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Mr Shanker Annaswamy

Adith Charlie

Business Line caught up with Mr Annaswamy on the sidelines of IBM’s recently held ‘CIO Implications 2008’ event to get an update on the company’s activities in the Indian domestic market.

Excerpts:

With inflation hitting an all time high, how is the mood among your IT clients in the Indian domestic space?

Even if people say that the Indian market is slowing down, the news is that it still remains a growth market. Many are ready to give their arms and legs for playing in such a vibrant market.

We are not seeing any specific slowdown – at least not in the areas that we are involved. India is still at the beginning of the transformation and there are miles to go on this front. Every sector today – be it automobile, media and entertainment, or energy and utilities – has got its share or pain as well as opportunities.

Thus, they are quite upbeat on leveraging IT for achieving pure business benefits.

Many experts believe that a slowdown in the domestic market means tightening of budgets by domestic IT companies. Is IBM India seeing any negative impact?

The good news is that we are not seeing any cut in IT spending across the areas in which we service clients. Even if a customer is under stress in specific areas, he or she cannot choose to walk away from growth or from beating the competition.

And the benefit with IBM is that we provide end-to-end services.

Moreover, IBM has built capabilities in many areas. If one area slows down, then another will compensate for it. Hence, I am not worried.

With the domestic outsourcing market expected to be worth $10.73 billion by 2011, how important do you think has the role of the CIO become?

The role of the CIO has never been as important as it is today. In a growth country like India it is very essential for IT firms to get strategic inputs from CIOs of client companies.

This is because IBM is not only partnering with top or mid tier companies but also with small and medium enterprises.

Today’s CIO is getting into many key business areas and is making a difference to his/her company by contributing towards enhancing profitability through the strategic deployment of IT.

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