One positive development for the NI market in 2002 was the downward trend in the prices of satellite equipment. Prices have dropped by almost one-third to half, with speeds growing three to four times. Even on the terrestrial front, on a single router/box vendors integrated more and more needs like data and ISDN. This made the setting-up of networks more affordable, giving a spurt to the NI market in India.

Buying Tips

n Pan-India Infrastructure: It is important for the integrator to have support offices in multiple locations across the country. In many cases, there are only sales offices, and there is often a problem in case of emergency if the user is in the south while the integrator is located in the north.

n Multiple Platform Experience: The integrator should have experience on multiple platforms for networking and computing technologies. These days, it is no more possible for an integrator to be working only on mainframes or only on Uix. A typical implementation today is extremely heterogeneous on platforms.

n Open Architecture Support: The integrator should support open architecture implementation of products from multiple vendors for seamless integration. A standard network may have boxes from Sun, HP, routers from Cisco and IBM mainframes. A typical NI should be able to support all this.

n Deliverables: The integrator should possess capabilities like network management, SLAs, installation and maintenance, troubleshooting and process documentation.

n Skilled Manpower: Both the onsite as well as offsite support staff should be skilled enough to manage the entire network infrastructure.

n Experience: The integrator should have enough experience in designing large mission-critical networks and in reducing the TCO. Besides, the integrator should have knowledge on applications like SCM, CRM, storage as well as security.

n Software Integration Capability: The integrator must have software integration capability.