How to Estimate Structured Cabling Needs?

Structured cabling plays an important role in dealing with specific and complicated cabling. This cabling system supports a variety of management systems, including energy and security access systems, and supports video, multiple voices, data, and more. If you’re considering structured cabling for your business, your first step is determining what your needs are. But if you don’t have any experience with this type of cabling system, you’ll need the help of IT professionals.

How to Estimate a Structured Cabling Project Needs?

For an accurate estimate of your structured cabling needs, you must consider the specific needs of your business, what the right components for your company are, and what your business goals are. 

Structured network cabling typically consists of a variety of smaller elements. These systems are created by a series of trunks and patch panels, allowing for a connection from patch panels at the top of racks to hardware ports. The patch is connected to another patch via a trunk in the main distribution area. The main distribution area, or MDA, provides a place for all of the moves, adds, and changes to be made with patch cords.

These systems are often complex and require extensive planning, based on a company’s unique needs. While you may be tempted to install a structured cabling system yourself, it often requires the help of IT professionals with extensive experience designing and installing these systems.

Determine The Best Infrastructure for Your Industry

A cabling system that’s designed properly can support a company’s infrastructure, which can take a company to the next level. To determine what your company’s structured cabling needs are first, you must identify how many endpoints and current devices you need connected and if you need broadband services.

Next, consider how you plan on growing your business and what’s needed to make that growth happen. This may include adding more locations and devices.

A company’s physical layout matters as much as its network layout. As a business owner, you’ll need to consider what types of cables will be used in your network to provide the right level of protection against heat, water, dirt, and dust. Some types of cables are able to withstand the elements, but others can easily be damaged.

It’s also important to design your system around potential unexpected changes. For example, if a company decides not to use phone conferencing and opts to switch to video conferencing instead, it would need to have the ability to support that type of change.

As you think about what your system needs, consider what processes your company uses. Each process requires different connections. If you have the wrong connection for a certain process, it can negatively impact productivity.

Define Your Needs

Defining your needs is a crucial step in this process, one that can help you create a superior cabling infrastructure. 

When determining the needs of your business, ask yourself the following questions:

• Is your company growing rapidly?
• Do your employees heavily rely on your network all day?
• Do you have a business growth plan?

Knowing what your company’s goals and requirements are can help you install building cabling that’s aligned with your company’s needs.

Pick the Right Components for Your Project

As mentioned earlier, different types of network cables have different capabilities, so you must determine which cables you need for each process. Unfortunately, mistakes can happen if you’re not familiar with the different types of cables available and which ones you need to get the job done. Because of this, you must work with a cable service professional with extensive experience designing and installing structured cabling systems and working with different cable types, such as copper, fiber optic cable, Cat6A cables, coaxial cabling, Cat5 cabling, and more. 

Heavy-duty cabling, such as fiber optic cabling, can take your business network to the next level, offering a wide range of benefits. 

Inexperienced installation could be disastrous for your business. Instead of taking on this job yourself, contact industry experts who know how to get the job done right.

Always Plan for the Future

If you plan to grow your business, a modest cabling system should reflect this. Moves, adds, and changes are critical to the flexibility and scalability of your system. If your structured cabling system doesn't support moves it can be very limiting. Where in your office will server racks, conference tables, and desks be located? Is it likely that the cable layout in your office will need to be changed in the future? The structured cable that’s installed must match the furniture in your office. If not it can create an unsightly, twisted cable design and an unprofessional look.

Why Structured Cabling is One of the Best Ways to Save You Company Money

While hiring a team of IT pros to come in and design and install a structured cabling setup for your business does require a certain amount of investment, in the long run, structured cabling will save your company more money than you’d expect. 

Let’s break it down for you.

How Downtime Can Cost You

In the past, your company may have had its fair share of downtime due to cabling issues. Surveys have shown that every single minute a company’s operations are stopped due to IT issues, it loses one hundred dollars. Keep in mind, this number can vary, depending on the size of the business. Unfortunately, downtime caused by cable issues is very common and can be due to an unorganized cabling structure. When you invest in structured cabling, the risk of downtime significantly drops. Additionally, if you do encounter a cabling issue, your team can troubleshoot faster since everything is well-organized, making it easy to identify the culprit. To sum it up, downtown is less likely and if there is a problem, your team can identify the issue and rectify it faster.

Minimizes Installation Time

Because these systems are very flexible, if you want to make changes to your network, you won’t be forced to overhaul your entire system like you would in the past. As mentioned above, downtime for a business of any size can be costly. Because your team can make changes to your existing system much faster, a structured cabling system will minimize installation time, saving your company some serious cash.

Lowers Your Energy Bill

Every electrical cable is resistant to electricity to some extent, ensuring that a cable cannot overheat when it’s connected to a device. While this can certainly extend the life of your cables, you’re also looking at power loss, as the electricity travels from one end of the cables to the other. This type of power loss can result in higher energy bills. The best way to cut this cost is to minimize the distance from one end of the cable to the other. With a professionally designed structured cabling system, you can reduce the traveling distance from every component, to minimize power loss and save on your energy bill.

Higher Bandwidth

Because a structured cabling system is built with higher bandwidth compared to most systems, you won’t have to worry about upgrading your cabling system. Structured cabling systems can carry large amounts of data and are designed to support all types of functions with minimal disruptions.

Prevents Costly Security Breaches

Did you know a company’s cabling system is one of the simplest parts of a company to corrupt? An experienced hacker can easily redirect a company’s resources, which can completely devastate your business. Compared to other systems, structured cabling systems are much easier to secure, offering unique security features and functionalities that will minimize the likelihood of a cyber attack and increase your system’s security.

Improved Productivity

Structured cabling systems perform better than other cabling infrastructures, offer faster loading times, more reliable connections, and a higher data transfer rate. While some may not think this can save a company money, it definitely improves productivity in the office, which can maximize your potential revenue. A system that provides this type of optimal performance will have a major impact on productivity in the workplace.

A Professional Setup Matters

What business owner doesn't want to cut costs, improve productivity, reduce the chances of a security breach, lower their energy bill, and minimize downtime? Basically, a structured cabling system can save your company money in a lot of ways. If you’re a new start up, you know how important it is to conserve your resources. However, that doesn’t mean you should try installing a structured cabling system yourself. In fact, while you do have to deal with installation costs, you need to hire professionals to get the job done right. At TechBldrs, our IT team has extensive experience designing and installing structured cabling systems that are tailored to your unique company’s needs. When you’re considering implementing a structured cabling system, you definitely don’t want to cut any corners to save money. This is an important investment, so you need to work with professionals who know how to design and properly utilize a structured cabling system.

Trust the Professionals -Contact the Leading Structured Cabling Company Today

Once you’ve determined your cabling needs, the design phase can begin. However, considering the complexity of the job, you must contact cabling infrastructure professionals. At TechBldrs, we can provide the cabling infrastructure solutions you need. Our team of cabling experts can help you develop a strategy and properly execute it so that your cable infrastructure meets the needs of your growing company and works with your budget. Contact your go-to structured cabling specialists today to get started and let us help you take your business to the next level.