BPO gives a boost to Tyco

Tyco Electronics’ AMP NETCONNECT division has been growing at an average 15 to 20 percent year-on-year but this year its revenues took a quantum leap by 50 percent says Abhinav Singh noting that this growth spurt came from BPO and BFSI

An Intelligent Networking solution helps a customer map the existing connectivity of his network, including unused office ports or servers, says K K Shetty

The structured cabling market has never had it so good and it is all thanks to the booming BPO segment and mushrooming R&D centres of multinationals in India. In the Rs 325 crore Indian structured cabling market, Tyco Electronics’ AMP NETCONNECT division is the runner-up after SYSTIMAX Solutions. It began its operations in 1996 as AMP NETCONNECT. The division grew from Rs 2 crore in 1996 to Rs 80 crore in September 2003 and is aiming to reach an estimated Rs 120 crore this year. The division has an impressive clientele including the likes of Wipro Technologies, Infosys, SAP Labs, GE Capital and Hindustan Lever amongst others. It has more than a 1,000 customers in India and it has bagged its first order for CAT-7 cabling from the Shipping Corporation of India.

It has an aggressive channel strategy and has introduced Intelligent Networking systems that should drive its growth in upcoming quarters. The division is working closely with nearly 120 partners in the country which includes IBM, Wipro, CMC, HP and Datacraft. It has tied up with three main distributors namely Tech Pacific, Ingram Micro and Compuage Infocom.

AMPACT training: a strategic growth enabler

To create awareness about structured cabling and to strengthen its brand name, the AMP NETCONNECT division has embarked on a set of training programmes to help its partners set up their own enterprises or become system integrators. Training will be given at the Bangalore-based centre that also provides AMPACT certification (AMP Certification). It is a seven day programme at the end of which the participants are certified to install any AMP network. The division has trained more than 800 people since the programme began. KK Shetty, country manager, AMP NETCONNECT, Tyco Electronics Corporation India says, “We encourage customers to buy products and solutions from AMP-certified professionals. There is an inherent advantage to buying products from them. A customer gets 25 years warranty on installation if they buy from these professionals and they can come to us for direct post sales support.”

The NETCONNECT division has also rolled out a one-day programme aimed at the pre-sales and the post-sales staff members of their channel partners. The programme gives an overview of AMP NETCONNECT’s product offerings and the specialities of the division. It has recruited nine people for customer and personalised services.

Intelligent networking to the fore

The division launched a Intelligent Networking solution in December 2003 and has bagged some key projects from ten large customers including Orange, WNS, Trinity, Wipro Technologies, Mentor Graphics, AOL and iGATE Global Solutions. It hopes to rope in more in the near future. The Intelligent Networking solution is a connectivity management system that provides automated management of the physical layer of a corporate network. When the cabling system is combined with real time infrastructure management software, the connectivity management system lets administrators minimise network downtime and reduce their workload. Shetty explains, “Through an Intelligent Networking solution a customer can map the existing connectivity of his network, including unused office ports or servers. This helps technicians securely make changes and provide accurate representations of the physical layer. Broadly it helps in cutting down manual procedures that are tedious and time consuming and also decreases the errors made by manual updates.”

Bonded warehouse to reduce time-to-market

The AMP NETCONNECT division has set up a bonded warehouse in Bangalore where it maintains stocks worth $3 million at any given point of time. The warehouse has helped the division meet the immediate requirements of its Indian customers. Shetty says, “The warehouse has helped us reduce the time to market for all our cabling products and maintain service levels. This has helped us get repeat business.” Before the bonded warehouse was set up, the division had to source its products from Singapore. In a scenario where immediate requirements are generated by companies across verticals, particularly from the BPO sector as they keep on scaling their telecommunications infrastructure, the warehouse has been a blessing for the division.

BPO sector to drive future growth

The AMP NETCONNECT division expects to tap the BPO sector for growth. Shetty adds, “We have substantial market share among Indian BPO facilities. This sector is pegged to grow immensely and we expect huge cable installations to take place.” Manufacturing and government are also expected to drive growth. India has been a price-sensitive market for structured cabling. AMP stresses on bringing innovative products at a lower cost to win market confidence. With its aggressive business plans the division is planning to outmanoeuvre its competition in the LAN cabling market.

abhinav@expresscomputeronline.com