36|Aricent : Wooing Telcos
During early FY 07, Aricent decided to focus on two key business segmentsservice providers and communications applications. In conjunction with this strategy, the company acquired US-based Datalinx to cater to the service provider business. It also acquired the R&D center of Nokia Siemens at Southwood, UK. Thanks to the acquisition, Aricent could offer a host of managed testing services to telcos including GSM maintenance and IMS convergence labs.

The highpoint of the year, however, was the launch of the widget-based user interface software product, Celltop. Launched initially in association with US-based Alltel, Aricent is planning to introduce the product in the Indian market by the end FY 09. The company is already in advance discussions with several Indian telecom service providers.

As part of its India-focus strategy, Aricent also restructured its Indian team with Sanjay Dhawan taking over as president and COO. Incidentally, the company announced plans to set up a global development and training center in Bhubaneshwar.

37|3i Infotech : Risk-free Operator
Products, IT services, BPO, a right mix of domestic and exports3i Infotechs approach of de-risking operations surely took it to a new high in FY 08. It also suffered a minimal impact from the depreciating dollar. While Southeast Asia, predominantly India, accounted for 34% of its revenues, US contributed 29%, and Western Europe 15%. The rest came from Apac and Mearc (Middle east, Africa, Russia, and CIA) regions.

3i made two acquisitions during the year to strengthen its services portfolio. One, a US company called Regulus, provider of payment solutions; and two, an Indian company Locuz, specializing in IT infrastructure management. 3i also launched a new product called Taxsmile, for the retail sector.

Though BFSI continued to be the largest contributor to domestic revenues, 3i won some big-ticket projects on the government front too. These included the implementation of 10,000 ICT kiosks in Goa, Karnataka, and Haryana, among others. The company also won projects in Goa and Haryana for implementation of the state data centers.

38|Nortel Networks India : Reducing the Divide
Nortel played a considerable role in the airport modernization projects in Mumbai, Bangalore, and Hyderabad, where it was involved in integrating IP-based network for converged communications. The company also consolidated its position in the contact center solutions space. It was the first year of the LG-Nortel relationship in India, and it managed to leverage it successfully to launch products targeted at SMBs.

Nortel also kick-started Asias first Nortel LearniT initiative in India, which is targeted at reducing the digital divide. In its mainstay carrier business (revenues of which is not included here), there was a slowdown in Nortels CDMA business. But this was largely offset by the $100 mn contract it bagged from BSNL, for the rollout of GSM networks in south India. After a long stint, Ravi Chauhan made way for Hitesh Lokhandwala as MD of the company, with the former moving to another role within the company. Nortel increased its network operation centers (NOC) capability in India making it an Asian NOC for customers in the subcontinent. Eon Networks entered into a partnership with Nortel to deliver communications solutions to its customers in India.

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