The Mahindra Group on Tuesday announced a global strategic partnership with US-based Cisco Systems to collaborate on go-to-market strategies in areas that include smart cities, virtual dealership, sports and entertainment and cloud services. The two companies said they will bid together for new contracts in these areas at a global level. Moreover, the two companies will jointly develop solutions in India that will be sold globally. Indicating that the association would involve multiple contracts across regions in the world and would not just be confined to India, Anand Mahindra, vice-chairman and managing director, Mahindra Group, said, ?We are starting with Mahindra Satyam but intend to leverage this partnership to other Mahindra businesses as well. We at Cisco will be able to leverage on its strengthens to reach out to customers across the world and in turn, we move from service provider to become strategic partner of Cisco across the world.? The first such experience of the Mahindra-Cisco strategic partnership will be the pilot virtual automotive dealership that comes up in April in Mumbai. Mahindra Group also expects its real estate arm – Mahindra Lifespace Developers Ltd ? to be benefited out of the partnership. ?Mahindra and Cisco also would explore working together to build the private cloud roadmap for the Mahindra Group across different businesses including Mahindra & Mahindra, Tech Mahindra and Mahindra Satyam. Under this non-binding MoU, the partners hope to capture 10-15% of the estimated $5 billion market in five years. ?We hope to grow 10 times in the next five years, from $100 million,? said CP Gurnani, CEO, Mahindra Satyam.
?We will be the product and service provider, while integration and application will be taken care by Mahindra,? said Naresh Wadhwa, president and country manager, Cisco Systems – India and Saarc.
