Socomec will be launching UPS starting from 400VA in the single phase segment shortly

Norbert Jacobsen knows that to boost Socomec's marketshare it needs to be
price sensitive but not at the cost of innovations or quality. With the help of
the channel the company plans to tap different verticals in India and climb up
the rank

UPS market in India is controlled by few players like APC, Numeric and
Emerson. How do you plan to deal the competition?

We have been selling in the Indian market for more than 16 years through
various system integrators, key accounts and joint ventures. There are other
players such as APC, Chloride and Numeric who control the market, but that is
only in the single phase UPS category. Socomec caters to the higher-end UPS
market. The market in India is huge and we are ranked fourth after Emerson,
APC-MGE, Chloride in the 3-phase UPS category. In order to cater to a whole
range of customers in India, Socomec will be launching UPS starting from 400VA
in the single phase segment shortly.

Is Socomec completely channel oriented or does it have dual strategies
like other vendors?

Socomec has divided its current business into two divisions-enterprise and
general business, where 3-phase UPS in the range of 8-60KVA will be handled by
channels and anything beyond 60KVA would be handled directly by the enterprise
team in Socomec. We have recently tied up with Redington in order to take the
3-phase UPS of 8-60KVA through value added resellers and to penetrate the C, D
and E-class markets.

Norbert Jacobsen MD, Socomec UPS India

Tell us about Socomec's partnerships and tie ups.

We are planning to tie up with business partners, such as system integrators
and solution providers who can handle various ranges of UPS even beyond 60KVA.
For 2008, we are planning to tie-up with 17 business partners including
Bengalooru-based Zener Systems whom we have been associated with for the past 16 years. In 2009, Socomec is planning to tie-up with 18 business partners and it will include those partners who are not just focusing on the non-IT verticals, namely manufacturing and textile verticals which are also some of the potential verticals for Socomec.

Apart from UPS, do you also intend to sell power solutions to the Indian
market?

Socomec is a power solutions company and this is the area where we have spent 40
years in producing innovative power solutions. Before launching this in a newer
market, like India we will be testing the power conditions in a similar kind of
testing approach we undertook during the launch of UPS. We already have a power
solutions manufacturing unit in Gurgaon, so the local manu­facturing is already
in place. We will be adding more solutions to our portfolio for the Indian
operations slowly.

What is Socomec's price strategy for Indian market?

The Indian market is 100 percent price sensitive. But instead of just
looking at the box prices at this point, the customers are focusing on energy
efficiency, power factor, lifetime of the UPS and footprints. Socomec is
initiating these innovations and trying to provide solutions on an enterprise
turnkey model.

We are not just looking at negotiating on the boxes but are also trying to
communicate the long term benefits to our customers.

NR Sethuraman

sethuramannr@cybermedia.co.in