Artek Enterprises: Solution Champ for Structured Cabling

Mixed Wires

According to research estimates the
structured cabling market in India is fluctuating between Rs 800 to
1000 crore. Overall the market was down by 20 percent since FY '08-09
due to fluctuating copper prices in the international arena. With the
advent of 10G, bandwidth problems have been solved to a great extent.
Gaurav Ahluwalia, MD, R&M (India) said, “With over 671 million
subscribers, the Indian telecom sector is experiencing unprecedented
growth. We will introduce products that cater to the telecom sector's
emerging needs.” Few years ago only large enterprises had specific
cabling requirements. With markets opening up, many principals are
targeting SMBs as well. Belkin launched structured cabling solutions
for SMB's sizing from 25 to 100 computers. Mohit Anand, MD, Belkin
said, “India has a large pool of SMBs. These mid-sized companies
have a consistent growth rate, which is why we have designed our
strategy around this." There is a dichotomy in choosing fiber
or copper cables. Since the cabling takes part in the initial
construction phase, the investment is
fairly low. This results in faulty networks and delayed data
transmission. There are various standards available like 10BASE-T or
100BASE-TX and also a clear migration from Cat5e to Cat6 as a default
standard. Milind Tamhane, VP-Product Management and Exports,
Digilink remarked, “We are seeing expectations for higher frequency
uses for copper products. We are also witnessing fiber being more
popular in LAN/WAN fields. Enterprises have realized advantages of
intelligent patch panel solutions, PoE Midspan solutions.” With the
approach to reduce costs associated with downtime, companies are
investing in high-quality cabling solutions to enable greater
performance and meet security needs. Pre-terminated cabling solutions
are also gathering significant traction. These solutions minimize the
amount of installation time and thus reduce the chance of errors
occurring during the installation. Ahluwalia said, “Fiber optic
solutions are gaining more acceptance due to prepolished connectors,
pre-terminated fiber and MPO fiber plug and play connection systems.
These, dramatically decrease the complexity of installing fiber
cabling and the risk of error.” An estimated 80 percent of the
market is still copper-based, while the rest of it is driven by
fiber. Within copper, Cat5e forms 40 percent, Cat6 55 percent and the
rest five percent is Cat6a. FTTH, extension of structured cabling to
the residential domain and Giga-ready homes
are bearing out to be the key growth drivers.

For the last couple of years the key
driver in structured cabling solutions has been a demand for
datacenters, network virtualization,
penetration of Internet in rural India and use of converged triple play
network over the same physical
network infrastructure. Apart from these factors growing SOHO and SMB
segment with an equal growth in enterprise, education and government
infrastructure are also playing an important role. In line with the
new generation of applications, new technologies have emerged in
structured cabling and UTP to counter the bandwidth requirements.
Armored and unarmored Cat5e and Cat6 cables are being used by most of
the service providers. Subhashini Prabhakar, Chief Technology
Manager, Dax Networks elaborated, “Glass fiber, light wave division
multiplexing, usage of plastic optical fiber, coaxial cable and other
wireless technologies are gaining importance. UTP cabling system or
fiber optic cable must be universally applicable in a combination
configuration. These systems can transmit voice synthesis, low-speed
data and high-speed LAN information and is easy to extend. This
allows enterprises with future expansion needs to upgrade anytime and
anywhere.” Dax offers a range of products under
the fiber category like field installable fiber connectors, semi
intelligent user-friendly patch panels
which are costeffective and easy to troubleshoot. R&M has
introduced the single circuit management system (SCM) which is a
complete modular system for high-grade, high-density fiber management
at central network hubs of service providers. The SCM system makes
management of individual fibers and subscribers clear-cut, reliable
and efficient for all levels of the next-generation network. Digilink
has its focus set on datacentre products, products suitable for FTTH
environment. The company is still betting on Cat6 range hugely. With
enterprises catching the eye of
many vendors, government seems to be equally lucrative. Digilink is
concentrating on manufacturing, BFSI and PSU apart from education.
R&M is also almost treading the same path by showing prime
importance to telecom. According to IDC reports Digilink has been
ranked at second position in the Indian structured cabling systems
(SCSs) segment. The company has a strong hold in providing entire
end-to-end range of structured cabling solutions for enterprises and
SMBs. Digilink accounts for 20 percent of the marketshare in the
cabling systems marketplace. The company has garnered plenty of
awards by winning 'Best Structured Cabling Brand 2010' conducted by
The DQ Channels. The PCQuest Users Choice Awards 2010 ranked Digilink
as 'India's Most Wanted IT Brand for Structured Cabling.' Tyco which
has the largest marketshare of 24 percent also has similar plans
along with Systimax closing at 13 percent, Molex standing at 10
percent, R&M at eight percent and Dax at 2.7 percent.

