The present day Bharti Teletech is a witness to the entire ‘telecom journey’ the nation has negotiated through. It was the mid- 1980s, the hey days of Rajeev Gandhi’s era; when India truly awoke to the beeping sounds of millions of restless telephone sets. From that epochal phase, the nation set out on an enduring telecom journey. In those oozing national moment, Sunil Bharti Mittal, the Ludhiana dweller, tasted the waters of electronic communications. Dealing first in the imports of electronic paraphernalia, he dared venture into the manufacturing of some of the communications equipments. But the major initiative came when he formed Bharti Teletech, and started manufacturing the ‘Beetel Brand’ of push button telephone sets. Bharti Teletech proved to be a bright omen for Sunil Bharti Mittal, and acted as a precursor to the subsequent rise of the mighty business conglomerate, Bharti Enterprises under which an array of autonomous business units including Bharti Airtel Ltd; Bharti TeleTech Ltd; Telecom Seychelles Ltd; Comviva Technologies Ltd; FieldFresh Foods Pvt. Ltd.; Bharti Retail Pvt Ltd; Bharti AXA General Insurance Company; Bharti AXA Investment Managers Pvt. Ltd; Centum Learning Limited; Jersey Airtel Ltd; Bharti Foundation; Bharti Realty; and Bharti Infratel (including Bharti Teletech Ltd) thrive. However, it was the brand ‘Airtel’ (under Bharti Airtel Ltd) that gave Sunil Bharti Mittal a distinct image in entrepreneur India. Today, Bharti Airtel is India’s largest integrated and the first private telecom services provider with a footprint in all the 23 telecom circles. By each passing day, the company brings in plethora of new concepts, and services (through its three individual strategic business units in ‘Mobile Services’, ‘Airtel Telemedia Services’ and ‘Enterprise Services’). In recent times, the alliance between ‘Bharti Retail’ and ‘Wal-Mart’ gave an elevated prestige to the already illustrious business conglomerate. Indeed, the saga of ‘Bharti Enterprises’ is studded with sparkling gems.
The fundamentals
With rapid pace, different business constituents of Bharti Enterprises have been thriving to the fullest pride of Sunil Bharti Mittal, but the role and guardian-like aura of Bharti Teletech still endures. After all, Bharti Teletech is the first baby of the brainy Ludhiana guy. Truly, Bharti Teletech has played a pivotal role in the rise of the modern day business empire. Bharti Teletech owes its growth to the ‘manufacturing’ capability of it for ‘fixed-line phones’ (under the brand of Beetel). It is to be noted that in 1985 itself, Bharti Teletech and Germany-based Siemens AG underwent a ‘technical collaboration’ for manufacturing of fixed- line phones. This was a masterly move on the part of Bharti Teletech as the alliance gave it a handy access to quality ‘telecom manufacturing’ technology from Germany. However, Bharti Teletech kept its incessant focus on developing its own manufacturing skills. Siemens did give the necessary fillip to Bharti Teletech, but soon the company acquired its own know-how for making world-class telephone-sets. Since then Bharti Teletech never looked back.
“Bharti Teletech was the first in India that started the manufacture of electronic push button telephone instruments under the brand name Beetel. By the time Year 1995 came to close, Bharti Teletech was the largest manufacturer of telephones in India”, said Goyal. “We’re today amongst the largest manufacturer of fixed line, CLI (Caller Line Identification), and cordless phones in the World”, added Goyal. Even the Chairman of Bharti Teletech, Rakesh Bharti Mittal, shows his ecstasy when he says, “We’re proud to say that every second household in India with a landline phone uses a Beetel. We’re enabling ‘Technology’ reach masses”.
From telephone-set manufacturing business, Sunil Bharti Mittal led Bharti Teletech acted as the launching pad for the next level of his entrepreneurial activism. His venture into the treasure grove of ‘mobile services’, has reaped amazing harvest.
Old is gold
For Bharti Teletech, the tie-up with BSNL in 1990s for supplying its subscribers with telephone sets, proved to be a milestone development for the emerging company. Even today, the company maintains cozy OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) relationships with BSNL, MTNL, and Airtel. However, for Bharti Teletech, the launch of its own Beetel brand, way back in 1995, in ‘open-market’ turned out to be a highly successful business proposition. “We did set up the retail channel for selling Beetelbranded phones in the country”, added Goyal. “Our venture into retailing acted as the right catalyst for us”, said Goyal. Soon, every corner of the country was teeming with Beetel telephone sets. At the same time, Bharti Teletech’s overseas business has grown rapidly. “Our products are not only sold in India, but in over 35 countries across the world”, said Goyal. Though the entire range of products is made available in overseas markets, the cordless telephones sell the most. In the meantime, the company also launched Beetel ‘ADSL Modems’ and ‘Set-top Boxes’ in the country.
But, Bharti Teletech could never be a tired entity. Though it played a senior role, the element of innovation and the spirit for staying contemporary defied any age-related syndrome. Quite recently, Bharti Teletech has adopted a new ‘Logo’ that signifies an unflinching resolve for kissing ‘lady excellence’ in every field the company forays into. “We’ve just finished our re-branding exercise where we’ve come out with new logo for Beetel”, said Goyal.
