CIO April 2012 Issue

leadership

VOL/07 | iSSUE/06

Business

technOlOgy

ManOj singh, HyperCity Retail India; rajat jain, Bharti Airtel; and aMit phadke, Kale Consultants are among 30 of this year’s Ones to Watch honorees.

The list of 2012’s IT staffers with the most potential. Page 36 ApRiL 15, 2012 | `100.00 www.CIO.IN

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* ACG Research © 2012 Juniper Networks, Inc.

QFABRIC™ IS HERE. And it’s already delivering radically lower TCO, CAPEX, OPEX and power consumption that is transforming data centers worldwide. juniper.net/qfabric

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Þ Inbound Response Management Priya Sharma v:1800 209 3062 f:022 66765553

4/11/2012 1:17:45 PM

From The Editor-in-Chief

Publisher, President & CEO Louis D’Mello E d i to r i a l Editor-IN-CHIEF Vijay Ramachandran EXECUTIVE EDITOR Gunjan Trivedi

Features Editor Sunil Shah Senior Copy Editor Shardha Subramanian Senior correspondents Sneha Jha, Varsha Chidambaram

Correspondents Debarati Roy, Shweta Rao, Shubhra Rishi Product manager Online Sreekant Sastry

Underprepared!

This degree of unpreparedness is scary, specially when CIOs are beginning to shift processes to the cloud.

The data from the CIO Cloud Survey (see insert) confirms our predictions made in January—the momentum toward cloud computing is gathering pace, and not just steadily.

Our research points to a staggering shift in the priorities of mid-to-large size Indian enterprises as well. While a mere 4.2 percent of enterprises were implementing cloud projects in November 2009, that figure jumped to 29 percent in January 2011, and accelerated to 41 percent last month.

Enterprises who tell us that the cloud doesn’t find place on their technology roadmap has commensurately shrunk in the same period from 19.7 percent to 13.2 percent to 5 percent at present. Of course, few enterprises are willing to bet only on the public cloud. A little over 47 percent of the votes are for the hybrid model, with just 30 percent of organizations preferring to remain within their perimeters via a private cloud.

The degree of core-app virtualization at a high of 36 percent of enterprises is also a good indicator that an increasing number of enterprises are mentally ready and willing to make the move to cloud-enabled business processes.

All to the good. However, what worries me is the degree to which Indian enterprises seem at sea when it comes to putting in place governance and core processes to make the leap manageable, safe, and sustainable—a mere 5 percent of organizations have policies and processes to ensure security and compliance; 30 percent have no plans for any training or skillset upgradation; 40 percent of organizations haven’t looked into the manageability implications; 53 percent of CIOs are clueless about the legal consequences for their organization.

Cripes!

The technology foundations of any enterprise are always a work in progress. That’s a given. But, when a storm approaches wouldn’t one batten down the hatches? When an opportunity comes to transform business operations wouldn’t one embrace it?

This degree of unpreparedness is scary, specially when so many CIOs are shifting workloads and processes to the cloud.

Custo m Pu b l i s h i n g Principal Correspondents Aditya Kelekar, Gopal Kishore

Correspondent Vinay Kumaar

Design & Production Lead Designers Jinan K.V., Jithesh C.C, Vikas Kapoor

Senior Designers Unnikrishnan A.V.

Designers Amrita C. Roy, Sabrina Naresh, Lalita Ramakrishna

Production Manager T. K. Karunakaran Ev e n t s & A u d i e n c e D e v e l op m e n t

Vice President Events Rupesh Sreedharan

Sr. Managers projects Ajay Adhikari, Chetan Acharya, Pooja Chhabra Asst. manager Tharuna Paul Senior executive Shwetha M.

project coordinators Archana Ganapathy, Saurabh Pradeep Patil

Sales & Marketing

President Sales

& Marketing Sudhir Kamath

VP Sales Sudhir Argula

Asst. VP Sales Parul Singh AGM Marketing Siddharth Singh

Manager Key Accounts Jaideep Marlur, Sakshee Bagri

Manager Sales Varun Dev Asst. Manager Marketing Ajay S. Chakravarthy

Associate Marketing Anuradha Hariharan Iyer, Benjamin Anthony Jeevan Raj, Dinesh P. Rima Biswas Asst. Manager Sales Support Nadira Hyder

Finance & Admin

Financial Controller Sivaramakrishnan T. P.

Manager Accounts Sasi Kumar V. Asst. Manager

Credit Control Prachi Gupta

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

Vijay Ramachandran, Editor-in-Chief vijay_r@cio.in 2

Printed and Published by Louis D’Mello on behalf of IDG Media Private Limited, Geetha Building, 49, 3rd Cross, Mission Road, Bangalore - 560 027.

Editor: Louis D’Mello Printed at Manipal Press Ltd., Press Corner, Tile Factory Road, Manipal, Udupi, Karnataka - 576 104.

IDG Offices in India are listed on the next page

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From The governing board

Gov e rn i n g BOARD Alok Kumar VP & Global Head-Internal IT& Shared Services, TCS

Beware: Change Ahead During hard times, old ways of working wont cut it. CIOs need to prepare themselves and their companies to embrace change.

The CIO of the future is going to be a critical determinant of the strategies business will adopt in times to come. But for that to happen he will have to step out of the narrow confines of 0s and 1s and step into the real world—where negotiations, kinships, and conversations are a part of life. In other words, CIOs will have to change the way they work.

But change is always painful. Why? I think it’s mainly because of two things: The fear of the unknown and loss of self-importance.

The fear of change is an irrational fear finding roots in our belief in certainties. We are all animals of habit. The most difficult part in the process is to change culture. I believe there’s only one way to solve this: Absorb the sea of difference that change brings and let end users enjoy the benefits. For example, eight years ago, we told ICICI about the need to build a new datacenter. The opposition I received was phenomenal. But when 80 percent of the bank migrated to a new datacenter, no one knew it even happened.

For change to occur painlessly a CIO must develop the ability to consume, absorb and digest immense amount of change. Only then can we become catalysts of change.

Now let’s look at loss of self importance. Today, CIOs have created technology like a big black box. We extract power out of it and it makes us feel indispensable–but it doesn’t buy trust. We’re not liked if we deliver a product which business doesn’t understand. And any change that threatens IT’s coveted position or authority is met with resistance.

Another aspect that contributes to change is innovation. New ideas bring new ways of working but that doesn’t mean CIOs stop innovating. They still need to infuse innovation in their organizations.

But today, as technology leaders, we have become so compliance-oriented that we’ve lost the art of business. That’s partly because of bureaucracy. People untouched by bureaucracy are open to possibilities while we are used to thinking with constraints.

We need to bring in younger people in the thought process, be more tolerant of failure, and allow fresh ideas.

Pravir Vohra, Group CTO, ICICI Bank

Amrita Gangotra Director-IT (India & South Asia), Bharti Airtel Anil Khopkar VP-MIS, Bajaj Auto Atul Jayawant President Corporate IT & Group CIO, Aditya Birla Group C.N. Ram Group CIO, Essar Group Devesh Mathur Chief Technology & Services Officer, HSBC Gopal Shukla VP-Business Systems, Hindustan Coca-Cola Manish Choksi Chief-Corporate Strategy & CIO, Asian Paints Murali Krishna K SVP & Group Head CCD, Infosys Technologies Navin Chadha IT Director, Vodafone Essar Pravir Vohra Group Chief Technology Officer, ICICI Bank Rajeev Batra CIO, Sistema Shyam Teleservices (MTS India) Rajesh Uppal Executive Officer IT & CIO, Maruti Suzuki India S. Anantha Sayana Head-Corporate IT, L&T Sanjay Jain CIO & Head Global Transformation Practice, WNS Global Services Sunil Mehta Sr. VP & Area Systems Director (Central Asia), JWT V.V.R. Babu Group CIO, ITC

Bangalore: Geetha Building, 49, 3rd Cross, Mission Road, Bangalore 560 027, Phone: 080-3053 0300, Fax: 3058 6065 Delhi: New Bridge Buisness Centers, 5th and 6th Floor, Tower-B, Technolopolis.

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contents april 15, 2012 | Vol/7 | issue/06

Cover: p HOTO GRAPH BY Rohit Gupta and D.R. Lohia / Cover Design by vikas kapoor & Unnikrishnan av

Case Files

O

106 | Aegon Religare

The

nes To atch W

Cloud Computing A cloud-based automated underwriting solution helps Aegon Religare fix one of the insurance industry’s most trying challenges and gives it competitive advantage.

By Sneha Jha

109 | Eveready Forecasting Battling inefficient manual systems, Eveready Industries’ new businesses were reporting 60 percent forecast errors. Here's how its CIO turned that number into 75 percent accuracy rate.

By Shweta Rao

110 | Atul Automation Manual processes created lags in Atul’s accounts payable process, resulting in the loss of Rs 3 crore in Cenvat claims a year. That wouldn’t do.

By Shubhra Rishi

more »

36 | Fifth Annual Ones to Watch

cover story | Ones to Watch This year’s 30 Ones to Watch honorees demonstrate strong project management, innovation and talent management skills.

9 0

Feature by Debarati Roy and Varsha Chidambaram

51 | Ones to Watch Profiles COver story | Ones to Watch Average budget: Rs 25 crore. Average number of users they support: 3,346. Average number of staffers reporting to them: 26. The numbers behind this year’s Ones to Watch honorees make them leaders already. A sneak peek into their personalities.

By Team CIO

83 | Staffing Survey 2012 Survey | Staff Management Key staff indicators, staffing trends, the numbers behind India’s least-stressed IT departments, and the retention strategy that works best. All in this survey.

By Shardha Subramanian and Sunil Shah

6

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VIEW FROM THE TOP: “We collect milk from 3.5 million farmers across 16,000 societies, twice a day. That can't be done without IT," says R. S. Sodhi, MD, Amul.

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4/12/2012 4:12:11 PM

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contents

(cont.) departments 2 | From the Editor-in-Chief Underprepared!

By Vijay Ramachandran

4 | From the Governing Board Change Management | Beware: Change Ahead

By Pravir Vohra, ICICI Bank

11 | Trendlines

5 4

18 | Alert Devices | Beating Thumb Drives Strategy | Let’s Define Security

118 | IT’s Worst Addictions Feature | IT Management Forget the LSDs and the weeds of the world. Your IT addictions are much more severe. Here are seven ‘IT substances’ you’re most addicted to and ways to cure them.

Feature by Dan Tynan

Columns 24

Technology | Pepsi’s Secret Formula Quick Take | The Art of Saying No Voices | Why I Quit My Job as CIO Software | Virtual Vocal Translator Invention | ATM Spouts Cupcakes Innovation | Pharmacy on a Chip IT Management | Angry Birds Biggest Threat Security | UK Spying on its Citizens Mobile Apps | App Reports Leaky Taps Career | When Emotions Hijack the Brain By the Numbers | Cloud’s Raining Jobs in India

52

122 | Essential Technology Social Technology | Getting Into the Groove Social Media | Spread It Out 128 | What We're Reading Book Review |Beyond Performance Management

By Vijay Ramachandran

| Eighth Deadly Sin: Slashing Training Budgets

Staff Management Don't skimp on employee training while the industry surges ahead—it'll cost you big time later.

Column by Bart Perkins

25

| A Joke Gone Bad

Undercover Officer When should you bend the rules to keep from losing a great employee who makes a mistake?

Column by an anonymous CSO

29

| A New Kind of IT Hero

Think Tank There are many differences between the old and new kind of IT hero. If you want to be an IT leader in the years ahead, you need to be this new type of IT leader. Otherwise, all you will lead is the herd that's heading toward the cliff.

Column by Thornton A. May

8

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3 0

ALternative views: Job Rotation: Harmful or Helpful?

Job rotation has gained best practice status as a staff management technique. But can it lead to attrition? Two CIOs debate.

Vol/7 | ISSUE/06

4/12/2012 4:12:15 PM

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2012-4-9

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CIO Online

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Your Information Hunt Stops Here

Dell India

CA (India)Technologies

If you're like most people, your interests lie in a few specific areas. That is why we've created interest zones on cio. in. We have six zones including virtualization, BI, cloud, security, datacenter, communications.

Gartner India Research & Advisory Services HP Enterprise Services

Job Rotation: Harmful or Helpful?

