After being in Canada for the past two and a half years, Qnap Systems, a network attached storage (NAS) and network multi-media player vendor headquartered in Taiwan, is making a more aggressive push into the Canadian market.
A privately-held company founded in 2004, Qnap has subsidiary offices in China and a U.S. office in Pomona, Calif. In Canada, Siimon Tsai is the business development manager tasked with branding and business development efforts for the company.
Tsai said the company has “good” market presence in the Asian and European markets and now wants to extend its business in North America, and Canada, in particular. Globally, the company achieved more than 100 per cent growth year over year last year, and the company has a global target of 200 per cent growth in 2010.
Currently, the company’s products are being distributed through Markham, Ont.-based Supercom. Qnap is also in talks now with other distributors to expand its Canadian distribution model.
At the end of last year, Tsai said the company had just under 500 reseller partners going to market with Qnap products. His hope this year is to increase the company’s reseller base to 1,200 partners. Since the company’s core market segment focus is on the small to mid-size business and entry-level enterprise, Tsai said Qnap is looking to sign on several hundred more value-added resellers.
Tsai is currently the only Canadian-based employee for Qnap, and draws additional resources and support from the company’s U.S.-based office when necessary.
In addition to increasing its channel base and activity in the Canadian market, Tsai said his other priority will be helping to drive more awareness about the Qnap brand. This will be done, in part, through a demo unit review program, which he said will be offered by the company’s network of reseller partners.
When it comes to margins, Tsai said Qnap offers distributors between five and seven points of margin and for resellers, between 10 and 15 per cent.
Tsai’s primary goals right now, he said, are to “increase the Canadian reseller base, focus on branding and enhancing support and service offerings for customers, regarding after sales, service and support.”
Earlier this year the company introduced its VMware-certified TurboNAS Business Series, which Tsai said are ideal for server clustering and virtual environments. TurboNAS provides users with an affordable and easy-to-use and manage solution experience, he said. The solution also offers customers a complete backup and protection solution, with other features such as network printer sharing and audio and video sharing support.
For consumers and home users, Qnap has a network video recorder (NVR) and network multi-media player also available. With this line, customers can monitor, record and play back video and audio from IP cameras.