Structured Cabling

What is structured cabling?

Structured cabling is essential for the organisation of business networks. It involves the planning and implementation of cabling in an organised approach, allowing for easy expansion and addition of new components to the network, like additional desktops and laptops (workstations) for new staff.

Structured cabling requires careful planning and implementation, as there are lots of factors to account for that will affect the overall efficiency of the network. It is important that the most efficient network topology for the specific business requirements is selected. 

Why use structured cabling?

As a business owner, you might be sceptical about structured cabling – after all, what you’ve got works well enough, right? What people often don’t consider is that it allows for significantly improved scalability and ease of access. This means that in circumstances where repairs on hardware must be conducted, hardware must be replaced, or new workstations must be added, those without proper structured cabling will find any of these tasks can become very difficult, very quickly.

A black cable being plugged into a switch for structured cabling
What are the benefits?

As the name suggests, structured cabling brings structure to your network! Having it implemented properly into your business network means that you don’t need to handle a mass of tangled cables for each individual device you use in your business, which makes managing devices a piece of cake.

When proper structured cabling is implemented, troubleshooting technical issues is made significantly easier – both for simple fixes done by the user, and more technical issues to be resolved by the IT team.

For example, imagine you have a broken VoIP phone, using power over ethernet, that is broken and needs to be sent for repairs. Without structured cabling, this could prove to be a huge task – the ethernet cable would need to be unplugged, and then untangled from whatever mass of cables it is tangled up in, such as laptop power cables, mouse and keyboard cables, workstation ethernet cables, monitor cables, or any other devices that might be plugged in at a user’s desk (like mobile phone chargers). When structured cabling is properly implemented, it would be easy to find the ethernet cable leading into the phone and it would not be tangled within the others – and the IT team could even plug a temporary VoIP phone for the member of staff to use in the meantime with no difficulty.

Thanks to the improved ease of access provided, significant amounts of time can be saved, and therefore money for the business, as your staff can focus on being productive with the things they’re paid to do – instead of untangling cables! Everyone appreciates their IT team, and the magic they seem to be able to work to get devices working again; and structured cabling means that they can do their job more efficiently, meaning that they can get staff up and running more quickly—making them more productive also! On a surface level, it might only seem that the IT team benefit from structured cabling, but the time-savings trickle down and makes the jobs of other employees much easier too.

One of the best benefits of structured cabling is the scalability it provides. When it is implemented, the IT team can effectively plan ahead how they will connect in new workstations if and when additional staff are employed.

Imagine your company has employed three new sales staff. To onboard them, they will each need their own laptop that can be plugged in and unplugged from the power as they please, an ethernet connection for their laptop for a high-speed internet connection, and a phone with their own extension number. Assuming each member of staff also has a wired keyboard and mouse, that is an additional five cables for each new member of staff, coming up to fifteen in total across the new staff. With structured cabling, these fifteen cables can be prevented from becoming an unmanageable tangle, and instead are clearly laid out for repairs later down the line if necessary. If the cables are unstructured, there is a potential for them to be broken, tripped on, unplugged accidentally, or even fail to reach where they need to get to.

EASE OF ACCESS

Reduce network Downtime

Expand your network easily

How is structured cabling implemented?

Structured cabling requires careful planning and implementation. There are several factors that must be considered and worked around when implementing it, such as existing infrastructure, the size of the business, the business’ needs, and the layout of the facility. At TEC-ID, we have expert engineers able to implement structured cabling into your office network. Our engineers will take all of your business’ needs into account to deliver the most efficient, easy-to-use network possible, so you can save the headaches caused by bad cable management, and instead focus on what matters most to your business.

How much will TEC-ID structured cabling services cost me?

There are many factors that go into the cost of structured cabling, such as whether the cabling is indoors or outdoors, and the durability required for the cables, so there is no one-size-fits-all structured cabling package. Fortunately, our quoting tool collects all the information required by
our team to offer you a quote for your cabling services, so fill out our short and simple form and we will get a quote sent straight to your inbox!

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