Tata Tele’ bets on enterprise segment offering business solutions

Tata Teleservices (TTSL) is betting big on the enterprise segment by creating and offering business solutions as compared to just selling connections as was happening earlier. According to Prateek Pashine, president, enterprise services, Tata Teleservices, this shift is a deliberate attempt by the company to increase its revenue and presence in the fast growing enterprise segment which accounts for around 30% of the company’s revenues.

One such example is the solutions it has provided to FMCG major Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) which wanted to reach out to more customers in remote areas of the country where penetration of television and media reach is low but mobile penetration is high. To be able to reach out to a segment of people who are also not users of data but only voice on mobile, the company launched ‘Kan Khajura Tesan’, a free radio-on-demand service providing free entertainment to general public in remote areas. The solution helped in creation of a public switched telephone network (PSTN) -based radio station across two states.

The channel is focused on reaching rural public who are deprived of know-how on HUL FMCG products and schemes due to lack of reach of visual media like Television. The call flow starts with any mobile phone user in Bihar giving a missed call to a number and getting an immediate response with a return call from HUL’s platform via PSTN, which then plays ‘Kan Khajura Tesan’ for 15 minutes. Besides a series of entertainment programs, the free radio channel also plays advertisements of HUL brands, generating product awareness.

The Kan Khajura Tesan has been a success for HUL, with 6 million subscribers, 50 million ad impressions, clocking 11 million minutes per month. Following its success in Bihar and Jharkhand, the service has been extended to Uttar Pradesh and in future, the company plans to take it to Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan basis the success.

Pashine of TTSL says that requirements like these indicate that how the discussions now-a-days have moved away from selling pipes to creating business solutions. Though he declined to give any further details on the revenue growth, he did agree that enterprise business is much more profitable.

“The enterprise business overall is 17-18% of the total telecom segment and it has been growing 8% year-on-year. TTSL has been growing at 15% run rate,” said Pashine.

What is contributing to this growth are the solutions that the company has created around Internet of Things (IoT), mobile and marketing. These solutions that were introduced about two-and-a-half-years back have seen tremendous traction with offerings like location-based services. “These services and solutions are the new segments we are betting on and they are growing upwards of 20% for us,” added Pashine.

TTSL’s location-based services are seeing usage for fleet management and vehicle tracking among others. One of its solutions is ‘Tata Docomo Smart Bus Tracker’, designed specifically for schools due to increasing security concerns, has received good momentum.

For TTSL, though voice and data still form bulk of its revenues, the increasing needs for connectivity among enterprises, SMEs and the startup ecosystem is making the company see its managed services business growing.

The enterprise team of the company comprises of 2,000 people who work with 1,200 channel partners to offer ICT (information and communication technology) solutions to customers in over 60 cities across the country.