IBM’s India IT services biz gathers steam
18th March 2008, The Financial Express

Apart from striking mega deals with telecom companies, IBM has been sewing up smaller IT services deals in the small and medium business (SMB) segment in the past one year. After the $750-million deal with Bharti TeleVentures and the S600 to $800-million deal with Idea Cellular, IBM has signed on Interesting projects ranging from cooperative banks and microfinance institutions to hospitals and real estate companies.

Nipun Mehrotra, VP and GM, global technology services, India/South Asia, IBM India Pvt Ltd said that these deals included technology solution for Pune based Mahesh Sahakari Coop Bank, Smartcard technology for microfinance technology company FINO and Sankar Nethralaya’s network operated centre-Inside. There was also the $45-mllion deal with the Central Bureau of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and the $29 million deal with DLF Universal. In Q4 of 2007, IBM India signed IT services deal worth $1.4billion.
“The market has been exploding in the last three years,” said Mehrotra. “We are the biggest player in the domestic market and are growing at a good rate and expanding rapidly,” he added. The company has grown at 38% in 2007 and 2006. The Indian market was at $4.5-billion in 2006 an is expected to be around $11 billion in the three years.

A majority of the SMB deals have been driven by NetSol, the acquisition by IBM which is now being leveraged to build a space in the space. IBM now has 22 offices across the country of which 14 were opened in 2007, primarily in tier-2 cities to serve the SMB market. Though the fundamental offerings do not change, the solutions for this segment are modular and scalable, said Mehrotra.

long with FINO, IBM will deploy a core-banking and an end-to-end Smartcard solution for Janalakshmi Social services, a microfinance institution in Bangalore. This will enable traders to participate in the fruit and vegetable auctions at Safal outlets. Smartcards provides access to the floor throughout the trading process without having to carry, cash or resort to expensive loan arrangements through traditional moneylenders apart from serving as proof of identity and electronic passbook for customers.
The deal with Sankara Nethralaya, Chennai, an institution for ophthalmic care, is to manage its IT infrastructure over a period of five years. The hospital has implemented NOC-Inside, an IBM solution, that allows the hospital 360-degree view if its IT infrastructure.