Structured Cabling: India On A Live Wire

Money Not a Factor
Traditionally, the customers for cabling solutions had been approaching the vendors on price point. But this has changed in recent past. Customers are realizing the importance of investment in infrastructure.

Dr Kandaswamy of Systimax notes, “Businesses don't usually appreciate how important infrastructure is although it is the backbone of your establishment. But now new global customers have set the trend of choosing infrastructure over IT investment.”

Vendor Speak On Future Plans in India

KK Shetty, director, Sales, India & SAARC, Tyco Electronics
We want to introduce optical fiber and copper hi-density products for large data centers and telecom players. We will also launch end-to-end PoE product line to serve future-ready businesses. Our R&D focus is on building integrated cable system, one that will comprise of intelligent cabling, PoE components, and normal cabling standard. Retail, manufacturing, refinery and real estate are hot and happening new markets. We are also heavily investing in training and expansion of offices across the country. As of now we don't have any manufacturing plans. However, we feel it will be the right time to look at manufacturing here when the demand reaches a critical mass like 100,000 boxes per month.

Dr Ispran Kandaswamy, VP & MD, Asia Pacific, Systimax Solutions
We have recently opened the executive briefing center (EBC) in India, which is our way to show our commitment to the Indian market, our customers here and to our business partners. The market is growing at the pace of over 25% in India, and India is the fastest growing market for us. We are growing faster than the market growth in India. The EBC is a unique one-stop gallery of all our products where potential customers can touch and feel technology before investing on a long-term infrastructure.

Systimax has a pretty good track record of R&D and has over 600 patents in this space. The roadmap for innovation in cabling entails adding intelligence to the infrastructure, and we are pushing the envelope on getting 40 gigabits over fiber or even100 gbs on fiber. There's a lot of work also going on for PoE.

Dileep Kumar, enterprise product manager, ADC Krone
As our fiscal year is November-October, we are now planning for our FY 2007 business year. Or main focus in FY 2007 will be channel development. Our focus on verticals like Govt, BFSI, ITeS will continue to grow, however our major focus will be on providing solutions.

We also have some very interesting products to launch for the enterprise market as well as data center solutions. We have many products like cable management, fiber guides, fiber management systems etc apart from the cabling that go into a typical data center. We are ready with our second generation of 10G Base-T UTP products. We launched Midspan PoE products last year and have made significant installations already.

SA Mohan, sales director, India & ASEAN Region, Molex
Molex has set up the headquarters of ASEAN region in India. This is a proof of Molex's huge commitment to the Indian market. Earlier, the operations were looked after from the Australia office. We are aiming to be number 1 in the Indian market in next three years time. As part of our expansion plans, we are looking at opening new branch offices. We set up an R&D center in Bangalore only for structured cabling last year. The focus is to enable faster time to market and products that will be a value-add to our existing portfolio.

Milind Tamhane, VP, Manufacturing, D-Link India
Our Enterprise Business Unit as well as the Channel sales is determined to reach the magic figure of Rs 100 crore this year. We have some very prestigious government, public sector and private industry SCS projects on the anvil and expect a very aggressive performance this year.

You can expect good consolidation of our strengths in active networking product designing capabilities. We have plans to introduce products in PoE, FTTH and intelligent cabling areas in recent future.

Kumar Natarajan, regional director, India, Panduit
Panduit India will continue to focus on the Premium market segment-top software companies, ITeS, global accounts and MNC banks and corporations. We are looking at sustained and consistent business. Panduit is keen on making a significant investment in India. We are beefing up our office infrastructure, resources, investments in marketing activities and strengthening the SI and distribution system to gain market share.

Rajesh Shenoy, key account manager, India, Belden CDT
Belden is planning for some major initiatives in the region, including developing region specific products, R&D, and expansion of the team. There are a slew of new product launches planned for the next six months. In the last few months, we have launched some new products: new VoIP patch cord with a different boot for both the end, a patented Bonded-pair patch cord and an angular, 0U wire manager.

Currently, Belden is working on projects worth over $3.2 mn in India. Some of them will be completed by the end of the year. These projects include some high-end IT companies, financial services companies, and entertainment sector. In terms of technology, there are some projects on intelligent cabling management, Plenum cables (cables made of Teflon for fire protection), and Cat6a.

Rajesh Kumar, country manager, Siemon
For the fiscal year 2006-07, our prime focus will be on financial sector, data centers and ITeS. As part of our expansion plan, we are looking for appropriate partners and major system integrators across India. We are planning lots of vertical seminars; road shows and educational programs for our certified installers to enhance their skills/update them on the recently launched TERA 10G, fully shielded end-to-end cabling solution. IEC has also recognized the interface based upon Siemon's TERA connector as the standard interface for a new high-performance class of cabling and this strengthens our position here. We are also working within IEEE to ensure that our cabling is compatible with the new PoE Plus standard.

