guestarticle
Tele-mimetics,
Tele-trends and Focus
for Inspiration!
Most telecom markets remain overall pulsating with focus on higher speeds, better interactivity, and
customer experience. What is needed is for telecom players ‘to find their best identity in the value
chain’ and position their brand accordingly.
O
ver the last quarter, I had
been very fortunate to interview and
discuss one-on-one with some of the
‘who’s who’ of Canadian Telecom
Industry. What is most interesting
behind the success of many of these
leaders and their organizations’
outstanding performance was the
extremely simple but fundamentally
profound marketing wisdom. I could
easily compare their thought-patterns
with the likes of Al Ries and Jack
Trout, the marketing Gurus and
founders of ‘Positioning’ theory.
Most of these interviews were
remarkably insightful not only in
terms of where the Canadian or Global
Telecom Industry is headed to but also
in that how just about any geography
could relate to the other from the
cause and effect perspective of micro
and mega trends and, eventually, in
one way or the other, can possibly
utilize the end takeaways towards their
collaborative industrial betterment.
From a marketing standpoint, this at
first seems tough to assimilate though,
let alone to be compared any further.
More so because, we speak of one of
the most dynamic and, particularly
now, evermore stirred-up industrial
segments and also when the diversity
is hugely evident, among widely
different geographies.
However, if we refer from the
standpoint of ‘inspiration’, similar to a
Case study and not simply ‘adaptation’,
64 |EPC&I|SEPTEMBER 2011
because that would be unfair indeed,
theories suddenly start making
practical sense. In a way, it is more like
cross-industrial learning,
redevelopment and collaboration or,
rather, Biognosis and ‘Bio-mimetics’.
Some may want to research those
terms in entirety to get greater insight.
The biggest challenges that
Canada had faced since inception
were essentially the huge geography,
weather conditions and the diversely
growing consumer demography, for
instance. As a result, the network
infrastructure maintenance
investments went beyond and out of
proportion and, hence, the anatomy
of basic marketing strategies today
ASHEESH PANDIA seems starkly different. And, then,
there remain similarities too in terms
of trends, especially in the Social
Media era.
According to Gautam Nath, one of
the best Canadian marketing
For the most part, knowledge-banks today, who I had the
Indian telecom has been opportunity to meet recently, “Multi-
Cultural marketing dynamics is the
doing really well rela- most sought-after horizon here in
tively barring the Canada at the moment” . I feel
Spectrum Refarming essentially the rise in multi-cultural
marketing shares a similar pattern to
struggle cited above. But that of the ongoing ‘Rural Penetration’
the option of taking a pursuit in India. And, yet again,
considering that Canada wants the
look at the external and largest pipelines at the lowest cost,
distant trends could also which definitely would demand more
guarantee significant funds, access to global capital market
through more relaxed and free
betterment for the ‘high- competition and more incumbents is
ly innovative’ kinds. desirable not much unlike how it had
always been in India regardless of the
competition because population and
the market size is awesome.
On a global level too, most telecom
markets remain overall pulsating with
focus on higher speeds, better
interactivity, and customer experience.
Realistically, it is easy to understand
that the Churn Management is
definitely a very important issue still
for the most part because acquiring a
new customer is much more pricey
and unpredictable than retaining the
existing customer base. The latter,
however, could also be equally
demanding and complex, but more
often than not, cost-effective to both
the consumer and the service provider.
The new generation of consumers
is definitely not as loyal as it used to be
in the Wireline-only era. Moreover,
‘brand loyalty’ itself cannot be
compared at any given moment
between a telecom service provider
and a financial institution. In the case
of the former, it could be far more
casual for the consumer to be
Mobile broadband traffic flirtatious and shop around.
volumes will see a 2600 Another common challenge across
economies is to maintain and strive to
percent increase in the increase the dirt-cheap margins. And,
next five years, say Nokia that is where the opportunities for
telecom consulting and marketing
Siemens Networks’ own organizations and analys ts lie.
figures. The Nokia Subscriber base might have been
Siemens numbers are sustained or grown, but the revenues
seem to dip gradually.
astounding — a 1000- With respect to the extremely low-
fold mobile data traffic margins, it is not difficult to gauge the
increase by the year situation when you find analysts use
Price-Earnings (P/E) and Price-to-
2020. Sales (Price/Sales) Ratios as measures
of valuation; for, some companies have
little or no profits to speak of
unfortunately, especially at this time.
And, now, all of a sudden, inadequate
Spectrum poses another big challenge
in India which DoT, the telecom
regulatory body, proposes to address
with ‘Refarming’ the 900 megahertz

