SolarWinds is known as a powerful and affordable IT management software vendor. In May 2019, Mr. Hiroaki Kawamura was appointed as the country manager of the Japanese subsidiary. With a new leader, SolarWinds plans to further enhance its brand power in the Japanese market for IT management solutions. Currently, the company employs a diverse range of personnel, including engineers, sales, and marketing, and the number of personnel is steadily increasing.
Mr. Kawamura, who has worked as a country manager for Japanese companies such as Symantec and Dropbox, was surprised by SolarWinds' steady stance of "getting close to the on-site engineers of client companies." We asked Mr. Kawamura about the company's mission and strategy in the Japanese market.
SolarWinds Japan Country Manager Hiroaki Kawamura
――First, please briefly introduce what kind of company SolarWinds is.
Mr. Kawamura: SolarWinds is a company that focuses on "making IT easier" for IT professionals in the field. Specifically, we provide a full range of IT management tools and technologies so that IT professionals can easily respond to their own challenges.
For 20 years since its founding in 1999, SolarWinds has grown and expanded its brand by empowering IT professionals. Our products enable organizations around the world to monitor and manage their IT services, infrastructure and applications in any IT model – on-premises, cloud or hybrid – regardless of industry, size or complexity. You will be able to do it. These product groups are integrated through the "Orion® Platform," which enables visualization and management of the entire company's IT infrastructure on a single screen.
Currently, there are about 320,000 companies in 190 countries/regions around the world that have installed SolarWinds products, and companies of all sizes, from large companies, including 499 companies in the Fortune 500, to small and medium-sized companies. It is used in In addition, an IDC® study named it the "Network Management Software Market Leader."
Solar Winds website (https://www.solarwinds.com/ja)
Dashboard screen of "Orion platform"
-- So you already have a lot of customer records. Why do you think user companies support SolarWinds products?
Mr. Kawamura: In the 20 years since its establishment, SolarWinds has consistently worked closely with IT professionals to understand their challenges and how they want to solve them. In the first place, the network engineers in the field started the company with the idea of ``developing tools that would be useful to them.
Our business is built from the ground up on a deep understanding of the problems that IT professionals face today and how to address them. That's why we can confidently offer SolarWinds products as tools to solve IT management challenges. This attitude is what I like the most about SolarWinds.
I have held management positions in various companies so far, but I have often been able to see the "now" and come up with good ideas by listening to the opinions of people on the ground. Recently, attention has been focused on a “paperweight” flat organization rather than a top-down style. I guess. It can be said that SolarWinds is a company that has put this into practice with its customers.
――Over the past few years, SolarWinds has significantly expanded its product range and product portfolio. Is this also the result of user-driven efforts based on "voices from the field"?
Mr. Kawamura: Yes. At SolarWinds, we have actively listened to the voices of our customers, and have been developing new tools and functions based on the various on-site issues and feedback we have received. The expansion of our product range and portfolio is nothing more than the “result” of responding to customer feedback one by one.
By the way, when expanding into new areas such as the cloud, we are flexibly considering corporate acquisitions to expand our portfolio, rather than sticking to in-house development. For example, VividCortex, which we acquired last year, developed a performance monitoring product specifically for cloud databases. The product is now available as "Database Performance Monitor", with plans to eventually integrate it into the Orion platform.
Solar Winds currently has a lineup of more than 55 product groups. It covers everything you need to solve IT Operations Management (ITOM) challenges such as application/server/data/infrastructure/network monitoring, management and protection in hybrid/multi-cloud environments.
Dashboard screen of "Database Performance Monitor"
――What specific efforts does the Japanese subsidiary take to "listen to the voices of the field"? Are you doing
Mr. Kawamura: Every day, we make rounds of several companies to call and visit our customers. Sometimes I go to the customer's site with our engineers, and sometimes I visit alone and the engineer participates remotely from a PC.
――It's a bit interesting that Mr. Kawamura, the country manager, visits the customer's site and the engineer participates remotely from the office (laughs).
Mr. Kawamura: For on-site customers who know the technology, engineers are more communicative and trustworthy than people in the sales field like me (laughs).
Especially in the case of Japanese customers, when dealing with foreign IT vendors like us, they look at "whether they have engineers in Japan." In other words, if the Japanese subsidiary does not have technical support and consulting capabilities, it cannot be trusted as a business partner. Therefore, we have enhanced technical support by our technical engineers.
In addition, we strive to maintain a long-term relationship with our customers by fully supporting them even after product introduction. For example, for customers who have a maintenance contract, we can provide free training as well as technical support in Japanese. Even if you have introduced a product with a wealth of functions, there are some customers who actually use only a small part of the functions. We believe that by introducing various functions through training and having customers fully use our products, we will be able to build long-term relationships with them.
From the end of last year, we started offering webinars (web seminars). Technical trainers, sales engineers, and product marketing staff from SolarWinds explain the latest products, solutions, and case studies on a regular basis. Both customers who have already introduced the product and customers who are considering introducing it have participated in this event, and it has been well received.
-In terms of listening to users, SolarWinds also has a large online community.
Mr. Kawamura: Yes. Over 150,000 engineers worldwide participate in the online community THWACK. On-site engineers from user companies who have various issues freely exchange opinions and provide feedback on the product. Of course, SolarWinds engineers also actively participate in these meetings, providing technical advice and listening to the voices of our valued customers. Having such a place is a big weapon for us.
-Among the various solutions in your lineup, do you have any particular needs at the moment?