Another recent trend which has emerged
is cashing on the green phenomenon. R&M's products are RoHS and
REACH complaint and are Low Smoke Zero Halogen (LSZH). The company
prefers working with raw material suppliers who are ISO 14001
certified. Their new headquarters, the R&M Cube situated in
Wetzikon (Switzerland) employs a balanced energy concept that helps
reduce CO2 emissions by up to 90 percent compared to conventional
buildings. Dax Network has tried to incorporate this in their product
design by exceeding standard specifications. This provides enough
headroom for higher performance; thus making it suitable for emerging
technologies. The company also offers a standard
20-year warranty on all their cabling products. This will eliminate
the frequent changing of cables. Structured cabling technologies are
designed to cater to all the demands of a typical datacenter, while
future proofing it for changing needs of the business. The 10G
solutions that are available on both twisted pair (Cat6a-shielded and
unshielded) and fiber are effective for bandwidth hungry
applications. While twisted pair is the norm in most Indian network
infrastructures, technologically fiber is being touted as more
superior solution and today's datacenters adopt both twisted pair and
fiber, single or in combination to derive most effective solutions
for their needs. Installing and maintaining a structured cabling
system is a herculean task. While Dax is offering endto- end
structured cabling solutions which are custom made for customer's
network scenario forecasting all the possibilities of issues that
would arise. R&M does meticulous planning while designing a
solution to ensure it is future-proof, flexible, scalable and
efficient. Technical proficiency is another essential factor.
Installations where these aspects are ignored are likely to lead to
complications or failures. The future looks bright for structured
cabling with almost all major industries vouching for it. In the wake
of growing need of IT-enabled
services across all verticals, structured cabling has become a key to
every infrastructure and is all set to grow at a phenomenal rate.
Nearly 40 percent of its total market is expected to be driven by the
datacenters. According to research, the industry is expected to grow
at a CAGR of around 20 percent over a period of the next few years.
The SMB's, residential and commercial complexes are fast becoming
the key drivers for its growth. Copper cables are still dominating
the scene with 70 percent of the structured cabling business in
India, fiber has still a long way to go. Copper and fiber will
continue to be the growth area for the industry but Intelligent
Physical Layer Management System (IPLMS) will increase. Milind
Tamhane of Digilink said, “We also expected tier-4 Green datacenter
as growth area last year. There is good potential in residential
cabling another where we can expect tremendous growth in coming days.
This all will create business opportunity and incremental growth in
the structured cabling industry in India.”

OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN

With a total market size of Rs 1000
crore plus, SPs form an indispensable part of the pie. With the
cabling market growing 20 to 30 percent every year, the dynamics of
business is fast changing. Spark Technologies which is based in
Delhi, is one of the prominent players in this space who has a strong
hold in the government sector. SR Nautiyal, MD, Spark Technologies
said, “Our forte is government based projects and we have
undertaken many projects in Tripura, Jharkhand and Uttranchal. We
have deployed engineers across the country at 50 to 60 locations.”
The company undertook cabling projects for the CWG 2010 which was
worth Rs 2.65 crore. Spark Technologies also handled 'Tripura City
Wide Network Area' worth Rs 1.25 crore.

