Sales Profiles In The Telecom Sector

- Vivek Jain

Telecom Infrastructure Industry

SuppliersSuppliers

End UserEnd User

IntermediariesIntermediaries

CompetitorsCompetitors Marketer- UTSIMarketer- UTSI

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Suppliers

Manufacturing

Raw Materials come from China for products like Broadband Equipment, IPTV, Optical InfrastructureThese include transistors, PCBs, racks, cables

For CDMA handsets, chipsets, ICs and phone grade plastics are also supplied from China

Suppliers

Providing turn-key solutions. Complete solutions for the clients for the

case of Optical Cables. Mainly come from Birla-Ericsson, Fibcom

LAN Switches from Juniper, ATRICA, Tellabs, Huawei (though it is the biggest competitor)

Servers – Wipro, IBM, Accel Frontline, Houston Technologies

Testing Equipment – Acterna, Trend Communications, Tirumala, AIMIL

Key Players

Huawei – Biggest player internationally with a vast product line

ZTE – Major player globally and in the Indian Market

Siemens – Has technologically superior products but loses out on its pricing

Tejas NetworksStrong player for Optical transmission products

D-LinkManufacturer of a wide variety of modems

NortelManufacture of high end switches

Other Players

Lucent-Alcatel Ericsson Nokia (GSM) Fibcom C-Dot Sterlite ITI

End User/ Market These players are not into retail and sell solutions only

to service providers like Bharti, BSNL, MTNL, Reliance

End users of UTS equipment are Broadband, VoIP, IPTV, CDMA handset users.

Market Scope – Looking at the growing demand for broadband and mobile phones, UT is planning to expand its Indian operations and offer high end services which are currently available only in Japan and USA.

 

            

          

To summarize

Suppliers (FIBCOM, IBM, Wipro etc)Suppliers (FIBCOM, IBM, Wipro etc)

End User (Bharti, BSNL, MTNL, Reliance) End User (Bharti, BSNL, MTNL, Reliance)

Intermediaries (Aksh, ICOMM etc)Intermediaries (Aksh, ICOMM etc)

Competitors (Huawei, ZTE, Siemens etc) Competitors (Huawei, ZTE, Siemens etc) Marketer (UTS)Marketer (UTS)

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Modes of Sale 1. Trial Demo/Pilot Projects

Shortlist 3-5 vendors for trial demos on products Performance based decision on which vendor to select on

the basis of these trials

2. Tenders Vendors evaluated on technical specifications and

shortlisted Price list of all vendors compared for the lowest price Price negotiation meetings-finally award of Purchase Order

3. Request for Proposal (RFP) Vendors to submit complete proposal including network

diagrams and prices Vendor with best balance of efficiency and price is selected

Telecom Sales - Profiles

Key Account Management Pre-Sales Bid Management Post-Sales

Key Account Manager

In-charge of all Sales-related activities in key accounts

Forms an interface between the Pre-Sales team and the customer

Does strategy formulation for each RFP

Pre-Sales

Attend Vendor Conferences In-charge of a particular product

line Understands customers’

requirements Is in constant touch with the global

Business Unit (BU) to customize product

Bid Management Customer comes out with tender/RFP Detailed documentation to be provided

Technical Product compliance to company specifications (TEC) Product test reports

Commercial Eligibility conditions – Company turnover, past record,

deployments, indigenous production base Compliance to General conditions of the contract

Price Bid Micro-level pricing detailing cost of every

component(both H/W and S/W) Highly confidential

Post-Sales

Bookings – 40% of variable

Collections - 40% of variable

Revenue Recognition- 20% of variable

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UTStarcom-Company Profile UTStarcom is a global leader in IP-based, end-to-end networking

solutions and in providing telecom equipment and infrastructure It enables its customers to rapidly deploy revenue-generating

access services using their existing infrastructure, while providing a migration path to cost-efficient end-to-end IP networks

Renowned for its wireline, wireless, optical and switching solutions It is a Fortune 1000 company formed in 1991 and has its head

quarters in Alameda, California UTStarcom was formed by the merger of two companies - UniTech

and Starcom Huge global presence, started operations in India 5 years back,

attracted by the exponentially rising demand for voice, broadband services here.

Sales strategies and intermediaries

UTS interacts directly with customers when providing end to end solutions to eliminate commissions and maximize gross margins.

Reliance – CDMA handsets sold to Reliance and TATA Indicom directly

Bharti – Trial for IPTV equipment and services negotiated directly

In some cases, front end partners who have strong links with the customers are employed

MTNL – to provide IPTV solution to MTNL, Aksh Broadband was used as a front partner which had strong relations with MTNL to understand MTNL’s network requirements

BSNL – UTS used ICOMM as a partner for the BSNL account to help eliminate delay of testing and validation as ICOMM has been providing equipment to BSNL for a long time and is therefore trusted

Annual Turnover - Global and Indian

Year

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500

1000

1500

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2500

3000

3500

2002 2003 2004 2005 2006

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60

80

100

120

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$US

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Source: Annual Reports of UTS Inc. and UTS India

What does it provide

End to End Broadband Solutions IPTV Solution Optical Transmission Infrastructure CDMA Handsets

Thank you