We invited two CIOs to kick-start a debate on whether job rotation helps stem attrition—or worsen it. Read all about it in Alternative Views (page 32).

Which side are you on? We also have more debates for you on www.cio.in Will Mobiles Be Taken off the CIOs List of Responsibilities in 2012?

Ayes Vs Nays Are Users Ready for Self-Service IT? Ayes Vs Nays >> www.cio.in/cio-debates

Conversation Starter

Booklet on Cloud

Cover on Cover

Juniper Networks India IFC Lenovo India IBC Oracle India Polycom

5 21

Riverbed Technology India

Schneider Electric India

[ BO O K CLUB ]

17 + flap

Survey HP Servers

SAS Institute (India)

[ DEBATE ]

7 32, 33, 34 & 35

3 49 9

Sify Technologies Tata Consultancy Services Trend Micro India Tulip Telecom

1 93 till 100 19 BC

Books have been known to spark conversations and on page 128 you can find the genesis of one. Learn what your peers think of a book and then visit the all new CIO Book Club section online and join the conversation with your peers.

>> www.cio.in/bookclub

[ Ca se File ] The Cloud Rules

A cloud-based automated underwriting solution helps Aegon Religare fix one of the insurance industry’s most trying challenges and gives it competitive advantage.

>> www.cio.in

Must Read @ cio.in 10

>> Alert: Defining Security >> Column: A New Kind of IT Hero >> Feature: IT's Worst Addictions

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

Vol/7 | ISSUE/06

4/12/2012 4:12:24 PM

EDITED BY sharDha suBramanIan

new

*

hot

*

unexpected

Pepsi’s Secret Formula

QUICK TAKE:

How do you say no to business?

A direct ‘no’ does not take a CIO too far. It’s more about asking, probing and raising intelligent questions around a certain request and thereby making that person understand the need--or lack--of it. Inane or desperate requests all require the same treatment to ensure the perception of fair play.

Has it become easier for CIOs to say no?

Over the years, with increasing conviction, communication, and comfort with the business, CIOs can now engage in a non-confrontational debates and there’s an increased acceptance of a CIO’s viewpoint.

Trendline_april 2012.indd 11

—By Cindy Waxer

the Art of Saying no

CIO ROle One of the most delicate bits of being CIO is saying ‘no’ to business requests. But with heavy workloads, impacted budgets and narrow-vision demands, it needs to be done. The trick is doing it without re-enforcing IT’s bad rep for saying ‘no’. To find out how to do that Debarati Roy spoke to Arun Gupta, CCA & group CTO, Shoppers Stop.

Vol/7 | ISSUE/06

“It seems like a simple idea, but it has huge implications for the business,” says Michelle Adams, vice president of shopper insights at Pepsi.

Today, consumers can run simulations right from their home computers via a secure virtual shopping site. Each click of the mouse is recorded, charting respondents’ product selection process for future analysis. This data can also be combined with survey responses or general comments for greater insight into consumers’ behavior.

As a predictive tool, store-simulation technology is considerably less expensive and time-consuming than focus groups and telemarketing, thereby cutting the time to market of new product lines.

tRendlInes

There’s nothing coincidental about the way grocery stores display and price their merchandise.

Focus groups used to be the go-to resource for such market research, but today manufacturers like beverage behemoth PepsiCo find virtual simulation technology to be the cheaper, faster option.

When Pepsi was trying to decide whether it was more profitable to offer one sale price for several bags of Frito-Lay chips (multiple pricing) or individually priced bags at a discount, the company used a 3D store-simulation technology, to allow a select group of consumers to “shop” the aisles of a virtual grocery store. The research showed that grocery retailers sell 23 to 30 percent more merchandise using multiple pricing.

teChnOlOgy

It’s become more clear that CIOs only have the best interest of the enterprise at heart. At the same time, the notion that choosing to say a ‘no’ will lead the business to look for an alternative outside is dwindling.

That said, CIOs should exercise this new-found trust judiciously and use it to create a better solution or paradigm that encompasses hitherto unused tenets. It takes wisdom to differentiate between ‘needs’ and ‘wants’ and not play favorites.

But saying no could have a direct impact on the value enterprises attach to IT. I believe that the ability or inability of a CIO determines how valuable IT is seen within the enterprise. CIOs need to be articulate and willing to take a stand, and participate and collaborate with peers beyond what is merely transactional. A lack of clarity is the result a CIO’s decision to clam up and not engage in discussion. One of my CEOs called this ‘professional arrogance’.

Arun Gupta REAL CIO WORLD | a p r i l 1 5 , 2 0 1 2

11

Why I QuIT My JOB AS CIO? vOICES:

RAvISHAnKAR SUbRAmAnIAn Director, Management Consulting, KPMG (formerly with ING Vysya Bank)

tRendlInes

“i joined iNG when its operations had just started. i had never been a CiO before and it was very challenging to set up the iT infrastructure from scratch. But after the initial five to six years, it started becoming business as usual. i was looking for newer, more exciting challenges. I was looking for a larger canvas.”

SRInIvAS KISHAn AnAPU Spandana infotech (formerly with Mahindra Satyam) “With over two decades of experience in iT, i have played multitude of roles and have grown in my career. However, i realized that very few CiOs have become COOs or CEOs. Once you are a CIO you have hit the ceiling in terms of your career. i needed opportunities to grow beyond.”

DR. SUmIT CHOWDHURy, With in a large MNC (formerly with Reliance Communications) “people leave an organization when they plateau or during a downturn. as a CiO, i took iT from a support function to a profit center with certified processes and predictable delivery. When you reach the top you can’t go any higher. In any profession you should leave when you reach the top.”

12

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Trendline_april 2012.indd 12

virtual vocal Translator s O f t w a R e Experimental programs that use speech recognition to perform real-time language translations have been kicking around for years now, but Microsoft took the idea to a new level at its TechFest 2012 event recently.

Like other translators, the software developed by Microsoft Research allows you to talk to it in your native tongue and send it out the speaker of a device as another language—Spanish, French, Chinese, or such.

What comes out of that speaker, though, isn’t the ersatz speech of a computer robot, but an ersatz approximation of what you sound like. What’s more, the software will create a 3D image of your head that makes it look as if you’re speaking the translation. Called Monolingual TTS, the system currently has 26 languages in its repertoire.

Acquainting the system with a voice does take more time than it does in your typical speech recognition program—about an hour of training Monolingual TTS in your vocal tones.

If the application can be stuffed into a smartphone, it would be a boon to international travelers. Language training is also a good fit for the technology.

Microsoft’s vision in the translation space is broader than what has been produced by its rivals. It wants to use lifelike virtual avatars that not only mimic your looks but also your voice and the movements of your lips when you speak. The results produced from that vision can be impressive, but they can be creepy, too.

Google, which has a widely-used online text-based translator, has also been delving into speech-based translation. Google’s approach is to enable you to speak into a device in your native tongue and have the device turn your speech into the language you want and send it out its speaker in a synthetic voice.

The person you’re speaking to can then answer you in their native language, which your device will translate into your language.

Google offers a free app—Translate—for its Android operating system that has a conversation mode, although the results you may get with it will be less than perfect.

While it would seem that Apple’s Siri voice app would be a natural for speech translation functions, it doesn’t natively support the task. However, if you jailbreak an iPhone 4S, which is not recommended by Apple, you can run an app called Lingual which allows you to say something in your native language and Siri will display it on the iPhone’s screen in one of 30 languages.

—By John P. Mello Jr.

Vol/7 | ISSUE/06

Imag In g by pradEEp gUlUr

CIO CaReeR In spite of the prestige and respectability associated with holding a CIO’s office, many IT leaders have given it all up to pursue other interests. Varsha Chidambaram asked a few of your peers who’ve made the move to figure out why.

ATm Spouts Cupcakes

—by david daw

How Cloud Friendly is your Country?

X X X X X X X Cloud computing works best if it is unhindered by infrastructure and local policies—or the lack of them. Here are the scores some of the world’s most cloud friendly countries.

83.3 79.2 78.4

78.6

Japan Australia

France

uS

50 Scorecard based on major regulations relevant to cloud computing in seven policy categories. For more information see the BSA Global Cloud

79

35

Germany

47.5

India c hi n a

Brazil Source:bSa global Cloud Computing Scorecard Source:

Vol/7 | ISSUE/06

Trendline_april 2012.indd 13

Pharmacy on a Chip InnOvatIOn Researchers at MIT have developed what they’re

hoping will be something of a pharmacy on a chip.

Scientists have developed a wirelessly controlled and programmable microchip that can be implanted into the human body to deliver medicine—and it could replace daily drug injections, according to MIT. “You could literally have a pharmacy on a chip,” said MIT professor Robert Langer, who worked on the project with fellow MIT professor Michael Cima. “You can do remote control delivery, you can do pulsatile drug delivery, and you can deliver multiple drugs.”

The university researchers worked with scientists at MicroCHIPS, a medical product company based in the US. The university reported that the wireless chips were tested delivering an osteoporosis drug called Teriparatide to seven women between the ages of 65 and 70. The test reportedly showed that the chips delivered dosages comparable to injections with no adverse side effects.

The chips were reportedly implanted in the patients in a doctor’s office using a local anesthetic and left in the patients for four months.

According to MIT, the chips also could be used for treating patients fighting cancer and multiple sclerosis.

“Compliance is very important in a lot of drug regimens, and it can be very difficult to get patients to accept a drug regimen where they have to give themselves injections,” Cima said in a written statement. “This avoids the compliance issue completely, and points to a future where you have fully automated drug regimens.”

Nearly a year ago, researchers at the Polytechnique Montreal, a Canadian university, announced that they were using nanotechnology and a tiny remote-controlled magnetic sphere to deposit cancer-fighting drugs directly on a targeted area on an animal’s liver.

And in June 2010, scientists at Rice University reported that they had added nanotechnology to an off-the-shelf digital camera to help doctors distinguish healthy cells from cancerous cells. Targeted nano-particles deliver fluorescent dyes to cells and then the cancerous cells can be seen on the souped-up camera’s LCD screen.

Back in 2009, Stanford University researchers announced that they had used nanotechnology and magnetics to create a biosensor designed to detect cancer in its early stages, making a cure more likely. The sensor is 1,000 times more sensitive than cancer detectors used clinically today.

—By Sharon Gaudin REAL CIO WORLD | a p r i l 1 5 , 2 0 1 2

tRendlInes

I n v e n t I O n Have you ever found yourself wandering around at 2 in the morning wishing you could buy a cupcake without having to go into a supermarket? of course you have. We all have. but if you’re in the los angeles area, you now have the world’s first 24-hour cupcake aTm at your disposal.

The minds behind what certainly seems to be the greatest invention in human history work at la bakery Sprinkles, and the new aTm is an always-on dispenser of Sprinkles’ confections that the bakery promises will be restocked with fresh cupcakes day and night.

Eagle-eyed cupcake fans first noticed the pink aTmlike machine in march this year, but Sprinkles has since confirmed that the machine will in fact dispense freshbaked cupcakes, along with ingredients for you to go home and make your own and Sprinkles deliciousness.

The new automated venture, known as 24-Hour Sprinkles, even has its own Facebook page, so even if you can’t make it out to los angeles, you can at least let the world know about your support for automated cupcake dispensers. maybe if we all click the like button enough they’ll build one in every home.

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Angry Birds Biggest Security Threat Did you know that Angry Birds and Facebook represent the biggest mobile app concerns within IT? That’s what Zenprise’s analysis of its Zencloud mobile device management (MDM) users found. Ironically, companies are much less likely to block cloud storage apps such as Dropbox and Box.net or Evernote that some claim pose a significant threat to sensitive data.

As marketing VP chief Ahmed Datoo notes, companies typically buy MDM tools because of security issues relating to user access to corporate e-mail and other data.

Yet they are actually blocking apps like angry birds that are allegedly reducing employee productivity—never mind that most such devices are actually owned by employees. Perhaps the relatively low level of cloud-

tRendlInes

It ManageMent

storage blockage indicates productivity benefits outweigh security fears in actual practice.

