Fastlink News

Fastlink launches Structured Cabling, single day training courses.

Today is the launch of the new single day training courses, as announced at the end of last year. Courses will commence in the middle to the end of March 2012 with Fastlink taking advance bookings now.

Fastlink listens to it's customers and sometimes, they come up with a 'wish list'. This is one instance where existing clients asked about training courses to save the client from training installers 'on the job'. Some customers we sell mains products to, also enquired about learning about Network systems and how they could learn and sales people would ask where they could witness and installation, in order for them to provide more accurate costings for the installation aspect of a project.

Business seem to be wanting to offer more and provide a complete solution while with end client, the trend seems to be shifting back to the 'one stop shop'. Considering all these instances, Fastlink always felt that offering a Structured Cabling training course would be beneficial to it's customers.

Only now has it been possible to offer this. With the imminent Fastlink move of premises, we now have the space in order to offer this solution. A dedicated classroom and workshop has been built within the new factory and provides a comfortable and relaxed environment for course tuition.

Again, we listened to our customers and they told us that they wanted a 'to the point' training course that kept the delegates away for the minimum time possible and yet, provided them with all the information they needed. Therefore, Fastlink was able to, sensibly, fit it all into one day, including theory and practical. The practical element involves actually terminating cables and the final testing and fault finding techniques.

For more detailed information, please click here, to be taken to our Training Course pages.

Fastlink announces the launch of a 'Structured Cabling Installation' course.

With the move to our new premises in the early part of 2012, Fastlink will be in the position of having the additional space required to run a 'Structured Cabling Installation' training course. This is something that has been in the plan for a while but space never allowed it.

Allan Oakes commented, "Training courses, of this type, are expensive and, I believe, set to a price which the course content does not justify. Fixing the price at £129, it becomes competitive and affordable against potentially expensive on-site, or in-house, training".

The course is a mix of classroom theory and hands on cable termination.

Allan added, "I have worked in the electronics sector for 55 years and for the last 30 years have been directly involved in networking applications.  During this time I have been mystified by the training opportunities within this sector.  The training courses available are expensive and I believe, set at a price which the course content does not justify. The syllabus is often stretched unnecessarily, particularly when there is an academic qualification to be gained."

Fastlink believe they can fix this problem with a computer networking training programme which would cover the basics of a structured wiring system and also explain how the network operates.

The course is a one day event lasting approximately 6½ hours which will include refreshments. The programme will provide an explanation from the point where the B.T. lines enter a building, on to how a structured wiring system is constructed and how the network supports the interaction between computer users.

Those who would gain from our training course would be:

                                     The electrician who wishes to graduate and be equipped to install a network bearing in mind that he/she

                                          would already have experience in the mechanical aspects; fixing plastic trunking, dado rail etc.

                                     The sales person offering products which interact with:  computer networks; security systems; alarm

                                          systems as well as a wide range of industrial control systems requiring a direct connection into a computer

                                          network.

                                  

Fastlink is on the move!

Due to Fastlink's rapid growth over the last year, it has become apparent that we now require more space. As throughput of cables increases so does the size of the workforce and the level of inventory required. After 20 years at the current site, Fastlink has had to look for new premises.

Fortunately, the move, to start happening in the New Year, is to a location, literally, just down the road. This will minimise disruption and the two sites will run in parallel for two months. This will enable to move production lines one at a time, further reducing the production risk. The move is expected to be complete by the end of February and should be seamless to our customers.

Managing Director, Allan Oakes said, "There is no good time to move for any business, however, we felt that the time was right as space has become a serious issue and options on the current site were limited. Now is a good time to take advantage of very favorable business premises deals so, it soon became clear that Fastlink would be in a win win situation."

Mr Oakes further added, "Options at the existing site were few. The disruption, to production, of adding another mezzanine floor or taking on another building on the existing site were just too disruptive. We soon discounted the running of two sites and all roads seemed to lead to a new building, if you excuse the pun."

Fastlink announces massive growth for financial year ending August 2011

As predicted in the early part of 2011, Fastlink has achieved it's target of significant growth for the financial year, ending August 2011. For the same period, the previous year, Fastlink has achieved growth of 29.7% on year 2010. Considering the current financial climate, this is a considerable achievement.

