To tap market opportunities in high potential markets worldwide, IBM has formed a "Growth Markets" organization based in Shanghai with regional headquarters in Dubai and Sao Paulo. It covers about 50 countries across Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe and Latin America.

Bharti Platinum, India's largest private telecom services provider, signed a strategic outsourcing agreement in September to further enhance its customer service experience for its top-end Platinum customers.

The six-year contract for outsourcing of its contact services to IBM's Managed Business Process Services (MBPS) unit will involve augmentation of Bharti Airtel's sales, customer service, and back office capabilities.

IBM Daksh Business Process Services, a wholly-owned subsidiary of IBM, also will provide a suite of services covering both voice and such back office operations as customer service, collections, customer retention and other relevant customer services for Bharti Airtel's Platinum customers from its centers.

Kookmin Bank, Korea's largest financial services institution, awarded a contract to IBM in September to implement its Next Generation Banking System (NGBS).

To be completed in 2010, this bank-wide NGBS project will consolidate all of the company's different business units around the world, providing a highly flexible platform to transform Kookmin Bank into a leading global bank.

This implementation agreement includes 20 projects in such areas of Application Integration, Application Management Service and System Integration.

PLEASE READ ON...