IBM Continues India Expansion With New Branch in Visakhapatnam

VISAKHAPATNAM, India, Dec. 19, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced the opening of a branch office in Visakhapatnam, South East India as part of the company's continued geographic expansion initiative to increase its presence in key growth markets.

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In 2011 IBM has opened six new branch offices in India as it expands its reach to smaller, rapidly developing cities as part of its plan to establish a presence in over 40 cities across India and South Asia by 2013. Earlier this year IBM opened new branches in Coimbatore in the State of Tamil Nadu, Indore in the State of Madhya Pradesh, Dehradun in the State of Uttarakhand, Guwahati in the State of Assam and Raipur in the State of Chhattisgarh.

"2011 has been an important year for IBM's geographic expansion strategy as we continue our focus on the fastest growing markets in the world," said Bruno Di Leo, General Manager, IBM Growth Markets Unit. "India plays a key role in our growth market strategy and we have opened six new branches across the country this year taking us closer to our clients and partners in India's rapidly evolving regional cities."

Visakhapatnam is an important port city in South East India. It has experienced rapid economic growth in recent years due to the development of petroleum, steel, fertilizer and IT industries. IBM has been present in the city since 2007 through its global delivery centre that provides IBM services to clients around the world. The opening of the new branch office in Visakhapatnam will give a boost to IBM's business in the region enabling it to strengthen its relationships with clients and partners and provide solutions and services in high growth areas such as information management, IT security, cloud computing and business analytics.

To support its regional expansion initiative, IBM has also been actively recruiting new business partners across the country - in 2011 over 1000 new business partners from India/South Asia have registered via IBM's PartnerWorld program.

The small and medium sized enterprise (SME) sector is one of the fastest growing segments of the Indian economy from which IBM is experiencing strong demand. IBM is working to spur innovation in this sector by providing advanced technologies, once reserved for larger enterprises with large budgets, through its increased local presence and relationships with local business partners.

IBM is already working with clients in Visakhapatnam, across a number of industry sectors. For example, IBM is providing solutions for Eisai Pharmaceuticals and Phoenix IT Solutions, a fast emerging software company. Eisai Pharmaceuticals, the Indian arm of Eisai Group, Japan, has engaged with IBM across hardware, software and services. IBM has provided an enterprise resource planning solution for Eisai's India operations and has helped simplify and streamline the management of Eisai's desktop computing environment using IBM's Smart Business Desktop solution.

IBM's software solution has helped Phoenix IT in winning significant central and state-level business contracts. "Partnering with IBM has played an important part of our business growth this year. IBM has helped us to standardize and consolidate our business operations, allowing us to innovate and achieve an industry leadership position," said Murali Krishna, CEO, Phoenix IT Solutions.

The new office in Visakhapatnam was inaugurated today by Mr. Sanjit Singh Lamba, Managing Director of Eisai Pharmaceuticals, one of IBM's customers in the region.

About IBM

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MEDIA CONTACTS

Meghala Nair
IBM India
+91 9886356229
[email protected]

Jonathan Batty
IBM Growth Markets Unit
+48 69393 5403
[email protected]

SOURCE IBM