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S P I N E

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Technology for Growth and Governance

September | 07 | 2010 | Rs.50 Volume 06 | Issue 02

WIRELESS BY CHOICE | TALENT TANGLE | IRC'S DEADLY SIDE

Award winning tales Three categories, more than a 100 entries – nine winners. CTO of the Year Awards 2010 | PAGE 28

BEST OF BREED

Identity Checked PAGE 22

Volume 06 | Issue 02

A 9.9 Media Publication

NEXT HORIZONS

Milestones Revisited PAGE 52

VIEWPOINT

HP's Next CEO PAGE 68

EDITORIAL RAHUL NEEL MANI | rahul.mani@9dot9.in

War of words!

Two vendors fight it out.

T

wo weeks ago I was in San Francisco, US, attending VMworld 2010 – the ultimate event to learn about new trends in virtualisation and cloud computing. The conference was a big attraction but an ambush marketing campaign from Microsoft stopped me in my tracks.

In a straightforward letter (published as an advertisement in local dailies) Brad Anderson, Corporate VP, Server and Tools Business, Microsoft warned

VMware customers that signing long-term enterprise license agreements can chain them for years to the unpredictable, often self-serving development schedule of an IT vendor—to the detriment of the customer's unique needs and priorities.

Yes, that was Microsoft making the statement!

VMware deflected the shot well. Calling it a ‘sincere form of flattery’, Paul Maritz, CEO of VMware made a mockery of the

EDITOR’S PICK 68

HP’s Next CEO

The next CEO needs to be Steve Jobs-esque. HP has its fiscal ship in order. Now it needs a shot of sex appeal.

warning in his keynote address.

“Microsoft to talk about lock-in is a severe case of the pot calling the kettle black," he said.

It wasn’t just a coincidence that at VMworld 2010 VMware announced a slew of management and security products, directly taking on many of Microsoft's flagship products.

Microsoft probably had an inkling of what was in store.

Microsoft has been offering public cloud from its Azure platform-as-a-service (PaaS) offering and SQL Server, Exchange and Sharepoint as Software as a Service (SaaS) offerings, competing directly with VMware. But, clearly, VMware's leadership position in the virtualisation space has raised its hackles. Maybe that's the reason for the desperate tone in the campaign.

Is VMware worried? When I spoke to Maritz, he said: “Microsoft is a company with enormous resources and they sense the same changes in the IT industry as we do.” (To know more, read the interview with Paul Maritz in the 21st September issue) In the end, this is all about who's going to be the big dog in this market.

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1

LETTERS CTOForum LinkedIn Group Join close to 500 CIOs on the CTO Forum LinkedIn group for latest news and hot enterprise technology discussions.

Share your thoughts, participate in discussions and win prizes for the most valuable contribution. You can join The CTOForum group at: http://www.linkedin.com/ groups?mostPopular=&gid=2580450

One of the hot discussions on the group is:

INFORMATION RIGHTS MANAGEMENT EXTENDS DLP SAFEGUARDS

Very interesting article and completely spot on regarding the issues and challenges thrown up by evolving tech and mobility.

However, it seems to me that the current craze for cloud-based, everything-as-a-service, approach may actually compound or simplify the problem, depending on how access is handled. If all data resides in the cloud, then properly managed dynamic access to that central source would be key. This may be less of a problem compared to data that's spread out all over the device or location landscape.

How do you treat your vendors - a partner, a service provider, or a mere salesman?

Vendors are life support system of any successful IT organisation. Without them, IT just cannot function. Be it a mere bandwidth purchase decision or a complex application integration, IT organisations always depend on various vendors. They are also a good source of information on industry developments, newer technologies, and long term industry orientation.

—Shantharam K IT Manager at Ariba Business Commerce Solutions.

In my first role I have experienced many situations where we have taken help from our partners who supported us at odd hours. I accept the fact that without their external support the solution would have not been possible or there would have been an increased business downtime causing a major impact on business continuity. This was all because of good relations and trust.

—Udayveer Singh Senior Consultant - Basis / Netweaver / Upgrades / Migrations - SAP Consulting – Indian Subcontinent.

Technology is ready to change the quality, reach and cost of healthcare.

“With advancement of technology in medical devices and availability of strong analytical engines, the focus will move to early diagnosis:

WRITE TO US: The CTOForum values your feedback. We want to know what you think about the magazine and how to make it a better read for you. Our endeavour continues to be work in progress and your comments will go a long way in making it the preferred publication of the CIO Community.

CTO FORUM 07 SEPTEMBER 2010

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thectoforum.com/ content/what% E2%80%99s-apromise

FEELING THE PULSE

Management Evangelist – London, UK

26

Steve Hanna, co-chair of the Trusted Network Connect Work Group in the Trusted Computing Group, on key security concerns in cloud models. To read the full story go to:

OPINION

JUDE UMEH, Consultant, Enterprise Architect, and Rights

Send your comments, compliments, complaints or questions about the magazine to editor@thectoforum.com

CTOF Connect

http://www.thectoforum.com/content/ feeling-pulse DR. NEENA PAHUJA, CIO, MAX HEALTHCARE

THE AUTHOR is also Executive Vice President Finance and M&A, and Member of Group Executive Board, Mahindra & Mahindra Group

PHOTO BY JITEN GANDHI

I BELIEVE

BY V.S. PARTHASARATHY Group CIO, Mahindra & Mahindra

Reap Green Benefits

Save costs and protect the environment using sustainable technology AT THE Mahindra Group, environment responsibility forms the foundation of our sustainability road map. The group, which manufactures and sells tractors, SUVs and cars, apart from holding diverse portfolios like IT, holiday services and logistics, has a clear focus on reducing energy consumption; controlling and reducing greenhouse gas emissions; effectively managing natural resource consumption

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CTO FORUM 07 SEPTEMBER 2010

THE CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER FORUM

CURRENT CHALLENGE CIOS NEED TO LOOK AT THE INFRASTRUCTURE THAT THEY ARE DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE FOR AND THE IMPACT THAT IT HAS ON THE BUSINESS AND ENVIRONMENT.

and waste; enhancing awareness on risks and opportunities of climate change across stakeholders; and articulating green IT and green procurement policy.

CIOs will need to look at the infrastructure that they are directly responsible for and the impact that it has on the business and environment. Green data centre initiatives can reduce energy consumption— and deliver cost savings—while supporting IT growth.

For example, we are consolidating our entire IT infrastructure and applications that are scattered across different cities and countries. We plan to have these consolidated in three large data centres. There will be a primary data centre housing all software and applications, a near shore disaster recovery centre and another recovery centre located in Chennai. The first phase of the project has already gone live at 44 of our group companies.

The consolidation will help us in faster decision making as we will have access to information across all our businesses. In addition, rather than investing money on a larger number of less powerful systems, we want to purchase systems that are powerful, even though these would be expensive.

Another area that has assumed great significance for us is the use of collaboration tools. We recently deployed a tele-presence solution to enhance our productivity and the executive decision-making process across multiple sites.

CIOs should play a major role in how organisations interact and collaborate with stakeholders and customers. As CIOs drive solutions to environmental issues they will gain insights that can be applied to broader corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies.

SEPTEMBER 10 THECTOFORUM.COM

COV E R D E S I G E N BY SA N TO S H KU S H WA H A

CONTE NTS

28 COVER STORY

28 | Award Winning Tales

COLUMNS

04 | I BELIEVE: REAP GREEN BENEFITS V S Parthasarthy, Group CIO, EVP – Finance and M&A, Mahindra Group on saving costs and protecting the environment.

Our jury selected CIOs who topped the list for their ingenuity, sound management and perseverance. Now these leaders tell us what went in the making of these success stories.

68 | VIEW POINT: HP'S NEXT CEO The company now needs a shot of sex appeal.

BY STEVE DUPLESSIE

Please Recycle This Magazine And Remove Inserts Before Recycling

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FEATURES

52 | NEXT HORIZONS: MILESTONES REVISITED Benefits-based approach will help in adoption of a new technology and success of the project. BY NILESH CHANDRA & SCOTT LEVER

www.thectoforum.com Managing Director: Dr Pramath Raj Sinha Printer & Publisher: Kanak Ghosh Publishing Director: Anuradha Das Mathur EDITORIAL Editor-in-chief: Rahul Neel Mani Executive Editor: Geetaj Channana Resident Editor (West & South): Ashwani Mishra Associate Editor: Dominic K Assistant Editor: Aditya Kelekar Principal Correspondent: Vinita Gupta Correspondent: Sana Khan, Nipun Sahrawat

12 A QUESTION OF ANSWERS

12 | INFRASTRUCTURE IS INCREDIBLY UNDERUTILISED

Mark Beaumont, Director, Global Product Development - IT Solutions Verizon Business on cloud computing.

22

65

REGULARS

01 | EDITORIAL 08 | ENTERPRISE ROUND-UP advertisers’ index

22 | BEST OF BREED: IDENTITY CHECKED The need for access control systems

65 | HIDE TIME: MURLI NAMBIAR, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT & GROUP CISO, RELIANCE CAPITAL

VERIZON SCHNEIDER LG IBM INSERT SIGMABYTE SAS LENOVA LIFE SIZE BMC SOFTWARE TREND MICRO WIPRO ACE DATA IBM CANON

IFC 3 05 AFTER 10 11 15 21 23 25 47 51 53 IBC BC

DESIGN Sr. Creative Director: Jayan K Narayanan Art Director: Binesh Sreedharan Associate Art Director: Anil VK Manager Design: Chander Shekhar Sr. Visualisers: PC Anoop, Santosh Kushwaha Sr. Designers: Prasanth TR, Anil T Suresh Kumar, Joffy Jose & Anoop Verma Designer: Sristi Maurya Chief Photographer: Subhojit Paul Photographer: Jiten Gandhi ADVISORY PANEL Ajay Kumar Dhir, CIO, JSL Limited Anil Garg, CIO, Dabur David Briskman, CIO, Ranbaxy Mani Mulki, VP-IS, Godrej Industries Manish Gupta, Director, Enterprise Solutions AMEA, PepsiCo India Foods & Beverages, PepsiCo Raghu Raman, CEO, National Intelligence Grid, Govt. of India S R Mallela, Former CTO, AFL Santrupt Misra, Director, Aditya Birla Group Sushil Prakash, Country Head, Emerging Technology-Business Innovation Group, Tata TeleServices Vijay Sethi, VP-IS, Hero Honda Vishal Salvi, CSO, HDFC Bank Deepak B Phatak, Subharao M Nilekani Chair Professor and Head, KReSIT, IIT - Bombay Vijay Mehra, Former Global CIO, Essar Group SALES & MARKETING VP Sales & Marketing: Naveen Chand Singh National Manager-Events and Special Projects: Mahantesh Godi (09880436623) Product Manager: Rachit Kinger Asst. Product Manager: Priyam Mahajan GM South: Vinodh K (09740714817) Senior Manager Sales (South): Ashish Kumar Singh GM North: Lalit Arun (09582262959) GM West: Sachin Mhashilkar (09920348755) Kolkata: Jayanta Bhattacharya (09331829284) PRODUCTION & LOGISTICS Sr. GM. Operations: Shivshankar M Hiremath Production Executive: Vilas Mhatre Logistics: MP Singh, Mohd. Ansari, Shashi Shekhar Singh OFFICE ADDRESS Published, Printed and Owned by Nine Dot Nine Interactive Pvt Ltd. Published and printed on their behalf by Kanak Ghosh.

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Editor: Anuradha Das Mathur This issue of CTO FORUM includes 8 pages of CSO Forum free with the magazine

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

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INTERVIEW INISDE

Enterprise

Switching and routing markets show strong growth in 2010 Pg 10B

ROUND-UP

PC Shipments will Grow in 2010.

Growth will slow in second half of the year.

PC shipments are projected to total 367.8 million units in 2010, a 19.2 percent increase from 308.3 million units shipped in 2009, according to the latest preliminary forecast by Gartner.

"The PC market revived in the first half of 2010, but the real test of its resilience is yet to come," said Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner. "We have reduced our forecast for second-half 2010 PC growth to 15.3 percent, approximately 2 percent below our previous forecast, in light of the uncertain economic outlook for the United States and Western Europe.

There is no doubt that consumer, if not business PC demand has slowed relative to expectations in mature markets. Recent dramatic shifts in the PC supply

PHOTO BY PHOTOS.COM

WORLDWIDE

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CTO FORUM 07 SEPTEMBER 2010

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chain were in no small part a reaction to fears of a sharp slowdown in mature-market demand. However, suppliers' risk-aversion is as much a factor in these shifts as any actual downshift in demand."

Gartner analysts said businesses will find it very difficult to delay PC replacements. The age of the professional PC installed base is already at an all-time high.

“Businesses that delay replacing much longer risk alienating employees, burdening themselves with more service requests and support costs, and ultimately facing higher migration costs when they eventually migrate to Windows 7,” Mr. Atwal said. “The bottom line is that businesses need to refresh their PCs sooner rather than later. "

2.9% DATA BRIEFING

PREDICTED GROWTH OF WORLD ENTERPRISE IT SPENDING IN 2010.

SOURCE : GARTNER

E NTE RPRI SE ROUND -UP

THEY ERIC SAID IT SCHMIDT Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, talking about the size of the Internet information boom at the Techonomy conference in Lake Tahoe. Schmidt explained to delegates at the conference how the availability of information increased convenience, and enabled society to more effectively fight anti-social and malicious behaviour - but his talk raised some uncomfortable points.

Intel Plans to Catalyze the Indian Internet economy. Lists steps to boost growth.

INTEL India recently outlined its vision for catalysing the Indian Internet economy at an event held in New Delhi. Represented by Intel senior Vice President and General Manager, Sales & Marketing Group, Thomas M Kilroy outlined steps necessary to connect more Indians to the 21st century opportunities through technology.

At the event, Intel announced the availability of the Intel AppUp centre in India; made announcements with Meru Cabs and Croma; and with its customers displayed over fifty devices powered by the latest Intel technologies. The Intel AppUp centre is an online software application store that aggregates, categorizes and validates applications that consumers can shop, collect and install from one easy source. Intel AppUp centre will come off beta very shortly.

Retail giant Croma announced its intention for a co-branded affiliate store, powered by Intel AppUp centre that will be launched by October this year in India.

NASSCOM also announced that it will work with Intel on the Intel Atom Developer Program to build momentum for developers in India starting September/ October this year. Through this program, developers will get access to Intel services to validate applications and software behind the scenes and joint marketing and revenue sharing opportunities through Intel AppUp centre.

PHOTO BY PHOTOS.COM

QUICK BYTE ON CONVERGENT DEVICE MARKET

“People will find it's very useful to have devices that remember what you want to do, because you forgot...

But society isn't ready for questions that will be raised as result of user-generated content.”

—Eric Schimdt, CEO, Google

A Strategy Analytics report is projecting that the Connected Convergent Devices (CCDs) market, ranging from Mobile Internet Devices to netbooks, will achieve a global installed base of over 400 million units by 2014.

