The hottest Schneider Electric Automation Transfor

Schneider Electric Automation Transformation

in the current automation industry, it is difficult for anyone to deny the impact of the severe economic situation on enterprises. How to deal with the crisis with decisive changes is a problem that almost all automation manufacturers are deciding. People often think that when the ship is small and turns around, it is difficult for the huanghuang giant ship to respond sensitively. However, as a giant ship in the automation market, Schneider Electric has long been ready to fight the huge waves with a new attitude

in fact, Schneider Electric's determination to face challenges with transformation has been demonstrated at the Industrial Expo in November 2008. With more than 20 years of market accumulation and complete product lines, Schneider Electric has taken it easy in the process of transforming from an automation product supplier to a dual provider of products and solutions. After a lapse of four months, Schneider Electric appeared again, bringing a deeper understanding of the market and users, as well as a more clear improvement plan for its own business

Mr. xiudehua, vice president of Schneider Electric and head of the industrial division, believes that although the crisis at the end of 2008 had an impact on the automation market, Schneider Electric made a lot of preparations in 2008 and is ready for the arrival of 2009, which enabled Schneider Electric to reset its organizational structure and focus on new industries that can bring growth

according to Mr. xiudehua, in the field of automation, the team is divided into two parts: one is the OEM automation team, and the other is the end-user and project-based automation team. The setting of this organizational structure enables the team to focus more accurately on customers and their needs. He said, "if a customer wants to build a cement factory, they want to talk about process control, but this automation is different from the mechanical control in the textile factory. This makes us have to improve our organizational structure and improve the sales skills of mechanical automation and process automation respectively."

oem automation: market changes promote business improvement

Mr. Li Xiaoyong, OEM customer manager of Schneider Electric Industrial Marketing Department, admitted that the economic situation at the end of 2008 had an impact on the OEM automation business. He said: "the market is changing, customer demand is changing, Schneider's overall strategy is changing, and the organizational model of products is also changing. These factors make our business need to be re viewed." Based on this, the business model of OEM automation has been rapidly improved in 2009. According to Li Xiaoyong, the improvement of OEM automation business in 2009 mainly follows the following three directions

the first direction is to more comprehensively cover the whole series of OEM customer groups. From direct tracking customers to scattered distribution customers, from customers focusing on product sales to customers focusing on solutions, from customers focusing on traditional electromechanical products to customers focusing on electronics, Schneider Electric has re optimized the input of resources from different angles, and made a series of adjustments to the organizational structure and sales team. In fact, this adjustment has been finalized in 2008, and resolute implementation has become the key in 2009. The second direction is to gradually increase the proportion of automation in OEM business, and increase the market strength of OEM automation while continuing to maintain the advantage of traditional devices to achieve the plumpness of recycled plastic raw material particles. The last direction is to make OEM automation enter the era of solutions. In the future, the Department will present customers with complete and application-oriented solutions, including both hardware products and software application optimization

it is worth mentioning that Schneider Electric's "machine automation center" (MAC), which aims to help customers protect investment and reduce overall costs, has also been on track. Since Schneider Electric set up MAC in five major cities last year, it has completed the establishment of MAC customers and the integration of sales teams in just a few months, and entered the implementation stage. It is conceivable that this will also bring strong support to the OEM automation business

Li Xiaoyong also said that in order to better realize the improvement of OEM automation business in 2009, there are many factors that need to be paid attention to. For example, how to balance the proportion of traditional business and emerging business; Another example is how to face the possible challenges in the implementation process. He believes that in the face of new business, we need more knowledge, experience and ability to adapt to the new needs of the market and customers. In order to do this, we also need to establish and expand cooperation with business partners

EU field: strengthen the ability of project implementation and service

according to Mr. Li Kai, the account manager of Schneider Electric's end-user Sales Department, under the guidance of the global strategy in the field of EU (for projects and end-user business), the Chinese business department is ready for transformation. First of all, the EU business department has changed from product sales oriented to the current system platform and solution oriented; Secondly, from the previous regional coverage as the leader to the industry sales as the leader; Finally, while paying attention to the investment of new projects, we also began to pay attention to the maintenance and upgrading of many old projects

Li Kai said that the EU business department has also taken targeted measures against the new strategies in these three areas. First of all, as a technical preparation, EU business department has integrated the technical team, strengthened the recruitment, integration and training of solution architects, and also absorbed many senior experts with industry application knowledge, known as the industry application team; At the same time, combined with the corresponding engineering companies, it also strengthened the company's own ability in project implementation; In addition, the EU business department will also sort out and archive some typical solutions such as the Three Gorges Project and the west to East Gas Transmission Project in a timely manner, so as to provide more references for subsequent customers

in terms of the organization of the customer team, the EU business department divides the team into six industries: steel, electric power, cement, petrochemical, municipal administration and mining, and clearly puts forward the concept of "key customer management" to strengthen the exploration and dynamic tracking of customer needs. For example, Li Kai said, "for customers involved in equipment upgrading, EU's team will take the initiative to put forward some cost saving and operational efficiency solutions around the whole life cycle of equipment and projects, starting from the investment in new projects and the maintenance of old equipment, rather than passively waiting for customers to put forward their needs."

in recent years, in terms of services, full life cycle solutions for the industry have become the latest trend in the industry, and Schneider Electric EU business department has been able to provide such services. In the face of such needs, the EU business department team will participate in the project together with customers. Whether it is the repair, maintenance, daily maintenance and detection of the existing system, or the upgrading and transformation of the old system, there will be a very detailed process. From audit, specification and plan I to the final implementation, a very complete and mature scheme can be provided. Li Kai revealed that after more than a year of implementation and accumulation, the EU business department also hopes to achieve substantial growth in this business this year, which is also the best example of Schneider Electric keeping pace with the latest trends in the industry

help distributors improve the sales ability of solutions

in fact, Schneider Electric's good business situation is inseparable from its strong distributor network. With Schneider Electric's gradual transformation, it is obvious that both the OEM and the EU business departments, which have made great progress in obtaining modified plastics from the domestic plastic machine industry, must change from a simple product supplier to a composite supplier providing products and solutions. So what kind of support will Schneider Electric provide its distributors so that they can also benefit from this series of changes

for this problem, xiudehua believes that Schneider Electric's great success in China is that it has established a very good distribution network and established a very close cooperative relationship with distributors after 20 years of developing high-purity rare earth separation technology. He said that some distributors will continue to focus on selling traditional devices, while others hope to participate in such a transformation and create corresponding teams or departments in their own business structure to sell solution business. These two types of distributors will continue to become close partners of Schneider Electric

according to xiudehua, selling solutions through distributors refers to making products suitable for a unified software platform and a unified communication protocol, so that they can be more easily integrated into the solution, and providing special functional software or modules for some important industries to encourage distributors to sell them. He said: "Schneider needs to strengthen support for the distributors whose sales solution Dow packaging and special plastics business department has always adhered to the sustainable development goal. Moreover, we have begun to classify the distributors and evaluate their business capabilities, so as to guide them to sell which kind of solutions. It is an indispensable competition for Schneider Electric to promote the sales of solutions through our very strong distribution network Compete for advantage. "