“Over the past decade, the telecom industry has seen increasing competitiveness and tariff affordability for users. The communications industry in India is now witnessing a new era of growth and development,” he observes.

Currently, however, service providers are faced with the challenge of managing scarce network resources to deliver better quality at lower costs. Therefore, over the next few years the Indian telecom industry will have to undertake intense network planning, roll-outs and innovation.

Leading an operations support system and business support system solutions company, Sharma’s main focus area is to help service providers manage spectrum effectively, improve declining ARPUs and enhance the customer experience. He identifies cloud computing and machine-to-machine (M2M) solutions as the key to increasing productivity and reducing operational costs for the organisations. “Cloud computing will revolutionise the way people work,” he comments. “Cloud computing offers flexibility, cost reduction and speed. Similarly, M2M offers new revenue streams to service providers. M2M applications offer predefined, easily configurable templates for tariff plans, business processes, access profiles and user-interfaces.”

Over the years, Sharma has worked with companies such as IBM Global Services, Huawei, Samsung and Multi Tech Computers. He counts his stint at IBM as his most challenging and memorable yet. The organisation gave him an opportunity to experience 3G at first hand at a time when the technology was still at a nascent stage in India. “I worked on selling solutions to service providers who were looking for network transformation and optimisation solutions. It was a great experience working with people of different cultures and being exposed to innovative solutions, especially in Japan and Korea, while working on broadband transformation projects,” he says.

Sharma believes in leading by example. He sets high standards of performance and lays emphasis on the importance of teamwork. Time away from work is usually spent catching up with friends and family, which includes his wife and twin boys.