CIO September 15 2010 Issue

Alert_DEC2011.indd 18 11/21/2011 9:43:24 AM

Vijay [email protected]

From The ediTor-in-ChieF

One equal temper of heroic hearts,

Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

—Ulysses by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

The Fifth Cio 100 Symposium & Awards got over in the wee hours of a Sunday

a few days ago in Bangalore. It was the jewel in our crown; our finest hour. Everything that

had to work, worked. Everything that could have gone wrong didn’t.

Five years of hard work; five years of sweat and toil; five years of raised emotions and high

passion; five years of a certain knowledge that we were on the right path.

As we basked in the glory reflected from the award honorees, we felt that that made

everything worth it.

The CIO 100 Symposium & Awards was above all a gathering of winners who changed

the way their organizations went about their business in uncertain times. Change, which

was about building resolute, reusable

frameworks. Change that accelerated

collaboration and maximized

knowledge-sharing. Change, which

helped tackle the issues of scalability.

Change that was about growing the

business, and yes, about cutting cost. Change that went far beyond technology. Change that

in all cases was spectacular, regardless of how much or limited the IT investment was.

The continuing aftershocks of last year’s global recessionary quake have proved how

uncertain and dynamically changing the economic landscape can be. Conventional wisdom

held that this was not the time to take risks or plan anything new.

But the honorees this year proved that such ‘wisdom’ was indeed the higher-risk

option. They demonstrated that it is critical to focus on transformational shifts that will

lead to reduced operational costs, increased flexibilities, and most importantly tangible

business benefits.

The lessons in agility that I learned from going over the 659 projects that were submitted

and from spending time with so many of you, were thus: IT leadership entails a willingness

to get into the game, a willingness to take on responsibility as well as a self-disciplined ability

to face the big decisions, make them, and learn from the challenges one faces.

Salud.

The CIO 100 honorees have clearly changed the way that their organizations go about business.

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

On Course to Victory

Vol/5 | ISSUE/112 s E p t E m b E R 1 5 , 2 0 1 0 | REAL CIO WORLD

Content,Editorial,Colophone_Page_Sept2010.indd 2 9/14/2010 8:18:12 PM

cont

ent

se

pt

em

be

r 1

5‑| ‑

Vo

l/5‑

| ‑is

su

e/1

1

Vol/4 | ISSUE/214 s E p t E m b E R 1 5 , 2 0 0 9 | REAL CIO WORLD

22 I The agile hundredFrom mobile solutions to cloud computing platforms, find the people and the projects that won this year’s CIO 100 award for agility.

158 I ideas from The idea masTerFounder of the Interesting organization and inspirational speaker, Fredrik Härén, tells you how you can break corporate boundaries and make your business more creative.

162 I iT Takes Two To TangoThey re-invented the Indian paints market and now the business and IT leaders of India’s largest and most respected paints company tell you the relationship that got them there.

164 I The cio 100 evenT The fifth edition of CIo’s annual awards, brought together important thinkers and India’s foremost IT leaders. Find out how that mix produced an explosion of ideas, a networking platform beyond compare, and a star-studded night that won’t be forgotten.

170 I cio 100 special awardsFor their extraordinary work in security, innovation, storage, infrastructure, and green IT, these men and women were awarded CIo’s Special Award. Also, the IT leaders who entered CIo’s coveted Hall of Fame.


content (cont.)

deparTmenTs

now online

For more opinions, features, analyses and updates, log on to our companion website and discover content designed to help you and your organization deploy IT strategically. Go to www.cio.in

c o.in

Trendlines | 9 IT Management | Time to Renovate IT? Waste Management | Your Trash, Can Social Networking| No Business Mobile Apps | The Mobile is Loaded Opinion Poll | Where the Free Apps Are Research | Employees: What Security?

From the editor-in-Chief | 2 On Course to Victory

By Vijay Ramachandran

CIO 100 Index | 204 Find your winner by company or by name.

16deep dive CLOuD COMPuTINg | 187As more enterprises turn to the cloud, their CIOs have begun to discover new challenges—and new solutions and benefits. You too, can make the best of the cloud by learning from these pioneers.

strategic CIOESCAPE CLAuSE | 16Want to get out of an agreement with one of your service providers, but feel tied down by a contract? Here are a few ways to break out.Column by David Downie

187

6 s E p t E m b E R 1 5 , 2 0 0 9 | REAL CIO WORLD


All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced by any means without prior written permission from the publisher. Address requests for customized reprints to IDG Media Private Limited, Geetha Building, 49, 3rd Cross, Mission Road, Bangalore - 560 027, India. IDG Media Private Limited is an IDG (International Data Group) company.

Printed and Published by Louis D’Mello on behalf of IDG Media Private Limited, Geetha Building, 49, 3rd Cross, Mission Road, Bangalore - 560 027. Editor: Louis D’Mello Printed at Manipal Press Ltd., Press Corner, Tile Factory Road, Manipal, Udupi, Karnataka - 576 104.

Publisher louis D’Mello

editorial

editor-iN-ChieF Vijay Ramachandran eXeCutiVe editor Gunjan Trivedi Features editor Sunil Shah assistaNt editor Kailas Shastry seNior CoPy editor Shardha Subramanian seNior CorresPoNdeNt Sneha Jha CorresPoNdeNts Anup Varier, Varsha Chidambaram traiNee JourNalists Debarati Roy, Supriyaa Uthaiah ProduCt maNager oNliNe Sreekant Sastry

Custom PublishiNg

seNior CorresPoNdeNt Gopal Kishore CorresPoNdeNt Deepti Balani

desigN & ProduCtioN

lead desigNers Jinan K V, Jithesh C.C, Vikas kapoor seNior desigNers Sani Mani desigNer Amrita C Roy. M.M Shanith traiNee desigNer Visaka Vardhan PhotograPhy Srivatsa Shandilya ProduCtioN maNager T K Karunakaran

eVeNts & audieNCe deVeloPmeNt

VP Rupesh Sreedharan seNior Program maNagers Chetan Acharya Pooja Chhabra Program maNagers Ajay Adhikari Sachin Arora maNagemeNt traiNee Ramya Menon

marketiNg & sales (NatioNal)

PresideNt sales aNd marketiNg Sudhir Kamath VP sales Sudhir Argula geNeral maNager sales Parul Singh asst. gm braNd Siddharth Singh asst. maNager braNd Disha Gaur assoCiate marketiNg Dinesh P sr. maNager ClieNt marketiNg Rohan Chandhok ad sales Co-ordiNators Nadira Hyder

regioNal sales

baNgalore Kumarjeet Bhattacharjee, Varun Dev, Pooja Nayak delhi Aveek Bhose, Prachi Gupta, Punit Mishra mumbai Ajay S. Chakravarthy, Dipti Mahendra Modi, Hafeez Shaikh

AdverTiSer index

ADC India Communications 47, 136 & 137

Alcatel Lucent - EmG 55

Amercian power Conversion (I) 175 & 177

Avaya 41

bharti Aritel Ltd 3

Canon India pvt Ltd IbC

Check point software technologies 203

Citrix systems India pvt Ltd 123

Ctrl s Datacenters Ltd 89

D-Link India Ltd 24 & 25

Elitecore technologies Ltd. 13

Emerson Networks power(I) pvt Ltd 33

Extreme Networks 195

F5 Networks singapore pte Ltd 20 & 21

HCL Comnet systems & services 61

HID India pvt Ltd 93

Hp IpG 71

Hp Networking 65

Hp server 43

Hp storage Works 100 & 101

Ibm India Ltd 5 & 7

iCreat software pvt Ltd 57

LG Electronics India pvt. Ltd 11

Lifesize Communications. 35

microsoft Corporation (I) pvt Ltd 1

microworld software services 167

molex premise Networks 73

NetApp India pvt. Ltd. 49

Novell India pvt. Ltd 169

Oracle 14, 15 & 17

polycom & beetel 95

polycom technologies R & D Center 127

QsFt India pvt Ltd 67

Rittal India pvt Ltd. 190 & 191

sAs Institute (India) pvt Ltd 53

sify technologieis Ltd 37

steria (India) Ltd 63

tata Consultancy services 179 to 186

tata teleservices Ltd 108 to 111

toshiba 87

tulip telecom Ltd bC

tyco Electronics Corporation India 75

Verizon Communications India IFC

Western Digital 19

Wipro Infotech Cover on Cover & pg 29

This index is provided as an additional service. The publisher does not assume any liabilities for errors or omissions.

GoverninG BoArd

alok kumar

Global Head - Internal IT, TCS

aNil khoPkar

GM (MIS) & CIo, Bajaj Auto

aNJaN Choudhury

CTo, BSE

ashish ChauhaN

Deputy CEo, BSE

atul JayawaNt

President Corporate IT & Group CIo, Aditya Birla Group

doNald Patra

CIo, HSBC India

dr. Jai meNoN

Director Technology & Customer Service, Bharti Airtel &

Group CIo, Bharti Enterprises

goPal shukla

VP - Business Systems, Hindustan Coca Cola

maNish Choksi

Chief Corporate Strategy & CIo, Asian Paints

maNish guPta

Director-IT, Pepsi Foods

murali krishNa k.

Head - CCD, Infosys Technologies

NaViN Chadha

CIo, Vodafone

PraVir Vohra

Group CTo, ICICI Bank

raJesh uPPal

Chief General Manager IT & Distribution, Maruti Udyog

saNJay JaiN

CIo, WNS Global Services

shreekaNt mokashi

Chief-IT, Tata Steel

suNil mehta

Sr. VP & Area Systems Director (Central Asia), JWT

t.k. subramaNiaN

Div. VP-IS, UB Group

V. k magaPu

Director, larsen & Toubro

V.V.r babu

Group CIo, ITC

Vol/5 | ISSUE/118 A u G u s t 1 5 , 2 0 1 0 | REAL CIO WORLD

idG oFFiCeS

baNgalore Geetha Building, 49,

3rd Cross, Mission Road

Bangalore 560 027

Ph: 3053 0300

Fax: 3058 6065

delhi 410, Hemkunt Towers

98, Nehru Place

New Delhi 110 019

Ph:011- 4167 4230

Fax: 4167 4233

mumbai 201, Madhava

Bandra Kurla Complex

Bandra (E)

Mumbai 400 051

Ph: 3068 5000

Fax: 2659 2708


n e w * h o t * u n e x p e c t e d

I T M a n a g e M e n T The saying goes something like this: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." The statement is, of course, embraced as dogma by those fearful of change and by automobile owners praying for a reasonable bill of charge while waiting at the mechanic's garage.

But many of today's CIOs must see something broken inside their IT departments. According to a new Forrester Research report, more than half of the 178 IT executives surveyed are hatching plans to upend the status quo and institute a new IT model within three years.

The goal, these CIOs say, is to improve services, reduce costs and increase consistency of business processes and IT systems. "The appetite for restructuring is high," writes Forrester principal analyst Marc Cecere. The area with greatest priority: the applications organization.

Time to Renovate IT?

Your Trash, CanW a s T e M a n a g e M e n T Trash talk has never garnered more interest. And it’s going to force CIOs to review their half-hearted stance on e-waste.

In May this year, the Union Ministry of State for Environment and Forests—under pressure from a number of groups including Greenpeace, Toxics Link and GTZ (German Organization for Technical Cooperation)—drafted the E-Waste Management and Handling Rules 2010. The draft, which is currently being debated, aims to regulate the recovery and re-use of e-waste and could be pushed into the monsoon session of the parliament.

But while discussions are on, India’s techno-trash is piling up. A survey conducted by the Manufacturers' Association for Information Technology (MAIT) and GTZ estimates that by 2011, India will generate 0.47 million tons of e-waste annually. In comparison, China

currently produces about 2.3 million tons a year, and the United States three million tons.

If India produces less waste, it also recycles less. According to Indian e-waste recycler Greenscape, about 90 percent of India’s e-waste is handled by the unorganized sector including local kabadiwalas. So what’s stopping Indian enterprises from taking e-waste management seriously? “The absence of proper laws, poor data security practices, capacity constraints, logistics, and

the small number of players in the organized sector were some major concerns,” says Manish Gupta,

director-IT, Areva T&D India.These reasons are less true today. Frost

& Sullivan estimates that the organized e-waste recyclers market will grow at 24

percent CAGR, indicating a growing number of players like Eco Recycling

(Ecoreco), Attero Recycling and Ramky Enviro Engineers.

ill

us

tr

at

ion

by

Vis

ak

a V

ar

dh

an

Vol/5 | issuE/11

Several macroeconomic factors are driving this desire for change. "The uncertainty caused by a stubborn unemployment rate, the stock market yo-yo-ing, new financial regulations and high government spending provides a push for changing the model of IT," writes Cecere.

For some IT shops, an upheaval will come much sooner: Nearly one-third of IT chiefs surveyed stated that there was either a high probability or certainty that they would restructure within one year.

The most critical need for IT shops is to improve their services: More than three-quarters of respondents said this was a high or highest priority. To Cecere, however, that number should have been higher. "The frustration among senior business leaders that there must be a different way to run IT to get the flexibility and innovation they want while not going back to the pre-

recession spending levels is a dilemma that fuels the interest in new models for IT."

According to respondents, the app group is "most likely to be restructured." Why? Cecere writes: The importance of cost reduction, increased consistency, and innovation are driving the need to restructure apps groups. They are the most fragmented and have the greatest potential for cost savings.

— By Thomas Wailgum

REAL CIO WORLD | s e p t e m b e r 1 5 , 2 0 1 0 9

Trendlines_September_final_with_ad.indd 11 9/14/2010 8:34:19 PM

Tr

en

dl

Ine

s

Vol/5 | issuE/111 0 s e p t e m b e r 1 5 , 2 0 1 0 | REAL CIO WORLD

And as the competition heats up, recyclers are beginning to give CIOs what they want. Ecoreco, for

instance, will send a mobile van to collect e-waste from a client’s doorstep and process it inside the van itself—with

the exceptions of large piece of equipment like LCD panels and monitors. A film of the operation and detailed lists of the hard disks and shredded data devices is handed over to the client when the job is done. And Ramky, which is present in 18 cities across India, allows clients to supervise the physical destruction of data devices in their presence before they are taken to a Ramky facility and disposed. Attero Recycling gives clients the option of watching the process of data destruction online on live streaming.

“If I have data security assured and logistics taken care of, I don’t see why I wouldn’t do it. I don’t think companies expect heavy returns. Anything that I make on e-waste is a value add. It’s more about being sure that the disposal happens by the rule book,” says Gupta.

That’s an opinion Manisha Deshmukh, head-IT, Alkyl Amines Chemicals, shares. “I gain some peace of mind by handing over e-waste to an authorized vendor. At least now I am sure about the manner in which waste is handled. The remuneration is an added incentive. It may not be a substantial figure but nevertheless it’s a healthy addition.”

According to recyclers, value of e-waste depends on its volume, the condition of the equipment, and transportation costs. Some arrive at a price based on weight.

“Unless it is a tier-2 or tier-3 city and the volume of waste is so low that it cannot cover the transportation cost, companies generally don’t need to invest,” says B.K. Soni, chairman, Eco Recycling.

These practices, it is hoped, will get Indian companies to take their e-waste management more seriously. But if that doesn’t do the trick, the law will. “A law, if implemented properly, can bring in results. It is a perfect remedy to negligence and callous attitudes. A law would generate awareness, which is important. Knowledge of new technologies used and the implications of not handling e-waste properly got me to implement an e-waste management project for my organization,” says Atul Samalia, head of BBS AP IT-India, Bayer Business Services.

“Every law has a negative and a positive response. E-waste in India could be a huge problem in the near future and this draft would help manufacturers and consumers direct hazardous waste to the right vendors for safe disposal. It’s a part of our collective responsibility. I would be really glad if companies and people support us on this,” says Amit Chaddha, deputy director, MAIT.

— Debarati Roy

s o c I a l n e T W o r k I n g Most consumers want to reach companies via social networks, but few businesses are ready for it, according to a survey.

Companies are doing a poor job of using social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, to engage their customers and employees. In fact, 70 percent of consumers want to interact with businesses via social media, but only 30 percent of companies are equipped to handle it. The grim news comes from a study by research firm Yankee Group, commissioned by Siemens Enterprise Communications.

Most customers and employees would rather use social media for business communications, but one-third of enterprises either lack formal social networking polices, don't allow their employees to use social networks at work, or are unaware of their company's participation in social media, the study showed.

By failing at integrating social networks, including corporate blogs, into regular business communications,

enterprises are missing a golden opportunity to engage their customers and enhance worker productivity. "Social media is changing the way businesses, customers and employees interact, and this creates significant opportunities for contact centers and the enterprise as a whole to leverage the integration of these tools into business processes," said Yankee group research Zeus Kerravala, in a statement.

Other study findings show the importance of a strong social media presence for business:• Fifty percent of survey respondents use social networks daily, or several times in a day.• Social media boosts devotion: Almost 60 percent of customers say that business outreach via social networks would improve their loyalty to a company.• Enterprises should monitor social networks for consumer feedback, customers say.• Employees love social media. Nearly 70 percent of workers want better tools to

manage social networks for business. For example, they want the ability to launch a Web conference and invite people from their social and work networks.

The Yankee Group's findings corroborate earlier studies that essentially say the same thing: Most businesses are too disconnected from social media.

According to a study of CEO's by uberceo.com only two CEOs from Fortune magazine's list of the Top 100 companies have Twitter accounts and only 19 have a Facebook page. And none of the 100 CEOs had a personal external blog. Though, an increasing number of executives in smaller firms have taken to twiterring.

A poor or non-existent social media presence gives customers and employees the impression that your business is out of touch or disinterested in open communication—a strategy that could drive business elsewhere in the long run.

— Jeff Bertolucci

No Business for Social Media


Tr

en

dl

Ine

s

M o b I l e a p p s Remember those futuristic Idea ads in which mobiles replaced almost everything in paper from degrees to menus to money? The future, as they say, sirji, is here.

For the first time in India, consumers will be able to pay for goods and services with their mobile phones and transfer money from mobile to mobile, thanks to a tie-up between Obopay, Nokia and YES Bank. Customers have to go to one of Nokia’s two lakh outlets, sign up for a YES Bank mobile account and download an application on their phones. They then deposit cash with the outlet and within minutes get virtual money or credit on their phones. They can then send this to other users—a brother or a friend and enterprises like utilities or department stores—who have also signed up with the service.

“We have engaged Obopay as our technology partners. Obopay has provided us the ‘prepaid’ platform,” says Suresh Sethi, group president, transaction banking group, YES Bank, adding that mobile payments can be initiated through multiple channels including SMS, IVR and WAP, among others.

The Obopay-Nokia-YES Bank offering is just the first of many to come. Other banks like SBI and telcos including Airtel and BSNL have had plans to launch a similar service for some time. YES Bank itself is planning to work with other partners. “We’re in the process of checking the J2ME app on other major selling handsets in India. The SMS-IVR channel will work on all handsets and will be launched shortly.”

Currently, YES Bank is confident that it has covered all its security bases. “Each financial transaction has an SMS/application-based intimation to the customer,” says Sethi, adding, “We do not see any perceived threats apart from the existing threats of using technology to conduct financial transactions since the technology platform has the recommended security standards defined by the authorities. Further, each financial transaction is validated against a registered

mobile number and protected by an MPIN and there are daily limits for transactions. The risk is limited to a large extent.”

Mobile money isn’t new. Obopay, for example, also operates in Kenya and the US, where it doesn’t even need to tie-up with banks. But it’s new here as RBI permitted the idea of mobile money to take off only in 2008. Since then it has revised its rules to allow a maximum daily transaction limit of `50,000; the former ceiling was `5,000.

In the meanwhile, the market for mobile money is expected to boom. According to research and advisory firm, TowerGroup, mobile banking usage in India will grow from 10 million active

users in 2009 to over 53 million active users in 2013, representing a CAGR of over 50 percent. And research firm, Palo Wireless Market Research, says that the amount of money being transacted via mobiles in India will touch $1.28 billion (about `5,760 crore) by 2013.

What does this mean to the enterprise? Possibly, an uptick in consumer spending that they can tap into. The ease that mobile payments offer is expected to translate into higher transactions. For example, in 2009, Citibank conducted a pilot it called Citi Tap and Pay, which allowed users to pay by ‘swiping’ their mobiles using near-field communications (the mobiles were loaded with hardware that linked the phone to their credit cards) .The pilot showed that ‘mobile swipers’ transacted about six times more than they normally did and the pilot was promptly rolled out across Citibank’s other global locations.

For CIOs, mobile payments also means another source of customer data they can mine for insights. “We will consider a new CRM system as we progress further and the number of customers increases,” says Sethi.

Remember when mobile currency only meant minutes?

— Supriyaa Uthaiah

A Citibank ‘mobile payment’ pilot in

Bangalore showed that users transacted about six times more than they normally

did because of the medium.

The Mobile is Loaded

Where the Free apps Are.

Vol/5 | issuE/111 2 s e p t e m b e r 1 5 , 2 0 1 0 | REAL CIO WORLD

sourcE: Global Graphics surVEy

No cost software is all over your enterprise.

Of companies are using free software within departments

76%88%

Of companies use free software at the enterprise level


Tr

en

dl

Ine

s

r e s e a r c h New global research has found that most IT security leaders believe social networking, Internet applications and widgets have significantly lowered the security posture of their organization.

The research, by Check Point Software and the Ponemon Institute, revealed that up to 82 percent of IT security leaders felt this way. It found that employees rarely or never consider corporate security threats in their everyday business communications.

The report concluded that education and awareness is needed to help end-users realize their important role in maintaining the organization’s security profile. The survey found that employees largely ignored IT security when downloading Internet apps, Web browsing, opening links, video streaming, utilizing peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing sites and engaging in social networking outlets.

Respondents cited viruses, malware and data loss as the top Web 2.0 concerns."Our research finds security can be seen as an afterthought for corporate users of Web 2.0 applications; the growing number and sophistication of security threats, coupled with the proliferation of online and easily downloadable tools, is exacerbating the challenges of protecting sensitive information,"

said Ponemon Institute chairman and founder Dr. Larry Ponemon."Our research also shows that most IT leaders do not believe their organizations have sufficient resources dedicated to securing critical Web applications." The majority of respondents believe employees should be held most responsible for mitigating Web 2.0 security risks in the enterprise.

The most common problems relating to using new Internet applications in the workplace were workplace productivity, malware and data loss.

It's clear that CSOs are concerned about the impact of Web 2.0 apps in the enterprise, but they also need better tools to understand which apps employees are using for business purposes.

Implementing a flexible solution that factors in specific group or individual needs provides the bridge between users and IT, and ultimately encourages employees to be more cautious.

The research was based on a survey of 2,100 IT security leaders in the US, UK, France, Japan and Australia. It represents SMEs to large enterprises across 12 different industries.

—By Ross O. Storey

Employees: What security?


Clients often come to us asking how they can get rid of their IT supplier. Their reasons are many, and vary from performance-related concerns to wanting to reduce costs by deferring or going

without the services. Of course, the problem with a contract for the supply of

IT solutions is that it is just that: a contract. It means that, unless you have a right to get out of the contract, you are contractually bound to honor it until it expires. If you make the mistake of behaving as though you are not bound by a contract, you risk repudiating it—a legal concept which allows the other party to terminate the contract and sue you for the loss of it. In an IT supply sense, that usually means the profit the supplier would have made over the term of the contract—which could be substantial.

But there are ways around a contract. Here are some:

Terminate for ConvenienceThere is a similar risk if you attempt to formally terminate a contract in circumstances in which you did not have a right to do so. I have had some clients simply write to their supplier and inform them in no uncertain terms that they are terminating their relationship with three months notice. There is no inherent right in IT or other contracts to do this.

If you wish to have the right to terminate an agreement whenever you like, for any reason, you should ask that such a right be inserted into the contract when it is being negotiated. It is known as a right to terminate for convenience. Suppliers will often ask for a fee to be associated with the exercise of such a right. Whether or not you grant one will depend

David Downie Strategic ciO

Escape Clause Want to get out of an agreement with one of your service providers, but feel tied down by a contract? Here are a few ways to break out.

Vol/5 | ISSUE/111 6 s e p t e m b e r 1 5 , 2 0 1 0 | REAL CIO WORLD

Ill

US

tr

at

Ion

by

VIS

Ha

ka

Va

rd

Ha

n

Coloumn_Legal.indd 22 9/14/2010 6:45:23 PM


on the circumstances and your skill as a negotiator, but many recipients of services always like to have the option to terminate even if it means they have to pay a fee. At least the exit cost will be known, and with any luck the only legal fees you will have to pay will be in relation to the drafting of the termination notice.

Implied RightsIf you did not expressly agree to a right to terminate for convenience, it is possible that one will be implied—in which case you will be able to terminate on reasonable notice. This is more likely to have occurred if you do not have a written agreement with your supplier. What constitutes reasonable notice will depend on all the circumstances, and may be difficult to pin down.

Any expenditure by the supplier in relation to the service being provided will be relevant, as well as the period over which the services have been provided and the supplier's ability to find other clients. Practically, the notice periods tend to be between three and 12 months, but this is not always the case. If you attempt to terminate and give notice which is shorter than what a court considers to be reasonable, the supplier may keep the agreement on foot or terminate it and you may be liable for the profit the supplier would have made had the notice period given actually been a reasonable one.

Poor PerformanceDepending on the terms of the agreement with the supplier and the manner in which they have performed, you may also have a right to sack your supplier for poor performance. It is known as termination for cause.

The supplier must have breached the terms of the agreement in a sufficiently serious manner—this may be a right under the general or common law, or it may be a right pursuant to the terms of the contract. Either way, you should seek support from your lawyers to manage the process and to advice on whether or not the breach gave rise to a general law right of termination or fell within the terms of the contract that allow you to terminate in particular circumstances.

Negotiating RightsIt is in your interest to make the right to terminate for cause as broad as possible when you negotiate. The broadest right is the ability to terminate on any breach of the contract.

Keep in mind your right to terminate will be lost if you continue to treat the contract as ongoing. this is known as 'affirming' the contract.


Suppliers will try and narrow the right through referral to a 'material breach' or a breach of a 'material clause' that has a 'material adverse effect' on you.

Arguments can be had as to what these phrases mean, but the downside to you as the customer is that each additional concept becomes another hoop you have to jump through to establish that the termination right has arisen. It is a good reason to resist these qualifications as much as possible.Another common supplier request is to have an opportunity to 'remedy' a breach before a right of termination comes into effect, which generally means the supplier can have another go at performance. This procedure will have to be followed in order for your termination to be valid. Generally, it is not unreasonable to have this concept in a contract, but you should consider whether you want the ability to terminate on any breach of particular clauses such as those relating to security, intellectual property or confidential information.

One thing to keep in mind when a right to terminate for cause arises is that it will be lost if you continue to treat the contract as ongoing. This is known as 'affirming' the contract, and it is seen as an election to require the supplier to continue performing it rather than exercising your right to terminate.

If you attempt to terminate a contract after you affirm it then the termination will not be effective, and you may be seen as repudiating the agreement and exposing yourself to a claim for damages flowing from wrongful termination.

Other ConsiderationsThe specter of repudiation hangs over every termination, and you should always seek legal advice to reduce the risk of getting it wrong. It is not always a simple exercise, even for lawyers. Other factors courts consider in determining whether or not a termination is effective is estoppel (have you condoned the wrongful conduct?), the notice requirements of the contract (have they been sufficiently followed?), whether you have exercised the right in a reasonable time, and even whether or not the right has been exercised in good faith (did you really terminate the contract to get a better price with another provider?). Damages recoverable on termination is another consideration, as is whether or not transition services are required to be provided to you or an incoming supplier.

As always, life will be easier if you pay more attention to the terms of your contract when you negotiate, and do not just accept the termination clauses put forward by the supplier in their standard terms without due consideration. CIO

David Downie is a partner in the intellectual property group of law firm

McCullough Robertson. Send feedback on this column to [email protected]



Trendline_Nov11.indd 19 11/16/2011 11:56:19 AM

Vol/5 | ISSUE/052 2 m a r c h 1 5 , 2 0 1 0 | REAL CIO WORLD Vol/5 | ISSUE/052 2 m a r c h 1 5 , 2 0 1 0 | REAL CIO WORLD

Pg158Pg26Fredrik Härén tells you how you can break corporate boundaries.

Find out the projects and the people that won this year’s CIo 100 award.

What an IdeaWinner Profiles

In a year marked by downs and now ups, the ability to stay light-footed has never been more important.

Here’s what agility looks like.

By Team CIO100

AgileThe

CIO_100_Opening.indd 22 9/14/2010 8:32:59 PM

REAL CIO WORLD | j u n e 1 5 , 2 0 1 0 2 3Vol/5 | ISSUE/08

Excellence is a strange word. It’s a descriptor for both a person’s mastery over a niche skill and over a larger canvas. And that’s what it takes to be a leader today: The ability to excel at a specialized skill and to be just as good, if not better, at a swathe of other subjects.

As a leader, one of the easiest things to do is not rock the boat. Why? Because there’s already enough pressure at the top. You’re in the spotlight and your strategic moves are debated by the same people—your team and your peers—whose respect you need; then there are non-strategic fires to be put out and then there are favors you have to do for people because it gives your relationship credit, without which you can’t get your job done. With all these filling your day, it’s hard to resist the temptation of just going with the flow.

This is why we go out of our way to hunt out IT leaders who refuse to give in to the routine and forget their mandate: To lead. This is why we celebrate and award these 100 IT leaders: For their ability to excel, no matter the environment. And this year, we honor those who have a trait their organizations have needed desperately in the last 36 months: The ability to react to new market conditions, to move quickly, to adapt faster and to create value in a world of flux.

We take a closer look at India’s most agile IT leaders and their projects and then talk to Fredrik Härén who breaks down the idea of an idea and finally we speak to the business and IT leaders at Asian Paints to understand how that legendary company stays agile.

loca

tio

n c

ou

tesy

: ITC

Gra

nd

Cen

tral

, Mu

mb

ai; I

TC M

aury

a, D

elh

i, T

he

Mar

rio

tt

Co

urt

yard

, Gu

rgao

n, I

TC R

oyal

Gar

den

ia, B

anga

lore

, IT

C S

her

ato

n C

ho

la, C

hen

nai

P

ho

to C

red

it: S

riva

tsa

Sh

and

ilya

& F

oto

corp

REAL CIO WORLD | j u n e 1 5 , 2 0 1 0 2 3Vol/5 | ISSUE/08

Pg162 Pg164Asian Paint’s CEo and CIo talk about what makes the company tick and the role of IT.

Snapshots from one of the most looked-forward to events in the CIo calendar.

Power of Two Event Report

Reader ROI:

Why change is inevitable

Ways around the multiple business and IT challenges of a mobility solution

How CIOs can contribute by focusing beyond internal customers

100Agile

CIO_100_Opening.indd 23 9/14/2010 8:33:01 PM


Who you would invite to dinner?

Steve Jobs. I am very curious to hear from the horse’s mouth how a guy can get kicked out of a company that he founded and then become its CEo.How do you deal with stress? Kids, movies, books. In that order.Your biggest learning this year. Technology change management is easier than people change management.A CIO myth you would like to bust. That CIos cannot articulate business value. A concept or technology you think is over-rated. Cloud computing. It is an enhanced form of virtualization at this point—or at least there isn’t anything substantial to prove otherwise. Technologies that will see significant adoption in 2011

Virtualization and green IT practices.If you were not an IT leader, you would have been… An air force pilot.A habit you wish you could get rid of. Smoking.

Tarun PandeyVp-It, Aditya birla Financial services Group

“It’s very gratifying that we set up a robust IT system that resulted in 50 percent cost saving.”— Ajay srinivasan, Chief executive-Financial services, Aditya birla Group

Pandey centralized the group’s governance structure across companies and moved it to a single-window support model.

Every company in the Aditya Birla Financial Services Group followed different practices in delivering support to its end users. A network of branches, a variety of assets, and their various ages only added to the complexity of managing end user support.

It didn’t make it easier that user support also involved multiple vendors, non-standardized processes, a lack of tools for automation, and the non-availability of data for any sort of analysis or corrective action.

Pandey and the management team decided they needed a single vendor setup. The IT team, led by Pandey, ensured that the entire transition to a single vendor was done under 90 days and that the new vendor took complete charge of support delivery.

This gave the company better management and accountability and clearly-defined SLAs to meet business requirements. These benefits lowered opex by about 50 percent year-on-year and gave users a single window to fix their problems.

ADITYA BIRLA FInAnCIAL SERvICES

Revenue rs 5,850 crore

IT BudgeT rs 150 crore

ChaIRman Kumar Mangalam Birla

100_PROFILES_A-E(1-23prfls).indd 26 9/14/2010 7:54:44 PM

Iyengar enabled the real-time issuance of life insurance policies online with the total sum insured topping over Rs 3,000 crore.

Aegon Religare realized that there was a segment of Indians who were both aware of the importance of insurance and were also net savvy and the company wanted to enable these customers to buy insurance policies online.

Iyengar wanted to go futher: He also wanted buyers to receive their insurance policies the moment they completed their online forms. And in three months, starting in July 2009, they rolled out an online portal from conceptualization to implementation that allowed customers to do just that. The portal also allows customers to fix medical and document collection appointments for all medical tests.

Aegon Religare’s initial target was to sell at least 500 policies by March 2010 but they exceeded all expectations and sold over 3,400 with a premium collection of more than Rs 3 crore and a total sum insured of above 3,000 crore.

“Strong systems and product innovation, have made the pricing of the online sales model most attractive to customers.”— rajiv Jamkhedkar, CeO & mD, Aegon religare

Srinivasan IyengarDirector-It & OperationsAegon religare Life Insurance

REAL CIO WORLD | s e p t e m b e r 1 5 , 2 0 1 0 2 7Vol/5 | ISSUE/11

AEGOn RELIGARE LIFE InSuRAnCE

Revenue rs 167 crore


ChaIRman & md Sunil Godhwani

An insightful observation your CEO made in the last year. “It’s not what technology or process you’ve implemented that counts, but how our customers see these as having made their lives simpler.”Your biggest learning this year. Investing in systems and processes even during a downturn is very important because it helps you race ahead of others when things pick up.If you were not an IT leader, you would have been… In the armed forces.A trait you wish you could get rid of. The laziness to go out everyday for a jog!Your ‘Aha’ leadership moment. The opportunity to formally handle operations and service in addition to technology.What according to you should be non-negotiable? Governance and transparency.Your most memorable vacation. A family vacation to Goa this May.