Another surprising conclusion in the analysis of companies’ policies is that only 29 percent of devices under management require users to have a passcode to operate their mobile devices—fears of strangers accessing corporate data on mobile devices is an oft-cited rationale for MDM. And 29 percent of devices have VPN preconfigured by IT for the users; Datoo finds this figure surprisingly high and an indication that companies are more trusting of employees than is commonly believed.

About 14 percent of devices have some form of built-in hardware (camera, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and so on) or built-in apps (such as the mobile OS’s app store or iTunes) turned off by an MDM policy. Perhaps

concerned about executives having their locations revealed through services such as Foursquare and Twitter, 12 percent of devices had GPS disabled via policies. Only two percent of devices were forced to use sophisticated MDM policies such as certificate-based authentication.

—By Galen Gruman

The UK government will require ISp, p, phone and p mobile companies to store details of all subscriber phone calls, e-mails, texts and websites visited for a year under plans designed to aid the police and intelligence services. according to a report in the daily Telegraph, the new Communications Capabilities development program (CCdp) will not store the contents of calls and e-mails but data such as time, date, sender and recipient data, allowing the authorities to build a picture of the people with whom targeted individuals are communicating.

The bare bones of the CCdp was first proposed last July, developed from an idea that emerged in 2008 during the later period of the previous government that ISps be required to aid in the creation of a comprehensive surveillance database for security use.

What came to be known as the Intercept modernization program was quickly ruled out as impractical due to the volume of data ISps or the government would be required to store and makes sense of as well as the huge cost. The new CCdp hands the job of record keeping on to the ISp and telecoms companies. seCuRIty

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Trendline_april 2012.indd 14

as with the 2008 proposal, the daily Telegraph claims that the scheme is being backed by the UK’s main intelligencegathering hub, gCHQ, hinted at in very general terms in the Strategic defence and Security review from october 2010. although the intention to pursue the policy has been assumed for some time, The daily Telegraph story now says that the CCdp could be formally announced as early as may 2012.

If the CCdp becomes law, it will attract a range of criticism, starting with the creation of databases that could represent another data breach risk.

“The data would be a honey pot for hackers and foreign governments, not to mention at huge risk of abuse by those responsible for maintaining the databases. It would be the end of privacy online,” said the civil liberties group big brother Watch in response.

“The Home Secretary may have changed but it seems the Home office’s desire to spy on every citizen’s web use and phone calls remains the same as it was under labor.”

—by John E dunn Vol/7 | ISSUE/06

IllUSTraTIon S by pradEEp gUlUr

UK Spying on its Citizens

App Reports Leaky Taps leak, graffiti or anything else in need of repair, the issue would be reported to the site’s plant manager, who would notify the school system’s service desk.

The mobile app enables users to report everything from potholes to public safety issues in their local communities.The district integrated this capability communities. into its IIbmmaximo software that manages the physical assets and work orders. all the calls that come from this app go to the maximo system, although the app-generated reports are reviewed by staff.

The school district receives more than 300,000 service calls a year. It has so far received about 1,700 reports via the application. any student, from K-12, will be able to use the app.

Will the app become an outlet for pranks? Will the school district get flooded with fake maintenance issues on april 1? Time will tell, but lu said the school system will know whose cell phone generated the maintenance request.

The school district already has physical sensors on some systems that record issues, but the interesting aspect of this project “is using people as a smart sensor,” said dave bartlett, vice president for industry solutions at Ibm. “people with their five senses make a much better sensor,” he said.

tRendlInes

The los angeles Unified School district plans to turn many of its 700,000 students into “smart sensors,” to help keep the school facilities running smoothly. The la school district is using a mobile app to report maintenance issues.

The school system has quietly deployed a mobile app that allows users to easily report maintenance issues. anyone nyone with a smartphone—students, teachers and parents—who has downloaded the app, can take a photo of a maintenance issue, water leak, broken window or some other problem, and send the report in for maintenance action.

With the ubiquity of apps and smartphones, and the improving integration of social media-type services with backend systems, using an app to record maintenance problems may seem like an obvious application. but what makes the la school district’s effort noteworthy is its scale. The district has around 700,000 students and 14,000 buildings located on 700 square miles of property.

What happens to the maintenance operation once thousands of users begin reporting problems? The school district hopes it leads to speedier resolution of issues and better preparation through the use of photos and gpS data that will help the maintenance staff identify and locate a problem.

“It’s another eye at the school site for us,” said danny lu, a business analyst at the school district. previously, reviously, if a student, teacher or staff member saw a broken window, water MObIle apps

—by patrick Thibodeau

When Emotions Hijack the Brain Management consultant Doug Lennick says “morally intelligent” leaders build high-performing, innovative companies. Lennick explains the importance of emotional competence and how you can hone it: Causes of bad Judgments In the heat of the moment, in an emotionally charged situation, someone will whip off something on his smartphone and in anger or frustration or anxiety, he will hit the send button. One has to have a combination of emotional competence and moral competence to avoid responding in a way that is later considered regrettable.

CaReeR

Importance of Emotional Competence Emotional competency will separate you from the pack. Cognitive and technical competencies are table stakes.

In the executive suite, everybody’s going to be fairly smart and technically good at something. Yet if they lack emotional and moral competence, they won’t be able to sustain their performance. That’s because, under pressure, they will do things they wish they had not done. Without emotional competency, irrational decision-making trumps intelligence every time. If we can understand how the mind operates within the brain and how the brain is CIO.In

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wired, we can begin to understand why people do something regrettable.

How to build it An executive’s effectiveness as a leader is a function of how well he manages himself. I have a client whose impulse control is low and stress tolerance is very high. He will fly off the handle and do things that he wishes he hadn’t done, but because he handles the stress well, he doesn’t think much of it. But people around him are adversely affected.

You can measure your ability to respond to pressure with lots of tools, [such as] your organization’s 360degree feedback data.

—by Kim S. nash

To find the hottest jobs in the Indian market visit itjobs.cio.in

REAL CIO WORLD | a p r i l 1 5 , 2 0 1 2

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compIlED BY SnehA JhA

Best practices

Cloud’s Raining Jobs in India In its list of cons, cloud computing has always saved a place for being the onethat-eliminates-employment. not anymore. a research study conducted by IdC and commissioned by microsoft, predicts that cloud computing will generate over 14 million new jobs worldwide between 2012 and 2015. and that 15 percent of those jobs will be generated in India.

The study says that the cloud will generate demand for marketing executives, IT personnel and application developers, to name a few.

The small and medium businesses will benefit the most from this jobs deluge as 50 percent of these jobs will be generated in this segment. more than two million jobs will be generated in the media and manufacturing sectors, followed by banking at over 1.4 million.

The factors determining the number of jobs that might be created in a particular country include projected level of spending on IT, degree of automation, workforce size, among others. “a common misperception is cloud computing is a job eliminator, but in truth it will be a job creator—a major one,” says John F. gantz, chief research officer and SVp, p, IdC. “Job growth will occur across continents and throughout p organizations of all sizes because emerging markets, small cities and small businesses have the same access to cloud benefits as large enterprises or developed nations,” he adds.

1

TaKE the lead. IT needs to take a proactive role in embracing the cloud. as an IT leader, the CIo should maintain control of important aspects such as security, availability and cost.

2

EnHanCE key skills. CIos should constantly polish the skills of employees in-charge of the cloud. For example, contract negotiation skills are a pre-requisite for information security professionals dealing with cloud computing.

3

STrESS on expert app developers. building complex cloud applications is set to overtake virtualization as the top cloud activity. So developing apps is key.

The Silver Lining on the Cloud

15%

The amount of cloud computing jobs that will be created in india of the 14 million jobs generated worldwide by 2015.

SoUrCE: IdC

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Jobs Generated Worldwide by 2015 (In mIllIonS)

6.75

2.87 2.07 1.17 North America

EMEA

APAC*

India & China *ExCEpT CHIna & IndIa

Vol/7 | ISSUE/06

tRendlInes

I

Cloud computing isn’t a job eliminator. It is set to generate over 14 million jobs worldwide—15 percent in India—by 2015.

• Data Centre Modinization & Optimization • Infrastructure, Networks, Servers & Storage • IT Operations • Asset Management • Data Management • Networking • Security in the Data Centre • IT Architecture • Mobile Device Management • Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery Business executives interested in strengthening the business through improved IT services.

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Enterprise Risk management

Beating Thumb Drives

F

or such a small device, USB flash drives can cause big security headaches. Even if you have robust end-point security and establish rigid policies about employee use of these drives, employees still find a way to copy financial reports and business plans for use at home. Is there anyone who has found a way around the problem? Here are four:

Who: The City of Columbus Approach

IMAGES by PHOTOS.COM

How: Uses Intelligent ID software to categorize files, and then assigns a level of encryption on the fly.

The City of Columbus is serious about thumb-drive security. “Because this could be easily lost or stolen, we are concerned about IP theft and the loss of sensitive data, whether maliciously or accidentally,” says the city government’s CIO, Gary Cavin.

The city uses classification software from vendor Intelligent ID that does more than just encrypt data during file transfer. The software can be configured to encrypt data for a specific type of user or department, or even for specific file types, such as Microsoft Excel files.

Cavin says the city even marks files for encryption based on the data contained in the file. If the software finds a file with a Social Security number, the data is automatically encrypted. To read the files, an employee needs an encryption key. In some cases, they can transfer files in a rush to a flash drive, then request that IT send them the encryption key later to open the files.

Data Governance Woes findings

Without the ability to classify data and decide when it needs to be destroyed, organizations run businesses inefficiently.

23%

Of managements have only a limited or no understanding of what comprises sensitive data.

Who: Turkcell How: Uses classification software from Titus that monitors MS Office business documents and alerts users when they try to copy it to a drive.

Turkcell is one of the largest wireless carriers in Turkey, with over 2,800 employees. The company classifies every file and adds encryption when employees use thumb drives, but they also use a unique alerting system to warn users that they are about to copy sensitive data.

Gurkan Paplia, manager of infrastructure and security, says the company encrypts confidential data transfers to thumb drives. But it also uses Titus Classification for Office because most of the transfers for Office files require extra security.

Describe your company’s data retention and storage process Detailed classification system to define data with varying retention policies and destruction dates based on classification

29%

Basic classification system to define data with a few specific retention policies and destruction dates based on classification

34%

We retain all records for a certain period with a defined destruction date

22%

We retain all records for a certain period with no defined destruction date

7%

We do not have a formal data retention and destruction policy

3%

Source: Protiviti

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4/11/2012 4:40:49 PM

TREND MICRO IS #1 IN VIRTUALIZATION SECURITY*

NAVIGATE YOUR BUSINESS TO NEW HEIGHTS WITH CLOUD SECURITY SOLUTIONS FROM TREND MICRO

Trend Micro allows you to fully capitalize on the operational benefits of virtualization and cloud computing with innovative solutions for security and compliance. These include the first and only agentless antivirus, intrusion prevention and integrity monitoring solutions for virtualized datacenters and desktops. Additionally, our encryption and key management solution for public, private and hybrid clouds allows you to better manage and secure your data wherever it resides.

The result is a true business advantage.

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EntErprisE risk managEmEnt

(Also, the existing encryption engine they use can lead to false positives.)

John Girard, a Gartner analyst, says a default approach for any large company should be to block writing to any thumb drive. If there is a situation where a file must be copied, the employee can call the help desk for authorization based on job requirements and manager approval.

That’s what Turkcell has automated with the pop-up alerts.

Organizations should use a “least privilege” approach to thumb-drive security, similar to how Turkcell only allows the transfer of Office files, adds Damon Petraglia, a director at Chartstone, a security services company.

CIOs should determine whether a specific employee really needs to transfer files to a drive; if they do, the company should find a way to allow only certain types of files. Otherwise thumb drives should not even be allowed.

Who: CignA How: Allows employees to copy encrypted data, but they are prompted to type in a reason why they’re copying.

At CIGNA, one of the largest health insurance companies in the US, the goal is to provide employees with enough flexibility. Craig Shumard, former CISO, says employees are allowed to use USB drives to transfer files, but there’s a security strategy.

First, Shumard says, the company uses Verdasys Digital Guardian software to monitor all ports and encrypt data transfers. Next, when employees try to transfer files to a thumb drive, they are prompted to type in the reasons for the transfer. Later, the data they actually transferred is compared to those reasons.

