ANALYSIS: Hard Times

This was a fiscal in which only those who were able to deliver the goods in

niche technology domains picked up marketshare. Whether it was in VSAT, contact

centers, wireless or network security, the networking industry presented little

space to fill up. And it were companies which had the skillsets to exploit the

conditions that grew well in spite of a generally flat year.

This trend is easily noticeable in the way companies grew during the fiscal

2001-02. Although Wipro retained the top spot as the largest network integrator,

the fastest growth among the top 10 players came from Global Telesystems, Tulip

IT Services, and HCL Comnet, each of which emerged as the top deployer in the

niche areas of contact centers, wireless MANs, and VSATs, respectively.

When it came to the ranking, the largest integrator in the market was Wipro,

which was able to maintain some gap between it and the rest. Its total business

stood at Rs 245 crore. HCL Comnet, Datacraft, HECL, HCL Infosystems, Network

Solutions, and GTL followed Wipro. While Wipro, Datacraft, HCL, and NetSol have

been the top integration providers without presence on the VSAT domain, HCL

Comnet, HECL and Comsat Max have substantial revenue coming from VSAT

connectivity and services too. Nonetheless, the best aspect of these typical

VSAT providers has been their ability to quickly mould to providing security

services, remote management services, and facility management as additional

opportunities.

The good news for network integrators during last year was the increase in

projects with a good consultancy and services component. The integrator to

accrue the top revenues as a result of consultancy and integration services is

HCL Comnet. While Wipro’s revenue from this portion stood at Rs 66.7 crore,

HCL Comnet’s was Rs 67.94 crore. Datacraft’s revenue from consultancy and

services was Rs 34 crore, NetSol’s Rs 22.8 crore, GTL’s 29.62 crore, and

Comsat Max’s Rs 30 crore.