DCI Around the World: India - From Sales & Service Support
As HDD drills and the trenchless method gained steam worldwide throughout the 90s, Digital Control Incorporated (DCI) began selling locating equipment in India through World Wide Machinery Solutions. After seeing success and the potential of the market, DCI decided to fully establish itself in the Indian market and incorporated on August 17th, 2006 opening an office in Chandigarh. Ehteshamul Haque was DCI's first hire in India, handling customer needs, repairing equipment, and spreading the word about how HDD and DCI tools can help on projects like water and sewage systems and the Indian power grid.
Things moved quickly with two more hires coming on board to help the market demand through the decade. An office move to Delhi was also needed to better serve customers in 2010. All this built to a huge moment for DCI in India - a large order of systems from an international Fortune 500 company, Reliance Industries Limited.
With such a significant purchase from a nationwide player and growth with smaller operations, more ways to connect with customers were needed. In the late summer of 2013, DCI added field support representatives in Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Kolkata.
As the HDD industry in India has grown steadily over the past decade, so has DCI's team. Our Indian office now includes VR designers and engineers that work with our worldwide customer service team to create our popular training tool, Aurora Vision.
At this moment in time, challenges are being presented in the Indian market. Haque says:
“The draught of projects due to Covid-19 has finally been over and market is flush with new projects like 5G & fiber-to-home rollout by private telecom players. The state-owned Telecom player has been allocated budget and announced massive INR 10-billion-dollar project to install oil and gas pipelines across India. There’s also a water and sewage pipeline project lead by the government kicking off across all of India as well as smart city and other power projects. The good old days of HDD are back and we look forward to serving our customers with their existing and emerging needs!”
The amount of work and projects currently underway and coming online, however, are ample. Government-funded fiber projects have begun that include connecting 5g to over 4,000 cities along with laying 6,000 miles of fiber to power a network of highway-based speed cameras. Gas, water, power, and sewage projects are also going strong with years of work still to come, keeping drillers with contracts busy for the extended future.
And the DCI India team will be there to help our customers, current and new, through it all. Our reputation for exceptional customer service and innovative, long-lasting products continues to set us apart as we help advance global infrastructure in the most populated country in the world.
Reflecting on DCI’s history and overall mission for the Indian market, Co-Owner Matt Mercer says, “Throughout the swings of the Indian HDD market, it remains a critical investment for DCI. The team in India illustrates our support leadership and customer-first mentality. As the market continues to mature, DCI is committed to playing a key role by providing the necessary tools and support to advance Indian infrastructure.”