This approach gives the employee the sense that they have the ability to transfer the files, but there will be accountability for those actions.

Who: University of Alabama, Birmingham Health system How: Uses DeviceLock to monitor ports and encrypt data. Allows staff and students to use thumb drives at will, but all file transfers are monitored and recorded.

At the University of Alabama at

[OnE :: LinEr]

“mobile devices have added complexity in handling security incidents from an investigation perspective.”

Ashish Mishr MishrA, CisO, TesCO hsC

Birmingham (UAB) Health System, about 1,700 employees routinely use thumb drives, mostly for copying PowerPoint slides. However, as an organization that must adhere to HIPPA standards for patient records, the UAB Health System uses a multi-pronged approach.

First, in most cases, most USB ports are blocked entirely using DeviceLock software. This prevents most unauthorized file transfers.

When doctors have a legitimate need to use a thumb drive, they can use an approved IronKey thumb drive that adds encryption. The software maintains a strict whitelist of approved IronKey drives assigned to employees.

The medical center chose this approach after conducting research about three years ago, says Terrell Herzig, the data security officer at UAB Health System. The organization monitored the use of all USB ports to see which files were transferred, and found that employees were using all sorts of USB thumb drives.

Today, most employees will see an alert when they try to transfer files to an unapproved thumb drive. They can then call the help desk to request an IronKey drive to use.

Petraglia urges companies to use a multi-pronged security approach to thumb drives where there are several tactics employed, not just one. “Once the data is on an employee’s thumb drive the organization no longer controls it,” he says. “The employees can [then] make copies or send that data from and to computers outside of the organization.”

Whether the chosen security approach is to allow only one approved thumb drive, prompt users for the reasons they need to copy data, or classify files for approved transfers, each technique addresses one simple reality: Employees will use thumb drives, and they will find ways to continue using them. CiO John Brandon is a former iT manager who now writes about technology. Send feedback to editor@cio.in

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can you keep your data secure in the cloud?

you can You may feel more secure working in your own, private environment. Many IT professionals feel the same way. But the world is demanding more innovation, greater agility and higher levels of responsiveness. That means cloud.

We can help you “embrace the cloud” in ways that will help you achieve the kind of business agility you need to drive tomorrow’s success. Talk to us about ways to simplify, secure and accelerate—even from the most heterogeneous of computing environments.

For more information on how our cloud management solutions can help you simplify, secure and accelerate IT, visit ca.com/in

Copyright © 2012 CA. All rights reserved.

ca_datasecure_cioindia.indd 1

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CA Technologies CIO India Magazine April 2012

3/9/12 3:57 PM

DATE: SIZE:

9/3/12 22.23cm x 27.6cm 0.33cm bleed 560 Harrison Ave., Suite 503 | Boston, MA 02118 617.338.4441

Enterprise Risk management

Let’s Define Security

H

unched forward in an effort to find comfort in old, wooden chairs gathered around a whiteboard in an oversized conference room, the 10 people sitting before me each clutched a single sheet of paper in one hand, a pen in the other.

Nervously, they looked to me for direction, wondering what on earth I was about to ask them to do.

“Take 5 minutes and write down your definition of the word security,” I asked.

(Tip: Might be interesting to stop reading, take a moment, and do the same) Nervousness instantly changed to comfort, for I asked a simple question everyone knew the answer to. Each of the participants quickly started to scribble.

About a minute later, I noticed a few people scratching out words, phrases and, in some cases, an entire definition.

Three minutes in, people were still writing, pausing for a moment to think, draw an arrow or two, scratch out a concept and then scribble again.

At the end of the five minutes, I asked the members of this team to share not only their definitions, but also their reflection on the exercise.

More interesting than the actual shared definitions was the fact that by asking 10 security professionals to define security, I got 15 responses!

I’ve repeated this challenge multiple times and generally got more definitions than the number of people. This happens because when first presented with information, a task or a concept familiar to use, we readily presume understanding. The moment we need to translate a loosely held notion in our minds to a precisely defined meaning, we realize that context matters and the definition might change.

Why it Matters To be an effective security professional requires an understanding of risk, risk 22

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tolerance, threats, business, and a multitude of other essential topics. Under the moniker of ‘security’, lies a large potential of technologies, processes, and services we offer to those we serve in an effort to reduce risk.

Consider the responses people offer when we introduce ourselves as security professionals?

Over the last two decades of testing and changing how to explain what we do, the responses have tended to focus on what the person I was talking to understood.

If they considered security a firewall, that’s what they thought I did. If it meant a bodyguard, I must be in personal protection.

For some folks, though, it’s just too nebulous to pin down; for these people, we’re more likely an impediment to their success than anything else. If we are unable to advance a clear, consistent definition of security, how can we

Closed Talk

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reasonably expect the people we serve to understand, let alone comply?

We provide a valuable service to the organization, but to be successful, we have to be clear on what that service is.

While the exercise may not prove simple, the first step is to work with your team to define what it means to be secure. Perhaps go further and describe— using a common example— how your efforts to improve security and reduce risk help the business.

Then walk the definition around to the water cooler and socialize it with examples to the folks you know. Ask them how they would describe what you do. By sharing a documented approach and listening to their impressions, it is possible to build a definition others will understand and possibly embrace. CIO Michael Santarcangelo is founder of Security Catalyst, a practice devoted to harnessing the human side of security. Send feedback to editor@cio.in

SecuSmart, a company that has been supplying secure voice products to the European Union and NATO, has developed a mobile solution that fits on a micro-SD card and can be used in mobile devices for end-to-end, real-time encryption.

According to Daniel Fuhrmann, director of operations for SecuSmart, all that’s required is for the mobile phone to have the SecuVOICE micro-SD card installed, and have the appropriate app installed on the device.

Currently, the company supports BlackBerry, Android and Nokia phones running Symbian.

Mobiles using the SecuVOICE chip can communicate securely with other mobiles running it and have secure end-to-end communications.

Such mobile phones can also communicate with a server in the enterprise equipped with SecuVOICE. It’s part of a larger suite of functions including security for text messaging. It requires a GSM network to function.

According to Furmann, the SecuVOICE chip creates no additional latency beyond what’s already present in the digital voice network.

SecuSmart also produces a landline voice security system that can communicate with mobiles running SecuVOICE. Both types of systems meet NATO-restricted and EU-restricted security levels.

“We can sell this solution to anyone now,” Fuhrmann said, “unless we find out they’re with the Taliban or something.”

— By Wayne Rash

Vol/7 | ISSUE/06

4/11/2012 4:40:53 PM

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Bart Perkins

Staff management

Eighth Deadly Sin: SlashingTraining Budgets

T

oday, every corporation wants an Don't skimp on employee as valuable as the formal presentations. Attendees effective workforce, but few want to training while the industry will certainly hold a wide variety of opinions pay for the training that can give them regarding industry news, products and trends. surges ahead—it'll cost you one. Some executives seem to believe These conversations help develop and enhance an that their IT staff should be able to keep up with big time later. employee's industry perspective. new ideas and technology on their own time, with Pride resulting from internal recognition. minimal corporate financial support. Those organizations that do Organizations invest in people they value and wish to retain. Selecting support training and education tend to do so only in good times, so employees for skill enhancement is one way that organizations can those items are often among the first to be slashed when IT budgets reward employees and prepare key staff for increased responsibilities get tight. (Turn to page 83 for more on staffing trends) and future promotions.

The argument against training frequently is that it is difficult to All of those intangible benefits do not even consider what will be calculate a measurable ROI. And yet, who really believes that an IT gained from the actual training that you're paying for. But naturally, staff that is given no training will be appropriately skilled to meet IT's training is in itself of value. That's why organizations that don't want needs? I think that defies common sense. to pay for travel and lodging or have vital employees away for a full It's true that many of the benefits of training can't be measured, week at a time can still get value from computer-based training. but the sheer number of intangible benefits that are derived from When such programs were first offered, they could be pretty boring, attending conferences, training events and other educational and they usually focused exclusively on technical skills. programs argue against cutting training budgets. Most people who Today, innovative technology platforms make virtual conferences are sent to a professional-development program return with: and educational training both interesting and effective. Virtual trade shows allow participants to attend lectures, see product Innovative solutions. When faced with a business challenge, demonstrations and interact with other participants. people often believe that their organization is the only one forced A word of caution, however, to organizations that figure that to confront a particular issue. While many challenges are indeed in-house virtual training is a good way to impart new skills to the difficult, few are unique. By discussing a particular problem with workforce while keeping them on the job. An important part of any other industry professionals, issues can be clarified and creative training experience is having time to focus on the material presented. approaches can be discovered. So, organizations that send staffers to Multiple interruptions for normal workday issues can draw all of the rub shoulders with peers are able to leverage their experiences and value from the training. perspectives to address their own challenges.

Quite simply, most people can't really multi-task, says Earl New professional contacts. Conferences and educational Miller, professor of neuroscience at MIT. While some can switch programs offer IT staff opportunities to connect with colleagues, tasks quickly, every switch carries mental overhead and reduces customers and suppliers and to meet industry experts and advisers. effectiveness. Corporations that regularly interrupt employees And such high-quality professional connections can help with most during training events undermine their own investment. business challenges.

Professional development and education are critical in rapidly Revitalized enthusiasm. Many employees feel energized by changing industries. In 2003, Warren Bennis stated, "The half-life of getting away from the daily work routine and being challenged by new any particular skill set is, at most, five years. And that's on the long ideas and perspectives. Much side." Significant cuts in training budgets will result in an underof this energy gets channeled On the Cheap skilled workforce unable to meet tomorrow's IT challenges. Don't toward determining how their To learn how to save money on skimp on employee education while the industry surges ahead—it'll learnings can be applied. training read Tata Motors Saves cost you big time later. CIO Broadened perspective.

Big With Remote Training on Even casual conversations www.cio.in c o.in with other participants can be Bart Perkins is managing partner at Leverage Partners. Send feedback to editor@cio.in

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Undercover Officer

Anonymous

A Joke Gone Bad When should you bend the rules to keep from losing a great employee who makes a mistake?

I

appreciate a good security policy as much as the next guy. Good procedures help employees understand that no, it’s not OK to spend all morning surfing porn sites, and yes, it really matters if they leave our strategic plans spread out in a conference room for all the cleaning staff to see. But sometimes, good judgment just has to trump the policy book. The rules, after all, are not there to give us security folks authority they’re there to make the organization secure. I learned that the hard way early in my career.

In a previous life, long before I became a chief security officer, I was a nuclear missile launch commander. In my unit was a fellow missileer we called “Special Ed” because he really was dumber than warm water.

Special Ed was also very religious, and one day one of the other guys decided to play a practical joke on him. This wise guy typed several Bible verses onto a roll of paper that was used to print out missile statuses and alarms.

He replaced the paper in the status printer and left with a sly grin.

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Later, in the wee hours of the morning, Special Ed began receiving alarm information that caused him to review the paper tapes. “Power failure launch facility No. 8,” the tape read. “You shall sow what you reap.” Ed blinked twice and advanced the tape. “Power returned launch facility No. 8. No man can serve two masters; he will love one and despise the other.”

Ed scratched his noodle. What could this be?

Bible verses, a powerful computer, a powerful deity.... Then, it came to him. God had taken over the computer that controls the US nuclear

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Undercover Officer

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missile forces. The most powerful force on Earth was now being controlled by the most powerful force in the universe.

Ed shot off an encrypted message to the Strategic Air Command (SAC) headquarters informing them of the non-hostile, heavenly takeover. Ten minutes later, I received a call at home requesting my immediate presence for an emergency assumption of command at a missile silo. I jumped into my uniform, raced to the base and was escorted on board a waiting military helicopter with 12 military police armed with M16s and wearing flak jackets. We were ready to kick ass and take names.

A colonel hailed me on the helicopter radio on the flight out.

“Son,” he said in a no-nonsense, Texas accent, “we have a potential broken arrow here. You have any idea what that means?”

Actually, I didn’t; it was too early.

Luckily, the colonel was asking a rhetorical question. “A broken arrow means potential loss of control of a nuclear weapon,” he continued, pausing for effect. “Lt. Jones believes that God has commandeered the missile silo.”

“I don’t think that’s possible, sir.”

“Damn straight it’s not possible.