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CTO FORUM 07 SEPTEMBER 2010

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PHOTO BY PHOTOS.COM

E NTE RPRI SE ROUND -UP

Novell Launches Cloud Security Service. Provides provisioning, access, security and compliance solutions for computing in the cloud.

and security portfolio, which enables enterprises to have a consistent framework for managing identities across physical, virtual and cloud deployments.

With Novell Cloud Security Service, enterprises can quickly and easily extend their identity infrastructure to any public cloud.

Any changes that are made to their users or

NOVELL has announced the general availability of Novell Cloud Security Service.

Part of Novell's WorkloadIQ vision, Novell Cloud Security Service gives cloud providers the ability to deliver secure access and compliance in the cloud for their customers. Novell Cloud Security Service is a critical part of Novell's broader identity

Black Hat hackers on the loose

GLOBAL TRACKER

The number of Black Hat or malicious hackers has gone up, with 57 percent

respondents at DEFCON 18 admitting to being one versus 25 percent at

DEFCON 17, a year ago.

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CTO FORUM 07 SEPTEMBER 2010

57% 25%

SOURCE: TUFIN TECHNOLOGIES ‘HACKING HABITS’ SURVEY AT DEFCON 18.

THE CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER FORUM

permissions are immediately replicated in the cloud environment, thus ensuring one consistent identity and security framework for the enterprise, regardless of where the computing is actually taking place.

"Novell's ability to deliver a complete set of provisioning, access, security and compliance solutions that help both organisations and cloud providers control access, monitor activity and provide compliance is yet another example of their leadership in this area," said Jim Reavis, co-founder and executive director of the Cloud Security Alliance. "The Cloud Security Alliance is working closely with Novell to address many of the trust concerns end-user organisations have with cloud computing, including issues that go beyond just technology solutions."

Novell Cloud Security Service is hosted in the cloud, either where the provider hosts its application or via a Novell hosting partner. A user can log on directly or via the enterprise identity system. The service first verifies the identity and, if successful, will generate an identity token in the format needed by the SaaS provider. The user is now authenticated to the SaaS service.

Once inside the application, the application connectors that are provided with the service capture deep page-level user activity and provide the audit stream for compliance purposes.

As cloud models mature and businesses look at cloud solutions, security questions such as protecting data in the cloud, providing audit reports for inspection and ensuring regulatory compliance are becoming increasingly important. For enterprises looking at moving critical workloads to the cloud, the combination of Novell Identity Manager 4 and Novell Access Manager is the only solution that offers seamless provisioning and access in real-time.

For cloud service providers who want to deliver a secure, compliant computing environment for their customers, the Novell Cloud Security Service offers a multi-tenant environment with built-in metering, billing and auditing.

—Nipun Sahrawat

E NTE RPRI SE ROUND -UP

CSC forms Cloud Computing Alliance.

Aims to create centres of excellence to showcase Vblock technology.

CSC has announced it is expanding its alliance with the Virtual Computing Environment coalition (VCE), a collaboration of Cisco and EMC with VMware, to develop a new global solutions unit and create centres of excellence based on VCE’s Vblock infrastructure.

CSC now provides a transition to the cloud that combines its consulting, service oriented architecture (SOA), applications modernisation and refactoring and trusted cloud managed services

with VCE’s Vblock platform, delivering client applications and business processes through an Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) model.

Vblock combines virtualisation software from VMware; unified networking, security and computing from Cisco; and storage and security technologies from EMC. Vblocks support a broad range of operating systems and applications.

CSC’s Trusted Cloud Managed Services will use the Vblock as the basis of its Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and future Software as a Service (SaaS) offerings. In June, CSC unveiled seven cloud-enabled data centres and new trusted cloud services – including CloudLab and CloudExchange – built to operate on Vblock infrastructure.

“Businesses are looking for ways to rapidly take advantage of the benefits of virtualization and secure cloud computing, and CSC is excited about the momentum we’re building in the marketplace with key VCE cloud implementations like the recently announced win with AMP in Australia,” said Michael W. Laphen, CSC chairman, president and chief executive officer. “We offer the global scale and consulting prowess, multi-vendor systems integration, and applications expertise needed to deliver agile and secure business services on the VCE coalition’s unified fabric. Our strong and strategic alliance with the VCE coalition helps our clients take full advantage of both the economics and flexibility of virtualization and cloud computing.”

The VCE platform claims to drive higher levels of IT virtualisation and system utilisation with a smaller technology footprint, which translates to higher energy savings and a reduced carbon footprint.

FACT TICKER

Switching and Routing Markets Growing: IDC.

Continued strong growth in 2Q10.

IN THE SECOND quarter of 2010 (2Q10), the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Enterprise Networks Tracker found year-over-year revenue growth of 32.7 percent in the Ethernet switching and 11.0 percent in the Ethernet routing markets worldwide, reflecting continued strong performance across all regions and key product segments.

10B

CTO FORUM 07 SEPTEMBER 2010

"The second quarter performance was very good, following on the heels of exceptional first quarter results for the Ethernet switch market," said Rohit Mehra, director, Enterprise Communications Infrastructure at IDC. "As seen in previous years, the second calendar quarter builds on the performance of the first, which is what the market delivered, showing strong year-over-

THE CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER FORUM

year growth from the slowdown the market witnessed in 2009. " IDC's update report found that the worldwide router market showed moderate strength in 2Q10. It had an 8.0 percent year-over-year gain.

"The continued market recovery in 2010 is very encouraging with all regions and market segments making a contribution," said Cindy Borovick, VP, Enterprise Communications Infrastructure and Datacentre Networks.

From a vendor perspective, Cisco's Ethernet switch market share increased to 65.8 percent in 2Q10 from 62.8 percent in 2Q09.

GREEN TALK

NISSAN MOTOR has unveiled Nissan LEAF, an affordable, zeroemission car. Designed specifically for a lithium-ion battery-powered chassis, Nissan LEAF is a mediumsize hatchback that comfortably seats five adults and has a range of more than 160km (100 miles).

The car is powered by laminated compact lithium-ion batteries, which generate power output of over 90kW, while its electric motor delivers 80kW/280Nm. Nissan LEAF can be charged up to 80% of its full capacity in just under 30 minutes with a quick charger.

Charging at home through a 200V may take about eight hours.

Nissan LEAF employs an advanced IT system. Connected to a global data centre, the system can provide support, information, and entertainment for drivers. The dash-mounted monitor displays Nissan LEAF's remaining power - or "reachable area" - in addition to showing a selection of nearby charging stations. Another feature is the ability to use mobile phones to turn on air-conditioning and set charging functions - even when Nissan LEAF is powered down.

"The IT system is a critical advantage," says Tooru ABE, Chief Product Specialist. "We wanted this vehicle to be a partner for the driver and an enhancement for the passengers. We also wanted this vehicle to help create a zero-emission community, and these IT features will help make that possible."

A QUESTION OF ANSWERS

M ARK B E AUMO N T

Infrastructure Utilisation: 70% of the year you are running at 20-25% capacity.

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THE CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER FORUM

M ARK B E AUMO N T

A QUESTION OF ANSWERS

MARK BEAUMONT | VERIZON

Infrastructure is Incredibly

Underutilised Mark Beaumont Director, Global Product Development IT Solutions Verizon Business talks to Vinita Gupta about Verizon’s cloud computing offerings and the research that has gone into developing them.

PHOTOS BY JITEN GANDHI

What are the various concerns CIOs have before adopting cloud computing?

Some of the important concerns are related to security, performance, accessibility and availability, depending on where the cloud is hosted.

Generally, the most important concern is always security; in fact, it is everybody's real concern. We put a lot of effort in ensuring that it is a very secure platform.

What made Verizon think about cloud computing?

Two years prior to our launch, we invested 10 million dollars and lots of man-hours to assess different methods of delivery. We knew that the market was evolving to a more service-based utility-based infrastruc-

ture. For us, everything accelerated because of the global economy and we speeded up what we were doing.

We are looking at ways to provide services that are more flexible and valuable to our clients. It’s predominantly the reason behind coming into the market to offer a utility or a cloud based solution. Infact when we first entered the market with computing as a service, the concept of cloud computing as a service was not even popular.

What's been your observations on infrastructure utilisation?

We have had customers who have always been supported by a traditionally managed, hosted environment; they have always had a lot of peaks

and troughs in their infrastructure.

We have got a number of retail organisations for whom we managed their online portals, shopping carts and so on and so forth. And we have seen their traffic profile sort of goes up for one minute and then it’s down and then it’s back up. You find that the actual infrastructure itself is incredibly underutilised.

While at various points of the year it will be utilised close to capacity, sort of 70% of the year it will be running at 20-25% capacity – at which point a lot of resources are just lying idle.

Do you think in India the SMB market would be the only one looking at the cloud computing option?

No, not at all; I think it’s available to

THE CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER FORUM

CTO FORUM 07 SEPTEMBER 2010

13

A QUESTION OF ANSWERS

M ARK B E AUMO N T

“We are obviously looking at ways by which we can generate more of PaaS and SaaS offerings in the future.”

all the markets though certainly we have many customers from the SMB segment. There are SIs, there are small SMB organisations and so on. It appeals to lots of organisations, but sometimes in different ways. Some organisations use it for test and development; some organisations use it for web content. Other organisations use it to deliver applications or content to their application customer base which are geographically dispersed.

So it really has a myriad of uses for different organisations.

Tell us more about the options offered by Verizon?

We have different operating sys-

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CTO FORUM 07 SEPTEMBER 2010

tems like Windows and Linux; we can set up the environment at all existing resources. If there was a certain capability or a requirement specific to the user, for instance if the customer has an infrastructure somewhere else but they don’t want to continue to invest in that infrastructure, we can actually set up Computing as a Service (CaaS) to augment that infrastructure. I would say that if a user is running a Solaris outsourced, we could actually manage that environment wherever that might be but also we can setup CAAS to augment that environment as well so that the user gets a bit of everything. The same applies to the storage and network side also.

THE CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER FORUM

THINGS I BELIEVE IN We put a lot of effort in ensuring that ours is a very secure platform We are looking at ways to provide services that are more flexible and valuable to our clients Cloud computing appeals to lots of organisations, but sometimes in different ways

The other vendors talk about Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), so will Verizon also provide these services?

So at the moment, CaaS fits into pretty much three buckets: in the cloud computing one, in the IaaS one and also elements of what CaaS is able to do could be classified as a PaaS – so it kind of fits into all those categories. We are obviously looking at ways by which we can generate more of PaaS and SaaS offerings in the future and to achieve that we might have some partnerships in place.

— Vinita.gupta@9dot9.in

LENOVO CASE STUDY

LENOVO LENOVO CASE STUDY CASE STUDY

SUPPLY CHAIN LEADER LOOKS BEYOND THE TANGIBLES AND SOLUTION OVERVIEW SOLUTION OVERVIEW CUSTOMER PROFILE SUPPLY CHAIN LEADER LOOKS LOWERS TOTAL COST OF DIAMOND PROCESSING BEYOND THE TANGIBLES AND MAJOROWNERSHIP CREATES INDIGENOUS CUSTOMER PROFILE SOLUTION OVERVIEW Country:- Singapore

Industry:- Supply Chain Management

Country:- Singapore

ModusLink Global Solutions, Inc.

Country: Industry:-India Supply Chain Management (ModusLink) is a leading, global Industry: High Technology Diamond provider of end-to-end multichannel supply chain management solutions.

Processing

LOWERSLeading TOTAL OFProvider Global COST Supply Chain CUTTING EDGE PRODUCTS Empowers 24x7 Operations with Robust, OWNERSHIP Reliable and Energy-Saving Notebooks

The publicly traded company has

ModusLink Global Solutions, Inc.more than 25 years of supply chain experience, with more than 25 (ModusLink) is a leading, global facilities in 14 countries across the provider of end-to-end multichannel Sahajanand Technologies is aAmericas, Europe and Asia. supply chaininmanagement solutions. trendsetter the development The publicly traded company has BUSINESS SITUATION of cutting-edge diamond more than 25 years of supply chain As part of its technology refresh, manufacturing equipment, systems experience, with more than 25 ModusLink wanted to upgrade its and processing solutions.

It has facilities in 14 countries across the corporate standard notebooks to been providing laser-based Americas, Europe and Asia. material leverage the latest technologies

CUSTOMER PROFILE

FOR HIGH TECHNOLOGY DIAMOND INDUSTRY

Leading Global Supply Chain Provider Empowers 24x7 Operations with Robust, As the key decision maker, it is critical for Reliable and Energy-Saving Notebooks

processing technology, and imaging available to power its business. A and artificial intelligence-basedreliable and robust IT platform is BUSINESS SITUATION key to empowering its customer smart equipment for the diamond responsiveness and competitiveness.

As part of its industries, technology refresh, and medical for more ModusLink wanted to upgrade its than 15 years. Other than India, corporate standard notebooks toSOLUTION it has a presence in countries like leverage the latest technologies ModusLink deployed both the China, Botswana, and Thailand. available to power its business.

AThinkPad T400 and ThinkPad X200.

to look beyond the tangible features and SahajanandmeIncreases Robustness focus on the non-tangible benefits offered. and Processing Power in its Products Lenovo shines with its excellent support and While Reducing Downtime and Powertimeforand services, impressive As the key decision maker,turnaround it is critical Consumption innovative technology me to look beyond the tangibleleadership. features and

There are plans to also migrate its

reliable and robust IT platform is desktops to take advantage of the key to empowering its customer mobility and wireless benefits offered responsiveness and competitiveness.

by ThinkPad notebooks.

BUSINESS SITUATION AND SOLUTION

focus on the non-tangible benefits offered.

Mr Chow Teng Mun Information Director for Asia Pacific and Lenovo shines withTechnology its excellent support ModusLink Weimpressive continuously thinktime of better services, turnaround and innovative leadership. ways totechnology understand the needs of

Sahajanand SOLUTIONwanted robust BENEFITS • Extend wireless coverage with performance, less downtime ModusLink deployed both the and significant communication cost faster processing for their products.

ThinkPad T400 and ThinkPad X200. savings • Green features enable Therefore, they to chose Lenovoitsmore energy savings • Robustness, There are plans also migrate reliability ThinkCentre M90advantage desktopsoffor use and seamless support for desktops to take the legacy applications empower 24x7 and wireless benefits offered inmobility their Magnus range of Diamond operations • Enhanced security for

by ThinkPad notebooks.

Planning systems, diamond executive staff and mobile workers. processing Lazer Super series Mr Chow Teng Mun machines and StentSpect series BENEFITS Information Technology machines for Stent manufacturing.

• Extend wireless coverage with significant communication cost

savings • Green features enable BENEFITS more energy savings • Robustness,

Robustness, reliability and

reliability and seamless support for seamless supportempower 24x7 legacy applications Empowers 24x7 operations operations • Enhanced security for Cost andstaff time savings executive and mobile workers.

