Liebert (company)
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Liebert Corporation is a division of Emerson Network Power .
Emerson Network Power, an Emerson Electric Company (NYSE: EMR) business and the global leader in business critical continuity, serves the needs of telecommunications networks, data centers, health care, and industrial facilities worldwide with a full spectrum of reliable power solutions. Emerson Network Power solutions bring together industry-leading technology brands in power systems, connectivity, embedded power, outside plant, precision cooling and monitoring and service, including Liebert. Liebert Adaptive Architecture creates a power and cooling infrastructure for IT systems that can meet the highest availability requirements, enhance operating flexibility and reduce cost of ownership.
Over the past several decades, Liebert Corporation has grown from a small business with just five associates, to become part of a Fortune 500 company with international locations and over 5,200 associates. Throughout its history, Liebert Corporation has achieved its success and established a market leadership position by focusing on product reliability, solutions tailored to the needs of customers, outstanding sales and service support and a deep commitment to its customers. This has become the “Liebert experience” and it is made possible by the combination of world-class facilities and dedicated, knowledgeable associates across all areas of the business.
It started back in 1946 when Ralph Liebert and his family moved from Cincinnati to Columbus, Ohio, and founded Capital Refrigeration Industries. The business specialized in applying refrigeration technology to emerging and unusual situations. The use of technology to find solutions to the unique concerns of business became the underlying purpose for the company as it grew.
Among the special projects that Ralph Liebert frequently was asked to assist with was building cooling systems for computer rooms. Recognizing the opportunity in this emerging market, he decided to focus his efforts on this application and develop it into a major new business.
Using his garage as a workshop, Ralph Liebert built the first prototype precision air conditioner in 1964. He designed a self-contained system that could precisely control air temperature, humidity and cleanliness in a computer room to tolerances of +/- 1 °F (−17 °C) and +/- 2.5 percent relative humidity. It also had a high sensible heat ratio, the ability to run continuously and built-in redundancy — features essential for data processing operations.
He previewed the prototype for IBM and the computer company made arrangements for Liebert to present the new system at the World Computer Conference in Philadelphia in 1965. Show attendees were excited by the idea and the orders flowed in. Liebert Corporation was founded on this air control product that same year with a leased building and just five associates.
Just two years later, in 1967, Liebert Corp. made its first international move by setting up a Canadian distributor network. The company has been expanding and finding new markets ever since.
In 1968, the company moved into a new facility in Worthington, Ohio, which housed both Capital Refrigeration Industries and Liebert Corp. As its business continued to grow, the company broke ground once again and moved into a 150,000-square-foot (14,000 m²) facility in Columbus, Ohio. This building, expanded several times to add manufacturing space, continues to operate as a precision air production facility and the corporate headquarters.
Moving into Power
In the 1970s, the data processing industry was faced with inconsistent power problems, which led to downtime, scrambled data and equipment damage. To help solve these problems, Liebert formed Conditioned Power Corporation, to provide economical, flexible, mobile and secure systems to monitor, distribute and condition electrical power for computer rooms and other sensitive electronics. Its first product was the Datawave magnetic synthesizer, a system that still holds a dominant share of the power conditioning market today. Conditioned Power Corporation operated as a wholly owned subsidiary until 1981, when it became a division of Liebert.
Expansion continued as Liebert broke ground for a second major manufacturing facility in Delaware, Ohio, in 1980. This facility houses Liebert’s Research and Development, Heat Transfer and Power Conditioning divisions.
Growing with the Industry
Another important milestone for the company was reached in 1981 when Liebert became a public company. It was represented by the symbol LIEB on the NASDAQ until its acquisition in the late 80s. The company was taken public under the leadership of Larry Liebert, Ralph Liebert’s son, who took over as president in 1980 and served in this position until 1989.
Liebert entered the monitoring market in 1982 with the introduction of Sitemaster. The product allowed for the monitoring and control of multiple Liebert units from a single panel, providing faster response to potential problems and higher uptime for business critical systems.
