Q. What is your current strategy with respect to the Indian market?
A. Important new opportunities in India have been created by the awarding of the TD-LTE broadband wireless access licenses, the increasing presence of major R&D facilities, and the warming of defense ties between the United States and India. Aeroflex is a very strong player in these markets, making it the perfect time to increase its footprint in India.
As in other countries, our Indian customers expect the highest level of service and support from their suppliers. Therefore, a key part of the development of the India subsidiary has been the investment in pre- and post-sales technical support; service capabilities and spares holdings to ensure that our customers receive the quality of customer care that they expect.
Q. Besides the Bengaluru office, do you have any partners in India?
A. Aeroflex has a long-standing distributor, Blue Star Limited, who provides additional sales and support for test and measurement customers. As part of their customer care, they have also invested in setting up an NABL accredited calibration facility. Blue Star has test and measurement offices in Bangalore, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mumbai.
To get in touch with us directly, you can contact our Bengaluru office at [email protected].
Q. Are you looking for partners, such as distributors, system integrators, etc. for India?
A. Aeroflex engages with a wide variety of business partners around the world. In India, we already have a very successful partnership with Blue Star Limited who provide sales and support plus manage relationships with systems integrators. We also have a number of partnerships with companies providing R&D services.
Q. What are the challenges you foresee or have experienced while dealing with India?
A. Aeroflex is known for being the first to market with new technology. In many cases, we need to deliver test capability in parallel with when the major equipment vendors and chipset developers are delivering theirs. Being first with new technology is always a challenge as we are often the first in our industry that is grappling with understanding the standards and then correctly implementing them.
Fortunately, we have some very talented engineers in both our Indian development centers who have very deep understanding of the 3G and LTE standards.
Another challenge is the import/export time for equipment. It generally takes 1-2 weeks to clear equipment, which means that we need to look at different models for post-sales support compared to other countries. To overcome this, we have made a larger investment in local repair/calibration facilities and spare parts so that we can offer competitive turnaround times on the majority of products.
Q. Have you ever engaged in any marketing activity to generate business from India?
A. Aeroflex has carried out a number of marketing activities including exhibitions (most recently, the avionics-focused MRO India show in Mumbai) as well as advertising online and in print. We’ve generally been pleased with the results obtained from these activities.
Q. What is your annual turnover as per the latest available financial report?
A. For the last financial year to 30 June 2012, Aeroflex’s turnover was $673m.
