Uninterruptible power supply manufacturer American Power Conversion Corp announced this January it has won its largest ever Russian with a customer in Vladivostock. Eastern Europe Sales Director John Bojanowski says the deal is worth about $65,000 and is with a customer involved with a US-based company working in the petroleum and fishing industries. This is American Power’s first order in the Russian Far East and it took six months to organise. American Power ships on receipt of payment in the Russian market. The contact came at the same time as a smaller $8,000 deal – one of a series through the company’s Moscow distributors. Bojanowski says that Russia has proved harder to crack than the markets of Poland and Hungary where the company has been comparatively much more successful. Uninterruptible power supply sales are a useful market indicator as they provide information on how personal computers are being used. They are something of a luxury for stand-alone systems but essential for a personal computer network in a country where mains power is less than entirely reliable.
