This was a fiscal in which only those who were able to deliver the goods in niche technology domains picked up marketshare. Whether it was in VSAT, contact centers, wireless or network security, the networking industry presented little space to fill up. And it were companies which had the skillsets to exploit the conditions that grew well in spite of a generally flat year.

This trend is easily noticeable in the way companies grew during the fiscal 2001-02. Although Wipro retained the top spot as the largest network integrator, the fastest growth among the top 10 players came from Global Telesystems, Tulip IT Services, and HCL Comnet, each of which emerged as the top deployer in the niche areas of contact centers, wireless MANs, and VSATs, respectively.

When it came to the ranking, the largest integrator in the market was Wipro, which was able to maintain some gap between it and the rest. Its total business stood at Rs 245 crore. HCL Comnet, Datacraft, HECL, HCL Infosystems, Network Solutions, and GTL followed Wipro. While Wipro, Datacraft, HCL, and NetSol have been the top integration providers without presence on the VSAT domain, HCL Comnet, HECL and Comsat Max have substantial revenue coming from VSAT connectivity and services too. Nonetheless, the best aspect of these typical VSAT providers has been their ability to quickly mould to providing security services, remote management services, and facility management as additional opportunities.

The good news for network integrators during last year was the increase in projects with a good consultancy and services component. The integrator to accrue the top revenues as a result of consultancy and integration services is HCL Comnet. While Wipro’s revenue from this portion stood at Rs 66.7 crore, HCL Comnet’s was Rs 67.94 crore. Datacraft’s revenue from consultancy and services was Rs 34 crore, NetSol’s Rs 22.8 crore, GTL’s 29.62 crore, and Comsat Max’s Rs 30 crore.