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guestarticle
(MHz) spectrum when operators’
licenses come up for renewal between
2014 and 2025, by including it in the
Spectrum Bill in its recommendation.
Telecom providers are, of course,
not equally fond of such a
recommendation by DoT because
there are reasons to believe that it
would not be appropriate at this point
when you have to be moving all the
subscribers to a brand new network, as
a consequence, while they are on a
fully functional one already. Let alone
the obvious interruption in current
service and big investments that will
be needed to carry out this change in
any case, at any given point in time.
Still, we cannot deny the relative
growth prospects that sound
paradoxical after summing up all the
above challenges. But, they are true for
sure. I am going to mention the
exploding Mobile Broadband Traffic
below and the figures are mind-
blowing. Whatever be the reason for
this increase in traffic, in the end,
telecom service providers have both
the responsibility and the opportunity
to serve the consumer well and make
money.
There is also no denying of the fact
that there is a huge potential for the
current generation of consultants in
cross-economy trend-spotting as well
as for telecom service providers to
bootstrap themselves. Most of all, ‘to
find their best identity in the value
chain’ and ‘to be able to innovate
lightening fast’ have been the top
priorities of the best players so far and,
again, trend-watching gives the best
food for thought in terms of both
innovation and the correct ‘Brand
EPC&I
A MONTHLY MAGAZINE ON
ENGINEERING, PROCUREMENT,
CONSTRUCTIONS & INFRASTRUCTURE
66 |EPC&I|SEPTEMBER 2011
What we see around
today is everyone doing
everything, everyone
selling everything. But,
the biggest brands in the
world are the ones that
do ‘only their thing’ that
reflect them directly and
uniquely.
Positioning’.
For the most part, Indian telecom
has been doing really well relatively
barring the Spectrum Refarming
struggle cited above. But the option of
taking a look at the external and
distant trends could also guarantee
significant betterment for the ‘highly
innovative’ kinds. The face of telecom
is changing by the hour and it is not
the same simple voice domain
anymore. Rather, it is a more holistic
and all-embracing one – with the
rising Mobile Broadband Traffic,
dominant Consumer Electronics and a
skyrocketing Ultra-Viral Social Media.
Mobile Applications market, for
instance, is the most astonishing at
this moment . Back in March of 2009,
about 2,300 applications were
available on the Android Market,
according to T-Mobile CTO, Cole
Brodman. And, in May 2011 alone,
during the Google I/O, Google
announced that Android Market listed
200,000 applications and had already
clocked 4.5 billion installed
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TO BOOK YOUR AD, CONTACT:
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applications. By July, the figure had
crossed the 250,000 milestone.
Distimo and Germany-based
research2guidance forecast that the
number of apps on Android Market
would surpass Apple by the third
quarter of 2011, with some 425,000
apps. Similarly, in terms of Consumer
Electronics and Mobile Broadband
Traffic, iSuppli reckons global
SmartPhone shipments will double by
2015 and account for more than half of
all mobile phones sold.
At the same time, mobile
broadband traffic volumes will see a
2600 percent increase in the next five
years, say Nokia Siemens Networks’
own figures. The Nokia Siemens
numbers are astounding — a 1000-
fold mobile data traffic increase by the
year 2020.
To the consumer, mobility is not a
privilege anymore; it is simply an
‘extension of access to information’
and telecom providers only need the
‘super value creation’ attitude besides
the competent technology to win the
game. Lack of mobility is rather a
polite way of saying ‘denial-of-service’
in today’s competition. Take
m-Commerce, for example, which has
been considered as the game changer,
especially in the developing
economies. Even in the developed
ones, it is not yet ubiquitous, probably
because of the security-related,
technological and psychological
challenges. But, once the ice is broken
and it is made easily accessible, there’s
no dearth of the wonders that
efficiently run m-Commerce could do.
So, for the winners, it must not just be
the ‘Next Thing’. Rather, it ought to be
NOVEMBER 2011
guestarticle
a current service provisioning mandate
top on their priority list to keep ahead
of the rat-race.
Coming back to the trends and
patterns that Indian telecom
providers can bank upon, first of all,
focusing on that one particular
‘differentiating’ Brand Identity, that
makes any brand unique – it is just
too important. What we see around
today is everyone doing everything,
everyone selling everything. But, the
biggest brands in the world are the
ones that do ‘only their thing’ that
reflect them directly and uniquely.
When you talk about a particular
product or service, it is only that
brand that comes to the consumer’s
mind and vice-versa.
Many of the top executives and
telecom professionals advocate
restricting the number of players to
4-6. The reason behind that is both
intelligent and plausible. However,
from the perspective of brand
management and positioning, more
intellectual bandwidth should be
targeted on their main focus, and
‘focus’ is the key to positioning. The The author is a distinguished Brand
Management and Corporate
Narrower and Unique it is, the better
Communications consultant with over a
for any brand. decade of cross-industrial exposure and has
Forget about the competition for a been extensively published and exclusively
moment. Let us first understand what featured in some of the best international
we want to achieve, get clarity, publications. He currently provides branding
prioritize our things and then jump in and communication consultation to several
the warfare fully armed. This is one of MNCs, especially on elevating and differenti-
the key findings you instantly get a feel ating their brands and creating more focused
of when you look at a market such as and better perceptions. He writes indepen-
Canada’s. Each brand has an identity dently for various publications across Asia-
Pacific, US/Canada and is a proactive mem-
and a unique personality and that’s
ber at many Professional Canadian
where the learning is. And, in
Communities and Non-Profit Organizations.
abundance!
1 Source: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=3853327&trk=anet_ug_hm
2 Special Thanks to the Source Cited here: Mr. Ofer Glanz, the Founder of Barak
Strategic Consulting for his exceptionally interesting insights at ‘Innovate’ that I am
citing here with gratitude. –Asheesh Pandia
3 Citing Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_Market
4 Citing Source: http://paulpapadimitriou.com/commentary/2011/09/20/mobile-
broadband-traffic-increase-2600-5-years/
PLUS Bharat Goenka Conferred with Lifetime Achievement Award /08

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UTM EMBARKED ON A

STEADY
GROWTH
The UTM market is making steady progress in the Indian market as its
appeal increases among enterprises of all sizes and across verticals. /30

01
COVER STORY UTM MARKET
UTM EMBARKED ON A
STEADY
GROWTH
The UTM market is making steady progress in the Indian market as its
appeal increases among enterprises of all sizes and across verticals.
BY SANJAY MOHAPATRA
sanjay@smechannels.com
S
ecuring enterprise systems is a top
priority, especially in a connected
world. A fundamental truth for
organizations worldwide is that
protecting their mission-critical
applications, sensitive electronic data, and under-
lying computing infrastructure is a challenging
and never-ending task—a grim scenario wherein
IT and security personnel will always have their
hands full.
With increasing connectivity, a company’s
vulnerability and risk of security compromises
increase manifold. More signiicantly, a shit in
hackers’ motivation and the growth in corporate
espionage have increased the security threat to
enterprises. herefore, it is not only large enter-
prises but even the SMBs that is scurrying for
cover with robust security products.
Earlier security deployments meant point
solutions for a variety of requirements such as
irewalls, intrusion detection systems, VPNs,
anti-spam gateways, etc. However monitoring,
managing and scaling them as the enterprise
grows becomes a huge challenge for the technol-
ogy department. Over the years, vendors have
started clubbing their oferings in order to dif-
ferentiate their products and also to make it easy
30 SME CHANNELS
NOVEMBER 2011
for deployment and maintenance. Gradually such
deployments became more common, and the
term Uniied hreat Management (UTM) became
mainstream when analyst irm IDC used it in a
2005 publication on threat management.
he term has since been used to refer to uniied,
multi-use security threat management devices. It
helps enterprises reduce the number of vendors,
manage the ugrade cycle of diferent products and
simpliies trouble shooting. According to IDC, a
UTM typically comprises a irewall, antivirus and
intrusion prevention and detection.
With increasing proliferation of connectivity, the
threats and complexities in security management
have grown tremendously. he scope and expanse
of UTM oferings have also kept pace by providing
very high-end and sophisticated capabilities. his
eliminates the need for systems administrators to
maintain multiple security programs over time.
herefore sophisticated versions of UTMs can
ofer much more with capabilities that can manage
URL iltering, spam blocking, spyware protection,
content management, data leakage protection.
Oten these devices ofer centralized monitoring
and management of security deployments across
locations and incident logging. hese multi-
function security products provide many beneits
for customers, which combined with new features,
have spurred market growth. here is also a trend
for service providers to ofer UTM-as-a-service
from their datacenters, but it is still early.
“Security consolidation via UTMs represents
not just a better security and convenience but
also opportunities—an opportunity to reduce
network traic, an opportunity to ease integration
of VoIP and Web 2.0 applications, and an oppor-
tunity to boost IT productivity,” says Shubhomoy
Biswas, Country Director – India & SAARC,
SonicWALL.
The Market in India
he UTM market for appliances in 2009 stood at
$42.25 million and is poised to keep growing at a
steady CAGR of 35-40% over the next 3-4 years.
he market is slated to cross $100 million by 2012.
According to a report by research irm IDC in
October 2008, UTM products, which passed the
$1 billion mark in market size in 2007, will make
up 33.6 percent of the total network security
market by 2012.
IDC has identiied the UTM market segment
as the fastest growing segment of the broader
network security market globally, and expects
UTM to represent approximately 30 percent of
 UTM MARKET COVER STORY

