Siemens to push smart system

Nitida Asawanipont

The Nation

The company hopes to achieve Bt120 million in revenue by year-end.

Its strategy is to link up with major dealers, with Sangchai Air Quality as its main partner, to sell its smart-home system to property projects, hotels and individual consumers with luxury houses.

Siemens has its own sales teams to approach big property developers with whom it has had a long relationship.

"We actually have been selling the system for some years but since it was too early for the market to grow accustomed to it, it was popular only among a limited group of consumers. But today, the market seems to be more ready," Suphot Pokpattanakul, vice president for business development, said yesterday.

He said the system had been popular in Europe for a few years and that Thailand, which usually follows trends from the Western world, had started learning more about it. In addition, the real-estate industry is recovering with growth from 8-10 per cent this year, due to the mega-projects planned by the government - particularly the Skytrain and subway routes - after sluggish progress during the past few years.

Suphot said Siemens and its dealers would focus on property developers in many sectors, including hotels, resorts and housing projects as well as high-end consumers.

"We will educate them on the benefits of the system in saving electricity costs as well as providing high security. The system also saves energy, which will slow down global warming," said Wachaphan Panmool, business development manager for electrical installation technology.

So far, Siemens has sold the system to 10 hotels, resorts and housing projects. The company has another product - the Delta Azio switch. Sangchai Air Quality is its major distributor and has sold the switch since last year.

Siemens targets Bt30 million in sales of the product this year to become the leader in the high-end segment of the Bt1.5-billion switch market with a 60-per-cent share.