Established in 1996, Virtusa has been providing IT consulting, technology and outsourcing services to over 2000 companies across the globe and has a client base covering industries like telecommunications, banking and financial services, insurance, technology and media, information and education. Virtusa has now started to focus on the Indian telecom market and plans to tap the potential around digital solutions in this space. Srinivasan Jayaraman,SVP & MD, Middle East and Asia Pacific, Virtusa talks about the company’s journey in the country and its plans for the Indian business in the near future...

How has been Virtusa’s journey in the Indian telecom space? How important is the Indian market for the company?

Virtusa is focused on the Indian telecom space for the last 18 months and has seen significant success in its digital and transformational solutions focused on customer experience. We strongly believe that as the Indian telecom market continues to evolve and mature, the service providers will significantly leverage technology to differentiate services and offerings to the Indian consumer while continuing to optimise cost to improve margins. Virtusa’s core strength areas at the intersection of consulting capability, technology delivery excellence and transformational solutions are well positioned to help them achieve this.

 India is an extremely critical market for our growth plans and we continue to invest and expand in this market across multiple verticals and technologies.

What role can IT services companies play in enhancing the productivity of the telecom sector?

IT services companies are helping the telecom sector is enhancing its offerings and launching newer services for consumers while reducing the cost of operations. Typically telecom service providers face significant margin pressures due to the emergence of over-the-top players. IT services companies like Virtusa are helping telecom companies optimise process and technology debt to make them more agile. Some examples include reducing time to market, improving billing efficiency, preventive and predictive analytics to optimise networks etc.

What are the key technology trends in the Indian telecom domain? How does Virtusa plan to leverage these?

India is still an under-penetrated mobile market. While the urban and semi-urban areas continue to expand significantly, service providers will continue to expand the market. With the influx of smartphones, tablets and other smart devices, the focus of communication service providers (CSPs) has shifted to data services from the traditional voice based services. In sectors like telecom, consumers leave behind a huge trail of data in digital channels. The evolving customer behaviour is compelling change for businesses today and it has become easier for organisations to analyse more business data than before with the help of cloud computing. Companies need analytics now as it helps in extracting meaningful insights and makes procedures more strategic to the business.

IT services companies can help with analytics to boost commerce on mobile platforms, and provide customer insights besides offering mobility solutions and connected device management services. Of these, enterprise mobility presents a huge opportunity for CSPs to bring in additional revenue streams from existing enterprise customers and also acquire new revenue streams by mobile-enabling their enterprise systems.

Virtusa’s niche telecom industry solutions are engineered to accelerate time-to-market and help clients maintain market leadership by improving top-line revenue, boosting operating efficiency and enhancing customer experience. Be it fixed line, wireless, equipment manufacturers or content providers, Virtusa’s demonstrated telecom expertise empowers clients to accelerate their business outcomes making us their ideal IT telecom solutions provider.

What challenges are faced by the company while doing business in India?

India continues to be a strategic market for Virtusa and we have seen strong interest in our global telecom solutions in the market. While cost continues to be a major decision consideration, proven solutions that improve revenue or optimize operations are being well received.

What are the company’s growth and investment plans for its Indian business in the near future?

India operations are strategic to our overall aspirations, growth and profitability. We have invested in creating a customer experience centre in Hyderabad and also ventured into new locations like Bengaluru and Pune in last three years. In Pune, we continue to invest in infrastructure and tech-ops capabilities. At our Chennai centre, we are witnessing strong growth in media, healthcare and financial services capabilities.