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Innovation takes companies to the next level. Sustained growth can be achieved through a combination of factors such as a unique approach in customer focus, long-term vision, competence to maintain leadership, being people centric and cost effectiveness, etc.

Selecting some of the major companies which are really doing well is a Herculean task. However, we are attempting to identify some of them, without ranking the best. First, our job was to choose some of the emerging areas. Areas like telecom products, value-added services, telecom software, WiMax, billing solutions and telecom transmission were selected. Tejas Networks, OnMobile, Aricent, Sasken, Tech Mahindra and Aperto were identified as "Emerging Companies during 2006-07". What are they doing exceptionally to up their ante in the crowded market place?

Aperto Networks
Aperto Networks India, that helps service providers deliver affordable wireless voice and broadband profitably by building advanced WiMax base stations and subscriber units, is one of the leaders in the WiMax industry. Bharti, VSNL, BSNL and Aircel are its main WiMax clients.

The company is planning to have a contract manufacturing facility in India soon. At present, Aperto Networks' products are manufactured in the US, Mexico and Taiwan. Contract manufacturing will be done on an OEM basis as production in India will be cost effective to support its operations in India.

Aperto Networks is also planning to double its manpower. At present, it has thirty people at the Bangalore development center, while seven are supporting the sales and marketing functions. The Aperto WiMax development center in Bangalore was established last year for the purpose of accelerating engineering development and deployment of Aperto's WiMax-forum certified and WiMax-class products. The development center was set up in India to take advantage of the highly skilled and cost effective technical resources.

Aricent
From a small software development division of Hughes Electronics Corporation created 15 years ago, Aricent has grown into a 6,700-person organization with offices worldwide. Throughout the years, it expanded by uniting complementary companies into one organization to provide the greatest strategic value to its clients. It is enjoying a talented team of designers, consultants and engineers who know what it takes to solve the most complex, high-impact challenges faced by clients-the world's leading communications equipment manufacturers, device manufacturers and service providers. By focusing exclusively on communications software, it provides the greatest depth and breadth of services and products to meet our clients' needs-from strategic design to implementation in the field.

Nine of the top ten telecommunications equipment suppliers, eight of the top ten mobile phone manufacturers, and many of the world's major global service providers are Aricent customers. Revenue during 2006-07 increased by 25% to Rs 1,307 crore from Rs 1,047 crore in 2005-06. The target is to achieve around $400 mn during the current fiscal. Manpower rose by 26% to 7,200 in 2006-07 from 5,700 in 2005-06, and is estimated to touch 9,700 during the current fiscal.

OnMobile
Incubated at Infosys in 2000, OnMobile has already become a market leader in the VAS segment with more than 50% market share. To sustain the market share, OnMobile would be focusing on the VAS market without making any diversifications.

After trials in the initial phase of incubation, during 2002-04, speech-driven products such as ring tones, infotainment jokes, ring back tones, dating contests were launched. In 2005, innovativeness was at the fore and multi-modal service offerings such as music jukebox, karaoke, reverse auction, mCommerce, etc were introduced. Last year, the company expanded on all fronts reaching over 120 mn telecom subscribers and directly accessing 50 mn operator subscribers. At present, it is handling over 1.4 bn calls, and expanding in Singapore and Australia. OnMobile, which has its presence in all the telecom circles of India on CDMA, GSM and landline, has a number of credits. It developed the first Indian English recognition model with Nuance in 2001; the first Hindi and regional languages model with Nuance and in partnership with Central Institute of Regional Languages, Mysore in 2003.

It is constantly looking at designing products that use newer capabilities and technologies in order to excite its customers, while embracing complex technologies that enhance consumer experience in the wireless and wired market. OnMobile periodically revises its business models such that its technologies appeal to a wider audience irrespective of geographies. Innovations have enabled OnMobile to give operator's ARPU to the extent of 6-9%. Before launching a product, OnMobile's research team analyses the technology, envisions its potential, deliberates the various ways to tap its capabilities and, finally, adapts the technology such that consumers benefit from the product and service providers, and are ensured of revenue generation. In the process, OnMobile has successfully overcome limitations such as slow network speed, complex WAP configurations, MMS or 3G, small screen-size of mobile phones, one-language communication, etc.

And its competence and leadership in the segment has enabled to clock a healthy growth during the last fiscal. Revenues shot up by 85% in 2006-07 and the target is to achieve 60-70% growth in the current fiscal. Its manpower also grew to 650 from 300 a year ago. Manpower will touch 1,000 in the next two years, and the growth will bring cheers to the VAS sector.

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