THE UTM MARKET IS

SLATED TO CROSS
$100 MILLION BY 2012
AND IS EXPECTED TO
GROW 35% OVER NEXT
TWO YEARS.

SME CHANNELS 31
NOVEMBER 2011
COVER STORY UTM MARKET
ment. It further expanded its capabilities for the
SRX series with the new AppTrack sotware.
Building on Juniper’s recently announced AppSe-
cure suite of applications, AppTrack sotware
provides tight services integration that enables
application-level visibility and improved data
lows and adds application identiication infor-
mation to the IPS session log. Juniper AppTrack is
part of the AppSecure suite of applications, which
provides business logic denial-of-services preven-
tion for the the SRX series.
Astaro is a relatively new entrant in the Indian
network security market. he company is still
relatively small and is poised for much higher
growth than other vendors. In the last two years,
the company has already built a foundation for
explosive growth in its UTM business. However,
India revenue still represents a small percentage
of its worldwide business, but it is now growing
rapidly.
“Most of our partners have chosen our prod-
uct line for its capabilities and ease-of-use. Since
we are relatively a late entrant in India market,
our partners typically used some other network
security product before, and now use Astaro to
realize a broad variety of networking and security
projects. he margins our partners make, posi-
tions our products as second to none,” says Sunil
Sapra of Astaro. Astaro solutions are sold more
on the basis of value than price, enabling partners
to package their services well with the solutions.
A service-led approach builds customer relation-
ship and improves the margins. Aastaro has a
solid line up of products with Sophos next gen
UTMs. Cisco looks at the market and customer
requirements from a holistic perspective and
ofers an End-to-End Self Defending Approach
and Integrated Security. As per Bipin Phase I
UTM is deined by consolidation: he initial
intent of UTM is the consolidation of multiple
security-related technologies into one system.
Initially, UTM solutions were integrated Firewalls
with Intrusion Detection/Intrusion Prevention
Systems (IDS/IPS). Now, most UTM solutions
also include Anti-X (SPAM and malware) and
VPN functionality. UTM continues to evolve with
expanding functionality.
Nevales Networks ofers small and medium
a secure environment to conduct their business
on a ‘pay-as-you-use’ model. Nevales’ platform is
delivered over the Internet with free 24x7 support
and is free from licensing, scalability and mainte-
nance hassles, thereby providing the best value for
money and allowing SMBs to focus on their core
businesses.
Nevales’s security-as-a-service’ ofering
bundles everything into a single subscription
fee, including comprehensive security features,
40 SME CHANNELS
NOVEMBER 2011
“TAKING AN END-TO-END
SECURITY APPROACH
HELPS INFORMATION
SECURITY MANAGERS
BUILD REASONABLE
CONFIDENCE ON THEIR
SECURITY STRATEGY AND
DEPLOYMENTS.”
BIPIN KUMAR AMIN, PRINCIPLE CONSUL-
TANT, BORDERLESS NETWORKS, SECRITY,
CISCO,
automatic updates, patches, and 24x7 technical customers to have higher return on investment
support, thus enabling organizations to elimi- and lower total cost of ownership.
nate upfront costs, providing a predictable cost Integrated security appliances are witnessing
structure, ensuring quality of service, and the high penetration in tier-2 and tier-3 cities. Future
freedom to re-evaluate the solution decision at demand from these markets will be strong and
any time. these markets will lead market growth. he lack
Nevales Networks closely works with its part- of skilled manpower in these cities makes deploy-
ners through regular distribution meets and ment of UTMs a simpler choice due to the inte-
promotions in key channel media. “We support grated nature of these devices.
our partners with regular training and product In conclusion, the UTM market is on the
updates to help them reach out to their customers growth track and the demand for UTM products
better,” says Ravishankar. will increase from all sizes of enterprises. his is
Dominique MEURISSE - Executive Vice Pres- because the security threats are increasingly get-
iden, NETASQ, says, “Everyone is looking for ting complex and the IT department is looking
an integrated security solution to reduce main- for simpler management processes so that they
tenance costs and have a more comprehensive are able to focus on innovation. At the same time,
control over their network security. We foresee a as enterprises cope with business growth they
phenomenal growth in this sector. We at NetASQ will be increasingly looking for simpler and easy
have UTM products from SOHO to enterprise to roll out solutions, which is an advantage with
class networks¡” UTM solutions as they are easy to deploy. here
is increasing awareness and understanding in
The Future Landscape the market about the beneits of UTM markets
he future UTM solutions are likely to include in metros and smaller cities. here is likely to be
one-stop solutions with features such as irewall, balanced growth from all these market segments
VPN, anti-virus, anti-spam, IDS and IPS, content with the SMBs demonstrating the strongest appe-
iltering, bandwidth management, multiple load tite for UTM products.
balancing and gateway failover. However, Asheesh Pandia, Sr. Brand Man-
More and more enterprises will look for agement, Communications & PR Professional,
easier management with plug and play kind of maintains, “he evolution of original irewall is
capabilities. As more enterprises look to simplify what came up as UTM in early 2000s followed by
infrastructure management, they will look for all- XTM (eXtensible hreat Management) - as the
in-one security appliances to ease their manage- threats kept on becoming more dynamic, stealthy
ment burden. and pervasive. Today it is not just the threat part
UTM solutions will be an integrated ofering that is being addressed by XTM but also greater
and will be able to handle blended threats. UTM networking and management capabilities. he
solutions has emerged out of the need to stem the market in India for UTM and XTM seems very
increasing number of attacks on corporate infor- promising despite the issue of sustainable difer-
mation systems via hacking/cracking, viruses, entiation amongst the various competitors. he list
worms—mostly an outcome of blended threats of players has been ever expanding and of course
and insider threats. herefore future demand for analysts have positioned the key vendors appropri-
UTM solutions will be for blended capabilities ately including Fortinet, WatchGuard, SonicWall,
to thwart such threats. Such oferings will enable Cyberoam, Quick Heal and GajShield others.”
COVER STORY UC

