Orange Ripes in India

The Orange Business Services' acquisition of the enterprise
and managed services division of GTL for Rs 170 crore is good for both the
companies. For Orange Business Services, it is a consolidation of Indian and MNC
clients plus managed services business. For GTL, it is a consolidation of their
carrier business. The acquisition is a win-win for both, as GTL leaves the
enterprise space for Orange to consolidate since it already has a sizeable
presence in India with the establishment of major service center in Gurgaon.

The acquisition of the enterprise and managed services divisions
of GTL will help Orange serve Indian and MNC corporations in the Asia Pacific
region with solutions in the field of PBX/IP voice solutions, WAN/LAN
integration and optimization, CRM solutions and CRM application integration
capabilities, and on-site and remote management of networks, servers, desktops
and security services. Not only this, the acquisition is centered on skillsets,
experience, and IP work of GTL. "All this results in strengthening Orange
Business Services footprint as an integrated communications solutions provider
in India," says Barbara Dalibard, CEO, Orange Business Services.

According to Dalibard, "The strategy is to build the
capability in terms of IP-VPN and also help companies fulfill IP solutions
thereby developing communication applications for the enterprise."

In terms of workforce, the acquisition will help the company to
increase it to 1,590 as GTL has around 591 employees, including 200 certified
engineers. On the customer front, the company gets access to 450 Indian and
multinational clients of GTL. The acquisition also helps in serving
multinational clients based in India. Thus, giving enough scope for increasing
the number from the 3,700 clients which the company has across 220 countries.

Speaking on acquisition, Dalibard, said, "The acquisition
of GTL's enterprise and managed services division broadens our ability to
deliver best-in-class enterprise services and solutions for our customers in
India and throughout the region."

Commenting on the acquisition, Manoj Tirodkar, CMD, GTL said,
"The hiving off of the enterprise business is part of our efforts to focus
on network services for telecom carriers."

Before this acquisition, Orange Business Services has invested
20 mn Euros till date in setting up a major service center in Gurgaon. The
center has around 1,000 employees and is one of the three major service centers
worldwide. The other two centers are located in Cairo (Egypt) and Rio De Janeiro
(Brazil). The Gurgaon center takes care of the Asia Pacific market.

The company has set a timeline of a year for integration of
these companies and has appointed Yee May Leong, senior VP (sales and
operation), Asia Pacific, Orange Business Services to lead the integration team.

"The first step of the integration process will start
within 60 days whereby the teams on both sides will understand what they have to
do in terms of increasing sales and service in India. The second step would be
on how to do it better and what would be the best structure," says Yee May
Leong.

On international connectivity services, the company is presently
operating through partners and utilizing the ISP license. The company plans to
go into international connectivity services in a big way with the GTL
acquisition. Worldwide, the company is very strong in the area of IP and
communication services as they have the intellectual investment to manage
complexity. "Orange is investing a lot through a strong R&D base of
4,000 people. And the focus is more on mastering IP as it is a complex
technology," says Dalibard.

In terms of challenges, the company is focusing on managing
complexity-organization complexity, as understanding international scope can
be different, and technical complexity in terms of end-to-end service with SLAs.
The company plans to eliminate future complexity by being global, and through
customer satisfaction and innovation.

Pravin Prashant

pravinp@cybermedia.co.in