2013 European Racks & Cabinets Entrepreneurial Company of the Year Award

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1 2013 European Racks & Cabinets Entrepreneurial Company of the Year Award 2013

2 Entrepreneurial Company of the Year Award Racks & Cabinets Europe, 2013 Frost & Sullivan s Global Research Platform Frost & Sullivan is in its 52 nd year of business with a global research organization of 1,800 analysts and consultants who monitor more than 300 industries and 250,000 companies. The company s research philosophy originates with the CEO s 360-Degree Perspective, which serves as the foundation of its TEAM Research methodology. This unique approach enables us to determine how best-in-class companies worldwide manage growth, innovation and leadership. Based on the findings of this Best Practices research, Frost & Sullivan is proud to present the 2013 European Entrepreneurial Company of the Year Award in Racks & Cabinets to Minkels. Significance of the Entrepreneurial Company of the Year Award Key Industry Challenges The racks and cabinets market in Europe is highly competitive with manufacturers constantly having to innovate. Key market challenges include price competitiveness, the ability to meet unique customer needs, and the ability to keep pace with ever-evolving technology. Offering an integrated solution at a competitive price is paramount. Today's customers seek products that have been integrated with active components, cooling solutions, and security features. There are a number of cheap imports coming from Asian countries, especially China and Frost & Sullivan's research shows end users trending towards the cheaper racks. To combat this, manufacturers must differentiate themselves from Asian competitors by focusing on product innovation and value added features. Educating end users on the benefits of superior quality and products that are more innovative is the key. By acutely focusing on these elements, Frost & Sullivan is convinced that manufacturers would be able achieve higher penetration in the market. Equally important, manufacturers need to understand current market needs carefully while concomitantly collaborating with customers. This will enable them to design solutions that best address the short comings of traditional products and solutions, ultimately building superior value for end users. Key Benchmarking Criteria for the Entrepreneurial Company of the Year Award For the Entrepreneurial Company of the Year Award, the following criteria were used to benchmark Minkels performance against key competitors: Growth Strategy Excellence Growth Implementation Excellence Degree of Innovation with Products and Technologies 2013 Frost & Sullivan 1 We Accelerate Growth

3 Leadership in Customer Value Speed of Response to Market Needs Decision Support Matrix and Measurement Criteria To support its evaluation of best practices across multiple business performance categories, Frost & Sullivan employs a customized Decision Support Matrix (DSM). The DSM is an analytical tool that compares companies performance relative to each other with an integration of quantitative and qualitative metrics. The DSM features criteria unique to each Award category and ranks importance by assigning weights to each criterion. The relative weighting reflects current market conditions and illustrates the associated importance of each criterion according to Frost & Sullivan. Fundamentally, each DSM is distinct for each market and Award category. The DSM allows our research and consulting teams to objectively analyze each company's performance on each criterion relative to its top competitors and assign performance ratings on that basis. The DSM follows a 10-point scale that allows for nuances in performance evaluation; ratings guidelines are shown in Chart 1. Chart 1: Performance-Based Ratings for Decision Support Matrix This exercise encompasses all criteria, leading to a weighted average ranking of each company. Researchers can then easily identify the company with the highest ranking. As a final step, the research team confirms the veracity of the model by ensuring that small changes to the ratings for a specific criterion do not lead to a significant change in the overall relative rankings of the companies. Chart 2: Frost & Sullivan s 10-Step Process for Identifying Award Recipients 2013 Frost & Sullivan 2 We Accelerate Growth

4 Best Practice Award Analysis for Minkels The Decision Support Matrix, shown in Chart 3, illustrates the relative importance of each criterion for the Entrepreneurial Company of the Year Award and the ratings for each company under evaluation. To remain unbiased while also protecting the interests of the other organizations reviewed, we have chosen to refer to the other key players as Competitor 1 and Competitor 2. Chart 3: Decision Support Matrix for Entrepreneurial Company of the Year Award Measurement of 1 10 (1 = lowest; 10 = highest) Award Criteria Growth Strategy Excellence Growth Implementation Excellence Degree of Innovation with Products and Technologies Leadership in Customer Value Speed of Response to Market Needs Weighted Rating Relative Weight (%) 20% 20% 20% 20% 20% 100% Minkels Competitor Competitor Criterion 1: Growth Strategy Excellence As a data centre manufacturer delivering comprehensive integrated solutions, Minkels focuses on creating customer-centric partnerships with international companies that have data centre operations worldwide. Its customer-centric approach, coupled with a keen eye for innovation, has considerably enhanced its customer relationships. The company serves its customers both direct and through a widespread network of international distribution channel partners, which it carefully selects based on their knowledge and expertise in the data centre arena. This has resulted in strong growth in sales over the past years for Minkels. In February 2012, Minkels was acquired by Legrand (NYSE Euronext Paris: LR), a company that is present in more than 180 countries. By leveraging Legrand s international logistics and distribution assets, it was able to increase its global penetration rate. As the data centre market is increasingly globalizing, Minkels move to find a strong strategic, international partner has accelerated its global go-to-market strategy. Being a part of the Legrand Group has enabled Minkels to further extend its innovative solutions on a global scale, building on profound knowledge in the field of data centre development. In addition to this, Minkels has 2013 Frost & Sullivan 3 We Accelerate Growth

