Tejas strides ahead in optical networking

After hitting the big time in optical networking products in India, Tejas Networks is gunning for a share of the global pie, says Abhinav Singh

Contract manufacturing has helped us concentrate on advanced R&D for optical networking products, says Sanjay Nayak

As an Indian start-up, Tejas Networks has faced tough times. Unperturbed, it overcame initial hiccups and succeeded in carving a niche for itself in the optical networking product space. Instead of taking the easy way out and rushing to foreign shores looking for greener pastures, the company chose to focus on the domestic market.

Capitalising on the vast potential that the Indian optical networking market had to offer, Tejas has bagged projects from marquee names such as RailTel, Tata Power Broadband, MTNL and Tata Teleservices. Today, it generates about 90 percent of its revenues from the Indian market. Going ahead the company is looking abroad for growth. Sanjay Nayak, CEO and managing director, Tejas Networks India says, “Our vision was to build a strong product company. When we started in 2000 there were 200 start-ups in the global optical networking product space. Today less than ten have survived.”

Constant innovation is the key

Tejas Networks plans to concentrate on continuously upgrading its TJ100 product series, adding and enhancing features as required.

When Tejas began, it chose to develop products based on two prominent next-generation SDH standards, G.7041 and G.7042, which support the Ethernet standard.

Dr Kumar N Sivarajan, chief technology officer, Tejas Networks India explains, “We foresaw that data requirements would dominate the optical networking market. Today all the major players in the optical networking products space are developing products based upon next-generation SDH standards.” Tejas Networks added Ethernet leased line support to all its TJ100 series products all of which have Element Management and Network Element software embedded into the firmware. These modules help ease network operations and improve the speed of service execution.

OEMs to boost Tejas

Tejas Networks wants to jump-start its presence abroad and tap into the global optical networking space. It has formed OEM relationships with several companies abroad including Arris Networks in the US and Hitron Technologies in Taiwan. Both OEMs will sell Tejas’ networking products under their brand name or act as resellers for Tejas’ products in the international market. Nayak explains, “Through our OEM relationships with companies abroad, we plan to popularise our products in the global market.” The company has relationships with ECIL (Electronics Corporation of India) and Puncom (Punjab Communications), among others, to sell its products in India.

R&D and contract manufacturing

Tejas Networks has a strong focus on R&D. Of its 140 employees, around 70 are dedicated to product R&D. It has filed four patents to date. Sivarajan says, “Assembling a good team was one of the most challenging tasks before us when we went in for product development. We have had a very flexible and agile R&D team that has developed products and altered product specifications at short notice as per market requirements.” Tejas Networks believes in contract manufacturing. Once it develops a product, it outsources product manufacturing to Flextronics India. Nayak says, “Contract manufacturing has helped us concentrate on advanced R&D for optical networking products without bothering about manufacturing. ”

Full steam ahead

Tejas foresaw that data requirements would dominate the optical networking market, hence the company went ahead and developed the TJ100 series of products, says Kumar N Sivarajan

Tejas Networks hopes to grow by five hundred percent in the next couple of years. The company has 20 major customers in India including the likes of RailTel, Tata Teleservices, Tata Power Broadband, MTNL and Dishnet DSL. It plans to access a large customer base in the international market through its OEMs and hopes to be a leader in the global optical networking products market. Nayak adds, “We work closely with our customers and finalise our product specifications based upon feedback from customers. The market however keeps changing and there is always a shift in customer preferences by the time one develops a product. The ability to gauge market expectations and demand well in advance and fine tune one’s product accordingly are the keys to success.” Tejas Networks sees considerable potential in the emerging Indian BPO sector and hopes that it will drive the optical networking products market in India.

Tejas Networks has capitalised on market conditions and hopes to continue growing. By demonstrating its prowess in the optical networking product space, Tejas has shown the world that Indian companies can compete in the products arena. It can be a role model for other Indian companies and help transform India into a player that does more than just be a services hub.

abhinav@expresscomputeronline.com