APC Is Applauded

C Quest, the country’s leading IT user magazine, ranked APC as the most

preferred UPS brand for the fifth consecutive year in 2001. According to

the magazine, buyers, especially corporates, chose APC for its quality and

reliability. 

This customer preference for APC is reflected in the revenue growth of the

company as well. During 2001-02, APC’s revenues grew by 10 percent. On the

other hand, according to MAIT, the UPS business in the country shrank by 10

percent! 

The UPS industry in the country is characterized by the organized and

unorganized sectors. The low entry barriers and extremely low overheads in the

unorganized sector have ensured that innumerable UPS brands are available in the

market that eat into the market- share of brands emerging from the organized

sector.

Quality remains a top criterion for Anand Iye
Strengths
	Quality and reliabilityÂ
	Wide service networkÂ
	160-280 volts AVR with automatic shutdown software

FIGHT FOR MARKET SHARE



In the organized sector, the major players include APC, TVSE, Wipro,

Powerware, Elnova, Champion and Numeric.  These fight with the regional and

local brands based on quality, support and technological features to gain market

share.

But the disadvantage the national brands face is that the prices of their

products are on the higher side because of higher overheads involved. APC,

however, justifies its costs on the basis of the quality of its products and the

additional technological features that it offers including automatic shutdown

software.

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES



Says Anand Iyer, Country General Manager, APC (India), "The regional

players operating out of cities are a threat to all national brands. But with

majority of these UPS manufacturers, quality becomes a major concern."

Anand believes that quality is the top criterion for buying an UPS. Service

and support is the next major issue among corporate and SMB segments. Since this

segment of buyers needs large UPSs to backup all systems, and can´t do without

power, come what may, these two issues become important when buying a UPS.

CHANNELS FOR REACH



The recent tie-up with Tech Pacific India Ltd as the sole distributor for

its Back-UPS range of products is expected to give a greater reach to APC

pushing up its sales. Anand points out that APC is also envisaging to develop a

countrywide network of authorized Back-UPS dealers who will function as

exclusive sales outlets for APC products. The program aims at targeting 350

cities in a 12 months time period and hopes to increase the number to 500 cities

in two years time.

While underlining the new marketing initiatives, Anand points out that APC

will try to ensure that its customers got the right kind of solutions. The new

marketing initiatives are also meant to reach APC customers in an efficient

manner. Describing APC as the most trusted brand and ISO certified, Anand says

that his company’s products are best suited for Indian conditions and had the

lowest failure rate. "The acceptable industry failure rate is about four to

eight percent, while APC’s is only about 0.5 percent," says Anand. 

APC products carry a warranty of four years which has worked to the advantage

of the brand and pushed it ahead of competitors. Its ‘swap warranty’ concept

is expected to provide greater acceptance to APC products.