Gone are the days when fixed-line phones used to be a ‘deadly-boring’ communication instruments. But, given the smartness of its counterpart in mobile handsets, the quaint fixed-line phones have also got the soothing treatment of innovation, and sophistication. “Now, these devices have got most of the functionalities which are present in mobile handsets. Even colour of these fixed-line sets are coming with brilliant shine, and wonderful shades. Fixed-line phones have undergone a paradigm shift. They’ve become lifestyle products”, added Goyal. For making its telephone sets attractive and ergonomically sensible, Bharti Teletech has roped in New Delhi-based product design firm called ‘Desmania Design’. In an interaction with Digital Edge, Anuj Prasad, Founder Director & CEO, Desmania Design Pvt Ltd., said, “We’ve taken the responsibility for making the Beetel products intelligent, in its design, contours, and colour. We have pledged for making Beetel products into nicer pieces of aestheticism”. An alumnus of National Institute of Design (NID) Ahmedabad, Anuj Prasad and his team is all set to give Beetel phones layers of innovative assortments. On the functionality front, Bharti Teletech mains sophisticated R&D facilities so that its products are truly of international standards. “Our electronics engineering team designs circuits as per customer requirements. They design PCB using design software, test these circuits by developing prototypes as per specifications and convert these designs into successful products”, said Goyal. Extreme focus is being shed on bringing out new models of telephones with new advanced features like ‘caller ID’, ‘two-way speakerphone’, ‘phone book’, ‘two-line phone’, ‘backlit display’ and longer battery back-up. “We also take care of the needs of international markets where country-specific features are imbued in our Bettel products. We do a lot of customization of our phones”, added he.
In 1995, when Bharti Teletech started selling its Beetel brand in open market, a new set of retail channel network emerged. This gave the company an insight into the challenging landscapes of product distribution. Later on, Bharti Teletech’s experiment of product distribution acted as a precursor to the rise of it as a Pan India IT distribution company in the country.
An IT distributor par-excellence
Bharti Teletech has continuously moved on the path of broadening its overall scope, and the process of venturing into newer areas has never vacillated. While, the inherent core-competency of Bharti Teletech in making and distributing fixed-line phones has moved from strength to strength, a new attribute has come up that has added brilliant feathers to its purple cap. India is seeing the rise of Pan India IT distributor in Bharti Teletech.
The art of IT distributorship is a delicate affair. Fewer companies dare venture into the slippery landscapes of IT distribution. And those who succeed, apart from having soundAs an IT distributor, Bharti Teletech offers complete product range of UK-based Polycom that provides end-to-end solutions for ‘Videoconferencing’, and ‘Immersive Tele-Presence’. Polycom also offers a wide range of voice centric products as well as security solutions that make the ‘information-exchange infrastructure’ truly safe and agile. However, the ‘Immersive Tele-Presence' solution being offered by Polycom is attracting the attention of Indian media as well. It looks that Polycom has come up as a promising alternative to Cisco’s ‘Immersive Tele-Presence’ solution. “The Indian market is showing extreme interest in getting the ‘Immersive Tele-Presence’ solution. Working with SI’s (Systems Integrators), we feel happy in taking Polycom's products and solutions to the Indian market. Ever since recession struck India as well, we’ve seen elevated business around Polycom line of products”, says Sunil Goyal, CEO, Bharti Teletech Ltd.
capital bases, carry some of the disciplined attributes like meeting the deadlines, rapport with channels, and impeccable product delivery mechanism. Whether it’s Ingram Micro, Redington, eSys Technologies, HCL Infosystems, Iris Computers, or Rashi Peripherals they all walk on strictly disciplined trajectories of IT distributorship. It’s interesting that the Indian IT market is being frequented by just 25 distributors! That the Indian IT distribution ecosystem needs to grow further where more and more capable players join the ‘distribution league’. At this juncture, the entry of rejuvenated Rs 1060 Crore Bharti Teletech into the IT distribution fraternity is a happy development. In fact, Bharti Teletech’s latest focus on ‘IT channels’ is a heartening development.
“As an IT & Telecom distributor, Bharti Teletech has earned a decent rapport with organized retail entities in India. However, we always aspired to tap the promise of ‘IT channels’ in the country. In June this year itself, we’ve formally ventured into the realm of IT channels”. There’s a discernable exuberance at the stable of Bharti Teletech, which has desired to be India’s top IT distributor by 2012.
As of now, Bharti Teletech distributes a wide range of products from principals like Transcend (portable HDD, micro SD card, SD card, digital Photoframes, USB flash drive/pen drive), Samsung (MP3/MP4 players), Panasonic (plasma displays, digital camera, LCD projectors, DLP projectors), Polycom (audio video conferencing solution), Logitech (keyboard, mouse, PC headset, presenter, web cam), Huawei (3G data card), Aastra (VoIP phone, SIP phone), Apple (iPhone), and BlackBerry. And of course, Bharti Teletech’s own Beetel range of phones (push button basic phones, cordless phones), ADSL modems, and set top boxes are hot items that the company distributes across the nation.
Till May this year, Bharti Teletech used to distribute these products through a wide range of retail partners, the ‘non-IT’ retail partners. Now as the company has plunged into ‘IT channels’, the scope of Bharti Teletech as a distributor has suddenly widened. Till now, the company has, actually, not entered the scintillating world of hardcore IT products.
“Handling the present product portfolio has given us decent domain knowledge. In fact, we’ve traversed a nice learning curve that has prepared us for handling hardcore IT products now”, said Goyal. If his statement is analyzed, the Indian IT distribution ecosystem is sure to get enriched; a capable member has joined the august congregation of IT distributors here in India.
There’re several areas where the company can venture into. As Bharti Teletech deals in flash products as well, handling NAS (Network Attached Storage) and SAN (Storage Area Network) products could be easy. Even internal HDD (Hard Disk Drive) products may be incorporated. In fact, the company can be a dignified name in the distribution of all types of storage products. Going forward, Bharti Teletech can distribute servers (including blade servers). So, the scopes and possibilities are immense. Indeed, over the Indian IT distribution horizon, a new sun is opening its eyes. Watch Bharti Teletech!
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