Priya Padmanabhan
Continuous Computing, a company, which provides network ready platforms for
telecom equipment manufacturers, is betting on next-generation networks and
emerging markets like India and China, to foster its growth.
San Diego-based company provides software and hardware solutions which can help
OEMs to deploy converged communications.
With its acquisition of Trillium in 2000 and China-based UP Systems last year,
Continuous has buttressed its bulwark of telecom platform solutions. PJ Go, the
company's president, co-founder and CEO spoke to Priya Padmanabhan of CyberMedia
News about the company's plans and operations in India.
What
solutions does Continuous Computing offer?
We provide network service ready platforms so that telecom companies can deploy
applications for their customers. We have three business units-hardware
platforms, Trillium software and IP enterprise products. The last unit was a
result of an acquisition of a division of a Chinese company. It is a suite of
VoIP products like media gateways and IPABX.
Our Trillium Plus software consists of pre-integrated managed solutions. In
addition to products, we also have a professional services division, which is
now the fastest growing business segment for us. This business, which was
started in the middle of last year provides customized product development for
customers. We are targeting this segment to make up for 8-10 per cent of our
overall revenues.
How are Continuous Computing's solutions helping telecom companies grow?
The three major markets for growth in the industry are VoIP (Voice over Internet
Protocol), IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystem) and 3G wireless. Among these, IMS is
the fastest growing market at 67 per cent CAGR. IMS allows operators to
experiment with new applications and services. Our focus is on the core network
side.
Our clients include telecom equipment manufacturers and telco vendors like
Nokia, Cisco, Siemens. These companies are looking to offer VoIP and new IMS
elements to sell to operators who want to expand their network and add new
services.
We address some of the issues faced by customers. Today, telecom OEMs are facing
challenges such as reduced R&D budgets, decreasing time-to-market cycles, need
for a scalable platform. Telecom majors are cutting back on their product
development and instead want to either outsource some product development or get
solutions from third party companies. We also help them with product
development.
The trend is that customers want pre-integrated solutions, which helps them
minimize their development time. Time to market is crucial in this area.
Are you focusing on the high growth telecom markets in India and China?
The teledensity in India is around 11 per cent. Most of our customers (telecom
OEMs) are moving to India. Indian market has increased over the last five years.
Most of the global growth in telecom infrastructure will happen in India and
China since the countries are in the process of increasing their teledensity. We
give telcos a combination of hardware ad software. China has just started
rolling out next generation networks. We want to provide telcos with the
building blocks to enable them deploy networks that can help India increase its
teledensity.
China is certainly ahead of India since it is going ahead with net-generation
networks and has a teledensity of around 25 per cent.
In India, data services is still in its infancy. But this is bound to change
since the teledensity is improving.
How critical are the company's India operations?
We have more than 80 employees at our Bangalore center. Around 90 percent of the
development work on Trillium happens in India. We also have pre-sales and
post-sales support for our customers in India and Asia-Pacific. The company
intends to invest $10 million over the next three years into the Bangalore
center.
Do you plan to pursue acquisitions?
From $45 million in 2004 we grew to $70 million in 2005. We are looking at
acquisitions to gain scale, and deliver integrated solutions to our customers.
Customers are demanding a combination of hardware and software and what is
missing is the integration. By the end of the year, we will have integrated
products available.
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