Indian telecoms giant Bharti Airtel has finalised a 10-year outsourcing agreement with IBM, to deliver mobile Internet services across the African continent.
IBM will consolidate and transform 16 different IT environments across Bharti's African operations into an integrated IT system, and will oversee the management of all applications, data centre operations, servers, storage and desktop services.
The agreement calls for IBM to provide customer support applications that include customer relationship management, billing, and self-service that will assist Bharti in delivering 2G and 3G mobile services.
The company claims the increased mobile communication will go far to speeding up economic development in Africa. Bharti points to a Deloitte report, which found that every 10% jump in mobile penetration is estimated to drive a 1.2% gain in gross domestic product.
Bharti has 40 million customers across its African operations and is targeting 100 million by 2012-2013.
In addition, IBM plans to deploy a media management system to offer content such as music and video over mobile devices, while simultaneously facilitating the growth of the application developer community in Africa.
Outsourcing success
Frost & Sullivan industry analyst Protea Hirschel says the move is indicative of a strong outsourcing focus in Bharti Airtel's business model.
She is confident the move will accelerate Bharti's ability to provide affordable telecommunications to the continent. Hirschel says the foundation offered by Zain Telecommunications across the region will limit most of the challenges for the company in the region.
Sunil Bharti Mittal, MD of Bharti Airtel, describes the approach as a transformational business delivery model and maintains it is a first in Africa's telecoms industry.
“There are huge opportunities throughout Africa to transform how people communicate and how communities interact. Delivering on that opportunity through affordable mobile communications for everyone is our focus,” he concludes.
Related story
Bharti, IBM take on Africa
Share