be unstable, AGMA is finding that people are looking into alternative sources for IT products. Product is being dumped into the market in record numbers, and used IT equipment and the secondary market are becoming attractive alternatives to some.
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| AGMA Committees - What's New?
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 Education and Programs
It's all hands on deck for the new Education and Programs committee! The committee currently consists of committee chair Peter Hlavnicka (Dolby), Sally Nguyen (Microsoft), Karen Cram (Oracle), and Milton Springut (Kalow & Springut LLP), with AGMA President Emeritus Ram Manchi acting as an advisor to the committee. Recently, the committee met for the first time to discuss changes to the committee charter and began planning for 2012 activities including the addition of educational activities related to government agencies - an area formerly handled by the Government Affairs committee.
Operations
The Operations committee is deep into 2012 planning as AGMA has lots in store for the new year ahead. The major focus for the Operations committee as we dive into 2012 is the redesign of the AGMA website. In the early stages of design, the AGMA website is slated to launch in the first quarter of this year. Our new website will offer visitors easy access to our knowledge-base of whitepapers, contributed articles, news and events; as well as details and background information on our 4 pillars of IP protection.
Government Affairs
Changes are ahead in 2012: At the board of directors meeting in Denver, directors discussed the current status, resources, and future plans for all AGMA committees. Recognizing that AGMA needs to refocus its government initiatives in the areas of education and interaction with executive branches of government, the board decided to merge the former Governments Affairs committee with the Educations and Programs committee. |
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AGMA in the News
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AGMA and its member companies continue to make headlines around the world - please click on the links below to read all about it:
 At its annual business partner summit in Germany, AGMA member company Avaya revealed a number of additions to its channel program, and outlined its strategy for growth in 2012. Stamping out gray market activity will be a focus for Avaya, and its AGMA membership plays a key role - click here to read more.  WIRED's recent piece on China's failure to keep its intellectual property laws up to speed cited AGMA as a source, click here for the whole story.
To view more AGMA media coverage please click here.
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Upcoming Events
AGMA Americas Quarterly Meeting - April 18-19, hosted by Sideman & Bancroft in Northern California
To view the full AGMA Events Calendar please click here.
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