If you were not an IT leader, you would have been... A marketer.A concept or technology you think is over-rated. IPTV and video applications. The ecosystem’s infrastructure is not ready. An insightful observation your CEO made in the last year.

“Customer service is hygiene and customer experience creates differentiation.”Your ‘Aha’ leadership moment. When our national technology center was built and inaugurated in 2009. It is a piece of art and technology that conforms to every existing green standard and has won many accolades.A CIO myth you would like to bust. That CIos are technologists and cannot think beyond technology. What according to you should be non-negotiable?

Transparency and intellectual integrity.

“Being focused on the end goal and empowering project managers did wonders for us.”— ravinder Jain, CIO, Aircel

Jain built a resolute, reusable framework that helped integrate legacy, reduce overheads, and ensure faster circle rollouts.

Aircel’s aim to transform itself from a regional to a pan-Indian operator banked on a strategy to leverage VAS and data in their brand’s positioning.

But this required creating a stack of services that were ready for 3G, MVNO and MNP. At the same time, it wanted to be agile and cut time-to-market. So Aircel built a new IT stack and expanded its newer businesses using OSS/BSS (Operational Support Systems / Business Support Systems). These systems support processes like maintaining network inventory, provisioning services, configuring network components, order-taking, bill processing, and payment collection.

Aircel used an Enterprise Service Bus to orchestrate all interactions among OSS/BSS online applications. It also registered services on an enterprisewide service registry to promote easy service discovery. Its SOA approach enabled fast rollouts pan-India without compromising its flexibility. The re-use of services reduced overheads and cut delivery time.

AIRCEL

employees 5,000

headquaRTeRs Gurgaon

esTaBlIshed 1999

Ravinder JainCIO, Aircel



A concept or technology you think is over-rated.

SAS (Statistical Analysis System) is over-rated as most of the prevalent software products are not ready for security and multi-tenancy.Turning point in your career.

Complete roll out of BSS stack across India with over 120 million subscribers in 13 states. It made me realize that irrespective of the size of the task, it’s the focus which gets results.What according to you should be non-negotiable?

Compliance.An insightful observation your CEO made in the last year.

“Speed first and quality always.”Your biggest learning this year.

one size does’nt fit all.If you were not an IT leader, you would have been…

An entomologist.

“Enterprise Application Interface is one of the best tools to have but implementation and integration are critical.”— rupinder Goel, CIO International, bharti Airtel (International)

Goel integrated 17 critical applications that helped deliver new services rapidly and strengthened customer relationships.

With competition intensifying in the telecom services market, Bharti Airtel felt the need to strengthen its customer relationships.

The company signs up an average of 1.5 million customers per month. The ability to activate new accounts with maximum efficiency in minimum time was an imperative. It also needed to maximize its flexibility and growth potential by adopting a framework for integration which would then allow it to implement and quickly deliver new services.

So, Goel came up with an Enterprise Application Interface solution which would create a highly flexible platform for integrating Bharti Airtel’s customer-facing processes. It would achieve this by transforming its OSS and BSS processes.

By integrating the account activation process with key back end systems such as billing, provisioning and order management, Bharti Airtel would cut its activation time by 90 percent. This in turn would enable it to handle more customers and serve them better.

Rupinder GoelCIO International, bharti Airtel (International)

BHARTI AIRTEL (InTERnATIOnAL)


headquaRTeRs New Delhi

ChaIRman & md Sunil Mittal



Gangotra radically changed the way customer data was perceived thus improving campaign impact and revenue.

With an eye on its ever-growing customer base, Airtel wanted to enhance its automated campaign management system. Gangotra envisioned a customer lifecycle management (CLM) system that would provide a single view of customer data and generate a target subscriber list based on business-identified parameters.

Airtel launched project Arjun to make this possible. The underlying IT infrastructure consisting of 17 racks, three physical servers, 70 CPUs, and 250 TB of storage managed through a SAN director is at the heart of the project. In addition to the hardware, the CLM is connected to over nine inbound and outbound customer communication channels, integrated with over five systems and connected to a data mart with over 20 databases.

Since its rollout the CLM project has brought in incremental business revenue. Its architecture has helped to cut down delivery time of sub-system technologies—by approximately two years—and delivered savings of about Rs 67 crore.

“The project led to Airtel’s transformation by helping micro-segment a user base of 140 million and create customized campaigns.”—sanjay Kapoor, CeO, bharti Airtel India & south Asia

Amrita Gangotra Director-It India & south Asia, bharti Airtel


A concept or technology you think is over-rated. Business collaboration tools for the enterprise. There are many ways of collaborating in an enterprise and these will blur with social networking tools over time.Your ‘Aha’ leadership moment. A project called ‘laser ops’ to correct the use of system features, business processes, operational SoPs and resource gaps in a new billing system. It gave me a lot of credibility at Airtel.Who would you invite to dinner? Shakira. I loved her waka-waka.If you were not an IT leader, you would have been… An IAS officer.An insightful observation your CEO made in the last year. “A consolidation in the Indian telecom space is inevitable given the 13-14 player scenario.”A CIO myth you would like to bust. CIos cannot become business heads.

BHARTI AIRTEL



esTaBlIshed 1995


A CIO myth you would like to bust.

The next step for a CIo is CEo.If you were not an IT leader, you would have been…

A professor teaching mathematics.Your most memorable vacation.

A vacation to Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore with my spouse for our 25th marriage anniversary.One question you wish you had better answers to.

How do you convince policy makers that there are better tools and systems available other than those followed rigidly at HQ in Europe?A concept or technology you think is over-rated.

Video conferencing on ISDN lines. The same can be easily addressed through a net meeting or teleconferencing.An insightful observation your CEO made in the last year. “Be in sync.”A habit you wish you could get rid of.

Neglecting exercise and self.

Kishore DaryananiGm-Information systems and technology, Alfa Laval India

“During the slowdown, we invested in IT and this has already started reaping benefits, now that things are back on track.” — Jose Hernanz, mD, Alfa Laval India

Daryanani leveraged Web 2.0 technologies to increase transparency, better service tracking, and boost customer loyalty.

Alfa Laval manufactures equipment for liquid/solid separation, heat transfer and treatment, and fluid handling. Because manufacturing was its focus, only 1 percent of its revenues came from services and Alfa Laval’s management wanted to change that.

So under the IT leadership of Daryanani, the company set up a service application that would enable their service tickets to be booked online. With the help of this application, a service engineer is nominated to attend a customer by the system itself.

Service engineers can then see an installed base and its service history on their systems and make a service call equipped with all the necessary background information. “This system has not only enabled us to attend to service requirements faster but also provides a MIS report on the service engineer’s hours and records customer satisfaction,” says Daryanani.

The system cost Rs 100 lakh for network infrastructure and laptops for all the service engineers but has already started bringing in returns.

ALFA LAvAL InDIA


IT BudgeT 14 crore

md Jose Hernanz



K.T. RajanDirector-Operations, Is & projects, Allergan India

“The suite of solutions transformed IT from a business supporter to a business enabler and now to a business driver.”— raghu Kumar, managing Director, Allergan India

Rajan enhanced employee engagement and opportunity development through the use of ubiquitous technologies.

After the turbulent year the world economy witnessed, Rajan realized that engaging his field force and aligning them with the organization was of prime importance. So he put together a suite of technology-driven initiatives that would enhance employee engagement. The plan was to use inexpensive, easy-to-use technologies to deliver maximum impact.

The company set up an intranet portal to serve as a platform to nurture professional pursuits and grow camaraderie. For regular employees, instead of expensive Blackberries, Allergan developed an ‘e-mail alert system’ which delivered the initial part of an e-mail on regular, low-end cell phones as an SMS and allowed recipients to respond via e-mail using their phones.

For medical representatives who already had smartphones, Rajan ensured that all product information was available electronically. Data tables, graphs, product literature, powerpoint presentations, and videos of surgical procedures are now available on demand. All this ensures that users feel connected and deliver greater value to the business.

Your ‘Aha’ leadership moment.

Pioneering the Indian pharma industry’s first PDA-based sales force automation solution. The initiative taught me that it is not the ‘technology’ that matters but the ‘technicalities’ of changing people’s mindset that differentiates what’s ‘better’ from the ‘best’!A question you wish you had better answers to.

Who’s phishing my systems and which botnet will strike next?What according to you should be non-negotiable?

Perseverance.An insightful observation your CEO made in the last year.

“There is no right way of doing a wrong thing.”Your biggest learning this year.

When the going gets tough, the tough get going!A technology you think will see significant adoption in 2011.

Virtualization because it allows you to do more with less.A device you would like to invent.

Something to transport humans over the net.

ALLERGAn InDIA

esTaBlIshed 1995

headquaRTeRs Bangalore

md Raghu Kumar



Sanjay MalhotraVice president-It, bs & ebiz, Amway India

“Mobiles will be the window to ‘digital life’ for a lot of users. And that user base will come more and more from outside India’s cities.”— sanjay malhotra, Vp-It, bs & ebiz, Amway India

Malhotra used mobility applications to deliver a better end-to-end business experience to the distribution value chain.

Amway India—whose sales network and business depended on its freelance Amway Business Owners (ABOs)—wanted to expand its network beyond business owners with access to PCs. The business realized that mobile penetration in India is way higher than computers and was keen on exploiting the ubiquity of the mobile phone. So the IT team at Amway, led by Malhotra, embarked on a project to create a mobile-based application to enable ABOs to have anytime, anywhere access to Amway.

The mobile application enables business owners to place orders for products, sign up new prospects, track their business, and even renew their accounts using their mobile phones. The new application also took care of the challenge of accepting payments. Two payment methods were offered to ABOs: Cash on delivery and via credit cards using MChek. This application enables ABOs to be more productive and be in constant touch with the business.

Your biggest learning this year.

If you focus on results, you will never change. If you focus on change, you will get results.Who would you invite to dinner?

Sachin Tendulkar for his continued sincerity, reliability, and integrity even after reaching the pinnacle of success.An insightful observation your CEO made in the last year.

“Great results are not accidental; they only happen when a team of highly-trained professionals has focus, clarity and a relentless ability to execute.” A business idea you think deserves more attention.

leveraging social media for brand building, brand awareness, and loyalty.A technology you think will see significant adoption in 2011.

Mobile phone applications. As mobile phone penetration increases and costs decrease there will be a greater demand for applications for smartphones.If you were not an IT leader, you would have been…

An officer in the army.

AMWAY InDIA



md & Ceo William S. Pinckney



Chandrasekaran N.special Director-It, Ashok Leyland

“The project is significant in that it takes us closer to our customers and also recognizes and rewards the real champions.” — Vinod Dasari, COO and Wholetime Director, Ashok Leyland

Chandrasekaran wired in superior communications and reconciliation mechanisms into Ashok Leyland’s service channel to improve loyalty.

The spare parts business of Ashok Leyland, Leyparts, is a significant revenue earner for the company. It also helps the company ensure continuous business operations for its customers through a set of dealerships, retailers and mechanics.

But the company faced challenges related to inadequate brand awareness and a lack of knowledge of the genuineness of parts. Ashok Leyland needed to tackle this by providing incentives and educating mechanics about Leyparts and rewarding them on speedy and efficient consumption.

Chandrasekaran decided to reach out to the company’s partners through an end-to-end IT-enabled eMITR initiative. He prepared a special eMITR kit consisting of a savings account with a debit card from the associated bank. With this, mechanics can redeem coupons gained by buying the company’s spare parts.

Apart from improving the company’s spare parts revenues, this provides inputs on how its products perform on the field and how its product strategy should be fine-tuned to address market needs.

Turning point in your career.

The implementation of a centralized dealer management system covering over 300 outlets and bringing about common business processes.An insightful observation your CEO made in the last year.

“Taking decisions at a crucial juncture is important, even if it is not ideal.”A technology you think will see significant adoption in 2011.

Higher levels of mobile integration with business transactions, as agility will be a key differentiator in this competitive world.A CIO myth you would like to bust.

CIos are not ready to occupy board position yet.Who would you invite for dinner?

My friends or my wife’s friends who will not talk IT!If you were not an IT leader, you would have…

Specialized in English literature.Your most memorable vacation.

Spending time with my 85 year-old aunt in Periyakulam, close to the foothills of Kodaikkanal.

ASHOk LEYLAnD

esTaBlIshed 1955

employees 14,000

ChaIRman R. J. Shahaney



Mehta empowered dealers and service centers and speeded up the company’s response mechanism to help quicker decision making.

Service is a key differentiator in the commercial vehicle industry and speed of response is critical. To make service delivery swifter and more decisive, Asia Motor Works needed a centralized database to enable its sales and service functions.

Multiple data repositories like a history of service orders, maintenance logs, and job cards of all vehicles sold needed to be centralized and made available to dealers and service centers across India.

So, Mehta put together a Web-based application that allowed multiple viewing of a common, centralized database. This enabled access to service records and inventory of parts across the country. It also provided better quality responses to common service issues and gave AMW’s management the ability to make strategic decisions on dealer and service management issues. He then coupled this with an SMS querying facility, which further speeded up response times.

With this initiative AMW increased transparency, dealer empowerment, warranty management, and also customer satisfaction levels.

“Our robust online system tracks vehicle maintenance in real time, and provides strategic help on issues related to service.” — Anirudh bhuwalka, mD & CeO, AmW

Umesh MehtaVice president-It, Asia motorWorks



Setting up the IT infrastructure and ERP in a newly-acquired plant in mainland China in record time was my leadership moment. I learned how to lead and work with multi-cultural teams from across the world.An insightful observation your CEO made in the last year.

“Cash is king.”Your biggest learning this year.

Do more with less.A CIO myth you would like to bust.

That technology can provide a solution to all business issues.A gadget you would like to invent.

A wireless battery charger or batteries that don’t need to be charged for at least three years.If you were not an IT leader, you would have been…

A cricketer.

ASIA MOTORWORkS


IT BudgeT rs 6.75 crore

md & Ceo Anirudh Bhuwalka


Manish ChoksiChief-Corporate strategy & CIO, Asian paints

“You need to have people who are willing to work despite the challenges of implementing a new technology.”— manish Choksi, Chief-Corporate strategy & CIO, Asian paints

Choksi re-designed his company’s supply chain to improve forecast accuracy, cut freight costs, and reduce stock-outs.

Traditionally, Asian Paints’ supply chain had four layers: the factory, regional distribution centers (RDCs), depots, and customers. But new forces demanded that it be more reactive to its markets. “The Indian coatings market has witnessed rapid growth and increasing competition. These demands required that we build on our traditional supply chain strengths,” says Choksi.

India’s largest color and paint company attacked the problem on two fronts. First, it shortened its supply chain by eliminating its regional distribution centers (except its RDC in the east). Then it created more efficient distribution centers using automated storage and retrieval systems that allowed these centers to hold about twice the capacity of more conventional warehouses.

These moves allowed it to lower freight costs, cut inventory by five-day’s worth of production, and improve its reaction speed to the demands of the market.

A device you would like to invent.

An autonomic sentiment device that is GPS-enabled and that can transmit data in real time from all human beings.A concept or technology you think is over-rated.

Business process management. There is a lack of support for common standards from large vendors. One question you wish you had better answers to.

How can I learn to prioritize disparate objectives better?Your biggest learning this year.

Errors of omission are larger than errors of commission.A CIO myth you would like to bust.

That CIos can’t become successful CEos.If you were not an IT leader, you would have been…

An entrepreneur or owner of a non-IT technology company.A habit you wish you could get rid of.

I would like to be able to respond to someone without irritation, even if he or she is intruding when I am deep in thought or concentrating on work.How do you deal with stress?

Having a relaxed dinner with my wife.

ASIAn PAInTS


md & Ceo P.M. Murty

IT BudgeT 30 crore



P. KalyanasundarGm-It, bank of India

“When people having a conversation are able to see each other, that has a much greater impact on effectiveness.”—p. Kalyanasundar, Gm-It, bank of India

Kalyanasundar accelerated collaboration and maximized knowledge-sharing across 400 branches by leveraging Web 2.0 technologies.

The Bank of India’s management communicated with its employees with printed administrative circulars, directives and guidelines. But this did not always ensure that new information was assimilated at different levels, which meant that the bank’s staff wasn’t always abreast with changes around them, and this affected their productivity.

So Kalyanasundar launched a collaborative, online communication platform which comprises mandatory daily updates via video conferencing. The platform is built around a Web portal meant exclusively for staff members, which provides them with a single, integrated platform to collaborate with colleagues, find resources, and search for corporate information. Kalyanasundar also integrated an online training portal, which overcame time-and-location-dependent training mechanisms.

This social computing initiative enhanced the bank’s agility by enabling faster responses through the power of connected communities. It also ensures that when skilled personnel leave the organization, their know-how lingers on in the form of blogs, podcasts and wikis.


My experience in implementing a technology transformation project (core banking). It was possible for me to transform a group of officers into a cohesive, goal-oriented team. I realized that if one is willing to provide leadership, one’s team will follow.What according to you should be non-negotiable?

Commitment to the job at hand and transparency.An insightful observation your CEO made in the last year.

“What cannot be measured cannot be monitored.”A technology you think will see significant adoption in 2011.

Mobile technology for various value added services.A trait you wish you could get rid of.

Impatience.How do you deal with stress?

By laughing at myself..

BAnk OF InDIA

neT pRofIT rs 1,741 crore

employees 40,000




Yogesh ZopeVp-It, bharat Forge

Zope built better ties with the business by improving service efficiency, while pruning costs and risks.

As part of a post-recession revamp, the Kalyani Group, which Bharat Forge belongs to, decided to be more efficient, reduce costs, and bring down risks caused by IT. The company started by carrying out a detailed cost optimization analysis of each group company with the help of frameworks from Gartner and Accenture.

Post-consolidation data analysis proved that their initiative had resulted in significant cost savings. Zope then utilized the ITIL Best Practice Framework as a reference and improved immediate IT service needs.

In order to reduce risks caused due to IT, the group used the OCTAVE methodology and the System Dynamics Model to analyze insider threats. They also used the ISO 27001 standard as reference for Information Security Implementation within IT.

As a result of this project, today, the Kalyani Group boasts of a mature technology and process framework, which can be used by any new group company.

BHARAT FORGE


ChaIRman & md Baba Kalyani



Social networking. It’s practically impossible for companies in manufacturing or those that sell high-end products to use social networking to create market awareness.A CIO myth you would like to bust.

That a technology person cannot be a good CIo. If you were not an IT leader, you would have been…

A ‘karyakarta’; a social worker. Your ‘Aha’ leadership moment.

When I proposed a shared IT services set up within the Kalyani Group and it was accepted by management.A technology you think will see significant adoption in 2011.

Business intelligence on the strategic side. Most companies have stable ERPs but are not getting all the decision support information they need.A habit you wish you could get rid of.

Sleeping late and not getting enough sleep. Your most memorable vacation.

A visit to Arunachal Pradesh. I spent time with students from different schools. It was a lifetime’s experience.

“You cannot plan everything on day one. Just remember that the architecture has to be agile enough to take care of most changes.”— Yogesh Zope, Vp-It, bharat Forge



Agrawal integrated diverse shop-floor systems and business processes and delivered decision-enabling insight.

The operations and production facilities of BPCL comprise various plants producing a range of petroleum products. And in order to ensure effective performance monitoring on a real-time basis, the company’s senior management felt a strong need for an integrated view of all the information from its and reporting systems.

So, Agrawal envisaged a solution called ‘Business Performance Management and Intelligence System’. This would integrate diverse shop floor systems, business processes, technologies and enterprise systems. This would then convert existing data into meaningful, cross-functional information and provide a unified dashboard to view the data along with a performance matrix.

The solution aimed at maximizing BPCL’s refinery production and increasing its profit margins. It also helps the company achieve excellence in its refinery and business operations. BPCL now enjoys cross-refinery information integration, data accuracy, and powerful dashboards for KPI monitoring.

“We need to convince stakeholders that despite back-office systems, we need BPM and BI, to help business perform better.”— m.D. Agrawal, Dy. Gm (Is refinery), bharat petroleum

M.D. AgrawalDeputy Gm (Information system refinery)bharat petroleum



A project dealing with end-to-end process automation in manufacturing, and developing a holistic roadmap for knowledge management. One question you wish you had better answers to.

How do I empower my staff?What according to you should be non-negotiable?

one’s best effort.An insightful observation your CEO made in the last year. “Technology is a strategic driver for business growth.”Your biggest learning this year.

Integrating business systems and having a single-window, drill-down approach is required for the effective use of IT systems.A trait you wish you could get rid of.

Not dictating terms in partnerships with staff, vendors and customers to create win-win propositions.



ChaIRman & md S.Radhakrishnan

BHARAT PETROLEuM


Dr. Jai MenonGroup Director-It, bharti enterprises & CtIO

Airtel (International)

Menon took a new approach to strategic outsourcing while automating processes at group companies.

Coming out of the downturn, Bharti’s companies such as FieldFresh Foods, Beetel Teltech, and Bharti Realty were under tremendous pressure to control cost. But, at the same time, the management of these companies expected IT to provide technology-based solution such as ERPs, portals, and collaborative tools to empower employees and customers at these group companies.

To add to the problem, all of these companies were at different stages of IT maturity. Following its success at other group companies, Menon adopted the model of strategic IT outsourcing also known as the S1 (Selective 1) model.

This ensured that a single player was accountable for all IT delivery and had an end-to-end responsibility.

Menon’s approach gives these businesses an assurance of speedy and high-quality IT delivery and allows them to focus their energies on expanding their businesses.

A business idea you think deserves more attention.

Financial inclusion that leverages the reach of mobile and telecom networks and couples it with the robustness of the banking industry to deliver digital inclusion to rural India.A device you would like to invent.

From telepresence to teleportation: Beam me up Scotty…One question you wish you had better answers to.

How do we create a continuous balance between short-term tactics and long-term strategies? Your ‘Aha’ leadership moment.

The creation of the S1, outcome-oriented, macro outsourcing model in India in 2004 and extending it six years later to a global S1 model across 19 countries.An insightful observation your CEO made in the last year. “People are the most valuable assets of a company, not technology or infrastructure.”Your biggest learning this year.

Building a global delivery model for a company that is anchored in India but is expanding into emerging markets involves organization and the development of a partner ecosystem.

“The success of the S1 model lies in creating a ‘community of practice’ that creates trust.” — Dr. Jai menon, Group Director-It, bharti enterprises & CtIO, Airtel (International)

BHARTI EnTERPRISES


esTaBlIshed 1976

ChaIRman & gRoup Ceo Sunil Mittal



Radhakrishnan G.Gm-systems, biocon

“We have leveraged IT to optimally integrate our various businesses and human resources to avoid the ‘silos syndrome’.”—Dr. Kiran mazumdar shaw, Chairman & mD, biocon

Radhakrishnan helped boost sales by integrating Biocon’s ERP with the extended enterprise, while reducing disparate systems.

Like most companies, Biocon banks on clearing and forwarding agents (CFA) as an integral part of its distribution chain. Initially, the company had a small number of CFAs but even these were spread across the country and posed logistical and accounting challenges. Simultaneously, Biocon was grappling with the problem of integrating its invoices and stock maintenance with its ERP because it used third-party software. This meant that every financial closing raised issues with respect to reconciliation of inventory and accounts.

As the business grew and the number of CFAs increased, these problems began to seem insurmountable. So, in 2008, Radhakrishnan decided to use a standard ERP but customized it to deal with disparate tax structures across various states. Radhakrishnan also moved all transactions online by opening up a secure VPN connection to all CFAs.

Radhakrishnan’s work has helped Biocon meet its sales targets better, comply with statutory requirements, control credit terms, and introduce greater operational satisfaction to the team.

A technology you think will see significant adoption in 2011.

Business intelligence. Capturing data is not enough. It needs to be analyzed to be useful to the business.A device you would like to invent.

A mind reader.Turning point in your career.

The decision to go for a standard ERP across group companies and functions and meeting the go-live deadline.One question you wish you had better answers to.

How to motivate team members and keep cool during implementation?A business idea you think deserves more attention.

The introduction of life-saving drugs at an affordable price.A habit you wish you could get rid of.

Spending more time in the office.Your most memorable vacation.

A recent visit home to celebrate onam.



ChaIRman& md Dr. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw

BIOCOn



Karan B. Singh Vp & HOD-It, bses

Singh gave customers an integrated experience by automating a swath of business processes.

To automate business processes and achieve better customer care, BSES decided to migrate from legacy applications to an ERP. The implementation was targeted at making the dealings of over 1 lakh customers with utility company easier.

The ERP solution that Singh chose encompassed CRM and a business warehouse. It successfully implemented billing, device management, financial and contract accounting, and customer service. The ERP module BSES was implementing had rarely been done in India and BSES faced challenges relating to complexity, cost, and the availability of skill-sets. But it managed to complete the project within seven months at a cost of Rs 21 crore.

With this implementation, BSES can easily track customer behavior and customer usage patterns. It also makes their system scalable and gives the utility the capacity to deal with a million more accounts. For the customer, the implementation provides a single-window to interact with BSES, making their lives simpler.

Who would you invite to dinner?

An old and junior colleague who has grown bigger than me in his career.A habit you wish you could get rid of.

Saving and storing all my e-mail!Your most memorable vacation.

My vacation in Canada last summer from where I got my masters.Your biggest learning this year.

Process owners have to take ownership of the process completely and IT leaders should not leave loose strings at their end.A technology you think will see significant adoption in 2011.

Mobile and handheld devices. Investments in mobile applications and technologies will increase as organizations emerge from the slowdown and ramp up both business-to-employee and business-to-consumer mobile spending.A CIO myth you would like to bust.

That CIos cannot become CEos.If you were not an IT leader, you would have been…

A business or operations leader.

“It is exciting to see that people are aligning to best practices so fast and extracting a lot from it in a desirable fashion.”— ramesh Narayanan, CeO, bses

BSES

ChaIRman lalit Jalan





Rawal standardized, automated, and extended business processes to provide Coca-Cola’s franchisees with a competitive edge.

The IT team at Coca-Cola India initiated project Alfa (Accelerated Leadership through Franchise Automation) with a view to standardize business processes and IT solutions across 15 franchise bottlers. The IT solution that it wanted to implement included ERP, a business intelligence solution, GPS-based fleet management, GIS-based analytics, sales force automation, and distributor automation.

The challenge before Rawal was to align 15 different franchise bottlers to a common IT vision. To do that, the project team worked with a couple of bottlers to implement new IT systems and then invited the others to a one-day IT conference where all the solutions were shared with them. Rawal’s project resulted in both the standardization of processes and also the implementation of IT solutions across nine franchise bottlers of Coca-Cola India. The company plans on completing the last six franchise bottlers by end of this year.

“The IT team has done a great job of aligning franchise partners to a common IT strategy and this is reaping business benefits.” — Atul singh, president & CeO, Coca-Cola India & sWA

Sanjay RawalVp-It India & sWA, Coca-Cola India



Don’t underestimate the change management aspects of your project.A technology you think will see significant adoption in 2011.

My bets are on social media and enterprise mobility. organizations are waking up to the benefits of using social media to listen and engage with customers.A CIO myth you would like to bust.

That IT needs to be aligned to business. The more we talk about IT aligning with business, the more division we create.A device you would like to invent.

A transporter that could beam me from my home to the office and back. The traffic is crazy these days.If you were not an IT leader, you would have been…

Running an adventure tourism company.Your most memorable vacation.

When we went to Himachal Pradesh where we covered places like Sarahan, Sangla and Chitkul. A few landslides on the way made the trip that much more interesting.

esTaBlIshed 1993

headquaRTeRs Gurgaon

pResIdenT & Ceo IndIa Atul Singh

COCA-COLA InDIA


Dhiren SavlaDirector-technology, Crisil (standard & poor’s Company)

Savla’s aggressive application and datacenter consolidation program enriched service delivery while trimming cost.

Crisil, a ratings, research, and risk and policy advisory company, is undergoing a phase of major expansion and diversification. And because its business is dependent on knowledge, analytics, and the use of technology, timely response is key to its success.

To stay ahead of the curve, the company is also changing the way it does business and is becoming more consumer-centric. In order to aid these shifts, Savla revamped the company’s application portfolio which led to a consolidation of applications and a standardization of platforms. Savla’s team also worked on addressing cost through infrastructure consolidation. This reduced Crisil’s server footprint by over 45 percent.

With changing market conditions and the threat of attrition looming large, Crisil also opted to consolidate its vendors. It outsourced non-core and measurable services under an onshore/offshore model to mitigate its risk. Savla ensured that all this was achieved swiftly and without impacting business adversely.

One question you wish you had better answers to.

Why some people complicate IT so much and why some others simplify IT so much?What according to you should be non-negotiable?

Commitment. Who would you invite to dinner?

Rahul Gandhi. Not because of a political preference, but for some much-needed freshness and hope for the future.If you were not an IT leader, you would have been…

I would have been HR leader. It’s always more interesting to manage people than machines because they don’t come with standard configurations.How do you deal with stress?

With a good nap!An insightful observation your CEO made in the last year.

“Harnessing the power of IT is possible only when it is an integral part of the company’s operational and strategic planning.”Your biggest learning this year.

Anticipate change and be prepared for it.

“Modernizing our IT infrastructure and applications portfolio was a key strategic decision. It gave us operational simplicity.” — roopa Kudva, CeO & mD, Crisil

CRISIL (STAnDARD & POOR’S COMPAnY)

Ceo & md Roopa Kudva





Tamal ChakravortyHead-process & It, India and south Asia, ericsson India

Chakravorty ensured a super-fast operations delivery rollout catering to 150 million subscribers following a business line acquisition.

When Ericsson recently took over Sprint’s managed services operations in the US and it was offshored to India, Chakravorty’s team was asked to frame the entire IT delivery setup and put in a structure to move applications, people, and processes to India. And they were given six months.

They started by putting a makeshift network in place to quickly start up operations at the network operations center. This involved setting up a service description that could commit a 100 percent LAN uptime to the business, a maximum of four minutes downtime at the PC level, and a near 100 percent uptime on wide area networks.

In order to achieve this, they created isolations in the LAN to offer less than four minutes of downtime at the PC level. Ericsson also setup a large Citrix farm to minimize traffic volumes and therefore bandwidth. The IT team achieved all this and still came in on time and within cost.

If you were not an IT leader, you would have been…

A poet.A habit you wish you could get rid of.

Biting my nails even when there’s no pressure!How do you deal with stress? By letting it hit me so hard I can fall flat on my bed and then hope to recover after a few days off.A concept or technology you think is over-rated.

Managed services. I believe IT companies are not adding great value to regular Indian operations because the labor arbitrage does not exist. Your biggest learning this year.

The slowdown actually hit this year and not last year! An insightful observation your CEO made in the last year. “When you are at your peak, be nervous if you want to remain on your toes.” A CIO myth you would like to bust.

The CIo is the top most link in the IT chain. (It should all start at the bottom.)

“One has to be clear of the final deliverables along with the politics to get to one’s goal.” —tamal Chakravorty, Head process & It, India and south Asia, ericsson India



pResIdenT & Ceo Hans Vestberg

ERICSSOn InDIA



N. Jayantha PrabhuHead-It Infrastructure & technology, essar Group

Prabhu promoted greater collaboration across group companies by leveraging IT effectively.

The interests of the Essar Group span from oil and gas to steel and from shipping to power. It’s a large and diversified group with over 50,000 employees worldwide. And collaboration was getting tough.

So in 2009, the Essar Group began to adopt a unified communication set up. Today, Essar’s UC platform spans multiple Essar offices using VOIP, video conferencing Netmeeting, Office Communicator, a Voice Group CUG Solution and WebEx Conferencing.“The majority of the VOIP rollouts have been derived from existing telecom infrastructure with minimal additional investment,” says Prabhu.

The group’s video conferencing solution allows people to talk point-to-point, multi-party and share material, all of which simplifies meetings, one-to-one interactions, and presentations across any locations. The Netmeeting solution powers virtual meetings, enables document collaboration, telecommuting, distance learning and technical support. It has proven to be a vital tool for the centralized service desk .

All of these benefits have increased collaboration across the global company.

ESSAR GROuP

ChaIRman Shashi Ruia

IT BudgeT rs 80 Crore

esTaBlIshed 1969


Cloud technology. The benefits are hazy and the technology needs to mature in India.An insightful observation your CEO made in the last year.

“outsource operational tasks and concentrate on core projects which results in greater productivity.”A technology you think will see significant adoption in 2011.

Virtualization of servers, desktops and storage. A device you would like to invent.

A compact, wireless power adaptor for laptops.Who would you invite to dinner?

My team members, to appreciate and motivate them. If you were not an IT leader, you would have been…

A global transport tycoon.

“Jayantha Prabhu has remodeled our existing IT infrastructure and it has resulted in true, value-added services.”— C.N. ram, Group CIO, essar Group



Suneel AradhyeCIO, essar steel

Aradhye rapidly incorporated and integrated core applications in a post-acquisition scenario.

When Essar Steel acquired the manufacturing unit of Shree Precoated Steels in Pune earlier this year, the move added to the company’s ability to manufacture color-coated sheets but it also brought multiple challenges. These included integrating infrastructure, re-implementing the company’s SAP ECC 6.0 according to Essar Steel’s needs, and rolling out additional solutions for machine-level integration. And it all needed to be completed within six months.

It didn’t make Aradhye’s job easier that he had to deal with significant change management issues as a result of a previous and incomplete SAP implementation.

In the meanwhile, Aradhye and his team also had to juggle seven other on-going projects including SAP ECC rollouts in other locations like Canada and Indonesia, and a full-blown Business Objects implementation.

But the team—which, at peak, reached 88 people—led by an agile CIO, ensured that the project was executed completely internally without any external consulting assistance.

A business idea you think deserves more attention.

BPo units in rural areas or any other ideas generating significant rural employment.If you were not an IT leader, you would have been…

A CFo somewhere (I am a chartered accountant by profession). Alternatively, I would have chosen to work for an NGo. How do you deal with stress?

