BANGALORE, INDIA: Going by the technological developments taking place in the market, Indian SMBs will spend heavily on IT and telecom. The market is sure to witness heavy procurement on all IT/communication products/telecom products in the next couple of years.

For Tadiran Telecom, a leading provider of communication solutions, SMB is the major vertical for us in India. Vishal Singh, country manager, India, Tadiran Telecom, takes us through the changing communication needs of Indian SMBs.

Excerpts:

CIOL: Tadiran entered Indian market five years ago. How has it been to cater to the communication needs of Indian SMBs?
Vishal Singh: In the last five years, there had been a lot of changes in the communication needs of the SMBs as well as the product offerings from the companies. And fortunately, Tadiran has been there during this transition period. To summarize:
Between 2002 and mid 2005 - SMBs were majorly utilizing traditional/conventional telecom technologies like analog trunk lines and few SMBs were using digital PRI lines. Only those SMBs, which are in telecom/IP or financial domain, were making use of IP technologies.
Between mid 2005 and late 2007 - While a majority of them utilized digital trunk lines while some of the SMBs adopted IP technologies.
Beginning of 2008 and till date - Digital is still dominating but IP has caught up and due to imminent VoIP policy announcements, there is euphoria in the market place as far as VoIP is concerned. Unified Communication is today what IP was in the year 2005. It will take another year or so when SMBs really go in for adopting unified communication in a big way.

CIOL: Do you see an increase in communications spending by Indian SMBs?

VS: Communication is the essential part of any business - SMB or a large corporate. The focus, however, remains on how to utilize the technology to bring down the cost and increase efficiency in the organizations. There are large numbers of SMBs which are operating globally, who, will always look for new ways to communicate and create the efficiency in the system. So, I see an increase in investment on two ways - one by investing in new technologies and second is by upgrading the existing systems.

CIOL: Are Indian SMBs robust enough in their communications network that helps in business growth?

VS: I would say that today companies are not dependent on one vendor or one service provider. In fact companies have more than one way of communication especially companies which are involved in doing critical businesses. Many SMBs are in the process of sprucing up their communication network as per their need, but there is always a gap between what you have today and what is available in the marketplace.

CIOL: Tadiran Telecom has launched new solution like Coral IPx Office and Coral Navigator for SMBs. How are these products doing in India?

VS: Tadiran Telecom launched next generation products almost three years ago internationally and these products have proved their worth because of advanced telecom environment available in those markets. In India, the market is still not skewed toward VoIP and unified communication based applications. But recent announcement by TRAI regarding the VoIP based domestic telecom services will open the doors for new opportunities where these products specially designed for SMBs can move faster.

CIOL: Do you foresee a major spending on telecom by Indian SMBs in the next two years?

VS: As I mentioned, SMBs will invest in adopting next generation telecom products and on upgradation of the existing systems so that they can work with latest telecom technologies.

CIOL: Any new products in the pipeline aimed at Indian SMBs?

VS: We recently launched soft video phone in Indian market and in addition to this we are working very aggressively on SIP based applications developed for SMBs.