Expert View

December 17, 2004
TIEBU to adopt three-fold strategy to address data needs

Geetanjali Wadhwa & Pradeep Chakraborty

NEW DELHI -- Tata Indicom Enterprise Business Unit (TIEBU) is a national, specialised, enterprise sales and marketing unit for the Tata Group's telecom companies including, Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (VSNL), Tata Teleservices Ltd., Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Ltd., Tata Internet Services Ltd. and Tata Net. It delivers cost-effective, integrated solutions tailor-made to answer the most complex communication needs. TIEBU will be shortly adopting a three-fold strategy to address the growing telecom data needs of industries Convergence*plus recently met Sandeep Mathur, president, TIEBU, to find out more about these strategies and the unit's future plans. Excerpts from an interview:

Convergence*plus: Please elaborate on TIEBU's current activities?

Sandeep Mathur: Tata Indicom Enterprise Business Unit (TIEBU) is a national, specialised, enterprise sales and marketing unit for the Tata Group's telecom companies including, Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (VSNL), Tata Teleservices Ltd., Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Ltd., Tata Internet Services Ltd. and Tata Net. TIEBU is the benchmark telecom player in the enterprise space and was formed with a view to offer customised, end to end voice and data solutions to key enterprise customers across India.

TIEBU delivers cost-effective, integrated solutions tailor-made to answer the most complex communication needs. It offers the most comprehensive range of voice and data products, as well as the knowledge and experience to put them together, to deliver unmatched value to clients with the objective to address the telecom needs of select corporate customers.

We started by first looking at the needs of the top 500 corporates in the country. Now in its second year, and to continue maintaining our leadership position in the enterprise space, TIEBU's scope is enhanced to include other key customer-focused functions like channel coverage, products, alliances, etc.

CP: Describe TIEBU's performance over the past one-year? What are your strategies for this year?

SM: This April, TIEBU crossed the Rs. 500-crore milestone in incremental orders booked from its key accounts during the year. This significant milestone comes in less than a year of the formation of TIEBU in April 2003.

TIEBU has always taken a holistic view of its client requirements. The magnitude of the annualized order booking in the first year of its operations is ample evidence of the fact that our customers have recognized the benefits of having a single window interface serving all their telecom needs. TIEBU is confident that apart from the numbers, customer satisfaction levels have also increased on account of the better quality of service, and greater attention to their needs.

In future, TIEBU will adopt a three-fold strategy to address the growing telecom data needs of industries. Firstly, the focus will be to add value by offering managed data and voice services, thereby offering industries better value for their money. Secondly, with a view to meet the future bandwidth needs of these industries, the group is committed to increasing the bandwidth availability in the country. Lastly, through TIEBU, the group will offer customized telecom solutions for these industries to enable them to optimize the utilization of their telecom infrastructure.

CP: What is the market size for enterprise specific services?

SM: It is difficult to put a single number for the total enterprise services space as estimates vary as per different assumptions. However, if we look from a three-year growth perspective, the corporate data market is expected to grow at a range of 30-40 percent CAGR, while the corporate voice market is likely to grow at about 3-5 percent in revenue terms. The lower growth in voice revenues is driven by the relatively inelastic demand of the corporate market, and because of sharply falling unit revenues.

CP: What are your targets for the year?

SM: TIEBU will continue to offer its customers the widest portfolio of telecom services. Today, customers are increasingly looking for a single point of contact to service all their voice and data requirements. It is the ability to service this need, which in future would decide the success of any telecom venture. We, at TIEBU, endeavor to provide our corporate customers with the convenience of a single window for all their voice and data requirements. Our focus is to provide an end-to-end specialized communications solution to their business needs, freeing them of the need to devise their own solution and coordinate with multiple telecom service vendors.

CP: What is your strategy to tap the growing bandwidth needs of the IT/ITeS sector?

SM: There is a two-fold strategy to tap the growing needs of the IT/ ITeS sector. Firstly, to ensure that world-class scale of capacities are available on redundant and high availability infrastructure; and secondly, to work together with the sector customers and help them move on to a managed bandwidth platform, thus providing the efficiencies of operations.

CP: Do you plan to offer and market customized VAS to bandwidth-intensive IT and ITeS industries?

SM: TIEBU is focusing on offering end-to-end managed services to these industries so that they can focus on their core business, while TIEBU provides the manageability. This includes offering services like domestic and international ATM, MPLS services, customer premises equipment (CPE) management, managed security, disaster recovery and business continuity planning (DR & BCP) services, etc.

CP: Have you made any new alliances? If yes, what is the scope of such alliances?

SM: TIEBU is continuously scouting and executing strategic alliances that enhance its capability to offer world-class enterprise services. As a result of this, TIEBU already has alliances in place with major international carriers like AT&T, NTT, etc. It also has strategic tie-ups with key technology providers like Cisco, etc to ensure the best of class availability for its customers.

CP: What are your investment and expansion plans?

SM: TIEBU is focusing on investing in more value-added services to offer enhanced experience and ease to its enterprise customers. The focus of the investment and expansion plan is to ensure the rollout of the most comprehensive international and domestic infrastructure, which in turn leads to evolution and offering of benchmark class services to its customers.