You cannot avoid it; either burn calories or watch comedy. One question you wish you had better answers to.

How can I achieve continuous, business-value realization from IT investments?A technology you think will see significant adoption in 2011.

Unified communications.What according to you should be non-negotiable?

Attitude, integrity, and motivation. Who would you invite to dinner?

Warren Buffet and Bill Gates.

“The quick roll out of new systems led to a performance ramp-up, which relieved us of the stress that comes with integrations.”— malay mukherjee, CeO, essar steel



ChaIRman Shashi Ruia

ESSAR STEEL



Choudhury increased demand forecast accuracy by more than 20 percent and streamlined inventory in the pipeline.

Eveready’s supply chain model was similar to most typical FMCG companies. It had 10 manufacturing units and also sourced and imported goods. These were then sent to one of six mother warehouses or 32 child warehouses. Priorities are set on a ‘fair-share allocation of demand’ basis. From these warehouses goods were sent to 4,000 direct distributors and then to 2 million retail outlets.

“This entire process was semi-automated,” says Choudhury. “At each point of manual intervention, inefficiencies built over years since that operation became person-dependent.”

Choudhury decided to fix the system and introduced a hub-and-spoke model. He then implemented demand forecasting software. These twin moves increased efficiency, streamlined pipeline inventory, improved forecast accuracy by more than 20 percent, and increased timely demand fulfillment. “In the long run, it will certainly impact Eveready’s bottomline,” says Choudhury.

“Meeting project deadlines just needs planning, knowing your company’s capabilities, and monitoring execution.”— Arup Choudhury, CIO, eveready Industries

Arup ChoudhuryCIO, eveready Industries



In life, you don’t get what you deserve. You only get what you negotiate.A device you would like to invent.

A time machine that can take you to the future.If you were not an IT leader, you would have been…

A teacher.A concept or technology you think is over-rated.

Cloud computing. One question you wish you had better answers to.

How do I minimize attrition? An insightful observation your CEO made in the last year. “Do not be afraid of making mistakes. You can only learn from them.” A technology you think will see significant adoption in 2011.

Green IT and virtualization.

EvEREADY InDuSTRIES


md Deepak Khaitan



Vol/5 | ISSUE/113 6 J a n u a r y 1 5 , 2 0 1 0 | REAL CIO WORLD6 0 S E P T E M B E r 1 5 , 2 0 1 0 | REAL CIO WORLD

Amit GuptaDirector and Head-Technology Infrastructure Services, Fidelity International

Gupta’s massive optimization exercise spanned applications, infrastructure and data and augmented Fidelity’s productivity.

Over time, expanding businesses tend to accumulate a huge and diversified IT estate. Fidelity’s IT ecosystem, for example, comprised distinct but disjointed applications and systems each serving very specific objectives. “It was an arduous task to get a macro view of the entire IT infrastructure to manage it efficiently and provide cost transparency to business at a time when there was pressure on costs,” says Gupta.

So he created an in-house application to provide a holistic view of Fidelity’s IT infrastructure. The app links together information from various sources like the asset center, application registry, and server inventory. It then correlates this data and provides various functions like search, reports and dashboards.

Gupta completed the project in three months using internal resources. As a result, software licenses were rationalized, Web servers were optimized and the company accrued 50 percent savings from its databases. He also adopted Open-source products which lowered enterprise application spends by 30 percent.

FIDELIty IntERnAtIOnAL

IndIa Country Head Nitin Seth

It teaM 170 (India ops)

revenue rs 1,000 crore

If you were not an It leader, you would have been…

A doctor specializing in heart surgery.A habit you wish you could get rid of.

A habit of forgetting names!A concept or technology you think is over-rated.

Unified communications. What according to you should be non-negotiable?

A value system which focuses on integrity and honesty.An insightful observation your CEO made in the last year.

“Technology can be a game-changer if used in the right way.your biggest learning this year.

learning can happen anytime and from anyone irrespective of level, culture, or age—one just needs to be open-minded and be ready to learn.

“One doesn’t need big investments but ‘smart’ investments to use technology effectively.”—amit Gupta, Director and Head Technology Infrastructure Services, Fidelity International

100_PROFILES_F-I_(24-49prfls).indd 60 9/14/2010 7:55:43 PM

Vol/5 | ISSUE/116 2 S E P T E M B E r 1 5 , 2 0 1 0 | REAL CIO WORLD

Sanjiv DalalChief Technology Officer, Firstsource Solutions

Dalal’s integrated approach to virtualization provided Firstsource with faster response times while saving it over Rs 25 crore.

During the slowdown, IT departments everywhere constantly tried to achieve business results despite lower investments. The IT team at Firstsource lead by Dalal was no different. So, it first chalked out its priorities: It wanted reliable, secure, cost-effective technology, which allowed for fast deployments, had high ROI, and was green.

The answer to all these needs lay in virtualization. The technology has helped Firstsource optimize its server resources, reduce costs, and transform the datacenter into an effective yet affordable power house. Virtualization also helped reduce its datacenters opex. As part of the project, Dalal also implemented a dynamic connection broker application which provided users a single sign-on feature and a seamless interface so that they could connect easily to their virtual desktops.

The project has automated processes like mapping physical end-points and managing capacity utilization. The app has reduced the number of support calls to IT and cut power consumption and space utilization by 40 percent. It saved the company Rs 25 crore.

FIRstsOuRCE sOLutIOns

eMployees 25,000

Md & Ceo Matthew Vallance

establIsHed 2001

What according to you should be non-negotiable?

The willingness to learn.An insightful observation your CEO made in the last year.

”We should look for tools to solve problems and not look for problems a tool can solve.”A business idea you think deserves more attention.

Application delivery architecture. It can be a lever to deliver tangible business value.A technology you think will see significant adoption in 2011.

Cloud and virtualization technologies.A CIO myth you would like to bust.

When managing IT infrastructure, little innovation is possible.If you were not an It leader, you would have been…

A mathematician.A habit you wish you could get rid of.

Biting my nails. How do you deal with stress?

The only way to deal with stress is to resolve the cause of stress.

“A very detailed plan is key to a successful implementation where skills and best practices are not readily available.” — Sanjiv Dalal, CTO, Firstsource Solutions



Sharat M. AiraniChief-IT (Systems & Security)Forbes Marshall Group of Companies

Airani championed an integrated virtualization project within Forbes Marshall for greater productivity and higher security.

Back in 2008, it was a rare manufacturing company in Pune that knew about virtualization. So when Airani broached the idea with his management, he was met with a blank stare. “At that point, Forbes Marshall was the only manufacturing company in Pune that had started talking about virtualization,” remembers Airani.

That wasn’t the entire list of his problems. Not only did he have to convince his peers of the benefits of virtualization, he had to calm users who were concerned about accessibility, the availability of data, and were scared over losing control of their data. Then he had to persuade software vendors like Autocad and Solidedge to prove that their software could run in a virtualized environment.

He tackled the situation with great people management skills and in the end it paid off for the company: Virtualization best addressed the stringent security measures of Forbes Marshall’s new joint venture with Vyncke.

An insightful observation your CEO made in the last year.

“Doing is changed when thinking is changed. Do things right; do the right things.”If you were not an It leader, you would have been…

A musician.A habit you wish you could get rid of.

‘Heart thinking’ in a professional environment.A concept or technology you think is over-rated.

Cloud computing. One question you wish you had better answers to.

How do I push more value-added services to the organization with the existing strength?A technology you think will see significant adoption in 2011.

Data warehousing and data mining. Business intelligence is what makes a difference to business.A device you would like to invent.

A peace machine for the world!

“Virtualization saved us physical space and lowered our power consumption by letting us maximize our servers and their databases.” —aspi M. Kolah, Director, Forbes Marshall Group of Companies

FORbEs MARsHALL GROup OF COMpAnIEs

dIreCtor Aspi M. Kolah

revenue rs 600 crore

establIsHed 1926



Rajeev ShirodkarCIO, Future Generali Life Insurance

Shirodkar developed a quick, scalable, low cost, and robust solution that allowed business to rapidly penetrate remote locations.

Tapping into rural India’s insurance market isn’t easy. That’s why Shirodkar decided to venture into these territories using alliances. The plan was to let these alliances or partners carry out sales and collection on the company’s behalf. Sales would also be pushed through regular partner offices and retail outlets, like malls.

For this to work, it was important to ensure that Future Generali’s existing system and the new environment worked in conjunction. So, Shirodkar turned to SOA. “We developed an app to enable automated self-updates that would connect to a central system for master updates. This was created as a Web service,” he says.

This integrated the new and the core system and enabled central control for identity management and ensured data consolidation. Data sync occurs in two ways: from end-point (partner/alliance) to center and then a centrally-forced sync.

Today, the company can operate from retail outlets without any administrative hassles. It has facilitated central operations for data verification and enhanced customer service.

FutuRE GEnERALI LIFE InsuRAnCE

Md & Ceo Deepak Sood


It budget rs 20 crore


What can be done to satisfy sales teams so that they run out of excuses not to meet their targets?A business idea you think deserves more attention. Customer profiling along with target marketing.your biggest learning this year.

Partnerships with providers and business leaders are the key to success. Collaboration is a win-win situation.A technology you think will see significant adoption in 2011.

BPM solutions with workflow and rules engines.A device you would like to invent.

Something that could make a car fly but only when in traffic.If you were not an It leader, you would have been…

I would have been a professional sportsman.A CIO myth you would like to bust.

That CIos cannot inspire business leaders.

“One of the biggest learnings of this project is to keep Web-services on top of our minds when developing any functionality.” — rajeev Shirodkar, CIO, Future Generali Life Insurance



G.S. Ravi KumarChief Information Officer, Gati

Kumar improved Gati’s customer service levels by using mobility solutions to increase transparency and delivery.

Gati’s promise to its consumer of being ahead in reach needed a system to back it up and ensure speed and visibility. Being an express distribution and supply-chain solution company it had an effective system to track and trace shipments moving in and out of its operating units, but it wasn’t able to track shipments in real-time. Moreover, there were gaps in monitoring the movement of Gati’s shipment vehicles from one location to another.

The company needed a solution that could track shipments in real time as well as trace vehicle movement. So Kumar equipped the vehicles with GPS and GPRS. This, in turn, enabled the real-time tracking of a vehicle. Data is stored in an SQL database and is also interfaced and analyzed. The vehicle can be monitored on a map, down to street level.

The project has improved service levels, emergency response systems for en-route vehicles, and enhanced customer satisfaction.


Telepresence.If you were not an It leader, you would have been…

A banker.A device you would like to invent.

A computing device powered by air instead of electricity.An insightful observation your CEO made in the last year.

“Don’t allow a situation to dictate to you. Always take control and dictate the situation.”A business idea you think deserves more attention.

location-based services. A CIO myth you would like to bust.

That CIos have little scope to become CEos.Who would you invite for dinner?

Dr. Abdul Kalam and Sachin Tendulkar. What according to you should be non-negotiable?

Honesty and integrity. your biggest learning this year.

Change management is easy. Just show users the direct benefit of using a technology.

“For every problem, however complex, solutions are available. What is required is the determination to find it. “ — G.S. ravi Kumar, CIO, Gati


Md Mahendra Agarwal

GAtI

establIsHed 1989


Paramian achieved faster project execution by enhancing collaboration with suppliers while monitoring their progress in real-time.

GMR, one of India’s largest infrastructure companies, undertakes the development of power plants. The execution of this work is broken up into smaller jobs or ‘packages’ which are awarded to EPC companies (Engineering, Procurement and Construction) on a turnkey basis.

Characteristic of the way the industry works, details of a package are not completely known when a contract is signed and tend to evolve over a six-to-nine month period. This is why GMR needed a solution that could track multiple parameters during that time. This includes tracking material quality and the dynamic pricing of materials. The solution also needed to trigger payment reminders at various stages including at the point of material dispatch and receipt, for example.

Paramian’s in-house GECS app does all of that. It is integrated with GMR’s ERP and handles the EPC contract management process. It helps generate real-time progress updates and monitors the contract fulfillment process, enhancing transparency.

Johny ParamianGroup CIO, GMr

REAL CIO WORLD | S E P T E M B E r 1 5 , 2 0 1 0 6 9Vol/5 | ISSUE/11


How to hasten technology adoption across the various strata in an organization?A device you would like to invent.

Something that could make time to stand still.Who would you invite to dinner?

An under-privileged person in order to share in his joy.A habit you wish you could get rid of.

Trusting people who are not trustworthy.How do you deal with stress?

By not worrying about things that are beyond my control.What according to you should be non-negotiable?

Teamwork.An insightful observation your CEO made in the last year.

“IT needs to view the value of a system through the eyes of the actual user.” your biggest learning this year.

In many cases, the latest technology may not be the best fit.

“systems need not be complex. they need to address a specific business need, add value, and be integrated to an overall architecture.” —Johny Paramian, Group CIO, GMr

GMR

CHaIrMan G.M. Rao





Mani MulkiEVP (Corporate-IT), Godrej Industries

Mulki engineered a comprehensive organizational transformation by leveraging outsourcing strategically to enhance productivity.

Being as big as Godrej Industries is tough. And sustaining the IT requirements of such a huge business is tougher. But not when Mulki is around. He realized that more than 90 percent of Godrej’s business operations were heavily dependent on IT, which meant that the IT team was working around the clock to ensure the smooth functioning of the IT infrastructure—leaving them no time to innovate.

So, Mulki entered into a comprehensive IT outsourcing and transformation project that included infrastructure solutions, SAP application services, consulting, and outsourced services.

Arranging Godrej’s 10-year agreement with HP and the transition took about six months. This move has reduced IT costs for the company by five to 10 percent. Uptime has increased and it has freed up resources for business critical tasks. The IT team now works in close conjunction with business users, appreciates their needs better, and designs solutions aimed at meeting those needs.

If you were not an It leader, you would have been…

An artist.An insightful observation your CEO made in the last year.

”A good leader is one who grooms and creates other good leaders.”A business idea you think deserves more attention.

Connecting and reaching out to the immense potential of the rural segment. One question you wish you had better answers to.

How do I accurately measure the business value of all IT initiatives?A device you would like to invent.

A time machine that can transport me to any place in seconds.Who would you invite for dinner?

Rahul Gandhi. A habit you wish you could get rid of.

Cutting down on sweets.What according to you should be non-negotiable?

Integrity.

“the outsourcing engagement allows It to be much more agile and gives it access to world-class technology and It processes.” —Dr. rakesh Sinha, COO (Ops), Godrej Consumer Products

Headquarters Mumbai

CHaIrMan Adi Godrej

GODREj InDustRIEs

establIsHed 1897



Anshul DurejaPresident-Corporate Operations & Chief Green OfficerGreenply Industries

Dureja changed the company’s business continuity readiness dramatically by revamping an existing application and its DR landscape.

Two years ago, Greenply set up a DR site for its SAP backbone but it was a bit of a makeshift arrangement. The entire DR process, for example, was manual and only took place once a month when a SAP representative went physically to the company’s DR site to restore Greenply’s backup. “Our biggest worry was that our recovery time period was nothing less than 29 days. A data restore took place on the 15th of every month, and if, god forbid, a disaster happened at the production site on 14th, data would not be available for the last 29 days,” says Dureja.

So, Dureja decided to revamp the entire DR landscape and enable data replication on a real-time basis. Today, the company’s log shipping is automatic and takes place every two minutes. “The RPO has been significantly reduced from a huge 29 days to two minutes. This is a wonderful achievement from a business continuity and risk governance point of view,” says Dureja.

GREEnpLy InDustRIEs

JMd & Ceo Saurabh Mittal


It budget rs 9.7 crore

A CIO myth you would like to bust.

The success of IT depends on how business sees IT, and not how the CIo sees the business. A device you would like to invent.

Something which could measure the real benefit of IT to business. If you were not an It leader, you would have been…

A hotelier or a leisure journalist. A habit you wish you could get rid of.

Eating junk food. One question you wish you had better answers to.

Why can’t I tolerate imperfect work? A business idea you think deserves more attention.

Digital marketing. A technology you think will see significant adoption in 2011.

The cloud. How do you deal with stress?

laugh and have fun with my team.

“It’s easier to do things based on a case study, but it’s difficult to let others use you as one.” —anshul Dureja, President-Corporate Operations & Chief Green Officer, Greenply Industries



Vishal SalviSr. VP & CISO, HDFC BanK

Salvi created a safer environment for customers to transact by adopting a holistic approach to information security.

Information security is critical for any company in the BFSI sector. Which is why Salvi had to fine-tune the way IS was perceived and practiced by HDFC bank and provide a secure and safe channel to its customers. The approach needed to be holistic and strategic. It needed to address different components including governance, policy, standards, risk, awareness, architecture, monitoring, data protection and security compliance.

To do that, Salvi deployed a suite of products and services. He introduced online, multi-factor authentication, a 24x7 security operations center, identity and access management, robust perimeter security controls, data loss prevention tools, digital rights management and a compliance management suite.

Apart from that, Salvi ensured that management is regularly updated about the progress of information security at the bank. He also took upon himself to bring about behavioral changes in how information security is practiced by HDFC’s staff and how accountability of risk and costs are established with business owners.


Unified communications. of course UC helps with productivity, but its benefits are limited to a few sectors. The universal adoption of this technology will take time. One question you wish you had better answers to.

How do I fit 48 hours in to day?your biggest learning this year.

I have completed my PhD and that in itself has been a great learning; it opened up the academic world to me.A business idea you think deserves more attention.

Enterprise risk management.A technology you think will see significant adoption in 2011.

Virtualization.A device you would like to invent.

A time machine.How do you deal with stress?

By avoiding it. But when I do get stressed out, I watch a movie.

“One of the biggest lessons this project has taught me is that focus and planning are important to achieve results.” —Vishal Salvi, Sr. VP & CISO, HDFC BanK

eMployees 32,000

Md & Ceo Aditya Puri

HDFC bAnK




Sunil RawlaniEVP-IT, Process & Quality,HDFC Standard Life Insurance

Rawlani made it easier for HDFC Standard Life Insurance’s partners to co-operate thus saving Rs 1.5 crore annually.

The number of insurance policies issued by HDFC Standard Life has been snowballing over the last few years. If it wanted to continue this good run, it needed to outsource its data processing activities to partners to ensure faster response time and cost effective processing. But it wasn’t easy. Each partner had its own quality check processes. This made real-time status monitoring of the data processing lifecycle almost impossible.

Rawlani realized that it was imperative to centralize these processes and build a system to assist the business. The system is based on J2EE architecture with Oracle back-end. Data processed by partners is sent in real-time to the core systems using IBM-MQ and Web services.

The system assists the company in staying ahead of the competition by providing it an easy-to-manage workflow management solution. It facilitates the addition of a new product or a new partner on demand, thus providing much needed scalability. It has minimalized manual intervention and is cost effective.

HDFC stAnDARD LIFE InsuRAnCE

Md & Ceo Amitabh Chaudhry


eMployees 13,434


How do I change people’s beliefs of IT, when those are based on their past experiences? An insightful observation your CEO made in the last year.

”Change should be disruptive.”your biggest learning this year.

When management changes are made at the top, all of your past achievements rest in the past.A technology you think will see significant adoption in 2011.

iPad-like devices.A CIO myth you would like to bust.

IT is a cost center, not a business function.A device you would like to invent.

Sensors that detect user requirements and produce code.If you were not an It leader, you would have been…

A photographer.How do you deal with stress?

By listening to music, working out, and getting back to nature.

“One of the biggest takeaways from this project has been the fact that it’s not easy to change mindsets to drive real change.” —Sunil rawlani, EVP-IT, Process & Quality, HDFC Standard Life


Sethi helped increase Hero Honda’s rural footprint and customer delight by converting information into insight faster.

Hero Honda’s IT department uses a Darwin quote as its motto: “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.”

That motto came handy last year when the company saw huge growth potential. To aid business, Sethi’s team took up a number of initiatives including upgrading its primary transaction system from SAP R/3 to Business Suite 7, which helped it get ready for IFRS and improve operational efficiency. Sethi also upgraded his manual CRM system to an online card-based solution. The solution, which was rolled out to over 2,000 touch points in nine months, increased customer satisfaction and improved Hero Honda’ response speed.

He also honed the company’s BI capabilities, with a focus on enhancing coordination between the rural network and internal people and also helped marketing get a better idea of customer mix and forecast demand better.

Vijay SethiVP IS & CIO, Hero Honda Motors



Something that will help me read the minds of people.If you were not an It leader, you would have been…

I would have been a management consultant. A trait you wish you could get rid of.

I tend to trust people a lot and perhaps too early. What according to you should be non-negotiable?

Honesty and integrity. A business idea you think deserves more attention.

The use of social media tools.A technology you think will see significant adoption in 2011.

Virtualization.A CIO myth you would like to bust.

That the CIo is just an IT leader and not a business leader.

“the project gave marketing a better idea of customer mix and demand and enhanced coordination between our channel partners.” —Pawan Munjal, MD & CEO, Hero Honda


Md & Ceo Pawan Munjal

HERO HOnDA MOtORs

establIsHed 1984



N. NatarajCIO, Hexaware Technologies

Nataraj gave the revenue growth of Hexaware Technologies a fillip by enabling better forecasting and resource utilization.

The slowdown, combined with competitive pricing, put a lot of pressure on Hexaware Technologies and managing projects ‘financially’ and managing the company’s finances using an effective system became important needs.

So Nataraj put together an integrated suite of processes, applications and interfaces to manage applications covering all business processes. His subsequent focus was to bring analytics to bear to facilitate decision making. The result of his work is Hexapower Analytics. It has given business a better grip on financial trends, more standard cost structures, an early warning system, better visibility of resource deployment, and a greater ability to reduce costs. It also increased Hexaware’s view of its pipeline which allowed it to make more accurate forecasts for its market guidance. And it also resulted in a greater ability to right-size its project teams.

The project which cost Rs 60 lakh is estimated to save approximately Rs 50 lakh per annum.

HExAWARE tECHnOLOGIEs

Ceo & vICe CHaIrMan P.R. Chandrasekar



your biggest learning this year.

Work-life balance is a moving target. one just has to do one’s best.If you were not an It leader, you would have been…

An entrepreneur or a chess player.A habit you wish you could get rid of.

Being conservative when shopping for myself. I wish I could allow myself to indulge.What according to you should be non-negotiable?

100 percent commitment and passion.A concept or technology you think is over-rated.

Cloud computing.A business idea you think deserves more attention.

Collaboration and marketing.A technology you think will see significant adoption in 2011.

Virtualization and cloud computing as the myths around them are being busted.

“nataraj has driven innovation and has successfully implemented ideas into action. His contributions are well recognized.” — P.r. Chandrasekar, CEO and Vice Chairman, Hexaware



Shukla helped shave communication costs by 30 percent, while boosting productivity and improving collaboration.

Today’s businesses demand a communication system that can support an increasing and highly diverse base of users. But Hikal’s analog telecom system was obsolete and problems like voice message management, and adding new extensions became routine. In addition, says Shukla, “there was a need for audio and video conferencing facilities to lower travel costs and still allow employees to stay connected with their stakeholders.”

So Shukla decided to deploy a unified communications platform. But he had to ensure that the solution was easy to use, cost-effective and could support a pan-Indian presence. His choice of Avaya for UCM and Reliance as a carrier, ensure that today, Hikal’s recurring communication cost are 30 percent lower. The unified communications solution also offers employees features like a central address book, mail integration for voice messages, and fax, among others.

The Rs 1.5 crore project should pay for itself in three years and, because is on a financial lease, has not affected Hikal’s cash flow.

Falgun J. ShuklaSr. GM-IT, Hikal

It budget Rs 5.5 crore

vICe CHaIrMan & Md Jai Hiremath

HIKAL

revenue Rs 536 crore


A gadget that would allow children to remember all their schools work so that they can enjoy their childhood.If you were not an It leader, you would have been…

A teacher or Hindu priest.A business idea you think deserves more attention.

The use of blogs and social media. A technology you think will see significant adoption in 2011.

open source.A concept or technology you think is over-rated.

Cloud technology.What according to you should be non-negotiable?

Trust, quality and integrity. A CIO myth you would like to bust.

That CIos should be treated as technical heads. They can handle business strategies, too.A habit you wish you could get rid of.

Eating too many chocolates and sweets.

“the uC project has proven that effective communication is an important factor and has a direct impact on productivity and efficiency.” —Jai Hiremath, Vice Chairman & MD, Hikal



S.T. SathiavageeswaranHead-Information SystemsHindustan Petroleum

Sathiavageeswaran ensured bulletproof business responsiveness by optimizing resource utilization for flexibility.

HPCL has an integrated and centralized ERP which covers all its business functions at both its marketing and locations refineries. The system has about 5,000 users accessing it from over 450 locations—and it cannot go down.

To ensure this, Sathiavageeswaran put in place an IT infrastructure fuelled with smart technology to ensure that business critical IT systems run without outages 27x7. Three-tier, twin datacenters located at Hyderabad and Mumbai are replete with self-managed servers, state-of-the art SAN systems, biometric access controls, etcetera. High-availability systems and built-in redundancies in all components at both sites deliver performance and reliability.

He also employed virtualization and thin provisioning to optimize resource utilization and meet sudden demands. An adaptive architecture allows applications to be hosted from any datacenter, making the business agile and flexible. Redirecting and re-routing mechanism at both datacenters provide high availability. This infrastructure makes it possible for HP to ensure the availability of all its applications to all business users.

HInDustAn pEtROLEuM

CHaIrMan & Md S. Roy Choudhury




Commitment to do one’s best under the circumstances and the willingness to be a student all the times.One question you wish you had better answers to.

How do I get my team to stay abreast with technological developments and still be closely aligned with the business?A habit you wish you could get rid of.

Postponing unpleasant jobs to the future.A concept or technology you think is over-rated.

Cloud computing.A technology you think will see significant adoption in 2011.

Mobility. A CIO myth you would like to bust.

That technology can solve all business problems.If you were not an It leader, you would have been…

A professor.

“It is vital to understand a team’s challenges and to be prepared for unplanned exigencies.” —S.T. Sathiavageeswaran, Head-Information Systems, Hindustan Petroleum



Mathur created a more seamless customer experience by integrating 121 core applications into a single suite.

The IT operations team at HSBC manages pan-Indian IT infrastructure comprising 514 servers across 17 cities and 31 points of presence. But if it had to live up to its philosophy of ‘one bank, one team, one goal’, it had to make sure that all its applications and processes across the country were on the same platform.

So, Mathur took it upon himself to change the bank’s IT landscape. He embarked on a project that would bring together disparate apps. The core package integrates 121 core applications and provides a stable platform to ensure that the bank’s growth is sustainable and that the experience of its customers are seamless and consistent across the group.

The project met about 500 business users in 10 offices spread across various geographies and time zones to come to a common goal. The project helped the organization meet more stringent SLAs and reduce costs.

Devesh MathurChief Technology and Services Officer,HSBC India

eMployees 31,000

group gM & Country Head Naina lal Kidwai

HsbC InDIA

establIsHed 1853


Why is candor such a scarce commodity in today’s competitive and professional world?An insightful observation your CEO made in the last year.

”At the end of the day, it’s only execution that counts.”A CIO myth you would like to bust.

That CIos have to be IT professionals. I think it’s far more important to possess a sound commercial orientation, coupled with a natural flair for motivating and leading teams towards common objectives.A concept or technology you think is over-rated.

Cloud computing is a trifle over-rated. There are no standards in place and security concerns need to be dealt with.A business idea you think deserves more attention.

Innovative ideas around creating multi-channel payment gateways.What according to you should be non-negotiable?

Integrity. A technology you think will see significant adoption in 2011.

Mobile banking.

“technology is being commoditized faster than we expect. Only the right platforms and service orientation will keep our noses ahead.” —Devesh Mathur, CTSO, HSBC India




How can we integrate our suppliers’ data online for better planning and SCM? A device you would like to invent.

A clock that shows how much time individuals spend on themselves, their jobs, their families and society.What according to you should be non-negotiable?

Commitment to customers. your biggest learning this year.

Focus on onsite management for better results and user satisfaction.Who would you invite to dinner?

My team members. To express my appreciation for their support.If you were not an It leader, you would have been…

An entrepreneur or a chief of production planner.

“things which are projected as simple can often be the most difficult to implement.”—M. Suresh, Director aDM Group, Hyundai Motor India

Suresh improved productivity and manageability while pruning cost by optimizing infrastructure.

Through its Global Dealer Management System, Hyundai Motor India supported the business critical applications for the Indian dealers of Hyundai AutoEverSystems. But the other applications of AutoEverSystems including its Global Quality Management System (GQMS) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems were running on individual servers.

In order to gain greater efficiencies, Suresh decided that a consolidation was called for. So he consolidated various application servers by introducing a single server with logical partitioning, which allowed for easy server administration. The logical partitioning also ensured that the allocation of server resources based on business needs was more optimized, encouraging better resource utilization without compromising server performance.

As for the leftover, stand-alone servers, Suresh re-purposed them at the company’s remote disaster recovery site. By re-allocating database server licenses, he brought down cost, saving the auto-maker in terms of software support cost. The consolidation also made the organization more environmentally-friendly as it reduced the energy consumption of its datacenters.

M. SureshDirector aDM Group, Hyundai Motor India

HyunDAI MOtOR InDIA

Md & Ceo H.W. Park





Vohra’s application portfolio management simplified ICICI’s IT landscape and increased the value that IT provides.

Faced by a highly-volatile and competitive market, ICICI Bank decided to institutionalize application portfolio management (APM) as a core IT practice. The organization wanted to cut down the huge amount of human and capital resources it used to maintain an ever-growing inventory of applications and supporting infrastructure. That effort would also reduce the duplication of application development and the proliferation of tools across the bank.

APM is an IT governance and architecture best practice designed to ensure that the bank’s IT applications, tools and infrastructure portfolio is optimally managed. It helps simplify applications, data and infrastructure and reduces risk. APM facilitated the sharing of applications and tools across the bank and increased the value IT brings to business. A central APM team has been tasked with ensuring that APM continues to be embedded as an IT practice within the bank and is effectively used to improve operations and help steer strategic IT decision making and investment planning.

Pravir VohraGroup Chief Technology Officer, ICICI Bank


Any technology which does not envisage a complete realization of RoI for the customer in real life.What according to you should be non-negotiable?

Delivering on a promise. your ‘Aha’ leadership moment.

The business-technology partnership paradigm established by ICICI in the end-1990s clearly showed how established industry players could be challenged by leveraging technology. An insightful observation your CEO made in the last year.

The ‘khayaal aapka’ drive initiated by our CEo to keep the customer at the center of every strategy. A technology you think will see significant adoption in 2011.

Desktop virtualization.A device you would like to invent.

A mobile phone with comprehensive voice-operated applications to help the poorly educated and the visually challenged.

“the project was a learning experience and it made us agile by keeping technologies updated and minimizing risks.” —Pravir Vohra, Group Chief Technology Officer, ICICI Bank

establIsHed 1994

Md & Ceo Chanda D. Kochhar

ICICI bAnK

total InCoMe Rs 33,184 crore



Joydeep DuttaCTO, ICICI Securities

Dutta improved efficiency, convenience and reliability by automating over 100 workflow and employee processes.

Making ICICI Securities agile to dynamic business needs has always been on top of Dutta’s mind. And to achieve that, he decided to revamp the company’s corporate intranet portal and develop an ecosystem that enables seamless workflow automation. As part of the project, he also introduced self-service capabilities for employees across 300 locations. The intranet interfaces with over 100 key processes and workflows in HR, finance, facilities and administration, operations and sales functions.

The intranet was built with a focus on increasing efficiency, convenience, reliability and faster turnaround time. It also ensured significant cost savings and improved controls.

Today, the portal, which started in early 2009, not only allows the secure dissemination of personalized communication and reports to hundreds of employees, it also offers several departmental dashboards using BI tools. With this addition, business groups can analyze data and make better decisions.

ICICI sECuRItIEs

Md & Ceo Madhabi Puri




Code reuse. Though it’s a good software engineering concept, in practice it takes more time and effort to generalize the code. turning point in your career.

Deciding to return to India in 1995. I was not sure if I was taking the right decision after spending 11 years outside the country. I didn’t know if I would be able to make the move from a comfortable life to an uncertain future. One question you wish you had better answers to.

Why do we keep changing priorities and jumping from one unfinished project to another, resulting in wasted efforts?your biggest learning this year.

Not all processes are appropriate for process automation or improvement. The cost of improvement may be more than the increased productivity it generates.A habit you wish you could get rid of.

Finding fault with imperfect work. Striving for perfection is sometimes not practical.

“the objective was to make the lives of our employees easier, allowing them to spend more time working for the customer.” — Madhabi Puri, MD & CEO, ICICI Securities



Mittal enhanced the productivity of IFFCO’s staff by making collaboration the lifeline of the organization.

Over the last decade, video conferencing (VC) has evolved to become the communication lifeline of IFFCO. The organization began using desktop and ISDN-based video conferencing to plan fertilizer distribution, study marketing performance reviews, and attend board meetings, as early as 1999. Over the years, the enterprise has leveraged video conferencing to connect more than 500 IP telephones across 80 locations using MPLS-based VPN. This, in turn, significantly brought down communication costs.

Last year, all 28 directors on IFFCO’s board inaugurated the Administrative Building at Paradeep from New Delhi through VC, without having to travel to the remote location in Orissa. In 2010, IFFCO’s high-definition, studio-based VC infrastructure was upgraded to incorporate eight sites simultaneously. Internal departmental interviews of about 900 employees were also conducted on VC in just 15 days, compared to 60 days earlier. This year too, departmental interviews of 900 employees have been conducted without forcing candidates or members of the departmental promotion committee to travel. It saved a lot of revenue for the co-op besides contributing significantly to its productivity, efficiency and eco-friendliness.

S.C.MittalSenior ED (MS & IT) and Group CTO, IFFCO

It budget Rs 20 crore

Md & Ceo Dr. U.S. Awasthi

IFFCO

establIsHed 1967

your biggest learning this year.

ERP and customized solution rollouts are entirely different.A business idea you think deserves more attention.