Immediatep roductivity Green features enable more energy savings High processing power for diamond planning and processing

the industry and we create products thatDirector helpforour customers Asia Pacific ModusLink to compete in the global market Rahul Gaywala

Executive Director, Sahajanand Technologies

INDUSTRY OVERVIEW

LENOVO CASE STUDY SOLUTION OVERVIEW Country:- Singapore Industry:- Supply Chain Management

Earlier we used assembled ModusLink Global Solutions, Inc. (ModusLink) is a leading, global computers but provider of end-to-end multichannel supply chain management solutions. we faced many The publicly traded company has more than 25 years of supply chain problems as the experience, with more than 25 facilities in 14 countries across the assembled PCs Americas, Europe and Asia. did not have BUSINESS SITUATION high processing As part of its technology refresh, ModusLink wanted to upgrade its power and were corporate standard notebooks to leverage the latest technologies not ButA availablestable. to power its business. reliable and robust IT platform is now we are key to empowering its customer responsiveness and competitiveness. using Lenovo SOLUTION ThinkCentre PCs ModusLink deployed both the known forThinkPad their ThinkPad T400 and X200.

There are plans to also migrate its reliability andof the desktops to take advantage mobility and wireless benefits offered

by ThinkPad notebooks. robustness.

CUSTOMER PROFILE

BENEFITS Rahul Gaywala

• Extend wireless coverage with

Executive Director, significant communication cost Sahajanand savings • GreenTechnologies features enable

more energy savings • Robustness, reliability and seamless support for legacy applications empower 24x7 operations • Enhanced security for executive staff and mobile workers.

Diamonds are awe inspiring. One of the purest forms of carbon and hardest natural substances, they are not only used in ornaments, but in many industrial applications, too. Approximately 26 tonnes of diamonds are mined yearly, predominantly from mines in Africa, Russia, Canada, Brazil, India and Australia.

Africa leads the pack with close to 49% of the world’s diamond supply originating from the region.

India on the other hand, is the largest diamond cutting and polishing country of the world. It processes 95% of all diamonds in the world, by number of pieces processed. This accounts for 82% of carat share and 60% of value share. It is also the third-largest consumer of diamonds after US and Japan.

Surat is the hub of this trade in India and close to 80% of all diamonds processed in the country are processed in this city with an annual turnover of $13.03 billion.

(Source: India Brand Equity Foundation)

diamond, the cutting process is carried out. Sahajanand’s Lazer range of machines utilizes the latest laser technology and provides high productivity, automation, elimination of finishing operations, reduced processing cost and improved up time in this stage.

The cutting stage is followed by the bruiting, auto-blocking and polishing stage. Machines used in these stages are compact and robust, designed for vibration free and quiet operations. All kinds of processed rough stones can be polished on these machines.

Executive Director, Rahul Gaywala, said that they are competing in an extremely competitive global market where national boundaries are diminishing. In this environment they have to keep innovating and developing new products to ensure that they always remain a step ahead in the competition. He said, “We continuously think of better ways and means to understand the needs of the industry and customers and, based on those needs, we create products that help our customers to compete in the global market.”

SUPPLY CHAIN LEADER LOOKS BEYOND THE TANGIBLES AND LOWERS TOTAL COST OF OWNERSHIP Leading Global Supply Chain Provider CORPORATE INTRODUCTION Empowers 24x7 Operations with Robust, Sahajanand Group of Industries is one of the leading in the diamond SITUATION Reliable andplayers Energy-Saving Notebooks processing industry in India. They are a manufacturer and exporter of laser and vision technology-centered capital equipment for diamond processing industries.

Their portfolio of services and solutions consists of diamond analysis and systems, laser-driven diamond processing equipment, auto blocking and polishing machines. All these are used at different stages of the diamond manufacturing process.

There are five stages involved in converting a raw diamond into a polished one. In the first stage, diamonds are sorted depending on their size and quality. After the classification of diamonds, Mr Chow Teng and Mun the planning marking stage follows, Information Technology for Asia wherein different optionsDirector that can be ModusLink used to cut the diamond are looked into; depending upon the options, a diamond cutting expert can minimize wastage and increase the value of a diamond.

Sahajanand’s Magnus range of planners are used for this purpose. They create a complete profiling of the rough diamond and suggest improvements.

The third stage is the sawing stage in which, following the mark made on the

Before the advent of laser machines, all the above mentioned stages of diamond cutting have been very person dependent. Only an experienced diamond cutting professional can judge the right cut of the diamond in the planning process. At times, larger diamonds are not even cut for a long time because of the fear of eroding their value due to a wrong cut.

Also, even though diamonds are the hardest substance in the world, they are extremely brittle, too. One wrong blow from a hammer can break the diamond into unusable pieces. Diamonds were thus, always cut by other diamonds. This further reduced the yield from the raw product available.

Pacific Laser planning and bruiting machines by companies like Sahajanand have helped increase the yield of diamonds multi-fold.

But, this has not been without challenges.

The laser machines used in this process need to have extremely high computational power to be able to graphically scan and draw 3D images of the diamond, enabling the planner in deciding the exact cut. The machines have to be extremely robust to survive in a 24x7x365 environment, with

As the key decision maker, it is critical for me to look beyond the tangible features and focus on the non-tangible benefits offered.

Lenovo shines with its excellent support and services, impressive turnaround time and innovative technology leadership.

no down times. And finally, as they are high precision machines, they need to be free from vibrations.

SOLUTION

Since all of Sahajanand’s products are installed at remote client locations, low downtimes ensure that they have to spend less time and money on support and have highly reliable machines.

The Lenovo ThinkCentre M90 series of business desktops also support the latest recovery technologies for faster system restores. The ThinkVantage Rescue, Recovery and Update features help the users recover from crashes quickly.

LENOVO CASE STUDY

The solution provided by Sahajanand has been path breaking in many ways. Their machines are built by seasoned diamond cutting experts and experienced software professionals. They create extremely user friendly software for an audience that is not tech savvy at all.

High processing power Munjal Gajjar, Vice PresidentSOLUTION OVERVIEW The ThinkCentre M90 features the Intel Information Technology, Sahajanand Country:- Singapore i5/i7 series processors with Turbo Technologies, mentioned that,Industry:“We Supply ChainCore Management Boost and Hyper-Threading technolodevelop our sophisticated software, CUSTOMER PROFILE gies that provide faster performance and which works very well on Lenovo’s Global Solutions, Inc. multitasking. computing hardware. We haveModusLink also been (ModusLink) is a leading, global With the help of high processing power using Lenovo/ IBM’s solutionsprovider since of end-to-end multichannel supply chain management usedsolutions. in Sahajanand Magnus (the planner 2002 and have bought close to 2,100 The publicly traded company has product) the diamond can be seen from machines (70% for the planners and 30% more than 25 years of supply chain sides experience, with moreall than 25 and helps in providing a lot more for the laser machines).”

Munjal Gajjar facilities in 14 countries across the options than any human can think of. To Along with their industry leading Vice President- Information Americas, Europe and Asia. begin with, it shows the 10 most suitable software, Sahajanand’s Magnus Technology, Sahajanand options to the user and can generate up and Lazer Super products have Technologies BUSINESS SITUATION to refresh, 30 new options, every 20 seconds. standardized the use of Lenovo As part of its technology With its these options, the customer can desktops in all their models. ModusLink They usewanted to upgrade corporate standard notebooks to easily decide on the best suitable shape Lenovo’s top of the line ThinkCentre leverage the latest technologies As the key decision maker, it is critical for available in whichA the diamond should be cut and M90 business desktops for all their to power its business. reliable and robust IT platform is me to look the tangible features and it on the diamond using laser beyond techprocessing and user interfacekeyneeds. to empowering itsmark customer responsiveness and competitiveness. nology. Sahajanand has, till date, sold “The planning and bruiting stage focus on the non-tangible benefits offered. more than one thousand units of their requires high processing power. Earlier, SOLUTION Lenovo shines with its excellent support and Magnus planner product. assembled computers were being used ModusLink deployed both the by us, but we faced many problems as services, impressive turnaround time and ThinkPad T400 and ThinkPad X200.

Therehigh are plans to alsoGreen migrate Features its Enable Energy Savings the assembled PCs did not have innovative technology leadership. desktops to take advantage of the Earlier this year, the company launched processing power and were not stable. mobility and wireless benefits offered their latest models of the Lazer Super But now we are using LenovobyThinkThinkPad notebooks.

Centre PCs known for their reliability and Mr Chow Teng Mun robustness”, says Gaywala. BENEFITS Information Technology Director for Asia Pacific

We develop our own sophisticated software which very well SUPPLY CHAIN works LEADER LOOKS on Lenovo’s BEYOND THE TANGIBLES computing AND LOWERS TOTALhardware.

COST OF

OWNERSHIP

Leading Global Supply Chain Provider Empowers 24x7 Operations with Robust, Reliable and Energy-Saving Notebooks

• Extend wireless coverage with significant communication cost BENEFITS savings • Green features enable more energy savings • Robustness, Robust and Error Free Operations reliability and seamless support for “The machines are used 24/7 and legacycannot applications empower 24x7 operations afford downtimes, thus if anything goes • Enhanced security for executive staff and mobile workers.

wrong it will have an adverse effect on our customer’s business and hence, we produce the best products using the best technology available. Lenovo’s Thinkbranded products are of good quality and Lenovo provides excellent service and support,” says Prakash Rakholia, DirectorMarketing, Sahajanand Technologies.

Easy-to-manage ThinkCentre M90/ M90p desktops support the latest data security, remote data management and worry-free storage—which help reduce costs, downtime and desk-side IT visits.

ModusLink

NO VIBRATIONS: All tower models of Lenovo Thinkcentre M90 family are equipped with cat-foot cushions that reduce table vibrations considerably, thus reducing the risk of errors in these high precision machines.

ABOUT LENOVO

Lenovo (HKSE: 992) (ADR:LNVGY) is dedicated to building exceptionally engineered personal computers.

Lenovo’s business model is built on innovation, operational efficiency and customer satisfaction as well as a focus on investment in emerging markets.

Formed by Lenovo Group’s acquisition of the former IBM Personal Computing Division, the company develops, manufactures and markets reliable, high-quality, secure and easy-to-use technology products and services worldwide. Lenovo has major research centers in Yamato, Japan; Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen, China; and Raleigh, North OVERVIEW Carolina.

SOLUTION

LENOVO CASE STUDY

Country:- Singapore For more information see Industry:- Supply Chain Management www.lenovo.com.

CUSTOMER PROFILE FOR MORE INFORMATION ModusLink Global Solutions, Inc. For more information on Lenovo, (ModusLink) is a leading, global visit www.lenovo.com or write to us at provider of end-to-end multichannel corpsales@lenovo.com supply chain management solutions.

KABcomm@lenovo.com The publicly traded company has more than 25 years of supply chain experience, with more than 25 facilities in 14 countries across the Americas, Europe and Asia.

BUSINESS SITUATION As part of its technology refresh, ModusLink wanted to upgrade its corporate standard notebooks to leverage the latest technologies available to power its business. A reliable and robust IT platform is key to empowering its customer responsiveness and competitiveness.

SOLUTION ModusLink deployed both the ThinkPad T400 and ThinkPad X200.

There are plans to also migrate its desktops to take advantage of the mobility and wireless benefits offered

by ThinkPad notebooks.

BENEFITS • Extend wireless coverage with significant communication cost savings • Green features enable more energy savings • Robustness, reliability and seamless support for legacy applications empower 24x7 operations • Enhanced security for executive staff and mobile workers.

diamond cutting machines. These machines are able to produce 50-60% more output power than most other models that are available in the market.

The Lenovo ThinkCentre business desktops add to the push on energy savings

by Sahajanand. The Energy Star-compliant power supply unit and Lenovo Power Manager present in the Lenovo’s ThinkCentre M90 helps in reducing the power usage and cost. Also adding to the green quotient of the machines, they are built with up to 42% post-consumer content, the industry’s highest, with minimum use of plastic.

“Being a responsible corporate citizen, Sahajanand Technologies operates on high ethical standards. The company is actively involved in preserving the environment by developing, manufacturing and selling environmentally friendly and energy saving diamond processing products. Helping to save the environment and lower energy costs are standard benefits of Lenovo Think-branded computers,” says Gaywala.

with cat-foot cushions that reduce table vibrations considerably, thus reducing the risk of wastage and errors in these high precision machines.

FUTURE PLANS In the next two years, Sahajanand is planning to sell around 3,000 new systems, all equipped with Lenovo Think-branded PCs. Sahajanand’s goal is to create as many automated solutions that are reliable and give great value to their customers.

According to Gaywala, sophisticated and high-end planners and advanced laser systems have changed the face of the industry. “We are committed to bring these high-end innovative technologies within the reach of every diamond manufacturing industry and to make them drive on the road of success. We are on the verge of bringing 3rd generation technology revolution into the diamond industry.”

He said, “We are now working on a machine that can provides better accuracy and can handle even finer inclusions in diamonds. The company is looking at Lenovo’s business computing solutions to power these machines, with all the advantages that they offer — including high reliability and great processing power.”

Also, by the end of this year, Sahajanand is planning to launch an “Automatic Polishing Machine” and a technology wherein the diamonds can be directly transferred from the Magnus planner machine to the Lazer Super machine.

SUPPLY CHAIN LEADER LOOKS BEYOND THE TANGIBLES AND LOWERS TOTAL COST OF OWNERSHIP Leading Global Supply Chain Provider Lower Vibrations Empowers 24x7 Operations with Robust, Sahajanand manufactures extremely high precisionand laser-based machinery that Reliable Energy-Saving Notebooks works on expensive raw diamonds. It is important that the machines are absolutely vibration free and do not cause any defect in the diamonds because of unnecessary shivers.

All tower models of the Lenovo ThinkCentre M90 family are equipped

As the key decision maker, it is critical for me to look beyond the tangible features and focus on the non-tangible benefits offered.

Lenovo shines with its excellent support and services, impressive turnaround time and innovative technology leadership.

Mr Chow Teng Mun Information Technology Director for Asia Pacific ModusLink

THE TEAM: The experts at Sahajanand Technologies work hard to create cutting edge products for diamond processing that are powered by Lenovo ThinkCentre M90 series Lenovo makes every effort to ensure accuracy of all information but is not liable or responsible for any editorial, photographic or typographic errors. All images are for illustration purposes only. For full Lenovo product, service and warranty specifications visit www.lenovo.com. Lenovo makes no representations or warranties regarding third party products or services. Trademarks: The following are trademarks of Lenovo: Lenovo, the Lenovo logo, New World New Thinking, ThinkPad, Active Protection System and ThinkLight. Microsoft, Windows and Vista are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the USA or other countries. Other company, product and service names may be trademarks or service marks of others. © 2009 Lenovo. All rights reserved. Visit lenovo.com/safecomputing periodically for the latest information on safe and effective computing.

BEST OF

Turning IP Into Opportunity: NC State's Big Data Effort Pg 26

PHOTO BY PHOTOS.COM

BREED

FEATURE INSIDE

Identity Checked

DATA BRIEFING

5%

IS THE AVERAGE AMOUNT OF IT BUDGET SPENT ON SECURITY SOURCE: GARTNER

22

Identity management and access control systems (IdM) go a long way in balancing security and rapid access.

