Rajesh Kumar is not perturbed that Siemon does not register a very high brand recall with the end-customer base. This is because he knows that his clients are not the run-of-the-mill enterprises. Instead they belong to verticals that seek to secure their infrastructure investment, ensuring that the network is scalable to accept bandwidth hungry future applications.

Siemon has been in the country for over three years, but its recall has been very low among customers. Why?
Siemon Company is a 103-year old family-owned company. We started our Indian operations in 2003 with an office in Bangalore. We will be opening an office in Mumbai shortly.

The first year of our operations here was spent in educating ourselves about the Indian market. We had to put in place a good channel network; train and certify them. We also had to acquaint ourselves with the prospective customers in the country. Factually, we have been doing proper business in the past year and a half only.

And I don't think that we have low recall in the market now. In fact we have 40 to 45 reference sites up and running. We also have some global accounts that are serviced from our Indian office. For instance there are some global customers who might have their presence in India and want us to look after their structured cabling networks here.

What is your channel network in the country?
We have around 40 certified installers nationally now and are looking an increasing this number as we start making inroads into uncharted territories. We have one distributor – Advent Infotech in New Delhi.

Another distributor called Anixter manages our global accounts. This company is responsible for providing delivery and logistics for the global
accounts.

We are seeking more sub-distributors in the western and southern regions.

Why not appoint a national distributor then?
We are clear that we do not want any national distributor like Ingram Micro. These national players are more of box movers or stockists. This will not work with the products we offer, as these are more technical and need a lot of pre-consultancy to customers.

So what will the profile of the sub-disti be?
The sub-disti's profile should also include some skill sets in network integration. Also, there will not be any definition of geographies within which partners have to work. They can work nationally, since most clients might have projects spread across different states and regions. We have initiated discussions with a few partners, but it is too early to take any names.

What is the Siemon Certified Installer Program?
Siemon certified installers provide the necessary link between products and Siemon compliant installations. We train two people from each of our partner organizations and certify them. These certified designers and installers attend Siemon training centers, where they are trained to design and install Siemon cabling systems.

Each course is an intensive one-week program that includes classroom as well as hands-on training. This ISO 9001 certified training program is based on the best practices of relevant TIA and ISO standards to ensure the highest levels of quality in training worldwide.

Cabling is not just about buying good quality cable and connecting with the hardware. In order to ensure the use of full bandwidth, a structured cabling system needs to be properly designed, installed, and administered. Keeping these factors in mind, we developed the Siemon Cabling System Certified Installer Program. We currently have around 40 certified installers.

Are your products scalable to the next-generation of cabling technology?
Absolutely. In fact our products have a warranty of 20 years. This goes beyond product repair to ensure that the network is ready for future applications as well.  

Siemon does not have a high brand recall in the Indian market. Has this impacted your business?
We are not in the volume business. We are like BMW cars, where we add value to the product, and where the volumes do not matter. We have very focused clientele and our products are not for the mass market.

Does that mean you are not interested in adding more customers to your portfolio?
No, it means that we will continue to work in those verticals where we can add value to our customer's networks. We are trying to educate our buyers on why it makes sense to use predictive cabling solutions that can be scaled on the future technologies as well.

We have been having specific end-user seminars for architects and builders; as well as for verticals like data centers, call centers and ITeS enterprises. We offer solutions for bandwidth hungry applications.

Is India ready for the 10G over IP solution that you are offering?
The adoption of 10G over IP has already started, though it is still in the nascent stage. For instance, Punjab National Bank started its network on Cat 6 and today their data center is on 10G over IP.

Every four or five years, cabling technology changes. 10G over IP is also a technology transition and it will take its time in mass-scale adoption.

VINITA BHATIA

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