IBM signs technology infrastructure and services agreements across Asia Pacific

Tony Austin
Monday, 27 October 2008 02:48

Opinion and Analysis

IBM announced, in mid-October, new client agreements in growth markets across the Asia Pacific region. Deals were inked in China, India, Korea, the Philippines and Vietnam.

This reflects IBM's strategic focus on delivering technology and services to help businesses in growth markets solve complex business problems, as well as tough industry and societal issues.

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.

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