By taking branding initiatives, Digi-Link is reinforcing its credentials in the market as a specialized structured cabling systems (SCS) provider, with a great focus on its channel.
Following the D-Link India Limited demerger announcement in 2008, Digi-Link, the leading structured cabling systems (SCS) brand, has recently unveiled its new business initiatives and also rebranded its identity to Digi-Link.
D-Link has been in the SCS business for about two decades now. Earlier, the company had partnered with Computer Craft, USA and later signed a joint venture with Sapphire Networks, UK to bring SCS technology to India.
In the late 1990s, D-Link started manufacturing SCS products at its Goa plant. The passive range was initially introduced under the D-Link brand and in 2004 it was relaunched as a separate brand, named “Digi-Link”.
In FY 2008-09, the end-user market size was around Rs.13,000 million. The SCS market registered a somewhat ordinary growth of 12.9%. Digi-Link has achieved a consistent performance in FY 2008-2009 in this period of recession. “Our market share in 2008 was close-to 20%. As per IDC, we grew into the number 2 slot during the year,” said Mr Kandarp Jhala, AVP – Channel & Export, Digi-Link.
“We are leader today in the SCS market in India. We have maintained our proposition to position our products on quality and after-sales rather than making price corrections every time,” says Mr Kandarp Jhala.
“This gives a good opportunity to the Channels to make better margins on our products. Also as mentioned earlier, we always are the first to market and get new product and solutions offerings for the Channels where they can make more healthy margins. We have always propagated to the Channels to sell with more value add so that they can demand healthy margins from the customers,” adds Kandarp Jhala.
Digi-Link is amongst the top two brands in India. Over the years, Digi-Link has evolved from its strengths in the SOHO (small office or home office) and SMB (small and medium businesses) segment to now being a significant player in the enterprise space as well. Digi-Link is present in Latin America, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and SAARC region and out vision is to be the global leader.
Digi-Link offers the entire range of SCS products from Copper to Fiber, Data Centre Solutions to Residential Cabling Solutions and IPLMS solutions. Complete copper and fiber solutions of Digi-Link as products / solutions are moving fast. This includes products required for entry-level solution to key enterprise-type solution.
Digi-Link has introduced its High Density Premium Patch Panel. New Patch Panel redefines compact port management to help the user meet the demands of the ever-growing data traffic. It has a unique die-cast aluminium design.
"We are looking at introducing new datacentre solutions to our product mix, as we want to get into the enterprise business segment. We will soon launch the unique Multimedia Face-plates, the first in the world. These faceplates can be customized to the customers needs in design and décor. Many more new products are in the loop and over the next two quarters, you will see them launched,” says Kandarp Jhala.
Partners play a key role in SCS solution design and integration. This also offers partners to earn by providing services to customers.
Two new portals – www.digilink.in and http://partner.digilink.in were launched today. www.digilink.in is a new website with the latest logos and information about Digi-Link, while the latter is exclusively dedicated interactive portal for the channel partners and distributors. It is part of the company’s business initiatives under the “Empower Partner Programm”.
After-Sales Service Support :
Digi-Link has high quality and reputable after-sale-service that has been strategically built to deliver customer satisfaction. “We offer first-rate integrated service and support through our special service division, DIGICARE, which consists of RMA centres, DIGICARE Technical Assistance Centre (DTAC) and Direct Service Department (DSD),” says Kandarp Jhala. The company has 18 Direct RMA/Service centres and 6 Service Partners across the country. “At all our RMA centers, customer or the partner can walk in to get quick service. We also provide service support from all our 17 branch offices. Apart from this, our distributors also are well equipped with RMA stock to support all our products,” says Kandarp Jhala.
All the DIGICARE centres are located in the main IT market of the town. DIGICARE has a unique Web-based RMA Online System "iSMART" to monitor the service activity, online repair status update, automated email and SMS alerts facility and warranty tracking.
Having nationwide RMA centres certainly helps in better turnaround time, which helps in maintaining after-sales relationship and customer retention. Strong after-sales support network helps in creating good-will, which significantly helps us to gain market share. The RMA centres will definitely be of great help as the quantities go up.
“We also offer a telephonic support through our technical support Call Centre for all our products. This is a toll-free number where the Channel can get all the details of our products or get solution to all their problems telephonically,” says Kandarp Jhala.
Finally…
Digi-Link is planning two-fold sale strategies. Kandarp Jhala says, “One strong point we already posses is to reach SME and SOHO customers through our present regional distribution channel. We have empowered them with a good amount of pre-sales training on our products as well as latest technological trends.” “Secondly, we now have strategic National System Integrators and have identified list of corporate and institutional customers. As our USP, we continue getting recognition as one-stop shop for end-to-end solution for IT infrastructure,” adds Kandarp Jhala.
In addition to ongoing product development initiative, Digi-Link will have three new focus areas – Solution for Data Center, Product Range suitable for FTTH solution and a few unique offerings for Fiber solutions in tactical environment.
