Advantech will immediately transform itself from a product-oriented company to one that is customer-driven, and regional executives jobs will be reconfigured to function as hosts rather than controllers. The product business units will be redesigned into vertical market business units. There will now be three global units: Industrial Automation Group or IAG, Embedded Products Group or EPG, and the Services group, or SAG.
Advantechs founder, K.C. Liu said in his opening address that for Advantech to grow and prosper, it must reorganize and become not just a company with offices in many countries, directed from headquarters in Taiwan, but one that is organized in such a way that responsibility and risk are shared in a localized fashion.
"Advantech is in transformation. We are moving immediately from a multinational company to a globally integrated enterprise, he said. We are re-organizing our channels and our product groups into vertical business sectors, so we can move from providing products to providing solutions.
