BY VICTOR ADAR
Imagine your computer going off and you get into problems because you are unable to check out important emails. Or you have just called customer care to sort out some issues only to get disconnected simply because power went off. In many cases, this gets you into serious trouble. You could lose business.
Power solutions company, Delta Electronics, is one of the pioneers trying to ensure all should go well regardless of power disruption. The energy-saving solutions provider with competencies in power electronics and innovative research and development whose business domains include power electronics, automation, and infrastructure came in to fill the gap.
It is couple of weeks ago when Delta Electronics made its entry into the East African market in partnership with Reddington Gulf who will be its authorised distributor in the hope of improving an area that has left businesses struggling. It is estimated that power outages often lead to losses of 1% to 2% of Kenya’s annual GDP.
Worse still, while official data shows that 78.9% of businesses in the region have reported having experienced electrical outages, in a typical month, the number of outages is about 9 with the average duration of an outage lasting for 6 hours, an indication that it is businesses that receive a thorough beating whenever power goes out. Actually, lack of stable electricity supply has been cited as a major constraint of doing business in Sub-Saharan Africa.
According to Motaz Al Ma’ani, senior director and general manager, Middle East and Africa, Delta Electronics EMEA region, growth of a business in this day and age should never be at risk of limitation or delay due to avoidable technical restrictions of existing power hardware.
“This should not happen,” Al Ma’ani says. “UPS reduces the total cost of running businesses. These can be used for offices, for malls. From single face products to two-face, the UPS will protect you when there’s high voltage and vice versa. Battery remains on standby when there is power outage.”
In a fast-changing market, innovative strategy is a must. Perhaps the reason as to why Delta’s entry into East Africa – as supported by Redington Gulf – will see businesses gain access to a stable and consistent power supply even during supply failures, which will greatly reduce costs to a business and drive competitiveness while ensuring operations continue to run smoothly.
Mr. Al Ma’ani argues that in addition to their niche market in Taiwan, mission critical applications in airline companies in the Middle East and telecom carriers in Saudi Arabia benefit from the high-quality power protection provided by their systems. Actually, their UPSs are designed to work as advanced power managers capable of ensuring the availability of an uninterrupted power supply while safeguarding against several potential energy issues, including voltage surges and spikes, voltage sags, total power failure and frequency differences. The company has expanded successively under his watch, and now plans to cover new markets world over.
“I am very happy about this opportunity… We are now partnering with Redington to push our UPS solutions. We also want to open our own offices here to help us push the solutions that we have and this should happen in the next two years, and Kenya should be our hub to the gateway to other east African countries,” he says, pointing out that Delta has different hubs in different regions.
Although the choice of Kenya as Delta’s springboard into the regional market has been pegged on the fact that the country has all the potentials as well as the resources ranging from human to natural resources, Al Ma’ani says plans are underway to open more hubs in Ghana, Ivory Coast and Egypt.
“Kenyans are nice and well educated. So we can come together and do a lot, and copy the success that we have here into other regions in Africa. We will continue to bring to them the best solutions and the best services and I hope to see this country setting the example to the rest of the neighbouring countries as well as to the rest of the Middle East region,” he says,
The 45 year old man is behind a company that has managed to amass a sizable revenue of $8.47 billion with over 80,000 employees, 163 sales offices, 64 research and development centers and 39 manufacturing facilities worldwide, becoming one of the biggest multi national company, and yet he looks simple and down to earth.
He talks of a Mr Bruce Ching who started Delta 1971, which thrives not only on power and thermal management solutions but also a major player in several product segments such as industrial automation, displays, virtual displays, and networking. With a passion and belief he wanted Delta to spread its wings, and to be able to help the world save its resources and make it better for the future generations. Taking seriously the firm’s mission statement, “To provide innovative, clean and energy-efficient solutions for a better tomorrow” as a team they focus on addressing key environmental issues such as global climate change.
Al Ma’ani says, “Mr Cheng is a true visionary, an entrepreneur who really believes in preserving the world for the future generation.” But how are things panning out? How is he managing?
“It is a challenge but at the same time it’s a very interesting thing. You have to be very open, very patient to be able to communicate, discuss and agree with people from different cultures. It’s actually something very enriching for me as a person. Something that expanded my horizon, enriched my ability to connect with different people… It’s sometimes difficult but at the end I see more opportunities,” he says, pointing out that the company tilts focus on vertical markets, on industries where its able to bring green energy, and energy saving solutions.
Delta Electronics eyes a wide range of industries spanning from financial institutions, to IT centres and SMEs. It doesn’t matter whether it is a big corporate, a tiny player or just a consumer. Al Ma’ani says that pricing of their UPS should not be the central concern of customers. It’s not going to be only the price that people are going to pay for but it’s the quality and total cost of ownership that matters – try to picture an individual who pays Sh10, 000 for an electronic gadget that lasts only a day.
“Customers should look at the total cost of ownership. They (referring to their UPS) are available in the market and the prices are going to be very attractive, and competitive. Everybody talks about it but for us it is not just talk, and it is not a dream. It is what we do. Energy efficiency is at the centre of what we do,” he says.
With many accolades to show, it is truly a recognised brand – since 2011 for example, it has been selected as a member of the Dow Jones Sustainability™ World Index for seven consecutive years. In 2017, Delta was picked by CDP (formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project) for its Climate Change Leadership Level for the 2nd consecutive year.
World cup 2018
Ordinarily, when there are big events like World Cup, people face difficulties. The density for communication is usually high, and it is even quite annoying trying to connect and watch a game when it keeps on buffering. To make all these things efficient especially during the World Cup period, Delta has introduced its wide range of UPS to provide near-instantaneous protection from input power interruptions.
Mr. Al Ma’ani believes that with its Datacentre and UPS solutions, they will deliver a competitive edge to companies and people that are reliant on first rate power solutions, adding that Delta has set up data centre in the stadiums for the activity. “With this solution, we are bringing a small data centre closer to the edge to provide the coverage and reduce the latency,” he says.
