Enterprise is big business for telecom firms

Today, enterprise as a business segment for telecom operators has grown to more than Rs 45,000 crore

A few years ago, telecom companies were barely interested in talking about their enterprise business. It was small enough to be kept aside. But to strengthen new revenue streams they bought mobility tools like managed services for enterprises, storage solutions, and custom services for small businesses.

Today, enterprise as a business segment for Indian telecom companies is worth over Rs 45,000 crore and is estimated will grow at 10 per cent annually over the next five years.

The entrenched players in the enterprise business like Bharti Airtel, Tata Communications and Reliance Communications are exploring new offerings to stay ahead of newcomers like Vodafone.

Madhusudan Mandyam, president, enterprise business, Tata Teleservices, says about 24 per cent of his company’s revenue comes from the enterprise business. Tata Teleservices has an 18 per cent market share in fixed voice services for large companies and a 29 per cent market share of mobile data cards.

Vodafone now gets about 11 per cent of its revenue from enterprises. Over the next four years, says Naveen Chopra, director, business services, Vodafone, this will cross 15 per cent. “Our goal is to move from being a pure mobile service provider to becoming a total communications provider. We have segmented our customers for better focus and service,” he adds.

Vodafone has separate teams for large corporations and small businesses. It started focussing on small businesses in 2011, and this has become a growth driver for the telecom company. In April 2013, Vodafone started a separate vertical to cater to the government,  which Chopra says, requires a different set of skills.

Bharti Airtel, an early mover in the enterprise business, will continue to focus on small businesses, says Manish Prakash, director, enterprise and government, Bharti Airtel. “We are shifting from core infrastructure products to high-value solutions. We recently launched security-based mobile applications for schools and business process outsourcing units, enterprise video solutions and M2M for the automobile and manufacturing industries,” he adds.

“The opportunity to integrate the ‘consumer user’ and the business environment through unified communication will remain a focus area. We have invested heavily on services that integrate platforms for high- definition video and on internet-based video services like Skype and Microsoft Lync,” Prakash adds.

Reliance Communications revamped its offering for enterprises last month. “We cater to the needs of large corporates and small enterprises, government bodies and public sector undertakings,” says Deepak Khanna, CEO, India enterprise services, Reliance Communications.

“Customers are demanding applications capable of real-time tracking and meaningful data capture. Cloud-based services, software as a service, bring-your-own device, mobility applications, and office-in-a-box are the new focus areas,” says Mandyam and adds about 65 per cent of Tata Teleservices’ revenue in the enterprise segment comes from small businesses.

Analysts say the enterprise business for Indian telecom companies is still dominated by the information technology, financial  and retail sectors. “Unless telecom companies spread their wings, growth will be limited,” says an analyst with a management consulting firm who did not wish to be named. Consulting firm Ernst & Young estimates there will be around 1.2 billion mobile enterprise workers worldwide by 2015 and enterprise telecom offerings need to provide custom solutions.

BIG MONEY HERE

* Enterprise as a business segment for Indian telecom companies is worth over Rs 45,000 crore and is estimated will grow at 10 per cent annually over the next five years