Do
you think you have achieved your purpose of being here?
To an extent, but we could have done better. Most of our clients
are technical people not necessarily the giants. So it is very important
to us to be at CTO because our clients are the exhibitors mostly
not necessary the people at home. The fact that the turn up is not
much is not too good on our side. And then people that came were
more of students.
Any regrets?
No, in fact we are happy that lots of students are interested in
fibre optic. They keep coming in and want to know about the use
of the different equipment. Few of them have even signed up for
some of our trainings. They said they can't take it up to certification
but at least they want the knowledge which I am really excited about
because fibre optic is the next step. Right now, we are talking
of fibre to the home which is already being implemented here in
Nigeria. So I am really happy about that.
Let’s have a background
of BT technologies?
BT Technologies is an IT infrastructure Solutions Company incorporated
in 2001 and owned by a Nigerian, Boye Oyerinde. We are into IT infrastructure
solution in the area of copper and optical fibre. We do telecoms
training, project management; we sell telecom products both copper
and optical fibre here in Nigeria. We also maintain telecoms network
for the telecom industry. We sell the products to them and we also
do consultancy.
What sector of the economy
do you do business with?
We do business with all sectors like the banking and telecoms sectors.
Presently, we are working with a lot of telecoms companies like
MTN, Huawei, Celtel, Globacom, and Etisalat.
Who are your clients
in the banking sector?
We have Skye Bank, GTB, UBA, Diamond Bank and lots of others.
People do not know about
BT technology. Are you deliberately being conservative or what?
We are not, people that know us, know us. It is just that we don't
go out marketing and advertising ourselves because our services
speak for themselves.
You said you do cabling,
what do you mean by that?
That is LAN; that is putting the network cables in place for building.
These include both copper and fibre in building, outside environment,
anywhere. That's what you call ELP, External Line Plant or outside
plant.
Where is Corning involved
in all of these?
Corning is one of our partners; they provide us with optical fibre
part of our products, the cables, the accessories, everything that
you need for an optical fibre because their products are some of
the best in the industry. You know there are lots of fake products
in the market. When you buy a product and you use them, it should
last for the exact period of time you want it to. Normally, they
are supposed to last for about 25 years. Not that after installation
today, tomorrow you are having problem. Corning products does not
come with such problems.
What are the challenges
in the market?
Our major challenge is that we have a lot of fake products in the
market and people want cheap products, they don't mind if it is
fake or not. That is one of our challenges because we don't sell
fake products. Quality products might be more expensive but on the
long run, they are actually better because by the time you use fake
product, you buy today, after a week or month you are replacing
because it has gone bad. In doing this, you are really spending
more. And at the end you finally come back to buy the original products
which you were supposed to buy.
What is the unique edge
you have over your competitors?
We sell quality products and we have the expertise and are trained
as professionals.
Is that the reason why
most of these companies prefer to do business with you?
Yes, because once we do an installation, we don't get complaints
from our clients; once we install our products, it lasts. Our installation
is standard because we employ Bicsi. Bicsi is a telecom organization
that defines the standard in the telecom industry. And for you to
be a training centre for Bicsi in Nigeria and in Africa, you must
have gone through lots of training, and be qualified.They will have
to come and certify your lab and make you an instructor so you have
a name to protect and you cannot afford to do fake things in the
industry.
So you carry out training
programmes for Bicsi here?
Yes, there are training facilities in the shop house.
What kind of training
do you do?
We do Bicsi training; we do Corning training and Branded training.
The branded training is actually like a certification programme;
it tells you the new products that Branded have. You come every
three years to renew the training and get an update on the new product
that Branded have, so that if there is anything new in branding,
you come and learn.
Then there is Bicsi training which is of three levels.
You have the Installer 1 for people that don't have any experience
at all in telecoms training including voice and video which is a
5-day training programme. At the end of the 5 days you must have
gotten experience because the materials are actually imported from
USA. We don't provide the materials; Bicsi sends the materials to
us.
We have the Installer 2, which is for people that
have at least two years experience in the industry, while Installer
3 is for those with at least five years experience in the industry.
Then we have the Corning training, we have the PS LAN 500 which
is actually the fibre optic implementation in a LAN environment.
Then you have the design, which is purely the design
of fibre optic network. There is also one for fibre optic installation
in an external LAN plan environment, i.e outside environment. And
the certificate comes from Corning Cables Systems in the United
States.
What of the issue of
support services?
We provide maintenance and give them support. If you have any issues,
you can call on us to come in and attend to you at any point in
time. Again if people supplying equipment damage any equipment,
we can give one pending when the damaged one is repaired. So with
that, you don't have any down time.
(Tosin Odunlami)
What is your market
share?
We have about 75% to 80% for fibre. For copper, I will put us at
about 45% because there are so many copper companies also in Nigeria.
But for fibre optics, it takes lots of diligence, and expertise.
And a lot of people don't go through these strenuous processes.
So, even lots of people that provide the solutions are trained by
us. We really own a very large proportion of the fibre optic and
installation market in Nigeria.
What do you think drives
customers to BT Technologies?
In my opinion I will say we give them solution from beginning to
end. You could come to us with a particular problem, I tell you
to give me a detail of what you want because sometimes people think
they know what they want but they end up spending so much on what
they could solve for so much less. So when you come to us with a
problem, we still look at it and see whether you are using the best
solution for your problem; that is one of the major things.
Even when these things are given to other people to
do, they still consult us because we carry them along throughout
the whole installation process. Then we also train guys on their
own end to be able to do first hand service support. So, on the
long run, they spend a whole lot less after their installation is
done.
So I think basically it is because of the expertise
that customers keep on coming to us because they are satisfied with
the jobs we are doing and the jobs we have done from design to consultancy,
implementation to maintenance.
(Tayfun Balabaner)
Is your core business
basically training?
My company, Corning Cable System is in partnership with BT Technologies
Limited in Nigeria and has been in existence since 1865. So it is
a very old US company.
Apart from BT technology,
which other partners do you have in Nigeria?
We have only BT as our partner and we are satisfied with the services
they give us.
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