How did VIA Electronics successfully dig gold and win respect in the meter industry which was regarded as a mature sunset industry by big foreign companies such as ABB and Siemens?
Kingdee International, a well-known company in the software industry, ranked only 765,438+0 in the Forbes China list of potential enterprises in 2009, while VIA Group Holdings Limited (HK3393, hereinafter referred to as VIA Group), which has almost never been concerned by the media, far surpassed Kingdee's ranking and ranked 46th.
Wei Ji, the chairman of Weisheng Group, is also one of the 28 richest people in Hunan who made the Hurun Report, with a value of 654.38+0 billion.
But before that, except for the "energy saving 120" service mode proposed by Changsha Weisheng Energy Industry Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Weisheng Energy Company"), which was briefly reported by many TV stations, Weisheng was almost kept out of the media's sight.
Smart meter expert
On the homepage of VIA Group's website, the words "energy measurement and management experts" are particularly eye-catching.
On the other hand, almost every online introduction about VIA Group has such a sentence: "The company invests 5% of its operating income in R&D and technological innovation every year". Perhaps this sentence can vaguely glimpse the fundamental reason why it was rated as a "potential enterprise" and known as an "energy measurement and management expert".
What is the concept of 5%? In 2007, the average R&D investment of the top 100 electronic enterprises in China only accounted for 3.9% of the operating income. Excluding other business income from operating income, only the proportion of R&D expenditure to sales is counted. The R&D expenditure of the top 500 enterprises in the world accounts for 5%~ 10% of the sales, while the top 500 enterprises in China are far behind, only 1.6%.
This means that Weishang Group pays more attention to R&D and technological innovation than domestic enterprises, and has reached international standards.
What does "expert" mean? Imagine if you were the manager of such a company:
At the beginning of each month, when you come to the company in the morning and stand in the electric control center, you can see that the enterprise power grid economic operation management platform has analyzed the water, electricity and gas consumption of last month, and accurately grasp what they are used for and how much they are used in each aspect. Detailed data and information can be transmitted to your computer at any time.
At the same time, the intelligent distribution monitor and distribution management system also timely feedback to the center whether the power grid is in turmoil and which section is out of order.
At this time, the computer prompts to open a window. INESTIMTM intelligent network energy management solution released.
INESTIMTM will compare the detailed energy consumption reports of branches, departments or teams vertically and horizontally based on the information collected above. Then, combined with the international and domestic advanced level and theoretical indicators, taking into account factors such as production technology, process and characteristics, the electricity, water and gas consumption during peak and valley periods are reasonably arranged without affecting production.
On the other hand, using INESTIMTM's automatic energy data collection and operation monitoring management functions, all energy consumption indicators of all equipment in the company can be monitored accurately to the minute level. So the workload, difficulty and error of energy consumption statistics are no longer a problem.
Isn't it smart?
This is the business that Micro-Energy Company is developing and promoting-to achieve the purpose of "reducing consumption through management and saving energy through technology" through high-tech means.
What if there is a problem or even paralysis in the system?
The most direct way is to find "energy saving 120". In mid-2008, Changsha Energy Saving 120 Micro-Health Service Center, the first "energy hospital" in Hunan Province, which was jointly built by Changsha Energy Office and Micro-Health Group, has entered normal operation. Provide energy consulting services, energy audit system expert consultation, on-site services and other services for energy users or individuals.
Today, the listed companies of Weisheng Group include Changsha Weisheng Group Co., Ltd., Changsha Weike Instrument Co., Ltd., Changsha Weisheng Energy Industry Technology Co., Ltd. and Changsha Weisheng Import and Export Co., Ltd., and Weisheng Energy was established in 2007, specializing in energy industry services and managing energy-saving overall solutions.
