Murugesan R, Senior Director, Sales- Private Networks, R&M talks about the company’s channel strategies for 2020.
What have been the key highlights of 2019 and how do you see 2020 to be shaping up as an important year for the IT channel industry?
India is the third-largest global market for R&M. The strong understanding of the competitive Indian market has helped us to crack deals across BFSI, telecom, healthcare, hospitality, and Government verticals. With our sophisticated product development, high-quality assurance and future proof products, we bagged huge orders from government projects and have started catering to our innovative solutions for Smart Cities, Metro rail projects, national and international airports. Digital India initiative is expected to gain momentum this year owing to major digital disruptions happening in India’s technology landscape and we are fully prepared to leverage the momentum.
In our roadmap for 2020, we have a lot of new products to be introduced to the market. Going forward we might see some investment coming in from R&M AG, Switzerland and we might be looking at increasing our man-hours to 750,000 in the next two years. Our R&M Bangalore plant will be catering to India as well as global requirements. Together with our Technology Alliance Partners, we aim to develop specific solutions for enhanced performance and reliability.
Can you point out the top three technology trends which the channel community should be betting on and why?
Digitalisation is changing the world in a way we never thought possible. We have realised that connectivity is the top priority and that there is no digitalisation without cables, connectors, distributors, and racks. Digitised building automation will become an integral part of the Internet of Things (IoT). The digitised processes should work efficiently and safely in all areas. They should mesh in a logical cycle in a useful way and sensibly facilitate interaction. For this, the planned cycle should include all internal areas, partners, processes and projects.
5G can support digital transformation and drive it forward. The technical advantages play just as much a role for the security- and time-critical communication between vehicles and manufacturing plants as for smart cities and telemedical services. The nationwide rollout presents network operators with several challenges. R&M is working on the development of solutions to help mobile communication suppliers to create 5G infrastructures.
R&M expects the demand for bandwidth to continue to increase in local data networks. Cellular phone networks are the driving force in this. The next generation of wireless LAN access points requires faster connections than 10 Gigabit Ethernet. With internal data centre traffic expected to grow 80 per cent over the next two years, networks are at risk of becoming bandwidth bottlenecks. To be prepared for upcoming traffic, data centre professionals must now plan to support increased bandwidth by implementing optical fibre that enables simplified network transformation.
Increasing demand for advanced fibre optic cabling components and services have lifted the cabling manufacturers’ business growth. Cable management and infrastructure management in cloud data centres are gaining traction. We at R&M are convinced that with All-over-IP solutions, the realisation of smart buildings will become less expensive than with conventional solutions. LAN cabling technology is currently taking massive evolutionary steps which are also going to help when it comes to smart buildings. With a suitable cabling structure, the LAN becomes the backbone for the entire building automation.
R&M supports our channel ecosystem with quality products for the creation of high-performance infrastructures. Conducting partner programs help us to enrich our channel partners with the knowledge of new products and updates done for the existing products. This helps them to explore newer markets. It also helps us to collect feedback from the customers and have a clear understanding of market demands. R&M’s sales managers are always engaging with our partners in their respective regions. We also get the opportunity to meet and interact with our partners and channel team each time R&M organises an event or a technical seminar. We share our insight and plans for the business while supporting partners with what they need from us.
Please list out the top channel directions which your company has set for its partners and where should partners invest to be aligned with these directions?
Channel partners have a prominent responsibility in creating and expanding business opportunities across the globe. Considering the current and future scenarios of the Indian market, we design effective partner programs that not only help us to increase our business figures but also accelerate the growth of our channel partners.
R&M, being a Swiss company, designs partner programs with high-quality standards for pre- and post-sales activities. Best practices and series of comprehensive programs offered by R&M Academy moulds our partners to achieve precision in installation, testing, and maintenance.
R&M maintains long-term relationships with customers and channel partners by sharing our insights and plans for business development. This helps them to explore newer markets. It also helps us to collect feedback from the customers and have a clear understanding of market demands, which in turn aids us to develop specific regional solutions.
