Indian Telcos at 10.8 pc CAGR: a hotline for SAP

MUMBAI, INDIA: Continued growth momentum in the telecom industry is what it says, as SAP flags sustained adoption of SAP solutions by its customers.

It cites top  telecommunications service providers in India, including Vodafone Essar Ltd., Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), Reliance Communication Ltd, Tata Communications Ltd (formerly VSNL), Virgin Mobiles India Pvt. Ltd., S Tel, Spice Communication and Telstra Vishesh Communication Pvt Ltd as its customer base that have recently adopted and expanded their SAP footprint.

“The total IT spending by the India telecommunications sector is expected to grow at a CAGR of 10.8 per cent over a five-year period to reach US$ 4,292.5 million by 2013. The biggest growth area in terms of IT adoption in the vertical is packaged software, which alone is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 12.4 per cent for the forecast period (2008-2013). The key areas of focus for the India telecommunications sector are Quality of Service (QoS), customer relationship management (CRM), convergence, network expansion (especially in the rural areas), integrated and centralized billing solutions, data warehousing (DW), and operational support system (OSS)/business support system (BSS) deployments. SAP led the India Enterprise Resource Management (ERM) solutions market with more than 50 per cent share in revenue terms in CY 2008,” said Nandavarapu Kiran, Lead Analyst, Enterprise Applications Market, IDC India, as quoted in the release.

SAP names Vodafone as the recent addition has also partnered with SAP to enhance profitability.

The telecom major, as per SAP, has consolidated its internal Enterprise Resource Planning business processes onto a single SAP platform. “This will enable Vodafone to leverage SAP’s preconfigured global best practices for greater enterprise wide visibility and hence enhance its strategic, operational, technical and financial efficiency."  A press release says.

Another Telco in its basket is S Tel, a new telecom operator having licenses for six circles that is planning to launch its mobile services by this year end. S Tel’s business proposition is founded on a sound technology and application platform.

“In a rapidly evolving industry where information holds the key to success, the effective anticipation of customer needs and timely delivery of products and services is essential. Hence, S Tel has chosen SAP applications to bring its processes on a single platform,” said Shamik Das, CEO, S Tel Pvt Ltd.

SAP recently further strengthened its presence in the domain with the acquisition of Highdeal Inc., a provider of real-time billing solutions, to complement its existing application solution portfolio for the industry.

“The Telecommunications industry continues to be one of India’s biggest success stories. Poised for an impressive growth in today’s challenging economy, the industry has a sharp focus on innovation and competitive differentiation,” said Ranjan Das, MD, SAP Indian Subcontinent.