Volume 2 | Issue 5
Godrej Secures Its Future With The Cloud. Shailesh Joshi IO C Godrej
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Godrej Secures Its Future With The Cloud
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A Catalyst For Change
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Godrej Secures Its Future With The Cloud
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A Catalyst For Change
Godrej Secures Its Future With The Cloud Since its origins in 1897 as a lock manufacturer, the Godrej Group has gone on to firmly establish itself as one of India’s most trusted brands. Godrej Industries and Associated Companies called GILAC majorly operate in five different industry verticals – chemicals, real estate, agriculture, food, and consumer products. Godrej enjoys the patronage of over 600 million consumers in India alone with a significant chunk of business coming from overseas. Over the years Godrej has been bold with its business strategies, and it was no surprise seeing them becoming an early Cloud adopter.
Shailesh Joshi
Shailesh Joshi has served as the CIO at Godrej for the last six years. Having worked for 25 years, 15 of which were in IT, has seen him take the organization to new heights as Godrej focuses on fulfilling its ‘Vision 2020’ objective of scaling the company 10x before 2020. Shailesh, who has tasted success with brands like Tata, Johnson, and Shell in the past, discusses how moving to the Cloud has supported Godrej’s progress.
“I was one of the first CIOs invited for the launch of O365,” begins Shailesh. Shailesh was always convinced that working on the Cloud was the future – the way forward. In his exact words, he - like many other CIOs - was ‘gung ho’ about its arrival to the subcontinent, leading to Godrej becoming one of the early adopters of Cloud. This decision was made easier by Godrej already having an enterprise agreement with Microsoft. However, just like with any culture change, discernment is the key. Shailesh wasn’t going to jump onto the Cloud bandwagon without testing the waters first. “We started with email,” he says, “then slowly adopted the rest of the platform.”
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Easy Choices
One Step At A Time
Although Shailesh was convinced about the advantages of O365, it was necessary to test alternatives too. His research showed that no other Cloud provider could match the same services at an enterprise level. Additionally, considering Godrej’s international presence, scalability too was a factor. “Our Vision 2020 objectives will see us acquire several companies around the world. And with O365, I won’t need to worry about upgrading systems wherever we go. O365 would enable us to acquire a company today and give all new employees a new email ID tomorrow. It is that simple,” says Shailesh. Moreover, Microsoft’s familiar and user-friendly interface meant Godrej wouldn’t be disturbing the natural system in the company and training wouldn’t be required. Thus, opting for O365 was a no brainer for Godrej.
Adoption of Outlook was a speedy process with minimal hindrance. But Lync, Microsoft’s instant messaging service for enterprises, didn’t quite take-off as expected. “Microsoft was aware of this and once we signed the support agreement, we were given extra credits to make up for the initial stages,” says Shailesh. Godrej has now also gone ahead with Microsoft’s Enterprise Social Network tool Yammer, and is currently developing an intranet on Sharepoint. This goes to show that, with some persistence, it is easy to adopt the Cloud and the good it is doing for Godrej.
Early Hiccups The Cloud was uncharted territory in India back then. However, Microsoft had multiple success stories from companies all over the world. And if it worked everywhere else, Shailesh was sure it could do wonders for industries in India too. “Our Cloud journey began three years ago in phases and eventually all employees were on the Cloud,” says Shailesh. However, their active directory and other tools were still on-premise. This brought about the first challenge - In the initial stages, syncing the on-Cloud functions and on-premise tools was difficult. Secondly a prompt support agreement signed with Microsoft rectified the major challenge when Godrej faced huge multiple outage issues. “Although we weren’t aware of the need of signing this support agreement in the initial stages, and therefore hadn’t allocated funds for the same, post the agreement we haven’t had any issues so far,” says Shailesh.
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Immediate Gains “We considered many nuances of the Cloud versus hosting an on-premise solution – increasing bandwidth, license pricing, upgrade requirements, and server refreshments – and concluded that the Cloud was the best solution for our requirements.”
Talking about the migration to the Cloud, Shailesh comments, “We weren’t required to buy any new servers.” This was a big boon as Godrej didn’t need to invest in any infrastructure whatsoever. Everything was handled by Microsoft. The only concern Godrej had to address was increasing the internet bandwidth, so as to accommodate the new dependence on the Cloud – a forecasted expense. Thus the TCO for adoption was much more viable and the economic returns were immediate. Additionally, speedy upgrades and latest software meant two less things for Shailesh to worry about.
