Derek Tu, Sales Manager, Synology, discusses the region’s potential for storage solutions and the company’s channel strategies with Reseller ME.
What is your business focus for 2014?
The rise of cloud storage and Big Data has reshaped the IT industry, enabling fundamental changes not only to users’ IT infrastructure but also IT vendors’ business landscape. Synology has been dedicated to the development of DiskStation Manager (DSM), the operating system for all Synology NAS servers, to enable users to embrace the trends. In 2013, Synology released several significant features, such as Microsoft ODX support, to amplify the efficiency of users’ cloud storage.
In 2014, Synology will continue to pave the way for a resilient cloud architecture and efficient Big Data storage. The introduction of DSM 5.0 in March 2014 helped users build a hybrid cloud by leveraging the elasticity of public cloud, such as Dropbox and Google Drive, while ensuring the security and complete oversight of their data. On the other hand, DSM 5.0 also introduced Synology Central Management System (CMS) to bring a unified storage platform. Heading in the same direction, we will keep driving bondless connectivity in the cloud and delivering a more dynamic yet efficient storage.
How important is the Middle East region for the company?
We see lots of potential and possibilities in the Middle East region. For instance, the UAE boasts the highest smartphone penetration in the world and blazes the trail with 4G broadband implementation. In addition to ICT readiness, many countries in the Middle East, such as Qatar and Kuwait, have a high per capita GDP. These indexes all suggest that the Middle East is on the verge of a huge expansion in NAS, making it strategically important for our company.
How do you plan to tap the opportunities present here?
We believe users in the Middle East will recognise the wealth of versatility and efficiency that Synology NAS has to offer in data storage, file sharing and syncing, and ubiquitous accessibility. As robust as the region’s potential may be, NAS awareness is relatively low in the Middle East. Therefore, market education is our primary goal at the current stage. We will hold several channel programmes to secure business for our channels, and initiate more marketing activities, including seminars, roadshows and exhibitions to nurture the market.
In addition to NAS, IP surveillance market is another segment we plan to penetrate. The Middle East has already tipped to video surveillance with strong demands for NVR and surveillance storage. Designed to fulfil different scales of deployment plans, our surveillance solutions feature extensive IP camera support, Central Management System (CMS) for multi-site monitoring and management, more than 49 channels concurrent live view at 1080p full HD, and a suite of video analytics tools. We will work with our channel partners closely to drive the awareness and availability of our surveillance solutions.
What is your channel strategy for the Middle East region?
First, we will focus on and keep working with our regional distributor, FDC, to develop the market. More value-added partners will be recruited to join our sales growth. We’ve found many of our target customers in the Middle East are still unaware of how valuable our NAS solutions can be. Therefore, we think it is extremely important for us to work together with value-added resellers and systems integrators to educate the market, helping end customers find a best solution, and delivering the value from Synology. Secondly, we will increase the overall product availability across all the Middle Eastern countries to fulfil the ever-increasing demands from our customers.
What are your expansion plans?
We will keep consolidating our brand in the countries where channels and users have already known Synology. Meanwhile, with the addition of our new distributors and resellers, we will expand our footprint to new territories, such as Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, which we have not focused on before, to accelerate our development in the region.
