Structured cabling : Bigger market now grows in B and C class cities

The growth in structured cabling business in India in the last fiscal saw

a steep decline, primarily due to the recession. What are your new approaches to

further your growth in India?



At Digilink, we are always close to the customer no matter what is the state

of the economy. That's precisely the reason we arranged our Future First

Information Transportation Systems (FFITS) Road shows in over fifty cities since

June 2009. These technology intensive seminars have made the end user aware of

the work we do uninterrupted on product development. This also helps us to

understand the market trends and expectations.

What are your latest product/solution launches to help your customers

during the downturn?



We at Digilink have taken the downturn as an opportunity to understand the

changing markets, and design new products suitable for the same. Our recent

product launches help our customers during this time. One of our recent

launches, Aluminium Die cast Patch Panels, is so strong that one can literally

climb on it with no sagging or bending. The special alloy acts as an excellent

EMI shield at the location most vulnerable, as copper conductors are required to

be exposed in the jack. The jack locations are also staggered to improve alien

cross talks. It accepts most standard jacks and has two more unique

features-magnifying label holders and excellent back-end cable manager. Catering

to specific needs of residential data cabling, we have introduced unique

intermediate bezels. These adapting bezels would accept high performance

Digilink jacks and multimedia ports. They can get accommodated in most commonly

used international and domestic Electrical Face plates.

What else is in the pipeline?



We plan to introduce factory molded patch cords with increased strain relief

boots. We have already tested our non-halogen high performance patch cords.

While the world is attempting to go green in every space, what are the

green initiatives you have taken to help your customers?



We have a handful of green initiatives. On copper media front, we have Cat

6A cables which are suitable to transmit 10G/s signal till 50-100m. There are

cables with improved material for insulation, jacketing suitable for exacting

safety requirements and also suitable for greener environment. We are probably

the first SCS company today to have an entire product range which is RoHS

compliant, and we did not stop there. Even our work environment boasts to be

best in the vicinity. We had acquired ISO 14000 way back in 2002 and have

improved year-by-year on the initiatives. We plan to introduce halogen-free

cabling components very soon.

Do you see structured cabling business transforming into services from

just a solution?



Structured cabling certainly is taking shape as a complete service industry.

As it is encompassing wireless products and residential cabling, it can be more

appropriately termed as a service industry now.

How are you transforming your relationship with business partners?



Traditionally, ours was a strong regional distributor sales model. But over

the period, we have upgraded skill levels of many business partners for system

integration and solution/services offerings. This way not only the end user gets

satisfying experience but business partners also get huge value addition.

How has the Indian market responded to 10G cabling solutions?



In India, we have always found users asking for the latest technology and

solutions. In the initial period, 10G was confined within high-end data centers

and large enterprises. Now the ice is broken and there are many requirements for

even 50 node 10G solutions.

Kannan K



kannan@cybermedia.co.in