Networking Users Survey

Voice&Data Bureau

27 May 2001 09:32 IST

New Update

Networking Masters of previous years focussed on networking vendors and
networking integrators, but this year we have made an exception by incorporating
users. The user survey will help in giving completeness to ‘Networking Masters’,
as the customer focus will benefit both vendors and integrators for
understanding the needs of the customer.

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The survey was conducted for 91 companies — 37 based in Delhi and 54 in
Mumbai.

The survey focussed on large corporates having network division and multiple
offices connected by ISDN, leased line and VSAT. The companies represented in
the survey symbolize varied sectors like manufacturing, banking and finance,
transport/utility, telecom and ISP, and government.

The CIO/CTO/CNO survey is an exhaustive one and talks about LAN and WAN
deployment, worries of a CIO/CTO/CNO, networking technologies which are of
interest to the corporates, factors that lead to the choice of an
integrator/vendor, satisfaction level of the integrator/products, and customer
support provided by the vendor.

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Corporate Information


Around 78 companies have less than 11 employees in network division.	Inspite of all the hoopla about private bandwidth providers, VSNL wins the race by providing bandwidth to 70 percent of the corporates.		Majority of the corporates use 64 Kbps leased line as their fastest link.

It is surprising but maximum number of corporates use dial-up for Internet connection.		Most corporates spend around Rs 1-10 crore on network.

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LAN/WAN Information


Maximum number of companies have more than 100 nodes.	A majority of the corporates have 10 or less than 10 connected offices .

Some
Technology Trends

Ethernet is the
most popular LAN technology

All companies have Ethernet LANs

Five companies have ATM LANs

One company has Token Ring LAN

Nine companies have Wireless LAN

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Biggest Worry of CIO/CTO/CNO

Top 5 worries of CIO/CTO/CNOÂ

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Network performance

Quality of support

Lack of bandwidth Change in technology

Ensuring security


35 percent of the corporates want to change their remote access framework.	24 percent of the corporates want to change their voice network.	20 percent of the corporates want to change their applications.	34 percent of the corporates are more concerned about their security framework and want to change it significantly.

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Satisfaction Level of Vendors

Â Technical Assistance Center is a problem for many corporates.
60 percent of corporates are not satisfied with customer support.
68 percent of corporates are not satisfied with the urgency shown in
solving problems.
71 percent corporates are not satisfied with availability of
spares/warranties fulfillment.

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Network Technologies of Interest

Currently, most of the
corporates use Ethernet and Fast Ethernet technologies but they plan to use
Gigabit Ethernet and 10 Gb long haul Ethernet.

Most of the corporates are
satisfied with fiber optic cabling.

In the future, corporates would
like to have ATM for LAN and WAN.

Very few corporates plan to
deploy Frame Relay and Token Ring.
Microwave, VSAT and ISDN are
used by most corporates.
Majority of corporates are
interested in VoIP, IP telephony, video conferencing, VPN, ASP and Video on
Demand.
Corporates are not interested
to deploy SDH, PDH and WDM.

Satisfaction Level
of Network Integrators

Corporate are
dissatisfied with vendor independence, network training and network performance
analysis.

Malpractices–Their
Impact on Customers

Malpractices do not affect customers in India much. However, practices that are of concern are:

1. Emphasis on economy over quality network.

2. Preference to technology.

3. Less imortance to cabling.