Bharti, IBM join hands for managed services offerings

To address the ICT market in India, Bharti Tele Ventures Ltd and IBM India have announced the launch of managed services under their joint go-to-market program that both the companies signed a year ago. 

The initial offering portfolio will include managed hosting services & business resiliency and continuity services to enterprise customers in India. The companies would jointly deliver end-to-end managed services, including connectivity, at client locations around the country.

Bharti's Infotel Business Group president Badri Agarwal said, "Through this alliance we are providing world class facilities and products to help companies in their journey towards globalization. The services that are being launched today are targeted primarily at the BFSI, manufacturing and the government segments."

He said they would also target foreign companies and offer them integrated solutions for connectivity as well as disaster recovery and business continuity.

Under the agreement, IBM will make available to its clients', IBM India's Level III+ command center services, data center services and IT help desk services. Airtel would provide end-to-end connectivity and cater to all the customers' telecom and communication requirements.

Shanker Annaswamy, MD, IBM Global Services India, said, "Both managed hosting and business resiliency & continuity services would enable companies to conduct what is termed business at ease by not only entrusting their entire ICT requirements to Bharti and IBM and focus on areas of their core competence but also benefit from the convenience of working with a single point of contact for managed services and connectivity."

This is a first of its kind managed service offering in the ASEAN region where a telecom service provider has joined hands with IT services company. Already Airtel has been bidding for enterprise and government contracts along with system integrators. "This is not an exclusive deal. But we have increased the scope of our offering. Customers now have the choice of opting for hosting services & business resiliency and continuity services. He need not worry to have separate infrastructure for these services," said Rajiv Sharma, CEO, Bharti
Infotel.

The customers would be linked to the Bangalore-based data center and the DR site of IBM. The marketing of integrated solutions and services would be front-ended by Bharti through its Airtel Enterprise Services division.