IBM to invest $6 billion in India over next three years

Sufia Tippu
Tuesday, 06 June 2006 20:45

IT Industry - Market

India is becoming a dream destination for the IBM chairman and CEO, Samuel J. Palmisano who on Tuesday announced plans to triple its investment in India -- from $2 billion over the last three years to nearly $6 billion in the next three years.

He was speaking to 10,000 IBM employees at the Innovation and Leadership Forum in Bangalore, the largest-ever gathering of IBM employees in India,  Another 30,000 across other Indian cities and yet another 340,000 IBMers across the globe formed a part of the audience through a webcast.

IBM India has been on a high growth trajectory recording a 55% growth last year. From merely 3000 employees three years back to a whopping 43,000 employees in 14 cities, India is now IBM's largest country organization outside the US.

Palmisano said that India and other emerging economies are an increasingly important part of IBM's global success and IBM India has become more and more  Indianised,  having become the largest Indian domestic IT services company too.
 
Interestingly, the company is also planning to have its analyst meeting here in India, the first time out of US soil on Wednesday.

"If you are not here in India, making the right investments and finding and developing the best employees and business partners, then you won't be able to combine the skills and expertise here with skills and expertise from around the world, in ways that can help our clients be successful.   I'm here today to say that IBM is not going to miss this opportunity. And we are going to focus on innovation and creativity to make IBMa globally integrated company.”
 
As part of its investment, the company will be establishing the first in a new breed of service delivery centers in Bangalore, deploying new processes and technology that will greatly automate IT service delivery to provide clients with enhanced flexibility and increased worldwide access to skills, service offerings and continuous availability at lower cost.

It will also be setting up innovation and development centers in Bangalore, focused on IBM infrastructure solutions, telecom research and an on-demand solutions lab in Bangalore.

“This investment will ensure that we make the most of the opportunities to grow this marketplace, while it will also enable IBM to fulfill its vision to become a globally integrated company," Palmisano said.

With the President of India, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, a renowned scientist in his own right, addressing the highly charged innovation and leadership meet in Bangalore, the theme running through meet was ‘innovation” all the way.

“IBM is traditionally driven by Thomas J Watson’s vision of “thinking” as a launch pad. I was thinking what can be launched from IBM’s launch pad, particularly from India. Can India and an Indian enterprise and an academic institution with their combine core competence launch a system or a product that will be new to the world as Watson’s “Think” slogan which made a great change to the world of computers? Can India and IBM think together to design, develop, produce nano computers with 10 terrabytes per square inch on 8 nano meters chip size? Is that possible? “Kalam asked.

According to him, creating products that will help the rural masses in terms of education, healthcare, energy and power, connectivity and software products, would be the key driver for any company to become ultimately successful.

“In a knowledge society, we have to make innovations continuously. Innovations come through creativity and this can come from any part of the world. It may start from a fishing hamlet, farmer’s household or a dairy farm or it emanates from classrooms or labs or R&D centers. But the most important aspect of creativity is seeing the same thing as everybody else but thinking of something different and I think that is what MNCs like IBM and other MNCs along with Indian partners should do,” Kalam said.