God hasn’t been screened under the Personal Reliability Program, and He has not gone through an approved training program,” he said. “Your job is to go in there and relieve Lt. Jones from command. The use of deadly force is authorized, if warranted,

Background Check To learn more about staff recruitment, read How to Cautiously Hire Your IT Staff visit www.cio.in c o.in

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Whenever I get into a situation where I realize I’ve become too myopic about the rule book, I remind myself that good security rules have nothing to do with good security. but you are to exercise your best professional judgment to take back control of the capsule with minimum casualties. You understand me, son?”

“Yes, sir,” I replied.

We choppered down at the site, and I took the elevator down to the missile silo. When Ed opened the blast door, he said, “You won’t believe what I have found.”

“I know all about it, Ed. SAC wants to hear all about it, too. I’m coming down to take over the alert for you so you can go back and give a detailed report to the base commander. This is big news.”

“Really?” he asked, beaming. “You think I’ll get a promotion because I discovered this?”

“They’ll be talking about you for years to come.”

With that, I relieved Special Ed. When he returned topside, the cops arrested him and immediately flew him back to base.

In this situation, both of the men, Special Ed and the wise guy, had exercised poor judgment. Special Ed could have asked some of his crew buddies before he decided to notify headquarters. And the wise guy should have remembered that nuclear weapons aren’t something you use to amuse yourself. The emergency never would have occurred, and no one would have gotten in trouble.

But they did. Special Ed was sent to Washington for a couple of weeks of psychological testing.

The way the story got told around

missile command, the doctors all thought Special Ed was mentally OK, but lacked “sound judgment.”

They thought he should no longer be allowed to serve missile duty.

Unfortunately, at the time SAC was short of personnel and couldn’t really afford to lose a trained crewman even if he wasn’t exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer. Besides, hadn’t he passed the Personal Reliability Program?

Hadn’t he passed the evaluation for missile crew commanders? Special Ed was placed back on duty.

And the wise guy? They courtmartialed him. We all felt sorry for him. He was a good guy. He just didn’t appreciate that Special Ed really did deserve his nickname, and that Strategic Air Command didn’t have a sense of humor. The only good thing was that he didn’t have to serve any prison time.

SAC was obviously trying to send a message to its missile crews that nuclear duty is serious business.

Fine. But in doing so it lost a person who, except for one lapse of good judgment, was an otherwise a pretty outstanding performer.

Had I been making the decision, the jokester would have been taken to the colonel’s office, put at attention against the wall and screamed at until he sweated a shadow. The attitude adjustment session would have ended with the colonel telling him never to do it again and then giving him a wink and telling him to get back in the game. I guarantee if that had

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Undercover Officer

Anonymous

been done, the Air Force would have kept a motivated officer. (To read about another Indian IT leader who would have taken the same call, turn to pg 42) In the years since then, I have seen numerous examples in civilian life of great employees showing their humanity by making mistakes.

I also know that, if the mistake isn’t too egregious, you can, by exercising a little good judgment use the incident to remotivate that “problem” employee back to being an outstanding performer.

Recently, for example, I asked a vendor to give a presentation about a service it has that infiltrates hacker groups and uses the intelligence gained to keep customers abreast of attacks that the hacker community is plotting. I invited many people from my company with an interest in security to participate.

One person at the meeting we’ll call him BJ for bad judgment was a brilliant network engineer with a peculiar sense of humor. During the meeting, the vendor brought up a website purporting to show the relationships among several wellknown criminal hackers. One hacker, Malboy, supposedly had a girlfriend named AllySin. When BJ saw the screen, he immediately piped up. “That’s not right. I’m Malboy, and AllySin is definitely not my girlfriend. We just went out together a couple of times; that’s all.”

An uneasy laughter rippled across the room. But BJ wasn’t smiling. His face was still focused intently on the screen—like he meant business. “And here,” he said, pointing to the screen.

“I did not write the Netsky worm it was the Klez worm that I wrote. I did

it one night with the inspiration of a bottle of fine cabernet.”

“Uh, let’s move on,” I said looking at BJ, searching hard for some hint of humorous intent on his expressionless, sober face.

Move on we did. After the meeting, the security vendor and I compared notes. The hacker in question, Malboy, was wanted by law enforcement agencies on many counts of federal computer crimes. I contacted human resources, and together we began to investigate whether BJ was actually the hacker Malboy.

BJ’s manager and HR authorized a search of all of his e-mails. We re-initiated background and financial checks of BJ. We looked at the network logs to see his activities and the Internet sites he had visited. He came

joke. After his manager and the head of HR berated him for the next 30 minutes for poor judgment, I felt like putting him in a headlock and giving him a noogie on his noggin. But, of course, I didn’t. I too weighed in with an obligatory (but short) speech about some things you just shouldn’t joke about at work.

The toughest part, though, was what to do with him. Should he be punished? HR and his manager turned to me for a recommendation.

The guy had been with the company for eight years, really was a top-notch performer and got along great with his co-workers.

I said he had been punished enough with the severe lecture we had given him and that no further disciplinary action was warranted. They took my

Sometimes security people get so caught up in following the letter of a regulation that we ignore what it was written to address in the first place.

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up clean on all accounts.

BJ’s lifestyle and personal interests also didn’t match the profile of what was known about Malboy. There was only one rock left to overturn: Personally confronting BJ. I called a meeting with BJ, his manager and the head of HR. I cleared my throat. “I don’t know a good way of saying this, so I’m just gonna say it. Are you really Malboy?”

“Malboy? Who’s that?” he asked with a genuinely quizzical look on his face that, upon another second’s reflection, changed to horror, “Oh, you can’t be serious,” he said. “You’re not referring to that joke I made at the vendor meeting?”

Indeed we were, but this was really the first intimation that BJ had ever given that, yes, this had indeed been a

advice, and BJ remained an employee of the company albeit with a more controlled sense of humor.

Sometimes, I’ve learned, security people get so caught up in following the letter of a regulation that we ignore what it was written to address in the first place.

Whenever I get in a situation where I realize I’ve become too myopic about the rule book, I just think back to Special Ed and Wise Guy, or to the incident with BJ. I remind myself that good security rules, when followed to the extreme, have nothing to do with good security. CIO

This column is written anonymously by a real CSO. Send feedback on this column to editor@cio.in

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Alternative Views

Staff Management

Job Rotation: Harmful or Helpful?

Over the last few years, job rotation has gained best practice status as a staff management technique. But can it lead to attrition? Two CIOs debate.

I

think job rotation is a great concept. Organizations should have a formal job rotation policy for employees. A job rotation policy is planned to stretch and challenge employees and broaden their understanding and exposure to different business processes. It promotes cross functional expertise and experience.

It is a potent weapon to fight both attrition and monotony of work. When employees perform the same job function for a long time, boredom sets in—which, in turn, results in mental fatigue, apathy, inertia, and low productivity. This stagnates their growth prospects and jeopardizes career development.

Reshuffling portfolios leads to enrichment of skills. Employees also begin to see a rewarding roadmap with the company.

So, job rotation promotes higher levels of organizational commitment and helps create

a more satisfied and motivated employee.

This, in turn, reduces risks of attrition because employees are constantly motivated and challenged.

Also, rotating people across functions is an effective mechanism for succession planning. In financial organizations, it also reduces the risk of fraud. Organizations that do not shift employees to other roles miss out on versatility of their staff in performing their day-to-day operations.

Handling different functional departments gives them a taste of various business processes. At Central Bank of India, we have a robust job rotation program.

It is applicable even to IT. While executing various IT functions—like finalizing technical specifications, troubleshooting etcetera—knowledge of business really helps. This helps employees acquire a greater appreciation of the challenges of other business functions.

“Job rotation promotes higher levels of organizational commitment and motivation. This helps curb attrition.”

A.K. Mohanty, Head-IT, Central Bank of India 30

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Alternative Views

Staff Management

R

eshuffling portfolios of employees requires the organization to invest money, time, and effort in training people and running orientation programs to facilitate the process of rotation. This is an added cost to the organization.

It takes six months to a year to train a person to handle an organization’s processes. Once he acquires the skills and enhances his market value he might start looking for greener pastures.

There is no guarantee that he will stick on. So job rotation can aggravate the problem of attrition and result in the loss of human capital.

We have experienced this internally.

We adopted the policy for some job positions and trained them for six months. But when they found plum offers in the market they cashed in on their increased market value and left the organization. Our investment in their career development was wasted.

During the job rotation program, the learning curve of all the employees may not always be the same. There are instances of low productivity in the early days of rotation. In today’s competitive business environment, it’s not practical to expose business to such risks.

“Once employees are trained in different job functions, they look for greener pastures.

This aggravates the problem of attrition.”

Chandan Sinha, CIO, GHCL Job rotation can also de-motivate employees. If some employees are cherry picked for the program, the non-participating employees begin to harbor feelings of dissatisfaction and de-motivation. Their commitment and loyalty to the organization reduces.

Also, when job assignments get rotated on a periodic basis it does not allow people to acquire in depth knowledge of business functions and they tend to become jack of all trades and masters of none. This can be detrimental to their career prospects.

In my opinion, specialized job functions should not be considered for job rotation. If the organization wants to create backup resources for these skills then it must train people in these areas but organizations should refrain from rotating the jobs of these specialized staffers who excel at their tasks. CIO

As told to Sneha Jha Sneha Jha is senior correspondent. Send feedback to sneha_jha@idgidnia.com

TRANSFORMING BUSINESS

THROUGH JUDICIOUS APPLICATION OF IT

IN THIS ISSUE

To follow business transformation in action, visit www.cio.in/transformers

Alternative_Views_April2012.indd 35

93 | CLEARING CHEQUES ON THE CLOUD Yes Bank embraces a hosted solution to implement Cheque Truncation Services (CTS).

98 |SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST The role of CIOs are not confined to managing IT anymore opines Subhakanta Satpathy of Axis Bank.

An IDG Custom Solutions Initiative

4/26/2012 6:43:55 PM

EXECUTIVE

Viewpoint

CUSTOM SOLUTIONS GROUP DELL

POWER AND FLEXIBILITY: 12G SHOWS ITS TRUMP CARDS In its 12th generation PowerEdge server, Dell provides enterprises features that maximize efficiency and bring down costs.

P.A SATHYASEELAN Executive Director, Enterprise Solutions, Dell India Sathyaseelan is responsibile for managing and growing the entire portfolio of Dell’s Enterprise Products and Solutions. He has close to 20 years of experience in the IT industry and has served in various sales, services and business development positions.

12G PowerEdge servers enable super-fast processing, giving customers the ability to accommodate more workloads per server

Can you elaborate on Dell’s 12th generation of enterprise solutions (12G)? What is revolutionary about the new products?

Dell has optimized its entire portfolio of enterprise solutions to address the most demanding workloads and to seamlessly scale from small businesses to its largest enterprise customers. We are focused on expanding our enterprise solutions and services capabilities to serve customers better. We have recently announced a full portfolio of 12th generation blade, rack and tower PowerEdge servers optimized to run mission-critical business applications. The product designs were based on inputs from more than 7,700 customer conversations in 17 countries across four continents – focusing on their need for innovation to deliver business results faster.

What is Dell’s position in the Indian server market? What are the key benefits that customers can expect from Dell’s 12G servers?

Dell has become the No.1 player (by revenue) in the Indian server market, consistently growing over the last four quarters. We now have our strongest-ever product and services portfolio, and have acquired significant new skills and capabilities, reorganized our operations, optimized global supply chain and have a world-class management team. With the new capabilities, our solutions provide the best value and flexibility, and are easy to use.

The new PowerEdge 12th generation server platform has innovations that include new server systems management capabilities in Open Manage and iDRAC with Lifecycle Controller. Customers will be able to streamline and automate operational tasks such as easier provisioning of workloads and faster redeployment of existing workloads. 12G PowerEdge servers enable a wide range of complex workloads, giving customers the ability to accommodate more workloads per server than they have in the past, while allowing them the flexibility to run their high performance computing solutions as clusters, grids or other multi-tenant environments.

Dell Services offers HPC assessment, design and implementation services that are of high quality and which enable customers to experience a single point of accountability.

