TELECOM BUSINESS: "BT plans to add 1,000 people every year"

Andy Green, executive board member and CEO, BT Global Services was in India
recently. Green has a long relationship with the company where he has worked for
over 16 years. In an exclusive interview with Pravin Prashant, senior assistant
editor, VOICE&DATA, he spoke about BT's plans for the managed data
services market and the outsourcing/BPO space. Excerpts:

How are things moving on international connectivity in India? And what is
BT Global Services' India plan?

We think that economic development is now happening in India. Broadband
connectivity is affordable, reliable and secure for back office operations and
branch to headquarter connectivity. All our customers are present in India and
they have critical facilities here. They have opted for IP networks and are
asking us to manage their enterprise-wide IP network. For corporates, we are
planning to provide a complete IP experience thereby increasing the performance
level of Indian corporates.

Our role is important. We analyze the market from our customer base. For
example, Bangalore is one of the biggest outsourcing centers in the world and
has some of the biggest telecom spenders. These companies will invest in
technology, service capabilities, and people. And will require solutions from
service providers. The global services suite of BT will be unveiled in couple of
months and noticeable investments made. Corporates in India are using basic
technologies and BT will be able to bring MPLS capability to India as there is a
need for higher level of security.

What is your vision for BT Global Services in India?

Our focus is to be a world class provider of enterprise wide solution in
terms of service capability.

Currently, India's international connectivity market is small. What will
the future be like?

India's international connectivity market will continue to rise with
increase in data replication and rise in quality of communication services.
Europe and North America are critical markets as a majority of Indian companies
are doing business processes for companies in these regions. Capability will
become increasingly important for Indian multinationals as one expects the same
capability whether connecting to the customers or their offices.

If one takes a long-term view, international connectivity market in India is
big and increasing fast. Of the total IT spending, around seven percent goes for
bandwidth. This is a very significant market, if we consider the future.

How do you compare IP-VPN service with MPLS?

IP-VPN is a pure multimedia service. In UK, big retail banks have true
multimedia networks. There is no EPABX and voice is directly on the IP platform.
By using IP networks, the call center network can answer calls from any client
thereby increasing branch efficiency. On the other hand, MPLS as a technology
comes with security, firewall, LAN management, desktop management, business
process management, reconfiguration, and monitoring of global IP network.

What are your expansion plans on the India front?

Presently, we have about 8,500 people of which around 5,000 people work for
the call center, through HCL and Progeon for the UK market and around 3,500 for
software development work through MBT, TCS, and Infosys. We plan to support them
and grow our business. One task is to balance between what our employee and our
partners have deployed. We do know it will require significant investment in
terms of people. BT plans to grow by 1,000 people every year.

On the global services front, we have 30 people in India focusing on services
and managing some part of the capability. We are planning to expand further. We
are also looking at systems integration-making us the first global player
having skills for building the network and supporting Indian and India branch
offices to serve global networks by providing end-to-end solutions.

What revenues are you expecting from global services, from India?

If we do not have 20 percent of the communication nodes I will be
disappointed. I would think that we will have 1,000 MPLS ports in three years'
time. In India, we might get a higher market share as the communications
infrastructure is not well developed. We are looking at revenues doubling year
after year.

Any advice for Indian CIOs?

There is a good opportunity for Indian CIOs to combine IP technology with a
more efficient storage system, for running different applications thereby
reducing total cost of ownership.

Pravin Prashant