BY DREW ROBB

S

CTO FORUM 07 SEPTEMBER 2010

ecurity and speed are desirable yet often incompatible goals. Driving 55 MPH lowers highway fatalities, but raises the blood pressure. Airport checks keeps passengers safe, but at a cost of billions of hours waiting in line. As CIOs, you must continually balance the needs of security while giving users rapid access to the applications and data. Identity management and access control systems (IdM) can go a long way to

THE CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER FORUM

reconciling those needs. However, it is not as simple as just deploying a new application.

“Especially when considering best-of-breed products, people tend to look at the technology first and then have to do a lot of backtracking,” said Bill Nagel, an analyst for Forrester Research in Amsterdam.

“This is very much a process problem, where there is a whole raft of policies and processes you want to develop before selection.”

BEST OF BREED

I D E N T I T Y M A N AG E M E N T

Whatever we view as the right standard and the right solution today, by the time we have it installed, configured and operational, it is outdated.

Picking Apart the Pieces

Successful implementation of IdM begins with defining the scope of what you are hoping to achieve. A full-fledged approach to IdM, after all, consists of an array of tools and processes that are deployed across a wide variety of hardware, applications and services relating to different user groups.

This is highlighted by the way Forrester compares vendors in this space based on 14 different technologies in use: Directories (LDAP) Enterprise single sign-on Another key step in strategic planning of IdM is to gain agreement on the appropriEntitlement management ate policies and procedures that balance Federation the needs for security and ease of use. Only Identity audit then can you get around to selecting the set Meta-directories of technologies that will best meet those Multi-factor authentication needs. “A lot of people are coming to realise Password management that ID management is first and foremost Privileged user and password management not a technology problem,” said Paul DonProvisioning fried, VP of Identity and Access ManageRole management ment for Science Applications International User-centric identity Corporation (SAIC). “It is an issue that perVirtual directories, and meates organisations.”

Web single sign-on.

“You can't implement an entire IdM infrastructure all at once,” says Gerry Gebel, VP Suite or Best of Breed and service director of Burton Group’s IdenOnce you have defined the scope and directity and Privacy Strategies service. “With an tion you want to move in, it's time to evaluoverall strategy, you can then select phases ate the products that will achieve the desired of projects or incremental functionality that end state. As usual there are two camps: you want to implement and have it fit into suites and best of breed. Whichever route the overall goal and objective.” you take, Donfried recommends a focus on Before formulating a strategy, it is vital flexibility, especially since this is likely to be to find out what you already have in place. a multi-year project.

Every company is already using some sort of “More than anything, you want to avoid IdM, even if it is just Active Directory. This lock-in to any single vendor or any type of means examining the policies, procedures, proprietary solution,” he said. “Whatever work flows, hardware and data we view as the right standard sources, in addition to software. and the right solution today, by This survey must include lookthe time we have it installed, ing at departments other than configured and operational, it is IT, since physical security, HR, outdated.”

DIGITAL IDENTITY finance, sales and other parts Suites (at least theoretically) WILL EMERGE of the company may have their offer smoother integration than AS ONE OF own systems in place that cover best-of-breed. But integrated part of the field. For example, means different things to difTHE BIGGEST HR will already have some way ferent vendors. And since the CHALLENGES of verifying employee identiIdM vendor space is rapidly ties, and physical security may consolidating, today’s suites be issuing access cards that can may be composed of software double as a smart card for logging into IT recently acquired from competitors. “Somesystems. In addition, the sales and finance times these products have been integrated departments may have their own modes of seamlessly, but with others it is an ongoing granting access to vendors and customers. process,” said Nagel.

By 2013

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THE CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER FORUM

Analysts rate the top five suites as Oracle Identity Management, Novell Identity Manager, CA Identity Lifecycle Management, Sun Identity Management (now owned by Oracle) and IBM Tivoli Identity Management.

In addition to the big five suite vendors, there are dozens of niche products in one or more of the IdM technology spaces listed earlier. Since the field is rapidly evolving, it is best to consult the latest analyst papers before finalising any decisions.

Gartner divides the IdM vendor space into three broad categories: single sign on, user provisioning, and Web access management, and publishes Magic Quadrants on each.

During selection, it is important to also evaluate the existing infrastructure and skills in the organisation, not just the functions of the application itself. “Most companies prefer to deal with fewer vendors rather than more,” said Gebel.

Looking ahead Initially, it may be impossible to obtain the ideal IdM solution out of any given suite or grouping of best-of-breed tools. But, since deploying IdM is a long range process, that isn't necessarily a problem, as long as you don't become firmly locked into a particular vendor or technology. In deploying a suite, therefore, emphasise the selection of elements that are the most mature or best integrated.

“There are a number of technologies that are relatively mature and can produce a lot of benefits,” said Gebel. “People can have a different set of starting points Web single sign on, an organised directory environment, or provisioning and automating account set up there is not one tier or path people have to follow.”

— This article has been reprinted with permission from CIO Update.

BEST OF BREED

A N A LY T I C S

Analytics: Turning IP Into Opportunity North Carolina State University's Big Data Effort.

BY SUSAN NUNZIATA

IMAGING SANTOSH KUSHWAHA

tunity to determine market potential, investigate the patent landscape, and, if necessary, seek patent protection in order to move early-stage technologies to market. This triage process typically takes two to four months, and much of that time is spent on the back end trying to identify the right partners in a particular industry so they can be pitched on the project, explains Houghteling.

For the triage process, the licensing professionals search a plethora of documents, scour SEC reports, search blogs to see which company's R&D efforts are successful and which have failed, attend industry trade meetings and do anything else required "to really get a handle on who is interested in any given technology," says Houghteling.

N

orth Carolina State University's Office of Technology Transfer is piloting an advanced analytics tool it developed with IBM to maximise its return on research investments. The "Big Data" effort can work for any enterprise looking to mine rich databases of information with limited staff resources.

NC State had a challenge. It needed a new process to monetise its treasure trove of scientific advancements and university-invented technologies by matching these with potential research partners and sponsors. Any organisation sitting on reams of intellectual property (IP) will learn from the experiences of Billy Houghteling, Director of the Office of Technology Transfer at NC State. His office is responsible for transferring University-developed innovations to the marketplace and interacting with partners. "Our portfolio is very large, very diverse and it's understaffed," says Houghteling. "We have a hard time managing the intellectual property assets we have."

There are seven licensing professionals (including Houghteling) in the department and they are managing some 3,000 technologies.

In addition, there are 12 support professionals in the department.

"Not only are we charged with managing the university's intellectual property assets, we're also charged with raising whole profile of technology in NC State," says Houghteling. "So we are always thinking about what type of research partnerships we could establish between an industry partner and faculty member in, say, our department of chemistry, for example."

The most time-consuming part of the process is what Houghteling's team calls "triage," in which the licensing professionals review an oppor-

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CTO FORUM 07 SEPTEMBER 2010

THE CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER FORUM

IBM Big Data Pilot This summer, the department began piloting IBM's "Big Data" analytics technology, which mines large amounts of unstructured Web data. The analysis is based on factors such as business relevancy, government policies, market needs and trends. In the pilot phase, the tools unearthed hidden business opportunities that likely would not have emerged under the old triage system, notes Houghteling.

In addition, the analytics tools condensed the triage process down to a seven- to 10-day period. "We do this by identifying key words, using specific phrasing dedicated to key words, and by identifying specific documents," Houghteling says. "You can get these types of analytics tools to spit out a scored or ranked list of potential partners. That's attractive: to have a group of potential partners ranked based on how they match to our specs."

For example, a team of researchers at NC State is investigating new strains of Salmonella for use in vaccines. With IBM Big Data analytics technology, it took less than a week for the university to analyze 1.4 million Web pages, including opinion blogs, social networks and documents. The analytics technology sorted through a wide variety of information and analysed the contents in real time to find relevant details, ultimately identifying potential investors and partners.

The pilots were conducted in collaboration with the university's College of Management Bioscience Management Group and its Centre for Management Studies. For this project, NC State used: IBM BigSheets, part of IBM’s BigInsights portfolio, a software engine that helps get insights from really large data sets easily and quickly IBM LanguageWare, a text analytics tool created by IBM's Dub-

lin Software Lab in Ireland for harnessing the wealth of unstructured data contained in text documents, Web site content and enterprise applications.

IBM Cognos Content Analytics, a software which gives organisations the necessary tools to access and analyse the volumes of unstructured content.

These three components were running on IBM Distribution of Apache Hadoop. The analytics solution interfaced with the University's TechTracS database, developed by Knowledge Sharing Systems. The proprietary database supports innovation management functions and is used by the technology transfer offices of many universities to manage their IP portfolios. "It has its base modules that we have customised for our use at NC state," says Houghteling. "We license use of several seats of the TecTracS software and, in partnership with Knowledge Sharing Systems, we pay for process improvements particular to our processes and practices."The relational TechTracS database is used for all the agreement tracking, invention disclosure tracking, compliance, and patent management for the University. It is also from that database that the department launches all of its marketing activities to potential partners.

In the pilot phase, the interface between the IBM Big Data solution and the transfer management database went smoothly, and Houghteling says "I don't foresee any challenges related to transferring information gathered by use of analytics tools into our transfer management database."

Business Benefits Realised So far, the IBM Big Data pilots delivered two strong benefits, says Houghteling: They reduced the triage process down to seven to 10 days from two to four months; The licensing professionals are now able to use their newfound time to work on raising the university's technology profile and building new business opportunities.

As the pilots continue, "We're definitely in the process of making the business case [ for a full deployment]." Says Houghteling, "It's only a matter of time before these tools become available to every member of my office to test and see how they improve their daily flow of work and efficiency."

This article has been published with prior permission from CIO Insight.

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Award winning tales

Three categories, more than a 100 entries – nine winners. CTO of the Year Awards 2010.

The awards were judged by: VIJAY SETHI, Vice President IS, Hero Honda S.R. BALASUBRAMANIAN, Executive VP, IT and Corporate Development, Godfrey Philips India ARVIND TAWDE, Former CIO, Mahindra & Mahindra ASHOK WAHI, Professor of Information Systems at Jaypee Business School, JIIT University SUNIL KAPOOR, Executive Director, Fortis Healthcare

COVE R S TO RY

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Lights on

CESC deploys a CRM solution to increase revenue and customer satisfaction.

E

lectricity consumers in the cities of Kolkata their unique 11 digit consumer number. and Howrah, Kolkata’s twin city, can breathe The CRM system authenticates the consumer numeasy even if the lights go off. Wondering ber and checks with the DMS and GIS systems to why? Well, unlike most of us in other cities ascertain as to whether the power cut experienced by of the country, they can at least be aware of the reason the consumer is on account of load shedding or due for the power failure by dialing a four digit number to a genuine technical fault. courtesy their service provider, CESC, a utility comIf it is found that the power cut is on account of a pany managed by the RPG Enterprise group. technical fault, the CRM system automatically generAs a vertically integrated power company, CESC's ates a computerised docket number which is comoperations encompass coal mining, generation and municated to the consumer. Internally, the docket distribution of power. number along with the relevant details are routed to With around 24 lakh consumers in the above menthe concerned Regional Reporting Centre (RRC). tioned cities, the IT team decided to deploy a fully CESC has deployed field personnel who travel in automated CRM software solution for handling cusvans on a 24X7 basis in these cities. Using the GPS tomer queries, concerns and complaints. system, the field personnel closest to the customer’s “The primary need for this solution was to ensure residence is tracked and the requisite complaint better and effective customer details are relayed to his wireless service,” says Debashis Roy, Vice handheld instrument using the President-IT, CESC. SMS service which is integrated A customised CRM software with the CRM system. package was developed by the inThe field agent visits the cushouse IT team. The package intetomer, addresses the issue and grated with other systems such communicates the information as Distribution Management over the same wireless system.

System (DMS), Geographical “Typically, in the erstwhile Information System (GIS) and manual system it would take Site Office System (SOS) with a around 6 to 8 hours to restore view to offering a complete and power, whereas with the help of comprehensive solution to the the fully automated end-to-end customer through a single point CRM system, it is now possible to interface. restore power supply in less than — DEBASHIS ROY While the CRM software an hour’s time,” says Roy. package lies at the heart of the The system has been widely system, several technologies such as IVRS (Interacacclaimed and has received accolades from various tive Voice Response System), SMS services and GPS quarters. Many utility companies have approached have been deployed and integrated with the core CRM CESC and are looking to apply this model to their system to make the overall business process efficient organisation as well. and effective.

“The success of the CRM solution has been possible In case of a power cut, the consumer can now dial due to the committed and focused work of my IT up 1912, CESC’s customer service cell number, where team and I want to dedicate this award to them,” Roy an IVR-based system prompts the consumer to key in said, after winning the CIO of the year award.

“Manual systems took 8 hours to restore power, now we can do so in less than an hour’s time”

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Business

Benefits Higher revenues: Increase in revenue owing to higher sale of electricity due to significant reduction in cycle time for restoring power.

CRM data analysis: Proactive maintenance of vulnerable electrical components leading to lower network outages and consequent savings in revenue.

Customer satisfaction: The CRM deployment saw an increase in Customer Satisfaction Index Level.

ILLUSTRATION BY ANIL T

CTO OF THE YEAR - WINNER

ABOUT THE WINNER

Name: Debashis Roy Organisation: CESC Limited Project: CRM Software Solution

THE CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER FORUM

CTO FORUM 07 SEPTEMBER 2010

31

ILLUSTRATION BY PC ANOOP

CTO OF THE YEAR - 1st RUNNER UP

ABOUT THE WINNER

Name: Navin Chadha Organisation: Vodafone Essar Limited Project: Internal Clearing House

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AWA R D W I N N I N G TA L E S

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Smooth roaming

Vodafone developed a solution that helped in generating faster revenues and mitigating frauds.

V

Business

Benefits Savings: Financial savings of around $11 million. Near realtime CDR updating (99.92 %) for revenue assurance team.

Shortening time to market: The leadtime between network and IT development projects is reduced by using ideal solutions to bridge the gap between the billing system and the Data Clearing House (DCH).

Web based GUI: The reporting service ensures that the business teams have complete control of the data processing and a deep insight into the correlation between revenue and subscriber behaviour.

settlements happen through the clearing house. odafone Essar has operations across the “The existing data clearing solution was plagued country and has over a hundred million with lots of delays,” says Chadha. customers. The mobile service provider Due to these delays there were apparent revenue was facing a challenge in terms of acculeakages. To resolve this problem, the Internal Clearrate clearing when a customer was using a network outside his primary location, or in simple terms was ing House (ICH) was set up.

The solution was conceived in the second quarter on roaming. of FY 2009-10 with the architecture and design being The challenge for the IT team was to achieve fast finalised within 45 days. The solution was developed and accurate clearing of the roaming Transfer of with a nine member internal team with inputs from Account Procedure (TAP). TAP is the mechanism the chief architects and subject matter experts. After by which GSM operators exchange roaming billing rigorous testing by all concerned departments like information. Whenever customers use a network outmarketing, finance, etc., the solution was successfully side of their home network, the usage of the calls are captured in a Call Detail Record rolled out in 23 circles.

