IBM offers Indian start-ups free IT solutions

Global technology firm IBM is opening its doors and resources to start-up IT firms in India by offering them its technologies and solutions free of charge, as a part of its global ‘Entrepreneur Initiatives’ programme.

The company, with the help of about 40 venture capitalists (VC), has initiated the process to shortlist such business ventures, which are typically zero to three years old in the market with enough potential to serve global customers and fulfil market opportunities, according to Claudia Fan Munce, VP-corporate strategy and MD, IBM Venture Capital. The VCs are expected to bring about 140 start-ups, mostly their portfolio companies who are striving to overcome to the start-up phase, to a forum being organised by IBM.

IBM will offer the start-ups free access to industry-specific technologies in a cloud (metaphor for the internet) computing environment. The company has also offered to provide access to its research community as well as sales, marketing and technical skills.

The US-headquartered company is targeting start-ups which could potentially offer IBM’s technology stacks to a broader range of customers, mostly small and medium business space. “We do have a portfolio of offerings and solutions, and our stack is rich. But, our difficulty often is our heritage which is enterprise. We deal with large enterprises very well, but when it comes to the smaller entities, we face a challenge. Now we are trying go even lower down the food chain, which is where innovations happen. If you get a start-up hooked to IBM technologies, they drag along the rest of the IBM’s stack over time with their offerings when they grow,” says Amit Sharma, chief operations officer, IBM India.

According to a recent Fitch Ratings report, IBM India recorded revenues of Rs 10,900 crore, with a net income of Rs 580 crore in FY2009. Various industry research reports say about two-thirds of the IT markets which IBM services in India are outside the major metros. To address these markets, IBM generally use its partner ecosystems, independent software vendors (ISVs) and system integrator partners, which in turn build solutions around IBM’s technology and sell to the customers across the country.

“When you don’t have sellers, enough technical resources and you don’t have enough of everything to touch every town, city and start-up, forums like this come quite handy. We are banking upon our partner ecosystems and forums to go and expand using a pool of IBM technology,” adds Sharma.

“This forum will work as an enabler for the start up companies which generally don’t have the ability to use enterprise scale or enterprise insight,” says Sharma.