We plan to continuously design new products

Power solution provider, Numeric, known for its UPS products has become the first manufacturer in this segment to comply with the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) registration for the 6 – 10 KVA range. In this interview, Palash Nandy, CEO, Numeric, talks to Huned Contractor about the company’s emphasis on providing quality clean power and its long-term strategies

Q. Could you provide details of the history of the company and the reason for choosing to make UPS products?

Numeric was established in the year 1984. Computerisation had just started across various segments, banks being one of them, and there was a clear need for continuity and quality of electrical supply. Numeric seized this opportunity to build a sustainable business of UPS through its emphasis on quality of products coupled with best-in-class service infrastructure.

Q. How has been the company’s journey so far?

Since its establishment Numeric has progressively become one of the top three UPS’ manufacturers in India. Numeric introduced its first UPS in in the year 1985. Subsequently, the company introduced other power-conditioning products. Lots of energy and resources were spent on building a wide infrastructure of providing service. This combination of having very good quality of products plus excellent service infrastructure helped us to build a sustainable business model. We emerged as a leader and since then it has evolved as the undisputed leader in single-phase UPS and line interactive UPS for the last 24 years. Today Numeric has a complete solution in UPS across line interactive, online single-phase, three-phase and the latest generation modular UPS. This enables Numeric to cater to any application from 600 VA to 1.2 MVA and across all market verticals.

Numeric’s products are equipped with state-of-art technology and they are extremely user-friendly and very easy to maintain. Numeric, over the years, has built the largest service network of its kind, consisting of 254 service centres across India. Close to 1,200 people are dedicated in service operations, of which there are close to 900 field technicians. Consequently, our customers are able to get proper service irrespective of their business location. Being a part of the Legrand Group, Numeric now gets access to the latest global technology and our experience in the domestic market provides us with deep market knowledge. We now proudly mention ourselves as a ‘glocal’ company that brings together global expertise and local knowledge.

Q. Could you provide details of the various products made by the company and application areas?

At Numeric we have a wide range of products, starting from line interactive UPS and going up to the extremely technical and modern modular UPS.

We have the following ranges:

• Line interactive UPS
• Home UPS
• Single-phase online UPS – Onfinity and HP Max
• Three-phase online UPS – Keor T, Keor HP and Keor HPE
• Modular UPS – Trimod and Archimod.

In terms of capacity range, we offer solutions from 600 VA to 4.8 MVA.

Q. Who are your major clients?

Our customers are across all market segments –data centres, IT and ITeS, BFSI, manufacturing, healthcare, education, government, infrastructure, SOHO, retail, hotels, etc. All major brands across these market segments are our customers and they are spread across India, Africa, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Sri Lanka. Most of our customers partner with us due to our wide product offers and the huge sales and service infrastructure.

Q. How will the BIS certification benefit the company in terms of marketing and sales?

Numeric became the first UPS manufacturer in the country to comply with the mandatory Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) registration for 6 – 10 kVA range. We were also one of the first UPS manufacturers to comply with the mandatory Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) registration for less than 5 kVA. According to the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) order issued on August 17, 2017, UPS ratings of less than 10 kVA were covered under the compulsory BIS registration scheme. Nobody would be allowed to sell and/or distribute UPS less than 10 kVA without having the BIS registration. We welcome this decision of MeitY. It will ensure that the quality level of the UPS industry goes up. Naturally, the biggest beneficiaries would be the UPS’ customers at large. Numeric has always kept the quality of its products at an international level and hence we were able to get ourselves registered very quickly without having to make any product adaptations.

Q. What are the USPs of the products made by you as compared to those made by other companies?

What sets Numeric apart is a combination of two amazing advantages. Firstly, Numeric became a part of the Legrand Group in 2012, which gives us complete access to Legrand’s global expertise. Secondly, we have a strong experience of the Indian market and are precisely aware of the customers’ requirements. So, global expertise coupled with local experience and knowledge is a perfect combination that we have, which is extremely difficult to beat. As mentioned before, another amazing benefit of Numeric is the broad and strong product portfolio and exemplary service. We are perhaps the only company with a wide product portfolio ranging from 600 VA to 4.8 MVA, catering to diverse applications covering small projects to large data centres. We, at Numeric, are constantly engaged in maximising value for our customers in terms of technological advancement, customer friendliness as regards product usage, installation, commissioning and the right service back-up. We do not believe in only price competition. We are working hard to provide the best price versus value proposition to our customers.

