In the SME segment, suppliers need to actively anticipate the customer needs and offer pioneering solutions with assured services. Manufacturers that leverage this opportunity to distinguish themselves from other peers are likely to gain a strong competitive advantage. Today most corporate are willing to pay a premium for a truly reliable product rather than take the risk of suffering outrages by compromising on quality.

Softdisk believes, though Power continuity & Quality still are the key mantra for success of a UPS System albeit it is the ability of the company to customize its product to customers satisfaction which will turn the tide in its favor.
Energy saving is going to be huge factor in determining the success of UPS equipment. "Manufacturers will need to be more creative and proactive in identifying and grasping presently unexploited opportunities in the field of energy saving. With all suppliers already providing high value to their clients and competition being intense, energy saving differentiation - although very difficult to achieve - will be key to accessing new markets. With increasing value of space, there is an increased focus amongst the new age customers to incorporate higher wattage per cubic inch and demand high power factor for higher efficiency. This is where the Indian manufacturers had lost the plot to the Chinese & Taiwanese companies. With rack mounted version even the high end UPSs are coming with small foot print. However Indian companies are fast catching up.

New vendors who want to position themselves in the Indian Power Conditioners and transient voltage surge suppressors markets are taking the easy way out of R&D and now even the established once need to enhance their capabilities by going the Chinese way. This years survey clearly indicates that trading their way out to win market is no longer yielding success as Rupee went weak against the US$.

Softdisk has always been trying its level best to educate the end-users. We have always maintained that it is for the manufacturers who have to identify the users' need and provide with cost effective, long term solutions to address them.
No wonders, our readers (the end-users) have positioned us as Power Quality Consultants. Our mission is to forge partnerships between Power Protection Equipment manufacturers and end users.

Over all 316 companies responded to our survey as we reached 736 companies giving SD Ratings 176 of them. For this Softdisk sent over 18000 direct mailers. The result of the survey are based on 11236 responses received to our elaborate questionnaire. The questionnaire in poll format was made available at www.sdawards.in & also send thru emails Efforts were not limited here. Our executives visited nearly 331 installations across various locations through out India, and also over 736 successful telephone call were made to purchase heads & company CEO or MD of various installations, for this purpose separate call center services were hired.
 

In the online UPS category it is still the online parallel redundant dual conversion technology which rules the roost when it comes to high-end mission critical applications. However at certain places Solar Energy solutions have gained some acceptance, but all these are at a very nascent stage.

Your magazine is the first to come out with Complete Solar Industry Survey with SD's Top 5 SPV Manufacturers, SPCU Manufacturers, OffGrid/Hybrid & Grid-tie Solar Solutions Providers, separately for the year 2017-18.
 

THIS IS FIRST OF ITS KIND RATING OF SOLAR COMPANIES ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD
As usual we have updated the SD RATINGS, with stale companies earlier in the list being removed and new companies included which serves as a benchmark for quality and price-worthiness. May this survey allows the end-users to take correct decisions, which help their business in the long run.
As usual an effort by SOFTDISK to educate the masses.

Close on the heels was Kolkatta based Switching AVO Electro Power Ltd. which managed to clinch (92%) satisfaction ratings clinched the third spot.

AVO earned the distinction of being the Best in Pre Sales End User Education. Consul Neowatt clinched the 4th spot in this category with (91.5%) satisfaction level.

Bangalore based E & C with (91.5%) satisfaction level clinched the 5th spot in this category. AVO along with Powerone & Uniline was adjudged Best in Technology Advantage vis-a-vis Cost Effectiveness.

Points related to End User Education were not considered for charting but were used for over all satisfaction rating calculation.

Arvi's In-House R&D Center rated SD's best amongst the UPS manufacturers in India in the year 2017-18

5KVA - 10KVA 1Ø-1Ø Online UPS
5KVA - 40KVA 3Ø-1Ø Online UPS
5KVA - 10KVA 1Ø-1Ø Active Shunt UPS
10KVA - 200KVA 3Ø-3Ø Active Shunt UPS
5KVA - 10KVA 1Ø-1Ø Solar PCU

Advantage

One card for the above range for inventory, stocking, service support for OEMs etc
Any technology up gradation can be done without any hardware changes, many new features are added and implemented in the earlier installed units.
We could convert many budget constraint projects into a reality using Active Shunt UPS303 for industrial applications.

DSP double card for
PFC UPS from 5KVA PFC301 - 120KVA PFC303
Solar PCU from 10KVA - 100KVA

Advantage
Faster production, better power quality & protection offered, any customization can be easily configured.
The UPS is more sleek now and has better aesthetical value and also occupies lesser foot print (savings in real estate)
More parameters is available in the LCD display for the user analysis. The preventive & corrective analysis for the engineering team of the OEM is lot more precise as many real time data can be stored for retrieving and analysis.

Unique features
Charging current, 1Ø/3Ø output selection, SNMP/RS232 selection & programming using LCD display.
We have been able to convert many enquiries into orders during the past few months due to the advantages of our technology, cost, faster delivery & features.

Upcoming projects in R&D in 2018-19

Transformer less Online UPS from 60KVA-150KVA (Almost completed)
IGBT based static voltage stabilizer from 30KVA-200KVA (On-going project)
7 inch graphical display for UPS (Under implementation stage)
Grid export solar UPS 20KW (Yet to start, planning done)
Load sharing parallel redundancy using DSP. (Yet to start, planning done)

The center has a digital library with access to IEEE papers & reference designs, software for PCB designing, development tools for software programming etc. Our typical 1st phase of conceptualization and prototyping of any major project is around 15-20 days in comparison to 5-6 months taken by many Industry leaders; this is because of our past case study documentation of projects undertaken during the last 10 years and this is what sets up apart from others.