NEW DELHI: US software major IBM said that Indian enterprises need to evaluate their network infrastructure to be ready for the fifth generation or 5G technology. It has already started discussions with these companies, along with Indian telecom service providers to help them define their 5G strategy, and build our capabilities around the new technology, a senior executive said.“Now going into 2019, our big focus is on 5G for enterprise and we are looking at it from the infrastructure standpoint…we are really going to push with our clients the whole relevance and importance to adopt the new technology quickly,” Archana Vemulapalli, General Manager, Network Services and IS Project & Implementation Services, IBM Global Technology Services (GTS), told ET.“On the strategy and operation side as well, we have our team engaged mainly with telcos and some large enterprises having a 5G position.”With 5G, amount of data will increase and will become more complex for enterprises, thereby their infrastructure needs to be ready, Vemulapalli said, adding that by addressing these challenges an enterprise can become a “data smart organisation”.The executive said that enterprise with software-defined networks (SDN) coupled with the 5G technology will be able to transform themselves in terms of decision making. “...now with 5G if you plan it, the cognitive component suddenly plays a very different role, and can help in the decision-making,” she added.Besides helping enterprises plan their network upgrade, IBM is also working with them to develop services around 5G.Vemulapalli said that verticals like healthcare, automotive, heavy industries and companies working in the Internet of Things (IoT) domain are looking to transform their networks. “The IoT adoption will kick in at a different level with 5G and that is going to be a key vertical.5G technology will offer network slicing capability, which will let operators provide portions of their networks to certain kind of applications. Vemulapalli said that telecom operators already see the value become the network slicing capability will help in generating additional revenue streams.Indian telecom operators need to catch quickly to capture the opportunity, she said, adding that data consumption patterns in the country show that the growth potential is significant.Telecom is the largest revenue contributor for IBM in India with about $800 million-$1 billion, followed by banking, financial services and insurance and the government vertical. IBM is the sole vendor for IT outsourcing with Bharti Airtel and Vodafone , and is holding advanced talks to finalise a multi-year deal by March end, which, some estimates suggest, could well be worth over $1 billion (Rs 7,000 crore), ET recently reported.“A lot of the work we are doing is to line up the telcos to make sure they can make these use case play more successful,” she added.