(CDR) in the roaming network The contract with other data switch but the customer is to be clearing houses (DCH) has not been extended for handling billed by the home network.

Vodafone to Vodafone roaming TAP files are also necessary to files. Going forward, it shall be have faster revenue realisation and the internal teams which shall to prevent any roaming frauds. Hisbe handling these activities as torically, the exchange of the roampart of their daily operations. ing TAP files between all 23 VodaThe results and the figures fone circles account for 80 percent reported have been validated of the total roaming business. by the respective business “There had to be a method teams of Vodafone and they through which the roaming parthave acknowledged the benner intimates the home networks efits realised by the company about the customer’s usage and — NAVIN CHADHA in terms of significant revenue in turn earns revenue for providsavings and by plugging the reving roaming services,” says Navin enue leakage gaps.

Chadha, Director-IT, Vodafone Essar.

“The ICH implementation was a testimony to the To exchange the usage/call detail records between innovation which the IT team has brought to the roaming partners a common solution is required that Vodafone way of life. This demonstrates our comcan send the files to the respective operators. This mitment to be a strategic partner in business,” says solution is called the clearing solution and is similar Chadha. to a cheque clearing solution existing in banks. All the

“Benefits were in terms of significant revenue savings and plugging the revenue leakage gaps”

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Need for speed

Gati devised a simple solution using entry level handhelds to deliver almost real time reports.

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n a span of 21 years, Gati, one of the leaders the IT team used an inexpensive, entry-level handheld in the express distribution and supply chain device with GPRS and image capturing capabilities. solutions segment in India, has consistently This handheld had a camera and used a couple of explored various ways to bring value to the applications that were developed in-house. The customer. application were developed using JSP / JAVA. The Recently, the challenge for the company was to prosize of the image was limited to facilitate easy transfer vide its customers with real time delivery of informaand viewing. tion and also the image of Proof of Delivery (POD).

On delivery of goods, the image of a POD and POD is a proof to the sender that the goods have been related information is uploaded to a central database. delivered and accepted by the receiver.

This ensures that delivery information is updated "We needed to provide customalmost in real time and considerers with real-time delivery results ably reduces the processing time and eliminate the risk of losing and associated effort. Earlier, it physical copies of PODs," says G S took an average of three days for Ravi Kumar, CIO, Gati. the image of POD to be uploaded Ravi Kumar adds that he looked on the website. at various solutions available in the The handhelds were rolled out market but found them expensive. in 240 locations in three months’ The return on investment (RoI) time. was just not there.

The solution also made trackHe initiated a project that was ing physical PODs irrelevant and code named 10c. The project did away with the cost of courierfocused on capturing the POD ing PODs. At present more than information in an image form 25, 000 transactions per day are through an innovative and captured by 900 plus delivery — RAVI KUMAR personnel across the country. The inexpensive method. In addition captured information is made to the key purpose of capturing available on Gati's website. the POD information and the image, this project also Ravi Kumar recalls that at the start of the project he provided additional features such as docket (airway thought that the deployment would take a year’s time bill) tracking, rate finder, transit time finder, pin code since the delivery staff had no knowledge about the locater, etc. use of technology. “To our surprise, our staff found “The solution needed to be low-cost and easy to the device easy to use and took to using them within implement across a non-technical workforce,” says a short while, as it simplified the delivery process for Ravi Kumar. them,” he says.

To combat the expensive solutions in the market,

“The solution needed to be low-cost and easy to implement across a nontechnical workforce”

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Business

Benefits Faster process: Instant delivery of POD image, reduction in processing time for delivery activities Cutting risks: Loss of POD in transit eliminated. Improvement in invoice submission process which in turn improved the cash flow Fast RoI: Total investment recovered in less than six months Reduced costs: Eliminated courier, manpower and computer costs

ILLUSTRATION BY BINESH SREEDHARAN

CTO OF THE YEAR - 2ND RUNNER UP

ABOUT THE WINNER

Name: Ravi Kumar Ganapati Sampath Organisation: Gati Project: Real-time Delivery of PODs

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ILLUSTRATION BY BINESH SREEDHARAN

CATEGORY: SERVICES

ABOUT THE WINNER

Name: Rajesh Munjal Organisation: Carzonrent India Project: Taxi Dispatch System

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Turning the wheels A new cab management system increases reservations by 20%.

I Business

Benefits Clear insight: Provides a dashboard for capturing the customer usage pattern, enabling better fleet utilisation and providing information on the revenue being generated by each car Business growth: Reservation levels for Easy Cabs have increased by more than 20% Faster processes: Time per reservation is also reduced by more than 30% which has helped in improving reservation agent productivity

sn’t is extremely easy to call a cab these days?

Just dial one of the cab operators – like Easy Cabs and the taxi arrives on your doorstep in less than half an hour, as if by magic. A lot of technology in the back-end makes this magic possible.

One of the winners of our Smart CIO awards, Rajesh Munjal, Head - Information Technology, Carzonrent India (Easycabs & Hertz India), creates this magic by which the cabs are able to reach their customers in time.

Easy Cabs was the first radio taxi company in India to implement a fully automated taxi dispatch system in India. The technology was bought from a Singapore based company with lot of promises and commitment as it was successfully running in Singapore.

But, the system was not without loopholes. “However because of Indian infrastructure conditions, connectivity issues and support issues we were not able to get full output from the application which was implemented at the time of launch of our Radio Taxi Operations,” says Munjal.

This was at a time when the business was growing really fast and the company was servicing more than 100,000 reservations at their Delhi operations. They were in an expansion mode and were increasing their fleet and so dependency on technology was also very high. More than 50,000 customers were using the solution to hire cabs.

“It was very difficult for us to work with the technology that did not even deliver half of the business requirements while consuming a lot of resources. At the same time it was a very tough call to replace the entire system which was in use for more than three years and was fulfilling the basic need of the business. Replacing the entire system was a huge risk to the business,” says Munjal.

Convincing the management to replace the entire

system was even more difficult because of two simple reasons. “Firstly, we were asking for a huge investment in technology. Secondly, we proposed replacing a system that was delivering on the basic needs of the business with a system which was not proven at all,” says Munjal.

They evaluated many solutions and finally found a domestic company that agreed to customise the applications and hardware as per their business requirements. “After convincing the management we were able to replace the entire system in only 45 days,” says Munjal.

The Taxi Despatch System is an integrated end to end solution for their Radio Taxi Business which is operated under Easycabs Brand. It is being used for enquiry, execution, GIS/ GPS based tracking and complete customer relationship management (CRM).

“The implementation has been very successful and we have been able to build confidence in the industry that domestic products can deliver quality services apart from being very competitively priced,” says Munjal.

The system has been able to help in providing a dashboard for delivering real-time information for the business and capture the customer usage pattern. It enables better fleet utilisation and provides information on the revenue being generated by each car.

The biggest impact of this has been that the reservation levels for Easy Cabs have increased by more than 20% as they are able to cater to more bookings by the same fleet. “The time per reservation is also reduced by more than 30% which has helped in improving our reservation agent productivity,” says Munjal.

“This has also resulted in a substantial reduction in communication costs, greater control over business, and more efficiency.”

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Intelligent banking

Yes Bank created its own BI solution that helped them increase productivity and share key data at all levels.

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es Bank was itching for a data warehouse and business intelligence (BI) solution way back in 2006. But when they started scouting for such solutions in the market, they found that these solutions came at a huge price (to the tune of a few crore rupees).

In addition, the time to implement these solutions was extremely long, which would make the solution obsolete in a scenario which called for dynamic response to the ever changing market conditions.

“It would have taken us two to three years to implement the entire solution and reap business benefits. Also there is a constant need to liaise with implementation partners/vendors for enhancements and changes,” said Umesh Jain, President and Chief Information Officer, Yes Bank.

Though the various business groups required a BI solution, the same was not affordable given the emphasis on reducing costs. In 2008, the bank decided to grow its business and entered into other areas of banking like retail, SME, etc.

Yes Bank was facing multiple business challenges with respect to obtaining business intelligence reports.

The data stored in multiple places did not facilitate information sharing within various departments. In addition, more than 250 plus reports and MIS were being generated by the bank daily. The source for these reports was discrete systems that lacked integration. Each department maintained its own database, which resulted in inconsistencies in the reports from various departments. Valuable time, effort and productivity were lost in resolving these inconsistencies rather than acting upon information.

The distribution of reports through emails was also an information security risk as all recipients were able to see information related to other recipients as well.

“As the entire data was available on the FTP site, anyone could access it,” says Jain.

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To address these issues, the bank set up a Business Intelligence Center of Excellence (BICoE) that constituted of technology and business users. The BICoE conceptualised Kaleidoscope – Yes Bank’s in-house BI initiative.

The entire development of the BI solution was done in-house using Yes Bank’s existing resources. The solution was sent for production within two months.

The platform was hosted on shared infrastructure with zero additional hardware costs. The total cost of the project was around Rs 42 lakh.

Based on the requirements, a data warehouse was created where the information contained in the bank's various applications was integrated. Rolebased access to Kaleidoscope was provided.

The new BI solution did not merely restrict usage to a few key stakeholders in each department. So as to have the maximum organisational impact, all endusers, from managers to the juniormost staff, were empowered with information relevant to them.

The bank realised that taking the necessary action after getting the information was as important and so the BI solution has a feature that stands out—Actionable BI. “It is no use disseminating information if the users do not act upon it. The information in Kaleidoscope is integrated with actions to make sure that users act upon the information,” says Jain.

Post deployment of Kaleidoscope, Yes Bank saved on seven to eight full time, high cost resources that earlier generated these reports. They have been now moved to other functions within the bank resulting in savings of around Rs. 70 lakh per annum.

Jain adds that the bank has seen huge productivity gains and no longer do the users need to manually collate and verify the data from across systems. “With the current content that has been built up, productivity gains of approximately rupees five crore have already been realised,” he adds.

Business

Benefits Resources in-house: In-house development of BI solution Productivity gains: Productivity gains of approximately rupees five crore realised Cost savings: Cost savings of around rupees 70 lakh per annum

SMART CIO OF THE YEAR

ILLUSTRATION BY PC ANOOP

CATEGORY: BFSI

ABOUT THE WINNER

Name: Umesh Jain Organisation: Yes Bank Ltd. Project: Business Intelligence Solution

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ILLUSTRATION BY ANIL T

CATEGORY: MANUFACTURING

ABOUT THE WINNER

Name: Arup Choudhury Organisation: Eveready Industries India Project: Redesigning supply chain solution

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All charged up Eveready remodels its supply chain enabling better demand forecasting.

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Business

Benefits Inventory management: Supply chain inventory has decreased by 15%, which is thrice the project cost.

Better planning: Forecast accuracy has increased from 60% to 85% resulting in better customer satisfaction.

veready started its India operations in 1905.

Since then, from a battery company it has diversified itself into a FMCG company with a deep and wide distribution network covering 3.5 million retail outlets across the country. The company now deals with a diverse range of products including Carbon zinc and alkaline batteries, torches, packet tea, mosquito repellents, CFL lamps, GLS lamps and rechargeable batteries. The diversity in the line of products required an efficient and agile supply chain.

Traditionally the supply chain at Eveready was thought to be at par with the best in the industry.

However over the years, external factors changed but the company was slow to respond, resulting in inefficiencies building up in the supply chain.

“We embarked on a drive to redesign the supply chain based on the current business scenario. From the traditional ‘direct to warehouse’ model we moved to the ‘hub and spoke model’,” says Arup Choudhury, CIO, Eveready. This resulted in setting up six mother warehouses across India as a layer between the child warehouses, manufacturing units and sourcing locations. Once this was achieved and the sourcing rules drawn up, it was necessary to automate the entire supply chain process. This helped in reducing manual dependencies and removed inefficiencies in the system. The need was also felt to centralise the planning process so that the locations could focus on proper execution of the plan.

Traditionally, sales forecast was totally based on the market scenario perceived by each individual sales personnel, which resulted in considerable gap between forecasted demand and actual sales. This gap created an imbalance between production and distribution planning; this in turn created imbalance in the pipeline inventory. There was no system in place that could do proper statistical forecasts based on past historical trends. “We decided to build this into the new

system and ensured that it fed into the supply chain system,” says Choudhury.

The structured analysis between the actual figures and the projected one was either not available, or not on time. So a third system was required for the real time sales and operations planning. This would get real time data from the demand forecasting, supply chain planning and the base ERP systems.

“In last few months, the forecast error has started showing a downward trend. The Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) indicator has pointed towards that,” says Choudhury. “The finished goods distribution in the entire pipeline has started showing a more realistic outlook than the past. The pipeline inventory is getting optimised with the passage of time. The overall inventory value KPI is showing that trend,” he adds.

The execution from the warehouses and plants are now monitored on a continuous basis. This has resulted in efficient execution of plans. The organisation has transitioned from producing to capacity into a more realistic produce to fulfil demand. This in turn has unlocked valuable working capital. “The forecast accuracy has increased from 60% to 85% resulting in better customer satisfaction.

The supply chain inventory has also decreased by 15%, which is thrice the project cost.”

In the course of execution of an award winning project, Choudhury has learnt many important lessons that would help him in his career going forward.

To start with, he knows the way to get easier management buy-in. “The other two takeaways for me were that you must monitor the project tightly and keep all the key stake holders in the loop. Finally, training is the most important aspect in a supply chain implementation as it is very difficult to enforce processes on people working in warehouses.

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Healthy integration Wockhardt consolidated heterogeneous systems across the globe with its in-house IT team.

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ockhardt, a leading player in the healthcare industry vertical, manufactures and markets formulations, biopharmaceuticals, nutrition products, vaccines and active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). In late 2007, it acquired Morton Grove Pharmaceuticals (MGP), a liquid generic and specialty dermatology company in the US. The challenge for the IT team at Wockhardt was to consolidate the platform of the acquired company and look at optimum utilisation of resources such as systems, sales force, warehousing and infrastructure. While Wockhardt was on SAP ERP, MGP was operating on a different platform for its business operations.

“There also was a dire need for reducing the lead times and delivery times for greater availability and customer responsiveness. Repetitive, redundant and unnecessarily complex operations were required to be simplified, combined and reduced,” says Suresh Shenoy, Senior Vice President-IT, Wockhardt.

The IT team studied the processes of MPG diligently before plunging into the consolidation phase.

The project involved seamless integration between operations in the countries of different time zones and geographical areas like USA (Chicago and New Jersey), Switzerland and India with fully secure connectivity through MPLS tunnels.

The project also involved integration of external stakeholders like third-party logistics and custom-

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ers through Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), and banks for payments and collection. One of the major challenges was to protect business information with proper firewalls and connectivity. This was taken care by way of middleware servers.

Advanced EDI integration, SAP NetWeaver, SAP-dispute management, lockbox process implementation and collaborative tool of process automation and their integration with SAP were the technologies used.

The new implementation had complexities and it required a model that demanded non standard SAP functionalities with minimum human intervention and yet having the necessary control point checks.

This was customised using the advanced ABAP / OO technologies to make this complete requirement work seamlessly.

