Wipro Infotech

A first-time entry into the Top

10 Club, this Bangalore-based infotech major takes the #10 position in the list. Though a

first time entrant, it is not a surprise entry, however. Wipro has reached the #10

position by the virtue of its sales/services earnings from the communications division

which stood at Rs 250.5 crore for the year ended 31 March 1998. It was Rs 248.9 crore in

the previous year.

Major chunk of the company’s

revenues came from customized networking and communication software exports, which were

worth Rs 136 crore. And domestic communication software projects brought in about Rs 46.83

crore. NICs, cables, hubs, routers, remote access and terminal-end servers, modems, and

VSAT equipment accounted for another Rs 67.67 crore.

Last year, one of the most

significant developments for the company was the parting of ways with BT from its

JV—Wipro BT for VSAT services. BT separated and got associated with Bharti Group for

VSAT services. While, Wipro went on to concentrate on VANS. It is being believed that the

foresaid development gave Wipro the much needed push to focus more on its communications

division to deal with value-added services in communications.

Now, its communication services

division is catering to business communication needs of enterprises. It has set up a

high-speed backbone across eight cities providing E-mail, messaging, file transfer, E-fax

services as a business service provider. This will be expanded to 15 more cities in the

near future. Wipro CSD has an existing customer base of 14,000 spread over 700

organizations.

Technical competence has been the

inherent features of the company. It launched several product initiatives in telecom

solutions. Service Edge, a customer-care solution for telecom service providers and Wipro

Convergent Billing, an integrated customer care and billing solution for data and voice

communication service providers. Recently, it launched its family of WiProdigy products to

address the cellular market. It has also developed a family of products for mediation and

fraud management and also offers solutions for call centre management. Its networking

expertise has helped it to develop CyberManage—a web-based network management based

on its intellectual property.

In the services market, being a

systems integrator, it offers a wide range of integration services including hardware,

software, network integration, customization, and implementation of applications. Wipro

has provided solutions to large corporates like ABB, Bank of India, DSE, Escorts, ITC,

ICICI, NSE, and VSNL.

The product mix and the strong

alliances seem to be Wipro’s strategy in its attempts to grab a larger share of the

datacom, networking, as well as the Internet market. The alliance list includes tie-ups

with Micom for multiplexers, Newbridge and Cisco for hubs, switches, and routers, NET for

high-end multiplexers, Motorola for modems, Lucent Technologies for structured cables, Sun

for Internet servers, and soon Netscape for Internet software servers and browsers.

Internet privatization and

IT-ization (IT Task force action implementation once approved) will see the company

consolidate its position further.