FUTURE OF THE WORKPLACEB2B Market Research to understand Existing market trend related to managed service for Tata Communications Ltd.

Submitted toMaster of International Business, Department of Commerce,Delhi School of EconomicsPaper No : 537

Presented By:• Ankur Dhoot Roll No 10

Presented by

© 2010 Tata C

omm

unications Ltd., All R

ights Reserved

Introduction

Tata Communications is a leading global provider of a new world of communications. With a leadership position in emerging markets, Tata Communications leverages its advanced solutions capabilities and domain expertise across its global and pan-India network to deliver managed solutions to multi-national enterprises, service providers and Indian consumers.

Project Details

Brief of the Project- Market Research & Analysis

Key Objective / Purpose of the Job: Primary and secondary research to understand Enterprise market trends related

to Data Center & Collaboration technologies Analyse existing customer base to identify sweet spots for various TCL services Research on current trends in key industry verticals and opportunities for TCL

Clients covered during the survey were in:New Delhi

Analysis

Areas

Experience

Research Methodology

Primary Research (Field Work)Total Sample Size : 200

The following tools were used to carry out the primary research

Surveys Using concise, straightforward questionnaires, a sample group was analyzed that

represented our target market. In this the company offered a list of 200 clients with just the company’s name,

address and landline number. So first task was to contact the company and find the concerned IT person over

there and also to verify the current address.

Then we followed three ways to get our survey filled :

a. In-person surveys or one-on-one interviews. This allows to present people with samples of products, services and gather immediate feedback.

In this various parts of Delhi was covered via Metro, Buses and Autos.

Total Clients Covered : 110

b. Telephone surveys They are less expensive than in-person surveys. However, due to consumer resistance to relentless telemarketing, getting people to participate in phone surveys is difficult.Still those customers who were using TCL services were willing to share their feedback on phone to save time and money required for traveling.

Although in telephonic survey the best use was to make proper appointments by showing the client that the survey will benefit their organizations and existing use of services.Another thing which was observed was that, clients used to give very prompt answers to the questions and were looking for speedy conversations.

Total Clients Covered: 30

c. Mail surveysThey are much cheaper than in-person and phone surveys; however they only generate response rates of 3 percent. Despite the low return, mail surveys were still used as they were able to reach mass audience very fast.

The reply to mail survey was very poor.

Mail Survey was filled just by 5 clients.

Time Line

Week 1• Understanding the company products and client locations

Week 2• Starting making database and making strategy to start field work

Week 3• Targeting Nehru Place for client meetings

Week 4• Targeting South Delhi for Client Meetings

Week 5• Targeting Badarpur Area for Client Meetings

Week 6• Reviews and Feedbacks of the meetings done

Week 7• Targeting West Delhi for Client Meetings

Week 8• Targeting North Delhi for Client Meetings

Week 9• Targeting Central Delhi for Client Meeting

Week 10• Analysis of the survey • Feedback and Key findings presented to the company back

Areas Covered

5

135

New Delhi

The meetings were done in following areas •Nehru Place•South Delhi•Badarpur, Okhla Industrial Area•Azadpur and Netaji Subhash Place•Rajiv Chowk•West Delhi

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Questionnaire

Basic Details:Name of the Organization: ________________________________________________________

Address of Head Office: __________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

Contact Person: ________________________________________________________________

Designation: ___________________________________________________________________

Contact Detail: _________________________________________________________________

About the Organization:

Number of branch offices and major locations in: India: ______________________________________________________________________

Outside India: _______________________________________________________________

Current Connectivity: MPLS Leased Line Broadband Internet Others Details (In terms of SP, Expenditure, etc.):

_____________________________________________________________________

Current mode of Collaboration: Video Conference Audio Conference Web Conference VoIP Others

 

Top five destinations to which the organization communicates. _____________________________________________________________________   

What are the challenges that the organization could be facing in the current circumstances, with regards to the Collaboration model used?

