There are only a handful of Indian IT companies that have dared to acquire companies larger than themselves and stay profitable. Sobha Renaissance Information Technology (SRIT) is one such company. SRIT has also chosen to make headway in the OSS-BSS space.

This company has chosen the acquisition path to grow its prowess in the telecom and healthcare sectors. Within a year, it braved its way into two major acquisitions in the telecom space.

In August this year, SRIT successfully completed its acquisition of Objective Systems Integrators (OSI) from Agilent Technologies. In mid 2006, it acquired Billing Components AG, a telecom business support systems (BSS) product and solutions company.

SRIT was incorporated in 1999. It was ranked among the top fifty fastest growing technology companies by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Asia Pacific Region, in 2006. In the last 18 months, SRIT effected a number of small to mid-sized acquisitions. This included Munich-based Billing Components AG in the telecom business support systems (BSS) space and the buyout of Objective Systems Integrators (OSI), a player in telecom operations support systems (OSS), from Agilent Technologies. OSI's NETeXPERT is one of the strongest brands for service assurance and fulfillment.

SRIT now services over 150 telecom companies and service providers. As per the newly released business plan, the company expects to grow its telecom revenue to $150 mn in FY 2010-11. The expanded SRIT is reorganizing itself into five distinct strategic business units (SBUs)-OSI Telecoms OSS Group, BC Telecoms BSS Group, Integrated HealthCare Group, ODC Group, and Enterprise Solutions Group.

Madhu Nambiar, co-founder and CEO, SRIT, feels that taking time to mature and learn from others' mistakes has enabled SRIT to successfully identify and scale its growth path. His ambition is to be the first company to roll out converged OSS and BSS solutions. "There is no need to reinvent the wheel. Better to go after companies that have developed and established a successful system. This is why we chose to acquire OSI and Billing Components," says Nambiar.

With these acquisitions, SRIT was able to leapfrog into the premier league of providers of OSS-BSS solutions. The acquisition of Agilent's bleeding but reputed business unit, OSI, was a tough nut to crack. Pitted against several MNCs, the Indian company banked on its strengths of being a complimenting partner. SRIT had done its homework well and was able to impress the Agilent group with its solid strategy.

Hamish Butler, currently the CEO of OSI, was earlier the general manager for the NETeXPERT business within Agilent at the time of the acquisition. He advocates SRIT as a best fit, with OSI saying, "We were impressed by SRIT's solid strategic fit with our objectives as a company. Their software and services focus fit well with ours. The other key factor was that SRIT is a company with values for quality and good people practices in place."

So impressive was the acquisition of OSI that several former and old employees of OSI and Agilent chose to join OSI in its new avatar. This further consolidated the branding of NETeXPERT in the market. Performing a seamless transfer of about 120 Agilent staff members, spread across the US, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, France, Spain, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and India, wasn't an easy task, but SRIT did it with ease.

On establishing a distinct identity for itself, Nambiar says, "Taking advantage from network-centric applications, we have adopted a customer-centric approach. We are adding value for our customers, assuring quality services."

With Billing Components and OSI products, SRIT is geared to target tier-1 wireline and wireless companies as well as tier- 2 and 3 service providers in Europe, Middle East, and India. "There is a lot of opportunity for cross-selling by adding BC component into OSI's product," says Nambiar.

SRIT is eyeing a growth rate of over 30%. It's eyeing the large replacement market and greenfield operations where the number of operators is increasing. MVNO or mobile virtual network operator is another area that promises a good business opportunity for the new outfit.

The mergers and acquisition activity has changed the competitive landscape in the telecom OSS space by giving large vendors such as IBM a bigger stake. Due largely to its acquisition of Micromuse last year, IBM is now among the top vendors with a 7% market share. Last April, India's OSS giant Subex Systems created a milestone by acquiring UK-based Azure Solutions and, thus, delivering the largest overseas acquisition by an Indian software company. It went on to acquire Syndesis, a leading provider of telecom OSS solutions, earlier this year. Now SRIT's move into the big boys' space is sure to accelerate the OSS M&A.

Malovika Rao
malovikar@cybermedia.co.in

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