The implementation has shortened the turnaround time of processes from around 24 - 48 hours to an hour or two, bringing in huge improvements in the overall business.

"We have seen reduction in manpower and improvement in customer service and delivery. In addition, availability of MIS reports across the globe have brought in a lot of business clarity and insight," says Shenoy.

The project was completed in three months by the internal IT team with immediate RoI benefits. “It was a perfect integration of people, process and technology,” says Shenoy.

Business

Benefits Successful integration: Successful integration of different legal entities along with third party logistics on the same platform.

Centralisation: Centralisation of sales processes and shipments.

Centralisation of all debtors and creditors.

Optimal manpower: Reduction in manpower. Better customer service and delivery.

Reduced paper use: Reduction in paper movement due to electronic integration.

In SAP there is minimum paper movement.

SMART CIO OF THE YEAR

ILLUSTRATION BY PC ANOOP

CATEGORY: HEALTHCARE/ PHARMA

ABOUT THE WINNER

Name: Suresh Shenoy Organisation: Wockhardt Limited Project: Consolidating systems of an acquired company

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ILLUSTRATION BY ANIL T

CATEGORY: IT/ ITES

ABOUT THE WINNER

Name: BLV Rao Organisation: Infotech Enterprises Project: Virtualisation and optimisation

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Agile smart secure it Save money by managing better.

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nfotech enterprises is a Rs. 1000 crore company, founded in 1991. It is a global engineering services provider specialising in Engineering Services, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and IT services. They provide their services to a wide range of industries including aerospace, automotive, energy, government, high technology consumer and medical devices, marine, rail, retail, telecom and utilities.

It combines extensive software development capability based in India with global delivery through offices in the US, UK, Germany, Australia and the Netherlands that provide local customer interface and project management.

SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENTS Area of Implementation

Solution and Benefits

Desktop

Power savings of 34% by deploying policies for standby and shutdown

High-end monitors

Power savings of 54% by deploying low power LCDs for 19 and 21-inch monitors

Network

Optimised 14 LAN segments to 6; reduced 22 devices on the network Intelligent network with Ethernet power-off when not in use - savings 32 % WAN links utilisation enhanced by 28 %

Servers

Consolidated and virtualised; reduced 34 servers Blades with virtualisation - utilisation and efficiency enhanced by 22% Created virtualised systems for testing -savings 24 %

Storage

Consolidation and optimisation; resulted in 18 TB extra storage - 28% storage freed by compression and de-duplication Low power consumption per TB by implementing Sata II disks

Data Centre

Reduced power and cooling expenses by 22% Overall computing performance improved by - 22 %

Printers

Prints reduced by 60- 70 %

Business

Benefits Virtualisation: Delivered 160% extra storage at no cost and 240% more computing power Customer satisfaction: Exceeded expectations of its 22 customer audits in the FY 2009-10 with zero non-conformities

The business challenges of Infotech Enterprises were directly linked to the technology backbone. These included urgencies arising on computing resources, power supply /distribution, infrastructure availability and scaling up of systems.

With diverse operations and Fortune 500 clients it was important for the company to be extremely agile and secure. BLV Rao, VP , Head-Global IT, Infotech Enterprises has a framework called Agile Smart/ Secure IT or ASIT to deliver high quality solutions to the IT organisation's clients. ASIT is considered at all steps and aspects of technology implementation.

The first part of the project included virtualisation and optimisation. While delivering high technology projects it was important that BLV Rao and his team were ready for the future too, which is why they selected private clouds. By virtualisation, “the team was able to deliver 160% extra storage at no cost and 240 % more computing power,” says Rao. (The table shows the solutions provided and the benefits reaped from them.)

Apart from the specific benefits tabulated, the business as a whole has been impacted in more ways than one. “Our flawless delivery model has helped us attract new customers,” says Rao. It has also helped the business to be extremely agile, scalable and secure without worrying about the ability to deliver. The clients are extremely happy with what they see. “We have exceeded expectations of our 22 customer audits in the FY 2009-10 with zero non-conformities,” says Rao. The biggest learning for Rao in this whole exercise has been about taking calculated risks. The team in this case was working against odds on multiple facets of the technology organisation. The other big learning for him has been in the form of persistence and team management. “It is extremely important to manage the team emotions when you are working on a project of this scale and complexity. They must be motivated at all times to make it work” says Rao. THE CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER FORUM

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WOMAN CIO OF THE YEAR WINNER

On the campaign trail

ABOUT THE WINNER

Name: Alpna Doshi Organisation: Reliance Communications Project: Campaign Automation

Business

Benefits Better tools: The automation solution provided graphic tools for determining the appropriate target audience for any campaign.

Reduced manual errors: Solution eliminated human intervention.

Better marketing: Closedloop marketing.

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ith a customer base of almost 110 million, Reliance Communications (RCOM) easily ranks among the top five telecom companies in the world. CIO Alpna Doshi’s innovative “Campaign Automation” system has done wonders for RCOM’s operations and marketing departments.

Faced with challenges ranging from reducing costs to increasing productivity, Doshi had to combat a host of issues before streamlining the campaign process.

First and foremost was the issue of cutting the huge costs involved in campaigning. A lot of efforts also needed to be put on effective data capture in campaigns as only then could the campaigns be refined and tuned for targeted campaigning, as opposed to carpet bombing. Additionally, automation of operational processes and improving scalability and performance of the campaigns was a necessary mandate.

RCOM, hence, turned to an ingenious solution that would not only look at providing solutions to all the aforementioned problems but also provide new business benefits.

While campaign automation involved the ability to plan, design and execute direct/indirect campaign without much human intervention, automation provided an easy-to-use solution to plan, test and execute marketing campaigns of any size or level of complexity.

SAS' proven capabilities for campaign management, analytics, data integration and business intelTHE CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER FORUM

ligence, along with flexible deployment options, empowered the creation and deliverance of the right campaign at the right time.

The deployed campaign management solution provided graphic tools for determining the appropriate target audience for any campaign. Equipped with powerful tools, business users were more efficient and effective, producing smarter, better targeted, more profitable campaigns.

The innovative architecture thus developed provided the complete set of capabilities needed for a customer-focused marketing process, enabling RCOM to deepen customer insight and choreograph customer interactions. In the process, the solution became the crux of RCOM’s long envisaged campaign management project.

Utilising the best of business intelligence, customer service/customer relationship management and database/data warehousing concepts, campaign automation was conceived to plan, design and execute direct/indirect campaigns with a focus on eliminating human intervention.

What RCOM delivered was a flexible, scalable and high performance system that met all the challenges effectively, as promised. Furthermore, it added value in terms of various business benefits such as an integrated marketing platform for closed-loop marketing with campaign management, advanced analytics, data integration and business intelligence.

ILLUSTRATION BY BINESH SREEDHARAN

RCOM CIO Alpna Doshi wins the Woman CIO of the Year Award.

NO HOLDS BARRE D

R AG H U R AG U R A M

HYBRID

SENSE

Virtualisation may not be for everybody yet, but a hybrid strategy could suit many. During VMworld 2010, held recently in San Francisco, VMware announced a bevy of new offerings to bolster their product line.

Raghu Raguram, Senior VP and General Manager, Virtualisation and Cloud Platforms, VMware spoke to Rahul Neel Mani during the event. Excerpts: What is VMware’s strategy to string together the applications and end-user devices that, you claim, will provide enterprises savings? How will VMware make this work?

Historically, we started in the infrastructure space with a focus on making existing data centres better by deploying virtualisation technology.

Today, as we speak to our customers, they are struggling with a lot of technology issues. One of them is on the application front. Application development is still tough.

How does one take advantage of the ‘cloud-like’ infrastructure to develop applications is a big question being debated. That’s when VMware started getting into the application platform development space.

There are two parts to this business. One is the framework on which developers write applications and the other is the run-time environment which works best on VMware virtualised infrastructure. This is the first point of synergy.

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With the framework, you not only deploy internally but deploy to other clouds as well. This gives customers the freedom of choice. Out first step is to take Windows desktops and run it on the cloud environment that we are building and our second step will take all the applications and make them appear seamless to the users regardless of the device that they use to access those applications.

You are focusing on all the three areas of the cloud viz. Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Software-as-aService (SaaS). How are these services going to build up in terms of your research and products?

VMware has defined specific areas where we put in our Research and Development investments. At the same time the company constantly looks at acquisitions and partnerships to drive growth. You will see us build more products in the infrastructure space and expand to other areas.

DOSSIER NAME: Raghu Raguram DESIGNATION: Senior VP and General Manager ORGANISATION: Virtualisation and Cloud Platforms, VMware

XXXXXAMBERT

NO HOLDS BARRE D

Innovate More: As users virtualise, they will free more resources for innovation

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Similar to our announcement in the security space (vShield End Point) you will see us building our application platform capabilities and end-user computing capabilities.

The common theme across all of these will be management and you can take it as the fourth area. The acquisition of Integrien – a performance analytics solution provider – is in the management space, and will help our customers immensely.

Do you think enterprises can view your offerings as an entire portfolio and not point offerings?

This whole portfolio is what we now call as an ‘IT stack’. The basic premise is that the cloud disrupts the IT stack and you need to think of your stack in a fundamentally different way. You need to think of it as a new infrastructure stack, new application platform and new end-user stack. That’s where each of these things fit in.

Within each of these layers, you will have sub categories of your own and that’s where our acquisitions will also fit in.

Do you see customers taking the cost out from their IT infrastructure and reallocating it for rewriting applications for their virtualised infrastructure? If so, how will it happen?

It is now proven that if customers virtualise their infrastructure they save anywhere between 30 to 60 percent on their hardware costs and therefore their operating costs comes down drastically. In most cases we have seen customers reallocating these saving to the application development teams so that they can build applications for their business teams.

In today’s conventional IT infrastructure, 70 percent of the IT budget goes into maintenance and a very small percentage remains for investing in new capabilities.

In wake of this fact, the more the users virtualise, the more the capability they get to reverse the trend i.e. more resources for innovation and development than maintenance.

So, would these applications be any different than traditional ones?

Changes in business applications depend on the nature of business. For example, a lot of applications being written today are

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“The basic premise is that the cloud disrupts the IT stack and you need to think of your stack in a fundamentally different way.” for the Web architecture. Secondly, they might use something like Twitter API to send out notifications or they might connect to a SaaS application like Salesforce. com. So the fundamental business need does not change but what changes is how that application is written and how rich the application can be. We have nothing to do with such applications but we can help CIOs to free their budgets so that they can create such applications and run it on our platform.

Concerns like security and platform stability still loom large. How close do you think are critical business applications to moving on to the cloud?

This will again vary from sector to sector and company to company. I shall give you an example here. A US-based Movie Rental company Netflix, which offers movies on the Internet, is moving its entire infrastructure on the Amazon cloud. They do not have SAP, but there is no question on their applications being non-critical. If the cloud service is down, they will not only lose a lot of business but also their reputation. Netflix could do this because their applications are well suited for the cloud.

Now, let’s take an example of a typical manufacturing company running on SAP with data feeds connected to the mainframes. Very likely this company will never move to the cloud. I gave examples of

two extreme scenarios. That’s the reason a hybrid strategy makes sense for many customers.

Would this trend continue in the future and will we see the nature of applications change as the momentum around virtualisation and cloud computing continues to grow?

Yes. Look at the Web. Twenty years back, people were writing applications using COBOL. Today we see developers talking more about Java, Ruby on Rails or PHP. That does not mean that COBOL is over but the new open-standards based platforms are becoming more popular.

The same thing will happen with the cloud.

For example, if you want to write an application to place an advertisement on Facebook or send a notification on Twitter, the application written will be very different from the manner they are written in Java.

Is Microsoft’s Azure a competition when it comes to the cloud and development of applications?

My answer to this would be both yes and no.

The development framework of Microsoft does not compete with VMware. But once a developer has built an application they may want to run it on various platforms and these could be competition to Microsoft like our VMforce.com (JV with Salesforce.com), on Google App engine, etc. These are alternatives to Azure.

In the end, what’s going to be the momentum for VMware in terms of SaaS offerings?

Independent of VMware, SaaS applications are growing rapidly at a rate of 30 per cent year on year. As employees of VMware, we had no SaaS applications till two years back. Today, we use around 15 such applications internally.

SaaS applications are selected by line of business users. For example, our choice of using Salesforce.com was made by our sales team and not IT. Our choice of using Success Factors where we conduct our performance reviews was driven by HR. SaaS applications are becoming mainstream. At some point, IT will be called in and said to deal with these applications.

—rahul.mani@9dot9.in

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Wireless by Choice: Ready for the all wireless workplace? Pg 55

ILLUSTRATION BY SANTOSH KUSHWAHA

W Milestones Revisited

Benefits based approach will help in adoption of a new technology and success of the project.

BY NILESH CHANDRA & SCOTT LEVER

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hen leaders measure the success of a project, or check-in on its status, they usually ask the project manager, "Is the project on schedule? Will it be completed by the due date?" This focus on meeting project deadlines and schedule ripples through the organisation and influences how a project manager and a project team approach their project.

We believe that this emphasis on project schedule distracts a project team from their real purpose, which is to ensure that the benefits promised in the original case for the project are actually delivered. Taking a benefits-based approach, where the project milestones are linked to the delivery of benefits rather than simply completion of tasks can significantly improve the realisation of business benefits from a project. In this article, we articulate such a benefits-based approach and show how it can be applied to any project.

Consider the following all too common, albeit simplified example: A technology project has a looming go-live date. As usual, there is a lot of work to be done and the entire project team is putting in long hours to ensure their tasks are completed prior to go-live. End-user training was completed

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P R OJ E C T M A N AG E M E N T

a few weeks ago but some users could not attend the training for a variety of reasons. As a project manager, you now face two options: 1) Re-assign critical team members to deliver a second round of training (possibly delaying other tasks and go-live), or 2) Schedule a round of training after go-live.

A project manager who is measured on the ability to meet project deadlines has a strong incentive to choose the second option, with the result that not all end users are fully trained at the time of go-live.

How can such users use a system if they haven’t been trained? Obviously, an organisation does not get any value by just having a system live. The value is realised when people actually use it! And yet, we often see project managers who have incentives to make the wrong choices as they deliver projects.

Such choices have a long term impact on user behaviour. The emphasis on tracking task completion by date results in not tracking user training and system adoption as a metric for success. It is easy to miss early warning signs that users may be finding a system difficult to use, or not using the system and relying on other workarounds.

When such problems are eventually detected, the problem may be much more widespread and difficult to resolve. These issues apply not just to technology delivery projects, but all kinds of projects in general.

Case Study No. 1 An organisation had implemented an ERP system on time and under budget. However, in order to complete the project within the schedule, end user training had to be drastically cut down. At the time of go-live many of the users had not been trained to use the system. After go-live, due to a lack of training budget, internal “super-users” had to perform all training, rather than bringing in external experts. As a result, the quality of training suffered.

Over the years, due to natural attrition, fewer and fewer end users were sufficiently trained in making full use of the system.

