The Hindu Business Line : Nortel ties up with Airtel to offer SMB solutions

Nortel, a global player in communication sector, has identified small and medium businesses (SMBs) in India to power its growth and has tied up with telecom major Airtel in providing communication solutions to this segment. The company is also signing a deal with a bank for extending financial assistance to the potential SMBs that opt for its bundled package to make it easier for the companies get the end-to-end solutions. Coimbatore, which has one of the largest concentration of SMBs in the country, has been selected by Nortel to launch the pilot project.

Speaking to newsmen here, Mr E.R. Ashok Kumar, Director, Enterprise SMB Business, Nortel India, Bangalore, said though there were around 7.5 million SMBs in India, their technology adoption was negligible and hardly 20 per cent of them even had computers.

According to BSE data, the number of listed companies now was around 7,500. If even 5 per cent of SMBs go for IPOs in the next 5-10 years, it would mean an addition of 35,000 companies to the BSE's list. He said Nortel could help them become `tech-savvy' since communication has become the lifeline of all businesses.

He said Nortel has identified Chennai, Coimbatore and Tiruchi as focus areas in Tamil Nadu and in Coimbatore, it has zeroed in on agricultural implements, diesel engines, motor and pumps, powerlooms and textile hosieries sectors as potential clients for its new initiative, coming broadly under manufacturing and textile industries.

He said in these two verticals, Nortel has `vertical-specific solutions' to help these industries to `use better, cost effective communication technologies'. Since buying equipment alone would not serve the purpose (without connectivity), Nortel has signed an MoU with Airtel under which the former would be able to offer tailormade solutions to its customers to meet their communication needs with Airtel providing the landline/mobile/ data connection and Nortel the equipments which would come with a 30 per cent price benefit.

Mr Ashok Kumar said to ease the tension of any potential buyers in finding the resources for meeting the cost of the communication package, Nortel was `in final stages of signing an MoU with a big bank' for extending financial assistance. The coming together of all the three provided the advantage of clubbing the monthly mobile/landline bill with the monthly EMI for the loan extended and once convinced of the value of the package, the beneficiaries may opt to pay entirely themselves for the upgrades later.

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