Power solutions are gaining on next generation edge and as enterprise look for gaining better levels of productivity, vendors in the power solution segment are increasingly putting these next generation capabilities inside their solutions in order to deliver business agility and continuity and scalability for their enterprise customers.
B Venkat Rao, Country Manager, Medium & Large UPS Systems, Emerson Network Power India
According to B Venkat Rao, Country Manager, Medium & large UPS systems, Emerson Network Power India, at the core of every Emerson Network Power solution is a focus on customization or scalability.
“This, in conjunction with our focus on ease of integration, is what makes Emerson Network Power’s solutions so unique. Using the latest UPS technologies, our products provide flexibility for easy deployment across a variety of locations as well as reduce capital investment, protect from unstable power quality, depending on the unique requirement of every site with the least manual maintenance. While a customer might not own the best hardware, the way that hardware utilises the firmware and software to optimize the performance for customer is critical. This is one area that Emerson Network Power believes the industry would benefit from Smart Controls. Maximising the availability without compromising on efficiency, and at the same time optimising the total cost of ownership would be key differentiator for our solutions,” he explains.
According to Arun Ghosh, Managing Director, Cyber Power, “CyberPower has 200+ engineers only in R&D department and their primary job is to make our product future ready as per the market dynamics. CyberPower is having the wide range of products from the application of Mobile to Data Centers and with such an expertise, we have to cater all kind of Power Needs.”
Manoj from Microtek explains that for enabling next gen power solutions Microtek on first place is focusing on energy efficient power saving products. “We have launched a full fledged super energy efficient series of inverters/UPS E2+. We have also launched SINEWAVE HYBRID SOLAR UPS at a very reasonable price, which can be used as a solar unit by simply installing the solar panel whenever they become affordable,” he adds on.
New Age Product and Solutions
Emerson Network Power has made recent additions to its portfolio in the DC power segment where the company offers highly energy efficient battery chargers. These includes industrial DC power systems are based on the UtilitySure® DC Power technology platform and are available in different capacities of 24V, 48V, 110V and 220V.,These solutions deliver the most rigorous network-power applications and provide reliable efficiency in the field of industrialgrade UPS systems, battery chargers, inverters, and rectifiers for heavy duty, industrial use.
“In the AC Power segment, we have the highly energy efficient LiebertNXr and Liebert 80-Net UPS systems offering high efficiency insulated-gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) and Smarter Controls that give maximum throughput for the customer. Among other industry leading products in the UPS solutions is our Liebert NX range and Liebert APM,” Venkat Rao from Emerson adds on.
Arun Ghosh Managing Director, Cyber Power
Arun Ghosh, Managing Director, Cyber Power says that down the line 2-3 years we expect that when a person thinks about Power Solution, Cyber- Power should be the only brand that should strike in his mind – we have the products according to all kind of power backup solution of a Person- Battery Packs for Mobile, Power Products for Automobile Segment, Invertors for Domestic segment, Industrial Invertors, UPS for Home and SOHO segment, Online UPS for Banking, Telecom, Infrastructure, Govt verticals- Critical Loads, Solar Product range, Data Center Products and many more. GTM Provides wide range of products to our channel partners for all kind of power needs.
On the other hand, Manoj from Microtek explains that for enabling next gen power solutions Microtek on first place is focusing on energy efficient power saving products.
“We have launched a full fledged super energy efficient series of inverters/UPS E2+. We have also launched SINEWAVE HYBRID SOLAR UPS at a very reasonable price, which can be used as a solar unit by simply installing the solar panel whenever they become affordable,” he adds on.
Targeted Markets
Emerson Network Power’s business is being driven by several market segments due to its wide portfolio of passive infrastructure solutions in the sectors of data centre design, build and project management expertise. The telecom sector generates a majority of demand for UPS and inverters as they undertake very large projects.
“We consider e-Governance as a market segment that has enormous potential. It is the next largest segment we cater to and is a key area of specialization for our UPS business. Our products have also seen exceptional demand in the fields of infrastructure and education. We are counting on opportunities in the power backup and conditioning equipment space as UPS solutions are assuming a more complex role than simply enabling uptime. The rapid growth in consumer data consumption has led to an increase in demand for data storage and other business processes that are reliant on UPS solutions,” explains, Venkat Rao from Emerson.
Moreover, industries are taking a more proactive approach to power backup and conditioning equipment to get a better control of their equipment and improve reliability of their production plants while reducing costs.
“Emerson Network Power is well positioned for this, being the leader by far in the 20kVA+ category as well as among the top players in smaller UPS. That said, we rely on our robust network of channel partners for ensuring last mile penetration into the said markets and thus reinforcing our channel program with channel incentives and training programs constitutes the go-to-market strategy for Emerson,” he adds on.
Arun Ghosh from Cyber Power says that the company is new to Indian market and hence any step forward brings growth for the organization. “We are dynamic to the market so we won’t be sitting with only few products in the market. We have that capabilities and infrastructure to produce the power products which are in demand. At present we have Industrial invertors and Solar product range, which can be the products in demand in future,” he adds on.
Growth Opportunities
It is expected that SME’s will drive the need for industrial UPS as they become more familiar with advanced technology applications and have started using business critical equipment more widely as their industrial applications have increased.
“With our unparalleled product portfolio, Emerson Network Power has UPS solutions that extend across the entire range of passive infrastructure for modern industrial applications in categories ranging from large critical businesses to home needs. By observing current power segment, we are able to predict growth opportunities will drive the growth of Industrial UPS. We also see Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Digital India’ vision and e-governance initiatives driving growth in telecom, banking, insurance and healthcare segments as the demand for data centre and UPS solutions for the government sector increases across the country,” Venkat Rao from emersion adds on.