UCACT IN
UNISON TO
TAP SME
OPPORTUNI
Unified Communications (UC) has always been the tool of the large
enterprises but with the market slowdown and the growth of the SMEs,
it had also come to the space of the SMEs. But the fact is that the ven-
dors are not able to understand the market as yet and thus have not
been very aggressive also.
BY SANJAY MOHAPATRA
sanjay@smechannels.com

I
f one goes by the dictionary meaning of
Uniied Communications (UC), it is the
integration of real-time communication
services such as instant messaging (chat),
presence information, telephony (includ-
ing IP telephony), video conferencing, call control
and speech recognition with non-real-time com-
munication services such as uniied messaging
(integrated voicemail, e-mail, SMS and fax). he
evolution of the UC has been gradually over a
period time. UC is not a single product, but a
set of products that provides a consistent uniied
user interface and user experience across multiple
devices and media types.
For the lay man, it is nothing but managing
communications and getting quick and timely
response. he business turnaround entirely
depends on the response of the communications.
A delayed communication or collaboration can
incur huge amount of revenue loss. herefore, UC
is as critical to SMEs as it is to the large enterprises.
As per Frost & Sullivan study, the total size of
the UC market in India will grow more than $1
billion by the end of 2010 and expected to grow
manifold in coming times also. Similarly, as per
Dell’Oro Group, despite pockets of weakness
reappearing, the uniied communications market
will expand signiicantly in 2010 as existing ven-
dors continue to invest and expand their sotware
oferings and Microsot begins to actively push
Lync.
When the overall UC market is growing at the
CAGR of 7.9 percent, the individual components
of uniied communications are already witnessing
healthy double digit growth number. For example
the audio video conferencing market is estimated
to grow at 60%, e-mailing and IP telephony is
growing at 20% and 30 percent CAGR.
In this scenario, globally SMEs play major
role in the growth of UC market. But in India
the market is yet to pick up because they face a
lot of challenges. he irst and foremost is they
have budget constraints and they think too much
about interoperability. Secondly, the UC vendors
have not been much focussed on the Indian SME
market.
Adil Doctor, Director SMB Sales (India), Avaya
India, says, “Since, SMEs have limited resources
they are gradually exploiting the beneits of Uni-
ied Communications to help increase eiciency,
productivity, and sales. However, SMEs or com-
panies with up to 999 employees in the Indian
subcontinent beneited the most from Uniied
communication.”
According to a survey by Access Markets
International (AMI) Partners, Inc. SME in India
market spent around US$48.8 million on uniied
communication (UC) in 2009.
Majority of this includes enterprise IP tele-
phony, applications like telepresence, mobility,
conferencing and collaboration are still used to
a limited extent by organizations and therefore
comprise only 10 per cent of the market.

28 SME CHANNELS
DECEMBER 2010
 UC COVER STORY

NITY
AS PER FROST & SULLIVAN
STUDY, THE TOTAL SIZE OF
THE UC MARKET IN INDIA WILL
GROW MORE THAN $1 BILLION
BY THE END OF 2010.

SME CHANNELS 29
DECEMBER 2010
COVER STORY UC

facilitate communication across multiple branch

“AS SMES HAVE LIMITED locations. It’s important that SMBs are shown
RESOURCES THEY ARE how, by streamlining communication infrastruc-
ture, they will be able to ind smarter ways to
GRADUALLY EXPLOITING cut travel costs maximize operational eiciency
THE BENEFITS OF UNIFIED and improve business & customer strategies.
COMMUNICATIONS TO HELP Conferencing and collaboration tools such as
video, audio, web conferencing and instant mes-
INCREASE EFFICIENCY, saging will account for a majority of the total UC
PRODUCTIVITY, AND spending.
SALES.” As per Minhaj with the expansion of Uniied
Communications from the enterprise space into
ADIL DOCTOR, DIRECTOR SMB SALES, AVAYA mid-level and smaller organizations, a growing
INDIA number of SMEs are gradually exploring how
Uniied Communications has the potential of
Asheesh Pandia, Manager Communications, and requirements. he bouquet of UC oferings, increasing eiciency, productivity, and sales. As
Siemens Enterprise Communications (SEN currently available in the market, is so versatile uniied communications applications become
India), says, “UC is precisely as relevant as ‘cost- that any organization, large, medium or small, can more prevalent in the extended workspace, more
containment’, ROI or productivity to SMEs, as it ind technology that best suits both, its needs and organizations are realizing the associated beneits.
is to the large enterprises. Speciically all those budget. Interestingly, according to a NASSCOM Results documented by Sage Research dem-
verticals where the resource size is bigger, travel report, approximately 50-60 per cent of IT spends onstrate a multitude of beneits - both in terms
OPEX is higher or communications is process in the country is expected to come from the lour- of employee time savings and inancial savings.
critical, they need UC more than others. Also, ishing SMB segment.” Organizations using uniied communications
categories with proven needs and interest with IT/ Clearly, there is a huge market waiting out clients saved an average of 32 minutes daily per
ITES, BPO, Petroleum, Manufacturing, Banking there to be tapped and companies are focused on employee because presence technology enabled
& Finance, Healthcare and Professional Services addressing it. However, in order to efectively tap staf to reach one another on the irst try.
need UC.” this segment, it is important that vendors develop Use of sotphones resulted in an average sav-
“UC clearly ofers proitability, savings, customized solutions, which ofer a cost-efective ings of $1,727 per month in cell phone and long
improved decision making, better collaboration and easy to deploy alternative. Indian SMBs are distance charges. Mobile workers also saved 40
and mobility to them. Although pure IP adapta- looking at UC as a low-cost tool to communicate minutes each day, enjoyed greater business com-
tion is seen more in Greenield projects so far, efectively with customers and suppliers as well as munications convenience, and generated annual
overall, we can see quantiiable growth. Adapta- productivity gains of 3.5 days per year through
tion is rising with the awareness and develop- business continuity impact.
ments in security. At this rate, the 100% growth Organizations using uniied messaging
dreams over next three years sound real,” he reported that employees saved 43 minutes per day
added. from more eicient message management while
In its February 2009 report, “Market Overview: mobile workers saved 55 minutes per day.
Sizing Uniied Communications”, Forrester also Companies using integrated voice and Web
predicts that “companies will deploy enhanced conferencing reported a 30 percent reduction
UC capabilities to about 60 per cent of employees in conferencing expenses (by making integrated
in functions that will beneit most from embed- conferencing capabilities available in-house and
ding communications features like wireless and on-network) and an average savings of approxi-
video directly into their business applications. mately $1,700 per month in travel costs basis the
Minhaj Zia, National Sales Manager, Uniied Sage report.
Communications, Cisco India and SAARC, Uniied business communications applications
says, “Indian SMBs are growing and adding more not only facilitate productivity improvements for
business partners nationally and internationally. “UC IS PRECISELY AS employees wherever their work takes them, they
With many of them also opening new branches, RELEVANT AS ‘COST- can also enhance the way in which all employees
networking will play an important role in keep- communicate.
ing employees connected. According to a Frost &
CONTAINMENT’, ROI More speciically for SMBs, the biggest USP of
Sullivan study, currently, India leads the SAARC OR PRODUCTIVITY TO opting for UC solutions is the cost savings that
region’s UC market in terms of total spending and SMES, AS IT IS TO THE they present in terms of travel, communications,
better overall awareness of UC. India has a good etc. Many SMBs also appreciate that enhanced
potential for growth of UC applications as dem-
LARGE ENTERPRISES.” geographical collaboration that comes with the
onstrated by the CAGR of 7.9 per cent during the ASHEESH PANDIA, MANAGER COM- adoption of UC.
period from 2008 to 2015.” MUNICATIONS, SIEMENS ENTERPRISE For example, CoStar has made a signiicant
He added, “he SMB-potential for UC is tre- COMMUNICATIONS (SEN INDIA) investment in a broadcast-quality video confer-
mendous as UC oferings span across budgets encing system from Polycom to connect 3,000