To further its ability to serve the needs of their computer room customers, Liebert acquired Programmed Power from Franklin Electric in 1983. This brought Liebert into the uninterruptible power supply (UPS) industry as they expanded their Power division, which is a leader in the design and manufacture of UPS systems. That same year, the company opened its first overseas production facility in Cork, Ireland. Continuing its 1983 expansion, Liebert formed its Customer Service and Support division. Today, it is the industry’s largest such group.
As Liebert grew, the company never forgot the importance of its dedicated associates. To that end, Liebert opened its own Training Center in 1984. Since that time, thousands of Liebert associates and customers have completed coursework and gained hands-on experience in the operation and maintenance of Liebert air, power and monitoring systems.
Continuing to seek solutions for its customers, Liebert launched SiteScan, a comprehensive site management system, in 1985. This interactive system links all computer support systems in a total network, establishing Liebert as a single source for total, integrated computer support.
In 1987, Liebert Corporation marked yet another milestone when it was acquired by Emerson Electric Company of St. Louis, Mo. With the financial backing of Emerson and the addition of its products and systems, Liebert continued its quest to provide single source, computer support protection.
Leveraging Strengths
Already a strong force in the Uninterruptible Power Supply business, Emerson’s new acquisition not only expanded an already strong power protection offering, but combined with Liebert’s leadership in precision air conditioning, the new Liebert provided a unique combination of total systems protection to critical systems of all sizes.
Liebert then continued to expand its ability to protect critical facilities through the acquisition of Control Concepts in the late 1980s. Control Concepts brought a high quality TVSS (transient voltage surge suppression) product offering to the table.
About this same time, the way businesses use computer systems was undergoing a fundamental change. Computing power was being decentralized away from the traditional computer room. Liebert responded to this new decentralized and networked model through the establishment of its Distributed Processing Group business unit. This group not only oversaw the manufacturing and marketing of single phase UPS systems, but also the development of the revolutionary new Little Glass House, introduced in 1994. The LGH was the first integrated network support system, allowing smaller but still critical computer systems to be protected with air conditioning, UPS, monitoring and security in a special enclosure. That same year, the company earned ISO 9001 certification standards, further supporting its reputation as a quality supplier.
As computer technologies grew and moved into new industries, Liebert, with the financial backing of Emerson, tailored products to deliver environmental and power protection to computer users, networks and distributed processing applications, industrial processes, lab settings and telecommunications applications.
Channel Expansion
As distributed processing needs expanded, Liebert complemented its prestigious and experienced local sales offices with new reseller sales partners. Rather than instituting a competitive channel, Liebert orchestrated a unique relationship between these sales partners that resulted in benefits to all parties.
Continuing its commitment to its customers and its sales partners, Liebert established eCommerce sites for its sales partners in 1998. These sites have become important links between Liebert and its partners, and have enabled them to provide better support to their customers through major enhancements in quoting, order processing, training and selling tools.
Setting a Platform for the Future
In 2000, Emerson formed Emerson Network Power to bring together its divisions that provide solutions for network and computer protection. Featuring industry-leading brands like Liebert and ASCO, Emerson Network Power has become a one-stop source for network protection, from power components, power systems and service to climate control and critical space monitoring. As part of the Emerson Network Power family, Liebert offers a broader range of solutions through its representative network and can more easily extend into new markets.
In 2004, Liebert launched new initiatives focused on assisting companies facing new Information Technology (IT) challenges, including business continuity, high heat density, IP telephony/VoIP, network buildout, regulatory compliance, and precision vs. comfort cooling.
As it delivers adaptive architecture for business-critical systems to customers around the globe, Liebert is driving the future of mission-critical power and cooling technology. Organizations worldwide depend on Liebert to maximize reliability, availability and economy of systems, applications and data in their data centers, computer rooms, network closets and other critical areas. Liebert and Emerson Network Power will continue to provide unmatched quality, superior expertise, local and global service and support, and technology leadership.
