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Can you tell us how customer demands or requirements have changed and how that ’ s shaped your own innovation strategy ?
Over the past few years , one of the biggest demands is a need to meet global project requirements . Typically , our larger customers have a global footprint or are trying to establish a global footprint . That requires them to have products that meet the needs of local electrical certifications and electrical requirements , whether it be different voltages , different frequencies or sometimes special safety requirements .
That has caused us to do a lot of innovation work and provide products that meet multiple certification needs . There are also requirements in many of the local markets such as China or India and Mexico .
We offer a product that can be used for all global markets and that really simplifies the application and allows our customers to have a single product that works for their global footprint . product engineering and manufacturing teams to make sure we ’ re covering all the unique aspects of a particular project .
This involves creating AutoCAD drawings that are used in production and also communicated out to the customer for their use and design , before being transferred to the project management team .
The project management team then works at the site and continues to engage with the application engineers . There is also operational support and a whole commercial team that handles contracts , contract execution , logistics and so on .
How has Legrand supported your global support capabilities ?
We were acquired a couple of years ago by Legrand , a global leader in electrical product manufacturing with a global footprint and resources all over the world , which has been particularly helpful in those markets where we ’ re not normally involved .
How does Starline support the global data center market with the XCP and distribution busbars ?
Our support is a major part of our business and investment . Customers want us to handle all aspects of projects so we ’ re providing both the product and services , which are vast . They require a lot of input and close communication with our customers , both pre- and post-sales . And we have a full staff of people with lots of unique talents to support those customers .
Can you explain more about what type of global support Starline offers ?
It really starts with pre-sales where the teams are heavily involved in configuration and application . Our sales staff generally have engineering backgrounds or technical training , so they understand our products – physically and also electrically .
They work in conjunction with regional application engineers to provide the best configuration for the space that the customer is looking to power .
Configuration would typically explore how you might line up the busbars , configuring the tap off units , the interconnection between the high power busbar and the low power busbar and integration in connection to UPS or switchboards .
Legrand is also very helpful in supplying components . Our busbar products use quite a few electrical components and circuit breakers to connectors and meters , and having access to design teams and manufacturing resources and factories means Legrand has been a tremendous asset to both us and our customers .
Project management is a key component of any build project . What does Starline offer as far as services to support the success of a project ?
We really focus on customer satisfaction . We take all aspects of the project seriously and make sure we are supporting properly .
Again , this starts with pre-sales . Most of our project management is involved in the pre-sale activities for large projects , so they ’ re familiar with the special needs of that particular project .
It then goes into manufacturing support , making sure we are meeting the schedules by doing everything we can to get the product to the location when needed , co-ordinating with the site and making sure we understand the unique site logistics , whether it be service elevator access , crane access or co-ordinating with site personnel and scheduling .
Once the pre-sales configuration is done , we have an agreed-upon bill of material and we work with our
Then we are also heavily engaged in commissioning support , providing products to assist in commissioning ,
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