Internal social media for employees. I launched an IT forum and the observations and views we received were eye-opening.A gadget you would like to invent.

A gadget, which can fit into your ears to get rid of stress.If you were not an It leader, you would have been…

A mathematics teacher and a social worker.turning point in your career.

While implementing an HR management system, our user departments weren’t very co-operative, which I was unable to communicate to the CEo. our CEo later expressed his displeasure. This episode taught me that implementing an IT solution is the joint responsibility of IT and users.

“this project has contributed significantly by enhancing our productivity, efficiency, and decision-making ability.” —Dr. u.S. awasthi, MD & CEO, IFFCO



U.C. DubeyExecutive Director (IT), IFFCO-Tokio General Insurance

Dubey made it easier for the insurer’s customers to do business with it by providing them with a feature-rich environment.

Travel insurance is one of the various products offered by IFFCO-Tokio General Insurance (ITGI), either through insurance agents or directly from the company’s website. The company wanted to offer travel insurance through third-party, online travel websites. The company tied up with an online travel portal called Travel Boutique Online that empowers travel agencies with the necessary tools to operate in the travel market.

So, ITGI’s travel insurance was made available to customers of Travel Boutique Online, using its existing travel ticketing interface. But the ticketing application had to be seamlessly integrated with ITGI’s insurance application.

To do that, Dubey adopted Agile development methodology. The travel insurance system was thus made configurable to effectuate a seamless integration with the ticketing application.

The project began in December 2009, and was wrapped up in about 10 weeks, allowing both organizations to tap a business opportunity without losing too much time.

IFFCO-tOKIO GEnERAL InsuRAnCE

Ceo S. Narayanan




Cloud computing. There is no doubt that it will be used extensively in the future. However, currently, it’s all hype. your ‘Aha’ leadership moment.

The implementation of an e-procurement system in 1998-99. It was one of the first implementations of its kind in India.One question you wish you had better answers to.

How to bridge the digital divide and provide the benefits of IT to rural India?A business idea you think deserves more attention.

Mobile computing. It can extend the reach of various services to remote areas.A technology you think will see significant adoption in 2011.

Virtualization and cloud computing due to their cost effectiveness and easy provisioning.If you were not an It leader, you would have been…

An army officer.your biggest learning this year.

Collaboration is the key to success.

“We embarked on this project keeping our customers in mind, and we aided in developing market synergies.” — u.C. Dubey, Exec. Director (IT), IFFCO-Tokio General Insurance



S. RamasamyExecutive Director (IS), Indian Oil Corporation

Ramasamy contributed to the organization’s agility by reducing infrastructure complexity while increasing availability.

Being one of the country’s oil majors, it was paramount for Indian Oil (IOCL) to have the highest level of availability for its lifeline: its ERP. To maintain the highest standards of reliability, availability and serviceability with 99.99 percent uptime of all its applications, Ramasamy opted for best-of-breed solutions at the company’s captive datacenter. And one critical foundation for such a high uptime was IOCL’s SAN and storage technologies.

Ramasamy consolidated and deployed SAN storage sub-systems for all its mission-critical SAP ERP components. Today, IOCL has been able to reap the benefits from this move in terms of higher throughput and lower administrative efforts.

But he didn’t stop at that. He decided to address the complex and distributed storage requirements of various disparate apps with storage virtualization. With a zero data loss SAN topology, he created distributed SANs and implemented a two-tier DR solution.


I think the most over-rated concept is social networking. Although the concept has fundamentally changed the way people communicate, stay in touch, and socialize, it is vulnerable and prone to security and privacy attacks.One question you wish you had better answers to.

How can I motivate my people to dream and innovate to excel in life?What according to you should be non-negotiable?

Values.A device you would like to invent.

A mind-mapping machine that will translate your thoughts to generate business ideas and strategy.Who would you invite for dinner?

Former President of India, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. I would like to ask him how to translate visionary ideas into reality.turning point in your career.

When we used collaborative technology to carry out oil exchanges between other oil marketing companies.

“It helped us transform ourselves from knowledge-hoarding hierarchies to knowledge-sharing networks.” — S.V. narasimhan, Director Finance, Indian Oil

It budget Rs 130 crore

eMployees 35,000

InDIAn OIL CORpORAtIOn

revenue rs 2,53,964 crore



H. KrishnanaVP-IT, Indian rayon unit (aditya Birla nuvo)

Krishnan improved quality at his company by creating a high-availability environment for the business.

There were two distinct problems troubling Krishnan. One: Six critical applications out of nine were running without a backup putting business at significant risk. Two: Hard disks and motherboards kept failing at regular intervals and on an average about five machines failed every month, wasting about four to eight hours. And on top of that, stringent budgets during the economic slowdown compounded his problems.

To bring his house in order, Krishnan decided to adopt server and desktop virtualization. After successful test runs, Krishnan decided to run eight critical production apps, and the DR for four applications on the virtualized platform. The phased implementation has already saved Rs 10.5 lakh. Krishnan has also deployed thin clients at the plant locations, loading applications on the ROM chips and maintaining data at the servers. Thanks to the project, failure rates have come down significantly.

InDIAn RAyOn unIt (ADItyA bIRLA nuVO)

Headquarters Veravel

It budget rs 238 lakh

eMployees 3,150


Cloud computing. I believe that in the process of outsourcing to an unknown cloud, the business nuances, learning, and sense of achievement among IT and functional teams are lost. One question you wish you had better answers to.

How do I align IT projects and business expectations, when senior management is not ready to share business strategies with IT?A technology you think will see significant adoption in 2011.

Server and desktop virtualization, because it is easy to adopt and assimilate, and also saves a lot of money. A device you would like to invent.

A soap dish, which will warn your when it’s empty and will not allow the shower to be turned on.Who would you invite for dinner?

My bhajan group, since in their company I have found an oasis of complete devotion and peace.A habit you wish you could get rid of.

Speaking too fast and getting irritated at small things.

“business appreciates that It comes up with solutions to operational problems while keeping every aspect of the organization in mind.” — rahul Mohnot, President, Indian rayon


Krishna harnessed the cloud and turned it into a collaborative and more profitable platform.

In the field of IT services, the global delivery model (GDM) demands efficiency in collaboration. For Infosys, the competitive advantage is centered on the agility in delivering IT projects and the experience of its employees and customers

So, the company decided to move to the cloud in early 2009. Krishna adopted MyCloud, an internal cloud which is a platform for application and concept development. He also deployed two other types of cloud: the collaboration cloud to drive co-creation with external research bodies and a datacenter microcosm to serve applications and solutions developed by various business units.

These three types of cloud provide the required IT infrastructure to the company’s business. With this integrated strategy, it is able to accelerate deployment of SaaS-based engagement models powering non-linear growth. The provision of on-demand development environment has also reduced the cycle time and significantly improved utilization of computing resources.

Murali Krishna K.VP & Head-CCD, Infosys Technologies

eMployees 1,14,822

CHaIrMan & CHIef Mentor N. R. Narayana Murthy

InFOsys tECHnOLOGIEs


your ‘Aha’ leadership moment.

Moving from business to IT. This gave me an opportunity to contribute on a larger canvas by driving operational efficiency and coming out with new models to support the business.One question you wish you had better answers to.

How to get continuous collaboration? What according to you should be non-negotiable?

Abiding by the organization’s value system and going the extra mile to achieve customer delight.A business idea you think deserves more attention.

True unified communications. A CIO myth you would like to bust.

The onset of cloud adoption will change the CIo’s landscape.A device you would like to invent.

A device that enhances productivity without compromising any aspect of security.If you were not an It leader, you would have been…

Continued as a business unit leader.How do you deal with stress?

By watching motor sports or irrelevant comedy movies.

“Invest the time to understand the core business and leverage that knowledge to deliver projects that meet business needs.” — Murali Krishna K., VP & Head-CCD, Infosys Technologies




B.L.V.RaoVP & Head-Global IT, Infotech Enterprises

Rao re-engineered Infotech Enterprises’ global delivery model to slash timelines by 55 percent while saving Rs 2.4 crore.

Riding on four mergers and acquisitions in recent years, Infotech Enterprises augmented its leadership in engineering solutions and GIS. The organization has seen rapid growth in the last three years.

But that began to put pressure on its IT systems. IT had to ensure faster delivery, provide the business with scalability, reduce costs and be agile enough to identify and tap into emerging opportunities.

That’s exactly what Rao did for the organization. He built a strategic IT platform that helped business integrate seamlessly with the newly-acquired units in India and overseas in less than three weeks. This demand-based computing platform adopted the global delivery model that helped the company deliver solutions to customers faster with lower costs.

With this solution, the company acquired nine new customers and bagged 14 projects as repeat orders. The project saved Rs 2.4 crore and also enhanced the overall performance of the IT systems by 18 to 22 percent.

InFOtECH EntERpRIsEs

Headquarters Hyderabad


eMployees 8,100


Cloud computing. Though the advantages of the cloud seem quite appealing, there are still certain issues like security and compliance. turning point in your career.

In 2008, when global connectivity was interrupted due to a break in a submarine cable, delivery was impacted. We implemented an innovative solution and delivered it in eight hours. I realized that the ability to think out-of-the-box and taking risks are the key to success. What according to you should be non-negotiable?

Policies and compliance.your biggest learning this year.

Excellence during tough times can’t be achieved unless we take risks and stretch ourselves. A business idea you think deserves more attention.

Unified collaboration solutions that contribute to business collaboration and decision making.If you were not an It leader, you would have been…

A business leader.

“Our It initiatives are implemented using innovative strategies and agility and enable customer satisfaction.” — B.V.r. Mohan reddy, CMD, Infotech Enterprises



C.V.G. PrasadCIO, InG Vysya Bank

Prasad helped architect a mobility solution that fully complies with banking regulations while keeping customers happy.

In today’s world of high-speed mobility, Indian banking customers demand instant access to their private bankers through their cell phones. Sadly, the RBI doesn’t recognize mobile phone records as evidence. But not willing to lose out on customers, Prasad found a way.

He architected a new central record-and-store solution that is triggered uniformly for all users. He collaborated with technology partners to design and deploy a light J2ME application on Blackberrys. The solution activates a recording session on a central voice recorder whenever a phone call is initiated or received on a handset. The application also provides a form for private bankers to enrich the recording file with searchable tags that identify the client and the transaction, making it easily searchable and retrievable.

The entire solution was conceptualized and implemented in six weeks. The bank continues to provide customers with mobile access and yet remains in full compliance to RBI guidelines.

turning point in your career.

My stint at Bull S.A in France, which provided me with the experience of working in a multi-cultural environment.One question you wish you had better answers to.

How do we execute every project on time?A technology you think will see significant adoption in 2011.

Mobile apps, because of increased smartphone penetration and 3G adoption.If you were not an It leader, you would have been…

Teaching physics.A habit you wish you could get rid of.

None. All my habits, good or bad, have been carefully chosen by me.How do you deal with stress?

Gardening, yoga, listening to carnatic music and talking to my wife about a stressful situation—unless she’s the source of the stress! your most memorable vacation.

Trip to Thekkedy last year, when my family and I went for a night safari.

“If you have a passionate team, a supportive sponsor, a hungry service provider, and a business problem, you can find a solution.” — C.V.G. Prasad, CIO, InG Vysya Bank

eMployees 6,000+

Md & Ceo Shailendra Bhandari

InG VysyA bAnK

InCoMe rs 2,822 crore



Rajendra DeshpandeCTO, Intelenet Global Services

Deshpande re-tooled Intelenet Global Services’ architecture to deliver more while simultaneously saving Rs 7.8 crore.

It was the same story all over the world in 2009: Bleak economic conditions pushed IT budgets south. It wasn’t too different at Intelenet Global Services (IGS). And that’s why it became imperative for Deshpande to ease cost pressures without affecting business operations and customer experience.

To achieve that, Deshpande initiated a project to take stock of the company’s IT inventory and created agile and cost-effective enterprise architecture. This system was designed to provide users with a single view of the state of the organization and its roadmap. And at the same time, it rationalized costs and managed resources efficiently.

It also enabled the effective re-deployment of hardware resources, optimized software license, and utilization. It provided greater visibility of IT assets and increased efficiency with a timely technology refresh, and greater control over FTE IT cost. The project helped the organization save Rs 2.9 crore on capex and Rs 4.90 crore on opex.

IntELEnEt GLObAL sERVICEs

Md & Ceo Susir Kumar

establIsHed 2000

eMployees 32,000


Many products in the security space are over-rated and not aligned to pressing business needs. your ‘Aha’ leadership moment.

Every interaction with my clients (external or internal) that enables them to consolidate their IT operations and drive operational efficiencies. Creating business impact is an ‘Aha’ moment for me.One question you wish you had better answers to.

How does one align engineers to business needs and improve their business acumen at an early stage of their careers? What according to you should be non-negotiable?

There is no replacement for integrity and trust. An insightful observation your CEO made in the last year.

“Focus on simplicity. Break down complex issues into meaningful parts and distill them across the organization so that you keep track of the smallest issue.” A device you would like to invent.

Charging mobile phone batteries using energy from our own voice.

“this It initiative helped us achieve our financial goals without compromising good customer service and growth.” — Susir Kumar, MD & CEO, Intelenet Global


Pratap JoshiGeneral Manager-IT & CIO, JCB India

Joshi improved efficiency across the extended enterprise to deliver higher sales and a better customer experience.

Despite being the industry player with the largest overall market share and one of the largest dealer networks, JCB India missed a critical point: a platform that connected its dealers with the enterprise to enable effective collaboration.

So, Joshi embarked on a project to introduce a unique dealer management system, christened Project Srujan. The dealer solution is a first-of-its-kind for JCB and caters to more than 50 pan-India dealers and over 325 outlets. The dealer management platform—built on different SAP modules such as Business One, SAP CRM, SAP BI, and Enterprises Portal—is integrated with JCB’s ERP. This enables seamless collaboration across multiple channels.

The system removes pain areas such as lost leads, ineffective account and order management and poor forecasting abilities. The system has significantly improved operational efficiency with better analytics and campaign management. It has maximized sales by improving the quality, quantity and lead management. It has also enabled effective customer management and revenue protection by increasing customer loyalty.


Open source. If you add the cost of buying support, it probably isn’t the cheapest option for business critical applications.Turning point in your career

When I convinced my company to invest in an ERP solution in 2004. We implemented SAP 4.7 in six months.What according to you should be non-negotiable?

Honesty. A technology you think will see significant adoption in 2011.

There is a huge opportunity to link ERP and CRM to mobility. A CIO myth you would like to bust.

That CIOs cannot be part of the board.If you were not an IT leader, you would have been…

A forest ranger.

“The dealer system will provide JCB and our Indian dealers with a future-proofed and modern management platform.”—Vipin Sondhi, MD & CEO, JCB India

EmployEEs 1,500

locations 22

mD & cEo Vipin Sondhi

JCB IndIA

REAL CIO WORLd | S E p T E M B E r 1 5 , 2 0 1 0 9 7VOl/5 | ISSUE/11

100_PROFILES_J-P(50-72prfls).indd 97 9/14/2010 8:08:19 PM

S.S. SharmaChief General Manager-IT, JK Tyre & Industries

“One of the biggest learnings from the project was that removing manual tasks goes a long way in improving productivity.” — S.S. Sharma, Chief General Manager-IT, JK Tyre & Industries

Sharma helped the organization become more flexible and responsive to customer needs.

For JK Tyre, the changing economic scenario meant the company had to shrink the time it took to customize products and services to customer needs and deliver them. This meant an overhaul of its product lifecycle management (PLM) system encompassing every related activity and bringing transparency and efficiency at every step. The engineering change notification (ECN) and approval was automated and included in the PLM workflow.

Sharma figured that there was scope to optimize several tasks. Take for instance, the way in which a bill of materials (BOM) worked. The ingredient at the bottom was entered manually in excel sheets. Now, the BOM system is re-designed to include every design and process component.

Sharma’s new PLM system cut short the approval cycle time between JK Tyre’s HQ and plants located at Karnataka, MP, and Rajasthan. The revamped ECN that was part of the new system is not only faster but also more versatile and pervasive.


One of the key issues in technology adoption is change management. Is there a magical way of breaking mindsets?A CIO myth you would like to bust.

That CIOs are more techie than business-savvy. The reality is that CIOs aren’t lacking in domain knowledge, in fact, when it comes to business processes the CIO is often the only person after the CEO who is clued in. Biggest learning this year.

Grab low-hanging fruit first. A technology you think will see significant adoption in 2011.

Cloud computing for non-mission critical applications. A concept or technology you think is over-rated.

None. In today’s business scenario, almost every technology has the potential to be a business enabler.What according to you should be non-negotiable?

Honesty, meeting deadlines, and giving one’s best shot.

JK TyRE & IndusTRIEs

REvEnuE Rs 4,000 crore

pREsiDEnt & DiREctoR A. K. Bajoria

it BuDgEt Rs 10 Crore

VOl/5 | ISSUE/119 8 S E p T E M B E r 1 5 , 2 0 1 0 | REAL CIO WORLd


Mehta lowered business risk and increased productivity by automating time-consuming and manual processes.

While JWT had its own homegrown ERP, the company still spent 36-48 man months a year in manually processing payments. Mehta decided to streamline the payment process by extending the scope of the ERP to include an electronic funds transfer function and hence brought in multiple benefits.

In a world where many IT projects face change management issues, Mehta’s project only took simple training for users to get accustomed to the new system. JWT started with a few suppliers with low-value checks for about a week and then switched over entirely to electronic fund transfer.

The benefits were easy to see. The time it took vendors to receive payments reduced. The solution provided JWT with an easy view of account details and eliminated risks like transit losses and fradulent encashments. The Rs 25,000 project saved JWT Rs 20 lakh.

Sunil MehtaSr. Vp & Area Systems Director-Central Asia, JWT

JWT

it tEam 12

it BuDgEt Rs 7 crore

EmployEEs 800


Cloud computing. It is a necessity and a reality but is over-rated nevertheless. It has existed for a long time in different flavors.Biggest learning this year.

Use caution and make only the most-needed investments during a slowdown.A technology you think will see significant adoption in 2011.

Cloud computing with the help of mobiles.A business idea you think deserves more attention.

Developing an integration system that can capture internal and external needs as well as creating business leads using social media.Turning point in your career.

A path-breaking publishing setup in 1992 in India was a great motivator and a turning point in my career.What according to you should be non-negotiable?

Integrity, commitment, and timely communication.One question you wish you had better answers to When will my next path-breaking project come along?

“We believe in adding value and innovating to streamline what we do and IT has been at the core of our operations.”— Colvyn Harris, CEO, JWT India

REAL CIO WORLd | S E p T E M B E r 1 5 , 2 0 1 0 9 9VOl/5 | ISSUE/11


Belsare improved employee efficiency and customer service by centralizing and automating support.

Kotak Mahindra Bank has 10,000 employees that need IT for support. And to provide support for such a large and dispersed set was proving to be a huge task in itself. So, Belsare automated several IT tasks to reduce many of IT’s support related pain-points. As a part of centralization and automation of pan-India IT support, he put in tools for inventory management and patch management. He even created a toll-free number and a Web-based portal for users to log and track complaints.

To enhance the service desk, he extended the service window to cover complete business hours for business critical operations across WAN locations and even brought in oncall support on Sundays. High level business users were serviced via a VIP support model.

The results of Belsare’s strive to better IT management are easy to see. Ninety percent of users were able to make effective use of the new IT support tool to fix their issues, which reduced around 700 calls to the service desk in a month.

Turning point in your career.

We consolidated datacenters and successfully completed the task of migrating real-time, online applications to a new datacenter. One question you wish you had better answers to.

How can one do things right the first time?What according to you should be non-negotiable?

Integrity and passion. A technology you think will see significant adoption in 2011.

Virtualization. Be it server or network virtualization, it gives companies the liberty to move faster to meet business needs.A device you would like to invent.

Necessity is the mother of invention and business demands mean you think and invent every moment. A concept or technology you think is over-rated.

Cloud computing and open source.

“Meticulous planning and execution can help cover a shortage of resources and save costs.” — Sanjay Belsare, Head–IT Infrastructure, Kotak Mahindra Bank

KOTAK MAhIndRA BAnK

EmployEEs 10,000

nEt pRofit Rs 1,307 crore

HEaDquaRtERs Mumbai

Sanjay BelsareHead–IT Infrastructure, Kotak Mahindra Bank

VOl/5 | ISSUE/111 0 2 S E p T E M B E r 1 5 , 2 0 1 0 | REAL CIO WORLd


Sayana aligned business needs and delivered a lightning fast core application rollout for a new business unit.

Time was of the essence for Sayana at L&T when the company’s new plant at Hazira required a transaction processing system. Doing things manually was out of the question. A full-fledged ERP implementation would take almost a year—and that was not acceptable either.

So, Sayana planned to first meet the most critical business requirements of procurement and finance and started a SAP implementation on a war-footing.

In 40 days flat, the system printed out its first purchase order much to the delight of business users. But it wasn’t time to rest yet. During the next nine months, Sayana and his team undertook a full-fledged SAP project to cover end-to end business processes. And, business did not have to suffer during those months since core business were already SAP-enabled.

All along, business users got a chance to get accustomed to working with the ERP and better internal controls became possible.

Anantha SayanaHead-Corporate IT, Larsen & Toubro

LARsEn & TOuBRO

it tEam 25

cHaiRman & mD A. M. Naik

EmployEEs 40,000

‘Aha’ leadership moment.

During a delayed ERP implementation, I realized that handling people and their attitudes is even more important than making technology and product choices.One question you wish you had better answers to.

How to anticipate and predict user reaction to a system?your biggest learning this year.

Innovate or perish.A business idea you think deserves more attention.

Generating low voltage power for electronic devices. A technology you think will see significant adoption in 2011.

Video phones because seeing is believing.A device you would like to invent.

A gravity depletion device.What according to you should be non-negotiable?

Integrity.A concept or technology you think is over-rated and why.

Cloud computing. It’s just another delivery model and a choice to the user.

“The fact that we went live in 40 days was a demonstration of IT’s agility and commitment to meet business needs.”— Anantha Sayana, Head-Corporate IT, Larsen & Toubro

REAL CIO WORLd | S E p T E M B E r 1 5 , 2 0 1 0 1 0 3VOl/5 | ISSUE/11


Prakash introduced automation into a critical process thus speeding reconciliation.

LG relies heavily on its channel partners to reach out to stores spread across the country but it also operates with a strict credit policy. If a channel partner exhausts his credit limit, he is not eligible for a fresh consignment until LG receives his payment.

Typically, partners make payments via RTGS or cheques. But there was one problem: LG’s systems only reflected a payment once a day as transaction information was received from banks only in the mornings. This meant a delay of upto one working day between ann actual payment made by a channel partner and him being eligible for fresh stock.

Prakash decided to get LG’s ERP to talk with the applications of major banks at frequent intervals. With this, almost 90 percent of LG’s revenue is collected online. This meant almost immediate benefit of payments to the distributors and the elimination of frustration caused by such delays.

A concept or technology you think is over-rated

Open Source. It is yet to gain ground when it comes to adoption by enterprises. ‘Aha’ leadership moment

When I took charge of the IT operations at lG in 2007. Solutions implemented by IT ever since have been providing a competitive edge to the organization. One question you wish you had better answers to.

What works in the minds of people when they talk about work-life balance in the early stages of their careers?What according to you should be non-negotiable?

Honesty, passion, and a focus on customer service. A business idea you think deserves more attention.

Utilizing CRM to help us not only retain customers but also acquire new ones. A concept you think will see significant adoption in 2011.

Social media. It will help organizations improve efficiency by giving them access to resources beyond their boundaries.

“The IT department plays a crucial role in helping the company scale new heights and provides it with better decision-making tools.” —M.B. Shin, Managing Director, LG Electronics India

LG ELECTROnICs IndIA

it BuDgEt Rs 42 crore


mD M.B. Shin

Daya PrakashHead-IT, LG Electronics India



N. VaradarajanSr. General Manager-IT, Madras Cements

Varadarajan enhanced on-ground decision making by mobility-enabling key business processes.

The fifth largest cement producer in the country, Madras Cements, was striving to create better visibility and disseminate information to its sales personnel faster. “Our sales team was not exactly mobile. Orders were booked only periodically; no immediate feedback to a salesperson was given. There was no provision for booking orders on holidays or after office hours,” says Varadarajan.

To address this challenge, the cement manufacturer developed a PDA-based mobility solution which would facilitate conducting business processes like order booking and invoicing by integrating those devices with the organization’s ERP system.

Post-implementation, the sales staff’ performance increased multifold. Through this system, they can book orders anytime, anywhere. They can also stay updated with an order’s status. They can also gain access to customer data such as pending orders, credit limits, etcetera. Order execution time has reduced thank to more immediate order bookings and the ability to check an order’s status online. And this has translated into better customer satisfaction.


We introduced PDA-based SFA in our company last year. The ‘Aha’ moment was when the first sale order was booked through this system by a sales person from a remote market. One question you wish you had better answers to.

Why software vendors roll out so-called new versions of their existing products that consume more resources without any real benefits?A business idea you think deserves more attention.

Mobile telephony as the driver for business processes.A device you would like to invent.

I would like to invent a ‘thinking enhancer’ that when embedded into one’s head will enhance thinking efficiency.A habit you wish you could get rid of.

Eating junk food!If you were not an IT leader, you would have been…

A management trainer and an HR guru.A technology you think will see significant adoption in 2011.

Cloud computing. Due to its simplicity and cost saving potential.

“The project improved critical business processes, leading to lower customer loss and higher sales force productivity.” —r. rajha, CMD, Madras Cements


EmployEEs 2,447

cHaiRman& mD R. Rajha

MAdRAs CEMEnTs



V.S. ParthasarathyGroup CIO & Exec. Vp-Corporate Finance and M&A, Mahindra & Mahindra

Parthasarathy harmonized business processes across over 40 companies and 40,000 end-users of the group to boost responsiveness.

Mahindra & Mahindra knew that if it wanted to maintain its growth curve, it would require a substantial transformation of its existing IT infrastructure. “A hybrid of centralized and decentralized approaches was key for this IT transformation aimed at enabling IT to deliver significant benefits—both at the group and the individual company level,” says Parthasarathy.

So he built common IT infrastructure and common processes on single platform across the entire group. The initiative, named Project Harmony, harmonized business processes in HR, finance and accounts, and procurement across the group. It also promoted a common business intelligence platform across the group to provide intuitive business analytics solutions, while allowing individual group companies to maintain the autonomy of their specific and differentiated processes.


That only the big boys, the SAPs and Microsofts of the world, have the right and the best answer to all problems.your ‘Aha’ leadership moment.

When I joined Mahindra and accepted the role of IT and organizational developmental from the finance role I held earlierOne question you wish you had better answers to.

How to anticipate customer requirements and technology requirements ahead of the curve? What according to you should be non-negotiable?

ICE is non-negotiable: I for integrity, C for commitment, and E for empathy.An insightful observation your CEO made in the last year. Rather than cut costs in a slowdown, use the 3Rs philosophy: Reboot, re-invent, and re-ignite.A device you would like to invent.

Allaudin Chirag (lamp).A habit you wish you could get rid of.

Having so many conference calls on Sundays. your most memorable vacation.

A trip to South Africa during the FIFA World Cup.

“Project harmony will significantly enhance the efficiency of many processes and also help us save money in procurement.” —pawan Goenka, president, Auto and Farm Equipments, M&M

MAhIndRA & MAhIndRA

HEaDquaRtERs Mumbai


vicE cHaiRman & mD Anand Mahindra



Srinivas Kishan AnapuVp & Head-Enterprise Information Systems

Mahindra Satyam

Anapu provided Mahindra Satyam with an innovative, automated, and flexible mechanism to leverage human capital better.

Like many in its industry, Mahindra Satyam keeps a bench of staff it can deploy quickly on client projects. As a service provider, its bench is strategic to business because it boosts resource availability and keeps the firm ready for emerging opportunities. “Typically, bench strength is used to build competency and not leveraged for execution aspects,” says Anapu.

But Anapu wanted to effect changes to Mahindra Satyam’s bench management system: he wanted increase its utilization level. So, he explored different ways to tap it to execute non-core activities in the internal IT function.

He developed a software solution that provides a virtual and collaborative environment for Mahindra Satyam’s work force. This model is referred to as the ‘agile workforce’ internally. The project has lent flexibility and non-linear growth for business agility thereby allowing Mahindra Satyam’s internal IT team to deliver on the demanding expectations of the business.


How do I satisfy my investors, customers, and associates simultaneously?What according to you should be non-negotiable?

Corporate governance tops that list. your most memorable vacation.

In November of 2006, about 30 childhood friends and their with families met up for the first time in 30 years. It was purely old memories, fun, jokes, and laughter for a week. And no Blackberry!A technology you think will see significant adoption in 2011.

All social computing technologies—including ERPs that invest in ‘collaboration and social media at work’—will see a significant adoption. They challenge efforts to define a roadmap that maximizes enterprise ROI. If you were not an IT leader, you would have been…

I would love to be a teacher. I am fond of teaching and training.how do you deal with stress?

I always use positive self-talk. It helps me calm down and control stress.

“With associates working on internal projects, we have created a model to quickly turnaround skilled resources to the business.” —C.p. Gurnani, CEO, Mahindra Satyam


EmployEEs 25,000

cEo C.P. Gurnani

MAhIndRA sATyAM



Girish Rao Head-IT, Marico Industries

“Keep your mobile app simple so that users are not bogged down. This will ensure better usage and compliance.” — Girish rao, Head-IT, Marico Industries

Rao positively impacted business response times with real-time intelligence by mobility-enabling the procurement process.

Mumbai-headquartered Marico industries was bouyant about the growth of its premium, heart-friendly oil brand, Saffola. However, the rising cost of raw material (kardi crops) was pinching the company. “Marico is the largest buyer of Safflower in India and Kardi markets are spread all over the country with different buying agents in each mandi,” says Rao.

In a bid to offset rising costs, the company resolved to tweak its raw material procurement system. So it came up with a process that allowed real-time data capturing, much like an in-house stock exchange that provides market information from various mandis across the nation.

This mobility-enabled procurement process helped Marico to shave Rs 3 off every kilo of raw material. Over three months those savings added Rs 4 crore to its bottomline. It has also reduced turnaround time for market movements from between eight to ten days to one to two days.


Currently cloud computing seems to be over-hyped though it is fast gaining maturity. A business idea you think deserves more attention.

The use of location-based services, social media, and the real-time integration of these so that ‘selling’ can be contextual, in real-time, and yet subtle.your ‘Aha’ leadership moment.

When we went live in 2002 with our SAP implementation. It was the first implementation of APO and BIW in the country. It gave me a lot of satisfaction to have led a SAP technical team through this successful implementation. One question you wish you had better answers to.

How to keep a team motivated all the time? A CIO myth you would like to bust.

That CIOs cannot be business leaders. how do you deal with stress?

Reading books on spirituality and listening to music.A trait you wish you could get rid of.

Impatience.

MARICO IndusTRIEs


cHaiRman & mD Harsh Mariwala

EmployEEs 1,500



Rajesh UppalExecutive Officer IT & CIO, Maruti Suzuki India

Uppal delivered higher value to customers and the organization by championing predictive analytics.

Fierce competition in the automobile sector nudged Maruti Suzuki India to change the lens through which it looked at its customers. The organization needed greater visibility into customer preference, their economical strata, behavior, and needs. “Our marketing managers wanted to target potential buyers and sell them products that customers perceived as a ‘best value’ proposition and sell it at the right time,” says Uppal.

In order to achieve a ‘single view of customers’ and a platform for ‘marketing for one’, Maruti Suzuki embarked on an analytical CRM (aCRM) project. The aCRM project has improved customer segmentation and targeting. Today, it helps marketers assess which prospects are most likely to transact and also identifies those who are bogged down in a sales process and need assistance. Empowered by aCRM, the car-maker can find and acquire potential customers, nurture and retain those the company already has, entice former customers back into the fold, and trim marketing and client servicing costs.


Joining top management last year.your biggest learning this year.

In order to be successful we need to build leadership at each and every business level rather than only at the top.One question you wish you had better answers to.

Measuring the exact ROI of IT projects.What according to you should be non-negotiable?

Integrity and sticking to ones principles.A business idea you think deserves more attention.

Understanding more about the customer and their demographics.A technology you think will see significant adoption in 2011.

The cloud. People will figure out its ROI by 2011.A CIO myth you would like to bust.

That CIOs are not boardroom material.

“understanding the customer is not a destination, it is a long drawn-out journey.”—rajesh Uppal, Executive Officer IT & CIO, Maruti Suzuki India


EmployEEs 7,700

cEo & mD Shinzo Nakanishi

MARuTI suzuKI IndIA



Hitesh AroraEVp & Head-IT, Max New York Life Insurance

Arora speeded up business growth and infused a culture of agility at the insurer by seamlessly re-engineering core processes.

With the upturn, Max New York Life Insurance expected a spurt in business volumes but it knew that its infrastructure was ill-equipped to handle those volumes. MNYL knew it needed to take a fresh look at its processes and systems. “We needed to cater to a changing market scenario and lower our lead times. We needed a ‘straight-through’ processing system, which would help us accelerate our growth,” says Arora. Equipped with such efficient and result-oriented business processes, the company could be more responsive to market conditions.

Time was ripe to initiate an IT-led BPR project. Once implemented, the project generated substantial benefits in the form of an increased percentage of ‘clear cases’, reduced data entry, fewer double policies, increased productivity and FTE savings.

A concept or technology you think is over-rated. Virtualization. It has its challenges on two ends: technology and implementation. And despite all the talk around it, its take-up rate is around 5 to 6 percent only. A device you would like to invent.

If I ever got a chance, I’d like to re-invent the iPhone.your ‘Aha’ leadership moment.

Co-creating a green-field initiative that reached out to customers and sold life insurance products. It had innovative linkages in place to ensure that reach (for sale) and service are clubbed together. An insightful observation your CEO made in the last year.

“Data tells you a story, hence consider the right set of data or facts before jumping on to a conclusion. Data-based decisions are more authentic than perception-based ones.”One question you wish you had better answers to.

How can nature have its own method or process of correction? A CIO myth you would like to bust.

