DEHRADUN, GUWAHATI and RAIPUR, India: IBM today announced the opening of three regional offices in India as part of the company's on-going geographic expansion in the country. The new offices in Dehradun (North India), Guwahati (Eastern India) and Raipur (Central India) provide IBM with a footprint of 18 branch offices across India to date.

IBM is currently focused on increasing its presence in smaller, rapidly developing Indian cities as part of its plan to establish a presence in 40 Indian cities by 2013. By extending its network of regional branches, IBM is strengthening its ability to deliver more advanced technologies and services to its clients and partners across the country. IBM is experiencing particular demand for information management, security, cloud computing and business analytics solutions as businesses and government organizations in these regions turn to IT to reduce costs and gain competitive advantage.

As a key part of its growth strategy, IBM is investing in the Indian education system with a number of partnerships and academic initiatives especially to support the growth of open source technologies. For example, IBM is partnering with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Guwahati to foster innovation and promote local technology talent.

"We recognise the role of technology and innovation in driving economic and societal development," said Dr Gautam Baruah, Director IIT Guwahati, who inaugurated IBM's Guwahati branch office. "The Indian Institute of Technology in Guwahati is committed to developing a next generation of business and technology skills which are in line with today's business requirements. IBM has been closely working with IIT and other universities across the country to improve and evolve IT skills based on open standards and we look forward to increasing our partnership especially in emerging fields such as cloud computing and business analytics."

Small and medium enterprises have long been the engines driving economic growth across India and play a key role in regional development. IBM is committed to the success of this segment and is working its business partners to provide small and medium enterprises with the tools they need to compete in a global economy.

"These are dynamic times for Indian regional development and there is tremendous market potential in these cities that we are expanding into," said Nipun Mehrotra, Vice President, General Business, Geographic Expansion, IBM India/South Asia. "We are seeing increasing demand for advanced technologies as business and government leaders transform the way they work and look for ways to gain competitive advantage."

IBM has a number of existing clients in Dehradun, Guwahati and Raipur where it is focused on banking, education, government, energy, manufacturing, industry and IT services sectors.  Some of IBM's clients in these regions include metals companies Vandana Global and Jindal Steel in Raipur as well as Kurmanchal Bank and Uttarakhand Power Corporation in Dehradun. Key to India's regional development is the cooperative bank segment where IBM is working a number of leading players across the country such as Nawanagar Cooperative Bank, Latur Cooperative Bank and Karad Cooperative Bank.

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MEDIA CONTACTS
Meghala Nair
IBM India
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megnair1@in.ibm.com

Jonathan Batty
IBM Growth Markets Unit
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SOURCE IBM