After many years of implementation, the organisation was still not effectively using their ERP and had developed a parallel set of easy-to-use duplicate systems based on paper, excel and other rudimentary technology. This resulted in wasted effort and cost.

In a benefits-based approach, we measure

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the realisation of benefits. new arrangement. As contract Instead of focusing on deadnegotiations dragged on, the lines, leaders should focus on major milestones associated metrics such as the percentwith contract signature loomed age of users actively using the and the program manager ORGANISATIONS system, the percentage of users who was leading this large and CAN LOSE UPTO satisfied by functionality, the complex project grew nervous. degree to which the benefits He shifted resources to sup25% OF PROJECT promised in the business case port completing the transaction BENEFITS ACROSS are realised. and away from developing the THEIR PORTFOILIO. In our example above, the governance organisation. As a project manager would have result, the governance organiSOURCE: KPMG no reservations in selecting sation was significantly delayed Option 1 and setting up trainand wasn’t positioned to maning for the remaining users immediately. As age the new contract when it was signed. a result, all users would be properly trained The client organisation incurred additional by go-live and the system will be used effecvendor costs due to a lack of contract overtively from day one. Since the success of the sight and user satisfaction suffered. project is measured by the extent to which it This PM was overly focused on signing is used, rather than by meeting some arbithe contract and failed to recognise that the trary deadlines, usage of the system and its real value of the project was in effectively adoption will be closely monitored and the managing the vendor and their agreement. organisation can be assured that business Taking a benefits-focused approach does value is realised. not mean re-vamping the existing approach to project management, but simply re-orienting the metrics used to measure success. For Case Study No. 2 any project, four simple steps can be taken to An organisation embarked on a major proensure a more benefits-focused approach: gram to outsource their IT infrastructure.

1. Ensure benefits are clearly defined A large contract with a major IT service before starting a project, preferably in a provider was the centrepiece of the initiative quantified manner. that included establishing the post-contract 2. Identify simple metrics that allow trackgovernance organisation to manage this ing the realisation of benefits.

3. When developing the project plan, identify a realistic time line for benefit delivery.

4. Setup project milestones to match the delivery of benefits.

In summary, taking a benefits based approach is a different way of running a project and can result in a significant improvement in the adoption of a new technology and the success of the project.

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An organisation had implemented an ERP system on time and under budget. However, in order to complete the project within the

schedule, end user training had to be drastically cut down.

—Nilesh Chandra is an experienced technology consultant PA Consulting and an expert in helping clients define strategy and implement their large enterprise programs. Nilesh can be reached at nilesh.chandra@paconsulting.com.

Scott Lever is an expert in outsourcing, transforming IT performance, and organisational design. Scott works with clients considering and implementing outsourcing solutions across a range of business processes including IT, finance, and human resources. Scott can be reached at scott.lever@paconsulting.com.

WIRELESS

NEXT HORIZONS

Wireless by Choice Are you ready for the all-wireless workplace?

BY JEFF VANCE

Is 802.11n even a standard yet?

W

ith 802.11n offering performance and security on par with cabled Ethernet, why wouldn’t you embrace wireless?

This, anyway, is the vision of WLAN equipment vendors. The most telling slogan is Motorola’s: “Wireless by default, wired by exception.” The truth, though, is this: all-wireless vision takes some parsing.

All-wireless is coming — if you’re talking about the end-user perspective. No one is proposing wireless data centres. Ethernet to the desktop isn’t dead yet, especially since there’s no reason to tear out wiring already in place. Yet, as far as new equipment goes, it’s slowly being phased out.

“There’s no reason that client devices shouldn’t be wireless,” said Craig Mathias, a principal at Farpoint Group, a wireless advisory firm. “You can argue that even a good part of LAN infrastructure will be wireless eventually, especially with mesh architectures, but one thing that Wi-Fi still doesn’t achieve is Gigabit-speed throughput.”

Which means wires are here to stay, albeit in a pared back roll. If you need those thick pipes for specialised applications, such as video editing or CAD, you’ll still be running cable for a long time to come.

Even things like continuous backup and disaster recovery would overwhelm Wi-Fi, but those IT-specific tasks should have little bearing on the typical end user.

Technically, no. 802.11n is still not ratified by the IEEE, although draft four was passed in May and most of the work left to do is fairly obscure, such as dynamic frequency selection. If you’re confused, you’re not alone, especially since 802.11n products have been shipping for some time now. Officially, those are pre-standard products, but they’ve been approved by the Wi-Fi Alliance, which stepped in to speed up the process.

Wi-Fi Alliance approval means these products have reached a de facto standards threshold. They must interoperate, and they’ll be easily upgraded as the official IEEE standard evolves.

Despite a history of 802.11 standards in-fighting, most CIOs shouldn’t worry too much about the nitty gritty details of 802.11n. “The real question, especially in tough economic times is, ‘Why do it?’” said Chris Roeckl, VP of Marketing for AirMagnet, a provider of WLAN assurance tools. “The answer will surprise most people. If you’re talking about investing in new equipment, wireless is much more cost effective than wiring a new desktop.”

An Aberdeen study from last summer bears this out. The study found that adding users to a wired infrastructure costs about four times as much as adding them via wireless. Wireless deployments also take less time, while, counter-intuitively, triggering far fewer calls to help desks.

Security and throughput Let’s face it: 802.11 has a checkered past within the enterprise. First, there was WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy). Then there were the various 802.11 flavors that never quite interoperated as well as they were supposed to. Then there were backwards compatibility issues, with .11b clients killing .11g throughput. Then there were the competing infrastructure philosophies on how to control and manage WLANs; with people spending vast amounts of time and energy debating the merits of switches vs. gateways vs. whatever other architecture vendors dreamed up.

No wonder plenty of CIOs (and even whole industries) are wary of wireless. “Today, when we get called into financial organisations, it’s to

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ers the throughput to satmake sure there is no wireless,” isfy everything but the most Roeckl said. However, 802.11n extreme, and rare, bandwidthis light years beyond its troubled hogging applications. Mean.11a/b/g predecessors. “802.11n while, even those enterprises brings two fundamental shifts.

IS ACTUALLY with 802.11a or .11g are generFirst, it’s safe enough. Second, MORE SECURE ally satisfied with throughput. it’s fast enough.”

This returns us then to the Compared to wired infraTHAN A WIRED original question posed by this structure, Roeckl argues that ENVIRONMENT article: Are you ready for the 802.11n is actually more all-wireless workplace? The secure than a wired environanswer? Not quite yet. ment. Encryption schemes like “There’s still work to do,” WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) Farpoint Group’s Mathias said, “but it’s not are extremely advanced; rogue AP deteca lot of work. In three to five years, you’ll see tion comes standard with most enterprise most of the major issues figured out.”

WLAN management suites; and VPNs add The problems aren’t trivial, though. They another layer of protection. Ethernet, by range from the need to support existing contrast, doesn’t have these protections at investments in legacy wired and wireless the transport layer. (Since Ethernet is physiinfrastructures to authentication issues to cally contained within buildings, you could device control. All of these issues can be argue that the transport-layer protections solved, but they take careful planning, and are things like security desks and identificaoften require complementary technologies. tion badges.)

For instance, in many industries auditors As far as performance, 802.11n deliv-

802.11n

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require that WLANs have separate monitoring networks installed as an overlay.

“The vendors hyping 802.11n are the ones coming to us with lists of network analysis questions,” said Jay Botelho, director of Product Management at WildPackets, a provider of network analysis solutions. In the near-term most 802.11n adoption will show up at the fringes of the enterprise. 802.11n will find its way into branch offices, or it will extend existing LANs into places that have no current coverage.

802.11n will also catch on in certain verticals like health care and education, but it will take longer to penetrate the horizontal, generic enterprise, which will act with more caution, waiting to adopt 802.11n as part of hardware upgrade cycles.

“For large enterprises, 802.11n represents an investment they aren’t ready for,” Botelho said. “They’re looking at 802.11n.

They’re interested, but in tough economic times, they’re not ready to jump.”

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S TA F F I N G

5

POINTS

UNDER STAFFING: Companies that cut staff during the recession are finding it difficult.

MOVING INTO GROWTH MODE: Shifting into growth mode can be difficult MANAGING WORKLOADS: Gain support for higher priority initiatives

PHOTO BY PHOTOS.COM

KEEPING STAFF SKILLS CURRENT: Training is extremely important RETENTION: 34 percent of CIOs are worried of losing top performers

TALENT TANGLE 5 IT staffing challenges facing today’s CIOs.

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BY JOHN REED

S TA F F I N G

In an ideal world, every IT

department would be prepared, organised and ready to meet emerging business needs. Yet today’s constantly evolving economic environment means that much is in a state of flux, especially when it comes to IT staffing issues.

Even companies that are expanding may still be faced with limited IT staff or budgets, complicating matters. Following are five of the most common staffing challenges facing technology executives today and some strategies for overcoming them: Under staffing: In a recent survey by Robert Half Technology, nearly twothirds (64 percent) of CIOs said under staffing in their firm’s IT department interferes at least somewhat with their ability to implement innovative or emerging technologies. Many companies that cut employee ranks during the recession are finding themselves unable to respond quickly to changes as business conditions improve.

Moving into growth mode: It may seem that good news shouldn’t present a challenge, but that isn’t always the case. For many CIOs, shifting into growth mode can be difficult in part because employees may need to change their mindsets from one of caution to one of optimism. It can take some work on the part of technology leaders to help staff make the transition, particularly if the downturn was especially rough on the team.

When new initiatives are launched, CIOs should explain how the project will help the company as a whole to help build excitement. Managers also should include employees in the planning process and keep them updated on key business developments that will shape demands. The more staff understands what’s ahead, the easier the adjustment will be, and the more excited they will be about it.

Managing workloads: Helping employees meet objectives and keep up with performance expectations is another key challenge today. Workloads

1 2

3

remain high at many organisations, so the introduction of new projects may bring resistance from staff.

By ensuring workloads are manageable and reassigning or removing items from individual to-do lists, you can help gain support for higher priority initiatives. Also solicit employee input on ways to streamline processes or procedures, which can help free up time in your group for additional assignments.

Keeping staff skills current: Training is important in just about every field, but it’s all the more so in IT, where technology changes at a rapid pace. If your employees’ knowledge is outdated, your firm is at a competitive disadvantage.

4

34% of CIOs are worried about losing top performers in the next year. As the economy gains momentum, the risk of employees leaving grows significantly.

T E CH F O R G OVE R NAN CE

If you’re faced with tight budgets, there are still ways to invest in professional education that won’t break the bank. For starters, investigate programs through IT associations. Many offer discounted rates on seminars and courses. Also, consider sending one employee to a conference or class and then having that person share his or her newly acquired knowledge with others on the team.

Circulating technology magazines within the group is another inexpensive way for staff to stay on top of trends. Helping to keep skills sharp not only benefits your department in terms of intellectual capital, but it can be highly motivating to employees to know their firm supports their growth.

Retention: It likely has been a while since retention was a key challenge, but it’s an emerging priority for executives. In a survey by our company, one-third (34 percent) of CIOs said they’re worried about losing top performers to other job opportunities in the next year. As the economy gains momentum, the risk of employees leaving grows significantly.

So, do what you can now to become the employer of choice. Steps outlined above such as staffing appropriately, managing workloads and investing in training can go a long way in boosting motivation. Also take the time to thank employees who put in the extra effort, even if it’s just through verbal praise or a personal note. Retention strategies don’t have to be expensive to be meaningful and effective.

5

—John Reed is executive director of Robert Half Technology, a leading provider of IT professionals for initiatives ranging from e-business development and multi-platform systems integration to network security and technical support. The company has more than 100 locations worldwide and offers online job search services at www.rht.com.

For additional career advice, follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/roberthalftech.

THE CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER FORUM

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SECURIT Y

IRC’s deadly side Internet Relay Chat and the effect of botnets on security.

BY JON STOUT

M

any internet chat participants have enjoyed the benefits of the Internet Relay Chat capability (IRC). This functionality has added fast and convenient communication, universal access and valuable functionality throughout the entire world. But there is a downside to the IRC in the world of botnets and cyber security attacks.

What is the IRC? Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a form of realtime Internet text that is mainly designed for group communication in discussion forums.

The IRC is powerful and universal. It supports all major computer operating systems and is easily accessible. With up to 600,000 users, the potential for cyber penetration becomes a world wide problem.

In addition to a vast number of server arrays, IRC client software is available for almost every computer operating system that supports TCP/IP networking.

One of the easiest and most efficient ways to establish a Botnet is through the IRC.

What are Botnets?

Botnet creation, control and the IRC

A botnet is a destructive tool that takes many forms. Among the most destructive uses are distributed denial of service (DOS) attacks, spamming and financial data theft/fraud.

The steps in the botnet creation illustrate the ease of creation and the fact that botnet creators usually distribute their bots to malicious third parties for a fee: 1. The botnet operator infects targeted pcs with malicious code (Trojan Horses and other destructive code) and commanding protocols that are then passed to the network server over the IRC. A command and control (C&C) server is created that allows control of the entire network.

2. The botnet created by the process is often sold to a criminal or terrorist enterprise.

3. The buyer then sends instructions to trigger a Distributed Denial of Service, spamming or data theft attack.

4. The attack creates significant damage and attacks can be repeated.

A botnet's originator (aka "bot herder" or "bot master") can control the group remotely, over channels provided by the IRC, and usually for terror or criminal related purposes. Individual programs at the client level appear as “bots".

Control of the botnet is usually through an IRC server that is also

Network Penetration and Control There are many ways to penetrate a network with malicious code.

For example a simple, but risky way to compromise a network is to offer a special USB drive with innocuous but attractive code that carries hidden Trojan horses or other malicious code. However, this exposes the perpetrator to risk of discovery.

Allowing unlimited netsurfing on the web that includes unsafe or infected websites is another way of penetration but is random and can be stopped through vigilant network administration.

By far the most dangerous tool of anonymous network penetration and control however is through the use of the IRC. The IRC exposes very large networks worldwide and, when attacked by a knowledgeable perpetrator, can cause tremendous and often anonymous damage.

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SECURIT Y

known as the Command and Control server. Some of the latest botnets are self generating through the use of custom designed code. These botnets are potentially extremely destructive.

Large user networks, some as large as 20,000 users or more, are tempting targets of botnet operators and many of these offer little resistance to botnet operators.

20,000 USERS OR MORE, ARE TEMPTING TARGETS

T E CH F O R G OVE R NAN CE

domestic botnets that pass malicious code to the greatest number of users.

Military and large commercial sites are priority targets often resulting in disruption to commerce with potential loss of classified data.

Cyber security attacks

Botnets allow criminal or terrorist elements the ability to control large installations of networked computers.

By simply anonymously penetrating one individual PC Given the widespread reach of the IRC public and priOPERATORS that is part of a large network through a centralised vate networks, anonymous channels, the widespread Command and Control (CAC) Server, a cyber attack use of encrypted scripts, sale of botnets to anonymous third parties and the fact that large networks in other countries are perpetrator can monitor and anonymously control networks that individuals trust. the most productive, attribution to the actual source of the attack This control often goes unnoticed at the individual pc level and can is often impossible. be exercised across borders with little fear of discovery.

