PURSUIT OF A SIZABLE OPPORTUNITY

0

Updated : February 3, 2014 0:0  ,
By Editor

Tech Mahindra Ltd is a specialist provider of connected solutions and the company recently entered into a partnership with Etisalat in the region to target the enterprise segment. Madhur Kripal, Associate Vice President – Sales at Tech Mahindra of Tech Mahindra explains how the company is working to make this partnership succeed


You have entered into a partnership with Etisalat. Please discuss the focus of this partnership

Etisalat has been a large customer for us since 2006 through Siemens in Egypt and later when we did a large project when Etisalat came to India. Tech Mahindra has expertise and experience in helping the Telcos in addressing the enterprise space. We have worked with the likes of British Telecom. We are focusing on Managed services, enterprise security, IT outsourcing etc. The portfolio is wide but we are focusing on the three growth areas.

Do telecom operators have specific advantages offering ICT services to the enterprise?

Telcos have established relationships with enterprise customers for voice. However, voice revenues globally are declining and data revenues are the key. Telecom operators are therefore looking for alternative revenues streams. The OTT (over the top) players like Google, Apple for instance are eating into the traditional market space of Telecom companies. Realizing this, telecom companies are now offering ICT services to their enterprise customers who are already buying the voice services from them. telecom operators already are trusted names and it would be easier for them. They would need systems integrators who can build these solutions which they can take to their customers. This is where the partnership between Etisalat and Tech Mahindra comes in.

Elaborate on the Application Trust Center

We showcased the Application Trust center at GITEX. If you look at security today for a Bank or any enterprise, etc, they are mostly focused on perimeter security but not so much on Application security itself. A lot of customers may buy the applications first and then think of security later. What we are telling them is that they can think of the application security layer even as they are building up applications.

The Application Trust center enables the enterprise customer to form a security and governance layer that can inform the CIO about what Applications in IT landscape are safe. There is a dashboard that clearly informs the CIO about the vulnerabilities that need to be addressed at the Application level and this is not taken care of by UTMS.  This Application Trust Control is offered as a service from our end. This is being hosted with Etisalat white-labelled and Etisalat will then sell it into the market space.

Discuss the opportunities in the large enterprise or government accounts for ICT integration that you can address

Today, large government entities would want to outsource their applications which are varied. Telecom operators have typically stayed away from this space. Etisalat wants to address this space. This is where an experience ICT integrator like Tech Mahindra can come in and augment their capabilities. We can take over the IT assets of the customer and run it for them on their behalf.

Many of the enterprise, government entities, Banks etc are looking at migrating from their data centre to a hosted data center. With our expertise, we can help in consulting the customers to get this done. Similarly, we run the applications for them if required. We will address these requirements as they come up from enterprise customers of Etisalat.

We will additionally address the demand part also. It is in our interest also to make this partnership succeed.

You reach out to customers outside this partnership as well. Do you see this a conflict?

This is another channel. If you look at typical large enterprise entities and Banks, they will trust an operator like Etisalat and it therefore becomes easier to access these customers and win their trust. They have not addressed this space end to end earlier and now they want to do this. We are not exclusive partners for Etisalat but we are investing significantly to make this a success. We have a few leads being negotiated currently. We are currently working with Etisalat in the UAE and based on the success, will look at the other markets.