Recognition of structured cabling as the 'fourth building utility' has led to it becoming as customary as a building's power distribution system. The fundamental ideals of structured cabling go beyond the use of particular cabling products; equally important are the design, installation and management of the system.

Achieving high performance from cabling systems begins with the research and development labs and the quality of manufacturing - key factors in their own right. But the challenge doesn't end there. The systems have to be designed and installed in such a way to fulfill the needs of the particular customer environments, while ensuring that the full performance of the products are realized.

A key benefit of the CommScopes SYSTIMAX® Structured Connectivity Solutions (SCS) is the consistency and availability of a single set of products, installed to the same high standards anywhere in the world. This enables enterprises to globalize their cabling specifications, saving costs and overheads, with the confidence that they are receiving the best cabling installation in every part of their network.

As the cabling market continues to mature throughout the world two trends are apparent relating to installation. Firstly end user customers, consultants and for that matter installers are increasingly mindful of the demands made on installers for increased quality in the field. This in turn is reflected in an increased interest, and indeed demand, for installers to have specific vendor backed training qualifications as a pre-requisite to installing. Secondly, installation companies in an over populated market need to be able to differentiate themselves and demonstrate to customers their experience and expertise. These together with the continued development of SYSTIMAX SCS and the challenge of offering increasingly higher quality to customers are the basis behind the continued development of the SYSTIMAX BusinessPartner training program.

Many organizations have at times experienced bad products and installations, and understand the importance of quality in the products they deploy in their infrastructures. In a recent global survey of over 2000 IT Managers, undertaken by the SYSTIMAX SCS group, respondents were asked to select the single most important factor in making their cabling decision, 38 percent selected quality - double that of the next most important factor selected, technical performance.

Current independent cabling accreditations and courses by their very nature have to be generic. These generally concentrate on local and International standards and serve to improve design and installation of cabling solutions generally in the market. However they do not address vendor specific product 'design and installation' features and benefits. The select group of SYSTIMAX BusinessPartners need a solution specific program to support them, and subsequently their customers, in achieving the best solution, installation and performance.

The communications industry is still an innovation-led industry with solutions such as SYSTIMAX SCS introducing products often many years ahead of eventual standards. Products such as the SYSTIMAX GigaSPEED X10D, LazrSPEED and iPatch Solutions are several such examples, where generic or standards based training would not be in a position to fully support SYSTIMAX SCS, or optimize the potential of its products. Innovative products can also not depend solely upon test standards or test products being available in time to verify any sort of compliance - be they copper or fiber. This is not a criticism of industry standards, training or even test equipment - it is the way the cabling industry has developed and will continue to do so.

Therefore in order to know how to design and install a leading vendor product range such as SYSTIMAX SCS a comprehensive and specific training program is required to support the product, the warranty and the BusinessPartner that delivers it.