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Sam Palmisano Drops In

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DQI Bureau
New Update

CEO visits to India have a reputation of being gala events. When Microsoft

chairman Bill Gates vis- ited India, T-shirts printed with Bill Gates Live! I

was There were given away. Sun Micro’s Scott McNealy’s visit wasn’t any

less high-profile–with unending back-to-back meetings in the industry and a

very high-profile, high-volume developer forum.

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In contrast, the first-ever visit of an IBM CEO to India was almost a

clandestine affair. IBM India wouldn’t confirm if he was coming or not, when

it was confirmed that he was in fact here, there were no press meets and no

galas. There were a few photo-ops where he refused to speak to reporters. The

three-day visit–May 4 to 7–was meant to be a "learning experience"

for Palmisano. He spent the entire time in closed-door meetings with employees,

customers, partners, state and central government heads. According to Abraham

Thomas, MD of IBM India, "Palmisano had heard a lot about India recently.

He came to check it out for himself."

“Creativity in any large firm



does not come from any one person–the celebrity CEO. That stuff’s BS. Creativity in


an organization starts where the action is–in the labs, at  R&D sites, at a customer


place, in manufacturing...”

IBM CEO

Samuel J Palmisano

in an interview to BusinessWeek 



dated 17 March 2003

Palmisano is believed to have come in part to tune into the sensitivities of

local customers and government officials. And in part to evangelize–on Open

Source software systems, Linux and the company’s latest e-business on demand

initiative. He spoke to IT minister Arun Shourie about Open Source, particularly

Linux. "IBM is sourcing a lot of work to India and it is very good for the

country that the company is taking keen interest. He spoke highly about India’s

work culture as well as the advantages of open source software," the

minister was quoted as saying.

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The IBM chief also met Karnataka chief minister SM Krishna.

Later, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed to promote an

e-learning initiative based on Open Source technology. Under the agreement, IBM

will develop an e-learning platform for Board for IT Education Standards for

higher technical and educational institutions in Karnataka. IBM will also, along

with BITES and IIIT (Bangalore), set up an IBM Center of Excellence at Hubli for

the development of Open Source software. Palmisano also addressed employees at

the Delhi and Bangalore offices and spoke of the company’s ‘E-business-on

Demand’ initiative.

IBM in India / Some Milestones

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1992:

IBM enters India through a JV with the Tata Group. The JV is christened Tata

Information Systems Ltd (TISL)  

1995:

Accredited ISO Tickit 9001 (ISO9001:2000 in Year 2001)

1997:

TISL becomes Tata IBM, IBM Global Services launched–offers a range of IT

services from IBM including networking services, outsourcing, education, system

integration, consulting, SW development and HW design. Solution Partnership

Center set up

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1998:

January:
IBM School of Enterprise-wide Computing launched at IIIT, to offer

short-term courses to the public and credit courses on enterprise-wide computing

to graduates/undergraduates




April:
IBM India Research Laboratory in New

Delhi, located in the sprawling IIT campus of  

1999:

September:
IBM India Ltd formally launched–after government approves Tata’s

divestment plan.




November:
IBM India launches PC manufacturing

in Pondicherry. IBM Global Services India achieves CMM Level 5 Rating.

2000: June:

Global e-business software center set up in Gurgaon to offer IBM’s customers a

range of services




November:
IBM Global Financing launched to

provide flexible financing programs to fund IT requirements of Indian customers

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2001:

India Software Development Labs established in Pune and Bangalore to

develop, enhance and support key IBM products and technologies with a committed

investment of $100 million. The state-of-the-art facility is playing an

important role in IBM’s Linux strategy

2002: June:

IGSI recognized as the "Top MNC Software Services Exporter" and

"Top Foreign Equity Company" in Karnataka for Year 2001-02 by STPI,

Bangalore chapter




July:
MAIT names IGSI ‘Distinguished IT

Exporter’ for 2001-02




July:
Dataquest, India’s leading trade

magazine, rates IGSI as the Top MNC Software Services Exporter for Year

2001-2002




November:
IGSI Exports Services assessed at

People Capability Maturity Level 5 (Version 2.0) by SEI, one of the few

organizations in the world to gain this achievement

2003: January:

IBM India Research Labs floats ‘Technology Center" at its facilities to

showcase business applicability of cutting edge technologies to organisations in

India and Asean

TV Mahalingam

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