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India
is fast turning out to be the preferred choice for most leading companies in the $23.6
billion (source: Insight Research) global telecom OSS industry. In the last one year,
while most other foreign telecom companies were going slow on their India plans, this is
one segment which has seen at least half a dozen companies opening offices in India.
However, one company that stands out in the crowd is Ericsson Hewlett-Packard
Telecommunications (EHPT), because of its sheer size of operation in India.
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Sukh Sagar,
SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" face="Arial">president of EHPT Pvt Ltd, has plans to turn this
into the most important EHPT location after its headquarters in Sweden. He shares his
plans and views with Shyamanuja Das. |
Why
India?
face="Times New Roman">We see India as a very large market. We also see India as a good
development base. Both are reasons for opening a subsidiary. And both these are equally
important for us. We see India not only as a place where you get a lot of talented IT and
telecom engineers, but also as a market with a large middle class, which is growing. The
market for telecom services definitely has good potential here. That is an opportunity for
us.
But you are not the only telecom OSS company. A lot of
others have also come in recently ...
I cannot comment about others. But we
certainly feel India is a great opportunity.
And then there is a difference between the
"others" that you are referring to and EHPT. Many others are just having a token
presence. With just one or two people. We have a big team. We have big investments. We are
expanding rapidly. We are committed to India.
But don’t some of the recent trends make you
pessimistic?
The slowdown is only temporary. You should
see the underlying factors. India is definitely deregulating. And it is deregulating in
all sectors. Many global operators are operating in India. The direction is right. The
market is there. The issue is timeliness.
We also carry out EHPT’s global
R&D activities ...
If the market does not move fast enough, is there a
possibility that EHPT will only do development here and close the sales and marketing
operations?
No. I do not see that happening. India is
a good market for us. We are also committed to India as a market.
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What are the immediate opportunities that you are looking
at?
We are looking at the new private basic
service providers. Also many cellular companies will look at consolidating their billing
operations. They will go for centralized billing centres. That is an opportunity.
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Many cellular service providers will also
go for changing their current billing systems, with which they are not happy. That is
another market opportunity for us. We are also looking at the emerging market of ISPs.
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How are your products priced?
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They are very competitively priced. We
have the advantage of developing them locally, though they are globally tested and used.
The Indian operation also gives us that price advantage.
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Will you do systems integration, if you do not have a
product?
Yes. We can do it. We have a whole range
of building blocks. If the customer wants something that we do not have and he wants us to
give a total solution that requires that small component, we will not shy away. We will do
it for him.
Are you looking at some Indian systems integrators?
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Globally, we work with very few selected
channel partners. In many cases, it is our parent companies HP or Ericsson. That does not
mean that we do not work with others. We also have SIs like EDS doing systems integration
for us.
What about local SIs?
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We are
open to the idea. But we are not currently looking actively at it, because we have the
capability to do it ourselves. |
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