Digicable signs 10-year strategic outsourcing agreement with IBM

INDIA: IBM today announced that Digicable, a leading cable and broadband distribution player in India, has signed a 10-year strategic outsourcing agreement with the company at an initial outlay of Rs. 380 crores (U.S. $83 million). This is one of the most significant deals signed by a Media and Entertainment company in India.

As part of this agreement, IBM will support the integration of Digicable’s digital media content delivery and value added services applications with its core business technologies and processes. This integrated approach will enable Digicable to provide superior and personalized service to its subscribers.

With a strong focus across all segments of the media and entertainment industry, IBM has the deep business insights and technology know-how to help Digicable solve complex business problems and build a more intelligent enterprise by accelerating the transformation of their business. The deal with IBM will see alignment of key strategic business and IT objectives to ensure greater leverage of technology investments for the exponential growth planned by Digicable.

More specifically, IBM will enable Digicable to manage its business processes better and help enhance revenue per subscriber by facilitating the launch of Value Added Services (VAS) such as Video-On-Demand, Push-VOD, Interactive TV, Internet Service on TV, and gaming and telephony. Digicable’s digitization initiative will also provide its customers with access to more channels with better picture quality and sound.

As part of the agreement, IBM will provide IT infrastructure services, network support, application maintenance services and security services. IBM will leverage its strength in hardware and software solutions - to assess and help optimize operations for Central/Remote Head Ends and physical/digital assets.

IBM will also implement and manage core applications and services, including B2B/B2C and employee Portals, voucher and credit management systems, EBPP (Electronic Bill Presentation & Payment), Intellectual Property Management (IPM) and ERP.

Commenting on the deal, Jagjit Singh Kohli, Managing Director and CEO, Digicable said: "The business landscape is changing continuously, competition is getting intense and customer demands are increasing exponentially. It is hence imperative to differentiate ourselves by constantly evolving new and exciting service offerings to attract and retain customers, ably supported by a partner who understands our business and provides significant value-add.”

He added, “IBM has a strong track record in the media and entertainment space and we are confident that this agreement will enable us to accelerate growth, while ensuring utmost customer satisfaction.”

Asif Khan, Chief Technology Officer, Digicable said: “We believe in leveraging the latent advantages of the cable networks and latest technological innovations to derive new services to meet our customer expectations and facilitate our franchisee partners.”

“The partnership with IBM will help us focus on our core business, reduce time-to-market for new services and adapt quickly to meet future market requirements at an optimum cost.”

K.S. Raghunandan, Director – Solutions, IBM India and South Asia said: “IBM is excited to partner with a progressive and growing company like Digicable. We will help Digicable capitalize on market opportunities efficiently and drive additional revenues by facilitating accelerated launch of new value-added services.”

“We are confident that our understanding and expertise in M&E industry, coupled with proven capabilities in IT services delivery, will provide Digicable the necessary impetus for future growth.”

The contract was signed in December 2009.