Pricing Pressure
Competition and looking for cost effective solutions are definitely a
global phenomenon. However, customers in India do not necessarily want to buy
cheapest products but just require good value for their money. Though few
players at times face some price pressure, owing to the unique marketing
approach, most of their transactions are healthy. Some vendors offer products
and solutions that are innovatively designed, which results in customers saving
20-40% on the total cost of ownership over three years.
Few companies invest a large portion of their revenue on R&D. Right from the
R&D stage, their product philosophy is governed by the Indian philosophy of save
and share. They do not necessarily recommend customers to always replace old
with new. They find ways and methods of extending the current product usage over
newer applications which comes back as a saving to the customer.
|
Top Players
(FY '06-07)
|
|
Rank
|
Company
|
Revenue (in Rs crore)
|
Growth(in %age)
|
|
FY '05-06
|
FY '06-07
|
|
1
|
Cisco
|
1,139
|
1,447
|
27.0
|
|
2
|
D-Link
|
117
|
129
|
10.3
|
|
3
|
Nortel
|
101
|
126
|
24.8
|
|
4
|
3Co
|
66
|
79
|
19.7
|
|
5
|
Dax
|
19
|
24
|
26.3
|
|
6
|
Enterasys
|
15
|
17
|
13.3
|
|
Others*
|
130
|
158
|
21.5
|
|
Total
|
1,587
|
1,980
|
24.8
|
|
*Others include HP ProCurve, Accent Net Technologies,
LinkQuest Telecom, Raychem RPG, etc
|
Despite the pricing pressure, Dax, the fourth largest vendor in our ranking,
has bagged a major order from the education segment. All Techquip funded
colleges in Tamil Nadu have deployed Dax switches. In the BFSI segment, Dax
switches were deployed extensively in UBI, Allahabad Bank, Central Bank of
India, and Federal Bank. In government projects, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, and
Jharkand were the major users of Dax switches for their e-Gov initiatives and
departments.
Bright Future
The high levels of connectivity, along with the convergence of voice
and data, and user-enabled features will contribute highly to the switch
industry growth in the next couple of years.
A lot of markets are getting organized and expanding. Almost all MNC's are
entering India in a big way, have a large investment to share the Indian growth
story.
|
Who is Offering What
|
|
Vendors
|
On Offer
|
|
Cisco
|
Maximize network value by providing optimal support for
business requirements while delivering superior investment protection
|
|
D-Link
|
High-performance managed switches provide an ideal solution
for workgroups and departments
|
|
Nortel
|
Provides small and medium businesses and large enterprises
high-throughput networking at low ownership cost per port
|
|
Dax
|
Provides a wide range of switches for SOHO and corporate
users. Available in desktop, palm, and rack mountable size
|
|
3Com
|
Addressing the SMB market, launched unified switch with easy
to use, cost-effective solution combining all of the components necessary
for wireless and wired data access and VoIP networking in one box
|
|
Enterasys
|
Announced the availability of four new diamond distributed
forwarding engines, the latest innovation for its industry-leading Enterasys
Matrix N-Series flow-based switches
|
|
HP Procurve
|
Designed for small and growing companies, ProCurve 1400 and
1700 Series switches deliver easy–to–use solutions backed by quality,
reliability, and support
|
With India showing an 8-9% GDP growth, the switching story cannot be
different. It will continue to gain momentum. The switches industry will see a
good growth this financial year too with many new deployments and upgradations.
State WAN, IPTV, and ITeS industries are the likely drivers for switching. The
desire for higher speeds with ever increasing data flow will lead to migration
to Giga switches. Also, switches with security features and wireless management
capabilities will be a new trend in the coming months.
Baburajan K
baburajank@cybermedia.co.in
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