When Batchelor talks about Bay Networks and technology in general it is easy to get swept up by his enthusiasm. A person who twice interrupts his annual trip with his family to fly back to address work concerns in Johannesburg is undoubtedly devoted to his job.
Commenting on the Nortel and Bay Networks merger, which he says is the first of many, he notes: "It has been going extremely well apart from one or two glitches. The main reason is the little overlap between the companies in terms of products and skills. Each side had something the other needed to complete a unified service offering."
Locally, Batchelor says, the merger had negligible impact. "Nortel had one representative in SA who easily fitted in with the rest of the team at Bay Networks. The same goes for our partners; we either had the same partners or non-competing ones. The SA market has responded positively to the merger. Both existing and potential customers are requesting more information on our unified network offering."
Into Africa
Batchelor has definite plans for Bay Networks this year, including the opening of a branch in Durban at the end of February and an aggressive move into Africa. He adds that Bay has been reworking the company structure during the past six months and now boasts a solid local team.
Commenting on the company's African expansion, he says: "We already have a good base in Namibia and have made inroads into Mozambique, Kenya, Tanzania and Nigeria." He adds that there are certain problems unique to Africa when moving into this region - especially relating to political instability - but he is confident that Bay will be successful.
"We have a fairly easy formula which we will adopt in Africa to establish contact and expand from there. Nortel can provide the telecommunications and Bay the data networks. GSM is proving to be popular in Africa and we have a solution designed to meet the three requirements of African markets - low-cost initial investment, fast network deployment and full GSM functionality."
Enterprise expansion
Locally, Bay will focus on consolidating its existing enterprise business. "Our customer base is very loyal and we want to assist them in bettering their business. We will also be entering certain vertical markets, especially in the banking and finance arena." This is a well-known sector for Batchelor, who spent 10 years at Standard Bank before joining Cisco. He joined Bay Networks as GM six months ago.
"We have a good base in the insurance industry with Old Mutual's Bay campus network and a Cisco WAN. I am proud to say that Momentum Life has a totally Nortel base.
"The second enterprise sector we want to enter is the motoring industry. I personally find this industry very interesting and am convinced that we have much to offer the local motor industry." In the international market, Volkswagen, Mercedes Benz and Ford have all standardised on Nortel and Bay. "We hope to do the same here," he adds with a mischievous smile.
Going smaller
Bay is also looking at the SME market this year. Commenting on the large number of vendors active and entering this area, Batchelor says: "Networking has become a commodity and the differentiating considerations are now price, ease of implementation, maintenance and use. Our appointment of SDD as a distributor and Synthesis Informatics as a third-party maintenance partner in November last year was part of our strategy to aggressively attack this market."
Synthesis, a black empowerment company, has been awarded a third-party maintenance contract to install and maintain systems and solutions based on Bay Networks' products.
Batchelor explains: "A customer buys the product from SDD and receives an installation document detailing that Synthesis will undertake the installation. The customer can also purchase maintenance contracts from Synthesis. This move is a perfect platform from which to expand into the SME market."
Reducing competition
Batchelor quotes Gartner when it comes to the networking market. "Gartner predicts that in the next two to three years there will be only three or four large telecommunications and networking companies left. The Nortel and Bay merger was just the first of many.
"All eyes are on Cisco and Lucent's next moves. Lucent needs a data company and Cisco a telephony company. Then there are the so-called sleeping giants: Siemens, Alcatel and Ericsson."
As to his thoughts on the Lucent Ascend move, Batchelor says: "Any merger or acquisition is a difficult time for the companies and personnel involved. Lucent is being forced to enter the data communications business through the acquisition of multiple small players in the industry. This potentially makes the difficulties more numerous from a continuity perspective. There is also the challenge of bringing multiple technologies and systems together to work in a unified manner."
Crystal ball
So, what does Batchelor predict for the year ahead? "Voice, policy networking and Layer 3 switching will all be big this year. I said last year that VPNs will not take off, but I stand corrected. I believe they are going to be huge in SA. The main reason for this is the ever-increasing skills shortage."
When talking about Layer 3 switching, Batchelor highlights research done by The Dell'Oro Group. "Bay has retained its number one position as the leading provider of Layer 3 routing switches. The report shows that we have captured 53% of the Layer 3 routing switch market and I believe this number will continue to get bigger.
"During the next three years we are going to see a revolution in technology and its usage that will only be comparable to the change in the world after the invention of the wheel." He believes that as technology becomes cheaper it will continue to move into people's homes and change their everyday lives.
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