September 27, 2010]
FRENCH firm Schneider Electric (Phils.) Inc. has re-introduced its
power support products in the Philippine data center market after
sales and income dropped last year.
Schneider re-launched on Friday the upgraded version of its product
targeting businesses relying on computer servers.
According to Kevin Hughes, the company's manager for cooling products
in Asia-Pacific and Japan, the decision to reintroduce products
launched in January is based on results of a June 2009 survey that
revealed majority of chief information officers prioritize modular
cooling as a design for data centers.
It's still relevant because the technology we have in the United
States "relate to what's happening here and is also applicable,"
Hughes said.
Cooling has been a requirement for power-hungry computers used by many
data centers that rely on continuous operation of their equipment.
According to Hughes, a high-density data center requires more air and
more cables.
"Power usage is the number one issue for most large-company IT
executives over the next two to four years," Hughes's colleague Sim
Chia Wei said.
Wei, business development manager for Asean, added that another market
trend is that "physical infrastructure costs will equal, and then
surpass, [information technology] equipment costs."
"Market conditions are perfect for introducing management tools to
effectively manage the physical environment," he told reporters in a
press conference.
Schneider introduced an upgraded version of its infrastructure
products after the company entered the new year with a 19.89-percent
drop in net sales to P601.5 million from P750.94 million in December
2008. The drop in sales was despite cutting cost of sales by 22.9
percent to P392.6 million from P509.2 million in 2008, according to
the firm's latest report to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Schneider's Philippine office also saw its net income drop by 17.43
percent in 2009 to P57.21 million from P69.3 million in the previous
year.
The company, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of France-incorporated
Schneider Electric SA, also said in its financial statement to the SEC
that it reduced its employees in 2009, slightly increasing its
miscellaneous expense to P3.748 million.
But while costs for salaries, wages and benefits to employees went
down by 16.59 percent to 70.27 million, only 0.82 percent or P203,229
was cut for its management fees from P27.57 million in 2008.
Schneider is banking on a new deal by its business unit American Power
Conversion Corp. (APC) with Eastern Telecommunications Philippines
Inc. to support the company's re-entry into the data center market.
A statement said APC would supply solutions for the data center and
manage and oversee the project. IBM Philippines Inc. will implement
the project, the statement added.
Country sales manager Ian de la Rosa said during the press conference
the products would be imported from a Schneider manufacturing unit in
other countries.
"There are still no indications when these will be manufactured in our
plant [in Rosario, Cavite]."
No comments:
Post a Comment