The "C" Transformation

The underlying philosophy for its growth has been"believe in the best, believe in the future". BPL has metamorphoseditself through BPL Ltd, BPL Innovision Group, and BPL Telecom Ltd—the threepillars of its growth. While BPL Ltd and BPL Telecom Ltd are the refurbished andenergized pillars, BPL Innovision is the neoteric pillar.

The oldest pillar, BPL Ltd, is all set to affect convergencethrough rollout of set-top boxes and Internet-ready TVs. We are limiting thefocus on this pillar and will concentrate on the remaining two pillars. However,it needs to be explained here that its strategies for the group are top-down,while they are different on the operational responsibilities.

BPL Telecom: BPL Telecom Ltd, which is 25-years old, has beenvisible for EPABXes, KTS, and pushbutton telephones. However, it was also one ofthe first companies to be in networking, way back in 1971. It started withbuilding the communications networks through IC-based Power Line CarrierCommunications (PLCC) systems. Over the period, it has successfully amassed thetechnology development and implementation competence. And now it is all set todon a new robe, restructuring itself as a networking and IT company.

Says VN Bhattacharya, chief executive officer, BPL TelecomLtd. As a networking company, we will be addressing the convergence phenomenonthrough enterprise communication networking, turnkey WAN solutions on broadbandplatform, and customer premises and terminal equipment that go with the abovenetworks. And as an IT solutions provider, we would be addressing theconvergence of telephony and computing. We would be three categories ofsolutions. One, the telecom business solutions—customer care and billing,fraud management systems, call flow tool design, IVRs, call centre solutions,interconnect accounting devices, mediation devices, etc. Two, enterprisesolutions like datawarehousing, datamining, client/server technology ande-commerce solutions. Lastly, the system and embedded software solutions—DSP-basedapplications, real-time OOPS, etc."

The transition for BPL Telecom Ltd today is completed withinwith its C-strategy to be a total networking and IT service and solutionsprovider. And that is where the future is, especially with a lot of WANs comingup.

BPL Innovision: This is another pillar in the technologydriven environment. Again in the area of convergence happening at the serviceslevel. Says Guhan Subramaniam, one of the key strategy drivers at BPL Innovision,"The name Innovision emanates from the fact that we want to projectourselves as not only being technology focused but also that it represents theinnovation for the future. This group has four key focus areas—wireless,Internet, broadband, and technology solutions. And we have companies focused oneach of these areas." True. The Group has BPL Mobile and BPL Cellular asthe two companies focused on cellular business in the wireless category; in theInternet business, the identity is bplnet.com. The third is the broadband, whereat the moment, the focus is on infrastructure, BPL Broadband and IndiaInternetworks Exchange. The last of the lot is the technology solutions underBPL Innovision Technologies.

In fact, this is the group that is focused on futuristicbusinesses of connectivity, content, and commerce. It will witness hugeinvestments both in terms of capital and intellect. Wireless business being thefirst to take off, its experience therein will be the base for its remaininglines of businesses. And if one looks at some of the business plans that it hasit would be undoubtedly be a wholesome player in the convergence scene. Take forexample, the Internet business. Its vision is providing the customer a completeInternet experience. Explains Subramaniam, "What we really believe is theend user—the individual or corporate—at the moment is perhaps lackingcertain completeness in Internet experience. Internet can come in differentpackages and shapes, and obviously there would be the early technology adoptersand the mature technology adapters, and they would need continuity. There areQoS, reliability, and so on. And that is why we need to focus on thecompleteness.

To focus on this, it would be concentrating on access,content, hosting, and Internet solutions. On the access part, it would bedial-up, leased-line, and DSL. On the content part it would be that for both thewireless and the normal users; build Web farms, and help the corporatesweb-enable the legacy systems, do web integration, look at being the ASP, andexplore the option of being an Internet commerce provider to offer consumerservices.

The third building block is broadband strategy. Right now itis focusing on infrastructure laying the fibre cables. It is negotiating theright of ways and then build capacity. The aim is to resolve the bandwidth issueand link the last-mile. It is a capital-intensive exercise. Also, it has IndiaInternetworks Exchange that would concentrate on building gateways. And the lastbuilding block is the technology solutions. Under that, it wants to leverage thetelecom domain expertise as the infrastructure builder or operator to do threekey things. One, set up technology development centres on the lines of offshoredevelopment centre. It concluded a MoU recently with Nortel and is looking to dowith others. The second area of focus is technical support service in the areaof installing, commissioning, or supporting networks, along with focusing onremote management of networks. The third aspect of technology solutions group isthe e-apps and e-technologies. This is evolving in two phases—as businessprocess transformation stage as offshore development model, and one-technologies it is looking at embedded systems. On the wireless plane, it isexpanding to the next stage of 2.5 networks and also looking at the options ofbeing a DLDO. Obviously, all these activities converge in to one direction—consumer.

The "C" Differentiator

What makes BPL so confident to bring about convergence? Infact, if we take a look at the current players in the convergence businesses, itis Bharti and BPL mainly which have prior experience in the telecom businesses.They have been with the phones and other terminal-end telecom equipment.However, what makes BPL the most effective player is its expertise incommunications networking and manufacturing facilities. As a result of that ithas a common resource-pool that can be tapped into for any of its offerings fromanywhere in its groups.

When you combine the strength of all these—resource pool,products, and focus—it is possible to make the dream come true. And BPL’soverall strategy to achieve objectives is being a clear technology-driven andtechnology-focused group with the single-minded focus of giving the customers,whether corporate or individual, the best in terms of infrastructure, content,or solutions. It is doing all of those, looking at synergies, right kind ofpartnerships and alliances, and then the right kind of competency, people, and astimulating environment. With these attributes in its basket and theeffervescent brand, BPL has every reason to be on the path of being an enviablebrand—in the convergence arena.

Ch. Srinivas Rao