 "Prateek Pashine")
In 2012-13, Tata Docomo's SME business achieved a year-on-year growth of about 20 per cent, as against the industry's growth of 10 per cent, and contributed 11 per of the company's total revenue. The service provider is therefore betting big on this vertical by offering a diversified product portfolio and acting as a one-stop-shop for SMEs. Prateek Pashine, President-SME Business, Tata Teleservices Ltd, spoke to Vijay C Roy about the company's initiatives in this area. Edited excerpts:
Why is the SME business so important for Tata Teleservices?
Among Indian small and medium enterprises, 'going mobile, going virtual and going global' have been the key drivers for ICT demand, as telecom revenues from the SME segment continue to show robust growth in FY13. The SME market is estimated at Rs 10,500 crore and is forecast to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.1 per cent to Rs 16,800 crore by FY 2018. Therefore, it is a very important market for us. Data is expected to be the key growth driver in this segment. Wireless data services are a high growth area for SMEs and are expected to grow at a CAGR of 16 per cent, from Rs 300 crore in FY13 to Rs 700 crore in FY18. The SME wireline data market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 14 per cent, from Rs 2,500 crore in FY13 to Rs 5,000 crore in FY18. Further, the SME wireless voice market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 9 per cent, from Rs 3,200 crore in FY13 to Rs 4,900 crore in FY18.
What services do you offer SMEs?
Tata Docomo is a leading provider in offering Cloud-based services to SMEs in India. We offer comprehensive end-to-end solutions for SMEs that are spread across the main business categories like enterprise data (which includes Photon, Broadband, internet leased lines, etc), enterprise voice (GSM, CDMA, 3G, Wireline, Voice, IP voice, security and VoIP), managed services (including managed hosting, managed networks, co-location, insta-compute and audio conferencing)
How did Tata Docomo perform last year as far the SME business is concerned, compared to the industry?
With our diverse product portfolio, in FY12-13, our SME business achieved a year-on-year growth of about 20 per cent as against industry growth of 10 per cent. Also, the SME business contributed 11 per cent of our total business.
What are the targets for the current fiscal year? What is unique about your services?
We are targeting a 20 per cent revenue growth and a revenue market share in excess of 10 per cent. We consistently deliver incremental value to SME customers through customised processes and innovative delivery models, leveraging our wide network footprint and enhanced customer service support. We are the first operator to roll out 3G in nine circles and offer bundled broadband offerings with Wi-Fi on the move and up to 100 Mbps broadband services.
What are your future plans for the SME business?
Buoyed by the response in the recent past, we are betting big on the SME business. Out of our total capital expenditure, we will invest close to 40 per cent in network expansion for the SME business. Having already identified 75 clusters, we are in the process of identifying more clusters to roll out the network for SMEs. We have one lakh customers and we will target more customers. Also, the company has about 1,250 channel partners throughout the country and the objective is to increase this number.
What criteria does your company use to identify SMEs?
Any company having between 10 and 500 employees qualifies as an SME for us. Our SME business is present in around 100 cities.
How is the northern region market (comprising Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh) shaping up for Tata Docomo?
The northern region market contributes 12 per cent of the total SME telecom market in India. In this region, within the SME segment, the product category where we are dominant is wireline data, with a 20 per cent market share. Also, we are among the top three players in wireline data, wireless data and wireless voice.