Industries are increasingly bundling UPS systems with containment monitoring solutions and buyer decisions are leaning more towards reliability and ease of integration. As renewable energy gains traction, solar options integrating with the power backup will become a force to be reckoned with. Solar Grid-Tied or Off –Grid would be standard inverter solutions available with smart controls to maximise the potential of solar energy.
Challenges for Power Solutions
The lack of awareness of basic power quality fundamentals is one of the main stumbling block we face. Often, users expect a UPS to automatically solve all power-related problems. Even after a UPS is installed, power problems can continue to occur as the root causes are often faulty earthing and grounding systems. Usage of poor quality batteries and cheap power systems from unorganized market makes high power systems unreliable. Regular power quality audits & monitoring that can prevent unplanned downtime and make UPS and other systems work efficiently, are not common in India.
“A serious challenge the industry faces is the power situation in the country which despite recent advances, is still plagued by a shortage and the unreliability of power. The scarcity of available power in rural areas affects the ability for industrial growth. However, we expect this to improve with suitable government support especially in sectors such as telecom, manufacturing and e-Governance as well as the fast expanding economy boosting demand for power management solutions,” Venkat Rao from Emerson explains.
On the other hand, Arun Ghosh, Managing Director, Cyber Power says that a major challenge faced by Indian market is the import of cheaper systems, local brand with poor quality products, competition from unorganized sectors, fluctuating commodity prices etc.
Manoj Jain ,Vice President, Microtek International P.Ltd
“Now-a-days the companies have become organized and aggressively pushing their products at a reasonable price and with advance technology. As a result, small / Local / unorganized companies will be unable to cope up with this situation and will lose ground. The main advantage is that we have our own manufacturing plant with our own separate design, R&D and implementation teams. If there is a demand for a new design, we can get that ready within 20 days. These factors place us a notch above the rest in the market. There are already a few but well-established players in the power solutions market who have been here for quite a long time and being a recent entrant how CyberPower is going to make inroads into market,” he opines.
Manoj from Microtek, explains,”We are catering to mainly domestic household segment in a major way and our market strategy is selling through dealer and distributor network based we already have network pan India of more than 25000 dedicated dealers and distributors in India. We are looking for a smooth growth of 20 to 30%. Next growth opportunity will be in renewable energy segment,” he adds on.
Trends in Power Solutions
As the market is rapidly adopting technology for industrial applications, there is a shift toward ‘Intelligent Integrated Infrastructure’ solutions. These Smart solutions offer easy implementation in a variety of spaces and reduce operational expenses while offering a real time view of the organisation’s IT ecosystem.
“This is a main focus area for Emerson Network Power and we continue to bring our world class solutions that are localized to suit the ‘tropical’ requirements of Indian companies. We also see the industry moving towards Real Time Monitoring andData Center Infrastructure Management Solutions. While CIOs traditionally relied on facility managers for insights into the physical infrastructure, modern DCIM solutions, such as what we have on offer, make it possible for CIOs to manage & monitor absolutely disparate sets of equipment both in IT and Physical Infrastructure on a real time basis. Emerson Network Power is offering such a family without Compromise’ which are designed according to industry best practices for organizations to address challenges associated with balancing objectives for capacity, space utilization, availability and efficiency,” Venkat Rao adds on. As per the views of Arun Ghosh, Managing Director,Cyber Power, “India is in the stage where we have evolved from basic phones to smart phones and other electronics also we have seen similar type of trends, so why we should stick to the bulky boxes in Home invertors and power back up segment. Also, now it is the time to move to next generation products in Inverter, UPS, Solar Product range etc. We are expecting huge business opportunity in the segment of Solar Products.”
According to Manoj from Microtek, today the biggest challenge for this market segment is the affordability and cost visibility in these segments as i.e. in solar segment the cost of solar panel is still too high. “The big trends are coming in the form of energy efficiency power products and future upgradeable solar sinewave UPS BY SIMPLY BUYING PANELS. And our in-house fully equipped R&D is regularly working to innovate and design more and more energy efficient user friendly products for the masses,” he explains.
Importance of Channel Partners
Channel partners are quite an essential part of the go to market strategy for almost all the vendors today and the segment of power solution is no exception.
“Since front end schemes give immediate satisfaction to the partners, we have entered into a strategic agreement with PAYBACK for a one-of-its-kind incentive program. With new and innovative partner incentive schemes being run on a monthly as well as a quarterly basis, we continue to receive a positive response from our partners. Hence, Emerson Network Power has continued the partnership with its most recent ‘Winter Bonanza’ program to further motivate and engage with our partners. Our partnership with PAYBACK allows us to offer our VARs and NSPs with the freedom to select their rewards based on the points that they have garnered from over 50 PAYBACK partner brands. Additionally, we have recently announced the ‘Avocent® Accelerate’ Program on sales of our Avocent range of products.
The objectives are to boost sales from the channel and at the same time give them a chance to earn better profits or other benefits. These schemes also help vendors gain more mindshare among the channel community. We work toward creating strong relationships with the channel fraternity and keeping an open communications channel with them, and are encouraging more participation and engagement from channel fraternity,” Venkat Rao
from Emerson adds on.
According to Arun Ghosh, from Cyber Power, “Globally, CyberPower strength is Channel and with our huge range of quality products in power segment, the partners gets the flexibility of providing the solutions to the power needs. We are planning to run a SPP (Smart Partner Program) to encourage the channel partners and the partners will get extra rebate and company will provide direct incentives to the partner’s sales person,” he adds on.
Similarly, Manoj from Microtek explains that channel partners are extremely important for the success of the organization. “We give utmost respect and importance to our channel partners as they are our partners in growth and are the strongest pillar for our brand and its unmatchable spread. For their motivation we regularly organize Meets, entertainment family trips to different locations,also schemes for their benefit are also given area wise.