Avaya

Delhi based, it is the largest structured cabling company in the country. Avaya which is known to have pioneered the spread of structured cabling solutions in the country, still continues to dominate the market place, despite its moving to the Avaya Avatar. Some of the key wins last year were GE Capital, Sun, Wipro, and Gujarat Secretariat. Avaya has a large base of customers, and has re-structured recently to address the Indian customers more comprehensively. Partners such as Ingram Micro, TecPacific, NetSol, and Wipro, are the four key pillars for success of this former Lucent in India. Systimax SCS and LazerSpeed solutions are the backbone for Avaya. And its strength in all verticals has been the success secret.

Brand-Rex

The face of Brand-Rex today is Magnum Connect, in Bangalore. Following the global realignment of BICC-Brand Rex, in 1998-99 as Brand-Rex, the MillenniuM range of products is being promoted by Magnum. It has a a comprehensive range of cables and components available under its MillenniuM brand, and its unique proposition is that it allows one to choose between, or mix and match, screened or unscreened copper cable, blown fiber, and conventional optical fiber cable and components. MillenniuM comprises four product sets. CAT6Plus and GigaPlus form part of the complete range of unscreened and screened cables, patch cords, patch panels, data outlets, baluns, and accessories. Blolite is a blown fiber future-proof network. BloTwist is a unique copper and blown fiber system.

Deltafull

This Bangalore-based company is the only Indian component manufacturer. Manufactures and distributes factory crimped stranded patch cords, and has been able push through it products through good support and attractive prices. And today, it has a complete portfolio of solutions. Last year, it too, went aggressive with introduction cables and fiber products. Under its kitty, it offers Cat 5 keystone jack, face plates, surface mount jack, distribution panels, patch cables and accessories, cable management solutions, and testers. Further, in the fiber arena it introduced optic fiber connector, adaptor, fiber patch panels, economic patch panel, and optic fiber patch cord. This year, it wants to concentrate further by increasing its distributors and resellers.

D-Link

D-Link’s saga with structured cabling began in 1999-00 when it became the third largest player in the industry, because of its aggressive pricing and focus, which continues even now. D-Link is a visible brand today. It believes that a cable is a cable (Cat 5, E-Cat5, or proposed Cat6) as long as the network is up and trouble free. D-Link still leverages on its strength as an active components player in the network. The company in 2000-01 doubled its revenue from structured cabling to Rs 30 crore from that in the previous year. A strong dealer and reseller network across the country, and strong loyalty programs have been helping the vendor soar high.

Duratube

The UK-based Duratube Ltd is a manufacturer of high-performance telephony, networking cables, and structured cabling products. Based in Bangalore in India, its Duranet range of products are ISO 9002 certified and include Category 5, 5E, and 6 multi-pair cables, fiber-optic cables, telephone cables (internal and external), and instrumentation and control cables. And its Duranet system addresses the datacom needs. The office in Bangalore not only addresses the Indian market, but also oversee the SAARC operations. Started just a couple of years ago in India, the company is concentrating of building its brand awareness, increasing its channel partners, and distributors. It has appointed HCL Peripherals as the chief distributor and importer, and would be announcing its VAR and SIs, shortly. Its current list of distributors besides HCL include Milestone Engineering in Delhi and Focus Infosys in Mumabi. Moreover, it claims to be the first company to go for delta verification for Cat. 6.

Finolex Cables

In the last year, Finolex stepped up its presence in the structured cabling solutions by entering into a relationship with Leviton, and aggressively making its solutions available across the country. It has a very good network of retailers and distributors to promote its solutions. Through its relationship with Leviton, Finolex introduces OptiNet range of solutions. Its message across was that OptiNet was a comprehensive solution that integrates the Finolex Cat 5 and Enhanced Cat 5 cable solutions, and Leviton’s frame-to-station connectivity solutions for a cost effective and flawless network performance capability. It concentrated on educating, certification, and building its distribution network. It is understood to have done about Rs 4 crore of revenue from structured cabling, last year.