Our solution architects work to understand business environments in terms of functional, technical, operational and business requirements and help customers obtain and maintain the maximum processing power within their budget. The 12th generation of servers can work at 45 degree Celsius, bringing down the cooling requirement of data centers significantly, which in turn brings down power costs and the over-all running cost. This product will define the way we run data centers in future.

Can you highlight some of the innovations in 12G servers. What has been India R&D’s contribution to this development effort?

Our India R&D center in Bangalore delivered several major components of 12G enterprise solutions, contributing in various areas such as product architecture, engineering, validation and documentation. These industry-leading enterprise solutions include embedded server management, integration with enterprise management consoles, cluster solutions and industry standard enterprise operating systems. More than 50 percent of the Bangalore center contributed to this top notch enterprise server solution and in that process, more than 300 invention disclosures have been filed. Dell India R&D is critical to Dell’s transformation to an enterprise solutions company.

This interview is brought to you by IDG Custom Solutions Group in association with

Thornton A. May

Think Tank

A New Kind of IT Hero

W

e stand today on the brink of surveys, learning about land disputes and There are many differences momentous years, a decade social networks, and generally understanding between the old and new or so that will change how we how people think. The aim is to understand kind of IT hero. If you want work, learn, play, pay, heal and the landscape and its actors more deeply. To go to be an IT leader in the relate. All of this interests me, but nothing more deeper into military history, the new kind of IT years ahead, you need to be so than what it will mean for the provisioning of hero must be less like Achilles (using brute force this new type of IT leader. information technology. on problems) and more like Ulysses (figuring What will change is the very definition of IT things out and coming up with innovative Otherwise, all you will lead leadership success. In the years ahead, achieving approaches that no one else ever thought of). is the herd that's heading success will require a new kind of IT hero. toward the cliff.

What top management expects from IT has X-Ray Vision already changed, and the old kind of IT hero Increasingly, world-class IT organizations will is out of favor. IT success no longer means delivering high-cost, serve as the eyes and ears of the enterprise. The old kind of IT hero high-complexity and high-maintenance ‘bloatware’ on time, on looked at business processes and took something away (cost, time budget and at specification. or complexity). The new kind of IT hero adds something (insight).

The old kind of IT hero was consumed with performing tasks inside the enterprise. The new kind of IT hero is being asked to The New Hero’s Superpowers X-ray and explicate new developments in the external marketplace; There are many differences between the old and new kind of to make greater sense of a bigger picture. A fast-food restaurant IT hero. Multiple generations of IT leaders have been adept at chain might ask its IT shop to shed light on artisanal trends in answering questions, fulfilling goals and getting things done. eating and nutrition. An automobile manufacturer might ask IT Modern success in IT—and for those who lead it—requires asking to flesh out and get inside of the new trend in customizing cars. A questions, setting goals and evaluating whether things are worth cable network might ask IT to figure out why a certain star is a big doing in the first place. If you want to be an IT leader in the years hit. Such requests are not transactional in nature. ahead, you need to be this new type of IT leader. Otherwise, all you One of the most important new functions of an IT hero will lead is the herd that's heading toward the cliff. is to serve as a sort of DARPA for the enterprise, creating and The new species of IT hero that the business world is looking preventing strategic surprises in much the same way as the for understands that what really matters in IT value creation is Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has done for the US not which technology you buy or how efficiently you deploy what military. Such vulnerability analysis may involve hunting down you bought. Rather, what matters is the purpose to which you put assumptions and putting them to the test. the cornucopia of technology possibilities available to you.

Be sure you do the same with your assumptions about what The new IT leaders also know that the only effective way to defines IT success. CIO determine which problems IT needs to solve is to engage intimately and intensely with those using the technology. They must take a page from the commanders of modern American fighting forces, who embed credentialed anthropologists with the Tomorrow's Path front-line troops in “human To learn more about the future terrain teams” that engage of the CIO read The Internet of in “rapid ethnographic Thornton A. May is author of The New Know: Innovation Powered by Analytics and Things and the Cloud CIO of assessment”—conducting executive director of the IT Leadership Academy at Florida State College in the Future on www.cio.in c o.in interviews, administering Jacksonville. Send feedback on this column to editor@cio.in

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Cover Story

Cloud Computing

Cover story O n e s t o Wa t c h

O

ThE FIFTh AnnuAL CIO OnEs TO WATCh AWARD

The

nes To atch W This year’s 30 Ones to Watch honorees, a list of leaders with the most potential to become tomorrow’s CIOs, demonstrate strong project management, innovation and talent management skills.

03

By Team CIO

Myths This Year’s Ones to Watch Broke: Leadership development is the job of the HR department.

Hiring the crème-de-la-crème, from the best tech colleges and business schools, and paying them a truckload, will result in great results and highperformance teams.

Leaders are born, not made.

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Cover story O n e s t o Wa t c h

Project M a n a g e m e n t That’s just a sampling of the conventions that a new breed of IT leaders—this year’s Ones to Watch honorees—are questioning and re-creating.

For the uninitiated, the Ones to Watch Program is CIO magazine’s initiative to highlight the IT staffers that we—and their CIOs—believe have the most potential to become CIOs of the future.

Every year, we select 30 of the most deserving candidates based on inputs given by CIOs or the nominees themselves (in which case they are verified by a CIO). These inputs are in the form of both a score—our scoring system was created with the help of India’s top CIOs and HR specialists—and examples substantiating claims that CIOs or candidates made.

These inputs are then placed in front of CIO’s editorial panel. This year the competitors were evaluated, scored and selected on multiple competencies including commercial orientation, market knowledge, project management, people and organizational development, results orientation, team leadership and innovation.

Together the scoring system, additional examples, follow up interviews and the panel form a rigorous, robust, and transparent selection system. It’s success can be measured by the high conversion rate of the IT staffers we have selected in the past who have gone on to become CIOs. This year we focused on three competencies that CIOs said were important to be winners in this year. While project management skills and people management skills made the list—as they do almost every year—innovativeness was a new addition.

According to our Staffing Survey 2012 (turn to page 83), 83) 50 percent of Indian CIOs say that innovativeness is the most important, non-technical skills they look for in the teams. Forty percent say that project management is the second most important skill, and 53 percent say that team building is the third most important skill.

This year, like almost every year, we were surprised by the caliber and competency levels of many of the winners. The projects this year’s winners were most proud of brought their companies new levels of efficiency, increased sales, opened new channels of business and prepared their enterprises better to tackle the future. This year’s winners have shown vision, boldness, customer and business focus, decisiveness under pressure, agility, leadership, innovativeness, and fairness. They refuse to be fazed by complexity,

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This year’s crop of Ones to Watch honorees possess a skill that CIOs say is a must-have: project management. Here are the five traits that make them outstanding project managers.

Ta l e n t M a n a g e m e n t Different parameters to be a Ones to Watch award honoree come and go, but talent management remains constant. That’s how important it is. Here’s how to do it well.

Creating

Innovation

This year’s Ones to Watch honorees lined up to show how to come up and execute ideas that fundamentally changed how their organizations work, and opened a vault of benefits.

O n e s t o Wa t c h P r o f i l e s average budget: rs 25 crore. average number of users they support: 3,346. The numbers behind these Ones to Watch honorees make them leaders already. a peek into their personalities.

Staffing S u r ve y Key staff indicators, staffing trends, the numbers behind India’s least-stressed IT deparments, and the retention strategy that works best (clue: it is not the most popular method). all in this survey.

38 pg

42 pg

46 pg

51

pg

83 pg

hard deadlines, a lack of resources, Reader ROI: dynamic changes, and decisions that The traits CIOs want in don’t go their way. their future leaders And in their profiles (starts on page Staff challenges that face Indian CIOs 51), they have also shown that they are interesting people. One is addicted to Our 30 Ones to Watch winners chess and another loves to pull his car windows shut and sing Kishore Kumar songs as loud. But one thing they share in common is their appetite for perfection.

To get to know this year’s winners better, turn over.

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O

nes To Watch The

Project M a n a g e m e n t

In This Story: Birla Sun Life Insurance DLF Pramerica Life Insurance Siva Industries and Holdings

the master This year’s crop of Ones to Watch honorees possess a skill that CIOs say is a must-have: Project management. Here are five traits that make them outstanding project managers.

By Varsha Chidambaram

Definition Project management is the ability to deliver projects users want and use on time and within budget. This includes prioritizing tasks, getting the right skills, convincing various stakeholders, and creating contingency plans.

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Managing a business project is like going on a diet. You set a target and a timeline to achieve it. You chalk out a daily plan and measure your progress on a calendar. Soon, the initial vigor starts to fade and you begin slacking. Before you know, it’s an uninspired effort gaining neither confidence nor result. No wonder then that only a few succeed.

And those who do are characterized by their unflagging commitment to achieve results and an uncompromising attitude towards quality.

It is these traits that make a good project Krishnakant Gaitonde, manager—and a great leader.

Head-Enterprise Systems, CIOs agree. According to the CIO Staffing Birla Sun Life Insurance, says good project managers Survey 2012, 43 percent of Indian CIOs consider don’t micro-manage. project management as the most essential attribute in their next-in-line.

That makes this year’s crop of Ones to Watch honorees special because they make great project managers. Here are five traits that build impeccable project managers.

Knows What the Business Wants The desirable outcome of a project is often understood and interpreted differently by different people. It’s the job of the project manager to make sure that goals and

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Project M a n a g e m e n t

Mayank Bhargava, AVP and Head-Business Solutions Group, DLF Pramerica Life Insurance, says new business requests are usually a 40,000 ft. view of what’s needed, so good project managers need to ask hard quesiotns.

taskers Arvind Subramani, Head-IT Projects and Governance, Siva Industries and Holdings, says good project managers know it’s key to keep stakeholders updated often and be transparent.

I Wish My CIO Had Told Me

objectives are clearly communicated and understood by the actors involved. Sometimes that starts with asking the right questions.

“When business comes to you with a project, it’s usually a 40,000 ft. view of what needs to be done. It’s all very fuzzy.

At that time, I have a million questions in

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my head,” says Mayank Bhargava, AVP and head-business solutions group, DLF Pramerica Life Insurance and one of this year’s Ones to Watch honorees.

His boss Mukul Jain, senior VP and head-IT, DLF Pramerica Life Insurance, appreciates this curiosity. “He’s never

afraid to ask the tough questions. This helps because in this knowledge transfer, ideas are developed and cemented with the right expectations,” says Jain.

The clarity gained through this interaction helps Bhargava build a strong business case, identify stakeholders, and communicate the right business requirements. “It also makes decisionmaking and problem solving much easier,” says Bhargava.

He recounts an incident when the insurer was creating an online mobile app that would empower their sales teams to service rural India. They debated over whether

photographs by rohit gupta, images an d dr lohia

“I wish my CIO had told me that the primary focus in role of a CIO has to be on C (Chief) and not on I (Information) and that the CIO is more of a business leader than technology leader,” says Vijay Sethi, VP and CIO, Hero MotoCorp

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nes O Watch The To

Project M a n a g e m e n t

the application should have an auto-on facility—whenever Internet connectivity was established—or if it should be initiated by users. “While the first option had obvious benefits, the primary objective was to allow sales guys to look for relevant information online. An auto-sync would result in unnecessary bandwidth clog due to auto updates. It was a luxury and clearly not a business need,” he says.

Bhargava could reach that conclusion only because he knew what the business really needed—an attribute that’s hard to find.

Pulls Stakeholders Over ‘On-time’ plus ‘within budget’, is not equal to a successful project. Without useracceptance it’s an incomplete equation. “If customers do not feel a part of a project, they may not consider it a success,” says Gina Abudi, president of Abudi Consulting Group, which helps businesses of all sizes develop and implement strategies around projects, processes, and people.

Abudi believes that the mark of a successful project is how readily it is accepted and adopted by stakeholders.

When Dr. Selvam K., group CIO, Siva Industries and Holdings, decided to roll out a private cloud he knew users would cringe.

“But the private cloud would consolidate and standardize the IT infrastructure across all group companies. It was important to get buy-in from individual IT teams,” he says.

Selvam roped in Arvind Subramani, head-IT projects and governance, Siva Industries and Holdings—a Ones to Watch honoree—to help him win that support.

