Valuable Exclusivity in IT Solutions [July 2012]

By admin July 20, 2012 5:21 am IST

Subir Bhatnagar, VP and Global Head-Solutions, AGC Networks speaks to Subhajit Roy about the features that make AGC unique in IT solutions
AGC Networks has been in the business for last 25 years, could you give us an overview of the IT solutions used in the manufacturing sector and how is your company leveraged to this sector?AGC Network is an ICT solutions provider and integrator focusing mainly on 4 types of solutions: Unified Communications, Network Infrastructure, Enterprise Applications & Data Centres and Virtualisation. These are our core focus areas. We have created an eco-system of technology partners to offer their solutions in these 4 areas to our customers.
In India, we have over 2000 customers and the top 10 names from every vertical including the government, banking and telecom sectors feature in our customer list.
Could you give us an overview on the industrial manufacturing sector?In the manufacturing industry, IT domain comprises of two categories IT infrastructure and IT or enterprise applications. The IT infrastructure comprises of data centres, computing, storage and the network infrastructure. Besides it also includes desktops and laptops for employees. IT Infrastructure in recent trends also comprises of voice communications systems/IP PBX systems, video conferencing systems etc.
There are a number of applications in the IT application section. ERP is one of the major and core application where we play a significant role. At present we are not focusing on other typical software like SCADA, shop floor automation software. Are there enough domestic players to offer such kind of ICT solutions to the manufacturing sector?There are several players existing in the market. However, AGC Networks caters to both, the infrastructure as well as the applications domain whereas the other players focus on either the applications part or the IT infrastructure part. We have an upper hand as we focus on both these areas and have a share in both the areas.
Talking about the competitiveness in the market, how good is it as far as the Indian market is concerned?Several players have a huge role to play, for instance Honeywell focuses on automation systems whereas Wipro focuses on applications. Considering the fact that there are two sections i.e. IT infrastructure and IT applications, AGC plays a role in both these areas from an IT perspective. In IT applications, we focus on areas like ERP e.g. SAP as well as Business intelligence (BI). We play a role in these segments and that makes us unique from an end-to-end perspective.
The rate of adoption of ICT solutions in the Indian market is not very optimistic, how do you find the current situation in comparison to the global manufacturing sector?As far as the rate of adoption is concerned, the Indian manufacturing sector is at par with the international standards. Our man-force and manufacturing technology sense is at par with global standards. In ICT, all the manufacturing units have been using ERP for a long period of time. The recent trend shows that they are in a consolidation phase. Most of the manufacturers are trying to consolidate different data systems into a single framework. As a recent trend most of the large manufacturing organisations are trying to consolidate various applications into data centres and virtualise them. As far as the ICT options are concerned, we are not lagging behind.
The Indian market is very price sensitive, your comments.There are lot of alternatives available, it’s a wide network. For example, if a manufacturer is setting up a factory, there are various choices available in the form of several vendors. A couple of features would be the key differentiator between the vendors. A clear look at the IT industry would highlight that there are various options available in the form of multiple suppliers, multiple vendors to offer solutions for the manufacturing sector. When we talk about the automation control systems, there are some company who have a monopoly from a market share point of view. However, there are other players with a presence in these areas. It’s a very price sensitive market, but more or less there are many cost effective solutions available in the market. That’s where the adoption comes into picture. I won’t say it’s slow but it’s just about offering right product and solutions for a particular manufacturer. In small scale industry, the telecom service provider has started offering a lot of applications in infrastructure as a cloud model.
When you talk about Siemens and Honeywell, don’t you find it difficult to compete with them because they already have a reputation in the global market?The focus areas for these companies are completely different from a solution standpoint. We are not into SCADA systems or software automation systems which are their areas of operation. We are pretty much on the other side and that’s an area where they do not play a major role. As such we do not compete with them.
You have almost more than 2,000 customers, are you looking for any kind of global expansion?We operate out of India as well. Overseas, we operate out in Australia, New Zealand, Philippines, and Middle East. We have our presence in Africa, Kenya as well as South Africa. When we talk about 2,000 customers, these are from different verticals that include banking, IT, manufacturing, as well as Public sectors. From this perspective, we can say that we are a global company and our focus is to take our core solution areas globally to customers from all verticals.

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