Rank 29 : GLOBAL TELE-SYSTEMS: Let’s Play Lego

GTL Ltd has become adept at playing Lego. The blocks here are its

business units and the company keeps grouping and re-grouping its ‘blocks’

under various heads. Evidently, some blocks fell off last year, and revenues

closed at Rs 425.78 crore–excluding the Rs 107.03 crore from network

engineering (traditionally not included by DQ). The revenue drop came from

software and systems integration business.

Performance Highlights Growth in IT-enabled services–from Rs 29 crore to Rs 71 crore  VPN servicegrew 91% to touch Rs 45.44 crore  Growth of 7.5-10% projected Startup: 1987 l Products & services: Network engineering and IT Services l Employees: 2095 l Branches: 32 l Address: 412, Janmabhoomi Chambers, 29 Walchand Hirachand Marg, Ballard Estate, Mumbai - 400 038 l Tel: 2613010 l Fax: 2619649 Website: gtlllimited.com

A good part of GTL’s software business has been following the IPR model,

which involves acquiring the rights of successful software products from vendors

like Microsoft, Oracle, Nortel, GEIS and Portal, and reselling, customizing and

developing derivative products for SMEs and corporate customers. These were

offered under the ASP model–while the model had given GTL good returns, the

year found few takers. The slowdown in the SI business saw overall software

services take a nosedive. GTL has now decided to lower focus on the IPR model

and ASP businesses such as payment gateway, e-fax and EDI.