Oman is a key market for Schneider: Benoit Dubarle

Schneider Electric is aiming at transforming how people and organizations consume energy, better automate industrial processes, and increase the quality of business decisions, while improving their lives — explained the company’s Country President – Gulf Countries & Pakistan, Benoit Dubarle, in a conversation with Akshay Bhatnagar and Bibhu Pattnaik.
Which verticals have been the focus areas for Schneider Electric in the GCC region and why?
Schneider Electric has grown significantly in the past 10 years through organic growth and acquisitions. We have been able to compete in each portfolio of products in order to propose value added solutions to a certain number of verticals and to the customers directly. We are investing five percent of our sales into R&D to develop products and solutions to serve the customers.
In the gulf region, we have chosen six key verticals where we see huge opportunity for us. These are the segments where we at Schneider can bundle our solutions and expertise into a unique vertical proposition.
The first vertical is oil and gas. In the region, we have the capabilities to tackle the full energy management of this type of segment through information technology and software to be able to produce and refine oil in the most efficient manner.
Second segment is water. The GCC region has one of the world’s most water consuming countries. And here as well, we are perfectly positioned to provide the utilities with state-of-the-art solutions linking operational technology and information technology to distribute and produce clean water in the most efficient way.
The third segment is utilities. We have major voltage equipment which are the major requirement of the utility companies. So we are partnering with all the utility companies across the region.
The fourth vertical is healthcare. There is a huge need for healthcare services in this region. We have been involved in a lot of flagship healthcare projects in the GCC. We are quite unique because we are able to provide reliability of the energy in an environment where it is critical not to have any energy shut down in order to save life.
The fifth vertical is data centre. There are a lot of data centres coming up in the region. We are the worldwide leader in data centres thanks to the acquisition of APC by us several years ago. Now we are able to provide full turnkey data centre solutions including UPS, the full energy management of the data centre, the cooling and energy inputs to the data centre which are critical in this type of application.
The last but not the least important segment for us is hospitality. There is a lot of investment in hotel industry from a number of international chains in this region. We have big ticket events including Fifa Cup in Qatar and Expo 2020 in Dubai coming up and as result many countries in the region are gearing up on the hospitality side.
Through these six segments we aim to bring value to the end users in the region. These six segments are creating differentiation at a level of city where we are putting the smart city element. This is about bringing energy to the cloud and the data connection to the cloud. We have the software to connect these data connections from each vertical at the level of a city and to make cities smarter. We are deeply involved to make that in most of the cities including Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Oman.
Tell us about the recent acquisitions and partnerships undertaken by Schneider, which are helping you to strengthen the foothold and portfolio expansion in the GCC region.
Globally, we have an extensive product and equipment portfolio and evolved from a product company to a global solutions company in the past ten years. It has been made possible partly through several acquisitions. The big one was APC several years ago which has a worldwide speciality in UPS and data centre. UPS systems are essential in energy sector for critical applications.
In 2014, we acquired Invensys, the leading industry automation and software specializing in oil & gas solutions. The company is very active in oil and gas, water and also in large infrastructure companies where top level software is implemented.
We are increasingly focusing on companies which are strong in operational and IT where we can connect our equipment to the web and to the cloud, and being able to have data that helps the end users and consumers.

Which are your key projects in the GCC region where you are making a significant contribution?
As a company policy, I’ll not be able to mention the project names that we’re currently working in. However, I can tell you that so far, 2015 has been an excellent year for us and we’ve worked on some landmark projects across the GCC, cutting across several verticals.
In the building segment, we have strategic partnerships with big hotel chains in the region. In healthcare, we have done partnerships in Abu Dhabi. We are also involved through our network partners.
Your products are sold mainly through partners and distributors. In the GCC region, how do you ensure they live up to the promise offered by Schneider?
Traditionally, Schneider works with the partners like operational partners, distributors, panel builders and contractors to some extent. They are selected only if they meet our stringent regulations. We work in partnerships with them as it gives us presence in the geographies which are important for us.
We help them with our prescribed solutions for the end users, accompanying the user design according to our standards. There is a very close follow-up with our partners to make sure they provide the right quality.
It is important to understand that we have several business models. One is partner business model which is about delivering our products to value added partners either through Distributor or Panel builders and they add value on it and sell it to the customer. We have a solutions business model for critical applications where we do the implementation ourselves say in the in oil and gas, healthcare and airport projects. Then we have a services business model – it involves services to the clients either through maintenance or upgradation of our existing solutions to our customers. These are also called advance services.
How has been the growth of the company in terms of business in the recent years in the region?
The business has been excellent in the last two years. Now we will see how it will continue with the turmoil in the oil prices in the coming years. So we are watching carefully the economic condition in this region. But yes, in the last two years, it was a very good growth and we have gained market share significantly in the region.
Talking of low oil price environment, how is it going to impact your operations?
The low oil price environment would impact us. But we don’t see it yet. I think the low oil prices are going to stay for the next couple of years. We need to adapt to that. We don’t see the impact yet because we are involved in a lot of projects in the oil and gas industry. We are still delivering products in this arena. Therefore we will continue to grow in the coming years. Having said that, there is a very big slowdown in the oil and gas investments in the region. We will balance our resources in other segments and continue our growth story.
Moving on, what are the opportunities and challenges for smarter energy systems in the GCC region?
In this region, the energy management or energy efficiency was mostly perceived as a green aspect. The economic side of it was rarely given the attentions that it deserved because there was obviously no shortage of energy supply. Now with this oil price decrease, GCC economies are focusing more on the energy sector. Solar is one of the sources of alternative energy in which we have a very good expertise but it needs a big investment. In the coming years, private and government sector will be in a search of profitability in most of the verticals. The cost of the energy is significant. So we will have better opportunity to implement energy efficient solutions.
Tell us about your Oman operations and what are your realistic expectations from the market in the coming years?
We are present in the GCC for more than 30 years and we have constantly strengthened our presence in Oman. We have a full legal entity based in Muscat to serve Oman. We have recently recruited a good number of Omani talents who are trained and upgraded with our international training programmes. So there is a good balance between international and local talents that we are growing in the company.
Oman is a key market for us. It has grown significantly, steadily and widely in the past few years. We have done several important projects in the Sultanate. We are involved in several oil and gas projects in the country. We are also one of the key suppliers for utilities and distribution companies in Oman. We are working regularly with these companies to extend our network and upgrade our resource network towards smart technology which is attracting utility companies in the region.
We’re working very closely in the infrastructure segment – airports, road & rail projects & also in smart cities. On the buildings side, we are working closely as well with several government & private sector sites.
We are really covering Oman deeply with our local team and utilizing our network of partners in the region which are providing our technology in the market. We believe that Oman will continue to be one of the resilient economies and stable countries in the GCC. We are investing in Oman and will continue to invest in the near future.
What is the underlying thought behind Schneider’s new brand strategy ‘Life is On’? How is it going to change your life in the GCC region?
The new global brand strategy, Life Is On, is fueled by Schneider Electric’s Operational Intelligence approach to IoT. The approach will transform how people and organizations consume energy, better automate industrial processes, and increase the quality of business decisions, while improving their lives.
The Life Is On brand strategy will help clearly show how the company is helping its customers in the GCC region take advantage of this fundamental shift, leveraging Schneider Electric’s expertise in the operational technology (OT) that controls our society’s most important processes and connecting it to the information technology (IT) that we rely on to simplify our lives and make better decisions.

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