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November 18, 2008

Cable&Wireless: Managing Growth and Reducing Costs Are Key Challenges

By Rajani Baburajan, TMCnet Contributing Editor

Cable&Wireless provides voice, data and IP communications solutions to global customers. Earlier this year, the company was awarded international long distance (ILD) and national long distance (NLD) licenses by the Government of India to provide multinational and Indian customers with high quality managed connectivity services. India, being the fastest growing market for Cable&Wireless, promises substantial growth opportunity for the company in the coming years.
Technology Marketing Corporation (TMC (News - Alert)) recently caught up with Sunanda Das, managing director of Cable&Wireless, to talk about the company’s business plans in India.
 
TMCnet: What are the main focus areas of Cable&Wireless in India?
 
SD: Cable&Wireless provides enterprise and carrier solutions with global connectivity – including managed network services, managed security services, hosting services, hosted contact center solution, remote network management services, etc.
 
In fact, we have experience in delivering connectivity to 153 countries around the world. We provide fit to purpose connectivity solutions to our customers in and out of India. We ensure that our customers get resilient services to ensure efficient running of their processes and business continuity.
 
We clearly maintain our leadership position in the hosted contact center space with newer technology and business support features rolled out to our customers. We allow our customers to focus on their key business areas and we take care of the nuts and bolts of the technology, IT and the network. Faster delivery and proactive network management is one of our key internal focus area. Our aim is to provide excellent service delivery to our customers, first time, every time.
 
We understand the India market and also the global telecom landscape. We already do business with most of the leading IT and ITES companies in India. Some of our major customers here include Aviva, Standard Chartered Bank, JP Morgan (News - Alert), State Bank of India, etc.
 
TMCnet: What are some of the challenges in these markets in India?
 
SD: The major issue with customers in the current scenario is managing growth and reducing costs. This implies that to keep pace with the growth, customers want to have technology tested and deployed at a faster pace. The other challenge is to reduce costs without compromising on the service efficiency.
 
We have defined ourselves as the world’s first Customer Driven Communication services business. We provide a service experience, which our customers desire and deserve. We’re a business that’s on the front foot, with new innovative solutions, great colleagues and focus on our chosen market, which very few can match. We continue to make significant investments in people development and talent management.
 
We provide flexible solutions to our customers to meet their requirements. The flexibility applies both to technology and commercial options.
 
TMCnet: Name some of your important clients in India and the services offered to them.
 
SD: India is the fastest growing market for Cable&Wireless and has been recently recognized as a region. Our growth has been robust – our business grew by 70 percent last year and we anticipate extensive growth to continue in 2008 as well. We have invested more than $30 million in our network across India. We have also invested in the Europe India Gateway (News - Alert) Consortium, (around $50 million).
 
We’ve made these investments to support our customers and their growth and expansion across the region. We are also continuously investing in expanding our service footprint into emerging markets in APAC.
 
Our customers in India are the global corporations coming to India and Indian corporations getting out to the world. We also do significant wholesale business with the other telecom service providers in India- both voice and data.
 
We maintain our leadership position in India for providing hosted IP contact center solutions and we are experiencing a significant interest from the ITES companies. We have business relationship with most of the leading IT and ITES companies in India. Our customer engagement is also strong in Banking and Finance segment. To name a few customers in this sector are Standard Chartered Bank, State Bank of India, JP Morgan, etc.
 
We have recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with India’s largest telecommunications company, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL (News - Alert)), for exploring new business opportunities. Our new relationship with BSNL will enable us to have extended coverage throughout India and also provide resilient solutions on last mile connectivity. Additionally, we will be addressing the growing requirements of BSNL for international connectivity with our extensive coverage.
 
TMCnet: How do you ensure ROI to your clients?
 
SD: As said earlier, we have flexible and fit to purpose commercial models for our customers. For example, customers using our hosted contact center solutions avoid incurring capex for setting up the technology solutions and IP infrastructure and use our services on per seat per month model. This fits well with their business model and we act as a business partner and grow with our customers over a longer period of service term. Another example would be our Fixed Mobile Convergence (News - Alert) which we have rolled out in the UK market. Today all enterprises have multiple sourcing options and fully acknowledge that. We rely on flexible solutions and great service experience to engage with wider set of customers.
 
TMCnet: How has Cable&Wireless technology evolved in the past few years?
 
SD: It’s imperative for any dynamic business that it’s constantly delivering
innovative services to its customers. ‘A new way everywhere’ is our brand promise; so we’re continuously looking at how we deliver innovation and new services.
 
For example, fixed mobile convergence (FMC) is a totally unique and a differentiator solution – one that our customers want. We continue to provide innovative technology solutions in multiple fronts to our customer’s business requirements. C&W clearly maintains its leadership position in the hosted contact center space with newer technology and business support features rolled out to our customers. Our recent wins highlight the innovation in our products, commercial models and service approach. Our Multi-Service Platform (MSP) in India will allow enterprise customers to have a network that offers multiple services through a single access, enhancing their ability to focus on their core business.
 
TMCnet: What are your expansion plans for India?
 
SD: We were awarded the National Long Distance (NLD) and International Long Distance (ILD) licenses earlier this year. These licenses are enabling us to now roll out one of the most advanced next-generation networks yet to be seen in this region. We are investing USD30 million in India on our next generation network, which will serve both our customers that need to do business in India, and also Indian companies who need to reach out to the rest of the international business community. 
 
Our network will be powered by dual PoPs in all the four major metros with further roll-out plans in Pune and Hyderabad.
 
The platform has been designed to provide maximum resiliency using all available cable routes from India towards east and west. We’re also making a substantial investment in the EIG cable system to make sure that we provide the highest level of resiliency from India in the future as well. We’re very confident that the platform will cater to customer’s business requirements in India, and also Indian companies who need to reach out to the rest of the international business community.



 
 
Rajani Baburajan is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Rajani's articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Michelle Robart


 







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