That CIOs cannot become successful CEOs.your biggest learning this year.

Innovation works, you need just that push.What according to you should be non-negotiable?

Honesty.

“The project enhanced our productivity, our TAT, and provided a dependable service to both customers and business partners.” —rajesh Sud, CEO, Max New York Life Insurance

MAx nEW yORK LIfE InsuRAnCE

EmployEEs 10,000


cEo Rajesh Sud



Sudhir Reddy Vp& CIO, MindTree

Reddy’s document management solution cut MindTree’s paper use by half and saved over 2.8 lakh a year.

MindTree was grappling with a challenging printing environment. The company had 60 network printers located in different offices and about 40 of these were at the end of their leases. And because it used network printers, MindTree faced a potential security hole since printouts could be left uncollected at a printer for anyone to pick up. Neither did its printer arrangement allow MindTree to track its print, scan, and copying activities, which meant it was hard to impose meaningful controls over a large employee base.

“We were spending close to $195,000 (about Rs 87 lakh) year on these 60 printers,” says Reddy.

So he deployed a comprehensive printing solution, which allowed MindTree to lower the number of printers it used from 60 to 40. This saves it about $62,000 (about Rs 28. lakh) year, helped it cut the amount of paper it consumed by over 50 percent, and lowered its printing costs by 25 percent.


Cloud computing. While it is definitely worth evaluating, it is not a silver bullet to every IT problem. your ‘Aha’ leadership moment.

The first business process at MindTree, which went live in 2006 on SAP, made me realize that it’s not the implementation that matters, it’s adoption. What according to you should be non-negotiable?

A person’s integrity.A business idea you think deserves more attention.

Green energy. Who would you invite to dinner?

Steve Jobs. To hear his thoughts on what’s next. A habit you wish you could get rid of.

Procrastination with personal tasks.your most memorable vacation.

A family vacation to Switzerland in 2008.

“sometimes, it’s good to fix things even if they aren’t broken. By taking a closer look at our printers, we delivered a better solution.”—Sudhir reddy, Vp & CIO, MindTree


EmployEEs 9,012

ExEcutivE cHaiRman Ashok Soota

MIndTREE



Ajay Kumar MeherVp-IT & New Media, MSM (Sony Entertainment Television)

Meher created a foolproof method to transfer digital content that created new business opportunities while reducing expenses.

Mumbai-based MSM—more known for its channels SET, SET Max, SAB and SET Pix—had an interesting problem. The up-linking station for MSM is at Singapore and traditionally MSM Mumbai sent all its daily content on about 45 digital tapes to Singapore everyday via courier. This process was ridden with challenges: There was no scope to repurpose content and the courier cost was prohibitive. “Last-minutes changes made to programming content were difficult to send. And apart from the above, at the end of 2009, the customs regulation surrounding the couriering of content changed and that called for a change in process,” says Meher.

Meher’s digital content transfer mechanism alleviated all these pain points by allowing MSM Mumbai to transfer television content through a WAN. This infused a culture of agility in the broadcaster by giving it an automated and foolproof way to transfer content with substantially lower costs and also provided the opportunity to re-purpose content.

A concept or technology you think is over-rated. Cloud computing. Though the concept is futuristic, too many organizations and applications are still readying themselves for the technology. Also, the technology will not lower the TCO for applications planned on the cloud.One question you wish you had better answers to.

What is the need of politics in an organization? your biggest learning this year.

If it is dark in front of you, walk ahead, and you will find light.A business idea you think deserves more attention.

Digital content explosion and how to benefit from it.A technology you think will see significant adoption in 2011.

For the media and entertainment industry, digitalization will see significant adoption in 2011.A device you would like to invent.

A device which can fly me between home and the office.A trait you wish you could get rid of.

My short temper.how do you deal with stress?

Playing squash and tennis, traveling and watching movies.

“Try harder and smarter. you will find a solution somewhere.” — Ajay Kumar Meher, Vp-IT & New Media, MSM (Sony Entertainment Television)

MsM (sOny EnTERTAInMEnT TELEvIsIOn)

HEaDquaRtERs Mumbai

EmployEEs 385

cEo Man Jit Singh



V. SrinivasCIO, Nagarjuna Fertilizers & Chemicals

Srinivas cut down order processing time by over 20 percent by mobility-enabling Nagarjuna Fertilizers & Chemicals.

Nagarjuna Fertilizers & Chemicals was hamstrung by the lack of real-time reporting between its far-flung regional sales, logistics and development teams and its head office. Traditionally, its sales force took orders from customers and entered them in PDAs. However, that system had problems which impacted the productivity of internal stakeholders like the field force and logistics teams. As a result, the company was ill-equipped to capitalize on new opportunities.

As remedial action, Nagarjuna called for an improved mode of wireless connect technology and a better front-end device to ensure that data for sales, logistics, and other teams was updated centrally. So Srinivas developed a mobility content management solution called the ‘One Point Mobility Solution’.

The project enhanced customer satisfaction by reducing order processing lead time by 20 percent and improved CRM processes by 25 percent. The new front-end devices (mini-laptops) increased asset life to over four years from about two years with PDAs.


“External recognition for a project done by the IT team has little value unless your internal stakeholders have seen true value.”your biggest learning this year.

The huge difference between the perception users have of IT before and after an IT implementation. Post-implementation, when processes become easier to use, user expectations only go up. In essence, they want apps that think!A business idea you think deserves more attention.

Making practical use of new technologies like GIS in day-to-day business operations. A habit you wish you could get rid of.

The habit of expecting perfect execution. Who would you invite to dinner?

My team because I believe that they are my backbone. If you were not an IT leader, you would have been…

A marketing professional and leader.your most memorable vacation.

When my family went to Amritsar, Jammu and Vaishnodevi over four days.

“The solution gave the logistic and supply chain teams a better grasp on their operations, which helps us stay ahead.” —K.S. raju, Chairman & MD, Nagarjuna Fertilizers


EmployEEs 1,570

cHaiRman & mD K.S. Raju

nAGARJunA fERTILIzERs & ChEMICALs



C.S.R. Prabhu Deputy Director General, National Informatics Centre

“The project made me realize that if you are able unlock the full potential of cloud computing it can deliver very strong ROI.” — C.S.r. prabhu, Dy. Director General, NIC

Prabhu used cloud technologies to completely revamp the organization’s datacenter strategy.

As the premiere S&T institution of the Government of India, National Informatics Centre (NIC) endeavors to provide technology-enabled practices to the government. The organization wanted to introduce a new wave of information and communication technology to India. However, in doing so, it had play a difficult balancing game. The organization had to accomplish its future-looking goals while ensuring they were cost effective.

In line with this imperative, NIC implemented Eucalyptus-based infrastructure-as-a-service (IAS) cloud for NIC Hyberabad to revamp its datacenters with a cloud computing strategy. To complement this initiative they used Open Source middleware on the IAS cloud.

The initiative delivered a 500 percent ROI. Enthused by the benefits, the organization guided NIC Assam to deploy the solution and now NIC Assam has hosted critical applications on it. NIC plans to extend the initiative to its branches in Bhopal, Sikkim and Nagaland.

your most memorable vacation.

A recent trip to the Alps in Switzerland.how do you deal with stress?

With yoga and meditation.A habit you wish you could get rid of.

The habit of talking without being asked to talk.If you were not an IT leader, you would have been…

A philosopher.Who would you invite to dinner?

Colleagues.A technology you think will see significant adoption in 2011.

Cloud computing.A business idea you think deserves more attention.

Cloud computing. If implemented in its completeness can introduce a paradigm shift.What according to you should be non-negotiable?

Integrity, honesty, and human values.

nATIOnAL InfORMATICs CEnTRE

HEaDquaRtERs New Delhi

DiREctoR gEnERal Dr. B.K. Gairola

EmployEEs 4,000+



Arora empowered dealers and stockists to plan, manage, and maintain lean inventory levels using the cloud.

The Noida-based tractor manufacturer realized that if it had to plough ahead in a competitive market it would have to sow the seeds of effective inventory planning and the service support for its dealers. After implementing an e-catalog with dealers and stockists within India and Nepal and Bangladesh, it wanted to empower its service network with more effective inventory planning. This would enable their dealers to support the servicing of tractors and the sale of parts to end customers. “We wanted to have a clear picture of the consumption pattern of parts at dealerships. Also we were looking at strengthening our after-sales service network,” says Arora.

Today, Arora’s cloud-based solution empowers dealers and stockists with an online after-sales service parts management system and helps them maintain lean inventory levels. It also enables them to pull stock from the organization’s warehouse as and when they need. Finally, it facilitates the monitoring of pre-and post-shipment processes.


Social networking sites. Everyone seems to be on them. But to what end? Countless free apps of dubious value and scores of games that draw one deeper into these sites to befriend complete strangers with whom you have nothing in common beyond a shared love of Raisin Bran. I also think mini-notebooks, Nintendo Wii, and touch interfaces are over-rated if you compare them to their utility. One question you wish you had better answers to.

How do I get people to think out-of-the-box and be passionate?your most memorable vacation.

A visit to Hong Kong and Macau in August 2010. A device you would like to invent.

Something that would help carry all our communication, computing, entertainment and messaging needs, and should also be an e-wallet. If you were not an IT leader, you would have been…

In marketing or a business strategist.A trait you wish you could get rid of.

Finding perfectionism in relations.

“The project gave dealers and stockists the ability to plan and control inventory levels, and helped us improve turnaround time.”—S. pampalone, MD & CEO, New Holland Fiat India

Avinash AroraDirector-IS (India & S.E. Asia), New Holland Fiat India


EmployEEs 1,100

mD & cEo Stefano Pampalone

nEW hOLLAnd fIAT IndIA



Sirohi built collaboration into business intelligence for smarter decision making and helped NIIT seize more market opportunities.

NIIT wanted to be more responsive to its dynamic business environment. But in the absence of the ability to disseminate information fast, there was little that the software services firm could do to achieve business agility.

Which is why NIIT wanted an integrated information dashboard with multiple features, which also allowed users to view information in multiple ways. “The integrated dashboard represents information in the form of multiple gauges, graphs, trends, and run rates. Our business intelligence tools enable end users to generate information in multiple cuts and do drill-downs easily,” says Sirohi.

Collaborative features of the application help NIIT’s leaders discuss even if they are physically separated. This fosters the creativity necessary to develop and re-develop products, services, and solutions in a hyper-competitive business environment. NIIT’s management can now sense trends early and take proactive action by improving products and services iteratively, making the company more responsive and agile.


Why aren’t more people self-motivated?your biggest learning this year.

The 3C success mantra: Connect, communicate, and collaborate.A business idea you think deserves more attention.

The inclusion of rural India in business strategies.A device you would like to invent.

Intention detection gadget. It will help reduce and maybe eliminate the negativity in the world, including corruption and terrorism. Who would you invite to dinner?

Bill Gates. Because he changed the world we live in today. If you were not an IT leader, you would have been…

A fighter pilot in the Indian Air Force.A habit you wish you could get rid of.

Working late.

“Making accurate information available online can really improve the agility of an enterprise.”—Sunil Sirohi, Vice president, NIIT

Sunil SirohiVice president, NIIT

nIIT

EmployEEs 4,000

tuRnovER Rs 1,199 crore

cHaiRman Rajendra S. Pawar



V. SubramaniamDirector-IT & CIO (India & Gulf Area), Otis Elevator Company

Subramaniam applied lean management principles to IT to improve quality and reliability.

The world’s largest manufacturer and maintainer of elevators and escalators, Otis boasts of a vast scale of operations. But the slowdown impelled the company to take a fresh look at its business processes. In order to elevate its agility quotient, Subramaniam decided to apply lean management principles to IT.

He started by first automating Otis’ internal processes: Approval matrix, workflows, alerts, and e-mail dashboards. The exercise improved the TAT and efficiency of the processes.

He also deployed a business availability center tool to track and monitor the performance of global business applications supported by daily alerts. “We also IT-enabled processes in marketing and sales, HR and finance and enhanced existing systems to facilitate information flow,” says Subramaniam.

In an attempt to create lean IT, he revved up the IT function with the right people leveraging the processes and systems. Today, Otis has weekly updates and monthly reports on various initiatives. And this has created a performance and customer-driven culture in the organization.


“Being focused and achieving team synergy leads to discipline in execution, which goes a long way.” A business idea you think deserves more attention.

Any idea which delivers customer value is always valuable.A technology you think will see significant adoption in 2011.

Mobile BI.A device you would like to invent.

Rather than invent, I would like to leverage the full functionalities and features of the devices that are already available. Who would you invite to dinner?

I would love to have dinner with my team. If you were not an IT leader, you would have been…

I would have been a leader with spiritual principles. If not CIO then CSO (Chief Spiritual Officer).

“Lean IT is as important as being customer and quality-centric.”—V. Subramaniam, Director-IT & CIO (India & Gulf Area), Otis Elevator Company

REvEnuE Rs 772 crore

EmployEEs 2,200+

DiREctoR Sameer Joshi

OTIs ELEvATOR COMPAny



Basant K. Chaturvedi Senior Manager-IT, perfetti Van Melle India

Chaturvedi opened new doors for business by making employees more productive and lowering IT costs by 50 percent.

The Indian arm of Italian confectionery-maker was scouting for a solution to streamline desktop management across its operating units all over India. With this in mind it trained its sights on desktop virtualization. The solution would deliver a complete Windows desktop experience as an on-demand service to users across the country. “With desktop virtualization, far less storage space was needed to handle the same number of desktops and centralized data control meant higher security compliance,” says Chaturvedi.

Desktop virtualization hit a sweet spot with the Gurgaon-based candy maker. It translated into significant cost savings. The initiative reduced the carbon footprint of the company and led to effortless scalability. Desktop virtualization also made the entire login process very simple and secure, and allowed access to a personal desktop from any connected Web browser. The company foresees total savings in capital and operating expenses of 40 to 50 percent, per user, over a three-year period.


Touch screens. Do we really need a touch screen on everything? Does anyone really find it easier to send a text using a touch screen rather than good, old-fashioned buttons? One question you wish you had better answers to.

How do I convince management that IT is not a cost center but a business enabler?What according to you should be non-negotiable?

Truth and honesty!your biggest learning this year.

Perseverance and determination are the keys to success.Who would you invite to dinner?

Baba Ram Dev. He is a selfless person most suited for the profile of a national guru. If you were not an IT leader, you would have been…

A spiritual guru.your biggest learning from the project?

Risk taking, meticulous planning, and team work will always lead to success.

“desktop virtualization cut hardware costs in half and reduced our power consumption and carbon emissions.”—Sameer Suneja, MD, perfetti Van Melle India

PERfETTI vAn MELLE IndIA

EstaBlisHED 1994

EmployEEs 1,500+

mD Sameer Suneja



A. BalajiHead-IT, piramal Healthcare

Balaji made the organization more responsive to market changes by aligning people, processes and systems.

Piramal Healthcare demonstrated symptoms of poor alignment of its supply chain. Its supply chain operations could be resuscitated if it could realign it starting from procurement to production and from its supply network to distribution—across all its businesses.

With this end in view, the company embarked on a SAP APO project. The project revitalized its supply chain within seven months and boosted the drug maker’s agility. “Today, our manufacturing cycle has shrunk from 30 to 10 days helping us increase customer OTIF (on time in full). At the same time it reduced our inventory level,” says Balaji. In a bid to bring in more visibility, Piramal also implemented a business intelligence solution to enable more informed decision-making.

The company can now ensure a standard operating procedure (SOP) for operations of the entire supply chain. Periodic reviews are conducted on its SOP and internal departments are rated based on how well they meet their targets.


Cloud computing. It has loads of security concerns (even with a private cloud) and it has yet to show a complete evolution of the license advantages for customers.your ‘Aha’ leadership moment.

A quick SAP turnaround we did with an acquired site in the USA. We did that in a record time of 38 days and brought greater visibility to the business. It was challenging from three dimensions: technology, business process, and time.A device you would like to invent.

Seventh sense. Gadgets should understand the speed of the mind and act accordingly.An insightful observation your CEO made in the last year.

Business Dharma is about enhancing the value of shareholders.A business idea you think deserves more attention.

Distance treatment through technology. A technology you think will see significant adoption in 2011.

Mobile technology. We have very good spread of telco infrastructure in India and mobile costs are drastically being reduced.

“The project helped align our global supply chain. It ensures that the entire supply chain is fully integrated.” —Nandini piramal, Exec. Director, piramal Healthcare


EmployEEs 7,000

mD & cEo Ajay G. Piramal

PIRAMAL hEALThCARE



Balakrishnan developed on-demand agile infrastructure for higher business efficiency and profitability.

If there was one thing that Polaris knew well it was that its critical business resources were skilled personnel and software tools. “Skilled manpower is scarce and tools are expensive. Our business efficiency and profitability depends directly on the agility of our infrastructure; our ability to assemble the necessary set of tools and computing resources at the right time for project teams, and then dismantle the setup as soon as a project is complete and move them to another project,” says Balakrishnan.

To do that, Balakrishnan created on-demand infrastructure, which could increase a team’s throughput by cutting out all delays, and by optimizing the cost of infrastructure. These savings were then passed on to projects through chargeback systems.

This agile infrastructure has contributed significantly to the profitability of projects by obviating delays and ‘right-costing’ IT facilities. The infrastructure deployment has all the elements to soon become a private cloud.


“If I cannot do from the office whatever I can do at home with a computer, there is something wrong with our security setup!”your most memorable vacation.

A few days in Rome with my wife, on a tight budget, back in the 80’s. We covered the entire city on foot, literally breathing in Roman architecture. A concept or technology you think is over-rated.

The iPad. This goes back to the tablet computers started by Microsoft, except done a lot better by Apple. If you were not an IT leader, you would have been…

A teacher, a gardener, or an architect.your biggest learning this year.

The new abstraction called cloud computing!A technology you think will see significant adoption in 2011.

Mobile devices. They are replacing more and more laptops. A device you would like to invent.

I would like to create a meta understanding of devices and gadgets that permits us to minimize their impact on the health and happiness of the people using them.

“With the zInG platform, we can look to create higher developer productivity and higher throughput.” —Arun Jain, Chairman & CEO, polaris Software Lab

Balakrishnan V. CIO, polaris Software Lab

POLARIs sOfTWARE LAB

EmployEEs 7,500


cHaiRman & cEo Arun Jain



R.I.S. SidhuChief General Manager, punjab National Bank

Sidhu’s application of smart-card technology will change the lives of 20,000 dairy farmer families in 120 villages.

Ever since it deployed a core banking system, Punjab National Bank (PNB) has endeavored to leverage technology for financial inclusion. So when it learnt that small milk producers in Bulandshahr didn’t have organized buyers for their milk, it decided to do something. So PNB used a smart-card solution and tied up with Mother Dairy to help these farmers sell their milk. “We opened accounts for milk producers in 10 villages and set up banking kiosks under Project Namaskar in 30 villages which cater to a population of 86,625 milk producers,” says Sidhu.

Now, the bank is able to credit proceeds from the milk sold by villagers directly to their smart cards and villagers are free to make withdrawals when the bank’s business correspondents visit their villages. In the second leg of the project, the bank has started providing finance to farmers to purchase more buffalos. The project will be extended to other districts in UP.


I think all security solutions are over-rated; they are always one step behind the trouble-makers. your biggest learning this year.

In today’s world, form is more important than content.A device you would like to invent.

A machine that can store time.A business idea you think deserves more attention.

Opportunities at the bottom of the pyramid.your ‘Aha’ leadership moment.

Bringing technology, in the shape of the core banking system, to the grameen banks of PNB.One question you wish you had better answers to.

How to teach my people time management skills?What according to you should be non-negotiable?

Honesty.An insightful observation your CEO made in the last year. “We can and we will.”

“The smart-card project opened new vistas for functional financial inclusion.” —M.V. Tanksale, Executive Director, pNBtotal incomE

Rs 25,032 croreEmployEEs 56,000

cmD K.R. Kamath

PunJAB nATIOnAL BAnK



Farhan KhanAVP-IT, Radico Khaitan

Khan created an optimized freight management system that helped the company save Rs 4 crore.

Spirits and wine major, Radico Khaitan, boasts of over 40 manufacturing units spread across the country. Like a lot of companies, it relied on outsourced logistic providers from different transporters to help it move its products. But the company was finding it difficult to figure out which area was contributing most to its transportation expenses. “Out of the several categories—basic freight, detention, other expenses, full load, and part load—we did not know which one was gobbling up the biggest share of our expenses,” says Khan.

That’s a position the company could ill-afford to maintain, especially with the expenses of its transportation system mounting. So, it embarked on an IT-led transportation management system, which helped it identify that load optimization was the problem it needed to attack. Today, with a well-crafted transportation management strategy, the company is able to save almost Rs 4 crore.

Radico Khaitan

CMD Lalit Khaitan

Revenue Rs 1,500 crore

eMployees 1,000


Honesty. That is not negotiable. a business idea you think deserves more attention.

The new way of reaching out is social media. This could be a new business idea or marketing mantra because currently the top brass of many businesses are so stressed they need some informal time to de-stress and come up with new ideas. a device you would like to invent.

A car that can fly, especially for Delhi’s roads. Is Ratan Tata listening?if you were not an it leader, you would have been…

A doctor.a habit you wish you could get rid of.

Using Windows-based servers.how do you deal with stress?

Spending time with my kids and listening to Sufi music.Your most memorable vacation.

A visit to Khajuraho with family and friends.

“individuals handling business at the ground level are those that give the system life. Give them respect and listen to them carefully. ” — Farhan Khan, AVP-IT, Radico Khaitan

VoL/5 | ISSUE/111 2 8 S E P T E M B E R 1 5 , 2 0 1 0 | REaL cio WoRLd

100_PROFILES_R-W(73-100prfls).indd 128 9/14/2010 8:35:20 PM

Briskman used mobility to gain real-time insights and improved business response.

Gurgaon-based pharmaceutical major, Ranbaxy Laboratories was scouting for a smart way to help its marketing arm. Like other companies in its space, much of Ranbaxy’s success lay in the success of its feet on the street: Its field force. And it wanted to align all its representatives to the organization and make them more agile by keeping them more informed. There was no quicker way to do that across a large employee base than via the mobile.

So, Briskman put together project mPROMPT (Mobile Proficient Management Information System for Productivity Enhancement and Timely Response), which generated mobile MIS for the field force.

Today, the initiative is being used by 4,500 employees and is infusing the company with a culture of agility. Field force staffers use mPROMPT for real-time reporting of customer interactions, and this is analyzed in real time by the managers all the way up to SBU heads.

David BriskmanVP & CIO, Ranbaxy Laboratories


MD Arun Sawhney

eMployees 13,000

RanbaxY LaboRatoRiEs

one question you wish you had better answers to.

What is the value of IT?Your most memorable vacation.

Leading the Boy Scouts on a Himalayan trek last spring.What according to you should be non-negotiable?

Honesty and trust above everything else. You can’t earn them back.a business idea you think deserves more attention.

Leveraging new, low-cost technology faster like mobile computing devices in the enterprise.a technology you think will see significant adoption in 2011.

Tablet devices and mobile applications that leverage 3G.a cio myth you would like to bust.

That we all work at the help-desk call center, whether it’s for our CEo or for our family.if you were not an it leader, you would have been…

An entrepreneur, VC, or hedge fund manager.a habit you wish you could get rid of.

Reading e-mail.

“this project made me realize that you can do a lot without large investments as long as you have the right focus on business needs.” — David Briskman, VP & CIO, Ranbaxy Laboratories

REaL cio WoRLd | S E P T E M B E R 1 5 , 2 0 1 0 1 2 9VoL/5 | ISSUE/11


Manoj ShrivastavaVP-IT, Reliance ADA Group

Shrivastava built the Reliance ADA Group an IT services framework resulting in extra-lean governance and faster resolution.

The Reliance ADA Group has several companies operating in various industry verticals. These companies share IT infrastructure via an IT services firm called Reliance Tech Services (RTS). In order to allow more prompt decision-making and IT service delivery, Shrivastava executed an outsourcing contract for IT services between RTS and Reliance Communications. Once this arrangement stabilized, the initiative would be extended to the other group companies.

The outsourcing contract facilitates the speedy implementation of IT and enhances process agility from an IT governance perspective. The contract is furnished with comprehensive mechanisms and even has an in-built reward and penalty provision to ensure IT delivery performance. It allows ample future-proofing to avoid re-work in case of changes in business dynamics. For example, it addresses all four aspects of RCOM’s business expansion thereby making the contract flexible despite changes in business scenarios during the term of the contract.

RELiancE ada GRoup

ChaiRMan Anil Ambani

Revenue Rs 70,000+ crore

eMployees 40,000

a concept or technology you think is over-rated.

Private clouds. Though public cloud makes a lot of sense especially for SMEs, a private cloud is nothing but virtualization++. one question you wish you had better answers to.

How to get IT people to go from a “No, because…” approach to a “Yes, but…” approach when responding to a business need.a business idea you think deserves more attention.

Knowledge management.a technology you think will see significant adoption in 2011.

The public cloud because it helps lower the entry barrier for implementing cutting-edge IT systems for small and medium enterprises.a device you would like to invent.

A mind documenter. It’s a gadget that records structures and indexes all the knowledge in a person’s mind.

“Making a balanced contract, one that is fair to both parties, is the key to success.” — Manoj Shrivastava, VP-IT, Reliance ADA Group



Purushothaman reduced the complexity of business operations, while offering customers better service.

Reliance BIG Entertainment has a comprehensive grip on various forms of media, entertainment, content and distribution. The company was in need of a system that reduced the complexity of its business operations. It needed to consolidate its sales and financial data. The solution to the company’s problem came packed in an ERP. Purushothaman implemented SAP ECC 6.0 ERP covering various modules including SAP HR–India Payroll. “This ERP implementation has helped business get consolidated financial and sales data with a proper interface to their primary sales data,” says Purushothaman.

This single-instance ERP implementation, running across 16 business entities helped the company in organizational transformation, IT-business alignment, and asset tracking and utilization. It also helped create a common database for all the employees and made employee information available at corporate level.

T.S.PurushothamanVP-IT, Reliance BIG Entertainment

eMployees 5,500

heaDquaRteRs Mumbai


RELiancE biG EntERtainMEnt

an insightful observation your cEo made in the last year.

”Efficiency is doing things right. Effectiveness is doing the right things.”if you were not an it leader, you would have been…

A dairy farmer. one question you wish you had better answers to.

Are your network and data 100 percent protected?a concept or technology you think is over-rated.

Desktop virtualization. The upfront infrastructure, software, training, and stabilization cost is very high compared to the upfront benefits.Your ‘aha’ leadership moment.

A BPR project in 2008. It was done with an in-house team catering to multiple business units, handling different products and services.a business idea you think deserves more attention.

Website marketing and social network tracking.a gadget you would like to invent.

A gadget for automated vehicle driving on the road.

“in a project, if everyone is moving forward together, then the project will be a success.” —T.S. Purushothaman, Vice President–IT, Reliance BIG Entertainment



Sandeep PhanasgaonkarPresident & CTO, Reliance Capital

Phanasgaonkar enhanced business growth by rapidly integrating core applications to smoothen information flow.

Reliance Capital uses SAP as a core ERP application for HR and Finance at group level, deployed over 12 lines of business. This made exchange of information between the ERP and LOB’s (lines of business) internal applications a major challenge.

Phanasgaonkar tackled this problem with a process integrator. “The advanced interoperability and robust design of the system has helped us build over 55 interfaces for 25 legacy applications across 10 LOB source systems. The new interfaces handle data volumes of over 2.5 lakh records per day, that’s approximately 30 lakh transactions per annum,” he says.

Today, these systems have enabled integration with third-party and legacy applications to progressively and rapidly build a robust integration platform across the Reliance Capital Group. It has also helped the company save time on making changes in the interfaces by 75 percent.

Nataraj gave revenue growth a fillip by enabling

better forecasting and resource utilization.


Cloud computing. Because business models have not fully evolved to support it.Your biggest learning this year.

Business intelligence will be the best investment that will drive data-based decision-making and move towards the goal of profitable business growth.a business idea you think deserves more attention.

Collaboration, social networking and a plethora of electronic communication channels.a device you would like to invent.

A device that allows me to watch movies in my sleep. Who would you invite for dinner?

Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. Hoping for a face-off on what could be a better computing technology.if you were not an it leader, you would have been…

A globe trotter and a writer of fiction stories.a habit you wish you could get rid of.

The erratic nature of my fitness schedule.

“Every project has a timeline and any attempt to crunch it without reducing its scope, always results in failure.” — Sandeep Phanasgaonkar, President and CTO, Reliance Capital

RELiancE capitaL



it BuDget Rs 100 crore



Ravulapaty re-defined and automated business processes to save a total of Rs 250 crore.

Reliance Consumer Finance realized that if it had to meet the demands of the changing business environment—that is agility and scalability of IT resources—it had to increase its speed to market.

Which meant, that the company needed to get rid of manual uploads and updates between systems, reduce customer service TATs that were high as users had to access multiple systems to fulfill customer needs and resolve the existing disintegrated architecture. This need led to the deployment of an enterprise application integration that not only integrated the company’s architecture but also improved efficiency. This enabled the organization to get to market quickly, saving Rs 15 lakh.

The Rs 35 lakh-project, eliminated various work challenges leading to an increase in productivity by nearly 40 percent. And in all, it saved a whopping Rs 250 crore for the company.

Shashi RavulapatySr. VP & CTO, Reliance Consumer Finance


Unified communications. The commercials are so prohibitive that in many cases, in-person meetings are more viable.turning point in your career

our mobility project gave me a real feeling of achievement. It was not just the delivery but making the business realize its value. one question you wish you had better answers to.

How do you measure the RoI better on every rupee invested in IT ?an insightful observation your cEo made in the last year.

”Use humility to become a market leader.”a device you would like to invent.

A device that records dreams and converts it into a viewable form.if you were not an it leader, you would have been…

A mathematician.Your biggest learning this year.

Strong collaboration capabilities and belief in the team’s ability to work together leads to a successful project.

“it is expected to be our change agent and this project has laid a foundation towards that goal.” — K. V. Srinivasan, CEO, Reliance Consumer Finance


eMployees 1,250


RELiancE consuMER FinancE




Sriram NaganathanCTOO, Reliance General Insurance

Naganathan used mobility to weed out bad business and saved Rs 50 crore in claim savings.

Traditionally, all insurance claims that require an underwriting inspection clearance were done on paper by domain experts. The report would then come to the insurer’s office after which a decision on converting it into a lead was taken. This gap wasted time and pushed bad risk into the insurer’s books by corrupt intermediaries.

Naganathan deployed a mobile-based system integrated with the company’s CRM to automate the underwriting process and avoid discrepancies. Now, all pre-inspection cases get logged in through the CRM and get auto assigned to agents in the field. The field staff then accesses requests on its mobile PDA. A compressed report is synced up real time to the server. A flag is set in the system that tells the company whether the business can be underwritten or not.

This system has increased the company’s rejection ratio from 3 to 15 percent. The company has also saved Rs 50 crore in claim savings.


Unified communications. The concept and its costs make it tough to get management buy-in. an insightful observation your cEo made in the last year. ”All the innovation in the world means nothing if it’s not accepted and implemented in the right spirit.” a business idea you think deserves more attention.

Use of self-service channels for sourcing and servicing. a cio myth you would like to bust.

CIos can’t drive sales or business.a device you would like to invent.

A low-cost mobility device with a print option which can replace paper forms.if you were not an it leader, you would have been…

A social worker–maybe join the Adhaar revolution.Your most memorable vacation.

Trip to the North East.

“this innovative solution has helped propagate new business processes which has brought down business risk.” — K. A. Somasekharan, ED & CEO, Reliance General Insurance

RELiancE GEnERaL insuRancE

eMployees 1,900




Saraswat reduced time-to-market while improving customer and supplier satisfaction.

Reliance Globalcom’s (a division of Reliance Communications) operations and business support systems were running on standalone and disparate systems. But when the company acquired Yipes, a US-based provider of Ethernet services and UK-based global managed network services provider Vanco, the company knew that it needed to change the way it worked.

It needed to integrate its disparate systems and design the architecture in a way that it enables faster implementation of these systems in the acquired entities. So, Saraswat turned to the integration message bus, TIBCO. Apart from integrating its OSS/BSS systems, the software enabled end-to-end automation of business processes and provided a converged platform for quicker implementation and migration of other businesses like Yipes and Vanco.

The new system replaced ‘one user, many systems’ with ‘one user, one system.’ This increased productivity and improved customer and supplier satisfaction by reducing time-to-market when launching new products.

Dr. Sanjay SaraswatVP-OSS & BSS Systems, Reliance Globalcom



eMployees 1,000

pResiDent & Ceo Punit Garg

RELiancE GLobaLcoM

a cio myth you would like to bust.

Domain experience is a pre-requisite to be a successful CIo. a device you would like to invent.

An optical computer.if you were not an it leader, you would have been …

A researcher.a concept or technology you think is over-rated.

Web personalization. Designers don’t use enough of it to hide their ability to design a good, navigable website. an insightful observation your cEo made in the last year.

“Perception is perceived reality. Don’t ignore it.” a technology that will see significant adoption in 2011.

Cloud computing. If implemented the right way, it has the potential to free enterprises from infrastructure limitations and on-demand scalability. a habit you wish you could get rid of.

Carrying my Blackberry all the time.

“Requirements can be fulfilled by relatively simple solutions rather than complex ones.” — Dr. Sanjay Saraswat, VP-OSS & BSS Systems, Reliance Globalcom


Chandrasekaran MohanCTO, Reliance Life Insurance

By integrating CRM with SOA, Mohan converted leads into business worth Rs 22 crore.

Being a late entrant into the insurance market, Reliance Life Insurance wanted to build in-roads into the market in the fastest way possible. The initial strategy to outsource CRM (to Reliance BPO) was fraught with problems of inflexibility.

With the slowdown, the company renewed it’s focus on CRM and mandated reducing operating cost by 50 percent without reduction in call volume and customer satisfaction.

