By Editor
Seagate recently unveiled a rebranding of the company as it seeks to better reflect how its expanding solutions portfolio is helping consumers, businesses and partners to create, preserve and share their content and data. From Seagate Technology Branded Solutions, Motaz Khalil, Marketing Manager-META, Ayman Al-Ajouz, Sales Manager – MEA, and Husam Alif, Territory Sales
What are the objectives behind the new branding?
MK: We are entering a world where everything is connecting to everything else and the resulting big data is anticipated to solve virtually all our problems. Data has evolved from static information stored and forgotten to a living entity that drives every day interactions. Storage innovation must therefore focus on new systems and solutions which are faster, more reliable and expansive.
In particular, Seagate has set a focus on driving innovations in flash, systems, and solutions which collectively address the needs of a broader set of customers and partners in the Middle East. Central to that strategy will be Seagate building on its heritage in disk drive technology to create end-to-end solutions that fit the increasing needs and demands of a data-driven society.
Discuss new solutions being introduced in the external drives market?
MK: As noted, we are refreshing the look and feel of our company and we are redefining the relationships we have with our consumers. Seagate’s latest line-up of external drives really speaks to the new company brand.
This includes cutting-edge consumer products like the Seagate Seven drive—the world’s thinnest portable hard drive at 7mm thick—the Seagate Wireless—a colourful 500GB portable wireless drive—and solutions like the Seagate Personal Cloud that enable people to easily access music, videos and documents at home no matter where in the world they are.
Consumers can also look forward to enjoying an incredible range of new flagship drives under our LaCie brand, the premium brand from Seagate. The LaCie Mirror for example is a signature piece created in collaboration with acclaimed French designer Pauline Deltour and performs as both a functional 1TB hard drive and striking piece of personal décor. The LaCie Rugged RAID also joins the company’s consumer line-up with twice the speed and capacity of a standard mobile hard drive but with an emphasis on portability and durability that is shock, dust and water resistant.
Discuss Seagate’s new partnerships program and how it can help partners?
AA: Within the Middle East Seagate runs a specific program for our branded external drives which is in part based on Volume Incentive Rebates (VIR). We have been running and augmenting this program for selected customers for a while now. This program is based on a volume target set for each partner. If that partner achieves their target then they are eligible for a lucrative monetary rebate per SKU, and that amount is reviewed regularly based on certain product families.
Do you see growth of external drives continuing to be healthy or has the demand slowed/flattened with cloud storage on rise as well as larger installed capacities in laptops etc.?
AA: No one can deny that the cloud business is growing, and we see that as an opportunity rather than a challenge. At the end of the day people will still need to backup and protect their digital assets no matter where they reside or how they are accessed. We have for example, moved aggressively into the cloud market with offerings like our Seagate Personal Cloud. This addresses consumer’s desire to have wireless and mobile access to their data on the cloud, but still it has not taken a big share of Portable or USB connected storage.
In our region, I would add that privacy is still a significant consideration for consumers. That is understandable and is being resolved through greater knowledge about what “cloud” is and how it work. Those concerns are in some cases slowing down the shift from Portable & USB storage to cloud storage, but it is short-term trend in my view. With the huge amount of data that we create on a daily basis, we see that consumers just want to have their data safe and reachable. Many of those who have cloud storage are happy with it, and many that do still use a normal Portable/USB drive as a second backup.
Elaborate on retail distribution strategies for your external drives.
HA: On Seagate’s external drive business we currently work with two regional distributors, FDC International and Asbis Middle East. We also have local partners in countries like Egypt where we have ECS as an in-country distributor.
What is the demand for NAS drives and personal cloud in consumer segment in the region?
AA: The demand for NAS in the SOHO sector is growing steadily. Most of the businesses in the region now understand the importance of backup and accessibility. SMBs who are not able to invest in complicated servers and who do not have a big IT team are preferring solutions like our Seagate NAS and Seagate NAS Pro, which come in 2BAY, 4BAY and 6BAY. These two families give you a storage capacity of up to 30TB which is absolutely incredible for a SOHO user.
As for Personal Cloud—or what some refer to as Consumer NAS—this category is also growing but is still quite young, at least in this region. We have seen growth year on year for sure and this category is expected to flourish much more in 2015.
I say this because we’ve seen customers who really understand the benefits of cloud. Today a hard-drive is becoming like a TV or a computer in that households want a centralized place to save and access their digital assets. It is a centralized place for all you and your family data needs – a media library for your Smart TV, Tablet, PC, and Smart Phone. Moreover, it can be accessed on the local network or remotely if connected to the internet. Personal Cloud is really a unique piece of storage that if the end user really understands what it does, they won’t think twice of buying it.
As you offer an such an extensive range – from desktop to portable external drives, wireless drives, and more—how are each of those categories faring in the region in terms of demand and growth?
HA: Connected portable storage is taking the lead. This is normal as most consumers still look for easy mobility. As for desktop storage, the demand is still there and is particularly marked for those needing the high capacity that a desktop drive can offer.
One of the segments that is most fascinating for consumers today is wireless storage. Our Wireless and Wireless Plus devices have from example, seen incredible update year on year as people are becoming more familiar with wireless functionalities. We were the first brand to pioneer this technology and give people the ability to stream movies, music and photos wirelessly from their hard drive onto tablets, mobile and laptops.
Across the region have you ensured that Seagate external drives have great retail visibility in most power retail and IR (independent retailers) segments?
MK: Our products are well displayed in all major retailers that we work with across the region. With some of these retailers we have an agreement for prime locations that gives us a chance to reflect the new categories of our portfolio and our new products. The overall visibility plan is something that we invest a lot in and work on closely with retailers to understand the desires of their customers in their market.
Discuss new investments/recruitments done in the external storage team in the region?
AA: Seagate continues to see the Middle East as a strategic high-growth region with a lot of business potential and demand from local consumers. In the last three months alone we have had several colleagues join our Middle East team. These include welcoming Husam Alif who is now taking care of the UAE business for Seagate Branded Solutions based in Dubai, and Julien Bader who is now taking care of the Levant area for Seagate Core Business and is based in Beirut.
Later this year we expect to develop additional partnerships to expand our reach and continue to acquire partners on the global level with whom we believe we can develop amazing products—enabling people and businesses to create, share and preserve their most critical memories and business data.