30 SME CHANNELS
DECEMBER 2010
COVER STORY UC
CoStar workers in the US and abroad. hey’ve
worked hard to build out their network -- dealing
with bandwidth allocation, traic shaping and
end-user training -- to keep users satisied with
and using the system.
According to CoStar’s Sergio Soto, “When we
irst started with video conferencing a few years
ago, we simply wanted a way to reduce travel costs
for our sales team. Now we have developers and
researchers on both coasts that use our video
conferencing rooms eight hours a day.” Video has
helped them cut $4-$5M in travel costs.
Neeraj Gill, Managing Director, India &
SAARC, Polycom, says, “SMEs have always faced
an uphill battle when competing with larger, more
established companies. he challenge is even
more daunting in the current economy of slower
business growth, reduced sales opportunities,
and sometimes lower revenues. SMEs are turn-
ing to these solutions because they can help them
Improve productivity, Higher return on invest-
ment (ROI), Enhance their corporate image,
Make better decisions faster, Reduce costs, etc.
Company-wide Communications,Vendor/Sup-
plier Relationships ,Employee Training/Distance
Learning etc are few more points for which SMEs
need the UC solutions.”
he other vendor of UC is NEC, which is
present in India since 2006 and among other
products, the company has a strong foothold on
UC space. Ravinder Raina, Country Head – Pri-
vate Network Solutions, NEC India, says, “In the
post recession scenario, Uniied Communications
is fast emerging as a business necessity. Large
organizations and SMBs have become optimistic
about uniied communications and use it for
integrating communication tools with real-time
business processes. Over the years, uniied com-
munications has helped in easing communication
hassles and now, even SMEs have started to realize
these advantages.”
He added, “Uniied Communications has come
a long way from a simple uniied messaging inbox
for email, voice and faxes, to enhanced mobility,
multi-modal mashups of various forms of com-
munications. hough, the market for UC tech-
nologies is still at its infancy. Currently, the UC
market in India stands at $549 mn, while $321mn
comes from enterprise telephony that includes
17% share of contact center applications, 11%
email and messaging, 10% tele-presence and con-
ferencing while 1% comes from mobility, which is
still a long way to go.”
Similarly, Business Octane is another player
who contributes large to UC space through its
large presence in the telepresence space.
Sanjay Bansal, Chairman of the Board & Man-
aging Director, Business Octane, says, “Immersive
32 SME CHANNELS
DECEMBER 2010
“SMES ARE TURNING
TO THESE SOLUTIONS
BECAUSE THEY CAN HELP
THEM IMPROVE PRODUC-
TIVITY, HIGHER RETURN
ON INVESTMENT (ROI),
ENHANCE THEIR CORPO-
RATE IMAGE, MAKE BETTER
DECISIONS FASTER, REDUCE
COSTS, ETC”
NEERAJ GILL, MANAGING DIRECTOR, INDIA &
SAARC, POLYCOM
Telepresence is gaining momentum and has a He added, “Business Octane has gone ahead in
huge potential in India. he SME market in India terms of innovation with its customized range of
is growing tremendously. he SME segment is Immersive Telepresence Suites & Solutions for the
already a heavy user for virtual collaboration SME segment that will help these enterprises ben-
technologies. he Immersive Telepresence Suites eit from a faster ROI. We had recently introduced
available in the marketplace are majorly suitable CollaboratorPOWERMAXTM an afordable
for large enterprises given the inancial band- immersive telepresence collaboration suite that
width and quantum of usage in such enterprises. ofers media-rich, immersive dynamic telepres-
However, these factors difer for the SME seg- ence experience. he customized suite creates a
ment where the demand will be driven by such meeting experience over telepresence which is as
innovations that can replicate in the most efective efective as meeting face-to-face with distant par-
manner as possible the experience of immersive ticipants with high deinition studio quality video
telepresence at reduced costs to vindicate the and high deinition stereo spatial audio, together
investments being made.” with near actual physical sizing and natural eye
contact.”
he company has advanced video collabora-
tion solution: AltraCOLLABORATOR that also
caters to the SME segment; it is a customizable
collaboration solution to be retroitted in existing
video meeting rooms.
Sanjay Manchanda, Director-Microsot Busi-
ness Division, Microsot India, says, “In today’s
fast evolving competitive global market, SMBs
need cost-efective technologies that allow lex-
ibility and adds value to their organization. As an
initial step towards adopting a UC solution, SMBs
are increasingly turning to Sotware + Services
solutions to meet the needs of their businesses.
Keeping these changing trends and requirements
“INDIAN SMBS ARE in mind, Microsot announced the launch of
GROWING AND ADDING Microsot Online Services last year in India that
will help fulil the communication and collabora-
MORE BUSINESS PART- tion needs of these small businesses. his suite
NERS NATIONALLY AND combines services such as email, ability to chat,
INTERNATIONALLY.” work together simultaneously on documents,
have a meeting online and maintain a common
MINHAJ ZIA, NATIONAL SALES calendar at a cost-efective price with lexible pay-
MANAGER, UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS, ment options”
CISCO INDIA AND SAARC he online services of the company ensures reli-
able email communication, work and collaborate
COVER STORY UC

