31 Mahindra British Telecom - Growth Engines

alt="https://img-cdn.thepublive.com/filters:format(webp)/dq/media/post_attachments/1ea11f83434a49680b0ffb72e085f42246fb1ed063665cd0625b814ef10cbf5a.jpg (20156 bytes)"> CEO: Kiran Deshpande color="#FF0000"> * PRODUCTS AND SERVICES: Software Development, Consultancy size="1" color="#FF0000">* TECHNICAL COLLABORATION: British Telecom size="1" color="#FF0000">* START-UP YEAR: 1988 color="#FF0000">* EMPLOYEES: 989 color="#FF0000">* ADDRESS: 155, Mumbai-Pune Road, Pimpri, Pune 411018 * TEL: 774740/60 size="1" color="#FF0000">* FAX: 775048 PERFORMANCE HIGHLIGHTS Onsite and offshore development revenues registered growth of 36 percent and 137 percent respectively. Launched 'Mature Trainees' initiative to combat attrition alt="https://img-cdn.thepublive.com/filters:format(webp)/dq/media/post_attachments/06c215ae3a3b47950afa1e7510cdd29b52a88899d4207018c342afcd6e6b1724.jpg (37146 bytes)" border="0">

Mahindra British Telecom's (MBT) performance last year surpassed its
expectations. Its revenues rose to Rs 99.53 crore, marking an overall growth of almost 60
percent. The net profits went up from Rs 12.12 crore in 1996-97 to Rs 28.90 crore. MBT
expanded its role in BT substantially. It became the largest supplier of software services
to the organization. While it continued to provide services on existing programs, a number
of new projects were initiated giving MBT wider coverage of Telecom OSS (Operations
Support Systems). In fact, compared to 1996-97 when about 80 percent of revenues came from
Europe and the remaining from the US, last year over 94 percent revenues came from Europe.
The company's target of increasing revenues from the US by three-fold have not been met.
Interestingly, MBT has made some inroads into the Japanese market too.

Some new projects in the year included a requirements study for a major company in
Qatar and projects in Oman with MBT retaining joint intellectual property rights. In
India, MBT commenced work for State Bank of India. Each of these projects is a full
life-cycle one. A Y2K impact study for Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd's telecom and computing
systems was a noteworthy project. MBT is one of the few organizations to have built the
expertise to study Y2K impact on services offered by telecom operators. Another milestone
was the commencement of offshore work with MCI.

MBT's employee strength has gone up by over 100 percent last year to approach 1,000.
The company has plans to intensify its efforts for software projects and systems
integration assignments. MBT also plans to undertake joint product development with
telecom service providers for billing, customer management, service management, network
management, and intelligent service platforms and setting up bureau services. It also has
plans to enter finance and banking, especially areas of generic IT expertise. It will also
provide other offerings including IT consulting, intranets, workflow management.

MBT aims to focus on specialization through focus on telecom. In this direction, MBT
has developed comprehensive 'business plus technology' expertise in providing software
solutions for the telecom sector. It also covers other services like professional
consulting, application integration solutions, and large and vast complex systems
development and consulting. Taking a step towards the mantra of providing a comprehensive
range of services, MBT has gained expertise in providing ERP solutions and software
solutions to the service and utilities sector in high-technology areas.

The company has been able to actively participate in the software development R&D
efforts of BT and yield high-level of knowledge and expertise, apart from equipping itself
to provide solutions for the future.