Wipro, Motorola Do Services JV

25 July 2006

Wipro Technologies, the global IT Services arm of Wipro, and Motorola announced the formation of a joint venture to provide managed services to public and private network customers. The joint venture, named WMNetServ, will deliver outsourced telecom services to help customers focus on their core business and gain access to capabilities not available internally.

WMNetServ is a strategic move for both companies that demonstrates a commitment to investing in services and offering new business opportunities to meet the changing needs of customers. Motorola’s managed services portfolio helps customers reduce and control costs by taking advantage of Motorola’s capabilities in out-tasking, build-operate-transfer, and total outsourcing. By combining Motorola’s portfolio with Wipro’s resources and expertise, WMNetServ will deliver and manage services in planning, deployment, optimization, security, operations and support.

“Wipro has a proven track record in delivering managed services and complements Motorola’s expertise in mobility,” said Srikanth Kannankote, corporate vice president, Motorola. “The combined strength of Wipro and Motorola gives WMNetServ a significant competitive advantage in managed services. Customers can reap the benefits of two industry leaders delivering managed services that are innovative, high-quality and offer global capabilities in a converging marketplace.”

“WMNetServ enables customers to benefit from Motorola’s leadership position in wireless technology and services, and leverage Wipro’s global delivery model and two decades of experience in telecom outsourcing to offer scalable operations and cost-effective implementations of turnkey solutions,” said Dr. A L Rao, chief operating officer, Wipro Limited. “Customers now have a dependable and long-term partner that is backed by two global companies to outsource and manage their network operations.”

WMNetServ will host a Global Network Operation Center (GNOC) platform that will integrate seamlessly with Motorola’s existing NOCs in North America and Europe to provide 24/7 network monitoring capabilities to customers. WMNetServ’s primary delivery center, including the GNOC will be based in India. Headquarters and a regional subsidiary for the joint venture will reside in Europe. WMNetServ will be lead by a Wipro representative while the Board of Directors will have representation from Wipro and Motorola senior management.

According to Mercer Management Consulting, the global managed & advisory services market is expected to almost double during the next four years, reaching $48 Billion by 2010, from $26 Billion in 2005. This growth reflects an industry-wide shift from the traditional use of in-house teams to manage network operations and maintenance to more flexible, managed services models that allow operators to better focus on critical business functions, while upgrading to next-generation capabilities.