Wipro, Motorola set up JV for managed services

Mumbai: Software major Wipro Technologies and Motorola, a global leader in wireless communications, has announced the formation of a joint venture to deliver world-class capabilities in managed services to public and private network customers. The joint venture, named WMNetServ, will deliver outsourced telecom services to customers.

WMNetServ is a strategic move for both companies to invest in service offerings and new business opportunities amidst changing customer needs.

Motorola's managed services portfolio, which outsources solutions on a built-operate-transfer basis, helps customers to reduce and control costs. Combining this with Wipro's resources and expertise, WMNetServ hopes to deliver and manage services in planning, deployment, optimisation, security, operations and support systems.

"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 A L Rao, chief operating officer of the company. "Customers now have a dependable and long-term partner that is backed by two global companies to outsource and manage their network operations," he added.

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 uninterrupted network monitoring capabilities to customers.

WMNetServ's primary delivery center and the GNOC will be based in India while the headquarters and a regional subsidiary for the joint venture will reside in Europe. WMNetServ will have a Wipro as the head while the board of directors will have representation from Wipro and Motorola senior management.

According to Mercer Management Consulting, the global managed and 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.