One of the prestigious orders bagged is from BLB, one of the largest stockbrokers in India, for Cat6 solutions in their Delhi and Mumbai centers. Apart from this, we have also successfully executed some major contracts for Punjab National Bank, ABB, SSIT, Bagalkot Engineering College, Future Info solutions etc.

K Surendar, country manager, Dax Networks
For the next fiscal, our target revenue is Rs 10-15 crore as we see new markets. We are trying to move into SMB segment, beyond the traditional tender driven market into corporate driven market. We are investing heavily in training and channel partner programs. Our focus is on aesthetic improving products and PatchSee Intelligent Patch cord is in that line of product. We hope will pick up good business in India.

Gaurav Ahluwalia, country manager, Reichle & De-Massari (R&M)
We are officially launching the R&M office in India by this year-end in Bangalore. In our first year of operations, we have done $5m in India. We see a huge potential market in India. We will focus on enterprise market and plan to launch carrier products next year for telecom companies. The global vision of the company is to be No. 1 in next five years.

Kashi Vishweshran, director, BNA Technology Consulting
BNA has made a decision to move up the value chain through its design consultancy and project management division, while at the same time taken a new initiative called bnaITmart.com to reach out to tier-2 or even tier-3 cities with quality IT infrastructure services, over the web at very competitive price levels. We are currently working on a few innovative implementations of VoIP based solutions over fiber that would deliver significant cost reduction in certain situations.

The Indian customers are prudent while choosing technology and vendor for a long-term investment on infrastructure. Dileep Kumar of ADC Krone says, “Typically a networking gear consisting of computers, switches etc., will have a maximum useful life of 3-5 years whereas structured cabling has a maximum useful life of 10-15 years (3 X networking gear). That means the cabling you install today should support three generations of networking gear.”

Although the market faced an onslaught of high price rise in international copper prices, the vendors fared well for themselves. “Customers need not worry too much about copper price hike as SCS consumption within an average network is 7-8% of the outlay, so the effective impact on total cost will be minimal,” notes Milind Tamhane of D-Link.

R&M, a new entrant in India, studied the market in India for the last one year and concludes that the customers here are looking for quality. Gaurav Ahluwalia, country manager, R&M says, “We see a huge potential in India and glad to note that customers are keen on quality and not necessarily going for cheaper products. This is a good sign of the mindset of Indian customers for structured cabling.”

"Most of the market requirements will be met by CAT5e and CAT6 in India. Volume for CAT6a will be low to start with this year"
-Kumar Natarajan, regional director, India, Panduit

Expansion Mode
The cabling vendors are literally tracking the technology footprint across India. As IT/ITeS companies are penetrating the tier-2 and -3 cities, the cabling companies are also making their way. As a result, all cabling vendors have chalked out elaborate strategies to push distributors and channel partners in emerging markets.

Traditionally, the tier-1 cities have been the high-revenue earners for the vendors, but now newer opportunities are being offered in the mid-market segment from cities like Coimbatore, Cochin, Kolkata, Chandigarh, Bhopal, Pondicherry and Mysore, to name a few.

Kumar Natarajan, regional director, India, Panduit affirms, ” We sense growing opportunity in the mid-size market as the Indian corporate segment, PSUs, government and Indian banks are pushing the IT button although this is a bit more price sensitive segment.”


Data centers demanding 10GE need to be future-proof

KK Shetty of Tyco says, he has enough reason to be upbeat for next 20 years. “Telecom players are growing five times every year. BPOs and KPOs are touted to create over 8 mn jobs in next 2-5 years. This means over 24 mn nodes,” he says. Shetty is also eyeing a new potential market-the retail industry. “We are all aware of the plans by Reliance Industries to open pan-India network of retail outlets. This is going to open the floodgates for cabling market and we expect it to impact our business remarkably.”

Kumar Natarajan of Panduit sees real estate as another potential market. “The builder market will be a very big segment for the cabling vendors. Bangalore has set the trend for the same and other cities will follow suit very soon. Leading corporates and residential markets are keen on building ready-to-use infrastructure buildings. However, the challenge in this market is to be price competitive,” he adds.

There is a new way of thinking emerging for smaller players. It is no longer about boxes but about ports and software. Players are looking more and more at providing customized end-to-end cabling solution. With 10G over UTP, PoE and Intelligent cabling technologies gaining acceptance, cabling installations are becoming more skill based than before. Following the right installation practices and adherence to standards is very important when it comes to new applications that require higher data rate transfer.

"We hope to see accelerated growth of intelligent cabling in India as it has a definite utility value that customers can benefit from"
-SA Mohan, sales director, India & ASEAN Region, Molex

In order to stay ahead in the race, the industry has given priority to staff retention and training. With numerous orders on hand, the installers are gearing up for training personnel and technicians. Understandably, they would love to see better supply and adequate staff to strike a balance.

The contest is on to drive emerging markets with zeal and perfection. So as India is tipped to be the 14th highest IT spender by 2008, its business as usual for the structured cabling market.

Malovika Rao
malovikar@cybermedia.co.in

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