— Joey Joseph, CEO & MD,
TTL Technologies Pvt Ltd
TTL Technologies started in 1982 as a small import trading activity
within Aplab Ltd, India's premier professional electronics
manufacturing company. Technical Trade Links, as TTL was then
known as, was formed to essentially provide distribution and
support to foreign T&M manufacturers associated with Aplab. TTL
is today a sole distribution and support agency for reputed global
brands like Fluke, Voltech, Gigatronics, Extech, and many more.
Joey Joseph speaks about his company, future plans and the scope
of foreign T&M instruments in a dynamically growing Indian
market. An interview by
Venugopal Pillai.
TTL is known to bringing the best of the world's T&M industry to
India. Tell us about the various foreign brands that you deal
with, and how your portfolio has grown over the years.
TTL has been associated with world renowned brands such as
Fluke, Ametek Programmable Power, Voltech among many
others. However, Fluke has been the most predominant brand
serving the power sector in India. Fluke's acquisition of brands
such as Raytek for thermal imagers, LEM-Norma for electrical
testing instruments, RPM for power quality recorders and many
more has helped it to gain a strategic market share of the test
instrumentation pie in the power sector.
How has been the market acceptance of
foreign T&M brands in India? What are the
primary reasons for Indian buyers
considering foreign brands over Indian ones?
State-of-art technology, high reliability and
conformance to the latest international test
standards have traditionally been a driver
for Indian customers to look beyond Indian
brands. Foreign brands like Fluke
additionally offer attributes like portability
and ruggedness into their product design
and packaging that appeal to Indian
customers. Availability of in country
application and installation/warranty
support makes the whole offering
irresistible to customers.
Tell us more on your association with Fluke and how you plan to
take the partnership forward.
Fluke has been in India since the last 30 years and with TTL for
the past 11 years. Fluke has been a very dynamic brand with a
wide range of test technologies covering vast segments of
markets. TTL has kept pace with Fluke in not only assimilating
the technologies but also applying the knowledge to new
markets. We are in the midst of a new growth phase that will see
the brand in many newer market segments and new
geographies within India that were hitherto never reached.
In a general sense, what special measures
are multinational T&M companies taking to
improve their penetration in India?
Fluke is perhaps the only foreign test and
measurement brand that has not only a
strong presence through industrial
channels but also through a retail network
that spans across India. TTL supports this
vast network through its dedicated team of
product specialists and channel associates
who work closely with end customers in
selection and use of instruments. Many
multinational T&M companies are following
this route to increase market reach.
Are government-owned power utilities
receptive to purchasing foreign brands? Yes, with increasing marketing events and awareness
campaigns on newer technology through industry associations
like FICCI, CII, even government-owned power utilities are
sitting up and taking note of the latest developments in these
fields. There is a growing interest and effort from these utilities
to learn, adapt and use these modern test tools to perform their
measurements smartly.
Speaking of T&M equipment in the power sector, what
percentage of the market is today being served by foreign
brands? Do you see this proportion changing in the coming
years?
Foreign brands still contribute to less than 30 per cent of the
total T&M equipment purchases in this sector. This is fast
changing with user awareness and expectations on
performance. There is a huge shift in the power scenario in the
past 15 years with multiple power producers, variety of power
generation sources, increasing legislation and concern over
power quality, efficiency concerns on transmission and
distribution systems fuelling an unprecedented demand for
sophisticated test technologies. Simpler traditional test
instrumentation giving way to more advanced test tools is
driving up the market share of imported brands
With India likely to spend `14 trillion in its power sector during
the XII Plan, how upbeat are you about the T&M equipment
industry's prospects?
T&M brands that focus on power sector will stand to gain hugely
in the coming 10 years as India gears up to meet its ballooning
energy demands. TTL has a created a separate projects division
to focus purely on the power sector and opportunity for growth
is unparalleled compared to any other sector.
Speaking about power T&M equipment, how do you rate
domestic suppliers in terms of technology and sophistication?
Is there a certain class of equipment that India does not
produce, necessitating import dependence?
Domestic suppliers of power T&M equipments certainly meet a
large portion of basic to moderately complex test requirements
of the industry. However, they still do not address higher end
test requirements of the industry. A small example of these
areas are thermography equipments, high-end power quality
analyzers and recorders, high performance earth testers, HV
impulse testers, short circuit test recording and analysis
systems, etc.
Power transmission in India is now moving to high- and ultra
high voltage levels. Do you see more sophisticated power T&M
equipment being used in India, in the coming years?
Performance benefits of EHV and UHV transmission systems
will see more widespread installations across India over the
next ten years. These systems will make test requirements
more demanding needing many more critical measurements to
be made regularly to ensure high availability of these systems.
With so many foreign T&M brands contending for the Indian
power T&M market, what criteria do you generally employ to
decide on accepting dealership?
Technology edge is by far the single biggest factor in deciding on
representation. Proven brands and manufacturers'
commitment to support India are next in consideration during
selection of a brand.
How are Chinese suppliers viewing the Indian power T&M
equipment market?
Chinese brands have correctly judged the opportunity in India
and are trying to make inroads into the T&M sector. However,
they are largely unorganized and Indian customers still do not
feel confident about the quality, reliability and local support of
Chinese brands. While they seem to make inroads into the basic
measurement areas, they are still not preferred for more
sophisticated work where sheer performance, reliability, safety
of test equipment and user is paramount.
Going forward, do you think that foreign power
T&M equipment suppliers would be inclined to set
up a manufacturing base in India, as opposed to
merely having channel partners?
T&M is still a niche industry by any standards and
current volumes do not still justify setting up a
plant for domestic consumption unless it also
serves export markets. However, dependence on
imports for critical electronic components, lack of
incentives for electronics hardware
manufacturing, cost of finance, poor
infrastructure-related bottlenecks, etc, all make
T&M equipments manufacturing in India
uncompetitive compared to countries like China
and Taiwan. Unless, these ills are rectified, foreign
T&M manufacturers will continue to market in
India through local partners rather than set up
manufacturing in India.
Many of these top manufacturers like Agilent (earlier HP),
Tektronix, Fluke, and Wavetek (now defunct) had tried this
unsuccessfully in India 20 years back, but reverted quickly to
the trading route. Sadly, nothing much has changed on this
aspect even now.
We observe that of late testing & measuring is now not only
equipment-oriented but much of it is being done in conjunction
with computer software and web-based applications. Could you
elaborate?
Advancement in test technology and complexity in
measurements necessitate use of onboard processors that do
data acquisition, perform complex data analysis/display
routines and storage capabilities in modern test tools. Postacquisition
PC-based software that can do advanced analysis
and archiving of data is also common in all new generation test
instruments. Proliferation of IP-based systems makes web
based applications also common among many high end test
instruments. This makes users access data
remotely 24/7 from anywhere in the world. Power
quality monitoring and recording systems are
typical examples of these web based applications.
Please discuss your growth plans for TTL for the
medium term.
TTL has set very ambitious goals for the next four
years with clear priorities in the power sector. We
are currently focused on expanding our team of
technical product specialists to address these
markets better. Channel expansion across under
represented areas is high on the agenda. Power
sector focused project teams tracking all major
power projects across India is an ongoing activity
and will continue to see additional manpower
investments to implement complete turnkey control
and instrumentation projects across India.