Small businesses.
“BUSINESS OCTANE HAS Adil says, “Looking at the current trends, IP
GONE AHEAD IN TERMS based systems like SIP; IP PBX and telephony sys-
tems are gaining ground. Avaya ofers a platform
OF INNOVATION WITH ITS speciically tailored for SME needs, such as Avaya
CUSTOMIZED RANGE OF IP Oice.”
IMMERSIVE TELEPRESENCE Avaya IP Oice is simple yet sophisticated
platform which can also scale to provide UC &
SUITES & SOLUTIONS FOR CC features. SMB customer can start small and
THE SME SEGMENT THAT add application later as they grow. He adds, “Avaya
WILL HELP THESE ENTER- is the worldwide leader in the SME market, with
leadership in both revenue and line share. With
PRISES BENEFIT FROM A Avaya IP Oice 6.1, the company accelerates uni-
FASTER ROI. ied communications and contact center technol-
SANJAY BANSAL, CHAIRMAN OF THE ogies in the SME market, helping SMEs compete
BOARD & MANAGING DIRECTOR, BUSINESS more efectively, but in a cost-conscious manner.”
OCTANE As per Sanjay, Business Octane’s immersive
telepresence collaboration suites and customized
collaboration solution are equipped with a user
faster with a common library of all documents at Similarly, Cisco also takes SMBs very seriously. interface that allows for simple and elegant use of
one location, engage and ask for opinions using Cisco’s SMB division customizes networking all the functionalities. All the immersive telepres-
media-rich presentations and option to switch solutions. hese products and solutions are under ence collaboration suites and speciic advanced
video and audio with multiple parties and ind the umbrella solution-packs of Cisco Small Busi- video collaboration solution incorporate a new
the right colleague quickly and chat on messenger, ness Pro, Cisco Smart Business Communication revolutionary user interface SimpliUSE+ that
audio or video. System, backed by a host of service & support, and incorporates TeleconnectWIZARD for connect-
From the vendors perspective, Siemens is very inancing ofers. ing multiple locations with extreme ease of usage
focused on the SME space. As Asheesh says, “We Channel presence and technical support. Cisco and without any external help. In addition, Busi-
highly focussed on it with a comprehensive port- qualiies businesses with less than 100 PCs as ness Octane’s Immersive Telepresence empowers
folio of exclusive UC oferings for this segment. users to collaborate seamlessly with other com-
SEN has a track record of consistent product and munication applications. Meeting participants
solution innovation for small and medium busi- whether on audio, desktops, and video confer-
nesses. Moreover, our marketing and service/sup- encing sites can seamlessly collaborate with the
port are aligned rightly to get us an edge on SME company’s immersive telepresence suites.
space.” As per him, the return on investment with our
SEN provides platforms that best suit smaller immersive telepresence suites is so compulsive
business - be it integrating uniied communi- that companies can start reaping returns on their
cations functionality into Microsot Outlook, investment within 3 to 6 months.
launching conferencing from desktop or using On the other hand, Polycom is farming up a
existing infrastructure, such as analogue tele- strategy speciically aimed at the SME segment.
phones or entry phones. SEN communications As a part of this strategy Polycom has recently
systems and platforms support small businesses appointed a global head for the SME segment. he
with up to 500 employees. SEN OpenScape Oice company provides a wide-range of desktop, wire-
is the industry’s irst UC application designed less and multimedia communication solutions for
speciically for small- and medium-sized busi- “OVER THE YEARS, small and medium enterprises. For example, Poly-
nesses, HiPath 1100 is designed to give high- com SoundPoint IP family of phones leverages the
performance telephony to small/medium sized
UNIFIED COMMUNICA- capabilities of SIP-based VoIP networks to deliver
businesses with up to 140 users and HiPath 3000 TIONS HAS HELPED IN breakthrough voice quality and advanced features
is our lexible uniied communications plat- EASING COMMUNICA- that make calls more eicient and productive.
form that scales from 20 to 500 users. he latest Polycom SoundStation Conference Phones are
OpenScape Oice MX is an all-in-one, uniied
TION HASSLES AND the industry standard for clear productive confer-
communications appliance built upon reliable, NOW, EVEN SMES HAVE ence calls.
secure, serviceable, and manageable OpenSmart STARTED TO REALIZE Similarly, Polycom’s recently introduced QDX
architecture with network connectivity that sup- 6000 is the irst videoconferencing product of its
ports upto 150 users. Among Siemens Enterprise
THESE ADVANTAGES.” kind to address the cost-conscious SME segment
Communications other oferings are OpenScape RAVINDER RAINA, COUNTRY HEAD that at the same time seeks ease of use and high
Oice Contact Center, Network Infrastructure – PRIVATE NETWORK SOLUTIONS, NEC quality.
& Security portfolio and a whole range of voice/ INDIA However, the biggest challenge the SMEs
data/video products and solutions. today face isn’t so much relevant to cost, but the

