IBM has announced the successful completion of the first phase of its Corporate Service Corps initiatives in Pune for the year 2010. Through this program, IBM has tied up with five different NGOs and not-for-profit government organizations to bring nine IBM professionals from eight different countries to Pune to work on critical projects for them. Pune, Hyderabad and Bangalore are among the 17 cities around the world hosting the first phase of IBM’s most competitive global program this year.

IBM Corporate Services Corp (CSC) places IBM’s most highly valued assets, its employees, into emerging and developing countries to address core societal, educational and environmental challenges. Between February and May this year, 30 CSC participants from around the world are arriving in India to work on a number of key socio-economic development projects. In Pune, these IBM professionals are working closely with organizations like Yashwantrao Chavan Academy of Development Administration (YASHADA), Teach For India, Chaitanya, Film & TV Institute of India (FTII) and Software Institute for Rural Development (SIRD) to implement a variety of developmental projects.

The projects in Pune attracted IBMers from Germany, France, Austria, Romania, Australia, USA, Canada and Japan. These are among the 30 global professionals who were selected after rigorous evaluation process to work with the organizations in Pune on a wide range of projects as below:

• Development of basic architectural design for a web-based Distance Learning Method (DLM) to be offered through YASHADA, the administrative training institute of the Government of Maharashtra, for expanding the reach and coverage of training.
• Development of a strategy and related action plan to assist Teach For India in expanding to all major Indian cities and related rural areas.
• Development of a marketing strategy to help Chaitanya, one of the pioneers of self-help group movement in Maharashtra, improve its visibility beyond the Indian development sector.
• Designing a solution that will help FTII with scheduling of academic resources, manage as well as track assets and inventory in the sound department and eventually to be replicated across all departments.
• Help with the design and architecture development of SIRD’s rural banking software and related bank management information system capabilities

IBM CSC provides international leadership development experiences for IBM employees by exposing them to 21st century context for business. “CSC is not only redefining IBM’s commitment towards India but also exposing our employees to diverse cultures, complex policy environments and changing societal expectations giving us global leaders capable of improving the quality of life for themselves and their communities,” says Ramesh Narasimhan, Director, IBM India/South Asia.

In 2009, IBM’s CSC program saw 430 of IBM's future leaders from 44 countries being selected for similar international assignments. Last year India hosted 40 IBM professionals from 19 countries to work with 11 different NGOs and not-for-profit government organizations in Mumbai and Ahmedabad while 100 IBM India employees travelled to five emerging markets. IBM employees traveling to India worked on projects that enabled the government to improve livelihoods of rural tribal community, increase income safety and security of self-employed women to increasing marketability of a local volunteer program and leverage technology to connect remote locations to centralized information hubs related disaster warnings, weather reports and others.

The partner organizations are a key part of the programme’s success, helping to identify the right projects where IBM’s emerging leaders, and the skills they currently possess, can have the most impact.

“Corporate Services Corp 2010 is strengthening IBM’s commitment to community development in India by stretching the domain of community service. CSC enables IBM employees to bring different perspectives and expertise to solving problems, as well as encourage interaction with people from different cultural backgrounds and traditions,” adds Mamtha Sharma, Manager - Corporate Citizenship & Community Affairs, IBM India/South Asia.

IBM Corporate Service Corps is the corporate version of the Peace Corps. IBM has committed to enable 1500 of its emerging leaders to participate in the CSC program through 2011. More than 15,000 high-potential employees have applied to the program so far and only about 1000 employees have been selected, making this one of the most competitive employee programs ever created by the company.

IBM announced the first wave of 100 IBMers representing 33 countries in 2008. 20 out of 100 IBMers representing India were selected for specific projects in Ghana, Philippines, Romania, Tanzania, Vietnam and Turkey.

Corporate Service Corp is a suite of investments and programs to help IBM employees enhance their skills and expertise in order to become global leaders, professionals and empowered citizens in the 21st century workforce.

Prior to departure, the IBM teams engage in three months of preparatory work to learn about local customs, culture, language, project goals and the socioeconomic and political realities of their destination countries. An important design point for the program is to provide high performance employees the chance to build networks with people they might never interact with.

IBM spends $150 million annually on CSR initiatives worldwide and is in constant lookout for new areas, where a difference can be made.