It is a known trend that customers opt
for single vendor for civil, electrical and networking front. Most
electrical vendors may or may not provide installation according to
market standards. Valuepoint Systems, a Bengaluru based system
integrator and services provider works closely with OEMs for new
technology products and solutions like Cat6+ and Cat7. Ganesh
Mahabala, Sr VP-Sales, Marketing, Strategy and Alliances,
Valuepoint quoted, “Customers may not get networking installation
as per industry standards (IEEE/ TIA-EIA). We tell them to choose
networking as part of their IT than real estate and they should
evaluate vendors who have sufficient experience and knowledge about
IT services.” The company clocked a total turnover of Rs 153 crore
in the previous financial year. With the massive industrial growth
and rapid infrastructure expansions added with the maturity in
customers understanding of structured cabling advantages, one can
envisage a huge potential in India. Today, network is becoming the
back bone of every business from SMB to enterprise and as customers
are becoming increasingly intolerable towards down time, every
organization is aspiring to have zero down time platform. They are
ready to make investment and deploy solution that would reduce down
time.

Rajiv Kumar, MD, Proactive Data Systems
said, “Even though the market size is increasing, we are observing a
lot of commoditization
happening. Most builders and architects are offering cabling along
with the projects. The expertise is missing and many vendors who sell
premium products are under pressure.” Proactive Data Systems
undertook projects in government as well as corporate sector. The
company is not looking at the entire spectrum of market but is
catering as the premier supplier. After setting up a strong base in
ITeS, Proactive Data Systems wants to increase its focus on
manufacturing, healthcare and education. Kumar also stated the fact
that customers are well educated and are spending time to select the
right product rather than selecting the cheapest product or solution.
This trend is also helping customers to look at structured cabling as
a 'long term investment' rather than other cheaper 'just in
time' solutions. Once again Tyco has emerged as the most popular
brand amongst SPs. Digilink comes close to second position and
Systimax, Comscope are at #3. Molex, ADC India and R&M can be
grouped into the next level with Panduit and Belden. With Cat7 coming
into the market there is hope that the consumption of high-end
products will increase. Most SPs also feel that the manufacturers
need to up sell without being too volume oriented. Delhi-based Artek
Enterprises is slowly
emerging as a strong player in the structured cabling area. The
company has partnered with Digilink to increase marketing activities
in the channel for structured cabling products. Artek has put in
place a four-member team consisting of a graphics and web designers
for promotions. The team rolls out schemes and offers for partners on
a daily basis. Anubhav Gupta, Director, Artek Enterprises said, “The
support from Digilink was most crucial. Both our promotion teams
worked closely to circulate schemes to every partner. With a major
shift in trend from Cat5e to Cat6 cabling last year, Cat6 provides
better connectivity and higher speed (1Gbps). Fiber installations are
still being opted for their backbone networking even in small
networks.” However when there are talks about wireless technologies
ruling the roost in future, it is still far from delivering the kind of
bandwidth needed for upcoming applications.

Most of the business still comes from
metros but 2011 will definitely see a rise in upcountry selling.
Artek clocked a total turnover of Rs 118 crore out of which
structured cabling was a sizeable 22 percent. It has recorded a
consistent 20- 25 percent YoY growth and like other fellow
competitors, it has undertaken government projects as well as defense
contracts. The company has a unique dual strategy where it is
promoting its cabling products in the market through channel
partners. The second strategy is direct promotion of cabling products
to customers in turnkey projects. Both these approaches are aimed at
increasing
awareness with potential customers and partners of the new and upcoming
technologies. Artek strongly
believes in educating partners on the advantages of using the latest
technologies and the benefits it brings to their customers.

The market for 2011 looks promising
with a growth of at least 20 percent. Cat5e will continue to be
phased out as Cat6 and Cat7 play a stronger role in communications. A
rise in demand for fiber optics with fiber to the node connectivity
and the availability of higher bandwidth from service providers is
also expected. Gupta said, “Our bet will be on 10G networking in
both copper and fiber. 2010-11 promises to reverse the trend and
2011-12 is expected to see a 15 to 20 percent growth. This is
supported by the fact that Q3 and Q4 of 2010 showed signs of revival
with the IT and BPO sectors opening up and cautious, commenced
invitation of RFPs from the vendors.” India is increasingly
adopting global standards for datacenter design and installation. The
standards promote network infrastructure that includes 10G based
categories 6A and OM4 fiber. The adoption of intelligence within the
physical layer has increased in recent times.

THE CHAMP

If we analyze all the above factors,
Artek has come a long way in the cabling arena. The company has clear
cut strategies, has recorded a consistent YoY growth and adopted new
technologies. What clearly demarks Artek from the rest is the market
analysis which it does periodically.