Cheng, an expert in energy management and technology of the energy company, told the reporter: "At present, this technical energy-saving equipment is still in the stage of further improvement, research and development and promotion. The promotion of the company in Guangxi is better. "
In fact, the promotion of this high-tech energy-saving equipment at present is equivalent to the promotion of mobile phones in China market more than a decade ago-in those years, it cost tens of thousands of dollars just to put a number on a mobile phone. Cheng introduced: "The treatment products for power grid cleaning have been put into use by mature enterprises, but it is difficult to popularize because of the high price. Probably sold one or two million last year. Enterprises are also short of money! Generally, one is hundreds of thousands, and there are still many obstacles to real development. "
Build core competitiveness
However, 16 years ago, VIA Group also encountered the same situation as today's technical energy saving in electronic watt-hour meters.
Weisheng Group was established in 1993. When the first electronic watt-hour meter in China was born in Weisheng, 1993 became a landmark year in the history of China watt-hour meter. Subsequently, in 1994, the first three-phase fully electronic multifunctional watt-hour meter was successfully developed.
In fact, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, many large foreign companies began to introduce fully electronic multifunctional watt-hour meters, such as Schlumberger and Landis &; GYR and American General Electric Company. Micro-electronics also saw the market prospect of electronic multifunctional watches and made great efforts in this field.
After 1994 and 1995, Wesson made two years of hard publicity and market cultivation in China. By 1998, VIA's brand has been successfully established in the industry. Therefore, when the market share occupied the second place year after year, and Shenzhen Kelu Electronics, VIA's biggest competitor in the market, went public in 2007, they also had to admit that VIA was a "benchmark enterprise" in the industry.
However, the explosive development of VIA Group took place after 2003.
In order to alleviate the power shortage, since 2003, the state has introduced a series of measures, including the peak-valley time-sharing charging policy, which has become the main driving force for the transformation of watt-hour meter products. Under the influence of the national demand for electricity and the improvement of product stability, the traditional mechanical watt-hour meter can no longer meet the market demand.
Since 2003, the transformation of urban and rural power grids has promoted the development of a large number of watt-hour meter enterprises such as Shenzhen Kelu Electronics and Zhejiang Huali Technology. The demand of power system for a series of products, such as three-phase multi-function meters mainly produced by Weishang Group, is growing rapidly. In the past few years, contact card watt-hour meters and multi-rate watt-hour meters have gradually become popular among ordinary household users. The mode of "pay first, then use electricity" became popular in China.
This means that the era of victory has really arrived. The 2007 annual report shows that VIA Group's profit reached 2 1 billion, up 40% year-on-year. Prior to this, VIA has maintained a growth rate of more than 40% for four consecutive years!
On this day, I waited for nearly 10 years.
What are the advantages of being one step ahead of other companies? This can be seen from the development of Kelu Electronics, a competitor of Weisheng Group. For Kelu, power automation system is a new market opened after 2004. After that, Kelu Electronics developed very rapidly. By 2005, in the field of power automation, Kelu's market share has reached the second place in China, second only to Weisheng Group, with a market share of over 20%.
However, even in public, Kelu Electronics has to admit that VIA Group has maintained its impressive market share for several years, mainly due to "VIA's brand was established from 1998".
On June 5438+February, 2007, VIA Group obtained the DLMS certification of its first product, which indicates that VIA Group's DLMS/COSEM testing and certification laboratory approved by DLMSUA has the qualification and ability to carry out third-party testing on other manufacturers' products.
As a result, VIA Group became the first electricity meter enterprise in China to carry out third-party testing and certification for other manufacturers' products.
However, the market of watt-hour meter industry is by no means a piece of fat that can never be snatched away. According to relevant data, ABB, Siemens and other large foreign companies regard China watt-hour meter industry as a mature sunset industry, and limited profits and limited market space make them gradually choose to quit this industry.
Therefore, for today's Weishang Group, how to maintain the existing market share to ensure its profitability, how to reduce costs to open up markets in the fields of energy saving in science and technology, and how to expand new profit points after sunset in the future watt-hour meter industry will be the biggest challenge for Weishang Group.