(Associated Press via NewsEdge) IBM said it has won a 10-year contract to manage the information technology infrastructure of Indian mobile company Idea Cellular in a deal valued between $600 million and $800 million.
The deal reflects IBM's efforts to win more customers within India, where it is investing $6 billion over three years through 2009 to expand service centers catering to customers worldwide.
It also represents a reversal in the trend of recent years in which Indian software firms have won outsourcing orders from major Western companies to handle software design, customer calls and other jobs.
As Indian companies grow, they also are starting to farm out the technology-related aspects of their businesses. And in some cases such work is being given to global companies like IBM that operate outsourcing centers in India.
The agreement with Idea Cellular, India's fifth-largest mobile phone company with 14 million subscribers, covers its existing operations and potential new additions, IBM said in a statement. It also involves doing some of Idea's backoffice work.
In 2004, IBM won a similar outsourcing order from Bharti Enterprises, which operates India's largest mobile phone company. That deal, also spread over 10 years, was valued at $750 million.
Besides managing Idea's IT infrastructure, IBM will also provide technology that will help the mobile phone company handle billing and credit collection, manage frauds and customer relationships and provide self-care to customers.
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