Spotlight

A solution for every problem

With a wide line up of solutions, BNA Technology and consulting is now concentrating on marketing its Business Process Services to international markets. By Aishwarya Ramani

"We have launched an e-commerce portal called bnaITmart.com which focuses on selling networking products to the SMB market" - V Ranganathan Managing Director BNA Technology Consulting

In a highly competitive world, setting up a family run business and starting from scratch brings its own set of challenges to the table. “A family run business can be conservative in terms of growth,” says V Ranganathan, Managing Director BNA Technology Consulting. The company was incorporated on 6th January 1989 as Building Network Automation Private Limited in Bangalore. Ranganathan says that one of his biggest hurdles was being based down South. The reach of the company was restricted. To add to this, there was a shortage of professionals. How the company went about overcoming these perceived and actual shortcomings makes for an interesting tale.

The company was entrusted the task of designing and commissioning a network for the ISRO headquarters. This was followed by its endeavour to set up a campus wide Ethernet network at the Aeronautical Development Establishment at Bangalore encompassing 20 buildings and departments. Another milestone was when the company took care of cabling the Ennore Foundries Campus in Chennai located in the latter’s 25 acre factory premises.

Another significant project of the company is their implementation of the Crowd Management system at the famous Tirupati Temple. The data and voice network at the Oberoi Towers in Mumbai was one more feather in BNA’s cap.

Inside BNA

Today, BNA has five business divisions and each one has several business groups that are related to each other namely infrastructure and system integration services, IT based automation projects, IT enabled services (domestic), IT enabled services (overseas) and finally product development.

BNA is a system integrator and its primary focus is on the physical and the network layer. According to Ranganathan, BNA was the first company to introduce structured cabling in the Indian market. “Earlier cabling was done using coaxial cable,” says Ranganathan. BNA has been successful in implementing networks on various protocols—Ethernet on coaxial, UTP, STP and fibre, Token Ring, twin axial and mainframe connectivity. Networking generates more than Rs. 50 million in revenues per annum for the company which is a vendor independent system integrator. BNA’s clients are free to choose a product that fits their requirement. BNA has a process in place for helping its clients choose the right vendor. Ranganathan explains, “We sit with our customers and discuss their requirements. Their needs are articulated and a conceptual plan of the solutions is agreed upon. In the detailed engineering phase, we release a bill of materials that satisfies the client’s requirements. After this either the client chooses vendors that he would like to employ or we give them quotes from different vendors and the client chooses from that list.”

Heavyweight Clients

BNA’s client list for its networking solutions includes the Who’s Who of India Inc. The list extends from heavy engineering players such as Lakshmi Machine Works to FMCG major Hindustan Lever. Government run organisations (Indian Space Research Organisation) and educational institutions (IIT Madras) also figure on its list. “Our first deal was for a defence organisation called Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE). We undertook the task of networking their entire campus,” says Ranganathan.

Although the SMB market does seem lucrative, BNA has been concentrating only on large enterprises. “About 70 percent of our business comes from large enterprises,” says Ranganathan. Being based in Bangalore and the way in which the company was organised led it to focus on large corporate houses.

BNA has achieved considerable success in providing infotainment solutions—musical fountains, sound and light shows and multimedia theatres. The company has set up musical dancing fountains at RITES Bangalore, DTHP Kulllu and for the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), New Delhi to name a few. Their sound and light shows are up and running at the Sri Ganapathi Sachchidananda Ashram at Mysore, Sri Ramanjaneya Gudda at Bangalore and DPIT at Port Blair.

A portal for SMBs

The Indian SMB market is growing rapidly and no vendor or service provider worth his salt would want to miss this bus. So does BNA have a specialised solution for this segment? “We have launched an e-commerce portal called bnaITmart.com which focuses on selling networking products to the SMB market,” says Ranganathan.

Marketing and technical agents are online at all times to help SMBs choose the right product. “Big players like, say, 3com, would like to sell to SMBs but are unable to reach these customers. This is where bnaITmart can help,” says Ranganathan. According to him, the problem that most vendors face is that they are not able to pay the same amount of attention to the SMB market that they are to large enterprises.

“After the SMB clients have made their choice, our agents customise the solution for them and offer it at a competitive price.” The customer can pay online and BNA’s agents take care of installation. These installation agents are specifically trained by BNA.

“We at BNA would like SMBs to know that although their requirement might be at a smaller scale than larger players, we attach the same importance to them,” says Ranganathan. He feels that SMBs should not have to compromise on good IT infrastructure because of not being able to afford quality products. The locally available infrastructure installation services work in favour of SMB clients.

Business Process Services

Online support comes under the heading of Business Process Services at BNA. What is unique about BNA’s online support is that this system is up and running at all times. A conversation window pops up the minute BNA’s home page opens. The advantage of having support staff online at all times is that responses to a customer’s queries are not automated but are handled manually conferring a personal touch to the process.

This service has a significant role to play in BNA’s expansion plans. “This service can be instrumental in converting visitors to buyers,” says Ranganathan. BNA is in talks with clients in Singapore and Dubai who have evinced interest in deploying this service.

With rising demand for networking infrastructure, BNA plans to spread its wings across the country. “We are planning to open branches and offer technical support services across the country. Our major focus will remain on BPS.”

When quizzed about competition, he replies, “The networking business is huge. There are several players. However, there are no national players.”

Research at BNA

R&D also forms a significant part of BNA’s portfolio. The company has a separate product development division that undertakes research in networking, IT based and IT enabled projects. This division is a cost centre. “We do not have any patents registered,” says Ranganathan. However he says that the company uses its intellectual property in an innovative manner.

“One implementation that we feel proud of is our use of VoIP for paging,” says Ranganathan. He is of the view that the paging and security announcement systems generally are an additional cost. This can be cut down by the innovative use of VoIP. This underlying VoIP network is used as a medium to transfer voice throughout the campus or building where a link has been established.