34 SME CHANNELS
DECEMBER 2010
COVER STORY UC
complexity of IT. he interoperability is no more
relevant now as most the vendors have addressed
the issue with open standards based solutions.
he lack of awareness and value perception is
one of the key roadblocks to SME IT adoption.
And, these challenges can only be mitigated by
the aggressive engagement of partners to play a
consultative role to the customers. Some partners
have already understood the value proposition
some are not. For example GoIP Global Services
is one of the channel partners of multi brands
and understand the market very well. hey must
have gone through gruelling sessions and have
acquired the knowledge hard way.
Shiv Sharma, Director - Strategy & Alliance,
Go IP Global Services, says, “Uniied Com-
munications (UC) has emerged as an impor-
tant milestone in the evolution of enterprise
communications. UC seeks to break down the
communications silos in the enterprise and add
collaboration functions. Using a diferent tool
for each communications mode (phone, fax, and
email) hinders productivity, wastes time, and
causes frustration. Business users no longer want
to juggle multiple devices and phone numbers,
multiple message stores, and multiple directories
when instead they can access multimedia com-
munication and collaboration tools in a single
interface on the desktop. UC breaks down barri-
ers and integrates communication and collabora-
tion tools, making them more easily accessible
and saving signiicant time and resources.”
He adds, “UC solutions, such as Microsot Lync
Server 2010 typically combine several traditional
communications functions (including presence,
instant messaging, real-time voice and video
communications and uniied messaging) into
an integrated, uniied solution. UC can improve
productivity, accelerate information transfer, and
reduce costs. UC solutions, such as Lync Server
2010 and Microsot Exchange Uniied Messaging,
can also replace traditional PBX and messaging
systems in remote oice locations.”
Cisco’s SMB market strategy involves help-
ing customers create a sustainable competitive
advantage, improve their operational eiciencies,
increase their employees’ productivity, and ulti-
mately boost their returns and proitability. he
strategy includes focusing on new customised
SMB products/solutions and inancing schemes
like the Easy Lease program, and the 0% inance
ofering for SMBs. To increase awareness of its
products and programs among these businesses,
Cisco will continue to invest heavily in partner
enablement and innovative marketing initiatives
such as the Network on Wheels and the Sales and
Marketing Services Organisation.
Cisco is developing domain speciic solutions
36 SME CHANNELS
DECEMBER 2010
“UC SEEKS TO BREAK
DOWN THE COMMUNI-
CATIONS SILOS IN THE
ENTERPRISE AND ADD COL-
LABORATION FUNCTIONS.
SHIV SHARMA, DIRECTOR - STRATEGY &
ALLIANCE, GO IP GLOBAL SERVICES
to help SMB customers in each sub-vertical, partner program that focus on their empower-
which will help them plan, design and operate ment in terms of knowledge - trainings & certi-
business critical networks more eiciently. ication, engagement - partner communication,
he Company has also launched a small busi- presence & messaging - marketing and branding
ness partner proitability program. Cisco also support, references and rewards & recognition.
makes available a lot of product literature and On global level, the company has programs like
support material to partners to support their sales ‘Go Forward’ that are meant for channel empow-
eforts. In fact Cisco has a separate division called erment and recognition.
the Sales and Marketing Support Organisation Polycom is also working on a strategy to reach
(SMSO) that takes care of the marketing collateral bigger number of SME throughout the country for
needs of the channel partners. which they are appointing more channel partners.
Similarly, Avaya in India has been moving hey have 3 distributors and more than 50 chan-
towards a High-Touch, channel centric (HTCC) nel partners spread across India. he company
sales model. hey now have two national level dis- will soon appoint some more channel partners to
tributors in Redington and Bharti Teletech help- reach out the wide spread SMEs in India. By irst
ing the company reach out to the SMEs across the quarter of 2011, Polycom will launch “Polycom
country. hese distributors further sell to a large Choice Programme” for its channel partners,
set of System Integration (SI) partners, across which will encompass certiication, growth and
geographies in India & SAARC. deining the channel partners.
he company has a fantastic Channel Partner NEC’s channel network for PNS (Private Net-
Program called “Avaya Connect”, which helps SI work Solutions) is pretty strong including the
partners take advantage of enhanced technical names like Enkay Technologies, Syntel and Intel-
and marketing beneits. his in turn helps them licon. Very recently they have tied-up with Avaya
build capability on Avaya Technologies and serve Global Connect Networks as its national distribu-
customers better. tor for the PNS solutions.
he company is gung ho about 2011 and has a
slew of marketing initiatives in the pipeline, one Finally…
of which is already rolled out. hat is the 6 city he entire assortment of opinion says that most
Experience roadshows to showcase the integrated of the vendors are ready with SME solutions and
product roadmap and Avaya technologies to the they have addressed the pricing and interopera-
customers and partner community. bility issues with due care. he only thing they are
he company is investing heavily in the chan- struggling waiting is the educating the customers
nel partners, by way of partner enablement, about the utility and R0I of the UC solutions. his
Demo Gear, Ex-Stock product availability, Solu- is surely a challenge and the large vendors should
tion bundles, Toll free Support line for Pre-sales take the foot forward by engaging the customers
& Post-sales, Partners Rewards & Rebates. Avaya in various platforms explaining them about the
has ambitious plans on marketing online, print, beneits, which will include aggressively engag-
road shows for SMB partners who are certiied ing with the partners. Another trend - hosted
and invested in Avaya. communication services or cloud services - is
SEN’s indirect channel structure is extensive also picking up in the market which is very much
and so is its reach. he company has over a hun- relevant to the SME market and it is waited to be
dred partners with pan-India presence, including seen how the things are panning out. But the sen-
tier II cities. he company has also an excellent timent is UC is high with the SMEs.
 Guest Article
Tele-mimetics, Tele-
trends and Focus for
Inspiration!
By Asheesh Pandia
O ver the last quarter I had been very fortunate to
interview and discuss one-on-one with some of the
'who's who' of Canadian Telecom Industry. What's
most interesting behind the success of many of these leaders
and their organizations' outstanding performance was the
extremely simple but fundamentally a profound marketing
wisdom. I could easily compare their thought-patterns with
the likes of Al Ries and Jack Trout, the marketing Gurus and
founders of positioning theory. Most of these interviews
were remarkably insightful not only in terms of where the
Canadian or Global Telecom Industry is headed to but also in
that how just about any geography could relate to the other
from the cause and effect perspective of micro & mega
trends and eventually, in one way or the other, can possibly
utilize the end takeaways towards their collaborative
industrial betterment. From marketing standpoint this at first
seems tough to assimilate though, let alone to be compared
any further. More so, because we speak of one of the most
dynamic and particularly now, evermore stirred-up industrial
segments and also when the diversity is hugely evident,
among widely different geographies. However, if we refer
from the standpoint of 'inspiration', similar to a Case-study,
and not simply 'adaptation' because that would be unfair
indeed; theories suddenly start making practical sense. In a
November 2011 Issue
way, it's more like cross-industrial learning, redevelopment
and collaboration or rather Biognosis and 'Bio-mimetics'.
Some may want to research those terms in entirety to get
greater insight. The biggest challenges that Canada had faced
since inception were essentially the huge geography,
weather conditions and the diversely growing consumer
demography, for instance. As a result, the network
infrastructure maintenance investments went beyond and
out of proportion and hence, the anatomy of basic marketing
strategies today seems starkly different. And then there
remain similarities too in terms of trends especially in the
Social Media era. According to Mr. Gautam Nath, one of the
best Canadian marketing knowledge-banks today, who I had
the opportunity to meet recently, “Multi-Cultural marketing
22 dynamics is the most sought-after horizon here in Canada at
the moment”. I feel essentially the rise in Multi-Cultural
Marketing shares a similar pattern to that of the ongoing
'Rural Penetration pursuit' in India. And yet again,
considering that Canada wants the largest pipelines at the
lowest cost which definitely would demand more funds,
access to global capital market through more relaxed and
free competition and more incumbents is desirable not much
unlike how it had always been in India regardless of the
competition because population and the market size is
awesome.
On a global level too, most telecom markets remain overall
pulsating with focus on higher speeds, better interactivity
and customer experience. Realistically, it is easy to
understand that the Churn Management is definitely a very
important issue still for the most part because acquiring a
new customer is much more pricey and unpredictable than
retaining the existing customer base. The latter, however,
could also be equally demanding and complex but more
often than not cost-effective to both the consumer and the
service provider. The new generation of consumers is
definitely not as loyal as it used to be in the Wireline-only
era. Moreover, 'Brand Loyalty' itself cannot be compared at
any given moment among a telecom service provider and a
financial institution, in the case of the former; it could be far
more casual for the consumer to be flirtatious and shop
around. Another common challenge across economies is to
maintain & strive to increase the dirt-cheap margins and
that's where the opportunities for telecom consulting and
marketing organizations and analysts lie. Subscriber base
might have been sustained or grown but the revenues seem
to dip gradually. With respect to the extremely low-margins,
it's not difficult to gauge the situation when you find analysts
use Price-Earnings (P/E) and Price-to-Sales (Price/Sales)
Ratios as measures of valuation; for some companies have
little or no profits to speak of unfortunately, especially at this
time. And now, all of a sudden, inadequate Spectrum poses
another big challenge in India which DoT, the telecom
regulatory body, proposes to address with Refarming the 900
megahertz (MHz) spectrum when operators' licenses come
up for renewal between 2014 and 2025 by including it in the

