Krone’s AccessNET and PremiseNET solutions were very little heard of in the
marketplace until recently. But Bala Chandran, MD, Krone Communications, has
changed all that and managed to increase the brand recognition for Krone
products. He has spearheaded his team to create an impressive marketshare for
Krone with a cumulative revenue growth of over 200 percent in the last three
years. He tells DQCI that this growth has come through consolidated efforts of
its channel network and high-quality products.
Which products from Krone are sellig hot in the market?
Krone Communication’s PremiseNET range of solutions accounted for Rs 14 crore
in revenues. Today, we are one of the top five Premise networking solutions
companies in the country. Krone’s strength lies in its TrueNet-based solutions
on fiber in the vertical and horizontal market segments. It is now looking
forward to consolidate its market presence with an array of active components
introduced in its portfolio of data solutions.
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Channel partners are increasingly complaining about shrinking margins. How
is Krone addressing this issue?
It’s a highly competitive business that the channel is dealing in. We want
our partners to make good profits on the Krone products they sell. The channel
is a very critical link for our growth. We are committed to enhancing
productivity of channel partners by continuously offering state-of-art solutions
to help them grow as the needs of customers grow.
We are also focused on guaranteeing product availability and stability of
price, thus bringing in healthy earning for our channel partners.
What are Krone’s strengths when it comes to selling through the channel?
One of our major strengths is that we have our presence right across the
country offering a wide range of structured cabling solutions. We are directly
present in most states with an equally strong channel network.
Apart from offering direct support to our channel partners, we also roll out
joint promotional activities for them to grow. Krone also has the necessary
skills and infrastructure to support its partners directly.
Currently, we operate through a two-tier channel network, which consists of
regional distributors and resellers. We also have strategic alliances with SIs
who act as solution providers for network connectivity.
Which market segments is Krone targeting currently?
Our technology is market-driven and our solutions appeal to businesses large
and small. Our PremisNET range provides building blocks for a backbone and
campus solutions for medium to large enterprises as well as easy-to-install
solutions for the growing small business and residential markets. Customers in
education, health, corporate, government, call centers, banking and finance,
hospitality and tourism industries use our solutions.
PremisNET’s wireless family of products appeal to mobile workers in large
or medium enterprises, small businesses or SOHO segments. For more than 20
years, our AccessNET copper products have been the standard for Australia’s
major telecommunication carrier, Telstra, and other major carriers the world
over. More recently, our extensive range of copper and fiber solutions have been
embraced by newer carriers and ISPs.
Is ‘fiber to the desk’ becoming a reality?
Generally, in contemporary installations, copper is used for horizontal
distribution and fiber connects the closets to the main equipment room. Clearly,
this makes sense given the high bandwidth available in fiber and its smaller
size, which enables easy routing between closets.
Because backbone capacity should be greater than desktop capacity and since
desktops have only recently been making the wholesale switch to 100BASE-T, the
migration to a fiber Gigabit Ethernet backbone is on the horizon.
As 1000 BASE-T to the desktop becomes widespread, the next natural
progression will be to a 10Gbps fiber backbone. In fact, at this stage, fiber is
the only cabling medium recognized in the draft standard for 10Gbps Ethernet.
However, the growth in demand for more bandwidth will see fiber deployed out
to particular zones or departments within the building with copper running from
these zones to the desktop.
How will the deployment of fiber help organizations in improving their
productivity?
A key factor in this scenario is the capability to remotely manage switched
hubs. No longer will IT personnel need to physically check each port in each
closet.
The fiber-to-zone configuration enables the network manager to place active
devices closer to users–either to smaller, intermediate telecom closets or
even to small, lockable enclosures near the workgroup.
Since switches are now available with fiber uplinks and copper ports, it may
be that one device will suffice per workgroup. This strategy works especially
well for large, open office cubicle groups or for very large work areas that
have poorly spaced telecom closets.
Fiber-to-zone is also relatively cost-effective since traffic back to the
main closet is aggregated over just two fibers. In fact, utilising just two
fibers from the zone consolidation point would eliminate the need to run an
individual copper link from each workstation to the closet.
If, in the future, the client decides to implement fiber-to-the-desk (FTTD)
there will already be a fiber backbone out to the workstation zone. Replacing
the short runs to the zone enclosure will be far easier and more cost-effective
than replacing entire copper links back to the closet to implement FTTD.
How cost-effective will these solutions be?
We anticipate the implementation of these fiber-extending strategies to be
sporadic due to cost factors. An all-fiber network (FTTD) is the most expensive
alternative because of the higher cost of fiber NICs and optical switch ports.
On the other hand, fiber-to-zone costs are lower than FTTD because of the
utilisation of copper hub ports and NICs.
Fiber-to-zone puts companies one step closer to the ultimate upgradefiber-to-desktop.
Copper, however, is well and truly the preferred medium for horizontal
structured cabling installations.
Personally, I do not see this changing in the very near future until the cost
of fiber cabling and connectivity reduces to the level of a copper solution. By
then, copper may well be supporting 10 gigabits.
SUNILA PAUL in Bangalore