Learnings Through adoption and migration to the Cloud, Shailesh has some valuable feedback. •
Firstly, don’t be in a hurry. Shailesh recommends that CIOs take their time testing the suite thoroughly before making any decisions
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Shailesh maintains that it is essential to test it in one’s own environment. As seen by Godrej, Lync worked everywhere else, but surprisingly took time to function within Godrej’s set-up
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Evaluate deeper intricacies so that the entire end-user experience is hassle free
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Lastly, he says, it’s important to check whether the suite can work in sync with the on-premise active directory
At times moving to the Cloud may have some challenges, but Godrej’s story tells us that the Cloud is really the way forward. For this, Microsoft and Godrej worked together as a team and Shailesh’s leap of faith in Cloud paid off. Godrej’s Vision 2020 objective is well on track, and has even been accelerated by Shailesh’s decision to migrate the entire company to the Cloud. Shailesh contently remarks, “Now, I’m happy.”
A Catalyst for Change By Abhrajit Ray, Director, Enterprise Strategy, Microsoft India Guru Bharadwaj, Enterprise Strategy Advisor, Microsoft India
Strategic guidance on how to maximize the customer experience within the manufacturing and resource industry. This article has been written by two of Microsoft Services India Enterprise Architect team members: Abhrajit Ray, Architect Manager for Enterprise Strategy Consulting, and Guru Bharadwaj, Enterprise Strategy Architect. Today’s consumer is armed with more information than ever and can review multiple channels before making a decision. In order to secure long-term loyalty, the manufacturing industry is going through a transformational shift worldwide to improve their customer engagement and the digital customer experience. Consumers have more power than ever and pervasive technologies have enabled an improved digitally-connected experience. In this changing atmosphere, organizations are looking to provide superior value offerings with lasting customer relationships anchored on innovation and excellence. With more and more people having access to mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, and more than 2 billion people connected to the internet, consumers are armed with an abundance of information. In this new world, a connected customer experience builds loyalty, which can result in improved sales. Manufacturing industry professionals should strategically consider the following aspects that greatly influence their customer’s experience in the modern marketplace:
Digital Life: In this radically changing human-machine interactive experience, organizations must integrate the digital world (information/services) with the physical world (physical objects/ environment) by making interfaces more responsive and proactive. Consumers are now behaving more like users, and not owners. They look at the product as a conduit and frequently trade-in or tradeup. Besides a deeper, richer and more personalized experience, they also want a platform for a natural interface that is adaptive, customizable, connected at all times, and intelligently ON.
Immersive Experience: Customers are looking for seamless integration between real life and online experience. They want virtual and portable access to the full-line with a natural interface, where they can touch, feel, and experience the product. In such a scenario, a multi-format retail model is the key to unify experiences across
formats. Kiosks become more relevant than large-format retail environments.
Multi-channel: Channels facilitate customer engagement and improve their journey by including the opportunity to complete transactions and to be served. Empirically, consumers use 12 channels to experience a product, including retail, online, mobile phones, and apps, to create and consolidate a virtual marketplace. The trend of merging sales and service operations enables transactions via many connected channels. It also empowers customers to buy and service products from anywhere. However, in such a scenario, loyalty would be to a consistent original equipment manufacturer (OEM) or brand experience, and not necessarily to the channel.
Connected Services: Consumers appreciate when physical objects are seamlessly integrated into the information
network and can become active participants in business processes. They want services that allow interaction with these ‘smart objects’ over the internet that have the ability to query and change any information associated with them, while taking into account security and privacy issues. These services need to be portable, personalized, pervasive, and integrated within a connected experience for proper customer engagement. Technologies (current and emerging) have enabled companies in the manufacturing industries and other sectors to address these four trends, favorably with the ability to develop the experiences and outcomes that customers want. A connected experience is anchored on Device and Mobility, along with smart data analytics, and is supplemented with a digital, social, and cloud-enabled Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem. Enterprises have not only invested well in technologies, but have built a goldmine of information and infrastructure to align with their business needs. To ensure such investments provide impactful and connected experiences with longer term value, enterprises should integrate diverse assets and identify
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interfaces for a personalized and connected customer experience. •
Cross-collaboration: Enable collaboration across boundaries — not just within the enterprise, but also extended to partners and customers through cloud and social listening. Co-creation is needed to clearly differentiate core capabilities and protect the differentiators. This free collaboration on common industry capabilities result in greater gain-share.