To meet that mandate, Mohan replaced the BPO CRM systems with a secure automated CRM system which was integrated with the core applications, leveraging SOA. The integration of various functions in the organization using BPM built agility in the processes with wider service delivery capabilities. It also eliminated multi-stage processing of requests and complaints by transforming it into a single-step process.

The new system has reduced the cost of per call per month by Rs 72 translating into savings of Rs 6.48 crore. The company’s lead-to-cash conversion stood at Rs 22 crore.

RELiancE LiFE insuRancE

eMployees 18,000



a device you would like to invent.

USB 3.0 (Understanding Service Bus, a bridge between CIo and CEo). if you were not an it leader, you would have been…

A politician.a concept or technology you think is over-rated. Cloud computing because of unproven RoI. an insightful observation your cEo made in the last year.

“Limit level of trust before it becomes a baggage.” a cio myth you would like to bust.

A CIo doesn’t understand business. He’s a support function not a business enhancer. how do you deal with stress?

By getting out of the situation, listening to music and staying calm and composed.Your most memorable vacation.

With my parents in Disneyland.

“it provided a single window service with an automated cRM while keeping the same level of customer experience.” — Chandrasekaran Mohan, CTO, Reliance Life Insurance



Rangaraj helped business stakeholders to interact better and enriched the quality of their decision-making.

For Reliance Life Sciences (RLS), fast and easy access to information is critical. To keep pace with the dynamic nature of the market, Rangaraj developed R-eBiz.

The solution has multiple modules that helps in field activity planning and market data capture. R-eBiz extends beyond a CRM, SCM and BI system and seeks to use data from field to support the strategic and operational needs of RLS. The solution integrates SAP with the central database and is built on SOA.

The company has a wide network of field officers. Realizing that his users need mobile access to the system, Rangaraj exended the functionality to mobiles.

This enables agility and flexibility of system access and reporting while on the job. The solution has also helped stakeholders interact better and has enriched the quality of decision-making.

Gopal RangarajVice President–IT, Reliance Life Sciences

estaBlisheD 2001

eMployees 900

CMD Mukesh Ambani

RELiancE LiFE sciEncEs

an insightful observation your cEo made in the last year.

“Technology professionals fail to recognize the operating challenges in real life situations.”What according to you should be non-negotiable?

“We don’t have a solution,” is never an acceptable answer.a device you would like to invent.

A digital wallet that would individually keep complete track of cash and bank accounts on a daily basis.a cio myth you would like to bust.

organizations don’t need CIos. a business idea you think should get more attention.

Social media. Who would you invite to dinner?

A content director who creates Extreme Machines for Discovery Channel and ask him how they create such fantastic stories. turning point in your career.

Participating in the deployment of software applications to enable the end-to-end blood supply chain process for the regenerative medicine business.

“technology can be an effective change agent and it professionals need to passionately drive the same.” —Gopal Rangaraj, VP–IT, Reliance Life Sciences



Selvam K.CIO, S TEL

Through minimum customization and a tightly integrated IT delivery system, Selvam helped S Tel rollout services in record time.

The latest entrant to the emulous world of telecom, S Tel has achieved 0.9 million customers in less than three months, thanks to project C FUTURE. “The project uses an innovative IT service delivery model based on minimum customization and tightly integrated customer facing BSS applications to ensure faster rollouts.”

Selvam designed an architecture that focused on lowering operational cost by automating the manual process and partner ecosystems. S Tel is the first company to converge its billing system for pre-paid and post-paid account customers. This brought down operational issues like revenue control, fraud detection and data analysis. Selvam designed and implemented the application on mobiles for S Tel’s partners. He also converged the IP networks to a single network which was virtualized thereby reducing cost and dependency on multiple stakeholders.

Typically, telecom IT rollouts take up to six to nine months, but project C FUTURE enabled S Tel to rollout all its services in a record time of 60 days.

s tEL

eMployees 800

Ceo Shamik Das

estaBlisheD 2009

a cio myth you would like to bust.

Exploring various ways to reduce cost does not mean compromising on quality.a technology you think will see significant adoption in 2011.

Cloud computing, Web 2.0, HTML5 technologies. This is mainly due to agility, low cost of ownership and device and location independence. Your ‘aha’ leadership moment.

In 1996, I implemented a telecom billing ERP system for revenue and customer lifecycle management for a telecom operator, which prevented revenue-leakage and improved data integrity. The experience groomed me into a business leader. What according to you should be non-negotiable?

Integrity and ethics. a business idea you think deserves more attention.

M-commerce. if you were not an it leader, you would have been…

An entrepreneur.

“this project facilitated us to garner a few firsts: Fastest time- to-market, fastest one million happy smiles in a record 60 days.”—Shamik Das, CEO, S Tel



Raizada automated systems and processes and increased his company’s revenue by 21 percent.

Safexpress, a twelve year old logistics company, was beset with challenges of manually connecting over 600 points of presence on a single Web-based solution. Things changed when Raizada designed a solution incorporating an MPLS VPN, a warehouse management solution and a logistics management software to automate the backoffice operations.

The solution reduced pilferage and malfunctions (caused by human interferance) and the invoicing process time was reduced from 25 days to seven days. The suppliers no longer have to wait seven days for cheques to clear. Customers received their invoices 18 days quicker and thus began paying Safexpress sooner. The centralized asset management unearthed lakh worth of assets that were deemed lost due to incorrect manual billing systems. The centralization of the customer contracts and the bills generated automatically from these contracts saw a revenue increase of 21 percent.

Shalabh RaizadaHead-IT, Safexpress

estaBlisheD 1995

heaDquaRteRs New Delhi

CMD Pawan Jain

saFExpREss


SoA. It’ll be reduced to just another three letter acronym till it gets down to actually delivering substantial business value across industry segments. one question you wish you had better answers to.

Wonder what the actual price of this server was!an insightful observation your cEo made in the last year.

”Keep in mind the diversity of end users and variability of business needs across districts in India when you plan this project.”a business idea you think deserves more attention.

MBI (Mobility Business Intelligence). a habit you wish you could get rid of.

Taking second helping of dessert!how do you deal with stress?

A two hour session of Yoga keeps me going for 20 hours. Your most memorable vacation.

A week long Silence Retreat at the Art of Living Ashram.

“this project has connected all safexpress points of presence and enhanced productivity, positively affecting the company’s growth.” —Pawan Jain, CMD, Safexpress



Pertisth Mankotia Head-IT, Sheela Foam

Mankotia spearheaded a complete datacenter transformation to save money and improve business response time.

In December 2008, the proprietary server at Sheela Foam went down and took around 16 hours to recover. It was then that Mankotia decided to move from proprietary Unix servers to an open-source solution. “The outage provided us the necessary impetus to wriggle out vendor-lock-in and downtime,” says Mankotia.

However, migration was by no means an easy one. The major challenge was to shift the entire infrastructure with zero downtime from a tested proprietary product to a never experienced open source solution.

However, the company adopted the open source solution and deployed its database to run its critical homegrown ERP, after a brief trial period.

The results were phenomenal as server performance doubled and processing time reduced drastically. It created a flexible, risk-free setup by building redundancy and a robust environment at a fraction of the earlier cost. Further, it brought down maintenance cost by 80 percent.

shEELa FoaM


MD Rahul Gautam

estaBlisheD 1972

how do you deal with stress?

Work kills work stress. Nothing else can.a device you would like to invent.

A device that can read the human mind.if you were not an it leader, you would have been…

A chef. Your biggest learning this year.

You need to have a positive attitude and courage to do things and everything else will automatically fall in place.a technology you think will see significant adoption in 2011.

3G. Connectivity is everything today. a cio myth you would like to bust.

That CIos are not responsible for the top line and the bottom line. an insightful observation your cEo made in the last year.

“The intentions behind your actions should always be right; however the outcome may not live up to your expectations.”

“our it team’s desire and ability to improve is unrelenting. With this project, while saving costs, we have also become more agile.”—Rahul Gautam, MD, Sheela Foam



Gupta re-architected infrastructure for speed and scale while reducing running expenses.

Last year, the primary goal for survival in the retail sector was to reduce costs while maintaining agility for expansion. As Gupta reviewed Shoppers Stop’s compute and storage infrastructure, he realized that they were beginning to come under pressure due to deferred investments. “By July 2009, it had started impacting some business operations. We needed to create flexibility and capacity based on proposed expansion that was visible in the near term.”

From August 2009 to March 2010, Gupta architected the framework to provide capacity, flexibility and agility to the entire compute and storage infrastructure. This reduced cycle times by more than 50 percent for all end-of-day activities as well as customer facing applications across all the Shoppers Stop, Crossword and HyperCity stores.

The entire transition was executed with less than eight hours of downtime across business units. The standard virtualized infrastructure has moved from a ratio of 3:1 to 10:1. The company has achieved storage compression of almost 50 percent.

Arun GuptaCCA & Group CTO, Shoppers Stop



eMployees 4,500

shoppERs stop

Who would you invite for dinner?

Nostradamus! And ask him what the future holds for the world.a device you would like to invent.

Solar or light powered self-healing computers.if you were not an it leader, you would have been…

Running a fine-dine Indian restaurant somewhere in the world.Your biggest learning this year.

People are indeed your biggest assets.a technology you think will see significant adoption in 2011.

Mobile social media and customer engagement. turning point in your career.

When less than a week into my new role at DHL, I faced the challenge to rise from 54/54 among Asian country operations on Y2K readiness. an insightful observation your cEo made in the last year.

”During tough times, the contribution made by our CIo towards reducing costs not just for IT but other functions too, is commendable.”

“it has achieved superior system availability while making it easy to open new stores.” —Govind Shrikhande, CCA, President & CEO, Shoppers Stop



Rajeev BatraCIO, Sistema Shyam Teleservices (MTS India)

Batra created a sustainable model that helps business swiftly react to market dynamics.

Last year as the Indian telecom sector underwent a disruptive change with the commoditization of voice product, MTS changed its strategy to focus on high speed data.

Batra’s project focused on aligning IT objectives with business goals. IT was designed to respond proactively to all business needs. “Customer focus derived its value from the vision of providing customer’s easy-to-use tools. We had to ensure that all assets of IT are managed optimally—people, process and technology—coupled with long term investment management through enterprise architecture principles.”

This re-alignment spanned across multiple projects, operations, architecture development and processes, delivering tangible value to all stakeholders. Batra believes that the construct of the project is agile enough to support any new business paradigm and is certainly a first of its kind in the region.

sistEMa shYaM tELEsERvicEs (Mts)

eMployees 2,500

pResiDent & Ceo Vsevolod Rozanov



Constraints lead to innovation.a cio myth you would like to bust.

CIos can do magic, all solutions are readymade!if you were not an it leader, you would have been…

A journalist.a concept or technology you think is over-rated.

Virtualization. It’s obvious that any prudent IT leader would like to adopt it to optimize resources. a business idea you think deserves more attention.

Making practical solutions around cloud computing and deflating the hype around it.a technology you think will see significant adoption in 2011.

Mobile applications. Your most memorable vacation.

Trip to Puerto Rico.turning point in your career.

Successful execution of IBM-Bharti. A ten-year IT outsourcing deal which gave me insights into the nuances of leveraging technology for business transformation.

“the project was pivotal in getting it elements aligned to our business strategy. “ —Vsevolod Rozanov, President & CEO, Sistema Shyam Teleservices



Babu provided the business with greater visibility and better decision making ability through a resolute and responsive framework.

Launched in February 2009, Star Union Dai-ichi Life Insurance is a joint venture between Bank of India and Union Bank of India in India and a Japanese Life Insurance company (Dai-ichi Mutual Life).

In a short span of three months, Babu built a datacenter with a greater footprint of virtualization, implemented performance monitoring tools and automated the IT help desk. All this despite being a startup.

Within 10 months of starting business operations, the company launched a SOA-based enterprise portal for all the stakeholders providing information on their finger tips. This has helped the organization drive down turnaround time for policy issuance, enabled seamless flow of information thereby empowering users to make better decisions.

In a little over a year, the insurance company has extended to 7,400 bank branches across India and 20 regional offices.

Harnath BabuHead-IT, Star Union Dai-ichi Life Insurance

Revenue Rs 535 crore


MD & Ceo Kamalji Sahay

staR union dai-ichi LiFE insuRancE

a business idea you think deserves more attention.

The arrival of first generation of digital natives: People born after 1990 and soon to be introduced into the workforce with newer demands on technology and the way traditional business will transform itself to meet these demands.a cio myth you would like to bust.

A CIo must be a technology wizard.a device you would like to invent.

Whenever I am stuck in Mumbai’s traffic, I feel I should invent a car which can just fly.an insightful observation your cEo made in the last year.

“Success in a new organization depends a lot on your ability to take initiative without waiting for support and instructions.”if you were not an it leader, you would have been…

A professor.a trait you wish you could get rid of.

Procrastination.Your most memorable vacation.

My trip to Scotland and London in 2008. Certainly, the memories have not yet faded.

“We set up an it platform to launch our business first and then designed the other strategies depending on it.” — Kamalji Sahay, MD & CEO, Star Union Dai-ichi



Chetan Trivedi Head-IT, Sterlite Industries

Trivedi made business processes simpler, faster and efficient to keep the competitive edge honed.

The challenges of the economic meltdown last year pushed people to innovate in ways never seen before. At Sterlite Industries, this was achieved through project Parivartan.

“We conducted a diagnostic study to identify areas where IT could enhance performance or where it could be further optimized,” says Trivedi. Based on the results, Trivedi realized migration to SAP was the key to success.

The company entered into a long-term engagement with SAP, and migrated its newer business applications to it. Its strategy was to maximize benefits of contractual agreements, phase out investments over time and yet get every opportunity to implement newer technologies on an on-going basis.

Over a period of two years of execution of the project, Trivedi re-engineered business processes across the functions and empowered various IT business applications with new-dimensional products like SRM, HCM and Hyperion. All this helped them remain competitive during a tough time.

stERLitE industRiEs

eMployees 1,200



a trait you wish you could get rid of.

I tend to dominate in my area of expertise.turning point in your career

Switching over from a marketing function to a group-wide ERP implementation project. Your biggest learning this year.

Tackle the unpleasant jobs first. a concept or technology you think is over-rated.

Touch screens. Nowadays, touch screens are incorporated in almost all gadgets as an unsaid rule. But too often they are clunky to use and less intuitive than the simple button.a technology you think will see significant adoption in 2011.

Virtualization. It allows doing more with less. a cio myth you would like to bust.

CIos can not articulate business value.a device you would like to invent.

A device that can read thoughts and convert them into speech. What according to you should be non-negotiable?

Integrity and personal value system.

“this project helped us align our it strategy with business needs and set the direction so that it delivers business value.” —Vinod Bhandawat, CFO, Sterlite Industries



Kumar used an internal cloud to improve operational efficiency and reduce cost.

The uncertainty of last year created a need for rapid infrastructure provisioning and de-provisioning across locations at TCS. An early adopter of most technologies, TCS took the gallant step of moving its infrastructure to a private internal cloud.

The private internal cloud allows system administrators and users setup servers; allocate CPUs, memory and storage in near real-time basis.

The setup was created with a combination of virtualized blade servers with different sets of virtual server templates for different types of resource profiles and requirements.

But security was a big concern. “A separate high-end virtualized firewall enabled us to create base setup. The virtual firewall access privileges were provided to local ODC administrator,” says Kumar.

The project has enabled TCS to rapidly ramp-up and ramp-down its resources and quickly respond to customer requirements.

This initiative has also improved operational efficiency and reduced power and material consumption by 30 percent, thereby reducing operational costs.

Alok KumarVP & Global Head-Internal IT & Shared Services, TCS


eMployees 1, 60,000+

ChaiRMan Ratan Tata

tcs

Your ‘aha’ leadership moment.

Greening our datacenter and office environment.What according to you should be non-negotiable?

organizational values.an insightful observation your cEo made in the last year.

“Be close to the customer and go beyond the industry view to get a better perspective of your customers. Then back it up with execution rigor.” a business idea you think deserves more attention.

Driving business value by optimally using transformational technology involving cloud, social media and mobility.a technology you think will see significant adoption in 2011.

Mobility and touch screen-based applications for senior executives and business users, equipped with BI and analytics. a device you would like to invent.

Solar powered mobile devices.

“the private cloud has helped us improve the agility of our projects and provided a common service standard to our global customers.” — N. Chandrasekaran, CEO & MD, TCS



JAGDISH BELWALCIO, Tata Motors

Belwal helped turn leads into revenue of Rs 184 crore through a mobility-based system.

The automobile industry is heavily dependant on sales driven through channel partners and dealer sales executives (DSEs). From making manual entries in notebooks (leading to innumerable sales loss), Tata Motor’s DSEs today use a slick custom–made mobile app, thanks to Belwal.

The project provides access to an advanced lead management system to all the sales executives while on field. The lead management system integrates with the company’s primary CRM system such that when a sales executive submits leads using the mobile application it gets automatically created in the company’s CRM. The solution also allows DSEs to track the list of activities planned on a particular day and update the same in the CRM. The best part is that it works on low-cost handsets.

Today, visibility of leads in the system has increased by 400 percent and sales figures are increasing relatively. In this short span of its usage, Tata Motors has garnered retail sales worth Rs 184 crore.

tata MotoRs

ChaiRMan Ratan Tata




open source for desktop computing. Everyone is so used to Microsoft technologies that the change management challenges are huge. one question you wish you had better answers to.

How do I make sense of the plethora of technology options available today?What according to you should be non-negotiable?

Accountability and ownership across every level of the organization.Your biggest learning this year.

In today’s partner-driven IT delivery ecosystem, governance creates accountability, delivers results and clears organizational limitations.a technology you think will see significant adoption in 2011.

Analytics. Becoming competitive means leveraging this forhigher business performance.a device you would like to invent.

A device which can convert voluminous documents into a one-page summary.

“the mobile-based application has seen the number of cRM leads registered by an executive go up two to three times.” — Prakash Telang, MD, Tata Motors



Munj gave business a real-time view of channel performance by integrating applications across the extended enterprise.

TTSL’s distributors mostly used Tally, while TTSL functioned with a separate application. This resulted in a lot of duplication of work.

Munj conceptualized an innovative solution by customizing the existing Tally package at the distributor’s end to meet both TTSL’s and the distributor’s needs.

The project is a first-of-its-kind combination of Tally, front-end of distributors integrated with centralized back-end system that operates both offline and online.

Imbedded in the system are workflow-based features to handle all the channel-specific activities including purchase orders, invoices, secondary sales, customer acquisitions, claims and commission payouts.

As a result of this, TTSL does not lose a single customer because of a lack of stock either with the retailer or distributor. “None of TTSL‘s competitors have this capability,” claims Munj.

Today, TTSL can get full view of market stock availability across the supply chain and real time view of the channel performance. What took three days earlier, now happens instantaneously.

Shirish MunjSr. VP & Head-IT, Tata Teleservices

eMployees 9,000+

heaD offiCe Navi Mumbai

MD & Ceo Anil Sardana

tata tELEsERvicEs

turning point in your career.

Launch of TATA Docomo. We made the IT platform ready for launch in the shortest possible time and then almost overnight re-architected it to sustain six times the projected volumes.if you were not an it leader, you would have been…

Doing research in organic Chemistry.a device you would like to invent.

None. We have enough devices and gadgets around. What according to you should be non-negotiable?

Timely communication of problems and best efforts to fix them permanently.an insightful observation your cEo made in the last year.

“Have finesse in everything you do.” Who would you invite for dinner?

My childhood friends to live those golden moments again.Your most memorable vacation.

Trip to Astamudhi this year.

“Everything is possible if you have the right partners working with you.” — Shirish Munj, Sr. VP & Head-IT, Tata Teleservices



P. Shobhana RaviChief Information & Learning OfficerTAFE (Tractors & Farm Equipment)

Ravi enabled real-time information by integrating core applications with Web 2.0 and mobility.

In the uncertain climate of last year, Ravi realized that the best way to keep TAFE ahead was to provide decision makers with instantaneous access to information. So she conceived NewGen Connect @ TAFE by converging various emerging technologies like SMS, mobile applications, widgets, and mail integration on mobiles and desktops.

The solution she introduced allowed all kinds of information to be accessed at the click of a button; from workflow applications to product and sales information. Through desktop widgets, real-time information is fetched from SAP or portal systems and made available for TAFE’s senior management on their desktops. From capturing data via SMS to getting business mails delivered to a cell phone inbox, the project enabled information access like TAFE had never seen before.

And all this was achieved at no significant cost by leveraging Open Source technologies and exploiting existing resources and skills.

taFE (tRactoRs & FaRM EquipMEnt)

eMployees 4,000



Your ‘aha’ leadership moment.

The implementation of a B2B and a B2C strategy in 2000 was a great learning experience. When the goal becomes all-encompassing, the momentum created by the enthusiasm of the team converts challenges into opportunities. how do you deal with stress?

Most of the time stress brings out the best in us. When it has a negative impact, I pause, detach myself from the situation, analyze, do my best, and then let go. Your most memorable vacation.

Egypt. The Pyramids are absolutely breathtaking! I am so glad that I took the opportunity to go inside the Pyramids through a steep and narrow stairway. Your biggest learning this year.

The importance of delegation and empowerment. a habit you wish you could get rid of.

The habit of not wanting to make habits!a business idea you think deserves more attention.

Listening to the customer’s voice.

“the innovative application of technology that is also easy to use has enhanced agility and enabled us to respond more decisively.” — Mallika Srinivasan, Vice Chairman, TAFE



Dhandapani hastened new product development by cutting lead time by around 20 percent.

In December 2008, TVS Motor witnessed a sudden drop in sales when major banks in India abruptly decided to withdraw retail financing for two-wheelers. The company also witnessed heavy margin pressures due to continuous increase in cost of raw material and pressure on marketing to give incentives to attract customers.

Dhandapani began introducing agility in the systems. He hastened new product development through product lifecycle management. Due to which, three new products—Scooty Streak, Jive and WeGo—released during 2009 compressed NPD (new product development) lead time by around 20 percent compared to earlier products.

Operational cost was reduced by providing shop-floor executives touch screen dashboards to manage overall equipment effectiveness by directly capturing information from machines.

By automating the CKD (completely knocked-down) picking process, Dhandapani improved productivity and accuracy.

T.G.DHANDAPANICorporate CIO, TVS Motor Company



pResiDent & Ceo K.N. Radhakrishnan

tvs MotoR coMpanY


You can always find gems in your team. You should spot and polish them.Your most memorable vacation.

Vacation? What is that?one question you wish you had better answers to.

How to self-engineer a technology solution before business asks for it?a technology you think will see significant adoption in 2011.

Business analytics. This technology is underutilized but it has tremendous potential. a cio myth you would like to bust.

Technology can’t drive strategic initiatives.Your ‘aha’ leadership moment.

Assuming responsibility for developing and implementing a dealer management system in TVS Motors. a business idea you think deserves more attention.

Using our Intranet as media for knowledge alignment.

“automation in cKd picking process has improved productivity. picking accuracy has almost eliminated freight on missing parts.” — K.N. Radhakrishnan, President & CEO, TVS Motors



Deepak RoutGeneral Manager & Head-IS, Unitech Wireless (Uninor)

Rout created a robust multi-tiered security environment with frugal running expense.

The newest member of India’s ballooning telecom fraternity, Uninor, had security high on its agenda. “We were launching a new company with a different strategy. The IP had to be protected,” says Rout.

With inputs from all stakeholders on the type of information that is deemed critical for the organization, Rout conducted a risk assessment on these assets to discern the type of vulnerabilities. The results revealed that information systems had not been accurately rolled out. USBs had become too ubiquitous.

Rout decided to clean up the mess with a DLP solution. To ensure end-point protection, he has prohibited mass storage on USBs and uploads in http sessions. Further, he implemented content monitoring tools and removed admin rights from certain modules.

The tools empower Rout to either prevent or detect instances of data loss from business assets and resources without resorting to additional security investment; thereby contributing to core business requirement and saving cost.

unitEch WiRELEss (uninoR)

eMployees 2,500

estaBlisheD 2009

heaDquaRteRs Gurgaon


E-books. They simply cannot replace a book and the joy of turning a physical page while reading a gripping story. Your biggest learning this year.

Senior management needs to be constantly educated about technology, concepts and processes and updated about functions and departments. a business idea you think deserves more attention.

Those that affect masses and uplift their living conditions. a device you would like to invent.

An effective and easy to use speech recognition system. Who would you invite for dinner?

obama. To check if he is for real or is a hoax. a habit you wish you could get rid of.

A lack of regular sleeping routine how do you deal with stress?

Remember, death is inevitable, so why die in bits. What has been your most memorable vacation?

Trekking in the Himalayas.

“there are no silver bullet solutions to it security. Real security is achieved by the process you define and the people you train.” — Deepak Rout, GM & Head-IS, Unitech Wireless (Uninor)



Banerjee improved product quality and increased productivity by making manufacturing processes consistent.

To deal with the severe economic pressures of last year, Banerjee had to extend the existing SAP business environment to the MES (manufacturing execution systems) environment, integrating its various process automation systems across plants. Together with two partners, the company implemented a solid MES application for deriving cutting edge advantage in its business. “MES has changed our approach from preventive maintenance to predictive maintenance using condition monitoring for equipment integrated with MES,” claims Banerjee.

Indeed, the project has revolutionized business operations at Vedanta by introducing functions like real-time monitoring, analysis and controls and improved OEE (overall equipment effectiveness) through data acquisition, trend analysis, genealogy and alerts for manufacturing and power generation processes. Further, the e-procurement and e-auction engine modules have enabled Vedanta to share services with its group companies. The estimated savings to the group is around Rs 200 crore, through reduced support costs and increased optimization.

Subrata BanerjeeHead-IT (Aluminium Sector), Vedanta Aluminium



exeCutive DiReCtoR Pankaj Khanna

vEdanta aLuMiniuM


You should not take simple projects for granted.Who would you invite for dinner?

My team.one question you wish you had better answers to.

Why do we have little gaps here and there in spite of pushing people so hard? an insightful observation that your cEo made in the last year.

“IT should align with the business plan based on yearly, monthly and daily basis.” a technology you think will see significant adoption in 2011.

Knowledge management and cloud computing-related IT tools and technologies. if you were not an it leader, you would have been…

A businessman.how do you deal with stress?

Search for the real cause of stress and then face it.

“our MEs provides us real-time information on the relationship between two discrete data sets and helps us in quick decision-making.” — Pankaj Khanna, ED, Vedanta Aluminium



Navin ChadhaIT-Director, Vodafone Essar

Chadha saved about Rs 50 crore for his company by developing an internal clearing house for intra-operator transactions.

Like most telecom operators, Vodafone depended upon a data clearing house for handling roaming calls. The data clearing house (DCH) settles the intra-operator TAP files transaction everyday of all Vodafone circles roaming account transfers. Often delays in file transfers would lead to delay in revenue realization. Also, Vodafone was leaking revenue due to delayed detection of fraudulent transactions.

With approximately 90 percent of the roaming TAP file data being Vodafone to Vodafone, Chadha designed and deployed an Internal Clearing House which would handle Vodafone to Vodafone roaming TAP files.

As a result of this, Vodafone saved about Rs 50 crore over a period of 11 months. Today, its transactions are 90 percent faster than normal DCH. A Web-based GUI guarantees easy and user-friendly operation.

vodaFonE EssaR

eMployees 9,400

heaDquaRteRs Mumbai



Not to underestimate the creativity of my business counterparts. a business idea you think deserves more attention.

Mobile banking. if you were not an it leader, you would have been…

A farmer.a habit you wish you could get rid of.

Scheduling meeting at the last minute over the phone without looking at my calendar. a technology you think will see significant adoption in 2011.

Virtualization. It provides a lot of cost and administrative advantages and is currently under exploited. a cio myth you would like to bust.

That CIos are only responsible for supporting the business decisions, not making them. a concept or technology you think is over-rated.

Bluetooth. It built a lot of expectations but in ground reality, the challenges posed by the cryptic process don’t make it attractive. I feel it falls short of expectations.

“this project made me realize that if we are creative in our thinking we can do things better and in a very cost effective way.”—Navin Chadha, IT-Director, Vodafone Essar



Kotha fostered a lean culture by completely automating all IT systems and processes.

Walmart India started operations in 2007 and since then there has been no looking back. Supporting its robust growth is its agile IT framework, headed by Kotha. Walmart began a program named E-Operations. “The key objective of the program was to ensure that major operational areas within the ISD function were managed through systems and processes and that there was minimum personal dependency,” says Kotha.

The major features of the initiative were to ensure that the company was able to monitor and manage systems, networks, applications and databases as per service level agreements automatically. It further automated the ITIL-centric service support desk, hardware inventory and software license management. Multiple view of assets by location, store, status and on-demand alert facility have simplified the process further. Total automation enabled Walmart to monitor and put their resources to better utilization, and reduced dependence on manpower.

Sanjay KothaCIO, Walmart India

estaBlisheD 2007

eMployees 5,000

pResiDent Raj Jain

WaLMaRt india

how do you deal with stress?

I don’t worry about things I can’t control.Your most memorable vacation.

Recently we visited our home town in Kashmir after a span of 20 years. The experience was indeed very emotional.Who would you invite for dinner?

My IT team, they to me are my first family.a technology you think will see significant adoption in 2011.

Virtualization. With the maturity level increasing and the adoption of open standards, it can help organizations build a competitive cost saving proposition for the organization. a concept or technology you think is over-rated.

3G and 4G technologies.a cio myth you would like to bust.

That technology leaders are not business drivers.if you were not an it leader, you would have been…

Definitely a business operational leader.

“our it team has played a catalytic role in making our organization more efficient and responsive to stakeholders.” —Raj Jain, President, Walmart India



Laxman K. BadigaCIO, Wipro Technologies

Badiga standardized, monitored and optimized the organization’s transition journey in 40 percent less time.

Last year acted as a litmus test of agility for most organizations. With the mounting pressure to extract maximum efficiency from existing resources, Badiga led Wipro on a journey to optimize their managed service offering. Two technology enablers played a major role in this journey.

Using an industry standard program management and governance tool, Badiga standardized, monitored and optimized Wipro’s transition process, thereby reducing the transition time by 40-50 percent.

Post-transition, Wipro was able to proactively monitor the company’s SLAs in real-time using a Service Lifecycle Management tool and taking corrective action before defaulting on the SLA. This helped Wipro save over six percent on SLA related penalties.

The implementation took a total of four months, and the company realized its return on investment in eight months.

WipRo tEchnoLoGiEs

eMployees 1, 12,925

ChaiRMan Azim Premji

Revenue Rs 27, 650 crore


I feel there is too much emphasis on automating everything. We are too dependant on gadgets today, and rely less on our intelligence.What according to you should be non-negotiable?

Albert Einstein once said, “Try not to become a man of success but try to become a man of value.” Maintaining integrity is imperative.a business idea you think deserves more attention.

Social media. Marketers are exploring this new tool to generate leads for their businesses and are being quite successful with it. a trait you wish you could get rid of.

Being a workaholic.how do you deal with stress?

When I’m stressful, I disconnect from everything right from the phone to the internet and relax in solitude. if you were not an it leader, you would have been…

A business leader.

“if you believe and have conviction in the concept, drive it to the end goal. despite challenges, you will get the results.”—Laxman K. Badiga, CIO, Wipro Technologies



Jain cut operating cost by 50 percent and support cost by 70 percent by consolidating the company’s infrastructure.

Despite the recessionary climate of last year, WNS Global was pursuing an aggressive growth strategy by expanding its global delivery centers. And when you have such a globally dispersed presence, automation and standardization becomes crucial.

“We had to tackle the twin problems of reducing the maintenance and management costs for the expanding IT infrastructure, as well as meet storage and compliance requirements,” says Jain. He consolidated the company’s storage requirements, contact center infrastructure and implemented call recording.

He also consolidated HR and finance ERP which then laid the foundation for server virtualization and roll out of several enterprise application modules. The results were remarkable. The company managed to open three new delivery centers yet reduce operational costs by 50 percent and support cost by 70 percent.

Sanjay JainCIO & Head-Global Transformation PracticeWNS Global Services

estaBlisheD 1996

heaDquaRteRs Mumbai

gRoup Ceo Keshav Murugesh

Wns GLobaL sERvicEs

turning point in your career

Moving from a corporate job in 1994 to becoming an entrepreneur and then setting up and managing three successful tech and BPo startups.one question you wish you had better answers to.

How to manage variability in business better?a trait you wish you could get rid of.

Impulsiveness.Your biggest learning this year.

Anticipating market and customer trends.if you were not an it leader, you would have been…

A doctor.a business idea you think deserves more attention.

Providing transformational services to help clients outperform.a technology you think will see significant adoption in 2011.

Virtualization.a cio myth you would like to bust.

That only technology leaders become good CIos. how do you deal with stress?

Exercise and long brisk walks.

“consolidation has enabled us to rapidly roll-out sophisticated services to our clients, world-wide.” —Keshav Murugesh, Group CEO, WNS Global Services



Vol/5 | ISSUE/111 5 8 s e p t e m b e r 1 5 , 2 0 1 0 | REAL CIO WORLD

business creativity sounds like an oxymoron. people working

for the business are guided by a set of rules. What gels business and creativity together?

Business is about doing anything to achieve an end result. Creativity

in business can come from looking beyond our immediate world. For instance, a car company can learn from, say, a gaming show.

Creativity is the formulation of a new idea using two

or more existing ones. No idea is ever entirely original in itself. A creative person is someone who has an organized brain that finds a link between two existing ideas.”

Q

A

IdeAs from the

Idea MasterFredrik Härén tells you how you can break corporate boundaries and make your business more creative.

By Kailas Shastry and Supriyaa Uthiah

many people say they tend to be more innovative in chaotic

situations. Do you see some amount of chaos as a pre-requisite for everyday innovation and creativity?

No. The difference between chaos and creativity

is that there is order in creativity. Sure, if there is chaos you need to be creative to set things in order, but that is not the same thing as creativity.

REAL CIO WORLD | s e p t e m b e r 1 5 , 2 0 1 0 1 5 9Vol/5 | ISSUE/11

98% of people say creativity is vital to their jobs, but the number of people that say their company’s are doing enough to make them creative is

only 2%.

