IBM India on Thursday announced the expansion of its global delivery capacity in Kolkata by opening its fourth facility in DLF IT Park, Rajarhat.
IBM plans to hire over 3,000 new employees at the facility. IBM has been one of most aggressive recruiters in the Indian marketplace. From 38,500 employees in December 2005, IBM augmented its workforce to 43,000 as of June 2006.
This facility will enable IBM to scale its existing application services delivery capabilities in India in keeping with the growing client needs.
Kolkata houses IBM's second-largest pool of employees after Bangalore. IBM plans to ramp up its technical talent in areas such as SAP, mainframe, web technologies and business consulting at the new center.
Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Chief Minister of West Bengal, while inaugurating the facility, said: "We believe that the information technology industry will fuel the future growth for West Bengal. It will open up new opportunities for the talented workforce of the state. We welcome innovative companies like IBM to invest and partner with us in the development of our state. I am confident that this association will bring desired gains to both IBM and West Bengal."
"As a globally integrated company, IBM has oriented itself to lead in high-value creation and delivery of services led by our strategy of doing the right tasks, with the right skills, in the right places. Our new facility in Kolkata will further augment our vast global delivery network that spans three dozen countries including India that deliver high value solutions to help our clients innovate globally." said Shanker Annaswamy, managing director, IBM India, during the inauguration.
West Bengal Minister of State for IT Debesh Das too was present on the occasion.
With a strong campus relations strategy in India, IBM continues to contribute to innovative academic programmes in the state such as its MOU with Jadhavpur University that led to the 'Centre for Mobile Computing' (CMCC) a centre of excellence for wireless, RFID/sensor technologies.
IBM is also enabling the University of Burdwan through its University Programme Grants Programme where it is helping the university design curriculum, encourage and fund research, teach and train the students on market strategic technologies to support India's burgeoning need for IT ready professionals
IBM's long standing relationship with IIT Kharagpur led to the setting up of a deep computing visualization lab and a research grant of $75,000. The IT major will also roll out the IBM Appropriate Continued Education Programme (ACE) that will enable Bachelor of Science (BSc) graduates in West Bengal to train with IBM to receive a Master of Science (Technology) degree from the reputed University of Mysore over a period of 4 years.
IBM has more than 319,000 employees working in 170 countries and is an equal opportunity employer. IBM provides its employees with broad career growth opportunities with a wide spectrum of jobs, flexible working options, and continuous training and professional development.
Being a part of globally integrated company, professionals working at IBM in India get to work with some of the best minds across IBM and the industry globally. IBM Global Campus, that is the largest online university of its kind, offers more than 20,000 learning modules including 3,500 e-learning and classroom courses plus books and other resources.