IBM has bagged two IT services deals in the direct-to-home (DTH) segment from Sun Direct and Tata Sky. The company would offer CRM implementation and services to Sun Direct, while providing storage solutions to Tata Sky. Sun Direct is promoted by Sun Network. Tata Sky is a joint venture between Tata Group and Star.

Both the deals put together would be worth $12 million. Tony D’silva, COO of Sun Direct, said that the existing CRM system was not able to handle growing customer information. Sun Direct would be upgrading to Siebel CRM software. IBM will take care of implementation and management of the solution for 10 years. Sun Direct has about 3.7 million subscribers.

The storage solutions deal with Tata Sky is for 3-5 years. Tata Sky has a subscriber base of 3.5 million. It is reported that Tata Sky has chosen capex model. The DTH operator would bear the expenses of the IT assets. Sun Direct has chosen opex model. IBM would bear the expenses of hardware and software licence. Sun Direct would make periodic payments to IBM for a period of 10 years. After this, Sun Direct would be the owner of IT assets. 

IBM is looking towards deals in the entertainment sector after having bagged 3 major deals in the telecom sector. IBM is one of the first to enter into the domestic IT services space. The company pioneered telecom model with India’s biggest telecom operator, Bharti Airtel in 2004.