IBM eyes tier II, III cities for expansion in India

IT solutions provider IBM is planning to expand its footprints in tier II and tier III cities with a bouquet of hardware, software and services offerings primarily targeted at mid-market clients.

IBM Growth markets vice president Harish Krishnamurthy told ET that the company is soon going to set up its hubs in potential cities like Raipur, Bhopal, Bhubhaneshwar, Vizag and Nagpur. “These cities have great untapped potential.

By starting our hub in these cities we would be able to cater to the requirements of surrounding tier III cities through our partners under hub and spoke model. The small and medium enterprises offer great business opportunities,” he said.

At present, IBM has a direct presence in 22 cities across the country. The company has also appointed IT players Sequel Infocom and Icon Integrated services as the channel partners to sell IBM’s infrastructure services to clients. “These two partners will focus primarily on Rajasthan market. They will help us in enhancing our reach in the state by offering infrastructure services to clients helping them in areas of Green IT, security, business continuity, improved collaboration and communication among others,” he said.

IBM has also launched first of its kind service offering named IBM Express Remote managed Infrastructure Services (ERMIS) exclusively to be sold by its channel partners. “IBM cannot sell it directly to the clients. It has to be sold through our channel partners. It is designed to enable IBM business partners in providing their clients with remote monitoring, management and service reporting of their IT infrastructure,” said Vivek Malhotra, IBM vice president – North & East, General Business.

Apart from that the company has also launched a cost-efficient Scalable Modular Server Rooms (SMSR), which has been successfully implemented in Shree Cements. “This is also first of its kind in the country. Unlike other conventional servers, which take 6-7 months for installation, this data server takes shipment time of 2-3 weeks and just 3 days of implementation time. Also, it consumes 15-30% less power than other servers. The entry level model comes at a competitive price point of $50,000 which is almost 10% of any conventional server,” Mr. Malhotra said.
Source: EconomicTimes