‘We are here to serve the enterprise segment which largely lies untapped’

BT was established in India to serve the connectivity needs of its multinational customers. Post our licences for providing long distance services in India, we are keen to serve the requirements of a new breed of Indian companies that are going global. As the companies extend their geographical boundaries, communication acts as a major pain-point in their expansion and integration process. This is where BT steps in. We provide high-speed quality video and voice services over our MPLS network which enable more companies to maximise the benefits from our networked IT capability in the areas of convergence, CRM and security.

We have gained leadership in the IT and BPO markets and are now extending our horizon to the Indian MNCs going global with focus on BFSI, media, broadcast, pharmaceuticals, IT and hospitality sectors.

What is your share in the managed services sector in India?

The IT & ITeS sector, which is our key customer, is expected to clock more than $40 billion in annual revenues and grow to $60 billion by 2010. Strong demand for global delivery has led many companies to look for our networked IT services. It’s difficult to ascertain the total needs of this sector but according to estimates, of the total spend nearly 10 per cent is set aside for the technology services, giving a potential of $6 billion. If you go by the growing needs of Indian MNCs, this is not even a fraction of what lies ahead.

This is a huge market to be tapped. Our challenge is to work closely with the Indian companies, so that they can hand over fixed costs and non-core areas to companies like BT to manage, as they focus on their core competencies.

Who are your local competitors?

BT is the only global network IT service provider with the highest number of connecting points and dual nodes across Mumbai, New Delhi, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore and a customer network management centre (CNOC) in Pune that not only serves India but multi-site corporate customers in Asia Pacific. With our licences, we can now provide local billing. In India, this service will be our biggest differentiator. These services and capabilities are pretty significant when you compare them with our global competitors and hence we are definitely ahead of them.

As Indian corporates are currently not our core area of focus, we do not have competitors in the local market.

How many customers do you have in India?

Some of our MNC customers include Reuters, Cisco, Unilever, Standard Chartered, ZTE and PepsiCo. We serve all the big names in the IT/BPO space like Infosys, Wipro and Tech Mahindra etc.

Do you think we’ll be able to sustain growth in BPO and IT sector? And do you see China as a threat to India?

The IT & BPO sector growth story is poised to reach new heights and will achieve its ambitious target of $60 billion in exports by 2010. The China model is based on fulfilling mainly their domestic demand while India is more focused on exports and hence there is a greater demand for internationally-focused networked IT services—which is our strength. Both China and India will share the focus.

Is BT considering the mobility space or targetting the consumer segment with broadband and Internet services?

We are in India to serve the enterprise segment, which has immense potential but lies largely untapped. Our stated strategy is to focus on consumers with broadband and a full suite of services only in the UK, and outside the UK only on enterprises. So we will not be serving consumers in India.