APC 2013 Annual Report Download - page 23

OVERVIEW OF THE GROUP'S STRATEGY, MARKETS AND BUSINESSES
BUSINESSES, END-MARKETS AND CUSTOMER CHANNELS
Serving four attractive end markets 2.2
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Schneider Electric serves customers in four principal markets: energies, the evolution of regulations covering the energy market
and in particular the emergence of demand response, and the
Non-residential & residential Buildings;
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growing need for real-time control of facilities, security and
Utilities and Infrastructures;
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reliability. We believe that the challenges faced by our customers in
Industries and Machine manufacturers;
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this market offer long-term growth prospects. Our main customers
Data Centers and Networks.
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in this market include energy operators, water utilities, the owners
Non-residential and residential buildings
and operators of oil, gas and transportation infrastructure, and
municipalities.
Industries and machine manufacturers
The non-residential buildings market includes public, commercial
and industrial buildings such as offices, hotels, hospitals,
shopping centers, schools, sports and cultural centers. Because
Our energy solutions enable us to serve almost all segments of the
this sector consumes significant amounts of energy, energy
industries and machine manufacturers market, including mines,
efficiency is essential and is subject to new and demanding
cement plants, the food-processing industry and material handling
regulations. Specified requirements have to be met in terms of
and packaging machines. Energy efficiency is at the heart of the
comfort, security and environmental friendliness, as do the needs
challenges facing these industries, which include the reduction of
of owners and building managers seeking to reduce investment
production costs, compliance with new regulations, and the
costs and optimize maintenance and operating costs. Our
reduction of the environmental impact of industrial activity. In
non-residential customers include end-users, property
addition, both the rapid industrialization taking place in new
developers, design firms, systems integrators, panel builders and
economies and the need to modernize existing industrial facilities in
installers, electrical equipment distributors and building
mature economies create significant opportunities for growth. Our
management companies.
customers include end users, engineering firms, systems
In the context of single-family homes and apartment buildings, our integrators, OEMs, electro-intensive industries, panel builders and
market is driven both by renovation and refurbishment needs, electrical distributors.
particularly in mature economies, as well as by construction,
Data centers and networks
particularly in new economies. Whether used for renovation or
construction, the underlying challenge is to reconcile technical
contraints, local standards and regulations with customers’
preferences. Consumers require comfort and aesthetics, but Data centers are sites containing servers that process and
increasingly desire energy efficiency, connectivity, security and storevery large quantities of digital data in secure, air conditioned
monitoring services as well. Residential customers include mainly rooms.They constitute the central nervous systems of businesses
electricians, architects and decorators, those involved in the home and the public sector. The expansion of data centers involves a
automation industry, lighting and security firms, construction firms, significant increase in electricity requirements to accommodate the
contractors, electrical equipment distributors and large servers’ operation and cooling, as the energy needed to cool
do-it-yourself (“DIY”) stores, as well as end-users and home server rooms has become comparable to the energy needed to
owners. operate the servers themselves. We believe that data centers and
networks are a high-potential market thanks to the growing
Utilities and infrastructures
digitalization of professional and personal activities. The
development of web giants and of cloud computing implies that
physical infrastructure of datacenters tends to be more and more
The global challenges in the utilities and infrastructure market the business of dedicated players with high performance
include increasing energy demand, the need for increased energy expectations.
efficiency to reduce environmental impact, expansion of renewable
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2013 REGISTRATION DOCUMENT SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC