Volume 2 | Issue 1
Mahindra & Mahindra
Rise to the cloud
V S Parthasarathy CFO, Group CIO, and EVP - Group M&A Mahindra & Mahindra
Bishwanath Ghosh IO - Corporate C Mahindra & Mahindra
03
Rising up above
06
What’s the big idea?
08
What will Microsoft India Cloud do for India and Indians
06
Enterprise Social Networking What’s the big idea?
03
Rising up above: Mahindra & Mahindra’s journey to the cloud
08
What will Microsoft India Cloud do for India and Indians
Rising up above:
Mahindra & Mahindra’s journey to the cloud Cloud computing has made major strides in the Indian market with several multinationals adopting it. A recent addition to this list is Mahindra & Mahindra. V S Parthasarathy, CFO, Group CIO, and EVP Group M&A, along with Bishwanath Ghosh, CIO - Corporate, discusses how cloud computing can be a key factor in achieving Mahindra’s brand aspiration of ‘being amongst the top 50 most admired brands in the world’.
In 1945, the Mahindra Group started as a steel trading company. Today, it is one of India’s biggest multinational enterprises with USD 16.5 billion and more than 2,00,000 employees in over 100 countries. The company believes in enabling people to rise through solutions that power mobility, drive rural prosperity, enhance urban lifestyles, and increase business efficiency. It, thus, operates and leads the way in key industries that drive economic growth such as tractors, utility vehicles, information technology, financial services, and vacation ownership. It also has a strong presence in agribusiness, aerospace, consulting services, defence, energy, industrial equipment, logistics, real estate, retail, steel, commercial vehicles, and two-wheelers.
V S Parthasarathy
This ever-growing multinational company based in Mumbai was recently featured in the Forbes Global 2000, a comprehensive listing of the world’s largest and most powerful public companies. In 2013, it also received the Financial Times ‘Boldness in Business’ Award in the ‘Emerging Markets’ category.
Meet the Captain V S Parthasarathy started his career with Xerox as a Management Trainee. He was Financial Controller and Associate Director in his last role at Xerox, serving the company for 15 years. He joined Mahindra & Mahindra in 2000 as Head of Performance Management and IT. He has worked his way through several key positions and currently holds the title of CFO, Group CIO, and EVP - Group M&A. He also serves on the boards of 15 group companies and is a member of group’s supervisory board, which is known as the Group Executive Board.
Bishwanath Ghosh As CFO, Parthasarathy understands that Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity or a VUCA environment will continue to pose daunting challenges for any organisation. But he is confident that his Finance & Administration (F&A) team is up for the task and will not only
03
continue to protect and preserve the reputation Mahindra & Mahindra has built in the market but also progress to newer milestones in the years to come. Parthasarathy has made several changes as Group CIO. For efficient decision-making, he has created a three-tier structure – Strategic Leadership Council (SLC), Technology Leadership Council (TLC), and Cross-Functional Teams (CFT). The SLC consists of a few CIOs & CFOs, whereas TLC includes all CIOs of the group companies. They also organise IT Connect, an annual event of the Mahindra IT fraternity where achievements are recognized and knowledge is shared with internal as well as external Subject Matter Experts (SMEs).
Triggering the motion Mahindra felt the need for a ‘MobilityAnalytics-Cloud-Connected Enterprise’ to convert the ratio of routine to innovation from 70:30 to 30:70. Parthasarathy went about this by leveraging the three-tier
04
structure. “Such a structure helps us make the right strategic decisions in adopting new IT trends from both technological and financial perspectives,” says Parthasarathy, who also set up the CIO Talent Council to promote on-the-job rotation and training for the IT department.
The era before the cloud The adoption of a new technology is purely based on needs. Parthasarathy strongly believes that “the latest is not the best for you, if you don’t need it now”. “A business should keep looking out for things but only adopt what they can adapt,” says Parthasarathy in support of the company’s decision to go ahead with Office 365 and Azure. Before switching to cloud solutions, the company was using different versions of Office and Directory. There was a constant need for managing various versions of Office across Mahindra’s geographically distributed setups.
The company was facing problems in terms of performance and network delays, especially while accessing from international locations. There was a need for necessary governance and compliance. “A private cloud platform could not meet the business needs in a short span of time, especially in the light of a new infrastructure investment where negotiations and delivery time of six to eight weeks turn out to be a major hindrance to business,” explains Ghosh. They saw the cloud computing scenario from perspectives of flexibility, upscaling-downscaling of infrastructure according to business needs, and avoiding disaster recovery investments. With Office 365 and Azure, all of Mahindra’s seen and unseen requirements with regard to the number of users, hits, and scale of application were met. The need for high computing could be managed well using cloud whenever needed.
Making the right choice Mahindra’s long association with Microsoft helped Parthasarathy and Ghosh make the decision to use the MS platform. The employees were accustomed to Office and Exchange, thus making the upgrade to Office 365 seem like a natural progression. Compared to Office 365, the other alternatives evaluated needed considerable change management and training. “Azure is one of the most stable platforms among competing offerings,” says Ghosh.
Gearing up for the transition At Mahindra, Azure was an IT-centric adoption. Before implementing the website hosting platform, the IT department tested it for technical and commercial robustness. During the adoption of Office 365, there were some key learnings in hindsight. l
Mahindra worked on a hybrid model (on-premise and public) that resulted in replication issues.
l
A complete AD cleansing and replication on-premise and public cloud during initiation was required.
l
There was delay while configuring user access for first-time users of Exchange, Office, OneDrive, and Lync.
Stabilizing these issues took time. “However, the increased understanding of Office 365 has resulted in a strong user experience,” says Ghosh.
Taking productivity to the next level Ghosh explains that Azure and Office 365 proved to be a better investment decision as compared to other alternatives. With Microsoft, charges for support, future additional licenses, usage of new products, infrastructure, Asset Management Companies, and
facilities management were lower. With Azure as the website hosting platform, they migrated from almost all external websites, resulting in faster performance. With the use of Office 365, there was also an increase in internet bandwidth. However, all the business needs were met by using Exchange and Outlook for higher mailbox capacity, Sharepoint for document repository, OneDrive for cloud storage, and Lync for communication and collaboration. “Mahindra users can now focus their energy on business rather than upgrades and cost maintenance,” says Ghosh.
Points to ponder Mahindra’s adoption of cloud computing has proved to be a good case study for all companies planning to make the change themselves. Here are the key points as outlined by Ghosh to consider while switching to the cloud.
“We would say Microsoft has a well-integrated product suite and in them we found a right cloud partner. We have a positive outlook towards cloud adoption and look forward to this journey,’’ sums up Ghosh.
a) Understand your needs and estimate realistic benefits of the product. A professional version of Office 365 is available, but you may need it only for a section of users. b) Have a clear picture of the end result. For example, it is technically possible to move your entire infrastructure to the cloud but you may choose to keep a part of it on-premise for various nontechnical considerations. c) Conduct several pilot tests and increase the number of users gradually. This will help you predict possible issues in a complex environment. d) Assess the end-device compatibility in terms of OS and specifications. e) Evaluate issues concerning migration from the existing to the latest version of the platform. f) Calculate the impact of commitment period of the platform contract on your IT strategy.
05
Enterprise Social Networking What's the big idea? By Shobha B H
Enterprise Social Networking (ESN) is not exactly a new concept. However, its adoption in India has been subject to many debates ranging from security to implementation. But are the concerns well-founded? A tool that is being broadly adopted across the globe surely must have some credit. Let's clear the air.
Demystifying ESN ESN, like any other social medium today, helps bring people and information together and is used to connect people working towards common goals.
Why should organisations start investing in an ESN platform? l The Need to Engage Millennials
Most enterprises today want to implement ESN. However, there is a dilemma on how to manage an open style of working. People are slowly recognising the need for transparent exchange of information that comes with ESN.
Today’s Gen Y, born in the internet age, has grown up with social media such as Facebook and Twitter. They are accustomed to interaction through social mediums and can multitask easily. These platforms make it easy for them to build connections.
Any organisation can adopt ESN by addressing these three basic criteria: l Organisational success with social media is fundamentally a leadership and management challenge, not a technology implementation. 80% is cultural change and the role played by technology is a mere 20%.
l The Necessity to Collaborate
l Employee acceptance is key to
Globally Markets today boast competition that is unprecedented in human history. Constant exchange of information and collaboration is imperative. It is essential that organisations move away from traditional methods of communication and adopt more viable tools that are designed to listen and respond faster.
the success of ESN. Participation by all sections of the organisation is essential.
Associations The present workforce is a very young demography which thrives on social media. It is essential for a brand to appear relevant to this generation and create an environment that fosters collaboration and innovation. ESN does just that by creating an ‘open and transparent’ work environment.
l Brand
06
Can any enterprise embark on this journey?
l Inculcating an environment that fosters
collaboration is vital. There should be a healthy mix of business-driven needs and common interests and passions, the latter engaging at least 20-25% of the community with photography, trekking, etc. The key takeaway here is not to judge the capabilities of the platform, instead understand the organisation and its ability to change.
How does one start? A successful ESN is led by 80% culture and 20% by the platform capabilities. Contrary to popular beliefs, ESN is not an IT initiative – it needs a much broader
level of acceptance. All, or at least most, levels of organisation must be eager to participate in this change. To extract value from the investment, it is necessary to integrate businesses and transform the way people work.
l Can your organisation keep up with
l Have a clear vision of why you want to
l Can your organisation deliver a
introduce this platform in the enterprise
seamless user experience? Interface makes a huge difference
the pace of innovation? l What is your scale of operations?
Can an internal platform deliver the same?
l Define the business outcomes you
want to achieve
l Can your organisation develop a
l Identify community managers who are
platform that can easily integrate with the rest of your investments?
passionate about driving this change and can bring people together
l And, does your internal platform have
l Put a plan in place to measure, iterate,
the ability to search and find right information quickly?
Adoption requires a cultural change and a passion to integrate different sections of an organisation. To grow globally, one has to think and act globally and ESN can help you achieve just that. (The writer is Enterprise Social Lead, India, Microsoft)
and adapt periodically
What are the main challenges in India? l Internet Connectivity
To conclude, ESN is a solution that most existing and future workforce need to perform better – it's about redefining the way people work.
One of the primary issues in implementation, as far as India is concerned, is the lack of good internet connectivity – it is a still very much a luxury. l Risk and Compliance
With information being so easily accessible, industries associated with IP such as ITES, Banking, Pharma, and Manufacturing are apprehensive about security risks. This however can be tackled with user education about the medium, risk mitigation plans, and a well-defined social media policy in the company.
What should you look for in an ESN tool? 'Why can't we build this on our own?', 'Why should we invest?' - These are common questions posed when ESN are discussed. To answer this, a few questions have to be considered:
07
What will Microsoft India Cloud do for India and Indians By LS Subramanian
India is poised for a digital revolution. With a government pushing digital services, and a huge focus on empowering every citizen with an identity card, a bank account, insurance, and a digital interface, the future is bright for IT in India.
With the announcement of opening local data centers in India by Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella, Microsoft is well placed to explore the huge opportunities that will be unfolded in the days to come. The Microsoft India Cloud proposes to begin with three data centers and will provide the world's best cloud computing that India needs so desperately to handle the large volume of digital transactions, need to cut down costs and handle the data that will be generated by digitally enabling a billion Indian citizens. Additionally, Microsoft will be able to offer their cloud services in a number of Indian languages, thus eliminating the need for English literacy for the Indian citizen. The Microsoft Cloud technology is a proven, secure, reliable and a stable cloud platform which offers SAAS, PAAS and IAAS and excellent security controls. By delivering cloud computing to serve a billion plus Indians, Microsoft has the opportunity to transform the country by digitally enabling business, government and citizens.
Let’s look at some key sectors and the possible impact: Banking Firms in the banking industry will be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the Microsoft India Cloud. Banks can migrate their data centers and their business applications like core banking systems, customer relationship, collaboration tools, office automation and many more to the cloud allowing them to focus on their core business of banking and release prime real estate which
08
today hosts their data centers. Transaction costs for digital banking will be a pittance compared to brick and mortar banking and it will make banks customer focused, agile, secure and cost effective.
Insurance Insurance businesses have large volumes of data and is expected to grow exponentially as the larger uninsured population of India get covered for life and health. India has one of the largest population of people who need to be insured with a population demographic favoring the youth.
Financial Services Companies that offer Micro Finance, Wealth Advisory, Broking, Leasing and other financial services will have an agile and reliable platform to effectively take their business national and reach to customers on a pan-India basis.
Exchanges Exchanges which spend large amounts on keep their lights own in their data centers can breathe easy once they migrate to the Microsoft Cloud. The scalability, large bandwidth support, bursty traffic and large volumes of data can be handled in real time by the Microsoft Cloud. The equity and commodity markets will be able to handle large volumes and support more market players efficiently and at lower costs.
SME
Rural India
The SME sector has been a laggard in technology adoption but soon even a SME in a hamlet in India can use the latest technology solutions to improve their efficiency, supply chain management, collaboration. SAP partnering to offer their services with Microsoft in India on the cloud will be a great boon for SMEs to adopt global practices at affordable costs.
India lives in its villages said M K Gandhi. The Microsoft Cloud will provide world class computing to Indian villagers and will transform the rural population into a digitally enabled nation which can use the Microsoft Cloud for farming, fishing, husbandry, horticulture, agriculture, weather and more. The Microsoft Cloud will give an opportunity for rural India to access the best teachers for educating their children and also to access information that they may need.
Rating Agencies
Education
Personal rating data of a billion citizens is a daunting task. However, with a cloud backbone it will be a breeze. It is clear that as more citizens get banked and become economically active they will get a rating. Rating agencies can use the Microsoft Cloud to service the billion Indians who will need a credit score as they become prosperous and move into a digital economy from a cash economy.
Today, it is a challenge to find enough computing power in many Indian institutions. The Microsoft Cloud will open enough computing power for researchers, academics and students to enable them to produce better outcomes in science, medicine, bio-technology, engineering, mathematics, economics and many more subjects. The cloud will be the digital library for the education institutions and will provide affordable computing solutions for academic administration.
Manufacturing Manufacturing will use cutting edge technology for design, resource management, logistics, distribution, customer relationship, collaboration. Cloud-driven manufacturing and tracking by use of IOT (Internet of Things) will become a reality in the shop floor. Companies in the manufacturing sector can take forward the production, planning and controls systems to stateof-the-art automated tools riding on the cloud platform of Microsoft. Companies in the manufacturing sector can also benefit from the numerous SaaS offerings that Microsoft and its partners will bring to the India Cloud ecosystem.
Government Government e-Governance projects that still need deployment can be accelerated by using SaaS solutions that can be developed on the Microsoft platform. Governance processes can be streamlined by migrating to digital process thus making governance effective and efficient. Government at both Centre and States can easily provide citizen portals and e-governance interfaces for citizens for their interactions and dealing with Government. Government can use the citizen data to provide better services to Indians and also to monitor their various development initiatives.
Hospitals The interface between medicine and the cloud is real, whether it is for hospital management systems, tele-medicine, remote diagnostics or wearable devices – the list is endless. India will benefit by being able to provide treatment for its billion citizens, control epidemics, plus collate data on its citizens well being. This can transform into a Big Data project with immense benefits to cut down on health management costs on its citizens. The immediate uses could be in research to manage Diabetes, Heart Disease, AIDS, Leprosy and Cancer.
Entrepreneurship The Microsoft India Cloud will provide computing needed by a million and more young Indian entrepreneurs' who will benefit by using the world best cloud solutions from Microsoft to achieve their entrepreneurial dreams.
09
Skill Development & Employment The Microsoft Cloud will give a backbone to develop skills for the Indian youngsters in a number of vocations. The skilled workforce can be employed thus giving them a chance to contribute to the economic growth of India. Every Indian citizen will benefit by the Microsoft India Cloud. Similar to the way the cable TV transformed India; the next transformation will be into Digital India driven by the India cloud, as rival competitors could also launch similar offerings in India. In a few years from today citizens of India will wonder how they lived without their Digital devices. A Digital Nation will finally become a reality with a India cloud and this will transform India and will herald economic prosperity and better quality of life for every Indian citizen. (The writer is Founder President of NISE) Copyright © 2014 UBM India, All rights reserved. Sourced from Information Week, October 10, 2014.
Cloud Accelerator Program Industries all over the world have recognised 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 organisation. 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 organisation‘s infrastructure and application move seamlessly to the cloud. Now your organisation is ready to go! To know more, please visit: http://www.microsoft.com/india/datacenter/cloudaccelerator-program.aspx
Supported by