Structured Cabling

Structured cabling is a key element of any network infrastructure, and the

way new data centers are coming up in the country, this segment is seeing lots

of growth. That's why we've also devoted a separate buying guide for segment, so

that you can understand what's happening in this segment and how to choose the

right structured cabling equipment. In fact, there are quite a few interesting

things coming up in this segment, like 10G over copper, unified cabling

throughout the infrastructure, and much more. While there are several key

players in this category, each with their own specialties, only three made it to

the Users' Choice future readiness club--D-Link, Finolex, and Systimax. Last

year, we also had AMP in the club, but this year, it couldn't gather sufficient

votes to be in it. The situation of these brands as compared to last year has

improved. They've all become more persuasive as compared to last year. While

they were all loosing brand pull last year, this year, they've started gaining.

Last year, there was a lot of uncertainty amongst the respondents on which brand

would they shift to from their existing one, but this year, they're more

decisive. In all, they're all moving at a much faster pace than last year, which

is in sync with the growing demand in the market for structured cabling.

Out of all three brands, D-Link once again emerged as the most future ready

brand in this segment, making it the winner of Users' Choice awards. It had the

highest current ownership, top of mind recall, and future likelihood of purchase

amongst the respondents. This was the same situation last year. There is a

change in the other brands that are a part of the Users' Choice club. Last year,

Avaya, AMP, Finolex, and Molex were in the club. This year, only Finolex and

Systimax received sufficient votes to stay in the club.

Finolex is the most persuasive brand of the lot. In fact, it's the only brand

in which the number of people who're likely to purchase the brand are more than

the number who could recall it on top of their minds. In others, top of mind

recall is higher than likelihood of purchase, i.e. less persuasiveness. D-Link

has the highest brand pull situation, wherein there are more CIOs likely to

switch into the brand than switch out. Finolex has the next best brand pull.

Systimax needs to be a little more careful, because the number of likely switch

outs from this brand is higher than the number of switch-ins.

Brand loyalty amongst all brands has increased over last year by varying

degrees. Finolex enjoys the highest brand loyalty, but the percentage of users

likely to swtich out is also the highest. D-Link has next highest brand loyalty,

with 26% of its users who're uncertain about which brand to shift to. Systimax

has only 41% brand loyalty, and a large 50% existing user base who're not sure

which brand to move to.