Krone Communications

Krone’s PremiseNET range of solutions made a dent into the market place. It introduced the Trunet range of cabling systems, which is a zero-bit error rate system that can go beyond the Cat5, Cat5E, and proposed Cat6 compliance (beyond Gigabit cabling). It achieved this as a result of increased focus on its TrueNet based solutions and on fiber, in the vertical and horizontal segments and as a solution for mission-critical business scenario. And its strong commitment to the Indian market, and strategy of adding new distributors and channels, got the desired results. It appointed Intercon Systems and Nebula as the channel partner and tied up with ITI to jointly bid for turnkey orders. As a result of all this, it was able to bag major orders from Tidel PARK, Anand Bazar Patrika, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Rubber Board Kerala, among others. And it has a strong chance to consolidate its market further, now with more focus on fiber and TrueNet solutions, and Fiber to the Desk solutions. It would stress on training and certification, too.

Molex

The wholly-owned subsidiary of Molex in India with the structured cabling business at about Rs 16 crore has been consolidating further. Today, it accounts for 10.5 percent market share. It is the fourth largest company in this business. Molex smartly positioned itself to address the 250-500 node network and small cities, on account of which it achieved its breakthrough. And as a strategy, it continued with training. This Bangalore-based company appointed two distributors SES Tech and Aditi. Further, the company also introduced it Cat 6 solutions. Now with the fiber market and the telecom market opening up in India and Asia, Molex is on its way to consolidate its business further.

Nordx

Chennai-based Apcom is the key distributor of Nordx. Apcom is understood to have done a total business of Rs 4.20 crore for Nordx in India last year. Nordx is a brand name that is very well-known for its technology leadership, but failed to be aggressive in the Indian market place because of not having a direct presence and lack of a clear focused strategy. The company in India is finally looking at stepping up its presence by starting a liaison office. If it props up its aggressiveness here, it is highly possible to reach among the top three positions in the industry. This can be forecasted considering the fact that with just one key distributor, it has done successfully in the market. All it needs its brand awareness and a good channel strategy. It can easily capitalize on its IBDN range of structured cabling and fiber solutions.

Panduit

Bangalore-based Panduit is every enterprises’ darling when it comes to cable management solutions. Panduit, in the last one year, has strived to better its performance beyond that image and prove that it was a total solutions provider. Towards that it set up a warehouse in Bangalore to support distributors, focused strongly on vertical segments. It did business close to Rs 8 crore last year. This year could see it further consolidating as a total solutions provider. To its current list of over seven prominent authorized integrators and six authorized distributors, it wants to add a few more names, strong in specific vertical segments. Also, it would open offices in Chennai and move to the ‘B’ and ‘C’ class cities. Apart from this, its strategy would be to focus on training for end-users, SIs, and distributors. And concentrate on fiber solutions like the fibrerunner routing system, which is part of a broad, integrated network connectivity systems of connectors, outlets, interconnection systems, fiber routing systems, network cable tie systems, identification systems, and grounding systems.

TVSNet

The R&M Freenet solutions supplier in India, Bangalore-based TVSNet, made mark in the ‘B’ and ‘C’ class towns. During the year, it focused on training and certification, and creating more awareness. It also introduced R&M’s Star System, an end-to-end Cat 6 solution and Vision System. As a result of that it made an entry into major software companies. Further, its focus on key segments like education and healthcare gave R&M significant breakthrough. It won major orders from Madurai Kamraj University and from Narayan Hridayalaya and Bapuji dental college. Further, it tied up with Prestige Group for establishing network infrastructure for its clients. It won a prestigious campus network order from Ashok Leyland for its plant in Hosur involving all the available technologies, shielded & unshielded in copper, seamlessly integrated with fiber optic network, using single as well as multimode fiber cables and accessories. This year, it wants to go through increased focus on manufacturing, government, and finance segments. Further, increase its presence in education segment and concentrate on channel expansion. As a result of all these, it intends to expand its business from the current levels of Rs 7 crore by 30-40 percent.

Tyco

Bangalore-based Tyco, and erstwhile AMP, consolidated its market share and mind share. Today, it has the highest brand recall as cabling solutions provider and has over 21 percent market share. It achieved this through persistence with strong training, logistics support, bonded warehouse, and cordial channels or distribution partnerships. Even, its focus remained very clear. It concentrated on software development centers and data center, and increased its presence in the ‘B’ and ‘C’ class cities. It has got in the 50/125 multimode fiber category and has close to 80 percent market share in the same. Meanwhile, it introduced cable-management accessories and innovative products like AMP communications Outlet for the call center, and MPO for the ISP and data center market. It will be further aggressive on MPO, MT-RJ fiber optic connectors, consolidate and increase systems integrators, and reseller base and reach. And will introduce new products and services to cover emerging MAN markets.