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Intentional Analytics: Mashup enterprise and social assets and implement self-service analytics. For example, effective sales forecasting depends on accurate analytics from customer behavior, which helps correctly gauge demand and forecast revenue. These analytics are often reported by distributors and resellers, risking the potential for inaccurate data and sandbagging.
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Customer Connection: Interact with customers through social and digital channels by acknowledging customer sentiments, responding to complaints and engaging in ongoing conversations. Customer engagement can be further augmented with personalized, interactive mobile experiences and technologies. Pilot Change: Before embarking on full-scale experience innovation, use immersive technologies and ubiquitous computing to selectively enable direct experiences through small formats, such as kiosks. Metrics & Modeling: Leverage smart data collected from various IoT ecosystems with predictive analytics capabilities built over time. Such scenarios include usage patterns, smart metering of products and services and predictive notification of fault, repair or replacement, etc.
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Unique Experiences: Exploit the power of cloud computing and its pervasive connectedness. Discover the ability to integrate and deliver distinctive experiences across various channels.
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Optimize Technology: Finally, adopt a lean and continuous business rationalization of processes and technology to move from massive technology renewals to more incremental updates.
In summary, technology is the key catalyst for driving change and connected customer experiences in the manufacturing and resources sectors. Microsoft Services has a unique view on how to capitalize on today’s business and technology trends and extensive experience. It helps our customers deliver innovation, improve performance and grow the business. For more information regarding the potential of technology for your enterprise business, contact Microsoft Services to get started.
As the current Microsoft Services Enterprise Strategy Consulting Team Lead within the Microsoft India group, Abhrajit Ray’s team drives strategic IT - enabled innovation and optimization for enterprise customers. Focused areas for greatest IT value improvement include integration of cloud strategy, customer experience management, post-merger IT integration, collaboration and governance. Previously, Ray has worked within the Microsoft Services UK team as an Enterprise Strategy Advisor, where he guided IT infrastructure and utilization decisions for some of the largest European customers. Prior to Microsoft he was the Head of Strategy for Microsoft Technologies at British Aerospace, driving consumer focused IT strategy. Abhrajit Ray Director, Enterprise Strategy, Microsoft India
Guru Bharadwaj is a distinguished strategy advisor with Microsoft Services’ India group and advises enterprise clients on business and technology plans and implementations. Bharadwaj’s goal is to create and realize business value through productive use of Information Technology (IT). His expertise spans enterprise architecture, business and technology transformation, innovation, portfolio planning and governance. He has extensive global experience in advising Fortune 500 customers across healthcare, financial, automotive, manufacturing and high-tech industries. Guru Bharadwaj Enterprise Strategy Advisor, Microsoft India
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Cloud Accelerator Program Industries all over the world have recognized cloud computing as the way forward and are turning to it for their communication and collaboration requirements. Microsoft is working on an innovative program to help you better reap the benefits of cloud computing and incorporate it seamlessly into your IT strategy. Microsoft has three main tracks to help you begin your cloud journey: Track 1
Strategy - This is the beginning of the process which focuses on senior decision makers of the organization. Microsoft will present a special brief to help them understand the benefits and aspects of working on the cloud. Track 2
Planning - Once the leadership is convinced of fully exploring cloud capabilities, the next step is to plan a migration process. Whether a quick cloud assessment of your company needs or a detailed adoption blueprint, Microsoft will help you chart your cloud implementation process. Track 3
Tapan Garg Founder and CEO CIO Association of India P1, Gem Wellington Old Airport Road Bangalore 560017 E: tapan@cioindia.org W: www.cioindia.org
Getting Started - Microsoft’s advanced migration service will ensure that your organization’s infrastructure and application move seamlessly to the cloud. Now your organization is ready to go! To know more, please visit: http://www.microsoft.com/india/datacenter/cloudaccelerator-program.aspx
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