The Slowdown Will Not Dampen Growth... India Is a Huge Market

currently regional director for Asia-Pacific, responsible
for sales and marketing in India, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Korea. Prior to joining
APC, Griffith had a distinctive career with IBM Canada for 25 years in sales,
marketing, and sales management. In an exclusive interview with Dataquest,
Griffith outlines the company’s initiatives in the APAC market, with emphasis
on his key focus–marketing

On APC’s set-up in India...

We have a got a team on channel (the transactional model) and
another team which focuses on the large corporates segment (direct-relational
model). Besides this, there is the service team. The team reflects the strategy.
The relational model is a tier touch model–in that model, we work with our
partners to deliver different solutions that we offer. The APC team very often
goes in with our business partner to deliver solutions. The savings that are
made by investing in UPS systems ultimately pay for the investments made, apart
from the great ease of use and the productivity benefits that comes from
continuous flow of work.

On APC’s broad marketing strategy for the
Asia-Pacific region...

Our strategy has not changed for years and if you look at why
we are such a successful company, it is because our mission is to delight
customers by ensuring the availability of data right from the time it is
created, transmitted and stored. I would say, therefore, that it is this whole
spectrum of protecting data, making sure that it is not lost due to power
outages and spikes. We make sure that uptime is maintained. Maintaining uptime
is a major concern for a lot of MIS and IT managers. Among other prime concerns
are the availability of data and productivity of resources. Power problems can
affect those two concerns. We have a strategy to win over customers by offering
complete and total solutions in the availability of power systems.

On the uniqueness of the APAC region, as compared to
North America and Europe...

The growth potential in this region is the single-most
important feature. We have been in North America for quite a while and have
established a good brand... over time, customers have come to realize that the
two things that we stand out for are reliability and innovation in solutions. In
India, where we have been growing, there are some fantastic numbers on this
front. Also, the power problems here represent a significant growth opportunity
for us. Power-related problems are pretty broad-based. In any country, the power
situation is not getting better. Even when you look at the US, and see the
recent California power crisis, even in well developed countries with well
developed infrastructure, the power situation is not getting better. In the
Asia-Pacific, there are some countries with poorer power availability than
others. I think it is probably more awareness on the need for power protection
and sustainability. The productivity loss due to power outages is immense.

On the most profitable segments in APAC...

All segments hold great opportunity. We are well positioned
in terms of products across the whole spectrum. From a consumer point of view,
the home market, SOHO, SME, large businesses–you are looking at different
kinds of models. Right now, we have a very good transactional model, this is to
do with those that have invested in terms of our channel structure, in terms of
our ability to deliver through our business partners, the various kind of
solutions that we have, etc.

We are in the process of shifting a bit from the
transactional part to the relationship and selling part. This is, of course,
required especially in the large UPS’ segment. I am talking about data
centers, with large requirements. Our focus, therefore, is on increasing the
head-count in terms of selling and supporting. If you look at the mobile phone
market and telecom companies–all these firms need DC solutions. We are doing
well in terms of the small market, home and SOHO segments and we are probably
the second in that respect. Large corporates acquire a lot of equipment. We have
a strong alliance with them–an important point for the large number of
end-users is that the integration of our solutions is tight with a lot of IT
solution providers. For example, IBM’s network management, Tivoli–we are the
only UPS company that is integrated with Tivoli. Taking care of integration is
one of our major strengths and people can feel confident when they are buying
that we already have the platform, the solution and the network management
solution capability. When there are problems with the network, ideally you
should get alert ahead of time–to get lead-time–to fix the problem before
the end-user is affected. That’s the kind of product that is useful to
corporates who manage large networks.

On the channel models...

We follow the channel-transactional model, where we work with
business partners and make sure that we have a broad coverage of the market. A
reseller will not like it if a company sells direct since it is a matter of
trust. APC is very good in a two-tier distribution model where we don’t sell
direct–this gives confidence to our business partners and helps in
disseminating information to our end-users.

On the slowdown...

Worldwide, APC is not immune to any kind of slowdown in the
information technology industry and we have been affected to an extent, but due
to our strong brand awareness, we have been protected in a way. While on
cost-cutting–we are trying to solve availability problems–though one may
look at cutting costs, one will focus on increased availability and
productivity. We add to the profits to the companies we work with. Worldwide,
this is the case. In India, due to the poor power situation, there is a market.
Also, the number of PC shipments here is large. As per IDC projections, the PC
market is about one-third of China–this represents a huge market.

So if I am asked whether I am concerned about the effect of
slowdown in India, the answer has to be ‘No’. This is because we see
significant opportunities ahead, because of the business we are in. Last year,
with 1.7 million shipments and an ever-growing market, we were excited about our
potential here. The market here has been one of the fastest-growing, with
infrastructure being one of the only major bottlenecks in some sections.
However, with most governments working towards that, I see faster implementation
of IT programs as the norm here, rather than the exception.

Amit Sarkar in New Delhi