New market trends in calibration

Fluke representatives Ellis Delglyn and Lawrence Rainbird have just completed a visit to South Africa with the expressed intention of identifying specific customer needs and technological trends in the field of DC and low voltage calibration equipment.

Delglyn, Export Sales Manager for Fluke Precision Measurement and Rainbird, Business Development Manager for the same division, attended the three-day annual Metrology Workshop held at Warmbaths at the end of May this year, delivering papers on power calibration and measurement uncertainty calculations. Fluke is currently the largest DC and low voltage calibration equipment supplier in South Africa, having captured more than 95 percent of the local market following its acquisition of competitor Wavetek Wandel Goltermann (WWG) Precision MeasureMent Division earlier this year. The company operates out of several countries, including Seattle in Washington in the United States, Europe, Norwich, England and Eindhoven in Holland.

Its products are sold in South Africa by sole agent Spescom Measuregraph.

The merger of the technologies and products of the two companies will carry major benefits for their customers, says Delglyn. "We're marrying two philosophies with a common purpose - to give the customer a better product and service, eliminating perceived deficiencies and improving traceability at customer level." Rainbird says the new operation's focus is strongly directed at South Africa, not only to improve relationships with the distributor and customer base, but also to use this country as a gateway to the rest of southern Africa and the Sub-Sahara region.

Spescom's Fluke Product Specialist Morne Maree says his company is intent on providing added value to the imported product in the form of "service and solutions" by concentrating on the provision of technical back-up, training and service and maintenance. Spescom MeasureGraph's Customer Support Service has the capacity to repair and maintain product right down to component level.

Spescom has access to Fluke's extensive training programmes worldwide and has introduced facilities locally to provide a high standard of customer training on product and software applications. Training has also been provided to customers in neighbouring territories. Maree says a Fluke User Group was being established under the guidance of Spescom MeasureGraph Managing Director John Wilson and would meet twice a year, bringing together calibration specialists to discuss trends in the industry and identify customer needs.