"APC continues to innovate across business lines, simplifying and enabling the adoption of the latest technologies by companies and consumers, while strengthening its position as a tough leader in the availability of solutions."

On the overall market

The UPS market has witnessed a growth in tier II and tier III cities. For the half year ended September 2007, MAIT had reported that consumption in Class B cities had increased by 187 percent. Households accounted for 69 percent of the market, registering a growth of 35 percent, while businesses accounted for the remaining 31 percent, showing a decline of 42 percent over the same period. These findings reiterate the fact that the tier II market is a great opportunity.

On market trends

Despite the Indian UPS market being fragmented, there has been a certain amount of standardization over the years. The customer has been the winner as standardization has resulted in higher quality in product offerings and aspects such as service offerings and warranty. Going forward, the market will become more organized. UPS solutions are being designed to incorporate higher wattage per cubic inch since real estate costs are escalating. Rack mountable solutions are becoming the norm with increasing move to rack mountable form-factor for IT environments. This is driven by the need to manage the IT environment in more compact space. UPS solutions are becoming more efficient. This is reducing their running costs.

As networks are becoming more complex, far-flung, and getting managed from remote control sites, UPS needs to be equipped with heterogeneous network management protocols, so that they become flexible enough to incorporate diagnostics and predictive failure analysis With the increasing popularity of frame works like ITIL, similar features are being demanded in the data center infrastructure space as well.

UPS are now coming up with larger chargers, external chargers, and capability to manage, diagnose, and optimize large banks of batteries. Serviceability of solutions is also a concern, and hence modular UPS systems are decreasing the mean time to recover (MMTR), since availability and uptime are of critical importance to business continuity. Overall, UPS solutions are becoming modular and scalable and remote manageability is becoming increasingly important. In case of individuals, growth in the UPS category is a result of increased awareness, need for back-up solutions in case of power cuts, and growth in PC sales. The buyers in both home and enterprise space have increasingly become brand conscious and their purchase is driven by promise of quality and reliability and strong after sales service network.

On key growth drivers

The growth of IT spending in key verticals like IT services, government, education, and BFSI is resulting in an increased adoption of UPS. With the Indian economy booming, there is expected to be a higher growth in the UPS sector. These verticals offer major opportunities for the growth in demand for UPS systems. Increased awareness for quality of power has boosted the demand for UPS systems. UPS provides protection against voltage fluctuations. Increased penetration in B, C, and D class cities has been another reason for the category's growth. The Indian economy is growing at a fast pace. Both home and enterprise segments are witnessing buoyant growth. Hence, we expect the UPS systems market to grow at the current pace in 2008-2009 too. In the enterprise segment, the UPS is no more seen as a box but is seen as a solution. With the increase in IT spends in some key verticals like BFSI, IT, ITES, and government, the focus is going to be on deployment of large scale datacenters to ensure that data availability meets the demands of growing business.

On your plans and strategies

APC continues to innovate across business lines, simplifying and enabling the adoption of the latest technologies by companies and consumers, while strengthening its position as a thought leader in the availability of solutions. Moving forward, we will continue to enhance the APC solution range and further differentiate our offering from others by acquiring technology, or by developing it ourselves. Research and development continues to drive innovation across our business. We believe that now is the time to invest in the momentum that is building up in our UPS business, and as this offering grows, we will work to optimize our margins.

On future prospects

The UPS market is growing at a rapid pace in India due to fast growth in IT and ITES industries. The increase of sales of personal computers in India has fueled the growth of UPS also. Today, with frequent power cuts, especially in tier II cities, a customer prefers to buy a UPS along with a personal computer. As the economy and lifestyle of the consumer improves, he prefers to have an inverter and UPS to enjoy an uninterrupted power supply.

Anything else you may like to add

APC by Schneider Electric, a global leader in critical power and cooling services, provides industry leading products, software, and systems for home, office, data center, and factory floor applications. Backed by the strength, experience, and wide network of Schneider Electric's critical power and cooling services, APC delivers well planned, flawlessly installed and maintained solutions throughout their life cycle. Through its unparalleled commitment to innovation, APC delivers pioneering, energy efficient solutions for critical technology and industrial applications. In 2007, Schneider Electric acquired APC and combined it with MGE UPS Systems to form Schneider Electric's critical power and cooling services business unit, which recorded revenues of USD 3.5 billion and employed 12,000 people worldwide. APC solutions include uninterrupted power supplies (UPS), precision cooling units, racks, physical security and design and management software, including APC's InfraStruXure architecture, the industry's most comprehensive integrated power, cooling, and management solution. Schneider Electric, with 102 operating centers worldwide, has recorded annual sales worth USD 25 billion.