Q

A

Idea Master

Vol/5 | ISSUE/111 6 0 s e p t e m b e r 1 5 , 2 0 1 0 REAL CIO WORLD

e is the founder of Sweden’s leading creativity company, The Interesting Organization, that inspires companies and people to develop their creativity and come out with innovative ideas to grow their businesses. But here’s what makes him even more interesting: He is an inspirational speaker, a thinker and the author of one of the world’s 100 most important business books. Meet Fredrik Härén.

With over 1,500 speeches in 25 countries to his name, Haren was awarded Speaker of the Year in Sweden in 2007. CIO caught up with him on the sidelines of the CIO 100 Awards ceremony and posed him some tough questions.

Creativity is all about thinking ‘out of the box’ while discipline is a hard

construct of the box itself. Do you think creativity and discipline are mutually exclusive?Creativity in a highly disciplined environment is difficult, but is also more important. Even in institutions like the defense forces where people are expected to follow orders, once in a while there comes a situation in which they have to think and act on their feet. Those who do may live to fight another day.

On a similar note, I have been asked if I would be okay with a creative brain surgeon. Conventional wisdom assumes that a task as complicated as a brain surgery requires surgeon to not deviate from the established procedure. But the answer, according to me, is a definite yes.

I have interviewed brain surgeons and they admit that while they are expected to follow procedure, sometimes they encounter a brain that isn’t normal and

then they need to improvise. In a nutshell, the more structured and rules-bound the industry, the harder it is to be creative. But that’s when creativity becomes all the more critical.

Is it possible for creativity flourish in a society, religion, culture, or a

nation with strict rules? Well, it might be more difficult to be creative as a lot of arenas are closed. But, like I said, that only makes it more important to be creative in the limited areas that allow for some flexibility. Some people assume that the Chinese cannot be creative because they live in a totalitarian state. That’s baseless. While they may not be able to do a lot of things that the West takes for granted, there’s still ample scope for them to innovate.

Religion doesn’t hinder creativity. I once had the good fortune of meditating with a Buddhist monk for two weeks. Just him and me, and no talking, except for 50 minutes a day. He seemed very disappointed with the current state of affairs in which religion has become a lot about rules. Religion should actually be about a few simple rules. Likewise, governance–corporate or state—should have fewer, simpler rules and should be driven more by values.

And when we speak of culture and if it determines creativity, we should understand what defines creativity and what does not. Doing the same things again and again does not constitute creativity. Take the example of an orchestra playing Mozart. They follow the conductor and do exactly the same actions in every performance. And it’s been unchanged for over two hundred years. It is cultural, yes, but creative? No.

You are saying that institutions should be value driven. But then

aren’t the values rules themselves? It works like this: If institutions adopt a value system, you will have a set of people

“I have been asked if I would be ok with a creative

brain surgeon. The answer, according to me, is a definite yes.”

—Fredrik Härén

H

who have a common set of values. But they can differ in their approach to achieving those values. The latter part has scope for creativity.

Do you see some amount of chaos as a pre-requisite for everyday

innovation and creativity?No, not at all. The difference between anarchy or chaos and creativity is that there is order in creativity. Chaos is not creativity. Sure, if there is chaos then you need to be creative to set things in order, but that is not exactly the same thing as creativity.

Some people argue that being creative and being organized are opposites. But I don’t agree. The creative brain is in fact the most organized brain because it can find a connection or an order between two things no one else saw order in.

Do you believe it is important to think out of the box or think without

the box itself?If you define the box as a value system, I would say it is important to think within that box, but differently. But the value box is much larger than a box defined by rules.

Unlike value boxes that are fewer in number, the ones for rules are several. Fewer, flexible bounds are better than several rigid ones.

‘Business creativity’ sounds like an oxymoron. What gels business and

creativity together?At the outset, let me say business is not just about doing what you are supposed to do. It is about achieving a set of business goals. It is about doing anything, within the purview of the law, to achieve the end result.

Since I write books, many people tell me, “You are a writer, so you must be creative.” Well, I am a business writer. I am creative in the way I sell my books. I have much more

“Some people assume that the Chinese cannot be creative because they live in a totalitarian state. That’s baseless.”

—Fredrik Härén

use for my creativity in how I sell my books than how I actually write them.

Creativity, in business or elsewhere, can come from looking beyond our immediate world. If I were to be the head of R&D in a company, I’d encourage people in my team to attend tradeshows of other industries. There’s only so much one can learn by visiting events of one’s own industry and seeing direct competitors display results of what was researched six months ago. Instead, one can observe and adapt from other industries. A car company can learn from a gaming show, for instance.

In a business, who do you think should be responsible for business

creativity?Top management. Business creativity should percolate down the order. If the top people in the company are not open to the idea of creativity then there’s little the others can do.

I recall this incident with a company in Sweden which decided to have casual Fridays. A day before the first of the casual Fridays, the CEO sent a note to the employees saying, “Tomorrow is the first casual Friday. But, of course, I will still come in a suit and a tie!” Needless to say, they never had a casual Friday.

There’s another incident in which the CEO of a company in Singapore, who was presiding over the company’s Innovation Day, started reading a prepared speech that was written by someone else. A few minutes into the speech he realized the irony, so he put the prepared speech aside and began talking from his heart. It was easily one of the best speeches delivered in the company till that day.

The point I am trying to make is that management has to make conscious efforts to do things that can be perceived by the employees as creative or as encouraging creativity. CIO

Send feedback on this interview to [email protected]


9/14/2010 6:17:46 PM9/14/2010 6:17:46 PM

Vol/5 | ISSUE/11

It tAkes

two to taNGo

with dealers; and we have 26,000 of them. With our customer base expanding by over 3,000-4,000 a year, it isn’t too far in the future when we will have 50, 000 dealers. Plus, we operate from 4,000 towns. So, as demand increases, we will have a huge problem of scale. More specifically, we need a reliable means of getting information to our dealers.

Ramachandran: What was the problem with your earlier model? Murty: The earlier system was not working well because we were interacting with our dealers through 97 different points, generally manned by company representatives. Given a mismatch in demand-and-supply skills, interactions between our representatives and our dealers were simply becoming too difficult to manage. The quality of interactions deteriorated, and customer service just was not good enough.

Also, we wanted to turn the interactions between our customers and our representatives into something more meaningful; something more than simply taking an order or informing a customer

The story behind how a flexible business and The story behind how a flexible business and IT relationship drove Asian Paint’s customer satisfaction levels through the roof.

mANIsh ChoksI, Chief-Corporate Strategy & CIo, Asian Paints

1 6 2 s e p t e m b e r 1 5 , 2 0 1 0 | REAL CIO WORLD

taThe story behind how a flexible business and The story behind how a flexible business and IT relationship drove Asian Paint’s customer satisfaction levels through the roof.

mANIsh ChoksI, Chief-Corporate Strategy & CIAsian Paints

Edited by Sneha JhaEdited by Sneha Jha

Vijay Ramachandran, Editor, IDG Media:Asian Paints is growing at a brisk pace. Asian Paints is growing at a brisk pace. How are you managing this growth? How are you managing this growth? P.M. Murty, MD & CEO, Asian Paints:At Asian Paints, we have been observing At Asian Paints, we have been observing a trend for quite some time now: We’ve a trend for quite some time now: We’ve noticed that our growth is 1.75 to two times noticed that our growth is 1.75 to two times the growth of the economy. And over the the growth of the economy. And over the last 20-30 years, we have observed that last 20-30 years, we have observed that the market’s CAGR seems to be increasing. the market’s CAGR seems to be increasing. This is peculiar to the Indian market This is peculiar to the Indian market and we see no end to this growth. So, in and we see no end to this growth. So, in the recent past, we have seen a CAGR of the recent past, we have seen a CAGR of something like 17 percent. This poses huge something like 17 percent. This poses huge challenges for us and to many other Indian challenges for us and to many other Indian brick-and-mortar companies because brick-and-mortar companies because if this is the scale of growth, then many if this is the scale of growth, then many organizations are doubling their sizes in organizations are doubling their sizes in less than five years.

Now, at Asian Paints, we have a very Now, at Asian Paints, we have a very peculiar go-to-market model. We don’t peculiar go-to-market model. We don’t have distributors. Instead we deal directly have distributors. Instead we deal directly


two to taNGo

about something new. We wanted to use the interaction in more fruitful ways, for promotion purposes, for instance, or getting feedback. The earlier system could not deliver on these objectives.

Ramachandran: So how did you fix it?Manish Choksi, Chief-Corporate Strategy & CIO, Asian Paints: (His answer alludes to a central order processing service, which integrates SAP and a new call center, allowing dealers to call in their requirements. For more, read www.cio.in/case-study/asian-paints-redefines-customer-interaction). The one question on our mind was: How will the dealers react to this sort of information availability? We knew the solution would work from a technology perspective, but giving them an experience was equally important. So we tested it with a POC and ran a survey with all our dealers. The results indicated that 86 percent of them liked the quality of information they were receiving.

We had a resounding success, but now we had to figure out how we could scale it to the entire country. We rolled it out to the dealers, but they could not reach us (1800 numbers don’t work across carriers). The system was plagued with problems of connectivity. To remedy the situation, we made some changes to the application, which gave as an edge in customer delight. We also did some human changes. We asked our dealers what was the best time of the day for them to place orders. There are some markets that work early and some others which work late.

We went from running a model change to sewing different pieces of information to derive business insights. We ended up segregating a lot of vital information from our dealers. It’s been a long journey, but a fairly successful one. Six months down the line, we will probably have customer satisfaction rates which are upwards of 80 percent.

Ramachandran: You also changed your distribution model. Why?Murty: We have a base forecast, which we

make once a year. If you make a forecast and it goes wrong, the cost of redistribution is extremely high. This was a challenge we wanted to address.

To attend to this, we set out to create a new model about 10 to 15 years ago. We piloted it in Uttar Pradesh—not the easiest of places to do a pilot—but we chose it nonetheless. The pilot took off, but the model was shelved for a number of reasons including the high costs of freight and an unavailability of manpower.

Our committee realized that the time for that particular project had not yet come. Then, three years ago, our supply chain staff was faced again with a similar issue: We had deployed inventory rather early and we wanted to know how it could be deployed later.

In the meanwhile, technology had changed and storage and automation tools had gained prominence. So we pulled that decade-old idea off the shelf and re-deployed it using current technology. It is still work in progress, but we are very optimistic about it. The project has helped us reduce inventory from 33 days to 28

days. We have improved customer service levels by 3-4 percent. The investment in the project will more or less pay for itself.

Ramachandran: Did IT take a different approach the second time around? Choksi: The template was more or less the same. But the degree of detail, and the amount of integration made a difference. We’ve built a fairly successful ERP and supply chain and that resulted in a more robust integration. Running the entire thing on a warehouse management project brought us a little closer to effective implementation. CIO

Send feedback to [email protected]

P.m. murty, MD & CEo, Asian Paints

make once a year. If you make a forecast and it goes wrong, the cost of redistribution is extremely high. This was a challenge we wanted to address.

To attend to this, we set out to create a new model about 10 to 15 years ago. We piloted it in Uttar Pradesh—not the easiest of places to do a pilot—but we chose it nonetheless. The pilot took off, but the model was shelved for a number of reasons including the high costs of freight and an unavailability of manpower.

Our committee realized that the time for that particular project had not yet come. Then, three years ago, our supply chain staff was faced again with a similar issue: We had deployed inventory rather early and we wanted to know how it could be deployed later.

In the meanwhile, technology had changed and storage and automation tools had gained prominence. So we pulled that decade-old idea off the shelf and re-deployed it using current technology. It is still work in progress, but we are very optimistic about it. The project has helped us reduce inventory from 33 days to 28

, Asian Paints

CIO 100 2010

AwArding AgilityIn the fifth edition of its annual awards, CIO 100 2010, was brighter, sharper, and more eye-opening than it has ever been.

On the 4th of August, ITC Royal Gardenia, Bangalore, played host to the country’s 100 most agile IT leaders. In a year when most organizations were content with keeping their heads above the water, some others turned to their CIOs. And those that did, found themselves surging ahead of the rest.

For moulding themselves into tougher people and arming themselves with swifter weapons—despite tighter budgets, fewer opportunities and bigger challenges—CIO honored 100 IT leaders who showed their business the way ahead.

But celebrating their triumph calls for a lot more than just a momento and a bottle of champagne. To share their moment of

The largest awards ceremony for excellence in IT leadership reveals new gems and shinier ideas.


CIO_100_Event_Report.indd 164CIO_100_Event_Report.indd 164CIO_100_Event_Report.indd 164CIO_100_Event_Report.indd 164CIO_100_Event_Report.indd 164CIO_100_Event_Report.indd 164

Theory of CreativityKeynote speaker, Fredrik Härén is the author of one of the world’s 100 most important business books, The Idea Book. He enthralled the audience with his theory that developing nations have more creative potential than their developed counterparts.

Business-IT AlignmentP.M. Murty, MD & CEoand Manish Choksi, chief-corporate strategy & CIo of Asian Paints discussed how IT and business came together to better customer service. And how that transformed the organization.

Talk IT OutFrom integrated managed services to SlA management and from security to enterprise mobility, IT leaders from India’s largest organizations debated the various challenges and opportunities in IT today.

Special SquadWe reveal the CIos who were honored with this year’s special awards for excellence in five different domains: security, infrastructure, storage, innovation and green IT. Also, the winners of CIo’s coveted Hall of Fame award for consistent excellence.

Joint Venture To extend a quote the Godfather, “Behind every Godfather, “Behind every Godfather,successful person is the hand of their spouse.” This is why CIo invited the o invited the ospouses of this year’s winners. (It also made for nicer looking photos).

glory, we invited Fredrik Härén, founder of Swedish company The Interesting Organization, that inspires people and organizations to innovate. The event’s keynote speaker, Haren spoke about the importance of creativity and why the developing world has an advantage over the developed world when it comes to being creative. Post his talk, Haren gave away two of his books: The Developing Worldand The Idea Book, which is among the world’s 100 most important business books.

The afternoon session saw P.M. Murty, MD & CEO and Manish Choksi, chief-corporate strategy & CIO of Asian Paints take centerstage to set an example of how business-IT alignment can transform an organization.

Apart from the sessions, there were eight thought-provoking and insightful roundtables that paved the way for CIOs to network with their peers and service providers.

Finally came the evening and with it the awards ceremony. Six special awards honored over 30 CIOs for excellence in different domains. After which, CIO gave India its 100 most agile IT leaders.


CIO_100_Event_Report.indd 165CIO_100_Event_Report.indd 165CIO_100_Event_Report.indd 165CIO_100_Event_Report.indd 165CIO_100_Event_Report.indd 165CIO_100_Event_Report.indd 165CIO_100_Event_Report.indd 165 9/14/2010 8:22:49 PM9/14/2010 8:22:49 PM

Three ideas from Fredrik Härén’s talk, based on his new book: Ideas are made up of a mix of existing ideas. For example: a bar that mixed the idea of gin and tonic and steam...and made an inhalable drink.A lot of people think they are creative—they aren’t most of the time. At the top of the list is the US.There are eight reasons why developing nations should be more creativity than developed ones. Here’s one: people in developed nations are more exposed to change. Compare the new buildings someone growing up in India would see to somone else growing up in Sweden.

The business and IT leaders of Asian Paints talked about the importance of alignment.

Vijay Ramachandran, Editor, IDG Media: You changed your distribution model. Why? P.M. Murty, MD & CEO, Asian Paints: We have a base forecast, which we make once a year. If you make a forecast and it goes wrong, the cost of redistribution is extremely high. So, about 10 to 15 years ago, we set out to create a new model. The pilot took off, but the model was shelved.Ramachandran: Did IT take a new approach the second time? Manish Choksi, Chief-Corporate Strategy & CIO, Asian Paints: The template was more or less the same. But the degree of detail, and the amount of integration made a difference...Read the full interview on Pg 162

Choosing the right vendor is critically important. They should know your business inside out. They should appreciate the scale of your operations and its inherent challenges.”

—P.M. Murty, MD & CEO, Asian Paints

“Six months down the line, we will probably have customer satisfaction rates which are upwards of 80 percent.

—Manish Choksi, Chief-Corporate Strategy & CIO, Asian Paints

WORlDWIDE RElEASE Of hIS bOOk AT CIO 100

Three ideas from Fredrik Härén’s talk, based on his new book:

DWIDE bOO

Three ideas from Fredrik Härén’s

WORlDWIDEOf hIS b


the big night is Hereonce a year, India’s most valuable IT leaders converge to celebrate IT excellence.

HousefulCIos made time to attend the day-long symposium ensuring that the CIo 100 event had attendance rate in the high nineties.

the transformersThe CEo and CIoof Asian Paints got on stage to discuss the transformative role of IT.

business InsightCIos participated in

eight roundtables discussing topics as varied as security,

SlAs, and mobility.

Going Live Fredrik Härén’s

worldwide release of his second book:

The Developing World at CIo 100.

under the Glare of Glory

CIos and their spouses at CIo 100 are covered by the

bright lights of the media.

shock and aweCyrus Sahukar,

master of ceremonies

and entertainer surprised and

regaled the audience.

strumming up a stormJazz from the C Street Band, performed live at CIo’s theme party. o’s theme party. o

swapping War storiesIndia’s most experienced IT leaders traded stories over a welcome dinner at Fava in UB City.


First LadiesNo matter how successful CIos are, without the woman of the house, their victory is incomplete.

balakrishnan V.CIo, Polaris

Software labWhy He stands apart: For developing on-demand agile infrastructure for higher business efficiency and profitability.revenue: Rs 1,300 croreemployees: 7,500

ajay Kumar meherVP-IT & New Media, MSM (Sony Entertainment Television)Why He stands apart:

For creating a foolproof method of digital content transfer that created new business opportunities while reducing expenses.employees: 385CeO: Man Jit Singh

s. ramasamyExecutive Director (IS), Indian oil Corporation Why He stands apart: For contributing to the organization’s agility by reducing infrastructure complexity while

increasing availability.revenue: Rs 2,53,964 croreemployees: 35,000

V.s. parthasarathyGroup CIo & Exec. VP-Corporate Finance and M&A, Mahindra & Mahindra Why He stands apart:For harmonizing business processes across over 40 companies and 40,000 end-users of the group to boost responsiveness.

revenue: Rs 20,595 crore Headquarters: Mumbai

amit GuptaDirector and Head Technology Infrastructure Services, Fidelity InternationalWhy He stands apart: For a massive optimization exercise spanning applications, infrastructure and data that augmented productivity.revenue: Rs 1,000 croreestablished: 2004 (India)

It’s a new world out there: New devices mean more data, and new scandals mean more stringent regulations. Which is why the intelligent handling of data has rarely been more important. These are the men that do it well.

storAgeAwAAwAAw rdSS

On far left:Manoj Chugh, President India &

SAARC, Director Global Accounts-Asia Pacific &

Japan, EMC, handed out the award.

Congratulations Winners 2010

CIO100 Storage AwardsPresented By

n. Jayantha prabhu

Head-IT Infrastructure & Technology, Essar Group Why He stands apart:For promoting greater collaboration across group companies by leveraging IT cost effectively.It budget: Rs 80 croreemployees: 590

s.t. sathiava-geeswaranHead-Information

Systems, Hindustan Petroleum Why He stands apart:For ensuring bulletproof business responsiveness by optimizing resource utilization for flexibility.revenue: Rs 108,599 croreemployees: 11,200

m. sureshDirector ADM Group, Hyundai Motor India Why He stands apart: For improving productivity and manageability while

pruning cost by optimizing infrastructure.revenue: Rs 20,000 croreemployees: 8,000

Devesh mathurChief Technology and Services officer, HSBC IndiaWhy He stands apart: For creating a seamless customer experience integrating 121 core applications into a single suite.Group Gm & Country

Head: Naina lal Kidwaiemployees: 31,000established: 1853Locations: 94

arun GuptaCCA & Group CTo, Shoppers StopWhy He stands apart:For re-architecting infrastructure for speed and scale while reducing running expenses.revenue: Rs 1,452 croreemployees: 4,500

Every fight, no matter where, boils down to two things: bare metal and a strategy. Which is why infrastructure is so important. look at these men closely, they’re creating the foundations of tomorrow’s most aggressive businesses.

infrAstructureAwAAwAAw rdSS

Left, without the stole: Sanjay Jain, CEO, Tulip

Telecom, handed out the award.

CIO100 Infrastructure AwardsPresented By Congratulations

Honorees 2010

srinivasan Iyengar

Director-IT & operations, Aegon Religare life InsuranceWhy He stands apart:For enabling the real-time issuance of life policies online with total sum insured of over Rs 3,000 crorerevenue: Rs 167 croreemployees: 2,500

amrita GangotraDirector-IT India & South

Asia, Bharti Airtel Why she stands apart:For radically changing the way customer data was perceived thus improving campaign impact and revenue.revenue: Rs 41,829 croreChairman & mD: Sunil Mittal

anantha sayanaHead-Corporate IT, larsen & Toubro Why He stands apart:

For aligning to business needs and delivering a lightning fast, core application rollout for a new business unit.employees: 40,000It team: 25

selvam K.CIo, S Tel Why He stands apart:For empowering the organization by providing the framework for extra-fast growth.employees: 800

CeO: Shamik DasHeadquarters: Gurgaon

navin ChadhaIT-Director, Vodafone EssarWhy He stands apart: For saving Rs 51 crore by developing an internal clearing house for intra-operator transactions.revenue: Rs 20,000 croreemployees: 9,400CeO: Arun Sarin

A clever person, they say, turns great troubles into little ones and little ones into none at all. These five IT leaders excel in finding shiny smart solutions that navigate their companies past tricky challenges.

innovAtionAwAAwAAw rdSS

Anand Sankaran, Senior Vice President and

Business Head - India & ME, Wipro Infotech,

handed out the award.


CIO100 Innovation AwardsPresented By

sharat m. airaniChief-IT (Systems

& Security), Forbes Marshall Group of CompaniesWhy He stands apart: For championing an integrated appraoch for greater productivity and better security.revenue: Rs 600 croreemployees: 1,000

Vishal salviSr. VP & CISo, HDFC Bank

Why He stands apart: For creating a safer environment for customers to transact by adopting a holistic approach toward information security.revenue: Rs 12,194 croreemployees: 32,000

Dhiren savlaDirector-Technology, Crisil (Standard & Poor’s Company)Why He stands apart: For developing a dynamic

security management solution.revenue: Rs 539 croreemployees: 2,500CeO & mD: Roopa Kudva

sanjay JainCIo & Head-Global Transformation Practice, WNS Global ServicesWhy He stands apart: For improving the ability of WNS Global Services to react to threats.revenue: Rs 2,621 croreemployees: 21,958

Group CeO: Keshav Murugesh

Deepak routGeneral Manager & CISo, UninorWhy He stands apart:For creating a robust multi-tiered security environment with frugal running expense.employees: 2,500Chairman: Sanjay Chandraestablished: 2009

Throughout history, the men we’ve respected the most are the ones in the front, securing the way for others. For leading their companies safely into new business vistas, these CIos carry our mark of respect.

securityAwAAwAAw rdSS

John McCormack, President, Websense,

handed out the award.


CIO100 Security AwardsPresented By

n. natarajCIo, Hexaware

TechnologiesWhy He stands apart: For reducing 930,000 kilos of carbon by using a combination of virtualization and consolidation.revenue: Rs 10,386 croreemployees: 5,300

s.C. mittalSenior ED (MS & IT) and Group CTo, IFFCo

Why He stands apart: For enhancing productivity by making collaboration the lifeline of the organization.employees: 6,700mD & CeO: Dr. U.S. AwasthiIt budget: Rs 20 crore

murali Krishna K.Vice President & Head-Computers & Communication DivisionInfosys TechnologiesWhy He stands apart:

For harnessing the cloud and turning it into a collaborative and more profitable platform.revenue: Rs 21,140 crore employees: 113,796 mD & CeO:Gopalakrishnan S.

sudhir reddyVP& CIo, MindTree Why He stands apart: For greening his organization by cutting paper consumption by over 50 percent through smarter

document management.revenue: Rs 1,237 croreemployees: 9,012

pertisth mankotiaHead-IT, Sheela FoamWhy He stands apart: For spearheading a complete datacenter transformation to save money and improve business response time.revenue: Rs 1,000 croreemployees: 2,000

It’s a shame, but the truth is being eco-friendly isn’t on many CIos’ agendas. Some, however, like these five men, stand apart. They have led their businesses into a greener tomorrow.

green itAwAAwAAw rdSS

Far left: Shrinivas Chebbi, CGM and Vice

President – India and SAARC, APC,

Schneider Electric, handed out the award.

CIO100 Green Edge AwardsPresented By Congratulations

Honorees 2010

balakrishnan V.CIo, Polaris

Why He stands apart: For developing on-demand agile infrastructure for higher business efficiency.

Daya prakashHoD- IT, lG ElectronicsWhy He stands apart: For introducing automation and speeding reconciliation.

K.t. rajanDirector-operations, IS & Projects, Allergan IndiaWhy He stands apart: For enhancing employee engagement and opportunity development.Karan b. singhVP & HoD-IT, BSES Why He stands apart: For providing customers with

an integrated experience.

avinash aroraDirector-IS (India & S.E. Asia), New Holland FiatWhy He stands apart: For empowering dealers and stockists to maintain lean inventory levels.

m. sureshDirector ADM Group, Hyundai Motor India Why He stands apart:For improving productivity while pruning costs.

anantha sayanaHead-Corporate IT, l&TWhy He stands apart: For delivering a lightning fast, core app rollout for a new business unit.

V. subramaniamDirector-IT & CIo (India &

Gulf Area), otis Elevator Why He stands apart: For applying lean management principles to IT to improve reliability.

sunil rawlaniEVP-IT, Process & Quality, HDFC Standard life Why He stands apart: For enabling partners to co-operate thus saving Rs 1.5 crore yearly.

David briskmanVP & CIo, Ranbaxy laboratories Why He stands apart: For providing real-time insights and improving business response.

s. s. sharmaChief GM-IT, JK Tyre & IndustriesWhy He stands apart: For

enabling the organization to be more responsive to customer needs.

r.I.s. sidhu(Not in pic)Chief General Manager, Punjab National BankWhy He stands apart: For applying smart technology to change the lives of 20,000 dairy farmers across 120 villages.

p. Kalyanasundar(Not in photo)GM-IT, Bank of IndiaWhy He stands apart: For accelerating collaboration and maximizing knowledge-sharing across branches by leveraging Web 2.0 technologies.

Getting to the top is one thing, staying there is another. Consistent excellence —year after year, across parameters including agility, boldness, and innovation, —is the hallmark of these men.

hAll of fAmeAwAAwAAw rdSS

Sixth from left: Prakash Krishnamoorthy, Country

Manager, StorageWorks Division, Hewlett-Packard

India, handed out the award.

Congratulations Honorees 2010

CIO100 Hall of Fame AwardsPresented By

everything you wanted to know and more

Building on the CloudAs more enterprises

turn to the cloud, their CIOs have begun

to discover new challenges—and

new solutions and benefits. You too, can make the best of the

cloud by learning from these pioneers.

What’s Inside Deep Dive

FeaturesConnection Friction ��188Clouded Contract ��194

ColumnHow the Cloud Changed The Telegraph ��192

real CIo WorlD | s e p t e m b e r 1 5 , 2 0 1 0 1 8 7VOl/5 | ISSUE/11

Deep Dive_SEPTEMBER2010.indd 83 9/14/2010 7:25:09 PM

VOl/5 | ISSUE/118 4 s e p t e m b e r 1 5 , 2 0 1 0 | real CIo WorlD

ConneCtion

When integrating cloud computing services with internal systems, confusion reigns. Lack of standards, concerns about availability and the potential for vendor lock-in is increasing integration woes and discouraging CIOs from moving to the cloud.

Cloud computing promises the ability to move applications and systems to the location and

platform that makes the most sense—in terms of risk and economics—at any given time.

Retailers, for example, can buy extra transaction-processing capacity during holiday shopping season and give it up when sales ebb. Financial services companies might buy infrastructure in which to test systems to support new products, and then walk away from it

when development is done. One cloud vendor may offer a better deal than another, prompting CIOs to

FrictionBY KIm S. NASh

switch providers. And as cloud computing evolves, some corporate IT systems will continue to reside in your datacenter, some perhaps with outsourcers and others with one or more cloud vendors. You will have to manage it all as though it were one computing environment, without controlling it all. “Your datacenter doesn’t define your IT environment anymore,”

says Judith Hurwitz, president of the consultancy Hurwitz and Associates and author of Cloud Computing for Dummies. This, she says, makes integration “the most important issue in the cloud.”

Yet there are no standards for integrating cloud computing systems. XML may be the simplest way to move data from one Web-based system to another, but many

VOl/5 | ISSUE/111 8 8 s e p t e m b e r 1 5 , 2 0 1 0 | real CIo WorlD



Deep Dive | Cloud Computing

Of CIOs say integration with legaCy systems is a major ConCern when mOvIng tO the ClOud.SOUrCE: TPI

the will to circumvent IT, says Don Goin, CIO at auto loan company Santander Consumer USA.

Last year, some Santander Consumer employees in the marketing department brought in tools from CRM vendor Salesforce.com. They started to use the Force.com development platform to build custom BI tools that didn’t comply with the company’s existing standards. Goin appointed an IT team to bring those projects in line with the rest of the company’s BI initiatives.

“I am 100 percent responsible for all technology and every shred of data that moves in and out of my company,” he says. Goin doesn’t want IT to be seen as “the say-no people,” he says, but end users may not foresee the difficulties of meshing new products with existing technology. “On-premise, we have technology standards. Nothing like that exists in the cloud,” he explains. Goin sees a parallel between cloud computing and the early client-server days. “I was at Southwest Airlines, and it wasn’t uncommon for a pilot to go home and develop a crew-scheduling application with PowerBuilder and say he wanted to put it out to everyone,” Goin recalls. “Those systems eventually worked themselves back into IT.”

Even when cloud computing is a firm goal, unexpected bumps arise. The Web makes the cloud possible, but many of the

legacy systems that cloud applications need to communicate with weren’t built for online use.

Big vendors, such as Salesforce and NetSuite (N), which sells e-commerce and CRM software, offer good integration tools for popular business applications, such as software from Oracle, says Stuart Appley, CIO at Shorenstein Properties, a private company that owns and manages commercial real estate. But they don’t have tools to interact with older or niche providers, much less to systems you’ve developed in-house.

Appley found a way around it. A new invoice-scanning and approval workflow system that he just rolled out uses Microsoft’s BizTalk Server to route information to and from the company’s various on- and off-premise systems. BizTalk will manage data that different cloud applications process in different formats, including FTP, various Web services and custom APIs, he says.“We’re taking data from one cloud application to another. We’re bringing it to us as the intermediary, transforming it and sending it off,” he says.

Meanwhile, Hurwitz, the consultant, advises CIOs to proceed with caution when working with a cloud vendor’s own APIs and integration tools. Several organizations are working on cloud computing specifications, but the ideas are new and so far no guidelines have been approved by standards bodies.

Draw yourself a PictureThe key to cloud integration success is settling on a design for your integration scheme, says Matt Hahn, CIO at PDS Tech, a staffing firm that supplies engineers and IT contractors to companies such as Boeing. But because cloud technologies change quickly and standards aren’t yet set, he says, planning involves a certain amount of risk. Hahn hopes he’ll be able to apply the lessons he’s learned in SaaS integration to help him with cloud-integration projects.

Ill

US

Tr

AT

ION

BY

mm

Sh

AN

ITh

CIOs venturing into the cloud will have to connect Web and non-Web systems, and do so in a mix of cloud and on-premise environments. It’s a challenge on par with efforts a decade ago to connect back-end legacy systems with Web-based user-facing applications.

Veterans of those days, as well as of more recent SaaS deployments, know something of the integration challenges cloud computing will bring. But there are some twists that CIOs should know how to identify and address, such as connecting Web applications to niche or legacy systems without built-in support for virtualized servers and choosing from among the nascent cloud-interoperability specifications vying for dominance. What’s more, the vendors emerging as big players, such as Amazon and Google (GOOG), lack experience serving enterprise customers, Hurwitz says.

IT leaders need to know more about the inner workings of cloud providers than some providers are willing to show, says Marty Colburn, CTO at Finra (Financial Industry Regulatory Authority), which oversees securities firms.

Integration emerged as a sticking point right away as Colburn explored whether to move e-mail into the cloud. He wants to be able to access archived e-mail quickly with his own extraction tools in case of audits for regulatory compliance. But he is frustrated that the vendors he’s talked to so far won’t reveal much about their architectures, claiming they don’t want competitors to know how they do business. “Without that,” he says, “how can you tell how to build integration? We’re not into buying a black box,” he says.

no easy answersYou may think that you can postpone using cloud services at all until integrating them becomes straightforward. But you can’t. Employees can bring SaaS applications into your company pretty easily; all they need is a credit card and

49%


Informatica pulls the data from two systems running at Bay and Bay—a transportation-management application that routes trucks and an IBM DB2 database for analytics—and pushes it to Salesforce.

Network downtime is a rare problem, Adams says, but still one that CIOs should address by having redundant connections on-premise and also by specifying minimum uptime—and the consequences of not receiving that uptime—in service-level agreements. For a small or midsize company without many redundant systems, he says, an “Internet connection is really going to be your weakest link.”

Still, some industries may find only marginal use for cloud computing because integration can’t be done as transparently as it can on-premise, says Colburn, the Finra CIO. Financial services companies must deal with so many compliance issues that a clear and complete view of their vendors’ operations is imperative, he says. For example, like other securities exchanges and associations, Finra must adhere to the strict recordkeeping regulations in the Securities Exchange Act, If a cloud provider won’t specify exactly where Finra’s e-mail is at any given time, Colburn says, he can’t be


VOl/5 | ISSUE/118 6 s e p t e m b e r 1 5 , 2 0 1 0 | real CIo WorlD

Each vendor has tools to connect its software to other packages, Hahn says, but this combination of vendors didn’t have pre-existing tools to support each other. The vendors offered to build interfaces, but Hahn said no. He used the vendors’ integration tools, but had his staff do the work because, he explains, they know their company’s business processes better than the software and service vendors do.

