How is the Indian power industry transforming ?
The Indian government’s promise to have electricity in all houses by 2022 is a very ambitious target. In order to meet it, the indigenous industry is continuing to develop, but it cannot do this in isolation. The growing international presence of some Indian companies has given them access to new technologies, whilst the presence in India of the major global manufacturers ensures the cross-fertilisation of ideas.
What is the driving force that has kept your company in forefront globally ?
OMICRON reinvests a very high proportion of its turnover into its development process, which has resulted in many innovative ideas helping it to keep one step ahead of its competition.
How can you broadly classify your wide array of products and services ?
OMICRON’s products are mainly intended for the accurate and efficient testing of power system assets such as transformers, rotating machines, switchgears and protection relays. Some of the technologies used, lend themselves to continuous monitoring of the equipment, allowing the user to identify problems on-line before they become too severe. The company’s services are built around training, to ensure the effective use of the equipment, and the diagnosis of results.
What kinds of products or services are in maximum demand and how is that (the demand) growing ?
Testing remains important both as an essential part of commissioning new installations and as a periodic health check on existing equipment, however it is monitoring which is seeing particular growth in the market as it allows a switch from time-based to condition-based maintenance resulting in savings in time and the early identification of symptoms that may lead to eventual failure.
Please tell me something about your R&D department.
As already mentioned, R&D consumes a large proportion of the company’s revenue. Although it is primarily based in the development centres in Austria and Germany, great care is taken to ensure that it has a global focus through the use of a global network of applications specialists. These team members have the task of monitoring the needs of the industry in their regions such that they are fed back in to the development process.
How do you generate awareness about your products in the industry ?
The key to keeping the market aware of our products is our local presence. We have an office in New Delhi with a team of experienced technical sales people and applications engineers. They can assist our customers with their technical queries and ensure that they are offered the best solutions to meet their needs. The OMICRON team is supported by a network of distributors, known to us as Sales Partners, providing even more local support both geographically and linguistically.
Please share some estimation about your market share in the Indian power industry.
It is difficult to estimate the precise market size for our equipment, but we are confident that we are a market leader amongst the overseas companies operating in India.
Please tell me something about your training and skill development ventures for the customers.
We pride ourselves on being knowledge providers and training is a key part of our service portfolio. Our training programme is organised under the banner of the OMICRON Academy. The engineers who run our courses receive training in Europe to ensure their knowledge is at a high level and their presentation technique is in line with our global company standards.
What are the emerging areas in India where you are eyeing on ?
The potential growth of the Indian power market based on the government’s commitment is enormous – and therefore we are considering the whole market, rather than any particular segment.
What kind of after-sales services do you offer ?
As previously mentioned, our after-sales service is primarily concerned with training and the diagnosis of results. We see the provision of services as a way to maintain and grow our relationship with our customers.
