From a packaged software reseller to one of the few networking companies with experience in the radio connectivity solution space, Tulip IT Services’ decade-long journey in the Indian IT arena has been interesting and varied. Punita Jasrotia draws a profile

Bedi says Tulip’s ability to adapt to changing technologies and its profit-oriented policies helped it survive the slowdown

A player in providing IT infrastructure for multi-location enterprises, Tulip IT Services offers intra-city solutions based on wired (HDSL, leased lines, ISDN) and wireless products (radio, point-to-point and point-to-multi-point).
Tulip, which is expected to close fiscal 2003 with a turnover of Rs 175 crore, began its journey as an IT service provider with an investment of a mere Rs 4 lakh, back in 1992. According to Lt Col H S Bedi, managing director of Tulip IT Services, fiscal 2003 saw the company nearly doubling its turnover over last year. And going by its future roadmap, the company plans to be consistent on this front and is looking at an increase of 125 percent by the end of fiscal 2004. Bedi adds that the key drivers for Tulip’s growth have been the banking and system integration segments.

Changing paradigms
According to Bedi, the company has always focused on niche segments, while exploring the multiple disciplines of emerging technology fields. “I believe that what has helped us is our ability to continuously target niche segments, flexibility to adapt to the changing business environment and technological requirements,” he says.

Tulip started out as a reseller and support partner for packaged software products and went on to become a leading packaged software dealer of erstwhile Compaq. In the first year itself, Tulip was able to achieve a turnover of Rs 67 lakh. Once it established its presence as a packaged software reseller, the company decided to expand its operations and three years later, it opened branches in Mumbai and Chennai. From there, the company changed its business model and entered the field of enterprise networking. Tulip became a system integration partner of AT&T, Cisco and Bay Networks.

However, with increasing competition, coupled with reduction in profit margins in the system integration business, Tulip decided to venture into the services segment. Bedi says that while the focus initially was in the area of facilities management, Tulip soon started offering services in disaster-, asset- and software management. It also offers services like bandwidth management, network design and security services. In addition to these services, the company also looked after hardware support and systems operations for its enterprise clients.

This phase also saw the company exploring another niche segment—wide area networking (WAN) with radio-based solutions, including multi-point solutions, which helps lower networking costs substantially. Today, Tulip is one of the largest wireless solution companies in India, having a strong WAN team and base. “Though we started building our infrastructure in 1996-97, we stuck to our focus to get into the second layer and move up the value chain by using telecom as a tool. And that’s when we decided to offer wireless solutions through radio,” elaborates Bedi.

The company undertakes these projects on a turnkey basis, including liaisons with DoT for WPC and obtaining licenses. Some of its corporate customers in the wireless space are Hughes, Delphi, Dabur, Reckitt & Coleman India. Tulip also provides last mile connectivity to a number of ISPs like Satyam, Mantra Online, Global, Jain TV and Spectranet.

At present, Tulip has a presence in 17 cities with regional offices at Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai and support offices in the other cities. In addition to this, Tulip has also built a strong team: 450 professionals (of which 75-80 are Cisco certified networking professionals), who are competent in radio connectivity, network operating systems, LAN and telecom and have serviced clients in various industry segments. According to Bedi, currently 55 percent of the company’s revenues come from enterprise connectivity and 30 percent from services.

Laurels earned
One of Tulip’s bigger achievements has been the Bank of Punjab project. Worth Rs 2 crore, Tulip provided connectivity to all the branches of the bank, including 70 radio-based set-ups for connecting ATMs in a point-to-multi-point framework. The bank’s network comprises leased lines, VSAT, wireless and ISDN dial-up. Besides this, there have been some other major achievements too. (See box below: Projects undertaken by Tulip)

Tulip is Cisco’s largest reseller and also a Cisco Certified Premier Partner (last year it received Cisco’s Premium Partner of the Year-India award). Now Tulip is targeting Cisco’s gold certification programme. Bedi hopes that this certification will bring global recognition to the company’s strengths. The company’s technical strengths lie in routers, switches, security, IP telephony, network management and wireless LAN.

Future expansion plans
In future, the company plans to aggressively target the premium networking market. Bedi says Tulip’s ability to adapt to changing technologies and its profit-oriented policies have helped it survive the slowdown.

Leveraging on the experience of its radio and connectivity solutions (which is also its USP when competing with Wipro and Datacraft), the company plans to tap into the increasing demand from banks, corporates and different e-governance initiatives. “Over time, we have been able to showcase the benefits of connectivity as it helps reduce costs substantially and ensures reliability in excess of 99 percent. This has helped us tap some areas, which traditionally have not been addressed by other players and is also our USP,” he says. In addition to this, there are two major banking deals, which are expected to materialise in the next couple of months. “One of these is worth Rs 70 crore, which will help us reach our goal of achieving a 125-130 percent growth in the coming year,” says Bedi.