Aiming to beef up capability across various segments to bring the 'One Airtel' experience, India-based Bharti Airtel has strengthened its existing relationship with IBM with a new agreement that is estimated at Rs.592.18 crore ($150 million). Expanding beyond mobile, the 'One Airtel' will cover broadband, media and enterprise businesses.
Entering the telemedia business of direct to home and IPTV, Bharti Airtel will provide the entire spectrum of services to its customers. Through its partnership, IBM will implement IT systems that will enable it to launch differentiated services in these new thrust areas. This will also help in leveraging the current channels of Bharti Airtel to deliver new services.
By strengthening its distribution and prepaid segment, Bharti Airtel will provide a unified experience to its customers. Its services will now be more easily accessible and will simplify the use of these services. IBM will support this by transforming the current IT platforms, which will enhance customer experience by supporting differentiated customer relationships. This will enable and support channel transformation, which is essential for rural market penetration. IBM will also enhance the delivery of value added products and services to the prepaid segments.
In addition, to improve customer satisfaction and provide seamless services, IBM will work with Bharti Airtel in areas including least cost routing, auto discovery, auto provisioning and auto activation. These applications will help to bring in enhanced efficiencies and cost savings, besides improving service delivery.
The two partners will work to make a robust and resilient IT infrastructure essential to catapult the Bharti Airtel to the next level. Disaster recovery set up and IT architecture will also be enhanced to provide multi-node redundant systems. Innovative technology and solutions will be used to reduce cycle time and improve responsiveness by implementing the 'quote to care' IT platform for the enterprise service line.
"We intend to continue to build upon the success of the principle of utility computing, on which we had structured our partnership with IBM," said Jai Menon, director IT and innovation Bharti Airtel. With a thrust on these new areas, we are leapfrogging to the next level which will empower our customers to make informed choices and provide seamless access to a host of services."
"Bharti Airtel is continuing its leadership in the Indian telecom market by moving beyond the mobile," said Ramesh Awtaney, VP, communications sector, Asia-Pacific, IBM. "By bringing to its customers unified services across the entire spectrum of mobile, broadband and television, the company will lead the next wave of telecom revolution in the country."
