Bhavin Barbhaya, vice-president, network infrastructure at AGC Networks, brings to the table 17 years of experience in the IT infrastructure domain, specialising in IP networking. He has been associated with companies like Wipro Networks, SingTel, IBM, Enterasys Networks, Inc., Comptel Networks Systems and Global Tele-systems. At AGC Networks, he is responsible for driving the company’s networking infrastructure solutions business. He is focused on providing technology-led solutions to help clients improve business outcomes. Commenting on the business strategy, he says, “AGC’s tagline reads ‘Enabling Experience’. We achieve this by providing solutions to help clients integrate various devices within their network.”

According to Barbhaya, the three major challenges before network infrastructure solution providers are performance, scalability and cost of ownership. “In terms of performance, companies are looking for solutions that allow them to accommodate various applications for running their business. In terms of scalability, clients are mainly concerned about how a solution incorporated in the network today would help them scale up and protect their investments over a five-year horizon. As for the cost of managing operations, this plays a key role in influencing a company’s buying decisions,” he says.

Earlier known as Avaya, the company’s operations were confined to the unified communications segment. However, post its acquisition by the Essar Group in 2010 and renaming of the company as AGC, it started providing network infrastructure solutions.

The biggest challenge before Barbhaya was to help bring about a shift in the mindsets of the sales team, which was earlier selling only communications solutions, to start marketing networking solutions. “This was a huge challenge as this was a time when networking solutions did not make up even 1 per cent of the company’s turnover,” he says.

As a leader, he is of the view that the old hierarchical relationship between manager and subordinate is no longer relevant. “Now, it’s all about inclusive growth and giving responsibility to team members while empowering them to deliver results,” he says. As a manager, he constantly reminds his team to assess the impact a decision will have on performance in terms of meeting targets and delivering customer satisfaction.