Bangalore, India - September 25, 2013 - Schneider Electric, the global specialist in energy management, has announced that it made a significant addition to its operations in India with the inauguration of the Services Bureau in Bangalore, a Centre of Excellence that supports Critical Environments including Data Centres. Coming under the company's IT Business Vertical (IT BU), the Services Bureau is a seamless integration of information management systems, monitoring solutions, data science and technical and operational expertise.

The Services Bureau is the core enabler to deliver world class operational efficiency and legendary reliability in critical environments, including but not limited to industry segments such as Retail Banking (ATM infrastructure management), Healthcare (hospitals), high-end Manufacturing and Process automation units (that have high productivity targets), Telecom (for high network efficiency) and of course Data Centre environments. The Services Bureau has been set up with an aim to help customers from all these critical environments achieve a much higher utilization of their infrastructure and achieve superior operational efficiency by driving down energy costs, human errors and costly downtime.

Commenting on the announcement, Philippe Arsonneau, Senior Vice-President APJ Schneider Electric, IT Business Unit said, "Critical environments, including Data Centres are becoming increasingly complex to manage and operate, as the business risks associated with failure of such critical infrastructure equipment is too significant to disregard. Schneider Electric is best-positioned to respond to this challenge given our strong experience in critical environments, our heritage in using the latest technology to achieve optimal performance and our continued investment, organically and inorganically, as we evolve to a more Service oriented company."

Adding to this, Nikhil Pathak, Vice President, Schneider Electric IT Business, India & SAARC said, "Over the last two years, our India team has built the expertise and experience in offering complete services for all critical environments. Many players are striving to tap into this business: the large IT players but also start-ups, segment specialists, system integrators, and of course our traditional competitors.

However we believe that Schneider Electric is in a key position for three main reasons:

• Energy management is a major driver for addressing efficiency "as a whole". When monitored at the right precision, energy consumption can reflect the performance of a machine, of a process, or an organization, with acute accuracy.
• Our close relationship with our customers gives us a good understanding of their environment enabling us to tailor solutions perfectly to suit their operational conditions, and sets us apart from IT players. This is possible because Schneider Electric today has capabilities across all components, applications, tools required to cover the entire physical infrastructure so customers don't have to approach different vendors for different challenges they face.
• Lastly, our installed base provides a path to the ultimate resource, which is field data. Data Science is the next step to provide more value addition to customers. This is a methodology to turn Big Data into information that will help people take better action for the short or long term, establishing a continuous improvement cycle.

We are proud to have the industry's first complete critical environment services portfolio and offer this strategic value to our customers."

Schneider Electric's Services Bureau offers pioneering skills, tools and processes, and is the critical enabler to ensure that the critical infrastructure ecosystem achieves optimal performance. The Services Bureau has certified Critical Environment Technical Experts, ITIL-certified professionals, and Business Analysts who have expertise in designing, installing, operating, monitoring and supporting infrastructure solutions for enterprises globally.

It is an effective solution for large, on-premise Data Centres or Critical Facilities that manage complicated IT environments. Organizations increasingly facing the challenges of high operational and maintenance costs including energy costs and the shortage of skilled technical personnel, will benefit from the specialized services of the Services Bureau.

The Services Bureau brings together the three key elements necessary to run critical environments and Data Centres successfully - Technical Expertise, Data Science and Technology:

• Technical Expertise: Schneider Electric IT Business has a specialist team comprising of Data Centre experts, Business Analysts and Customer Infrastructure Operators who provide 24x7 monitoring and management services.
• Data Science: Evolving with the world of big and connected data, analytics are the next step to provide more value to customers. They are the tool to turn data into information that will help people take better action for the short or longer term, giving a better understanding of what is happening, what will happen and what could happen at best.
• Technology: Schneider Electric offers web-based asset management tools for different technologies on remote platforms, be it wired or wireless. It offers customers unique insights into their IT operations by combining deep analytics and analysts.

With the Services Bureau as the core enabler Schneider Electric launches their Asset Connect Services offer, a 24x7 service that will help monitor, diagnose, analyse, predict and resolve critical situations before they occur. It manages a customer's IT infrastructure in four easy steps:

• ASSET Monitor: An intelligent, real-time, remote monitoring and condition management solution
• ASSET Predict: Using Data Science to predict failures, recommend corrective actions and manage the resolution of incidents to closure
• ASSET Commit: Benchmark and baseline your current environment, use Data Science to make recommendations, and implement a Continuous Improvement Process (CIP) to ensure optimal performance of the asset through its lifecycle
• ASSET Operate: Provides 24x7 onsite operation of the critical environment maximizing optimal performance of all key performance indicators leveraging experienced technology & operational personnel, methodologies & processes, and technology to minimize the risk of downtime, and reduce OPEX.