Getting along well!

The recent

acquisition of APW President Systems (APW) by Schneider Electric is

being seen as

one significant development in the IT industry. APW has been a

pioneer in designing

and manufacturing standard and customized racks and enclosure systems

in India, serving IT and telecom end users. This acquisition is

another milestone in Schneider Electric's development in India.

With the completion of this acquisition, Schneider Electric has

clearly become a key player in the integrated data center

infrastructure market which further accelerates its development in

this domain. Moreover, this strategic partnership further strengthens

Schneider's comprehensive portfolio of integrated data center

solutions, thus making Schneider the single stop solution provider

for every data center requirement-be it for power, cooling, racks,

security,

management software or services.

Additionally,

Schneider

is now well-positioned to capture opportunities in the fast growing

Indian IT infrastructure market as well as in international markets,

particularly in Asia Pacific and Middle East. The company will also

be able to tap the talent pool and increase its solutions execution

capabilities from server rooms to extra large data centers.

Highlighting the importance of this acquisition, Shrinivas Chebbi,

country GM and VP, ITB India, Schneider Electric said, “APW has

been one of the leaders in the data center infrastructure space,

especially in areas like racks, and has been an undisputed leader in

this domain in the Indian market for the last 30 years. With this

acquisition in place, we will be able to enhance our ability to

provide complete and comprehensive solutions to our customers in

energy-efficient data center infrastructure.”

“APW has

the most advanced features in its products, which can address

multiple challenges of

data center managers like high form factor, integrated cable

management, server compatibility, etc. When these capabilities of APW

are combined with Schneider's capabilities to design, deploy,

commission, and maintain data centers, we will be able to bring a

winning combination in front of customers that can address their

challenges of energy efficiency,” added Chebbi. As is natural with

acquisitions, the completion of transaction has resulted in the

reconstitution of the board of directors of APW, with Pramod Agashe

and Charles Watanabe being appointed to the board of APW. Apparently,

Agashe has also been appointed as MD of APW. Speaking on his plans to

accelerate the growth of the overall business, Agashe said, “I

joined the company in November 2002. The growth agenda has always

been there in my mind. The company is built on a very robust and

sound foundation in terms of process, manufacturing procedures and

equipment. Now that we have created the infrastructure, we have to

capitalize on all those investments that we have made since the

inception of the company. Since I have the support of Schneider, this

makes my job much easier. I have got access to more markets and

partners to leverage on, and a much better support system.”

APPROACH

TOWARDS THE MARKET



This

acquisition has made Schneider a single stop solution provider in the
data center market. In fact, the company has always positioned itself
in front of customers as solution provider of energy-efficient

infrastructure. With the inclusion of APW, it will not only be

accelerating in the very large turnkey data center space but also

address the customers from all sectors. “We didn't want to

differentiate between the largeenterprise

and the typical notion of the SMB segment. We have already launched 3

rack and 5 rack out of the box server room and data center solutions.

Today, practically from a server closet to a million sq ft data

center, we are ready for any type of energy-efficient physical data

center architecture,” said Chebbi.

Moreover,

this is a great opportunity for APW to explore itself in the

international market because it has tremendous customization and

engineering capabilities. Besides, it is present not only in the

Indian market but also in some select international markets like

Africa, Middle East, and South East Asia. Post this acquisition, the

whole world will open for APW. Thanks to Schneider's network in all

these markets, APW will get tremendous support in terms of making its

products available to customers worldwide. Chebbi further said,

“Since APW already has knowledge of select international markets,

we will be accelerating in all those areas. And thanks to our

relationships in other parts of the world like Japan, we are very

confident that our Japanese customers would find APW's products and

offerings very interesting. There are already few markets identified

where we will be accelerating APW's offering in the coming months.”

Meanwhile,

Agashe said that for the time being, the products coming into the

market will carry the name of President only as it has a powerful

brand value. And both the manufacturing units in Pune and Bengaluru

will be utilized by Schneider for India as well as overseas market.

INTEGRATION

OF

APW & APC's CHANNEL



Both
companies feel that there is no need for any channel restructuring

because the way partners of both APW and APC by Schneider have been

oriented in the last few years, it will be easy for them to

understand the whole business.

As far as

APC

by Schneider is concerned, it has been working on a joint GTM with

its business partners by adopting various channel models like

transactional and system integration model. By following each of

these channel models having different competencies, partners are

equipped to address any needs of the customers. Similarly, APW's

channel strategies were also on the same lines. In the past, APW had

primarily rack- based offers, but in order to complete the solution

sets, they used to have strategic alignments. Their partners used to

adopt 'stock and sell' model. Thanks to this acquisition, the

channel partners of APW stand to gain hugely because the areas where

they used to struggle earlier in order to complete the solution, now

they will not struggle with the help of integrated solutions from APC

by Schneider.

Meanwhile,

APW has appointed a program integration manager who used to earlier

work for APC

by Schneider. With the help of this integration manager, the company

has designed a very systematic integration plan. “What we have

decided is that we will have individual channels pursuing their

businesses at their own level so that there is no confusion in terms

of what to sell post this acquisition announcement,” said Agashe.

“But at the

same time, in the phase 2, there will be interdependent channels. We

are aware that APC by Schneider works with the likes of Redington and

Ingram Micro and has much wider reach across the country. Definitely,

we will able to leverage it but we are in no hurry to disturb the

current equations,” added Agashe.

However,

APW's distributors had some concerns over this acquisition. They

had threat perception that with the coming of Redington and Ingram

Micro, they will be sidelined. “Seeing this situation, we

communicated them at a very early stage that there will be business

as usual. They will continue to be our distributors and get the same

support. And in the future they will be considered to sell the APC by

Schneider products provided they meet the eligibility criteria. Our

partners are aware that there is something in store but at the same

time, their distribution profile has to suit as per APC by

Schneider's requirements,” explained Agashe.

“If they

fail to meet the eligibility criteria, they will have to upgrade

their skillsets. Here, we will

help them acquire those skills and put up their case to APC by

Schneider which, in turn, will give them a better chance to qualify

for other portfolio of products,” added Agashe.

LOOKING

AFTER PARTNERS



APC by
Schneider considers training, enablement and handholding as essential

pillars of its engagement with partners. Continuing on similar lines,

it has got a definitive plan and strategy of exposing and

hand-holding APW's partners.

“As far as

our partners are concerned, we have been carrying out nationwide

training programs for them through different techniques. We have

launched a few channel portals so that we can help them with lead

generation. This year, we are going to unveil our training programs

which will be on the lines of conventional channel training model. We

have designed the program in such a way that our partners will get

hands-on knowledge of not only our products but also of APW's,”

highlighted Chebbi.

Similarly,

since the announcement of this acquisition on May 20, 2011, APW

started giving

training to the first set of its partners on the SKUs of APC. The

company is moving in very a systematic way to give training to its

distributors as well as partners. “If you look at our distributors

today, they are not only dealing with APW's cabinets but also with

other equipment typically in the area of structured cabling. This is

a typical profile of a rack and cabinet distributor. They are excited

because now they can also sell other products to the same customers.

They are introduced to all those

opportunities that they will get from different products in APC's

kitty. Making them ready for APC's SKUs is not a big challenge, as

we just have to bridge the gap,” concluded Agashe.