Victor Wang, ASEAN Sales Account Manager at Synology
Out of six million network-attached storage (NAS) devices which Synology Inc. has already sold across the globe since its foundation in 2000, one million of which are owned by business users. Comparing this sales volume to those of consumer-centric products such as smartphones, it is much smaller but considerably huge for a market dominated by business solutions like servers.
Leveraging its nearly two decades of expertise, Synology has been a distinguished brand of NAS devices by industry observers and media outlets worldwide. In 2016, Synology ranked No.1 on Midrange NAS Storage Systems Survey conducted by US-based marketing consulting firm TechTarget. In addition, Synology has been the No.1 Business Choice for six consecutive periods and the No.1 Reader’s Choice for nine consecutive periods in the NAS category, according to PCMag. More importantly, the company is enjoying a 40% year-over-year sales revenue growth in the Southeast Asian region.
Synology achieved these feats, thanks to its significant investment in research and development (R&D). Sixty percent of the company’s workforce of more than 800 employees is devoted to R&D. Apart from its headquarters in Taiwan, key company offices are also located in the United Kingdom, China, France, Germany, Japan, and the United States.
Synology in the Philippines
With its wide network of distributors and retailers, Synology has successfully penetrated over 100 countries, including the Philippines. The company’s products have played a key role in some of the country’s biggest companies and recent important events.
“We met ABS-CBN’s IT team last year and we shared with them our case studies with other broadcasting networks in other countries. Impressed with our solutions, they decided to deploy our NAS appliances as file servers. During the 2015 APEC and the 2017 ASEAN summits in the Philippines, our solutions were used in keeping the videos, particularly the speeches of the leaders,” said Victor Wang, ASEAN Sales Account Manager at Synology.
“Another industry that we cater to is the hospitality sector. Hotels need to keep their guest data updated. Another demand that we address is surveillance as they need to deploy cameras in their buildings and other facilities like swimming pools and other areas that are needed to be monitored. Holiday Inn is one of our clients in this segment,” Wang added.
Driving Digital Transformation
Aside from large enterprises, Synology is also seeing the thriving segment of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) as another lucrative market in the country. According to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), MSMEs account for 99.5% of total business operations and 36% of the economy of the Philippines.
“We understand that most MSMEs have a limited budget to buy solutions from Dell, HP or EMC, so we offer cost-effective alternatives to these customers,” he said.
Synology recognizes the fact that MSMEs have also hopped on the digital transformation (DX) bandwagon. Hence, the company is ready to bring its holistic ecosystem of solutions to these organizations. “In the age of big data, organizations today will have more and more demand for data management. Synology addresses this demand by providing the next-generation file server integrated with relevant tools such as for collaboration and office. We believe that organizations must not only know how to store data, but also manage their data,”
In spite of the successful deployments in large enterprises and growing presence in the MSME segment, Wang admitted that Filipino consumers’ awareness of NAS devices is still relatively low. Nevertheless, he is seeing improvements.
"A few years ago, Google Trends revealed that a large portion of NAS-related searches was focused on Metro Manila. Today, you'll discover that the scope has become larger, suggesting that there is an increase in terms of awareness nationwide. Probably in Metro Manila, there are already many users of NAS. But outside, it is different. That’s why we are hosting more events in Cebu and Davao to generate awareness. There are more than 100 million people outside Metro Manila, and we are seeing a bigger market there,” he concluded.