"Video-conferencing is a cost-effective solution" - - TN Sundar, Country Head and Director, South Asia, PictureTel

Ask TN Sundar, Country Head and Director, South Asia,

PictureTel to describe his work and he says that he helps people see, speak and

interact with their friends and colleagues across the globe without leaving

their desk. Sundar has a vast experience in IT with a career span of 32 years.

Of these 12 years were spent with IBM. Prior to joining PictureTel, Sundar was

vice-chairman and executive director at the Datapro group.

What product mix do you offer through channels?

We offer excellent, world-class products. We are the people

who drive the world standards in video-conferencing. We are a company that is

focussed only on video-conferencing or visual collaboration for the past 15

years. There was a time when they said that what Microsoft is to software,

PictureTel is to videoconferencing.

We offer good products, good collateral, good support and

good training. And then we let our channels go ahead and sell the products. So,

our job is to support them and ensure that they get the technical support. We

want our partners to sell new products and create a market share.

How big is your channel network today?

I have nearly 120 channel partners and seven to eight systems

integrators.

What is your installed base in India?

Over 70 percent of the video-conferencing installed base in

India is PictureTel. In terms of numbers it would be close to about 600 units.

How would you define your customer base?

We can segment the customer base into various categories.

Government organizations and departments that have the money which include ONGC,

ISRO, VSNL, MTNL and the DoT are especially using this technology. Some state

governments too use video-conferencing.

Then we have the banking and financial segment. Another large

segment is the software export houses who are very big users. The software

export houses need to have the right kind of co-ordination between the project

team here and the project managers out there.

But isn't that kind of contact already established by web

cams?

Suppose we have this interview on the phone instead of a

one-on-one. Which mode would have a greater impact? I am sure that a personal

interaction would have been more fruitful. Similarly, a web cam can never make

the impact comparable to video-conferencing. When you want a

business-to-business tool as opposed to a me-to-you tool, then you need a

video-conferencing unit. Why do you today want to use a color TV when you still

have a black and white set? You still have TVs for Rs 4,000 and you still watch

your favorite programs on TVs worth Rs 40,000. Why? The answer is the quality

and the kind of application.

If somebody wants to have inter-departmental store CCTVs, you

can use black and white monitors, as no one wants to see color of the moving

images. But what happens when you are discussing a million-dollar business where

very critical issues are involved? Here you need a power tool.

So we are in the segment of the power tool. And there are the

web cams. They have their own market. Their products are good enough for the

kind of applications they are being put to use.

What was your turnover last year worldwide? And what was

contribution of the Indian market?

I think it was $ 350 million. India is a very small part of

the whole figure, so the contribution might have been around one percent.

Video-conferencing is perceived as a high-cost technology

today. Do you agree with this?

What the market needs today is a mindset to look at this

product and its applications. Yes, very often people think that this is a costly

solution. On other hand, video-conferencing is a cost-effective solution. When

you talk about cost, you have to answer two questions. Is it costly in isolation

or is it costly for me to use it? So, cost is a connotation that has to be

coupled with benefit.

If the product gives you more benefit than the cost incurred,

then you can say that it is cost-beneficial. If the benefit is lower than the

cost that you have incurred, then you have a costly product. And benefit has to

relate to the bottomline of the business that you are running, the support that

you want to give to your customers. The support could be tangible or intangible.

So if somebody wants to look at this type of technology he

just have to have a mind to go for it. Money comes later. A good organization

looks for tools that help in running its business profitably, provide

infrastructure to develop better products and support to customers, bring the

product into the market ahead of the competition.

Who are some of your users in the private sector?

Reliance is a very heavy user of video conferencing

technology. Birlas and L&T too have installed units. The differentiation

actually comes across in terms of the style of users and the quantity of usage.

Among the private organizations the largest users are in the

auto, finance and software segments. The reasons for this are very straight and

simple. The need for communication is much higher in these segments. If Morgan

Stanley needs a machine today they may use it in one particular day for about 20

hours. For a whole week they might use it for 165 hours. It is this level of

communication that determines who is going to be the user.

What potential do you see for video-conferencing technology

in India?

Basically we need to set our infrastructure right. The

video-conferencing market is closely linked to infrastructure. If the

infrastructure that is required for 5,000 links is in place, then in the next

couple of years I see this market touching a figure of Rs 100 crore.

Vinita Suvarna in Bangalore

Quote:   We are the people who drive the world standards in

video-conferencing.



              A web cam can never make the impact comparable to
video-conferencing.