|
18 October 2004 - The Power Services Sector of France's Alstom Group has been awarded the 2004 Frost & Sullivan Growth Strategy Leadership Award for exhibiting an outstanding growth strategy in the Asian power plant services market.
Award selection was based on a combination of primary and secondary research. Leading competitors were ranked according to criteria such as ability to grow in a saturated/maturing market; implementation of a unique sales strategy; technological innovation; effective Internet strategy; penetration of new markets through alliances and growth-oriented reorganisation.
Alstom's Power division is organised in three Sectors: Power Turbo-Systems, Power Environment and Power Service. Gaining a unique brand identity and improved functional direction, the customer service sector - 'Power Service' - generated $3.18 billion (EUR2.70 billion) in global sales during the fiscal year 2004. Of this, the Asian region accounted for 19 per cent, with the American and European regions combining for about 70 per cent.
"Even with this gap in service revenues, the capacity of boilers and auxiliaries supplied by Alstom and its licensees in Asia far exceeds those installed in Europe or America. Also, the company's total installed capacity of steam turbines, generators, and gas turbines in Asia closely rivals that supplied in the Americas," notes Frost & Sullivan. "This points to a large untapped potential in the Asian region and Alstom is developing novel strategies to grow its service business in Asia."
To optimise on aftermarket services, Alstom has built a unique customer-focused service business that uses a local service company (LSC) for supply and service execution augmented by technology assistance from European and United States-based service execution centres (SECs). The LSC thereby supports all the technologies in a single window, with high-end engineering backing from the SECs.
Long-term partnerships with customers have been a cornerstone of the company's overall growth strategy. Bespoke customer service packages have been facilitated through a distinctive system of harmonising service products (spares, field services, consultancy, performance improvements and service agreements) with plant areas (gas turbine, steam turbine, boiler, environmental systems, electrical and mechanical balance of plant and plant packages).
By emphasising both contractual, long-term service agreements (LTSAs) for field service and maintenance of equipment, as well as turnkey operational and maintenance (O&M) service contracts, Alstom has consolidated its strong market position.
Unlike its competitors, Alstom consistently features as one of top three market shareholders in several countries researched by Frost & Sullivan. This has placed the company in a position to expand its service business in the future.
As part of its cohesive growth strategy, Alstom has also focused on entering into country-specific alliances. Joint ventures such as that with the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) in India and already existing Alliances such as that with Beijing BEIZHONG Steam Turbine Generator Co. Ltd (BSTG). There are strong intentions for further localising service activities in China by building alliances or joint ventures to leverage exciting service opportunities in the emergent Asia Pacific markets.
An exclusive customer service portal has enabled the company to capitalise on service business prospects. Ultimately, this is likely to integrate key business processes globally by managing field service resources, internal transactions and eSourcing access to LSCs.
"Alstom's declared plan of becoming an integrated service provider for the entire power plant industry with focus on life-cycle management, operational effectiveness, maintenance cost management and environmental compliance is likely to help the company remain on the growth path," concludes Frost & Sullivan.
| 
Articles 
| View all PennWell sites | View all PennWell events
Add RSS Feed