Subramani’s skills lay in his ability to articulate the commercial value of technology projects. “We had to convince

I Wish My CIO Had Told Me “I wish I was told about flaws in existing infrastructure/application environment requiring urgent attention and a pointer on key users (specially finicky ones)!” says Valerio Fernandes, Head-IT India, Continental automotive Components.

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them that the private cloud would enable them to enjoy enterprise level service with a huge cost benefit,” says Subramani.

To drive his point home, Subramani illustrated the cloud advantage on a service close to everybody’s heart: Blackberry enterprise services. A quick presentation on how the private cloud will give them access to the same set of services without huge licensing costs. It won users over.

Sometimes it’s also about pitching your product to the right audience to get buy-in and fight change management. For instance, Krishnakant Gaitonde, head-enterprise systems, Birla Sun Life Insurance, designed and implemented a new Open-source rules engine for sales reporting, replacing spreadsheets.

“Obviously sales was reluctant to move out of their comfort zone.

Gaitonde went right up to the CEO to demonstrate the agility of the solution.

With the management won over, others followed suit,” says his boss Pramod Krishnamurthy CTO, Birla Sun Life Insurance.

“His single minded perseverance to get the project adopted is what makes him so effective,” he adds.

Prioritizes Priority

Setting priorities also points to what is called ‘a phased approach’ to project management: Breaking big projects into small, achievable targets—in order of importance.

That’s an approach all Ones to Watch honorees believe in. “With IT projects, one maybe tempted to take the big-bang route and attempt to showcase all its benefits in one shot. But that can back-fire,” says DLF Pramerica’s Bhargava.

He prefers to break projects into smaller parts backed by sequential metrics following defined business logic. This allows him to make necessary course corrections. For example, when DLF began testing a new mobile platform as a part of

“Mayank’s not afraid to ask the tough questions.

This helps because it develops ideas and cements the right expectations.”

Creating a priority list is the most under-rated practice and often the unsung hero of successful projects.

Ask Birla Sun Life’s Mukul Jain, Sr. VP & Head-IT, DLF Pramerica Life Krishnamurthy. While he is impressed with Gaitonde’s multi-tasking their rural expansion project, many small skills, he admires his ability to prioritize issues started bobbing up their ugly heads, tasks. “Gaitonde never loses focus of the stalling the progress of the project. Since central goal of a project. When a conflict the reliability of the platform was his first arises, he doesn’t hesitate to take the difficult priority, Bhargava immediately took the calls and set the priorities right to move platform off the project and tested it in ahead,” he says.

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Project M a n a g e m e n t

To

“What makes Arvind a great project manager is his ability to convince people; whether it’s getting budgets approved or closing a contract. He effortlessly convey’s what’s-in-it for them.”

Dr. selvam K., Group CIO, Siva Industries and Holdings

his own environment, “That prompt step helped us curb the spill-over effect of the faulty platform,” says Jain.

Within 15 days Bhargava returned with another solution and set the project right back on track.

Knows How to Counter Failure A good project manager knows that Murphy will strike at the wrong time and no matter how well you plan, things will go wrong. A great practice to mitigate this is to document the project’s progress at every step and keep the stakeholders informed.

When the Siva Group was rolling out its cloud project, Subramani initiated a weekly reporting exercise for all the stakeholders and participants. “It’s easy to hide behind failure and cover up your faults. But one of the main reasons for the success of the cloud project was transparency. All the challenges were highlighted and tackled head on,” he says.

Clearly, being honest about failures does more good than harm.

“It’s ok to say, ‘guys we goofed up’. The honesty will win you many brownie points

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from your customers,” says Jain applauding Bhargava’s ability to admit project failures.

But this pragmatism prods one to build buffers and chalk out a contingency plan. “This is something I learnt from my CIO. When we took the cloud idea to our management, we knew the investment it called for would be a sour point. That’s why he suggested we go with a plan B: Start with the consolidation of existing resources,” says Subramani.

At Birla Sun Life, Gaitonde used the document management system—usually used for underwriting—to empower branch-desks to service customers better.

It provides branch agents, with customer information to validate against. However, due to a recent spurt in frauds, the risk department clamped down on the project.

Gaitonde was quick to come up with a new set of safeguards, convince stakeholders of the feasibility and ultimately delivered what the project was designed to: Help Birla Sun Life service their customers faster.

Is Not a Control Freak Good project managers know when to step back and let others on the team take the reins. That’s because they understand they do not have all the answers, says Abudi.

That sounds a lot like Gaitonde, who doesn’t believe in micro-managing. He provides his team with direction and guidance, but enables them to perform their roles as they see fit. They are, after all, the experts in their particular areas. Letting go, Abudi believes, makes a mature project manager.

“As the team becomes more effective at working together, the project manager should be prepared to step back and be there as needed,” she says.

And to be able to do that, good project managers need to get to know their team mates. They know their strengths and find opportunities for them to utilize those strengths. Gaitonde is only too aware of the different working styles of his people. “One set of guys in my team believes in building everything in-house, while the other is more comfortable with third-party solutions.

While I might be able to convince them to work one way or the other, whenever a problem arises, it leads to a blame game,” says Gaitonde. So, instead of getting his hands dirty, he leaves it to the experts.

Do any of these traits remind you of someone in your team? If they do, you’ve just spotted your next-in-line. CIO

Varsha Chidambaram is senior correspondent. Send feedback on this feature to varsha_chidambaram@cio.in

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In This Story: Bharti Infratel Blue Star India Godrej Properties Himatsingka Seide

people powered different parameters to be a Ones to Watch award honoree come and go, but talent management remains constant.

That’s how important it is. Here’s how to do it well.

By Debarati roy

Definition Talent management means many things to many people. But the real, measurable benefits of talent management are lower attrition levels and higher levels of team productivity.

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A popular post on a social media site: Cryptic Notes From Your Boss, Decoded ‘See me and give me the benefit of your thinking on this.’ [‘I’m not taking the can for this one on my own.’]

‘For your consideration.’ [‘I can’t make head or tail of this.’]

‘Let’s take a survey among senior management.’ [‘I haven’t a clue what we should do; let someone else decide.’]

‘Will you take a look at this and give me an in-depth report in due course.’ [‘If we can stall for long enough, perhaps everybody will forget all about it.’]

Jokes aside, the truth is bosses like this—bad bosses—abound. And that’s taking a toll on one of the primary jobs of leaders: Talent management. But bad bosses are just one of the reasons teams suffer. According to our Staffing Survey 2012, most CIOs believe that members of their teams leave because they are offered better pay packages elsewhere—a claim that many HR specialists contest. Be that as it may, there is no denying that when asked, CIOs said that retaining needed skill sets was the biggest challenge they faced.

This is why talent management has been a consistent parameter in the selection of future IT leaders in our Ones to Watch program—even as others have changed.

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Ta l e n t M a n a g e m e n t Ravi Prakash, Sr. manager-IT, Himatsingka Seide, whose team won the company’s most usercentric group award, says job rotation ensures no one on his team has a single job profile.

Amit Bhatia, Deputy GM & IT Head-Business Delivery, Bharti Infratel, says setting clear expectations has helped him ensure a zero attrition level.

Most leaders in a new role avoid rocking the boat, but Shobha Shetty, DGM-IT, Godrej Properties, reversed a management decision within months because it was good for the team.

Start With the Right Hires Smart companies know that hiring right is the first step in creating a high-performance team and ensuring low attrition. Getting this first step wrong can waste all later efforts. Few know that better than Ones to Watch honoree Pankaj Pandit, GM-IT, Blue Star India.

One of the ways Pandit ensures he hires right, is by not hiring too many. “We have outsourced specific IT jobs,” says Pandit,

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“which has left me with a limited core team and enough time to pay attention to their job satisfaction.”

Going by hard numbers, it’s a strategy that seems to work: The attrition level in Pandit’s team is under 5 percent, below the 6 percent mark that most CIOs say is an acceptable level of attrition, according to our survey.

Pandit and another Ones to Watch honoree Ravi Prakash, sr. manager-IT at upscale textile manufacturer Himatsingka Seide, say that to hire right it is crucial to be a part of the hiring panel and to be physically present during interviews. Prakash believes that the way potential hires conduct themselves during an interview and their body language gives him a fair idea of whether he is hiring the right person for a specific profile.

“Meeting interviewees helps me decide where I’ll place them based on traits they

I Wish My CIO Had Told Me “Over the years, I’ve learnt that customer delight and business imperatives should be key priorities for CIOs. I wish someone had told me that before,” says Rakesh Mishra, General Maneger-IT&C, Jindal Steel & Power

display. Anyone with great communications skills goes to corporate headquarters, for instance. And those with a willingness to learn and handle legacy systems go to the plant location,” says Prakash.

It’s this willingness to go the extra mile and spend that additional time which differentiates strong people managers and their high performing teams. In the last year, for instance, Prakash’s team bagged Himatsingka Seide’s award for the most user-

photographs by dr lohia, rohit gupta an d images

But what is talent management? And how do you know you have it done well? Among the many indicators that differentiate great people managers is their ability to do two things: Arrest attrition and drive up productivity.

Here’s how four of this year’s Ones to Watch honorees—who have shown that they can not only execute large projects or innovate, but manage talent—do that.

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centric group—and has had zero attrition in the last two years.

By being physically present during interviews also allows leaders to communicate expectations clearly—a strategy that ensures mangers avoid running into tricky situations later. One of these is a common complaint among disgruntled employees who say , ‘This was not what I was told when I joined!’ It’s a situation that occurs often enough because harried HR teams are measured by how soon that can fill a need for specific expertise.

It also allows good managers to ensure that their companies aren’t wasting time and money training new recruits who are itching to leave because they’ve got a job that they haven’t signed up for.

Amit Bhatia, deputy GM and IT headbusiness delivery, Bharti Infratel, believes that a great hiring practice that leads to great teams is creating the right expectations in potential recruits. It’s important, he says, for managers to give recruits, at the hiring stage, a clear idea of what’s expected of them, what they can expect from the company, how challenging their job profile is.

“This also gives the joinee an idea that his manager has bothered to spend time to help him understand what the job entails. That helps spark that first camaraderie, which is the foundation of a great team,” says Bhatia, who’s team attrition level is zero.

Ones to Watch honoree Shobha Shetty, DGM-IT, Godrej Properties, agrees. She remembers that when she was tasked to overlook Godrej’s new retail initiative Nature’s Basket, she heard about one team member who was about to quit.

“I was told someone wanted to quit because he wasn’t happy with his job profile

I Wish My CIO Had Told Me “That being a CIO is less about technology and more about business, that process is important but outcome is paramount, and also that it’s not about implementation but about adoption,” says Sudhir Kumar reddy, CIO, MindTree.

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“More people leave bad bosses or managers than they leave bad companies.”

Ratnakar nemani, Group CIO, Himatsingka Seide

and wasn’t sure where his career was going,” says Shetty. “After a process overhaul, that person has well-defined job responsibilities and is very much a part of my team.”

Rotate Jobs Anyone who has been a people manager has come across Mr Exceptional—and probably done him a disservice. Mr Exceptional is a whiz, he’s the go-to guy when you need something done fast or when you need clarity on an obscure subject, and he’s usually found smack dab in the middle of every successful project. And because of that, the urge is to make him in charge of more than he is capable.

A year down the line, you hear yourself saying: “But he showed so much potential.”

That’s a danger that seasoned leaders know to avoid. “A good leader never hands out responsibilities for the heck of it,” says Major Prashant Veer Singh, CIO, Bharti Infratel. “If you entrust someone with the responsibility of doing something, then it’s your job to equip them with the right tools.”

At Blue Star, OTW honoree Pandit uses job rotation to ensure that staffers are not just trained in their respective fields of expertise but also in other job profiles that they are interested in or ones that would complement their existing knowledge.

“If one of my team members is working with a particular module in SAP, he will also be asked to shadow someone who excels in another module. After three to four months the shadow moves in to a new role and the mentor is moved to a different role all together,” says Pandit.

To ensure the success of this structured program of knowledge transfer, Pandit sits for review meetings with his team leaders every 15 days and tracks their progress. Both Bharti Infratel’s Bhatia and Himatsingka Seide’s Prakash have also created similar programs in their organizations. “No one in my team has a single job profile,” says Prakash. “I believe that issues like salary become redundant when employees derive satisfaction from knowing far more than their peers working in a monotonous job for a larger pay package,” says Prakash.

