What is your perception about the Indian T&M market?
The T&M market in India is in a very peculiar stage. Traditionally, the T&M companies were totally dependant on government projects. Particularly the Indian telecom sector and on BSNL. The process of buying bulk and multiple number of products is also very relevant. Because of bidding the price drops so low that in most cases it is not profitable. Of late, this trend has gone through a lot of changes. After the corporatisation of BSNL, the buying process has also undergone some changes and the requirement is now rationalised from their point of view. I have seen that T&M companies are suffering huge losses serving that market. I believe that market can be served by all kinds of vendors who have not as much regard for the quality of the product. So, that has been a loss-making proposition for most companies. The growth of telecom T&M will be with new operators challenging the government operators and who are clearly considering T&M as an investment and not merely as an expenditure. T&M should be considered as a key business tool. Unfortunately in our country, I have not seen anybody making use of this investment from that direction. This is happening because most of these T&M players were not able to communicate the strategic importance of T&M to all the telecom service providers. So, the responsibility lies with no one else but the T&M equipment vendors. I believe T&M has to be seen as a strategic investment to fulfil their customer-oriented objectives. If the service providers see investment in that light, then there is a huge opportunity for the T&M industry.
What trends and opportunities do you see in this segment?
A lot of things are shifting in the T&M market. One of the basic paradigms I are trying to change is the perception of T&M as test and management from test and measurement. So, after you have carried out the testing and the measurement you would like to make a closed group system by which you can manage the whole network. Another opportunity is that there is a great need in terms of offering real high value-add services to telecom companies. There is great scope to provide such services to someone who is oriented towards offering that quality of service to potential customers. So, the service providers should invest in areas where they can see the importance from business objectives. Then this industry will have a really bright future. It is unfortunate that none in the T&M industry has driven the cause.
The T&M market in India is in a very peculiar stage. Traditionally, the T&M companies were totally dependant on government projects. Particularly the Indian telecom sector and on BSNL. The process of buying bulk and multiple number of products is also very relevant. Because of bidding the price drops so low that in most cases it is not profitable. Of late, this trend has gone through a lot of changes. After the corporatisation of BSNL, the buying process has also undergone some changes and the requirement is now rationalised from their point of view. I have seen that T&M companies are suffering huge losses serving that market. I believe that market can be served by all kinds of vendors who have not as much regard for the quality of the product. So, that has been a loss-making proposition for most companies. The growth of telecom T&M will be with new operators challenging the government operators and who are clearly considering T&M as an investment and not merely as an expenditure. T&M should be considered as a key business tool. Unfortunately in our country, I have not seen anybody making use of this investment from that direction. This is happening because most of these T&M players were not able to communicate the strategic importance of T&M to all the telecom service providers. So, the responsibility lies with no one else but the T&M equipment vendors. I believe T&M has to be seen as a strategic investment to fulfil their customer-oriented objectives. If the service providers see investment in that light, then there is a huge opportunity for the T&M industry.
What trends and opportunities do you see in this segment? A lot of things are shifting in the T&M market. One of the basic paradigms I are trying to change is the perception of T&M as test and management from test and measurement. So, after you have carried out the testing and the measurement you would like to make a closed group system by which you can manage the whole network. Another opportunity is that there is a great need in terms of offering real high value-add services to telecom companies. There is great scope to provide such services to someone who is oriented towards offering that quality of service to potential customers. So, the service providers should invest in areas where they can see the importance from business objectives. Then this industry will have a really bright future. It is unfortunate that none in the T&M industry has driven the cause.