Managing Director, Allan Oakes had this to say, "I am exceptionally happy with the company's performance over the last year. We are being more proactive and doing things in a different way. Add that to some strategic aquisition and Fastlink is becoming a dual business. The distribution side is mainting it's market share and even increasing it's turnover. The bespoke cable side is now growing significantly and changing the face of Fastlink. With other significant orders in the pipeline, the bespoke cables business is set to further strengthen it's position over the coming year."

For the coming year, further growth is planned and expected. However, for most of the company, a year of consolidation is planned with an emphasis on internal restructuring and efficiency. Allan Oakes added, "The early signs are very promising with our first month already being ahead of plan. We finished the month 15% over the same period for the previous year so, all signs, at the moment, are very encouraging."

Huge growth for Fastlink in 2011

Despite the current economic climate, Fastlink are expecting significant growth this year. Fastlink had a December that was the best since 1996 and have also exceeded the revenue target for January.

Fastlink is now projecting a 34% growth for the 2011 financial year which will mean the hiring of an additional seven people.

This growth is attributed to a slight shift in focus for Fastlink. The aquisition of Alternative Solutions a year ago, is now gathering pace and significant revenues are being realised from the manufacture of highly customised cable systems.

The distribution division of Fastlink remains strong, supplying over 20,000 cables per month and this should make up 4-5% of the growth this year.

Gareth Humpreys has already been recruited and is making his mark in the marketing department. However, the long term plan is for Gareth to move into a sales orientated role to assist the overloaded Richard Farley and Stuart Bailey.

Further new products are planned for launch over this year and our customer will be kept up to date with regular newsletters and updates to this page.

Bespoke USB based cables from our custom shop

Almost on a daily basis now Fastlink is being asked to supply custom cables for prototypes, pre-production runs and supply to production custom USB cables. These cables are taking on many variations with a standard USB plug at one end but a whole host of connectors at the other end.

We are also finding that clients are requiring in-line resistors to be added to the cable assembly. In some cases, we are being asked to incorporate small circuit boards for various signal conditioning processes. These are all straight forward operations for Fastlink as we can terminate any cable to any specification and to any standard. Military, Avionics, Automotive, Transport etc. all have their own standards and Fastlink are able to comply with these in most cases.

As with most of our products, this type of cable is available with no minimum order quantity making it ideal for prototype, pre-production or even small quantity runs.

Click here to see a picture of one of our custom USB cables. Other pictures will appear when we decide where best to put them.

Got your own story to tell?

If you have a story that you think might be of interest to Fastlink and their site visitors, please feel free to notify us through the 'ask us a question' button, giving basic details. Someone from Fastlink will then be in touch to get the full details from you. If it is a story involving Fastlink cables, we would be specifically interested i.e. maybe they are being used in an odd environment or used in an specific piece of machinery. Just tell us about your story and we'll do the rest.

Fastlink identity and website changing.

Through aquisition, Fastlink has strengthened it's position in the custom cable market. Managing Director, Allan Oakes says, "Fastlink is now 40% distributor and 60% custom cable manufacturer. After the acqusition of another cable manufacturer, we now have more expertise in a broader range of cables and not just networking."

These cables represent a more specialised approach in both design and manufacture. Fastlink now, not only has the necessary, specialised equipment and manpower, but the experience, as well. Allan Oakes added, "Firstly, we needed to adjust our thinking and stop defaulting to a cable distributor mentality. The custom cable market requires a completely different approach and mind set. Secondly, we have to let our existing and prospective customers know that we now offer an enhanced service for custom, specialised cables and wiring looms. It's surprising how many of our existing customers don't know the full range we can offer."

Therefore, the Fastlink website is currently in the process of many changes. Over the next few months there will be various page additions, some pages having a facelift and, possibly, some being dropped altogther. Even our sister company, ConnectMore, will undergo some changes as their modus operandi also changes to fit the new Fastlink profile.

Allan adds, "In this current, flat, economic climate, Fastlink is changing and exciting times lay ahead as we project our full range of products and services to customers, both, new and old".