EONEWS: What are your opinions regarding the major trends for this market (slowing, growing, booming…)?
SAW: The market for portable instrumentation is growing at a rapid rate, influenced not least by the proliferation of handheld electronic gadgets such as mobile phones and tablets among end users. As the average person incorporates items such as smartphones and tablets into everyday life, that same expectation is carried over to instrumentation used in their daily work. People expect their instruments to be smaller, perform better, do more as well as be more user-friendly. Today’s big players in the market continue to emphasize the need to move beyond the key themes of reliability, trusted measurements to newer themes common to consumer electronics – such as user-friendliness, innovative features that simplify work, as well as connectivity with other instruments, the internet and to other consumer gadgets.
With difficult market conditions and shrinking budgets, customers are often asking us if there is a simpler, easier and lower-cost method to perform a task. Very often, portable instruments are considered one of the options.
EONEWS: What are the key strategies adopted by your company in the short/medium period to address (or to better address) the needs of the market?
SAW: The key to addressing this trend lies in being totally committed to customers’ needs and interests. It is with this in mind that Agilent launched the Wireless Remote Connectivity solution to the market – allowing customers to wirelessly connect many of our handheld instruments to any Android device or their laptop. We’re building a solutions-driven platform for the long-haul. We’re integrating today’s everyday gadgets found in customers’ pockets with their everyday measurement tools. Importantly, customers get to choose which Agilent DMM they want to connect to; we’re leaving the power to decide how they want to work in the hands of the customer.
EONEWS: What are you doing in order to implement your strategies (partnership/agreements, new acquisitions, investments in activities like R&D, people….)?
SAW: As a technology company, Agilent aggressively invest in R&D, as we strongly believe that true sustainable business is only found in creating technology-based solutions for our customers. Some of these represent new ways of doing things, which customers might not have thought of themselves. But certainly, the way to achieve this is through innovation and a tangible commitment to R&D.
EONEWS: What are the most important application?
SAW: Portable instrumentation has one of the broadest ranges of applications among our broad set of T&M equipment. The people who use our products come from a broad range of industries and segments. It is hard to say that one is more important than the other as our objective is to build a solutions-driven platform – which translates to flexibility to adjust and adapt according to the customer’s application.
EONEWS: Which are the key factors that set your company apart from the competition?
SAW: Being the world’s premier test and measurement company, our customers are loyal to us knowing that we build on a competency that stretches back more than 70 years. Yet, we recognize that customer loyalty is more fiercely fought for and more difficult to maintain these days. With these in mind, we continue to emphasize that innovation must be launched out on the right tracks – tracks that are aligned to customer needs. And innovation is built on a strong customer understanding.
EONEWS: And in the middle/long term (if you have a crystal ball!)?
SAW: Expectations of portable instrumentation continues to rise, in tandem with development in portable consumer products. As long as consumers continue to look forward to the next Android or iOS product, customers will expect portable instruments to do better, do more, and do smarter. They are not same products, but the spill over effect is inevitable.