The SMB segment will contribute 25% of our business in India in the coming three years

Given the various solutions that Nortel has developed, Sanjay Singh is
confident the company can maximize on the SMB opportunity in India. And offering
tailor-made solutions would be a significant part of the strategy

Nortel has increased its focus on SMB sector. What are the plans for the
India market?

For Nortel, SMB is very critical to the overall enterprise strategy, and we
expect this segment to contribute to 25 percent of our business in India in the
coming three years. With about 7.6 million SMB businesses in India (as per
AMI-Partners), we are confident that we have products/solutions which combined
with a good go-to-market strategy would help us to be successful in this
segment.

We see the SMB customers adapting to and embracing IP telephony in a big way.
There has been a shift from viewing IP telephony as a 'nice-to-have' to a
'must-have' solution. SMB customers are willing to experiment with changes in
technology so as to be ahead of their competition.

Our focus would be on retail, hospitality, banking, financial services and
insurance, media and entertainment verticals. We have tailor made, segment
focused solutions that will cater to business requirements in these industries
and our strategy is designed around distribution and channel partners
exclusively. Our channel partners will consult with the customers and market our
integrated networking and comm­unication capability.

What is your channel strategy? What are the challenges you faced with
regard to the channel?

As of January 2008 Nortel has 300+ nforce partners (tier-2), 8 nPower
partners (tier-1) and one distributor-Ingram Micro. Nortel is planning to
further develop these partners' expertise. The basic quality Nortel looks for in
a partner is technology system integration capability. Also important is the
partner's hunger for growth, which should to a certain extent be aligned with
Nortel's own objectives.

The major challenge for us was finding partners with expertise in both the
voice and data areas. We had to carry out extensive training programs to build
voice solution centric partners.

Most partners in India look at business from a transactional and
product-based point of view, not from a solution perspective. To overcome this
hurdle we are working closely with partners and have streamlined our training
processes in order to establish a robust ecosystem for SMB solutions.

Are you looking at more partner sign ups? Would metros or upcountry
markets be your focus?

Nortel is looking at more partner sign-ups in both the voice and data space.
The focus would be on tier-2 and 3 cities where large-scale growth is happening
across various verticals and segments. Nortel has devised segment-focused
solutions that will cater to business requirements and needs, in these
industries.

What have been some of the technologies and solutions from Nortel that
have had a good customer mindshare and have given you considerable market
success?

Many such technologies and solutions have come out of the Nortel stable
regularly. We offer turnkey managed HD video conferencing and telepresence
services based on Polycom's Real Presence Experience (RPX) and other Polycom
video conferencing systems. These services are part of our Multimedia Services
portfolio, which includes integrated audio conferencing, web casting and web
collaboration services. All of these services are provided to customers globally
with 24x7 support and reliability.

We continue to lead and innovate in the optical space area. We have developed
technologies like Common Photonic Layer (CPL), which delivers high-bandwidth for
mission critical applications across great distances. Our Carrier Ethernet
solutions are bringing the power of optical technology at a cost point that
didn't seem achievable a few short years ago.

SUBBALAKSHMI BM

dqc@cybermedia.co.in