Mahindra-BT to expand, looks beyond Pune

Pune-based telecom solutions major Mahindra-British Telecom (MBT) is planning to expand its operations to Kolkata, Chennai and Delhi.

The company has already set up a small 300 seats facility at Noida near Delhi to handle the migration of legacy technologies to next generation solutions. This centre will eventually be expanded to have 1,500 seats. The campus will also have a testing centre for telecom technology.

C P Gurnani, president-international operations of the company, said, "As most of the telecom firms are based in Delhi, it would be easier for us to manage this business from there."

The 2.8-acre campus being planned in Chennai will focus on research and development and product engineering with around 1,100 seats.

The Kolkata campus, which is expected to come up at the special economic zone near Rajarhat, will focus on billing business. MBT is also setting up a new integrated campus at Hinjawadi in Pune, for which an MoU will be signed on Monday.

The company also plans to shift some of its operation to the Bangalore campus of the Texas-based Axes Technologies, which it acquired earlier this month for $54 million. MBT has so far been a Pune and Mumbai-focused company, with a 5,300 strong workforce. This is expected to go up to 8,500 as the company also plans to enter the BPO space, Gurnani said.

He said that the focus of the company has been shifting more towards US- its revenues from US has grown from $14 million in the last fiscal to $40 million this year.

"Traditionally, Indian IT firms have been getting 70 per cent of their business from the US. But in our case, it was just 6-7 per cent, which is changing now with our current focus on the US," Gurnani said.

MBT's US clients include SBC, BEA, Alcatel, Motorola, Paradigm and Coppercom among equipment manufacturers, BA and Metapherl among independent software vendors.

MBT is India's 8th largest software exporter, serving telecom service providers, equipment manufacturers, software vendors and systems integrators. MBT is a joint venture between Mahindra & Mahindra and British Telecom.

SPREADING WINGS

MBT is planning to expand its operations to Kolkata, Chennai and Delhi

It has already set up a small 300 seats facility at Noida to handle the migration of legacy technologies to next generation solutions

MBT has a strong workforce of 5,300. This number is expected to go up to 8,500 soon