IBM has announced a $6 million expansion plan for Russia and the CIS. By June 30 the firm will add ten new fully operational offices to its existing 12, almost doubling local staff in a bid to “capture regional business growth and increase [its] presence in the fastest growing markets in the world.”
The new Russian offices are opening in Voronezh, Ufa, Khabarovsk, Tyumen, Chelyabinsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Samara and Krasnodar, spanning seven of Russia’s eight federal districts. Two more offices are planned for Kharkov and Donetsk in Ukraine.
By the end of this year IBM hopes to enhance its business partner network in the Russia/CIS area to more than 4,000 partners.
IBM believes the current growth rates in Russia’s IT market far outstrip the global average. According to IDC analysts, Russia has been one of a select few among the most robust national markets over the past ten years.
Big Blue has a long Russian track record, having first come to the USSR in 1974.
