IBM and Indosat Ooredo have teamed up to bring cloud-based services to Indonesian businesses. The companies will jointly develop and deliver solutions on the IBM Cloud to help businesses streamline processes and improve productivity.

This collaboration will enable Indosat Ooredo, one of Indonesia’s largest telecommunications and services providers, to innovate their mobile services offerings and transform their services, said Jim Comfort, CTO of IBM Cloud.

“Telcos have tried to build a lot of these capabilities themselves. It’s very difficult for them to build all of the tools and capabilities,” he said. “So, they look to partners such as IBM Cloud. We have a tremendous set of assets, and we can deploy those assets in partnership with them.”

Through the partnership, which is valued at $200 million, IBM and Indosat Ooredoo’s subsidiary, Lintasarta, will jointly develop and deliver cloud-based solutions powered by IBM Cloud to help Indonesian businesses drive innovation and agility, streamline their processes and improve productivity, Comfort said.

Clients of both companies will be able to access jointly developed cloud-based solutions built on IBM Bluemix, accelerating collaboration and automation of software delivery and infrastructure changes. Clients also will have access to IBM MaaS360, a cloud-based enterprise mobility management platform.

Indosat Ooredoo and IBM will build an integrated command center to serve local clients of both companies. IBM will also help Indosat Ooredoo transform its own IT operations, improving overall client experience and supporting the rapid development of new telecommunications services in the country.

“Our customers in both telecommunications and IT services are going to benefit from this relationship through improved access to world-class offerings and services,” said Alexander Rusli, president and CEO of Indosat Ooredoo, in a news release. “We will be able to bring a greater range of higher-value services to market more rapidly, with the confidence of knowing that we are collaborating with one of the world’s largest and most innovative technology companies.”

Indosat Ooredoo and IBM also announced a related five-year technology services agreement to deliver digital and operational transformation to all aspects of Indosat Ooredoo’s operations to support the rapid development of new services that are easier to access, less complex and more affordable to use.

IBM will upgrade Indosat Ooredoo’s IT infrastructure and deliver a range of application management services, including a test environment that will improve time to market for the development of new customer-facing services and applications.

IBM: Cloud is about business transformation

IBM’s cloud strategy is about enabling clients to transform, Comfort said.

“We have a globally consistent deployable cloud. We also have the most flexible models to work with partners where, in this case, the partners have the reach, the local access, the relationships and all of the things that are needed,” Comfort said. “So, rather than competing or replacing existing businesses, we’re helping them transform those relationships with our new capabilities, as well as going direct to market as IBM.”

IBM’s partnership with Indosat Ooredoo is the second of its type this week. On Tuesday, IBM announced it is opening its first data center in South Africa via a partnership with IT services company Gijima Group Ltd. and mobile communications company Vodacom Group Ltd.

Under that partnership, businesses will get access to IBM Cloud services for building in-cloud solutions, as well as services such as analytics, mobile, networking, storage, Internet of things and cognitive computing.

These collaborations are “all about speeding the evolution of client business transformation,” Comfort said. “And in both of these cases, we’re both enabling ourselves to help with that, but also these partners would have the reach in these various economies and geographies.”

Photo credit: Michael Coté via flickr