What the I Stands for

It is official now. In calendar year 2007, for which comparative data is
available, IBMs India (domestic market) revenue grew the maximum among major
markets in dollar terms, finally overtaking the China growth. With global
delivery too ramping up fastoverall headcount increased by close to 20,000CEO
Sam Palmisanos big bang announcement of $6 bn two years ago seems a fairly
realistic assessment of the Indian potential. And the India team led by Shanker
Annaswamy has delivered on most fronts.

In the domestic market, FY 08 saw IBM finally increasing the gap between
itself and the #2 in strategic outsourcing. For example, in Q3 (OND) alone, it
signed up $1.4 bn worth of new services contracts. In SOA, where it has taken a
leadership position, combining its middleware offering with its services, it had
significant success with users such as Tata Sky, BSNL, and Airtel. Continuing
its success story in the government sector, after the deal with CBDT, it bagged
major contracts from Indian Railways and the Ministry of Social Welfare.

In telecom, Vodafone came into its fold, after IBMs earlier successes with
Bharti and Idea. The company also got an entry into BSNL with an SOA deal for
the latters broadband services business. It is trying to replicate the telecom
transformational outsourcing approach in selected new verticalsreal estate,
insurance, travel and transportation, and media and entertainment. In real
estate, after the DLF deal, IBM has already signed a few more. It has also
bagged an outsourcing deal with a major new insurance player.

Rank-5

l Start-up Year: 1992
l Products & Services: IT services,
BPO, servers, storage, middleware, and systems software
l Employees: 75,000
l Address: No 12, Subramanya Arcade
Road, Bannerghata Road, Bangalore-560029 l
Tel: +91-80-22063000 l Fax:
+91-80-22063871 l Website:
www.ibm.com/in

size=1>Highlights

nÂ
won a $45 mn, 5 yr services agreement to modernize CBDT
IT infrastructure completely

n The
momentum continues with 43% growth in JFM 08 quarter
over last year

size=1>Strengths

pÂ
Clear leadership in strategic outsourcing. Replicated in
new verticals after success in telecom


p Has
the most robust global delivery in India among
non-Indian players


p Now
getting established as a serious services players too in
SMB segment

size=1>Weaknesses

size=1>q  In a
competitive labor market, the image of a hire-and-fire
employer is a liability

size=1>q The
volatile currency does affect its global delivery in
India

Shanker
Annaswamy, MD


Rajesh Nambiar, VP & GM, Global Delivery

Robert Parkar, CFO, India/South Asia

Pari Sadasivan, VP, HR

P Gopalakrishnan, VP, India Software Lab

Gurudutt Banavas, director, India Research Lab

Pavan Vaish, head, IBM Daksh

In the SMB segment, it has finally managed to get in as a
services player, SOA being the bridge. To accelerate this business,
IBM expanded its direct presence from 14 locations the previous year
to 27 in FY 08. It also brought in the IBM Global Finance arm to
provide strategic financing.

On the global delivery front, while it got some negative press after
reportedly asking a number of fresh recruits to leave, overall growth was good.
IBM added new domain capabilities to its global delivery taking the total number
of domains handled in India to 17. IBM today stands way above any other company
in Indian IT as an equal-opportunity, according to Dataquests own research.