“The face of telecom is changing
by the hour and it is not the
same simple voice domain
anymore rather a more holistic
and all-embracing one with the
rising Mobile Broadband Traffic,
dominant Consumer Electronics
and a skyrocketing Ultra-Viral
Social Media.”
Spectrum Bill in its recommendation. Telecom providers
are of course not equally fond of such a recommendation
by DoT because there are reasons to believe that it would
not be appropriate at this point when you have to be
moving all the subscribers to a brand new network as a
consequence while they are on a fully functional one,
already. Let alone the obvious interruption in current
service and big investments that will be needed to carry
out this change in any case, at any given point in time.
Still, we cannot deny the relative growth prospects that
sound paradoxical after summing up all the above
challenges but they are true for sure. I am going to
mention the exploding Mobile Broadband Traffic below
and the figures are mind-blowing. Whatever be the reason
for this increase in traffic, in the end, telecom service
providers have both the responsibility and the opportunity
to serve the consumer well and make money. There is also
no denying of the fact that there is a huge potential for the
current generation of consultants in cross-economy trend-
spotting as well as for telecom service providers to
bootstrap themselves. Most of all, 'to find their best
identity in the value chain' and 'to be able to innovate
lightening fast' have been the top priorities of the best
players so far and again trend-watching gives the best food
for thought in terms of both innovation and the correct
'Brand Positioning'.
For the most part, Indian telecom has been doing really
well relatively barring the Spectrum Refarming struggle
cited above; but the option of taking a look at the external
and distant trends could also guarantee significant
betterment for the 'highly innovative' kinds. The face of
telecom is changing by the hour and it is not the same
simple voice domain anymore rather a more holistic and
all-embracing one with the rising Mobile Broadband
Traffic, dominant Consumer Electronics and a skyrocketing
Ultra-Viral Social Media. Mobile Applications market for
instance is the most astonishing at this moment. Back in
March of 2009, about 2,300 applications were available on
the Android Market, according to T-Mobile CTO Cole
About the Author
The author is a distinguished Brand Management and Corporate Communications consultant with over a decade of
cross-industrial exposure and has been extensively published & exclusively featured in some of the best
international publications. He currently provides branding and communication consultation to several MNCs
especially on elevating and differentiating their brands and creating more focused and better perceptions. He
writes independently for various publications across Asia-Pacific, US/Canada and is a proactive member at many
Professional Canadian Communities and Non-Profit Organizations.
Brodman. And in May, 2011 alone, during the Google I/O,
Google announced that Android Market listed 200,000
applications and had already clocked 4.5 Billion installed
applications. By July, the figure had crossed the 250,000
milestone. Distimo and Germany-based research2guidance
forecast that the number of apps on Android Market would
surpass Apple by the third quarter of 2011, with some 425,000
apps. Similarly in terms of Consumer Electronics and Mobile
Broadband Traffic, iSuppli reckons global SmartPhone
shipments will double by 2015 and account for more than half
of all mobile phones sold. At the same time, mobile broadband
traffic volumes will see a 2600% increase in the next five years,
say Nokia Siemens Networks' own figures. The Nokia Siemens
numbers are astounding a 1000-fold mobile data traffic
increase by the year 2020.
To consumer, mobility is not a privilege anymore; it's simply an
'extension of access to information' and telecom providers only
need the 'super value creation' attitude besides the competent
technology to win the game. Lack of mobility is rather a polite
way of saying 'denial-of-service' in today's competition. Take m-
Commerce, for example, which has been considered as the
game-changer especially in the developing economies. Even in
the developed ones, it is not yet ubiquitous maybe because of
the security-related, technological and psychological challenges
but once the ice is broken and it is made easily accessible,
there's no dearth of the wonders that efficiently run m-
Commerce could do. So for the winners, it must not just be the
'Next Thing'. It rather ought to be a current service provisioning
mandate top on their priority list to keep ahead of the rat-race.
Coming back to the trends and patterns that Indian telecom
providers can bank upon. First of all, focusing on that One
Particular 'Differentiating' Brand Identity, that makes any brand
unique it is just too important. What we see around today is
everyone doing everything, everyone selling everything but the
biggest brands in the world are the ones that do 'only their
www.telecomera.net
thing' that reflects them directly and uniquely; when you talk
about a particular product or service, it's only that brand that
comes to the consumer's mind and vice-versa. Many of the top
executives and telecom professionals advocate restricting the
number of players to 4 to 6 and the reason behind that is both
intelligent and plausible. However, from the perspective of
brand management and positioning, more intellectual
bandwidth should be targeted on their main focus and 'focus' is
the key to positioning. The Narrower and Unique it is, the better
for any brand. Forget about the competition for a moment, let's
first understand what we want to achieve, get clarity, prioritize
our things and then jump in the warfare fully armed. This is one
of the key findings you instantly get a feel of when you look at a
market such as Canada's. Each brand has an identity and a
'unique personality' and that's where the learning is. And in
abundance!
23