"If I was to summarize what clients (CIO/CTO) want  from their service providers, it's basically good service at a fair and visible price, and to be able to focus on the core business without having to worry too much about managing the service provider to deliver the telecom and IT services to make the business happen," said most CIOs, across industry verticals, on being asked what they wanted from their service provider (SP).

At a time when communication and networking infrastructure are not only their lifeline but also provide the competitive edge, seeking more and more services from the SP is the in thing with enterprises, and CIOS have become very demanding.

With the telecom SPs offering varied enterprise solutions like voice, video, data transmission along with end-to-end connectivity the CIO/CTO is ready to consider the SPs' services if they are can deliver efficient services at more economical rates.

Satish Pendse, CIO of Kuoni Travel (India) says, "What enterprises need is transparent seamless service from the SP. They must deliver effective and cost-efficient services and meet standards of professionalism, transparency, probity, and accountability."

The ever-growing demands from enterprises clearly outline the demand for a SP who can offer services through one point of interface. For enterprises it does not matter whether there are multiple SPs involved in the offering of services. For this interoperability among SPs will be paramount for the enterprises as they prefer services from many not a single SP, yet they don't want the bother of interacting separately with each one.

The story is the same for a host of organizations that already have connectivity across the country but are still groping for ways to further streamline their connectivity and data transmission services.

Most of the network infrastructure today is about connectivity through leased lines and VSATs for remote locations.

Today businesses have shifted from seeking only cost savings, to finding a solution that is fit for their purpose and is also value for money.

RP Singh, executive director (IIS), BPCL says that cost is not a big issue as the costs involved are not so huge-the governing factor is whether it is a totally reliable, sustainable solution and whether the party can be relied on to provide as reliable a service as the current services.

DD Singh, chief (IT/BPR), Life Insurance Corporation of India says, "Value for money means more than just competitive pricing. As we are a data-focused organization we need high data transmission capacity. And with data warehousing also soon to be deployed on the network, we will need additional capacity to host the data collected from data mining and warehousing."

It is not that CIOs have deleted cost savings from their manuals; instead they are looking at benefits in terms of service outcomes and the ability to focus on the enterprises' mainstream business.

Satish Pendse of Kuoni Travel heads a reasonably federalist communications setup that uses basic, mobile, and other value-added services like VPN from most operators in the country. He says that the objective is not to build core competencies in areas that are not our business but to outsource and focus on our key area of operation, i.e., the travel business.

The contentious issue for most enterprises has been interoperability amongst the SPs. Technology heads of various enterprises say that the need of the hour is for the SPs to offer seamlessness through tie ups and association and not attempt to offer all services themselves. The SPs need to focus on their core competencies and partner with other SPs for services in their focus areas.

There is a huge need for sharing and interoperability amongst the SPs to offer efficient services to the enterprise and the end users.

At times it would not make sense for vendors to duplicate infrastructure across the country. This would only result in duplication and exhaustion of already scarce resources. If there was interoperability, it also makes a good business model to the customer, as the customer does not have to manage multiple SPs for the various services.

But if there is a seamless tie up and the package is presented in one comprehensive package to the end user, it would meet the requirements of the enterprise.

This need also stems from the fact that in certain circles an SP may be strong and another SP in another. But the corporate will have a pan-India presence and it would want the best of that particular circle to cater it. It will take the services of the best player in that area and this calls for a thick association of SPs.

Seeking Missing Services
Enterprises feel a strong need to concentrate on their core business activities and would want the SPs to be able to eliminate the need to invest enterprise's own human resources in the infrastructure. As RP Singh asserts, "Building expertise in the business, which is not our core competency, is exhausting resources in the wrong direction."

Though most of the telecom SPs claim a pan-India presence, most of them do not have presence in specific locations identified by the enterprises. Both BPCL and BSE have experienced this, where SPs do not have presence in many locations where they seek connectivity. Absence of last mile is another issue that needs to be addressed by the SPs.

SPs should carve their niche and tie up with others for the other services, as it does not make sense to enter into all areas as per the enterprises' needs. This will enable SPs to increase efficiency and competency in their service area as enterprises would be hesitant to take offerings of a new SP with no proven track record.

The way the Indian telecom industry is growing, we are likely to witness capacity constraints. The systems will collapse if the SPs will not keep pace with the infrastructure requirements as even in India, many exchanges do not have MPLS, MLDN etc. The Indian SPs need to scale their backend very fast.

SB Patankar, CTO of BSE (stock exchange Mumbai) concurs that the SPs need to grow their infrastructure and get new technology to India, as there is a high business need at the enterprise.

A recent Gartner survey of 1,800 CIOs across the Asia-Pacific region shows CIOs now have reasonable expectations of what a service provider can deliver, and
are primarily interested in handing over responsibility for delivery of non-core services to free up staff to concentrate on delivering services critical to the business
mission.

"The CIO has a much better understanding of what to expect from the service provider," says DD Singh of LIC. He adds that till today, if you want to connect from one location to another location, the SPs don't have the last mile connection. The SP needs to first get the last mile that is still missing from end to end. Until these companies have an arrangement with all the SPs that equal treatment would be provided to all the customers, this problem is going to continue. "The day we find we can get better service at lower cost we are not adverse to shifting to other parties," said RP Singh of BPCL.

Patankar of BSE says, "It would definitely be a good idea to deal with a single identity rather than multiple entity but the issue would be, will they be able to deliver." He says that there should not be any conflict of interest amongst the SPs. Especially in his type of business, where the delivery has to be 100 percent, this factor has to be taken into consideration.

Minu Sirsalewala