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West Kingston, RI, June 1, 2009 — APC by Schneider Electric was named a 2009 CRN Channel Champion in the Power Protection and Management Category and a 2009 Everything Channel Five-Star Partner Program Guide Certification winner.The CRNChannel Champion study measures overall Solution Provider perceptions of vendor products and services and is the largest and broadest-based technology integrator market study in the industry.The Five-Star Partner Program Guide Certification acknowledges a company’s commitment and strength of its programs for reseller partners which include IT integrators, technology solution providers, and consultants.

“We are delighted to receive these awards of distinction and are pleased that our partners recognize our continued commitment to providing them with the best resources they need to remain successful,” said Marc Sherman, vice president, marketing, North America, APC. “APC is dedicated to becoming the partner of choice and we are committed to driving innovative solutions with our partners that help customers achieve a highly reliable and efficient infrastructure.”

In 2008, APC launched an enhanced channel partner program that aligns key industry trends with business opportunities for channel partners.The certification program provides partners with an opportunity to develop sales and engineering competencies in power, cooling, security, services and environmental management.The program allows partners to differentiate themselves by providing a more reliable and highly available infrastructure for today's demanding technology deployments.In addition, APC expanded its North American partner-focused resources and adapted a new sales coverage model to align resources based on type of partner and needed tools to succeed.

“Solution Providers have come to rely on the CRN Channel Champions study as a way to evaluate the leading technology vendors in the channel today. Additionally, the Five-Star Partner Program honors those vendors for their commitment to their partners, and their efforts to build quality programs.We congratulate the winners for delivering high-quality solutions that satisfy business partners," said Robert C. DeMarzo, senior vice president and editorial director, Everything Channel.

The CRN Channel Champions survey was conducted between January 2009 and February 2009.Solution Providers were chosen at random from CRN’s subscriber list and were pre-qualified to ensure that they worked in the category, were familiar with the products and had a significant relationship with the vendor(s) being rated.Many respondents were qualified to rate more than one vendor.CRN specified that VARs and technology integrators rate only those vendors with whom they had either a strategic partner type of business relationship, when possible.Vendors rated in each category were chosen on the basis of market share data provided by major research firms.In the case where market share data was not available, vendors were chosen by CRN senior editorial staff recommendations.VARs and technology integrators were asked to rate the relative importance of the individual evaluation criteria.To derive the overall score for each vendor, the raw satisfaction scores were weighted according to the relative importance of the evaluation criteria.

Research for the 2009 Everything Channel Partner Programs Guide and the Everything Channel Five-Star Program was conducted by Everything Channel's Institute for Partner Education & Development (IPED). IPED analyzed 130 vendor programs rating vendors' responses to nearly 60 in-depth questions about their partner programs in the six elements of sales support, marketing support, partner profitability, channel operations, communications and partner recruitment.

About APC by Schneider Electric

APC by Schneider Electric, a global leader in critical power and cooling services, provides industry leading product, software and systems for home, office, data center and factory floor applications.Backed by the strength, experience, and wide network of Schneider Electric’s Critical Power & Cooling Services, APC delivers well planned, flawlessly installed and maintained solutions throughout their lifecycle.Through its unparalleled commitment to innovation, APC delivers pioneering, energy efficient solutions for critical technology and industrial applications.In 2007, Schneider Electric acquired APC and combined it with MGE UPS Systems to form Schneider Electric’s Critical Power & Cooling Services Business Unit, which recorded 2008 revenue of €2,6 billion (including APC-MGE sales of $3.7 billion) and employed 12,000 people worldwide.APC solutions include uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), precision cooling units, racks, physical security and design and management software, including APC's InfraStruXure architecture, the industry's most comprehensive integrated power, cooling, and management solution. Schneider Electric, with 114,000 employees and operations in 100 countries, achieved sales of €18,3 billion in 2008.All trademarks are the property of their owners. www.apc.com

Everything Channel

Everything Channel is the one-stop shop for accessing, enabling, managing and accelerating technology sales channels.From branding and recruiting to marketing and sales, Everything Channel offers technology marketers the unmatched breadth and depth of global brands and market intelligence combined with unparalleled audience loyalty and credibility serving all technology sales channels through an extensive database.Everything Channel provides innovative sales and marketing solutions to arm the sellers of technology with the resources they need to achieve measurable and significant results. www.everythingchannel.com, www.channelweb.com

About United Business Media Limited

United Business Media Limited (UBM) is a global mediaand marketing services company that informs markets and brings the world’s buyers and sellers together at events, online, in print, and with the information they need to do business successfully. UBM serves professional and commercial communities, from IT professionalsto doctors, from journalists to jewelry dealers, from farmers to pharmacists around the world.UBM employsmore than 6,500people in more than 30 countries.UBM's businesses operating in the US include CMPMedica, Commonwealth Business Media, Everything Channel, PR Newswire, RISI, TechInsights, TechWeb and Think Services. UBMisli