The Hindu Business Line : ‘India is a key market’

François Barrault, the recently appointed Chief Executive Officer, BT Global Services, is responsible for taking the company through the next stage of its journey to become a truly global software-based services organisation.

The company recently acquired international long distance telephony licence in India. In an e-mail interview, Barrault speaks of BT’s plans in India. Excerpts:

How significant is your India operation for BT Global Services? What potential do you see from India?

India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world and a very important geography for BT, outside the UK this is our biggest set-up. We are indeed excited and committed to this exponential growth story and armed with substantial expansion plans. I see India as a major ingredient in our quest towards globalisation. I am happy to note that an increasing number of multinational companies are expanding their operations in India and a rising number of local Indian corporations are going global.

Today, India is a nation rich in talent and if enabled well is in a strong position to being an economic superpower. During this journey, it has attained global leadership in IT and other fields such as pharmaceuticals, telecommunications and telecom-based IT services. A lot of my top customers talk of India as their key emerging market or as a healthy profit centre and term the rise of India’s economic status as quite exhilarating. In order to meet this rise it is imperative to ensure that we meet their desire and expectation. This growth presents us with an excellent opportunity to develop India into a digitally networked economy, and our 21st Century Network (21 CN) initiative will do just that. This is definitely an interesting market.

In India, I would also like to take forward our CSR (corporate social responsibility) activities, this is something we are passionate about.

What is the current status of progress for BTGS in India? What market share are you looking at?

I am quite pleased with the pace of our progress and growth, though we will be needing much more horse power to drive our plans and ambitions.

We were granted ILD and NLD licences by DOT in February 2007, this will facilitate us to offer services directly to multi-site corporate customers.

In addition, we have also had some swift developments in the past few months: In February 2007, we announced our intention of acquiring i2iEnterprise, an enterprise services company specialising in Internet protocol (IP) communications services. This acquisition will give us an edge as the leading global carrier in the Indian market.

In March 2007, we activated our first MPLS node in Chennai, and going forward, we will set up such nodes in seven more cities across India over the next few months. All this should give you a fair idea of the scale and pace of expansion that we have in mind for India.

People are the primary asset of any modern economy and I strongly believe in investing well for sustained development. We currently employ a large workforce of over 15,000 people (directly and indirectly) in the Asia-Pacific, the majority of whom are in India. Going forward, I am confident of hiring an additional 6,000 people by 2009.

Our revenue target for the APAC region is in tune with the growth and I have mandated my teams to achieve a revenue target of 250 million pounds by 2009. We intend to garner a bigger market share here and aim to achieve significant growth in the next three years from our Indian operations.

Having said this, the rapid growth makes the competitive landscape tremendously exciting and encouraging. Our expansion in India will enable a lot more companies to maximise benefit from BT’s networked IT capability in the areas of convergence, CRM and security around the globe.

India has recently seen a number of new operators in the ILD segment. What has caused the sudden influx of foreign players? How does BT differentiate itself from the likes of AT&T and Verizon or from Indian operators such as Bharti or Reliance?

The fabulous growth story of the Indian economy, coupled with the easing up of regulatory conditions, has made it a strong contender to being a meaningful investment destination among emerging markets. MNCs and Fortune 500 companies are rapidly establishing and ramping up their presence in India. Apart from this, the IT sector in India is recording a stupendous growth rate and the IT outsourcing industry is growing at an excess of 40 per cent per annum.

We have always had an edge over our competitors as we bring with us not just experience, but also reliability spread over years and across 170 countries. Our services are based on the 21st Century Network, a platform aiming at best-of-class reliability, availability and performance.

Globally or in any geography where we are present, we never really compete with any single player, we have our unique strengths and have widely been credited the world over for evolving from a pure telecom company into a customer-centric software-based services provider. As a matter of fact our mix of consulting, networking, communications and integration expertise is quite unique.

For us, Bharti is a well-respected partner with whom we have had a longstanding association and continue to share a mutually beneficial relationship. As a matter of fact, we jointly share three nodes in India with Bharti.

What is your view on partnership with local operators as a strategy? Would you be open to infrastructure sharing with other operators in India?

We have very strong partnerships with many of the local telecom companies and are actively looking at expanding these relationships on a continuous basis. We are also open to sharing our infrastructure to provide enhanced services to customers.

What new services/technology can enterprise customers of BT in India expect?

BT has some wonderful services, which have been major successes globally, and now with our licence in place, we would like to roll them out shortly.

We will provide networked IT services to all corporates in India across sectors - whether it is Banking or Finance, Pharmaceuticals, BPO, IT, Hospitality, etc. BT will also provide WAN services on an outsourced model, application management, etc. If we take the example of a particular bank being our customer, we will provide a convergence of services – from handling their communications to managing their networks to providing security - all on one platform.

I also want to showcase our prowess in the area of global sourcing and managed services where we have had some significant wins.

What is the concept and future of Fixed Mobile Convergence services (FMC) in India? What is BT doing here? Will you bring some part of BT Fusion services to India?

BT is a pioneer in fixed-mobile convergence, with, for example, BT Corporate Fusion, a service we are launching in Europe. It uses Wi-Fi (wireless fidelity) as the interface to the fixed network, enabling large companies to combine their fixed and mobile voice services, as well as a common series of applications and calling functionalities through an integrated broadband IP network.

Their employees will no longer need to have a mobile phone, a data device and desk phone because now one device can provide access to voicemail, directory, conferencing, and other communication services wherever employees are, saving valuable time communicating and collaborating with customers and colleagues.

Employees will also have greater freedom and convenience as they will be able to stay in touch inside and outside their premises without having to worry about different contact numbers, voicemails and devices.

The Indian FMC market, an emerging market with great potential, is entering a critical period of change and development. In fact the Unified Access Licensing Regime, which permits an operator to provide Fixed, Mobile and Broadband services under a single licence, is a fundamental enabler of FMC. It can partially ease out the Radio Spectrum problems and revitalise the stagnant Fixed telephony service. An increasing number of partnerships and collaboration between traditionally separated fixed and mobile operators is observed and we are watching this space.

Would you want the FDI cap to be raised to 100 per cent?

It is encouraging to note that the Government is liberalising policies and laws relating to foreign direct investment. This will bring a fair amount of transparency into the system. Further liberalisation in FDI as per government policy is welcome and will go a long way to bring more investments into the sector.

tkt@thehindu.co.in

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