Some examples of our uniqueness include:

• Modular UPS with granular parallel architecture that helps the customer to have more redundancy on installed capacity. It also enables the customer to plan the capacity of the UPS as per today’s requirement and provides flexibility to increase the rating of UPS as per their business growth.
• Independent phase configuration and its flexibility that helps them to plan the load on each phase by using modules for specific phases.
• Independent phase management that helps customer to plan the type of load connected to each phase for its redundancy and management.
• KEOR T with its regenerative handling capability in mains mode is a unique feature, which is suitable for both IT and industrial application. The three-level IGBT inverter design helps to improve the inverter and overall efficiency so as to reduce operational expenses. High input power factor and low THDi reduces the cost of electrical infrastructure. Multi-DSP controller on the products helps the UPS to respond faster.
• Our recently launched KEOR series of three-phase UPS – Keor HP and Keor HPE, are a one-stop solution for IT, industrial, healthcare, office and commercial sector. Keor HP and Keor HPE are designed with advanced technologies and latest generation components. These intend to satisfy both users and installers by providing ease of maintenance and safety, capital preservation and reduction of operating expenses. Intended for use in large data centres and co-location facilities, the Keor HP and Keor HPE can offer solutions between 60 kVA to 4.8 MVA requirements.
• Our single-phase products such as HP Max and Onfiniti offer our customers built-in isolation transformer on a compact footprint. A UPS with isolation transformer increases the reliability of the product and its performance in the India market.
• Energy efficiency is one of the key drivers for Numeric. Our products are the most energy-efficient in the Indian market. In fact, some of our products have energy efficiency levels up to 96%.

Q. What are the company’s expansion plans for 2018?

At Numeric we plan to continuously design new products and engage with all stakeholders of the UPS market like specifiers, IT heads, system integrators, installers, facility managers, end-users, etc. Our growth is driven by innovation, design and user-friendliness in our products, which are the keystones of our brand philosophy. We truly believe that technology should be an enabler, offering ease of life for customers and they should not be overwhelmed by it. We believe in driving growth and market share through solving customer’s problems and thereby gaining customer confidence. Consequently, new product launches will be a continuous affair throughout the coming months and years. As a company, we have an aggressive growth vision. Our objective is to grow at twice the UPS market growth rate in the country.

Q. What about exports?

In the coming months, Numeric would focus on traditional export markets like Africa, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. We strongly believe that we have the right product offer and infrastructure to consistently gain market share in these markets.

Q. What kind of research and development does the company undertake?

From the very beginning, research and development has been an important asset and growth driver for Numeric. Post Numeric becoming a part of the Legrand Group, this focus on research has only accelerated. We have our own R&D centre in Chennai which ensures that the products we introduce in the Indian market are perfectly adapted to Indian conditions and habits. We work a lot in ensuring that our technology makes our products very environmentally friendly. Also, at Numeric we emphasize a lot on making the products user-friendly – right from selection to installation, to commissioning, usage and trouble-shooting. Our products are extremely energy-efficient and compact with minimum footprint.

Q. What will be the triggers for growth?

Going ahead we expect steady growth in our sector. We believe that the IT and ITES, government, infrastructure and healthcare segments will grow faster than the rest of the segments. As such, we are very well-placed to take advantage of this potential that India offers today.

In particular, the factors driving this growth would be:

• IoT and digitalization activities across sectors including the government’s ‘Digital India’ initiative.
• Smart cities initiative.
• The need for clean power across industries.
• Penetration of sensitive electronic gadgets in homes and hence the need for clean and uninterrupted power at home.
• Infrastructure growth.
• Growth of surveillance needs.
• Digitalization of entertainment, etc.

Q. Given that the government is keen to provide uninterrupted power to all by the year 2020, what are your long-term plans?

With our wide product offers and huge service infrastructure we would be able to do justice to all the requirements of our customers. Hence, we are quite confident of our growth prospects. We aim to grow twice compared to the market growth. And we plan to continue our investment in technology to not only to make better products but also leverage technology for providing better service to our customers. We will also invest our resources and energy in making the organisation leaner, more energetic, responsive and a fun place to work. We strongly believe that one of our strongest assets is our motivated team of close to 1,800 Numericans.