Legrand enters the structured cabling fray

Legrand recently entered the Indian market with Cat5e and Cat6 cabling solutions. Chitra Padmanabhan says that with Cat6 gradually emerging as the industry standard, the company is likely to find a good market for its products

According to Ramesh Dandekar, while small and medium businesses still prefer Cat5e, large enterprises typically prefer Cat6

The past year saw considerable activity on the cabling front. Thanks to falling prices, Cat6 is taking over from Cat5 and emerging as the preferred industry standard. Despite the hype surrounding fibre and wireless technologies, copper still seems to be the medium of choice. Like other focused players in the structured cabling space, electronics giant, Legrand has been quick to spot this opportunity. The company recently made its foray into the Indian market with (Legrand Cabling System) LCS5 and LCS6 structured cabling solutions for Cat5e and Cat6 networks respectively. With an established network of 450 stockists and two manufacturing facilities in India, Legrand hopes to build a beach-head in the structured cabling market.

A growing market

According to BSRIA (Building Services Research and Information Association), the Indian market for structured cabling stands at approximately Rs 300 crores. India is expected to have the highest growth at 17.9 percent in the 2001 to 2005 period vis-à-vis other countries. This growth is likely to be fueled by telecom companies, the insurance sector, software technology parks, call centres, the government sector and the BFSI segment.

“To leverage on this booming sector, we are increasingly focusing on building a solid infrastructure coupled with a surge in our marketing initiatives,” says Ramesh Dandekar, vice president, marketing, Legrand India.

The cabling industry is in a transitory phase. In 2004 and mid-2005 Cat5e will occupy a significant portion of the market after which Cat6 will gradually emerge as the prevalent standard. With the market upbeat about Cat6, Legrand’s timing is impeccable. Industry experts claim that though Cat5e still holds good for Fast Ethernet, which is a dominant medium on the corporate of LAN, there is also a parallel market for Cat6. “We have designed our marketing strategies in tune with sectoral trends. While [Small and medium businesses] still prefer Cat5e, large enterprises typically prefer Cat6. Thus we have a clear demarcation of our target customers and would pitch our solutions accordingly,” says Dandekar.

Wanted, a strong Indian base

To make a strong entry into a market where competition is intense, Legrand plans to leverage on its large network of 450 stockists, which has been catering to its electronics business since 1996. Additionally, the company has manufacturing facilities, in Jalgaon and Nasik in Maharashtra. These will be their prime service hubs for the Indian market.

While training the current distribution layer of stockists to handle networking products like structured cabling is going to be an uphill task, Dandekar is confident that the company would be able to use its existing base to service customers of structured cabling products. Currently Legrand is in the process of establishing tie-ups with system integrators. With an employee base of over 700 in India, the company is forming a dedicated team for the cabling business.

Being a global entity, Legrand is able to take advantage of its vast network of establishments in 60 countries and holds a worldwide market share of 16 percent in the structured cabling segment. This network gives the company an opportunity to study trends in various markets, which also acts as a catalyst to review its strategies from time to time. “Legrand devotes four to five percent of its sales revenue to R&D every year and has about 1,500 people dedicated to R&D worldwide. Today, the group has as many as 4,500 active patents,” says Dandekar.

Looking at the kind of technology implementation going on in India, the cabling industry is bound to gain momentum. Many industry analysts believe that the networking industry will be the prime driver of trends in the cabling segment. In the next two years, the migration almost 75 percent of organisations will flip the switch and move from Cat5 to Cat6. While Legrand certainly would not have it easy in a market dominated by D-Link, Tyco and Krone, the company’s focus on Cat6 along with its manufacturing strengths could help the company make inroads in a highly contested market.

chitra@expresscomputeronline.com