SINGAPORE-BASED EnGenius Networks has set its sights on the Philippine market.
Lawrence Lim, regional general manager, said the company—which is based in Singapore and with regional headquarters in Taiwan—is looking at opening a direct office in the country so it can “localize” its products according to the demands of the market.
“We are here to invest and grow our company in the Philippines,” Lim said. At present, EnGenius products are distributed by 70 channel partners and distributors, but the company executive said “we expect to open a direct office here within two years.”
Lim admitted that the company had no plans for the Philippines two years ago but succeeding visits made EnGenius rethink its strategy. Small and medium businesses (SMBs) are very active in the Philippines, he said, and “we all know that these SMBs trigger growth of a country’s economy. For our part, we want to provide value-added solutions at very affordable prices to these enterprises.”
EnGenuis, Lim said, is capable of addressing the unique demands of the SMB market since “we spend a bit amount of research and development. We know what the market wants.”
The Philippines, said the EnGenius executive, is characterized by a very young market that requires a fast network. “Everybody wants to be connected nowadays,” he said. “It is a bandwidth-hungry country since content is very open.”
He said the Philippines presently accounts for 10 percent of EnGenius sales in the Asia-Pacific region; “we want to grow this to 30 percent.
“Our market thrust will be on the corporate segment and the unaddressed market like four-star hotels, limited enterprises, schools, hospitals, among others, that need reliable and fast Internet,” Lim pointed out.
Limitations in bandwidth being experienced here in the country, said Lim, can be solved by managing bandwidth. “We can offer solutions that use Wi-Fi to off-load 4G, which are secure, reliable at no opportunity cost for the client,” he said. EnGenius even offers free upgrades so customer can grow their enterprises and “future-proof” their investment.
The four growth sectors identified by EnGenius are the hospitality industry (1,400 hotels in the Asia-Pacific region are now using the company’s solutions, civilian Wi-Fi, wireless Internet service providers to deploy hot spots to users, and education Wi-Fi.)
Lim cited a pilot project in Malaysia where 6,000 students get their lessons from their Chromebooks using streamed videos through YouTube.
For the consumer, the company is offering the EnGenius Cloud Service—which features the EnViewer, EnTalk Lite, EnShare and EnRoute apps—that enables home users to connect to their media and files from anywhere, stay synced with friends and family members around the world, and facilitate the management of their own private network in ways that are simple, secure, fast and easy.
Designed to extend home network resources, the extremely versatile EnGenius Cloud Service links a wide array of devices—routers, gateways, USB-enabled devices, storage, home sensors, and even Internet Protocol (IP) cameras—across a private home network for users to monitor and configure through their mobile devices. It also includes the browser-based EnGenius Cloud Portal, which provides instant access for network users to manage all EnGenius Cloud Service-enabled gateways, routers and cameras within the network, while also serving as an alternative option for managing the EnGenius Cloud Service mobile apps.
The apps are available for download for iPhone and iPad through iTunes and for Android-based devices through Google Play.
