Powering ahead

New products and a nationwide presence have helped the Numeric group move ahead of the competition, says G Sankarnarayanan

The Numeric group is a leading player in the on-line UPS business with over a lakh installations and 100 service centres across India. The group’s operations started in 1984 with a focus on manufacturing digitised electronic and power conditioning products when R Chellappan, the company’s managing director launched Numeric Engineers. “In the mid-eighties awareness of office automation products and the introduction of computer systems began. The requirement for quality power conditioning came about as a direct result,” says Chellappan. The company began manufacturing UPS’ from a leased premise in 1984 and its network expanded nationwide by 1986. Today, Numeric is a $50-million group.

Initially, the company supplied its products to banks. In 1994, it became a public limited entity, and in 1997, it was listed on the Mumbai and Chennai stock exchanges. Numeric is ranked as the number one on-line UPS manufacturer in India by Softdisk, a journal for computer professionals, with a 15 percent market share. It has retained this distinction for nine years in a row.

In 2003, the company’s installed base had crossed 1,00,000 units. Numeric’s UPS systems range in capacity from 500 VA to 4800 kVA. It has a wide range of on-line UPS systems based on Metal Oxide Semiconductor Field Effect Transistor (MOSFET) and Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBT). “We have been interested in doing research and product engineering all along,” says Chellappan. The company entered into a research tie-up with a US university soon after it started.

Focus on research

Chellappan, an electronics engineer, has been at the core of the R&D & marketing operations. He built a strong R&D setup that has more than 200 man-years of experience today. The team is developing advanced power converters suited to Indian conditions. “As a policy, we plough back three to five percent of our earnings into new product development and research,” he says.

The primary focus of the company’s R&D work is to develop advanced power converters of high efficiency and active power factor corrected (APFC) features.

Manufacturing is the key

Numeric has seven manufacturing plants in India: three each at Chennai and Pondicherry and one in Sri Lanka. The plant at Pondicherry produces UPS systems of 0-5kVA facility, and another plant takes care of the production of transformer and magnetic components. The Pondicherry plant is a state-of-the-art ISO 9001-2000 facility.

One of the Chennai units manufactures medium and high-range UPS’, another with a CNC fabrication unit is a servo stabiliser and isolation transformer plant. Numeric produces its new Digital HP products for the Sri Lankan export market.

Flexible equipment

The company’s line interactive UPS’ are popular across businesses large and small or even the SOHO segment. Its Digital HP series of products can work even on 118 V AC at load levels as low as 40 percent. The company carries out UPS capacity assessment studies; sizing and power audits. By offering total project management and customer training, it aims at positioning itself as an integrated power conditioning solutions company.

Service with a smile

The company plans to create a nationwide network of channel partners and it recently opened its 100th service centre at Patna. It has 10 regional offices, 100 service centres and 600 engineers in close proximity to installation sites. “We will have to provide service remotely using ‘soft tools’. Around 50 to 60 percent of customer service can be managed using remote networks. Our service engineers can avoid making ‘minor calls’ in person if we can do it through teleservice,” says Chellappan. The average uptime of its UPS systems is 99.96 percent, which, the company wants to improve to 99.99 percent. The 99.96-percent data is a customer-certified number, which is arrived at after the analysis of the performance of Numeric’s products at major installations that run critical applications and handle sensitive loads.

Double-digit growth

The power conditioning market is estimated to be worth about Rs 1,500 crore. “The market is growing in double digits,” says Chellappan. Numeric expects a major chunk of its future business to come from the SOHO segment. Its Numeric Digital LI Series is designed for professionals such as doctors, lawyers and engineers. “We want to be a global player,” proclaims Chellappan. Numeric is gradually expanding its network abroad and it has setup a 100 percent subsidiary in Singapore for marketing and a sales and service setup in Mauritius to provide customer service to customers in East Africa.