IBM upbeat on Indian SMBs
6^thJuly 2008, The Hindu Business Line

Sensing a huge business potential in the country's fast growing small and medium business (SMB) segment, IT major IBM said it would launch an array of cost-effective solutions for. its Indian SMB customers.

'We expect the SMB segment to grow at over 20 per cent year-on-year. SMBs are no longer just investing in basic IT infrastructure but are looking at partners to manage their ever-complex IT needs while they grow," IBM's Global Technology Services' Vice-President and General Manager, Mr Nipun Mehrotra, told PTI in an interview here.

The total IT spend of Indian SMBs is expected to touch $10-billion this year, of which $1.1 billion is expected to be spent on IT services alone, he said. IBM, which is presently on an expansion drive to strengthen its footprint in Indian SMB market, has an 5MB customer-base of above 1,700 customers, Mr Mehrotra said, adding, "IBM has targeted to sustain the growth in the pre-sent fiscal as well."

The IT major had announced 'Packaged services' for Indian SMBs in 2006. This was primarily aimed at those customers looking for "easy to choose, easy to implement solutions," he said. IBM has been investing in its SMB-focused business in India with a view to strengthening its domestic operations in this segment, Mr Mehrotra said.

However, he did not divulge any further details of the investment plans. IBM presently offers various SMB-focused solutions and services such as Scalable Modular Data Center SMDC), Network Operations Center-Inside, Integrated Infrastructure Management ser-vices and Site Assessment services.

SMDCs are smaller version of data centres designed for SMBs and carry most of the features of large-scale enterprise level data centres, he said.IBM deployed SMDCs for 15 customers in last year, allowing the enterprises to have small-sized data centres ranging between 300-3000 sq .ft, he said.

Inorganic growth
The IT major, which had acquired local firms Network Solutions and Daksh - in the services space, has also plans to increase its presence through the inorganic path, Mehrotra said. "IBM is always open to the idea of acquisitions to drive shareholder value," he said.