_____________________________________________________________________

 

What are your perceptions about Tata Communications Limited as a Service Provider? _____________________________________________________________________

Is your organization looking to change the Service Provider in near future? _____________________________________________________________________

The accounts varied from industry to industry. A quick review to the types of industries come across

18

1

14

12

40

2

55

8

64 4 4

TYPES OF INDUSTRYBFSI (18)

CONSTRUCTION & IN-FRASTRUCTURE (1)

GOVERNMENT (14)

HOSPITALITY (12)

IT/ITES (40)

LOGISTIC & TRANSPORT (2)

MANUFACTURING (55)

MISCELLANEOUS (8)

PRINT & MEDIA (6)

RETAIL (4)

SERVICES & SERVICE PROVIDER (4)

EDUCATION (4)

8

10

20

12

5

41

5

MPLS

SIFY (8)

TULIP (10)

AIRTEL (20)

TATA (12)

RELIANCE (5)

BSNL (4)

SPECTRANET (1)

BT,VERIZON,OBS (5)

89

43

32

14

7

10 3

LEASE LINE

SIFY (8)

TULIP (9)

AIRTEL (43)

TATA (32)

RELIANCE (14)

BSNL (7)

SPECTRANET (10)

BT,VERIZON,OBS, Aircel (3)

Competitor Analysis

Airtel is the leading company in both Leased Line and MPLS. Followed by TCL The majority of SMEs prefer Tulip over Airtel or TCL Major factor for Airtel to be the market leader is its strong CRM; they deliver

services on time and provide very good technical support. Another reason for other competitors to have a good market share is their Last

Mile strategy, where they provide the services solutions to door steps by joining hands with some local service providers

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Industry Analysis

Manufacturing Hospitality

1. Failure to seize business opportunity at newly developed industrial areas. Where as other service providers developed their infrastructure and provided communication services to those locations.

2. TCL does not have presence at locations other than prime locations.

3. This sector doesn't go for change in service provider very often and hence the connectivity at the time of plant setup stays. Its better to make the first move.

4. IT budget is allocated based on requirement , no fixed annual/ quarterly budget.

1. Uptime is most important for hotels as they aim to provide uninterrupted service to the guests.

2. Redundancy is maintained in all 5 star hotels by taking connectivity from 2 different service providers.

3. Video conferencing is not required as it is set up by the event organizer as and when need arises.

1. Due to ongoing recession, banks and brokerage firms are cutting down their IT expenditure.

2. Trading companies follow the NSE guidelines for connectivity and prefer Tulip as their service provider.

1. BFSI

1. Look for good service at lowest possible cost.

2. Cost is the major criteria among all the attributes considered for deciding service provider.

3. TCL can tie up with ITES firms that operate locally/regionally and mediate between tier 1 service providers and SMEs.

1. ITES

Industry Analysis

1. Aviation sector companies like Boeing, Velore generally have tie ups with global IT consultancies and decide on service providers based on their advice. Hence TCL should engage with these IT consultancies.

2. Hospitals look for reliability in bandwidth and uptime from their service provider.

3. SMEs do not prefer TCL due to lack of prompt service and response directed towards them Hence , they prefer smaller providers like Sify, Aircel etc.TCL should focus on SMEs as it can achieve considerable business there.

Miscellaneous

Industry Analysis

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• The common issue noticed was lack of communication – need to be more connected to the respective customers, both during pre-sale and post-sale and also about change in account managers.

• As few manufacturing industries commented on lack of feasibility, TCL should conduct a study of the industrial area of whether there is any commercial viability to set up the infrastructure or not, instead of refusal of providing services.

• Could introduce more flexible plans to attract the firms who consider TCL services to be expensive.

• Many industries have outsourced their IT-related functional decision-making to some consultancy firms. TCL could reach out to these consultancy firms and make tie-ups for any current or future requirements of the interested industries.

• Product- TCL offers a wide range of products and services catering all types of industrial requirements. Almost all the accounts visited have agreed that TCL is best in tier 1 level and provide best quality hardware set up.

Recommendations

• Price - Though the reigning service providers in the market are TATA, Airtel, Reliance; but the common reason for which people were averse to choosing TCL as their SP is the higher cost.

• Promotion – TCL conducts annual seminar/events for their up-coming products and services. Yet we encountered some clients who were unaware of the product basket.

• Place/Distribution – At tier 1 level TCL is considered the best SP but at tier 2 or remote industrial plants the feasibility is low or negligible. For instance, for remote plants of Indo Rama synthetics, Reliance had laid down the infrastructural set up.

• As one of the clients commented - "There is only one boss. The customer. And they can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending their money somewhere else.“

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• It has been an interesting and an eye-opener experience all through the 2 months, learning the nuances of interaction with different people and retrieving valuable inputs.

• A good exposure to the sales and marketing domain in corporate sector.

• A closer study on the B2B management domain and understanding the details that go along with it.

• Certain disappointments were faced like unable to get appointments with the correct IT decision makers of the firm, incorrect addresses in the database etc which led to longer time to get fruitful results

Experience as MT

Thank You