Tuesday, August 26, 2008

BHARTI RETAIL, IBM SIGN 10-YEAR DEAL

Sangeetha G
Financial Chronicle The Hindu Business Line The Hindu DNAHindustan TimesDeccan Herald The Economic Times The Statesman

Bharti Retail has entered into a ‘strategic partnership’ with IBM under which the software major will provide technology and services that will enable scaling up of its operations in the long term.

IBM will leverage its worldwide expertise in the retail sector and introduce best practices and innovations that will assist Bharti Retail’s future plans.

According to Vinod Sawhny, president and chief operating officer, Bharti Retail Ltd, the partnership has laid the foundation on which future business functions would receive support for the next 10 years.

“This alliance is in line with Bharti Retail's efforts to be a customer-centric and trusted retailer,” he said.

Dr Jai Menon, director Bharti Airtel & Group chief information officer, Bharti Enterprises said: “we look forward to replicating the unprecedented success we have had with them in the telecom sector by consolidating, managing and delivering business process transformation that will drive innovation and enhance value for all Bharti Retail customers.”

The current scope of the deal includes project management, infrastructure for data centers, applications, security and network and support for end-user services. The scope of work will keep evolving as Bharti Retail’s business continues to grow.

Bharti Retail has launched neighbourhood stores in Punjab called Easyday and is expanding the chain with multiple consumer friendly format stores in India. The partnership with IBM will provide Bharti Retail an edge in the sector, including faster supply of products and cost efficiency, he said.

Bharti Retail will also draw upon IBM’s global technology expertise like automated attendance terminals to help maintain a very low PC footprint —approximately one PC per 30 employees.

“Our goal is to provide Bharti Retail the support it needs to be a customer-focused retail enterprise committed to delivering high value to their customers,” said IBM vice-president (client) Ashish Kumar.

This partnership will also help Bharti benefit from IBM’s ability to leverage a cross-industry play across telecom-insurance — retail in providing ease of accessibility and differentiated service to its clients.

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