Telstra's whopping $1.9 billion in ICT services revenue

Telstra's Network Applications & Services (NAS) business grew by 27.8 percent in the 2014 financial year, totalling $1.9 billion in revenue.

While the NAS unit only accounts for eight percent of overall products sales revenue, the carrier's IT services business is growing fast – the unit has added $635 million in revenue since 2012.

That growth is coming from three areas: managed network services are the big driver, increasing by 55.7 percent in the 2014 financial year. A key win was a Department of Defence contract during the year.

Telstra's unified communications business also grew by 21.1 percent, while cloud services grew by 32.2 percent.

While Telstra did not reveal earnings or profits for the NAS division, CEO David Thodey said NAS was profitable.

"It's an early stage business and rapid growth and doing really well," said CEO David Thodey. "It is profitable and it's improved half to half, but we've not declared it."

Telstra made two acquisitions during the year – NSC Group and O2 Networks – expanding its contact centre and consulting capabilities.

A key contract win was the 15-year, $47 million managed service deal to build and manage a wireless network for the Queensland Government.

Health is another key growth area for Telstra. The carrier's goal, according to today's annual report, is to establish a "connected health IT ecosystem capable of creating transformative change in the healthcare sector."

This includes health services, electronic health records, and electronic prescriptions.

The health push saw Telstra acquire DCA eHealth Solutions and 50 percent of Fred IT.

The carrier today highlighted efforts to stake its claim as a global services player. Asia is a key growth market for its services business. The carrier has launched a Global Enterprise & Services business unit, as well as Global Managed Network Services and Global Infrastructure as a Service.

Thodey said the strategy is to add value across the network, including IP telephony, virtual contact centres, cloud computing. "That really differentiates you and there's not many people doing it [in Asia]."

The Philippines, Indonesia, parts of Thailand and Vietnam and China are areas of opportunity.

"There's a lot of room for a lot of players… When 50 percent of the world's GDP is going to be out of Asia by the mid 2020's, you may not be successful but you'd have to do really badly to not be successful."

"I think the NAS portfolio can do well in the region."

Overall, Telstra recorded a $4.3 billion net profit after tax for the 2014 financial year, a 14.6 percent increase over the previous year. Total revenue excluding finance income increased 6.1 percent to $26.3 billion.