Aircel and NEC announce Cloud initiatives to tap Indian enterprises

Telecom Lead India: The Maxis-owned Aircel announced its Cloud initiatives to tap the Indian enterprises. NEC is powering its Cloud computing initiatives.

Aircel with a subscriber base of over 65 million is rolling out Cloud services called Business Unplugged across the country.

The new Cloud service, according to Aircel, will assist help Indian enterprises to grow by providing flexibility to scale-up quickly and seamlessly according to the changing business environment and demands.

Aircel hopes to leverage the growing demand for Cloud services in the country. Aircel will target large & medium enterprises, SME/SOHO and PSUs across various industry verticals.

Ravinder Jain, chief business officer – Enterprise, Aircel

“Cloud Services by the name of “Business Unplugged” from Aircel will help businesses grow by providing flexibility to scale-up quickly and seamlessly according to the changing business environment and demands,” said Ravinder Jain, chief business officer – Enterprise, Aircel.

According to Gartner, the cloud services market in India is projected to grow 32.4 per cent in 2012 to total $326.2 million (about Rs 1,665 crore) while Software-as-a-service (SaaS) is the largest segment and is forecast to grow to $115.6 million in 2012.

NEC India, a display, network and IT solutions provider, has already tied up with Aircel for offering Software as a Service (SaaS).

As per the deal, NEC will provide the Cloud Aggregation Platform along with a portfolio of Cloud offerings to Aircel. Aircel will be responsible for managing customer relationships, including presales and sales engagements, delivery and support, and billing and contractual relationships.

Aircel and NEC will start with a software applications portfolio, which could then subsequently extend to other Cloud offerings.

Focus will be on enterprise grade offerings, such as Collaboration, CRM, ERP, HRMS, Business Suite, Video Conferencing, etc. The software services can be adapted to suit a variety of business roles, from sales and support, to internal workgroups providing increased efficiencies and greater workforce productivity. NEC has built up a carrier grade cloud aggregation platform through its engagements with multiple service providers across the globe.

“NEC has built a world class Cloud Aggregation Platform, now deployed at over 25 service providers across 14 countries, and a strong portfolio of cloud offerings built up within NEC and through India focused cloud partners, which will be continuously expanded in the coming months,” said Angira Agrawal, associate vice president, Cloud business, NEC India.

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