The NI market ®was not able to repeat its spectacular 64 percent growth as in the previous year, but it still witnessed a steady 14 percent growth this year with revenues touching Rs 1,096 crore. One more important lesson was that all enterprise users would need networks of one scale or another to cut costs.

Top 10 Network Integrators
Vendor	Sales in 2001-02 (Rs crore)	Percentage growth over last fiscal
Wipro Infotech	245	-9
HCL Comnet	189	44
Datacraft India	174	18.37
HECL	143	2.14
HCL Infosystems	103	11.96
Network Solutions	98	17
Global Telesystems	93	102.17
Tulip IT Services	73	82.5
Comsat Max	70	6.06
Ramco	61	-1.61

The challenge for most integrators would be to try and bring in a convergence of hardware and software solutions. For users in the telecom industry and to some extent in the BPO segment, it would be absolutely necessary to look at those integrators who can come up with these transport technologies.

With new standards emerging and technology becoming cheaper, companies looked at extending their networks to other geographies which had not been covered earlier. Also, because of the recession, customers were increasingly looking at means and tools to lower inventory levels and this led them to go in for more connectivity. They started interconnecting their various offices, branches to enhance efficiencies and derive more benefits and this automatically led to the need for integrating them into existing networks. For all enterprise users interconnecting multiple branches across geographies, it is necessary to have integrators active in all these geographies.

Wipro Infotech, HCL Comnet, Hughes Escorts Communications, HCL Infosystems emerged as some of the prominent players in 2002. Though Wipro Infotech had a setback in terms of a 9.26 percent negative growth, at Rs 245 crore it still continued to be the leader in this segment. The economic slowdown was primarily responsible for the company’s slow growth in the integration business. As the company continued positioning itself at the core of network platform-centric development, and as a one-shop-stop for all solutions, NI formed the majority of the business. The company has a strong place in segments like manufacturing, banking, finance, telecom, IT and the government. In the recent past the company has also forayed into foreign markets.

HCL Comnet experienced a positive growth of 44.25 percent in the last fiscal, much bigger than the average industry growth.

This could be attributed to the fact that it bagged some major orders from the government and manufacturing segments. The year saw HCL Comnet moving in a position to provide end-to-end solutions across verticals and shrugging off its tag as only a satellite service provider. Like Wipro, HCL Comnet too forayed into the international segment. Since the company’s business is spread across different segments and technology areas, it was not really affected by the recession.

HECL provides an entire portfolio of end-to-end services, including WAN connectivity, designing and integration of networks, managing of networks, and provision of data centres and ASP services. HECL integrates both satellite and terrestrial equipment into the network as part of its NI services which touched Rs 143 crore this year. While open to all verticals, the company is specifically looking at the financial, FMCG and retail segments to drive growth. Today, the company is positioning its NI offerings as a logical extension of its connectivity services and an important part of its services value chain, comprising management of networks, data centres and ASP services.

HCL Infosystems’ turnover in 2001-2002 from network marketing in the domestic market, including the LAN, WAN and the security market space was Rs 102.5 crore with major contracts for facilities management from customers in Malaysia. The main markets targeted by HCL Infosystems included the manufacturing sector, the banking & finance sector, the telecom and ISP sector, the IT sector, the government, defense, transport & utility, corporates and call centers (BPOs). It set up its first Wireless Campus network this year. It spearheaded convergence to the advantage of the enterprise and the service provider market. This included rolling out a VoIP solution for a media house and for a leading bank in the North. It also rolled out our own VoIP network over the VPN.

EXPERTS PANEL Ajai Chaudhary, CEO, HCL Infosystems Shailendra Badani, head (support services), Datacraft India Sudipto Sen, CEO, Comsat Max

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