5 been successful in adding new clients by venturing in to new geographies such as the U.S., the Middle East, Russia, and Scandinavia. It also has subsidiaries of its own in France, Belgium, Switzerland, and the UK. Criterion 2: Growth Implementation Excellence One of the key factors that led to Minkels growth excellence is that it closely collaborates with its customers. This enables it to better understand market requirements and needs while designing solutions that cater to those exact needs. It has implemented multi-site production, operations, and logistics to be as close to its customers as possible. Minkels data centre solution portfolio has been built with two core principles: modularity and energy-efficiency. The modular design of its data centre products not only ensures highly scalable solutions that adapt to the dynamic needs of a data centre environment, but also enhances a customer-centric approach, catering to specific requirements. As a knowledgedriven supplier, Minkels has always invested substantial resources in R&D to stay at the forefront of energy-efficiency and product modularity in the data centre environment. It strives to continually improve and refine energy-efficiency and flexibility in its products and solutions. This has been another crucial factor in the company s growth excellence. Criterion 3: Degree of Innovation with Products and Technologies Minkels was the first data centre vendor to commercially launch the Cold Corridor aisle containment concept back in 2006, in order to separate data centre air-flow in an energy efficient manner. Currently, energy-efficiency and flexibility demands on Cold aisle containment have increased drastically. There is also an increasing need in the current market to integrate Cold Corridors with technologies like row-based cooling, power distribution, fire suspension systems, and cable management within racks. In order to address these challenges, Minkels developed and launched the Next Generation Cold Corridor in February 2013, which is a highly flexible solution with substantial modularity. It offers greatly enhanced airflow management and it is an extremely energy-efficient solution; it offers a combination of integrated and optional features based on its client needs. The company has also developed two new water-based cooling systems ( Minkels Varicondition H2O-316 and the Minkels Varicondition H2O-650 ) for data centers, which can be placed between racks. The Varicondition H2O-316 is designed to support the cooling needs of companies with decentralized server rooms, whereas the Varicondition H2O-650 is designed in a way to suit high-density applications in commercial data centers. Its R&D department has introduced added features and functionalities based on customer feedback to meet their specific needs. Criterion 4: Leadership in Customer Value Minkels has taken aisle containment to the next level by addressing key industry challenges. It was able to achieve this through the launch of the highly innovative Next Generation Cold Corridor solution, based on extensive R&D and in close cooperation with key customers. The 2013 Frost & Sullivan 4 We Accelerate Growth

6 extremely modular, hence ultra-flexible, solution with optimized airflow management enables best-in-class energy-efficiency for data centers. The company employed a unique customer/supplier joint product development process in order to incorporate ideal product features based on client needs. This development process has contributed to the superiority of the Cold Corridor solution, significantly enhancing customer value. As optimising airflows in the data centre can result in significant energy savings, Minkels R&D department performed extensive testing on air flow management and cooling air leakage, both on rack and Cold Corridor levels. The R&D results would provide data centre managers with vastly enhanced energy-efficiency in a Cold Corridor environment, thus catering to PUEoptimisation needs. Criterion 5: Speed of Response to Market Needs Because Minkels has created strong partnerships with its clients, the company is always at the forefront of current data centre market needs. Some examples where the company has addressed the challenges in the current market by coming up with solutions to suit the requirements of the market needs are: The Next Generation Cold Corridor for enhanced energy-efficiency, airflowoptimization, and unprecedented modularity. The Stand-alone Cold Corridor - for extreme flexibility in operations and investment. This is basically a construction without any racks that provids comprehensive integration options for 3rd party equipment. It is a pay-as-you-grow solution, which considerably reduces the CAPEX investment. Row-based Varicondition DX and H2O energy-efficient cooling solutions and zero air loss server racks for air tightness of racks and Cold Corridors. Conclusion Minkels is setting new standards with the launch of its Next Generation Cold Corridor. This innovative aisle containment solution has been developed to meet current and future dynamic user requirements and developments in the demanding data centre environment. Minkels success comes from its close collaboration with customers in the product development phase, which enables the company to fine tune that modularity and energy efficiency. Its expertise on energy efficiency in data centres is evident in its contributions to the European Energy Efficiency Guidelines in the EU Code of Conduct for Data Centres. Because of these factors, Frost & Sullivan recognizes Minkels with the 2013 European as Racks & Cabinets Entrepreneurial Company of the Year Award Frost & Sullivan 5 We Accelerate Growth

7 Critical Importance of TEAM Research Frost & Sullivan s TEAM Research methodology represents the analytical rigor of our research process. It offers a 360-degree view of industry challenges, trends, and issues by integrating all seven of Frost & Sullivan's research methodologies. Our experience has shown over the years that companies too often make important growth decisions based on a narrow understanding of their environment, leading to errors of both omission and commission. Frost & Sullivan contends that successful growth strategies are founded on a thorough understanding of market, technical, economic, financial, customer, best practices, and demographic analyses. In that vein, the letters T, E, A and M reflect our core technical, economic, applied (financial and best practices) and market analyses. The integration of these research disciplines into the TEAM Research methodology provides an evaluation platform for benchmarking industry players and for creating high-potential growth strategies for our clients. Chart 4: Benchmarking Performance with TEAM Research About Frost & Sullivan Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, enables clients to accelerate growth and achieve best-in-class positions in growth, innovation and leadership. The company's Growth Partnership Service provides the CEO and the CEO's Growth Team with disciplined research and best-practice models to drive the generation, evaluation and implementation of powerful growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan leverages 50 years of experience in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses and the investment community from more than 40 offices on six continents. To join our Growth Partnership, please visit Frost & Sullivan 6 We Accelerate Growth