We were hoping to grow at 30 percent this year, but might have to downscale this due to the current global scenario

Syntel will soon be distributing NEC products in India but Vipen Malhotra
is already informing his existing customers about the brand. He believes that
this will ensure that he has a ready pool of buyers when the products hit the
Indian market soon

What is the nature of Syntel's alliance with NEC?

Syntel is an old player in the telecom solution space, offering enterprise
solutions. We believe in offering products that make a significant difference to
our customer's telecom experience, with an emphasis on assuring a superior
return on investment. We manage to achieve this through a unique blend of system
intelligence, scalability and cost optimization.

In our effort to deliver this core proposition, we today offer uniquely
differentiated products and solutions by looking beyond the system into the
complete telecom value chain. We have tied-up with NEC, a global leader in the
field, in a bid to offer more quality services to our customer. With this
non-exclusive alliance, Syntel will now bring NEC's products in India.

How will this tie up add better value to your existing offerings to
customers?

The tie-up will help us to augment the range of products and services we
offer to our enterprise customers. Post this tie up, we will foray into segments
where we were not present earlier.

Now, we will start offering key telephone systems, Voice over Internet
Protocol (VoIP), etc. This will enhance our offerings to select industry
verticals like business process outsourcing (BPO), hospitality and several other
key sectors.

Will all the NEC products be available immediately?

We will take another three months to bring all the NEC products to India.
Right now, we are evangelizing the solutions to our customers and keeping them
informed about what they can expect from us a few months from now. We are
generating as much interest in this product line as is possible so that once the
products are available we will have a ready set of takers for it.

How is the private networking solution market developing in India? At what
rate do you expect Syntel to grow in FY 2009-10?

The telecom industry is one of the few industries which are still witnessing
a good growth rate when other industries are trailing behind due to the global
economy slowdown. We were expecting a robust growth rate of around 30 percent
this fiscal. But we might have to downscale this due to the current global
scenario.

On a personnal note

What's your educational background and industry experience? I am a BE in Electronics and Communications Engineering and also have an MBA. I have over 29 years experience in diverse industries like electronics component, consumer electronics, telecom equipment, value-added telecom services, fleet tracking and intelligent transport solutions. How do you balance your family life? My wife Radhika is a French teacher. As I am usually busy with work, she does most of the parenting to my younger son Ishaan, who has just finished class IX. My older son, Anchit, is pursuing his Masters in Electronics and Electrical engineering at Georgia Tech in Atlanta. He has just secured an internship with Blackberry for three months as part of his curriculum, and I am very proud of him. When you do get time, what are the activities you indulge in? When I do have free time, I love swimming and playing table tennis. From time to time, I indulge in reading good books. I especially enjoy reading books on management techniques and business strategies. Who is your role model? The only name that crops to my mind is Steve Jobs. This former CEO of Apple resurrected the company twice with unique strategies and aggressive marketing techniques, and even today is the guiding force behind the company, despite his ill health. I believe he gave the world some beautiful and interesting products.

As such, the recession would not have much impact on us. The solutions that
we offer help enterprise customers to reduce operational cost, while at the same
time increasing their employee efficiency. So, I do not see any reason for
enterprises not to invest in private networking solutions. However, it helps to
be pragmatic in present times and have a prudent expectation in terms of growth.

Akhilesh Shukla

akhileshshukla@cybermedia.co.in