"We differentiate in terms of integrated suite of service offerings with innovative solutions, depth of industry skills, and integrated value proposition," says Sandip Patel, managing partner, Global Business Services, IBM India/South Asia.

All these projects were unique and there were lot of innovations. For instance, CBDT focused on public private partnership model and payment was for services rendered, whereas in case of DLF, it was transformation and management of IT infrastructure. In FINO, the focus was on core banking platform coupled with distribution component and transaction acquisition system. In Apollo Hospital Group, the focus was on joint go-to-market initiative to build a National Health Data Network.

The Future
The company is preparing itself for the next phase of growth ie SMB and the company has invested in the development of product and services specifically priced and designed for the SMB marketplace under the IBM express portfolio. The express portfolio comprises of hardware, software, services, solutions, and financing, and is designed to meet specific criteria for SMBs that will provide the requisite know-how to broaden its market base.

Seeing IBM's (India) success on enterprise side, the company is also planning to focus on the SMB sector, trying to tap business potential across fourteen cities. Though cost is still a priority for SMBs, the companies have also begun to realize the opportunities provided by IT. This is where IBM's domain expertise coupled with technology prowess and track record will make a difference. The company has plans to spread its wing in smaller towns like Nashik, Surat, Bhubaneshwar, Jamshedpur, Jaipur, Ludhiana, Dehradun, Vizag, Madurai, Coimbatore, Goa, Lucknow, and Bhopal. The company is also planning to spread its wing to other cities and towns through 2,500 business partners across 200 cities.

"We believe that we are at interesting point of growth in this market and in this country. We will continue to focus on those areas which are important to our clients," says Sandip Patel, managing partner, Global Business Services, IBM India/South Asia.

In future, IBM is set to focus on enhancing partnership with the government on e-Governance projects, expand industry specific business services through the use of SOA, drive innovations through research lab and software lab, and solidify leadership position in telecom, government, SMB, automotive, and pharmaceutical sector.

Pravin Prashant
pravinp@cybermedia.co.in
(with inputs from Sonia Sharma)