"Client specialization and vertical reach are the key considerations for CyberPower in India"

CyberPower debuts in India with their line of UPS systems. Michael Ho, president, CyberPower talks about his India specific plans

This is your debut venture in India. Please elaborate on CyberPower.

Founded in 1997, CyberPower Systems (USA), designs, manufactures and markets a feature-rich line of affordable high-quality Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) systems. We employ a fully-staffed R&D department, over 90 engineers, and have a solid ISO 9001 certified supply chain. Based on its proven ability to provide high-quality, reliable products, CyberPower offers an industry-leading 3-year warranty on UPS products, rather than the industry standard 2-year warranty. We also offer lifetime warranties on its surge products and some of the highest Connected Equipment Guarantee warranties in the industry.

As CyberPower has continued to expand worldwide beyond its United States office, the distribution of CyberPower products has grown significantly. Today, CyberPower Systems is the number two UPS and Surge product manufacturer by both units-sold and dollar-share in the retail channel. CyberPower offers a complete line of emergency battery backup systems for computer systems, electronics, and telecommunication equipment.

CyberPower produces the most popular and affordable line of dependable, high-quality UPS systems in the market today. Its feature-rich, intelligent products continue to set the standard for power protection design and innovation in the UPS market. CyberPower is dedicated to continuously making feature improvements to its UPS systems in order to bring maximum value to its customer.

What is your product line globally and are you expanding it in accordance to the market dynamics?

CyberPower continues to expand its line of products. While maintaining a dominant position with lower price-point UPS units for the general consumer, CyberPower has increasingly offered high-end UPS units for those applications needing automatic voltage regulation (AVR), or pure sine wave output. The high-end UPS lines align with its retail line of products. In fact, the high-end UPS lines offer an opportunity for CyberPower resellers to offer a complete power protection solution to both their small-to-medium business (SMB) and Corporate sectors.

The high-end UPS line of products is conveniently divided into four key categories.

Those four categories include: the Smart Application Series, with Smart App Online, Smart App Sinewave, Smart App Intelligent LCD, and Smart App AVR lines; the Intelligent LCD Series; the AVR Series, and the Standby Series. The units in these series are produced in tower and rackmount form factors (including a convertible tower/rackmount design) in both 1U and 2U sizes. Based on CyberPower's proven reputation and commitment to excellence, customers can be assured that CyberPower will remain a world-leader in power protection product reliability, quality, and value.

Please explain your inception in India.

We were aiming to enter the Indian market for sometime and it took us 3 years to search for the right kind of collaboration and the right partner. We have entered the Indian market with Hita Technologies Pvt Ltd (HTPL), one of the key players in the Indian UPS segment and will be utilising its channel and service network across the country.

CyberPower has acquired the service network of HTPL with 72 service locations and the final merger will happen across a span of 3 years when HTPL will be amalgamated inside CyberPower. For the time being, according to the arrangements, HTPL will provide as the service support firm as well offer its existing channel base.

What is your product line in India?

CyberPower is now offering power products, namely UPS under the 10KVA category with a wide range of products. We are however, keen on expanding the portfolio in the upper bracket where more products may be introduced in India in the coming 6 months.

What is your distribution and channels structure in India?

We have a dual structure of distribution in place. We have Ingram Micro as our global national distributor and talks are on for India too. Besides, we are also talking to other national distributors for the same role. The national distributor will be catering to the prominent locations and the dealer base. For the tier 1 partners who can be the preffered companies, we'll be catering to our partners directly. We are thereby marking fields of operations for the channel base.

Over the channels appointment, we are looking for expanding partnerships and collaborations but it will not be haphazard or done arbitrarily. Even though partner numbers matter, client specialization and vertical reach are the key considerations we are making over tie-ups.

What are the key verticals you are targeting?

SOHO and home users are the key customer base for us. The products that we have launched in India are best suited for these segments. Also, specific industries in the SMB space which requires emergency power back-up and clients where power is a key requirement are the targeted base.

How is CyberPower's India division organised?

We will be launching our products in Kolkata and Mumbai, and Delhi and Bengaluru will be in the loop shortly. Mumbai is our headquarter for India and we'll be appointing resident zonal managers in each of the zones in India.