Hahn switched to SaaS to save money as the economy soured, and he found immediate support from senior executives. The company has since saved $600,000 to $700,000 (about `270 lakh to `315 lakh) per year on infrastructure, upgrades and staff costs, he says. “We’re a $345 million (Rs 1,552 crore) revenue company. That’s enough [savings] to get eyebrows raised.”

Making the in-house Lawson suite the clearinghouse for data integration, with the off-site systems acting as spokes that send data to that hub, decreases the chances that data will get out of sync, he says. It’s clear which system has the most current, authoritative data.

In Shorenstein’s set-up, where BizTalk will be the orchestrator, CIO Appley says that having only one version of the truth

has always been important to making decisions driven by data. But because cloud computing requires so much control be relinquished to vendors, keeping data in sync is a bigger challenge. “Make sure you have a strategy,” he cautions.

the network FactorEventually, cloud vendors will develop or buy tools—whether or not they’re based on open standards—so their customers can integrate whatever they want, predicts Ken Harris, CIO of Shaklee, a consumer products company. It’s vital to any cloud vendor’s future prosperity, Harris points out. “They don’t have an effective business model if they can’t rapidly and conveniently connect” with customers’ on-premise systems.

Integration can suffer when networks bog down, says Rob Adams, CIO of Bay and Bay, a family-owned freight mover. Bay and Bay already uses Salesforce and plans to port more of its applications off-premise, he says. To pass month-to-date metrics about Bay and Bay’s customers between Salesforce and on-premise systems, the company bought Informatica, a data-integration tool that Salesforce recommends.


sure that it is easily accessible. So for now, Finra’s e-mail will stay in the regulator’s own datacenters, he says.

Dan Greller, co-CIO at Legg Mason (LM), a global asset-management firm with $685 billion (about `3,082,500 crore) under management, hasn’t put any systems in the cloud. Security isn’t good enough yet and integration challenges give him pause, he says. “Commodity” applications, such as help-desk management, would be best suited for early cloud experiments, he says, in part because they don’t need to be tightly integrated with Legg Mason’s core business systems.

Bad integration can degrade overall application performance, which a financial services firm can’t afford, he says. “Going to a more distributed computing model always brings up concerns about performance, and cloud is extreme distributed computing,” he says.

For example, if an analytics application running on-premise draws data from different transaction systems in the cloud, business analysts have to know how the integration occurs and with what latency so they don’t make decisions or run analyses on wrong or old data. So while Greller

doesn’t dismiss cloud computing, he wants to see how standards evolve before making a serious commitment. If he knows that any cloud vendors he might work with will adhere to solid standards, then integration will be easier and more reliable, he says.

money isn’t everythingCloud vendors may have technology and pricing that appeal to cost-cutters, but some vendors haven’t yet figured out how to be business partners with CIOs who aren’t looking only to save money, says Steve Cranford, a managing director at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

CIOs considering ways to improve operations, generate revenue and find competitive advantage don’t just want to hand over critical systems to cloud vendors simply to lower costs, says Cranford, who consults with CIOs building business intelligence and data-management systems. Some CIOs want cloud vendors to consult with them about bigger goals, including integrating competing cloud systems with each other and merging cloud systems with those on-premise. Cloud providers are taking some steps toward providing this capability. Amazon, for example, works with Capgemini to help CIOs evaluate cloud offerings. Verizon offers “vendor-neutral” cloud consulting. But consulting is not central to cloud vendors’ business models, Cranford says—at least, not yet. “Most cloud providers are heavy technology companies—speeds, feeds and firewalls.”

Colburn, who has piloted some cloud applications, agrees. “We’re seeing maturity issues with some of the product lines,” he says. “We and they have to walk before we run.” CIo

send feedback on this feature to [email protected]

real CIo WorlD | s e p t e m b e r 1 5 , 2 0 1 0 9 1VOl/5 | ISSUE/11


eventually, ClOud vendOrs wIll DeveloP or buy tools sO CustOmers Can Integrate whatever they want.


Over a four year period (2008-2011), IT headcount shifts from 90 percent run-the-business-skills and 10 percent change-the-business-skills to 20 percent run-the-business-skills and 80 percent change-the-business-skills. Moving to an asset-lite, SaaS-forward strategy lets the Telegraph’s IT organization focus on delivering application functionality that helps the Telegraph offer more value to its readers. In fact, the Telegraph’s IT strategy is that 100 percent of

new business ventures will be cloud-based. No software procurement or hardware provisioning looms on the horizon.

It makes IT part of business strategy development and innovation. Wright made mention that instead of having conversations like “why isn’t the ABC application running properly?”, he now engages in conversations with business units who inquire “how can we implement XYZ to offer a new services to our readers and/or advertisers?” Cloud computing has changed the role of IT and given it a seat at the business table rather than being relegated to the little kids’ cost center table.

It supports the way the Telegraph’sbusiness is changing. Wright described how one of the Telegraph’s reporters, who

Cordys for business process management and workflow

The Telegraph also uses Amazon Web Services (AWS) to run analytics.

Essentially, Wright wants to get out of the business of running IT, recognizing that specialized providers operate less expensively than he could in a self-hosted datacenter. Moreover, he feels that security has improved, in that the cloud providers implement a far higher set of security

practices than the Telegraph had in place or could afford to implement.

The Telegraph also executes a SaaS-forward IT strategy, preferring to pay for application services rather than leveraging IaaS, which would leave it still managing infrastructure, albeit non-physical infrastructure, which Wright refers to as “virtual tin.”

Wright outlined the following benefits his IT organization is realizing from cloud computing:

It shifts IT from keeping the lights on to delivering customer-facing value. Wright presented a chart showing the changing makeup of IT headcount and how cloud computing supports delivering business value.

it strategy | Not too long ago I was in London speaking at the Cloud Computing World Forum where the most fascinating presentation was by Toby Wright, CTO of the Telegraph Media Group, publisher of the Daily Telegraph, the oldest continuously publishing newspaper in the world. Wright presented a cloud adoption strategy that was compelling, to say the least.

As background, it’s no secret that the newspaper business is in a terrible state.

My local paper, the San Francisco Chronicle, has suffered something like a 30 percent drop in circulation over the past five years. The Telegraph is also suffering a continuous shrinkage in circulation as well. So when Wright took over responsibility for IT, his first task was cost-cutting. His next was changing the way IT works at the Telegraph, and cloud computing is a central part of that process.

The Telegraph’s IT approach can be summed up as: let someone else run operations. Wright outlined his firm’s use of SaaS applications:

Salesforce for customer interactionGoogle apps for e-mail and collaborationOoyala for video distributionDisqus for blog comments

Transforming Transforming Transforming Transforming Transforming The Telegraph The Telegraph

by bernard golden

I am struck by how much the Telegraph is ‘living the cloud vision’ even while other companies are still assessing or running cloud pilots.


More Businesses Turn to the Cloudwhat companies do with the cloud depends on their size.

most businesses now use some element of cloud computing according to new research from mimecast. however, security concerns remain a barrier to adoption. At the same time 57 percent of cloud users say that moving to the technology has actually improved security.

According to the mimecast Cloud Adoption Survey, 51 percent of enterprises have already adopted some form of cloud computing. The survey also found that 66 percent of enterprises are now thinking of adopting cloud.

Companies that use the cloud said they were very satisfied with their cloud experiences: 74 percent of users claimed that they used resources better, 73 percent reported a reduction in infrastructure costs and 72 percent said that end-user experience had improved.

Despite this, 62 percent said that storing data on external was always a risk and 74 percent said there was a trade-off between cost and IT security with the cloud.

Of the companies that are using the cloud, the most popular services are cloud-based e-mail, storage and security. There’s a clear distinction when it comes to company size: smaller enterprises are more likely to use cloud-based security, while large enterprises will opt for cloud-based storage.

—maxwell Cooter

was preparing a review of a digital camera, began by posting a picture of the box the device arrived in. Over the course of a couple of weeks, she posted updates of her progress in evaluating the camera, with lots of photos and comments about her experience getting up to speed with it. By the time her final review was written, she had created a group of followers looking forward to the piece. This kind of engagement is the hallmark of social media, and community involvement is the sine qua non of the business environment of the future. Applications that make it easy to publish and support rich involvement via comments and online video help the Telegraph play in the changing world of media, content, and community engagement.

I was struck by how much the Telegraph is ‘living the cloud vision’. While other companies are performing cloud strategy assessments or implementing pilot experiments, the Telegraph is moving headlong into an asset-lite, cloud computing future.

What lessons can IT leaders draw from the Telegraph’s experience?

First, to quote Samuel Johnson (in a nod to the UK location of the conference): “Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.” Or, to quote a more contemporary observer, Rahm Emanuel, President Obama’s Chief of Staff, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.”

In a way, the Telegraph didn’t have a choice about changing the way it did computing. The wretched financial situation it faced forced a re-evaluation of its IT practices. It couldn’t continue down the same road, so it changed direction. If it didn’t face such a financial crisis, the Telegraph could have tried incremental, minor changes—the traditional “cut travel, training, see if we can ask our vendors for a little contract relief”—in the hope that somehow things would get back on track in the future.

This attitude accounts for today’s more typical “we’re looking at cloud computing and think it may play a role in the future, but we’re just doing some minor things with it now in one of our smaller divisions.” In other words, we don’t want to disrupt our practices too much, because that would

be really, really hard. The Telegraph didn’t have the luxury to adopt that attitude, because following it would have put it out of business.

Second, the Telegraph’s experience provides evidence of how cloud computing supports IT becoming a value provider rather than a cost center. As long as IT conversations are dominated about investing capital in infrastructure, and the majority of its budget is devoted to ‘running the business’, it will be placed with the other internal service organizations and excluded from discussions about how IT can help frontline business units deliver greater value.

Many discussions about the role of IT in enterprises cite the ‘consumerization of IT’, which is a code for easy-to-use, intuitive devices. A different way to interpret this consumerization is the fact that IT now infuses new consumer products; that is, our world is developing a data-centric perspective, even if we think of it differently by characterizing it as digital music, or table apps, or whatever. The reality is: All of these consumer initiatives (and the business initiatives that echo them) can’t exist without IT. IT groups that fail to move rapidly to support these changes, in part by relying on specialized

applications and infrastructure providers, are going to be banished to the nether regions of companies.

Third, and finally, the Telegraph provides an instructive lesson in how rapidly the business world is changing and how imperative it is to move to an IT approach that supports it. Ten years ago the newspaper world was one of the greatest industries extant, with net profit margins well north of 20 percent. Today, it’s a wasteland of red ink, layoffs, and mergers. Ten years from first to worst. That’s how quickly. It’s a mistake to view the churn and chaos of newspapers as somehow isolated with no implication for one’s own. The increasing digitization and IT infusion (think the consumerization of IT) will affect every industry, and IT organizations have to be prepared for more change in the next five years than in the previous fifty. When change is afoot, it’s critical to be nimble. CIo

bernard golden is CeO of consulting firm hyperstratus,

which specializes in virtualization, cloud computing and

related issues. he is also the author of virtualization for

dummies. send feedback on this column to [email protected]




Standard cloud computing contracts are one-sided documents that impose responsibility for security on customers, disclaim all liability and give the vendor the right to suspend service at will. So why would you bother to sign on the dotted line?

The typical cloud computing contract can look downright simple to an experienced IT outsourcing customer downright simple to an experienced IT outsourcing customer downright simpleaccustomed to inking pacts hundreds of pages long that outline service levels and penalties, pricing and benchmarks, processes and procedures, security and business continuity requirements, and clauses delineating the rights and responsibilities of the IT services supplier and customer.

And that simplicity, say IT outsourcing experts, is the problem with cloud computing.

“Failure to understand the true meaning of the cloud and to address the serious legal and contractual issues associated with cloud computing can be catastrophic,” says Daniel Masur, a partner in law firm Mayer Brown. “The data security issues are particularly challenging, and failure to address them in the contract can expose a customer to serious violations of applicable privacy laws.”

If a cloud services contract (whether it’s for software-, infrastructure- or platform-as a service) seems less complex, that’s because it’s designed to offer products and services “as is”—without any vendor representations or warranties, responsibility for adequate security or data protection, or liability for damages, says Masur. Cloud service providers will tell you the simplicity is precisely the

point. They can offer customers low-cost, instantly available, pay-per-use options for everything from infrastructure on-demand to desktop support to business applications only by pooling resources and putting the onus for issues like data location or DR on the client.

“It is reasonable for vendors, particularly those who provide both traditional and cloud-type services, to point out that the further they are getting away from standard contracts—and, by implication, standard services—the more difficult it is for them to close the business case,” says Doug Plotkin, head of US sourcing for PA Consulting Group. “Much of the economic benefit that the cloud can deliver is predicated on the services—and the agreements—being standard.”

Thus, the average cloud contract on the street is a one-sided document with little room for customer-specific protection or customization, says Masur. So, should you sign on that dotted line? And the frustrating answer is: sometimes. “More robust contractual protection may or may not be the correct answer,” says Masur. “It depends.” Prospective cloud customers should take into account the criticality of the software, data or services in question, says Masur.For non-core business tools or services involving routine, non-sensitive data, it often makes sense for customers to accept looser



ContractContractContractContractContractContractContractContractContractContractContractContractContractContractContractContractContractContractContractContractContractContractContractContractContractContractContractContractContractContractContractContractContractContractContractContractContractContractContractContractContractContractContractContractContractContractContractContractContractContractContractContractContractContractContractContractContractCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedCloudedClouded

By Stephanie Overby When you migrate yourData Center, make sure to go

in the right direction.The transformation of the data center is not a one-size-fits-all proposition. Extreme Networks® Four Pillar strategy for moving from physical to highly virtualized and on to the cloud enables enterprises and hosting providers of any scale to migrate their networks at their own pace.

Let Extreme Networks show you how the data center network is evolving to meet the challenges of next-generation virtualization and cloud environments.

Be ready when you’re asked to move your data center from physical to virtual and on to the cloud.

For more information on how Extreme Networks can help youmigrate your data center, download our latest whitepaper.

Extreme Networks Direct Attach™extremenetworks.com/newDC

© 2010 Extreme Networks, Inc. All Rights reserved. Extreme Networks, the Extreme Networks logo and Direct Attach are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Extreme Networks, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries.

extremenetworks.com

contract terms for that lower price.But when you’re considering a cloud-

related option involving mission critical systems, regulated personal data or sensitive BI, it’s time to call legal and get the red pens ready.

But, “Many prospective customers either fail to address the issues unique to cloud computing, like data privacy and compliance, or do so in a manner that increases their price without delivering commensurate value,” says Masur.

While many cloud providers have been reluctant to deviate from their standard contracts whether due to their own restrictive business models or industry inexperience, that’s beginning to change in this quickly evolving market.

For would-be cloud consumers looking to beef up the standard vendor agreement, the traditional IT outsourcing contract can be a good model. While there are no standard best practices in cloud contracting and no one-

and broad indemnification obligation with unlimited liability for certain breaches.

The average cloud services customer may not be so lucky. You may find no vendors willing to agree to your must-have terms—an indication you’re not ready to send that particular IT service to the cloud.

But watch out for the converse, as well—an over-eager provider that agrees to everything. “A provider can agree to anything, and if the service level penalty for failing to deliver is insignificant, it can be cheaper to fail than in fact to deliver,” says Plotkin. “This is a danger for all service providers. But it is probably a bit more of an issue because many of the cloud providers are less mature and have not gone through the crucible of having to keep promises as the larger, traditional providers have over many years.” CIo

send feedback on this feature to [email protected]

size-fits-all document capable of covering the spectrum of services, it can help to peruse a list of standard outsourcing provisions. Determine which are critical to address in your cloud services deal. After all, cloud computing is just another way to purchase software or infrastructure services, says Masur. Traditional outsourcing contract terms offer useful guidelines for cloud computing engagements, particularly IaaS transactions involving sensitive data. And software licensing terms offer useful precedent for SaaS deals.

When Los Angeles and its IT outsourcing provider CSC signed a three-year Google Apps contract, the city was able to incorporate a surprising number of customer-friendly terms into the deal: A private cloud for sensitive data, mandatory data encryption, service levels with meaningful penalties, e-discovery functionality, a four-hour service restoration requirement, clearly defined exit rights, mandatory subcontractor flow-down,



Ill

US

Tr

AT

ION

BY

VIK

AS

KA

PO

Or

When you migrate yourData Center, make sure to go

in the right direction.The transformation of the data center is not a one-size-fits-all proposition. Extreme Networks® Four Pillar strategy for moving from physical to highly virtualized and on to the cloud enables enterprises and hosting providers of any scale to migrate their networks at their own pace.

Let Extreme Networks show you how the data center network is evolving to meet the challenges of next-generation virtualization and cloud environments.

Be ready when you’re asked to move your data center from physical to virtual and on to the cloud.

For more information on how Extreme Networks can help youmigrate your data center, download our latest whitepaper.

Extreme Networks Direct Attach™extremenetworks.com/newDC

© 2010 Extreme Networks, Inc. All Rights reserved. Extreme Networks, the Extreme Networks logo and Direct Attach are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Extreme Networks, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries.

extremenetworks.com

Few industries, if any, have seen the trials and tribulation that the Indian telecom sector has witnessed over the last few years. Severe competition, extreme expansion, increased regulations, and the almost constant commoditization of its every offering has make India’s telecom industry among the toughest playgrounds in the world.

Yet, there are new opportunities every day. Telecom players have found a way to constantly tailor customer offerings and then there is the advent of 3G.

To take advantage of these openings, telcom companies are going to have to increase their ability to scale, to be faster than the competition and still stay nimble. And that’s where their CIOs will come to their rescue. In its first-ever event focused for the CIOs of the telecom sector,

IT leaders and industry leaders came together to discuss the most dynamic telecom market in the world. Here's why their optimism is tinged with worry.

Speedy dial

T.R. Dua, DepuTy DiRecToRGeneRal, coai

“The burden of levies and duties on the telecom industry in India are the highest in the world.”

Sanjay KapooR, ceo, BhaRTi aiRTel

“professionalism and planning has taken us to a stage where the scale of operations doesn’t get us panicking anymore.”

REAL CIO WORLD | S e p t e m b e r 1 5 , 2 0 1 0 1 9 7Vol/5 | ISSUE/11

ASSoCIATE PARTNERSpreSentS

CIO magazine looked at what it takes to be an IT leader in the fast-growing sector and the opportunities that IT can move to contribute to their companies’ bottom lines.

The telecom summit invited some of the brightest minds in the industry and its thought leaders including T.R. Dua, Deputy Director General, COAI; Sanjay Kapoor, CEO, Bharti Airtel, industry watchers and IT leaders from every major Indian telecom company.

Here are some lessons they shared.

Big problems, Big Changes Siddharth Vishwanath, associate director, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and author of a 2010 report on India’s telecom market said that the Indian telecom industry is at a second cusp, having crossed 630 million subscribers. Various factors have lead to this phenomenal growth including strong demographics, a young population, increasing urbanization, a growth middle-class and a booming economy.

Another factor that has driven this growth is the fierce competition which has compelled operators to innovate consistently. However, there have been a number of inhibiting factors and the biggest of them, he said, is a lack of spectrum. He pointed out that Indian operators operate within a spectrum range of 10 megahertz, while their global counterparts operate with 25 megahertz.

The other problem, Vishwanath outlined, was that of over-crowding. “There are way too many players in the Indian market,” he said. That, he reasons, is why so many licenses that are issued don’t get transferred into operations. He believes that the market will soon see a consolidation of players, a point of view that Bharti Airtel’s CEO, Sanjay Kapoor, agreed to.

Despite these problems, Vishwanath believes that the Indian telecom sector has great potential and will continue to see growth. His report predicts that by 2014, Indian mobile usage (number of SIM cards, not unique users) will cross the one billion mark. This growth will be fuelled by increased rural penetration which he predicts will reach 63 percent. He also said that broadband will be at the helm of this growth. “The majority of broadband in India will be on the wireless platform. 3G and BWA (broadband wireless association) will drive that growth.”

Another big change Vishwanath anticipates is the rise of VAS providers. “There will be a blurring of lines within the mobile value chain ecosystem,” he said. As is already evident, mobile apps will drive the choice of customers. “Mobile operators will find that they need to re-invent themselves to leverage the changing revenue structure of the telecom industry,” he said.

Vishwanath also said that spectrum management would be the most decisive factor in shaping the future of the telecom industry. “We are going to witness denser spectrums, with maximum spectrum utilization. From a regulatory standpoint we need to move into a quasi-market driven spectrum management scenario.”

The Scale Challenge All this growth is leading many to ask: Is it too much to handle? CIOs at the event agreed that scaling up their businesses was unavoidable. “Scale is built into our DNA itself. Right from the beginning, we

“Because India is uncharted territory and has 23 circuits, we have no choice but to use cutting-edge technology."

“Mobile operators need to re-invent themselves to leverage the changing revenue structure of the telecom industry.”

“Scale is built into our dNa. Right from the beginning, we planned for scale whether it’s for our network or our iT."

“We don’t act smart with our bread-and-butter systems. But when it comes to differentiators, we take calculated risks."

“How is it that people have pOCs for a solution that is expected to scale to 2 milllion, but not one that might scale to 10 million?"

Manoj niGaM Vp, cS-iT, VoDafone

SiDDhaRTh ViShwanaThwanaThwana h, aSSociaTociaTocia e DiRecToR, pRicewaTicewaTicewa eRhouSecoopeRS

Manoj ShRiVaSTaVa Vp-iT, Reliance aDa GRoup

RajiV BaTR BaTR Ba a, cio, MTS

R.K. upaDhyay, DGM (iT), BSnl

Vol/5 | ISSUE/111 9 8 S e p t e m b e r 1 5 , 2 0 1 0 | REAL CIO WORLD

Event Report I Telepulse

Vishak Raman, Regional Director SAARC & Saudi Arabia,Fortinet; sanjay kumaR, Vice President, Progress Software; senthil s.P., Senior Solutions Architect, SAP India; jai keVen kumaR, Pre-sales and Consulting Head, BMC.

Event Report Event Report I Telepulse

planned for scale whether it’s for our network or our IT,” said Manoj Shrivastava VP-IT, Reliance ADA Group.

Scaling up comes with its fair share of challenges. One of the big questions before CIOs is whether to use tried-and-tested technologies or more innovative ones in their attempt to deal with scale challenges.

“Because India is uncharted territory and has 23 circuits, we have no choice but to come up with cutting-edge technology,” said Manoj Nigam VP, CS-IT at Vodafone. Nigam added that since most global architecture and solutions are not deployable in India, companies here have to innovate to satisfy their companies’ aggressive needs.

Rajiv Batra, CIO, MTS, begged to differ. “For our bread-and-butter systems,” he said, “we use tried-and-tested systems; we don’t act smart with those. But when it comes to things that give us differentiation in the market we take calculated risks.”

The potential of 3G Highlighting the possibilities of 3G, T.R. Dua, deputy director general, COAI, said that high-speed Internet connectivity coupled with faster video/data downloads will enable newer services like video telephony, video on demand, mobile TV, and other entertainment related services. According to him this could also facilitate offerings like online gaming and personalized location-based services.

Dua believes that 3G will serve as an extremely effective tool in driving penetration to India’s huge rural market. Tele-education, tele-medicine, and e-governance can be taken to the next level with the help of high-speed connectivity. This, he said, will also aid the government’s objectives of spreading the reach of broadband, but with a twist. “In rural India when they think broadband, they will think mobile broadband,” says Dua.

Apart from catering to the demand for high-speed data services in urban markets, 3G will ease spectrum constraints on 2G networks, which will accommodate the growth in subscriber base. Even in terms of economic productivity, he said, 3G will have a positive role to play.

But getting to these benefits will not be easy. Today’s M&A guidelines, for instance, do not facilitate consolidation in the sector, he said, as they contain restrictive provisions, especially with regards to the retention of spectrum. Moreover, the telecom sector continues to be plagued by multiple taxes and levies such as license fees, spectrum

charges, service taxes, entry taxes, stamp duties, and the various levies on towers besides the regular corporate income tax. “This burden of levies and duties in India is the highest in the world,” he said.

Apart from this there are issues related to difficulties in setting up towers, irregular power supply, granting Right Of Way permissions, etcetera, all of which hampers the spread of mobile broadband—especially in rural India. “We need to overcome these challenges to spread broadband to the entire length and breadth of the country so that its benefits flow uniformly to all the citizens of the country,” he said.

The Way aheadTaking a page from Dua’s book, Bharti Airtel’s Sanjay Kapoor, too, pointed out some of the changes in the industry. Kapoor firmly believes that consolidation is inevitable. Through strategic mergers and acquisitions, over 400 worldwide operators might amalgamate to form consortiums, he said. Fuelled by the ‘Neighborhood Seep’ syndrome, most operators want a share of the pie that the telecom industry earns. As a consequence a consolidation of services and businesses would be a bigger trend in the days to come.

He said that though India is the second-largest market in terms of consumers and maybe the first in terms of free and transparent trade policies, the state of broadband in India is a sorry story. The standard broadband norm is a minimum 2MBps, yet some 70 percent of Internet subscribers in the country make do with speeds less than 256KBps. He said that tapping the population living in rural India is the future of the domestic telecom market.

Speaking on a broader topic of how to prevent businesses from slipping, he remarked, that there no businesses can be protected from slips. However, he said, organizations can avoid a free-fall. “At Bharti Airtel, it is speed that has helped us recover every time we have slipped. We have a 32 percent overall marketshare, but our rural penetration marketshare is almost 40 percent. This is because we were the first to innovate, not just with products and services, but also business models. Professionalism is our corporate culture and planning has taken us to a stage where the scale of operations doesn’t get us panicking anymore.”

REAL CIO WORLD | S e p t e m b e r 1 5 , 2 0 1 0 1 9 9Vol/5 | ISSUE/11

BY Name

Win

ne

rs

A. Balaji ...........................................................................124Ajay Kumar Meher ........................................................ 116Alok Kumar ....................................................................147Amit Gupta ......................................................................60Amrita Gangotra ..............................................................31Anantha Sayana ........................................................... 103Anshul Dureja ..................................................................72Arun Gupta .....................................................................143Arup Choudhury ............................................................. 59Avinash Arora ................................................................. 119B.L.V. Rao ......................................................................... 92Balakrishnan V. ..............................................................125Basant Kumar Chaturvedi ............................................122C.V.G. Prasad ...................................................................94Chandrasekaran Mohan ...............................................138Chetan B. Trivedi ............................................................146Chivukula Sree Rama Prabhu ...................................... 118David Briskman .............................................................129Daya Prakash ................................................................ 104Deepak Rout ..................................................................152Deveshwar Dayal Mathur ................................................81Dhiren Savla .................................................................... 52Dr. Jai Menon ..................................................................46Dr. Sanjay Saraswat ......................................................135Falgun J. Shukla .............................................................. 79Farhan Khan ...................................................................128G.S. Ravi Kumar ..............................................................68Girish Rao ....................................................................... 112Gopal Rangaraj ..............................................................139H. Krishnan......................................................................90Harnath Babu ................................................................145Hitesh Kumar Arora ...................................................... 114Jagdish C. Belwal ...........................................................148Johny Paramian .............................................................. 69Joydeep Dutta ................................................................84K. B. Singh .......................................................................50K.T. Rajan ......................................................................... 34Kishore Daryanani .......................................................... 32Laxman K. Badiga ..........................................................156M. D. Agrawal ................................................................... 45M. Suresh ........................................................................ 82Mani Mulki ....................................................................... 70Manish Choksi ................................................................40Manoj Shrivastava ........................................................ 130Murali Krishna K. .............................................................91N. Chandrasekaran ........................................................ 38N. Jayantha Prabhu ........................................................ 56N. Nataraj ........................................................................ 78N. Varadarajan .............................................................. 105Navin Chadha ................................................................154

P. Shobhana Ravi .......................................................... 150P.A. Kalyanasundar......................................................... 42Pertisth Mankotia ..........................................................142Pratap Patjoshi ............................................................... 97Pravir Vohra ..................................................................... 83R.I.S. Sidhu .....................................................................126Radhakrishnan G. ...........................................................48Rajeev Batra ...................................................................144Rajeev Shirodkar ............................................................66Rajendra Deshpande ......................................................96Rajesh Uppal .................................................................. 113Ravinder Jain .................................................................. 28Rupinder Goel .................................................................30S.C. Mittal ........................................................................ 85S. Ramasamy ..................................................................88S.S. Sharma ....................................................................98S.T. Sathiavageeswaran .................................................80Sandeep Phanasgaonkar .............................................132Sanjay Belsare .............................................................. 102Sanjay Jain .....................................................................157Sanjay Kotha ..................................................................155Sanjay Malhotra ............................................................. 36Sanjay Rawal ....................................................................51Sanjiv Dalal ...................................................................... 62Selvam K........................................................................ 140Shalabh Raizada ............................................................ 141Sharat M. Airani ..............................................................64Shashi Kumar Ravulapaty ............................................133Shirish Munj ...................................................................149Srinivas Kishan Anapu ..................................................107Srinivasan Iyengar ...........................................................27Sriram Naganathan .......................................................134Subrata Banerjee ..........................................................153Sudhir Reddy ................................................................. 115Suneel Aradhye............................................................... 58Sunil Mehta .....................................................................99Sunil Rawlani .................................................................. 76Sunil Sirohi .................................................................... 120T.G. Dhandapani ............................................................. 151T.S. Purushothaman ...................................................... 131Tamal Chakravorty ......................................................... 54Tarun Pandey .................................................................. 26U.C. Dubey .......................................................................86Umesh Mehta ................................................................. 39V. S. Parthasarathy ....................................................... 106V. Srinivas ....................................................................... 117V. Subramaniam ............................................................ 121Vijay Sethi ........................................................................77Vishal Salvi .......................................................................74Yogesh Zope ....................................................................44

Vol/5 | ISSUE/112 0 2 s e p t e m b e r 1 5 , 2 0 1 0 | REAL CIO WORLD s e p t e m b e r 1 5 , 2 0 1 0

Jagdish C. BelwalJohny ParamianJoydeep Dutta

5th5th5 Annual th Annual th

Awards

BY cOmPaNY

Win

ne

rs

Aditya Birla Financial Services ...................................... 26Aegon Religare Life Insurance ........................................27Aircel ............................................................................... 28Airtel Africa .....................................................................30Airtel .................................................................................31Alfa Laval (India) ............................................................ 32Allergan India .................................................................. 34Amway India ................................................................... 36Ashok Leyland ................................................................ 38Asia MotorWorks ........................................................... 39Asian Paints ....................................................................40Bank of India ................................................................... 42Bharat Forge ...................................................................44Bharat Petroleum .......................................................... 45Bharti Enterprises ..........................................................46Biocon .............................................................................48BSES ...............................................................................50Coca-Cola India ..............................................................51Crisil ................................................................................. 52Ericsson India ................................................................. 54Essar Group .................................................................... 56Essar Steel ...................................................................... 58Eveready Industries ....................................................... 59Fidelity International ......................................................60Firstsource Solutions .................................................... 62Forbes Marshall .............................................................64Future Generali India Life Insurance ............................66Gati ..................................................................................68GMR Group ..................................................................... 69Godrej Industries ........................................................... 70Greenply Industries .........................................................72HDFC Bank .......................................................................74HDFC Standard Life Insurance ..................................... 76Hero Honda Motors ........................................................77Hexaware Technologies ................................................ 78Hikal ................................................................................ 79Hindustan Petroleum ....................................................80HSBC ................................................................................81Hyundai Motor India ...................................................... 82ICICI Bank ....................................................................... 83ICICI Securities ..............................................................84IFFCO ............................................................................... 85IFFCO Tokio General Insurance ....................................86Indian Oil Corporation ...................................................88Indian Rayon ...................................................................90Infosys Technologies ......................................................91Infotech Enterprises....................................................... 92ING Vysya Bank ..............................................................94Intelenet Global Services ..............................................96JCB India ....................................................................... 97

JK Tyre & Industries .......................................................98JWT ..................................................................................99Kotak Mahindra Bank .................................................. 102Larsen & Toubro ........................................................... 103LG Electronics India ..................................................... 104Madras Cements ......................................................... 105Mahindra & Mahindra ................................................. 106Mahindra Satyam ..........................................................107Marico ............................................................................ 112Maruti Suzuki ................................................................ 113Max New York Life Insurance ....................................... 114MindTree......................................................................... 115Multi Screen Media ....................................................... 116Nagarjuna Fertilizers & Chemicals .............................. 117National Informatics Centre ......................................... 118New Holland Fiat (India) .............................................. 119NIIT ................................................................................ 120Otis Elevator Company (India) .................................... 121Perfetti Van Melle India ................................................122Piramal Healthcare .......................................................124Polaris Software Lab ....................................................125Punjab National Bank ...................................................126Radico Khaitan ..............................................................128Ranbaxy Laboratories ..................................................129Reliance ADA Group ..................................................... 130Reliance BIG Entertainment ......................................... 131Reliance Capital ............................................................132Reliance Consumer Finance ........................................133Reliance General Insurance..........................................134Reliance Globalcom ......................................................135Reliance Life Insurance ................................................138Reliance Life Sciences ..................................................139S Tel ............................................................................... 140Safexpress ..................................................................... 141Sheela Foam ..................................................................142Shoppers Stop ..............................................................143Sistema Shyam Teleservices .......................................144Star Union Dai-ichi Life Insurance ..............................145Sterlite Industries (India) ............................................146Tata Consultancy Services ...........................................147Tata Motors ....................................................................148Tata Teleservices ...........................................................149Tractors and Farm Equipement (TAFE) ..................... 150TVS Motor Company .................................................... 151Unitech Wireless (Uninor) ............................................152Vedanta Aluminium ......................................................153Vodafone Essar ..............................................................154Walmart India ................................................................155Wipro Technologies .......................................................156WNS Global Services ....................................................157

Vol/5 | ISSUE/112 0 4 s e p t e m b e r 1 5 , 2 0 1 0 s e p t e m b e r 1 5 , 2 0 1 0 | REAL CIO WORLD

HDFC Standard Life InsuranceHero Honda Motors Hexaware Technologies

5th5th5 Annual th Annual th

Awards

Documents

CIO September 15 2010 Issue