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Focus on small cities
Delhi-based M K Infosystems, which specializes in providing cabling solutions, admits that the economic slowdown has led to a decrease in demand.
“Due to the economic slowdown our cabling business has come down this year. New infrastructure development has almost stopped from October 2008, and will not revive till customer confidence returns,” concedes Manoj Bisht, CEO, M K Infosystems.
That’s why he turned his focus to smaller cities. “The next business drivers will be from B & C class cities. Also, the government is coming up with plans for computerization, and without structured cabling this cannot be fulfilled.”
He adds, “Recently, ICICI Bank has started building its infrastructure for another 580 branches, other banking organizations have also started their redevelopment of branches, thus we can say that in FY2009 the finance and telecom sector will give a boost to the structured cabling business.”
Data center opportunity
Hyderabad-based Shell Networks did business of Rs 10 crore in network cabling in the last fiscal and expects business to grow despite the slowdown.
Despite the economic slowdown, Shell expects its business to grow in 2009 as well. “We are expanding our operations and plan to set up a presence in Bengaluru and Chennai very soon. We are tying up with data center solution providers where we see good scope for the business,” informs Achar Lakhsmikant Srinath, CEO, Shell Networks. “In addition, we are working closely with a few architects, and we see good opportunity in new trends like intelligent building concepts.”
With real estate prices falling, Srinath expects many smart companies to buy their own offices and move into them from their present rented spaces. “We have seen many of our customers moving into their own campuses. We expect this trend to grow with a further fall in real estate prices, and this will lead to investments in structured cabling. We anticipate a good chunk of business from new buildings or new infrastructure. In addition, the data center population is on the rise, and they have shown huge adoption of SCS. The state and central governments are also showing interest in structured cabling networks.” |