Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (00:05):
So we're in Copenhagen for DTW Ignite 2025. I'm here with Harshul Asnani. He is president of the European business at Tech Mahindra. Harshul, thanks so much for joining us today.

Harshul Asnani, Tech Mahindra (00:18):
No, absolutely. Glad to be here.

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (00:20):
Now, from the perspective that you have here in Europe, what are some of the key trends you are seeing in the communication service provider sector, and what are some of the priorities you're seeing amongst the C-level executives at those CSPs?

Harshul Asnani, Tech Mahindra (00:35):
Oh, that's an interesting question and interesting time for telco industry in Europe. From our vantage point, we see some key priorities growing across Europe. Firstly, what gives CEO sleepless nights is enabling new revenue streams. New revenue streams could be from API monetization, it could be from generating better go-to market partnerships and ecosystems. Another massive trend that we're seeing is around cost consolidation. Given the general cost pressures and the situation and the industry today, every telco wants to bring their cost structures down while not defocusing on the transformation that is needed in the industry. And the third big trend that we are seeing is how do you future proof your operations? When I see operations is future proofing both network and your IT operations. And last but not the list, it's all about AI. And how do telcos really prepare themselves to bring AI into everything that they do? How do they capture the low hanging fruits? Bring the ROI soon enough, because AI is now not just a good thing to have, but a must thing to have for everybody. So that's what I believe are the broad trends that we are seeing with CSPs in Europe.

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (01:57):
Now the key theme at this event here in Copenhagen is pathways to growth. What are Tech Mahindra's pathways to group for its CSP customers?

Harshul Asnani, Tech Mahindra (02:07):
So we look at growth from three simple words, which are now our new telco narrative. We call it simplify, modernize and monetize. Simplify your IT and IT operations, your network, your network operations, bringing automation across the board and simplifying your stats. When it comes to modernize, it comes to modernizing the stacks to improve your time to market, to improve how well the telco is operating and getting ready for the future. And last but not the least is monetized. And while however tough it may sound, I think a very key part of our growth narrative is how can we help our telcos monetize for the future? Which means how can we help them in their API, how can we help them in their marketplaces? How can we help in reducing the customer churn? How can we help in join, go to market with telcos in the market? So there are a variety of ways in which we are supporting our telcos to monetize their revenue, which kind of makes our relationship with telcos quite a 360 degree relationship, very sticky and are getting ready to take them into the future.

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (03:20):
Now, we were chatting just before about how the markets, the countries in Europe are very different. Are there a lot of commonalities amongst the telecom operators across Europe in terms of how they're approaching new ways to drive revenues? Or are there big differences between the markets?

Harshul Asnani, Tech Mahindra (03:39):
There are differences and there are similarities. I would say UK is very different from Germany to very different from say in Austria. And the challenges are to do with the population, the demographics, the growth in B2C versus B2B. I think we are increasingly seeing that telcos have started more focusing on B2B now as an revenue for revenue growth because the traditional problem across most countries in Europe is the growth of population. And you are only a limited market to serve. As I said earlier. While it is difficult for them to find new revenue streams, I think they're increasingly leaning on B2B for growth. Again, really depending on the laws of the land, the unions, the nuance of every country is really is different. So every telco have their own challenges and their own opportunities to deal with.

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (04:34):
Now obviously Tech Mahindra is bringing quite a broad portfolio, a lot of experience, a lot of professional services to the market. What do you think gives Tech Mahindra a competitive edge in these areas and with the portfolio you have?

Harshul Asnani, Tech Mahindra (04:49):
I think when it comes to telecom, we have a very rich legacy. We started as a company which was only focused on telco vertical. So we have 40 long and rich years of Telco heritage. We started off as a joint to venture with British Telecom. And we have come a very long way. We today probably uniquely poised as the only SI, which understands the entire stack, whether it's IT or network, from operation to customer experience, from chip to the cloud. And we have more than I think 60, 60,000 people catering to the telecom industry to that. So we really understand the DNA of this industry and we are able to translate business problems into technology imperatives into end customer outcomes. So I think that in my view has been the clear differentiator other than I would also say that we are very aligned culturally to where the telcos are headed at in terms of how we are scaling ourselves, how we are supporting and aligning with our telcos in their go-to market priorities, how we are also able to take them to market together with us. So I think I can warn for an hour just telling you the differentiators that Tera has in telecom, but I think broadly it is about our rich legacy, our understanding of pretty much the entire end to end spectrum of telco, whether is B2B, B2C, wholesale, what have you. And then it's also about how we understand the end customer of telcos and that's where we are able to bring the real outcomes that the telcos are.

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (06:26):
And then you mentioned skills there and there's never been a time I don't think, where there's so much change within the telecom sector and at the telecom operators. How important is upskilling it to this industry, especially in this era of AI?

Harshul Asnani, Tech Mahindra (06:43):
It's make or break. Upskilling is make or break. Today we have already upskilled 50,000 people on AI as a company. By end of this year, we are expecting to upskill another 50,000. So we are providing AI tools, we are providing all the online education to our associates. We are doing classroom sessions, we are doing all that it takes to upgrade the skills of our people because we believe that AI is the way to go. And at the same time, if you look at, we got yesterday an award from TM Forum on upskilling, and that award actually just goes to show the focus that we have put on rejuvenating, our workforce. We are 150,000 people company. And while it takes time for the elephant to dance, we have made it dance and we are well on our way to putting a hundred percent of our associates on the AI roadmap.

Ray Le Maistre, TelecomTV (07:46):
Well, I mean that's a very relevant point to end on. Harshul, thanks very much for joining us today on TelecomTV.

Harshul Asnani, Tech Mahindra (07:52):
No, no, thanks for having me. Nice meeting you.