Mr. Kawamura: In the first place, we are commercializing products that have strong customer inquiries, so when we say that there is a high need, it means "everything"... (laughs). If I had to pick one, I think there is a high demand for a platform for operation management tools because many customers are facing issues such as "automatic management," "visualization," and "correlation analysis."
The old style of manually operating IT infrastructure using disparate tools corresponding to individual areas has already reached its limits. Of course, even so, it would be difficult to replace all management tools with SolarWinds products at once. Therefore, we recommend that you start by introducing the critical parts first, then gradually replace them, and eventually build an efficient integrated platform.
SolarWinds offers affordable pricing. Through our fine-tuned pricing system, we can introduce products starting at a few hundred thousand yen with a minimum configuration. It doesn't require a sudden investment of tens of millions or hundreds of millions of yen, so even companies that don't have ample IT budgets can easily obtain approval for approval. I think it's a great strength to be able to start small and build an integrated management environment little by little while demonstrating the effects of the introduction.
――Indeed, with the increasing complexity of the IT environment and the shortage of IT personnel, there is a growing demand for more efficient and automated operation management. You also need technology to effectively deal with internal and external threats. It's great for IT and security "fields" to have a solution that's easy to deploy and manage, all on a platform that's powerful, affordable, and easy to integrate and simplify. hey.
Mr. Kawamura: Speaking of the complexity of the IT environment, "corresponding to the cloud and hybrid IT" is also becoming a big issue. Unlike on-premises environments, cloud and hybrid IT environments are complex.
For example, if you cannot access the SaaS you are using for work, you can predict whether the cause is the cloud infrastructure of the service provider, the telecommunications carrier, or the internal network or PC. There are many problem areas that can be detected, and it is not easy to isolate the problem. In recent years, the adoption of hybrid IT has made the IT infrastructure itself more complex. Centralized visualization of the cloud and on-premises environments and the ability to quickly identify problem areas is a major challenge in the field today.
Another issue for our client companies is reducing fixed costs. As companies in all industries move toward digital transformation, more and more companies want to reduce fixed costs by using technology and make strategic investments in the creation of new businesses and products. The same is true for IT itself, and the idea of reducing maintenance and operation costs and using them for strategic IT investment is gaining momentum in Japan.
These problems can be solved with the SolarWinds product line. In addition to being able to transparently monitor and manage both on-premises and the cloud, there are also a wide range of IT service management related products such as service desks. We also have a proven track record of significantly reducing fixed costs related to IT operation management. We are delighted to receive such positive feedback from the field, and to see the recent increase in large-scale inquiries from customers in the financial and public sectors.
--Is there any difference between SolarWinds' domestic business strategy and the overseas market?
Mr. Kawamura: In the case of Europe and the United States, there are many cases in which the customer downloads the trial version of the product from our website and that leads to an order, but this is not necessarily the case in Japan. First of all, we will take the step of raising an internal request for approval and gaining the understanding of our superiors.
SolarWinds has very aggressive plans for Japan. As a major player in IT management solutions, the expanding Japanese team is also working hard to strengthen its brand power and market position in Japan.
In the first place, the management style of SolarWinds itself is not one that pursues short-term goals such as "buying a bang and gaining the top share at once" or "growing at once in a year", but rather accumulating steady efforts and taking time. In other words, we will continue to acquire market share. I think it is extremely rare for a foreign-affiliated IT vendor, but I would like Japanese customers to know the stance of SolarWinds.
――The relationship with sales partners is also important in expanding into the Japanese market. What are your thoughts on partner strategy?
Mr. Kawamura: SolarWinds works closely with industry-leading technology companies such as distributors, resellers, service providers and integrators. Channel partners are a very important factor in market development. We consider our partners part of our sales team and their outstanding performance allows us to grow our business.
That's why we ensure our partners have access to the best resources and ongoing training. Just as we support our own sales force, we also support our channel partners in training and marketing.
In terms of training, we offer Boot Camps for SolarWinds Certified Professionals and SolarWinds Sales Expert Certification Sessions, and our partners are always amazed at the high level of training they receive.
It is also important to make steady efforts. In the same way as the engineers of our client companies, the people in charge of our partner companies are having a hard time on site. First of all, if you accumulate small successful experiences with SolarWinds and feel that you want to continue to deal with SolarWinds products, you will be able to confidently recommend us to other client companies.
In fact, right after I was transferred to a different industry, the person in charge of a sales partner contacted me saying, "I want to propose SolarWinds products, so please come and explain with me." bottom. It makes me happy to be able to provide products that people in the field really want to sell, and I am confident about that.
――In overseas markets such as the United States, managed services are also provided via MSP partners, but what about Japan?
Mr. Kawamura: There is a high need for managed services that do not require the time and effort of operation management for small and medium-sized enterprises that do not have dedicated IT staff in the company. MSP sales in the US market are growing steadily, and preparations are underway to provide services in Japan as well. Please look forward to it.
――Lastly, Mr. Kawamura, who has a wealth of management experience, what do you think about SolarWinds, and what is the future direction?
Mr. Kawamura: What I feel strongly about assuming the position of Country Manager of SolarWinds is that the spirit of "emphasizing the voices of the field" is thoroughly applied from product development to sales. I was surprised at how thorough they were, but at the same time, I realized that this has led to the deep trust of our customers.
SolarWinds is not yet well known in the Japanese market, but we would like more companies to know about our solutions while making the most of this advantage. First of all, I would like to meet more field engineers than ever before and hear the "voices of the field." We will continue to strive to be recognized as a valuable partner for our customers.
(Provided by Solar Winds)