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Helping customers effectively deploy uninterruptible power supplies (UPSs) can be an important part of an electrical contractor’s or specifier’s business, but it requires they know their way around a UPS. To aid in that effort, Schneider Electric is offering a free e-guide that helps contractors understand the role UPSs play in providing customers with resilient power infrastructure.
Guide offers crash course in UPS products and design
“UPS Basics for Electrical Contractors & Specifiers: How to Choose, Configure and Cost-Justify,” gives contractors a crash course in UPSs. It covers the features and functions available in the latest UPSs, including new operating modes that save energy. Contractors will learn how to help customers choose between single and 3-phase UPSs and appropriately size them for the job.
The guide covers the five common UPS configuration options, with increasing levels of redundancy. It also walks through the sorts of questions contractors need to ask their clients to determine their tolerance for risk of downtime and, hence, which configuration option makes the most sense for them.
Last, but certainly not least, the guide discusses the importance of UPS maintenance. Although maintenance is crucial to reliable UPS operation, many customers simply don’t have the resources to consistently perform maintenance on their UPSs. As the guide explains, that presents electrical contractors with an opportunity for recurring revenue, by taking advantage of features in the latest UPS models that enable remote management services.
Speed of business, IoT, and Cloud dictate need for power protection
The need for power protection has perhaps never been more important than it is today, as the pace of business increases and companies seek to take advantage of the opportunities that Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud technologies present. They need all the supporting infrastructure for these efforts to be available at all times.
That includes not just IT infrastructure and computing systems but machinery in manufacturing plants, retail point of sale systems, and all the devices, sensors and infrastructure supporting their IoT environments.
Cost of downtime fuels UPS demand
As the guide makes clear, enabling customers to understand the cost of downtime in their environment will help them cost-justify their UPS investment. And those costs can be high indeed.
As the guide explains:
“While the cost of downtime will vary by industry, nearly all large enterprises (more than 1,000 employees) report that a single hour of downtime costs more than $100,000, according to a survey by Information Technology Intelligence Consulting (ITIC). Eighty-one percent of enterprises surveyed said the costs exceed $300,000 per hour while 33% said downtime costs $1 million per hour or more.”
In some vertical industries, ITIC found downtime costs more than $5 million per hour, including: banking/finance; healthcare; manufacturing; retail; and transportation and utilities. But it’s not solely an issue for large companies. Nearly half of small and midsized businesses (SMBs) – those with 150 employees or fewer – said a single hour of downtime costs them $100,000 in lost revenue and employee productivity, ITIC found.
Access the eGuide
Don’t let your customers suffer losses from unplanned downtime due to electrical disruptions. Download “UPS Basics for Electrical Contractors & Specifiers: How to Choose, Configure and Cost-Justify,” and learn how an appropriate UPS deployed in an effective configuration can mitigate the risk of power problems.