Visitors to apparently safe or trusted sites under the hidden Anonymous and efficient penetration of large scale networks is the control of a botnet operator are easily fooled into downloading key to success of botnets. While defensive attacks against botnets are infected files and open themselves to malicious attacks. The fact enjoying some success, the enemy is clever and innovative and the that a trusted site located within the United States is no guarantee challenge is tremendous. of safety because the IRC opens even safe, trusted sites to remotely controlled, anonymous attacks.

The danger of attribution is supported by recent research —This article first appeared at: https://www.infosecisland.com/ blogview/6992-Internet-Relay-Chat-and-the-Effect-of-Botnets-on(Source: Sans.org ) that concluded that an overwhelming number of Security.html targets of cyber attacks in the United States are conducted through

Attribution

OF BOTNET

THINKINGBEYOND CHRIS CURRAN | chris.curran@diamondconsultants.com

CHRIS CURRAN is Diamond Management & Technology Consultants’ chief technology officer and managing partner of the firm’s technology practice. He writes the CIO Dashboard blog at www.ciodashboard.com

Who Needs a Current State Technology Architecture?

The exercise presents many application rationalisation opportunities COLLECTING information about your current technology architecture is a major pain, so why bother? Is it just a waste of time or is it another enterprise architecture myth?

Quick calculations show that building skills and processes to produce, maintain, and use current state architecture information can save a company a lot of time and money, as well as realise additional benefits along the way. Depending on the size of a company’s project portfolio and the use of the current state data across those projects, a company can save millions annually.

Before we jump into the calculations, let’s dive a bit deeper and first take a look at the characteristics and benefits of a good current state technology architecture.

Characteristics of a Current State Technology Architecture 1.Traceable: documents key relation-

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ships, interactions, dependencies that exist among systems, actors, and the underlying business functions which they support.

2.Appropriate data model / metadata: considers the wide-range of data available, but narrows down scope to those important and accessible attributes – e.g. application names, vendor products, application owner(s), technology protocols, business functions, and operating systems.

3.Consistent representation: uses a consistent / standard means of representing information to facilitate communication of common architecture information.

4.Centralised and reusable: accessible quickly and easily across organisations, enables enterprise transparency, and helps ensure freshness of information.

5.Up to date: Stale information is worthless.

THE CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER FORUM

Benefits of a Current State Technology Architecture

Building skills and processes to produce, maintain, and use current state architecture information can save a lot of money

1.Decision making: enables a degree of predictive modeling to ensure that there are no hasty IT investments and/or acquisition activities, and facilitates impact assessment right from the beginning.

2.Cost modeling/reduction: provides an enterprise-level fact-based understanding of the costs and benefits involved – e.g. for the current IT infrastructure this can help identify aging applications that are increasing support costs.

3.Efficiencies: helps to identify waste as it contains the complete inventory of applications and their characteristics/functionality; it thereby acts as a catalyst for application rationalisation opportunities.

4.Architecture governance: provides a basis for planning and adjusting architecture governance efforts

IT SKILLS

ahead of time rather than reacting to unknowns that surface over time.

5.Training: delivers faster on-boarding/learning for new employees through its information on how the business runs and the technology

that supports it.

6.Assessments: provides a fast way to conduct impact assessments from either a business process and/or technology perspective; examples include using it to provide a regula-

T H I N K I N G B E YO N D

tory and compliance driven project baseline or using a it to drive technology-related health assessment.

7.Operational improvements: drives hypotheses development for operations improvement exercises.

6 Steps to Close the IT Skill Gap A shared understanding of the IT operating model is important to nurture talent RECENT research reveals that 72% of executives place above average importance on talent management, yet only 44% of their companies have done an above average job in building the foundational capabilities to manage and improve talent. During a recent project with a health care CIO, we observed this gap in practice and want to share some of our observations.

Early-on, we saw four major issues: 1.higher reliance on outsourced resources for roles that could be filled by more junior internal resources 2.misalignment of resources and responsibilities 3.limited leadership and succession pipeline, and 4.disconnects between the training and competencies required to support the operating model and overarching IT strategy.

While these skill and resource problems may not be the only cause, on-budget and on-time delivery were 15% and 37% lower than industry average, respectively.

These problems are not unique.

On average, IT organisations only spend 0.3% of their total budget on developing talent, yet the annual estimated costs associated with attrition and rehiring are 2.5 times greater than skill development spend.

Closing the IT talent gap — the divide between the skills IT pros grew

up with and the skills they need to add value tomorrow — won’t get any easier. But there are actionable steps your company can take now: 1. Get HR and training support CIOs need to partner with HR and training organisations to define a short-, mid-, and long-term talent management strategy to more effectively manage and uplift internal skills. One of these organisations must take strategic accountability for closing the talent gap.

2. Ensure common understanding of the IT operating model You can’t hire and train people efficiently unless everyone — IT line management, HR and training — are on the same page about the IT operating model. Take the time to explain the operating model in detail.

Confirm that everyone understands and appreciates the tight linkage between the operating model, roles and responsibilities.

3. Regularly reassess your sourcing strategy Re-evaluate your IT sourcing strategy on a regular basis to ensure the appropriate technology functions are outsourced, and analyse how this impacts internal job families, job descriptions, and career paths.

4. Factor skill management into your sourcing decisions Companies often outsource to save money only to find that their most

valuable internal talent is the first out the door. A sourcing strategy that analyses how outsourcing decisions impact internal job families, job descriptions, and career paths can help ensure that the right internal talent remains on board.

5. Have a rock solid talent management foundation An annual review process, promotion criteria, skills assessment processes, and training plans are too often taken for granted in fast-paced IT shops. Annually assess whether or not job families, job descriptions, and career paths align to the operating model, overall IT strategy, and sourcing strategy. Where there is misalignment, work with the HR department to close the gaps.

6. Proactively manage the change Understand that employees are generally sensitive about job titles, career path, and compensation changes, and be proactive about generating the appropriate level of awareness and benefits of changes at multiple points in addressing the talent gap.

We’re happy to report that the health care CIO succeeded in filling the internal talent gap by being more attuned, proactive, and strategic about managing internal talent. She recognised that people are the greatest asset to effective execution, and is now proactively managing internal talent as a top priority.

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On average, IT organisations only spend 0.3% of their total budget on developing talent.

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HIDDENTANGENT GEETAJ CHANNANA geetaj.channana@9dot9.in

THE AUTHOR IS Executive Editor, CTO Forum

The Facebook Effect

A new force is changing employees' expectations MY MOTHER works for a public sector bank. She narrated this incident to me about six years ago, when their branch was getting computerised.

One of their senior employees had to learn to work on the computer. It was quite a culture shock for him. One fine day he called my mother to ask about a prompt that he saw on the computer screen. All he could make of it was that there was something on the computer screen that did not allow him to work.

It turned out that the computer wanted a password. The poor guy did not even know what a password was and mistook it for a ‘passport’. As luck would have it, he did not even have a passport – so he was even more perplexed. Mustering up courage, he asked my mother, “Madam, I do not have a passport; would it work if I show it my driving license?”

Now, that is clearly a problem with training. The generation gap between young employees, many of whom are natives of the digital age, and those who have been required

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to learn computers in the twilight of their working life is huge. But, the times are changing fast.

Not being on Facebook is just so stone-age now. If your friends say that they are not on Facebook, youngsters are going to give them strange looks. Not only is the younger generation getting on Facebook themselves, they are getting their parents involved too. And those parents, mind you, are the employees who work in your organisation.

Employees, for whom the idea of a computer was that of an office machine till a few years ago, are now getting a taste of the fun things a computer can do. Your employees are no more scared of computers.

Shouldn’t this make your job easier? At least you will not have to teach your employees about logins and passwords.

On that front, probably yes – but this scenario throws a different kind of challenge. Since most of these employees would already be using web services like Google and Face-

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“You are pitched against companies who spend millions on their products.”

book, their expectation of the systems that they are working on have also been changed.

To give you an example, Google recently launched a search service called ‘Google Instant’. Incorporated in Google search itself, it gives you search results as you type in the search box. You do not even need to hit enter. Compare this with the search feature in your CRM – if your systems are taking more than a couple of seconds to give results, you have fallen behind your business users' expectations.

So, believe it or not, being IT leaders you are competing with the likes of Google. You are pitched against companies who spend millions of dollars on their service levels and the quality of their interface. And, the best part is that these companies offer their services for free. Do not be surprised if you are asked this question by your management – if they can offer it for free, why can you not do even half of it after spending so much money?

HIDE TIME | CIO PROFILE

A Challenge a Day MURLI NAMBIAR

IS WAKING up to a new challenge every day a very exciting way to lead a life or a very frustrating one? For Murli Nambiar, Senior VP and Group CISO, Reliance Capital, it is a very exciting one. Nambiar strives to excel in his profession as well as perform well as his personal development. A challenge a day keeps him motivated for both.

Nambiar is a down to earth and extrovert person. He was born and brought up in Mumbai. During his childhood, his grandfather had inspired him greatly. “He was always there for me. That gave me the confidence and the strength to go far in life,” said Nambiar.

Nambiar did his graduation in Physics from Somaiya College and later completed his PG diploma in management studies from Mumbai University. During his graduation, his favourite subjects were communications and computers. Nambiar has passed many certification exams, including CISA, CISSP, MCSE (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer), and BS 7799 Lead Auditor certifications.

PHOTOGRAPHY IS HIS PASSION: Nambiar loves photography. “I like to shoot landscape, birds and natural environment. I own a semi professional camera and my efforts have been recognised in contests, periodicals, magazines and calendars,” says Nambiar.

ENJOYS LONG RIDES ON BIKES: He is fond of bikes and enjoys going for long rides. “In my college days I didn’t have a bike but as

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soon as I started working I bought a Hero Honda for myself. I now have an Enfield Bullet. Next month, I and my childhood friends are planning a trip to Goa on the bike.”

MOVIES AND READING: He likes to watch old Hindi movies. Amol Palekar’s Golmaal is his all time favourite movie. He also likes watching action movies like Mission Impossible. “I think Aamir Khan is a fantastic actor,” he says.

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Senior Vice President & Group CISO, Reliance Capital

HIDE TIME | CIO PROFILE

Snap Shot He started his IT career as an IT faculty at BITS (Bureau of Information Studies) and Tata Unisys Education Center, where, he notes, he got a lot of exposure to different systems. “Working on various systems helped me get a better understanding than what I got by learning from text books.” Nambiar says that he shared his knoweldge with his students as he wanted them to braoden their understanding and have practical hands-on experience.

Nonetheless he found himself changing directions to enter the corporate world. “Though teaching was gratifying, I wanted to work in a corporate environment to understand the challenges faced there,” he says.

He joined Rolta Industries as a systems engineer and then he moved on to join MashreqBank in Dubai as their LAN engineer. Mashreqbank was one of the leading banks in UAE at that time and was setting up their network and integrating their various branches.

After spending seven years in UAE, he moved back to India and joined ICICI bank as their head of information security group, where he worked for three and a half years. Since the last three and half years, he has been handling the information security division for the Reliance Capital group.

He tries to develop a good work-life balance by spending as much time as he can with his wife and two kids Esha and Varun. He complements his wife Anjali for balancing her time very well between her career as an interior designer and a homemaker. “She works to achieve her personal goals without disturbing the equilibrium at the house,” he said.

—By Vinita Gupta

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Help the needy Nambiar would love to set up his own NGO for orphans / old people or join one when he retires. “Orphans and old people require more support and help as they cannot stand by themselves. Today, I am unable to devote much time to them, though I try to help by monetary contributions. This time I am planning to make a photographic calendar and sell it to raise money for some NGOs,” he said.

Build a trustful team Nambiar wants to build a trusting team, train his team members properly and ensure that the team gets proper guidance. “I give total freedom to my team members to do what they do best but I am always there to guide and help.”

India is beautiful Nambiar loves to travel in India. “In India there are so many beautiful and amazing places. One can spend half his lifetime but still not do justice. For Nambiar, who has seen almost the whole of Maharashtra and Uttaranchal, monsoon season is the best time to travel.

VIEWPOINT STEVE DUPLESSIE | steve.duplessie@esg-global.com

HP’s Next CEO

PHOTO BY PHOTOS.COM

The right candidate

FIRST of all, it is hard for me to believe that Mark Hurd is gone. I’m a moral guy, I’d like to think, and we may never know the whole story here, but I’m also a business person.

As a business person, it would take a serious immoral or unethical lapse for me to can Hurd. The guy was a cost-cutting genius who put a big, sloppy ship back in order and never really even hiccuped during his tenure. I could overlook a lot of things for that kind of fiscal performance.

I’m not saying he didn’t do anything wrong–I don’t really know.

Wall St., rightfully so, loves him.

HP, arguably, is in the strongest position it has ever been in–financially, market position-wise, and general positive “vibe”-wise.

But, it is what it is. Hurd is gone.

So what next? And who?

The first problem is the who.

There is not a large population of people competent to run a $130B icon of a company such as HP. A smart CEO in Austin recently told me that “anyone you’d want to tap for that job at that level already has

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that job at that level”–meaning, why would they leave?

What they probably need to do is what they did last time. They looked at a much smaller company with a leader with the attributes required for HP at this point in time. Hurd was perfect: ran a multi-headed company that was in chaos, cleaned it up financially, and put it on a path to success. HP was in chaos, losing money, spending foolishly, etc.

HP needed a boring, limelightloathing, intellect to right the ship, take the hard line, and get costs in order. Hurd did exactly that. The results speak for themselves.

The next CEO doesn’t need to do that anymore. The next CEO needs to be Steve Jobs-esque. HP has its fiscal ship in order. Now it needs a shot of sex appeal. HP needs to make Hurd’s former job the COO position and bring in someone who can reshape the boring old company into a hot, sexy one. Apple, lest ye forget, was not sexy. It was a cultish geekfest in disarray. Jobs made it sexy.

A reporter asked me about Joe

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Steve Duplessie is the founder of and Senior Analyst at the Enterprise Strategy Group.

Recognised worldwide as the leading independent authority on enterprise storage, Steve has also consistently been ranked as one of the most influential IT analysts. You can track Steve’s blog at http://www. thebiggertruth.com

Tucci as a possible replacement. I think Joe would be great. I also think there is no way he’d do it. He’d be great because he is a CEO that can run a business with a LOT of streams (EMC was essentially a one-trick pony when he came on board, now it’s a conglomerate) and that’s what HP is. He won’t do it because A) he’s close to retirement, B) his ego isn’t big enough to want to do it instead of retiring, and C) he doesn’t need the money. There are probably a few Joe Tucci types that would be great at the job, but won't do it because they are 60 something.

HP needs Hurd types: 50 somethings ready to make the step up.

It’s a gamble for sure, but it worked well once, so why not again? I just think this time, the company is in an entirely different place and as such should look for an entirely different type of leader to propel HP to the next level. For the record, I’m against an insider being made CEO. COO, sure, but not CEO. This is an opportunity for new ideas and new blood.