Mahindra, Cisco Systems enter into a strategic alliance

MUMBAI: Mahindra Group on Tuesday signed a strategic alliance with Cisco Systems . The joint venture will collaborate on global platform and provide cloud computing services.

Cisco said that the partnership with Mahindra will work on areas including connecting communities. The JV has an ambitious target market at $5 billion in 5 years.

Mahindra & Mahindra, Vice Chairman, Anand Mahindra said: "The JV will provide cloud computing services and will involve M&M group across geographies."

The partnership will also involve many contracts.

Mahindra said, "This is about a partnership and it is a partnership not just of one contract but involving many contracts between Mahindra and Cisco, not just in India but across the world. This is about an Indian company moving from simply looking at itself as a service provider to partnering Cisco in joint go-to-market initiatives."

At 12:19 Tech Mahindra was up 7.7% at Rs 729.40. It touched a high of Rs 727.20 and low of Rs 676.40 in trade so far. Around 1.50 lakh shares were traded in the counter. Mahindra Satyam was up 4.48% at Rs Rs 65.35.

With this joint venture M&M and Cisco will focus on the Internet. The two companies believe that the web will dramatically change the way in which businesses function and in the way that services are provided to customers.

"The second belief that we share with Cisco is that companies that are able to harness innovation in providing services to their customers are the ones that are going to be left standing and in fact standing on the victory podium. I believe that Cisco does truly understand that India can be a game changer in leveraging innovation," added Mahindra.

When asked about what has the JV got for Cisco, Mahindra said, "I have already mentioned one very important thing that they are going to be able to get even more traction in India, more reach in penetration through us. Cisco can also leverage us as a game changer for innovation through the internet as a way of reaching customers throughout the globe and therefore in essence they are going to leapfrog."

"For Mahindra the joint venture would help in becoming a brand that epitomise customer centricity and innovation that is very critical for us and we want to be known for this around the world. We believe that we can bring value to them and we believe that by tying up with them we will strengthen and enhance our capabilities to be more customer centric and innovative." said Mahindra.