By Varun Aggarwal, CRN, April 8, 2010
Belkin has entered the structured cabling segment in India and appointed Iris Computer and Neoteric Infomatique as distributors. While Iris has been appointed to manage supplies for big projects and address the demand from large systems integrators, Neoteric will focus on the volume business.
“We have a strong cabling portfolio which is doing well in countries like the US. Our aim in introducing the product in India is to capitalize on the booming Rs 1,600 crore business. In the first year itself we expect to earn Rs 20-25 crore from cabling,” said Mohit Anand, MD, Belkin India.
Belkin will offer its entire range of structured cabling solutions including faceplates, patch panels, CAT6a standard cables, and cable management tools and accessories. The company will focus on the copper business since that constitutes about 82 percent of the market in India. The fiber cabling products will be sold back-to-back.
Elaborating on the distribution strategy, Anand said, “We have ensured right-sizing of the market to make certain there is no over-distribution. Both our distributors have a mutually-exclusive partner database. Our products will be available in the market from the first week of April. In the Q1 FY2010, our aim is to sign up 500 partners in the top 10 cities. Once that is achieved, we will go to the next 20 cities.”
The company has set up a dedicated team to drive the cabling business. “We will invest significantly in training, development, empowerment and accreditation, so the partner sales and technical teams become capable to position Belkin solutions in the right way,” added Anand.
Belkin will be rolling out an aggressive marketing campaign starting May, which will include seminars and training workshops for partners and customers in the top 10 cities.
For service and support, Belkin will be leveraging its existing national service partner Accel Frontline. Besides, Belkin will have two technical support managers in Mumbai and Delhi who will work with Accel and take care of any escalation issues. |