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Bhatia, who was awarded by his CEO for his leadership skills, not only invests in training his team in new technologies and supporting functions but tries to identify what skills they lack and helps them enhance those through training.

“During one skill assessment session, he noticed the need to enhance the project management skills of his team and swiftly initiated a comprehensive boot camp program for them,” recalls Maj. Singh, Bhatia’s boss. “Today, we’re reaping the benefits of that acquired expertise.”

Job rotation and training has benefits for both employees and the organization.

While employees find themselves in a challenging and rewarding environment, managers have created for themselves

To

faith in them,” says Bhatia. “I’ve noticed that people are willing to go an extra mile to get a job done to perfection in such situations.”

This strategy works well for Blue Star’s Pandit, who has a number of team members who are elder to him, the makings for potential ego clashes. “Asking them for their advice means that you respect their seniority and value their experience,” he says.

That isn’t lost on his boss. “The fact that I have not had a single escalation from their side shows how well Pankaj bonds with his team members—irrespective of the age factor,” says Maj. Singh.

its POS (point of sale) software and add five stores to it’s existing 17. But its threemember IT team lacked a strong leader.

Then management decided to move one team member to procurement. “The lady in question was clearly upset that she was being moved from the IT dept. Her colleagues called me stating how depressed she was and requested me to help,” says Shetty.

Shetty says she met the lady in question, who made it clear that she would quit if she was moved from her current position— despite being the only earning member of her family. “She wanted to pursue a career in IT only,” says Shetty.

Unlike most leaders in a new role who Share Their Battles avoid rocking the boat, Shetty decided to risk “More people leave bad bosses or putting her head on the line. “The lady had just managers than they leave bad companies,” one-and-half years of experience and I had my reservations. I told her I would risk my position but that I would need her complete co-operation,” Shetty says.

“Shobha discussed the matter with me,” recalls Joshi, her boss. “I was impressed with the lengths she was ready to go to cushion a team member who she believed in.” shailesh Joshi, Head-IT, Godrej Industries The lady stayed and thanks to Shetty’s strong leadership, there was a new rush of enthusiasm.

“When I took charge, loopholes in processes says Ratnakar Nemani, group CIO at had created a three-month backlog in Himatsingka Seide. stock updates,” says Shetty. “Today, stock Nemani’s views aren’t based only on gut. clearance for the month of February is A study conducted by Wayne Hochwarter, finished by March.” associate professor of management at Florida Standing shoulder-to-shoulder with your State University’s College of Business, proved team members and creating that special that employees were more likely to leave if camaraderie is an approach Bhatia, Pandit they worked in such an environment than if and Prakash all agree to. they were dissatisfied with their pay.

But it’s an approach that doesn’t have “People are at the end of the day, plenty of followers. When Nemani first people,” says Shailesh Joshi, head-IT at became a leader, he says he remembers being Godrej Industries. “You can’t imagine how advised to maintain a more “diplomatic far a simple pat on the back or a word of relationship” between boss and subordinate. appreciation can go.”

“That’s old school,” he says. “It’s never It’s a lesson that his Ones to Watch worked for me and I’m glad to see Ravi is winner Shetty, understands well. When never going to attempt it.” CIO she was put in charge of Nature’s Basket IT team four months ago, there was plenty Debarati roy is correspondent. Send feedback on this to do. Nature’s Basket needed to revamp feature to debarati_roy@idgindia.com

“I was impressed with the lengths Shobha was ready to go to cushion a team member who she believed in.”

a cushion for when a critical resource suddenly leaves the organization. (To find out why some CIOs don’t buy the job rotation strategy, turn to page 30)

Opinion Shopping Bharti Infratel’s Bhatia has another strategy that simultaneously increases productivity and lowers attrition. “Whenever a requirement for a new solution arises, I open it up to my team.” says Bhatia “I encourage them to read, talk to other people, brainstorm, and then give me five technologies or five options to solve the problem.”

By asking for their opinion, Bhatia says he can gauge which technologies members of his team are interested in. It also boosts enthusiasm levels. “They feel that their opinion is valued and that their leader has

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In This Story: AEGIS-IT (Essar Group) HyperCity Retail IDFC Asset Management

making things go ‘click’ These Ones to Watch honorees lined up all the tumblers, fundamentally changed how their organizations work, and opened a vault of benefits.

By Debarati roy

Definition Innovation: The ability to change or tweak existing systems, processes or mindsets in order to achieve benefits of a magnitude of difference.

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Ironic.

It’s the only way to describe the lack of innovation that led to the fall of the Eastman Kodak Company. It’s ironic because Kodak was, in its heyday, the Apple of its time.

But here’s the real kicker: Kodak had actually spent billions successfully inventing the digital camera and developing technology for mobile phone cameras and other digital devices. Somewhere, buried in one of its many offices, lay the future. Its executives just didn’t believe in the idea.

At least it can console itself: Kodak didn’t lack innovation.

All the same, Kodak has become the bogeyman haunting the little boy in every business man. Ignore innovation and pay dearly. That’s probably why Indian CIOs rank innovation as one of the most important ingredients in the making of a CIO. And according to our Staffing Survey 2012, 48 percent of Indian CIOs say that innovativeness is the most important non-technical skill they look for in their staff—and a majority say that a lack of innovative thinking is their second biggest challenge.

That, however, is not a complaint that the CIOs of the following Ones to Watch honorees from this year can make.

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Manoj Singh, Deputy GM, HyperCity Retail, broke the retailer’s warehouse efficiency record and drove up sales.

Infrastructure, AEGIS-IT, created an awareness campaign that nullified change management issues for a VDI project spanning 20,000 users.

Great Ideas Begin at Home There’s this romantic notion that innovators are poeople with impressive credentials, working secretly on a ‘wow’ idea behind a glass door.

That couldn’t be further from reality.

“I think that the best and most innovative ideas come from the bottom of the pyramid. I’m talking about people who work around with gaps in processes and syste ms everyday, gaps created by people sitting in glass offices,” says Veneeth Purushotaman, head-technology, HyperCity Retail.

As Purushotaman’s second-incommand, deputy GM and Ones to Watch honoree Manoj Singh, isn’t anywhere close to the bottom of the pyramid. But because

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he’s exposed to the chaos process gaps create at ground level, he is able to come up and execute innovative ideas.

One example of these gaps can be found in HyperCity’s warehouses, which cover almost two-and-half lakh square feet. “Almost all the processes followed there were manual. It was normal to see people shuttling from one department to another in that huge warehouse,” says Singh, who managed the supply chain and distribution center of another retail outfit before he joined HyperCity in 2006.

When for example, a supplier came to unload at HyperCity’s warehouse, its truck needed to wait until a HyperCity supervisor printed out HyperCity’s

I Wish My CIO Had Told Me “I wish somebody had told me that my success lies in making others more successful,” says Rajeev Jorapur, Head-IT, Mercedes-Benz India

Madhusudan Warrier, SVP, IDFC AMC, created new business channels, which in time will attract about 30 percent of IDFC MF’s clients.

purchase order in order to crosscheck it against the goods that have arrived. In the meanwhile, that truck blocked all other trucks queuing up to deliver their goods.

Once the supervisor had okayed the unloading, he then had to manually punch in the details of the goods that had arrived. This process not only lowered the productivity of the warehouse, it also made HyperCity vulnerable to data-entry errors, which increased paperwork downstream and was just a general pain all around.

To fix the problem, Singh used handheld scanners and paired them with a middleware Web-based application that he built in collaboration with a technology partner. Today, any purchase order that is created in the retailer’s central ERP system can be downloaded directly into the handheld scanner using Wi-Fi. “Now when a truck comes in, all an executive needs to do is scan the item with his scanner. Anyone sitting at any location can check the item, its cost, color and

photographs by rohit gupta

Gaurang Doshi, Delivery Head-Systems

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Creating I n n o v a t i o n

other details and the system is updated automatically,” says Singh.

The solution helpe d HyperCity’s distribution center cut turnaround time of vendor vehicles considerably and, critically, improve fill rates at HyperCity’s stores.

Within a month, sales increased by 17 percent in GM (general merchandise) category and 23 percent in food and grocery. Staff costs at the distribution center fell by 23 percent. The streamlined process lowered vendor vehicle turnaround time by 12 hours.

“One of the things I loved about the project was the fact that the solution also created a unique bond between IT and business processes,” says Purushotaman. “Imagine my surprise when managers from the warehouse department told me they were seeing a considerable drop in attrition rates as their people were happy with new system and the ease it had created for them.”

Although innovation is most visible when it breaks old efficiency barriers. It is also useful when it breaks old mindsets. And that’s exactly what Ones to Watch honoree Gaurang Doshi, delivery head-systems infrastructure, AEGIS-IT, achieved.

Towards the end of 2011, Jayantha Prabhu, CTO, Essar Group and the man Doshi reports to, wanted to broaden the group’s exposure to virtual desktop computing. VDI would not only enhance the company’s security, it would also pave the way for initiatives like BYOD (bring your own device). And Prabhu wanted to go the whole hog with the technology.

At Essar that meant 20,000-plus users, spread across six countries, and in verticals as diverse as oil, steel, telecom, and BPOs. And that created a change management challenge of gigantic proportions.

I Wish My CIO Had Told Me “When I took charge, the debate about business-IT alignment had just started to gain attention. I wish someone had told me that to be successful as a CIO, one can’t be either a technocrat or a business leader, but needs to find out a balance between the two,” says Daya prakash, Head-IT, lG Electronics India

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easy for them to understand and showing them how the new technology could change their lives.

In the second phase, his aim was to reveal the more practical aspects of the technology. For this he organized road shows, set up banners, posted regularly on corporate intranet, and organized tech shows at different locations. “The IT team would challenge business users and ask them to do a task on their laptops.

Meanwhile one of us would do the same task on a virtual machine and ask the users to compare,” says Doshi.

This strategy is very different from the top-down approach that most companies tend to take when they roll out a technology.

The tendency, especially with large and potentially unruly rollouts, is to train end-users to use a system; the underlying message is that they have no choice.

But Doshi dared to think beyond that paradigm. “It is very important to make people understand what it is that you are giving them and how it is going to make a difference to their lives,” says Doshi.

V.C. Kumanan, Senior Director-IT, IDFC AMC He recalls an incident when one business user stormed into his cabin, visibly upset and unhappy with the new system. “She Getting users not to push back on new clearly was not happy and said that she did technology is a problem that all CIOs face. It’s not want this new technology because it was one of the most oft-quoted issues they face. It not performing,” says Doshi. gets more acute with technologies that are as While the IT team fixed the lady’s invasive (from a user’s perspective) as VDI. complaint—which turned out to be a technical And Essar’s track record of getting buy-in glitch on her local system—Doshi took that for new technology projects at the grassroots lesson and wove it into his road shows. level was spotty, a fact that worried Prabhu.

Over a period of about three to four “On many new projects, we were struggling months, Doshi conducted about 30-40 road to appeal and connect to end users and due shows and live demonstrations and says to low usage we were not able to meet the he lost count of the number of meetings objectives of the implementation,” he says. he was a part of. “We tried to make the Without users on IT’s side, the project entire awareness campaign as creative and could very easily burn and crash. Given the attractive as possible,” says Doshi. “We used scope of the project, it would mean many cartoons to make banners and posters and millions lost in effort and money—and be a for people who are on the move we pitched it huge personal embarrassment for Prabhu. as the ultimate mobility solution.”

With so much on the line, he turned to Doshi. As an ardent chess lover, strategy building comes naturally to Doshi. He Innovation for the End Users attacked Essar’s VDI awareness campaign While Singh and Doshi changed the way in two phases, he says. Phase one was all their business users worked and viewed new about taking the concept to users, making it and efficiency-inducing technology, Ones to

“The best part of innovation is that even if you falter, there is not much to lose, but if you succeed there you have nailed it.”

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“The most innovative ideas come from the bottom of the pyramid. I’m talking about people who work around with process gaps created by people sitting in glass offices.”

Veneeth Purushotaman, Head-technology, HyperCity Retail

Watch winner Madhusudan Warrier, senior VP, Infrastructure Development Finance, was attempting to innovate with possibly a much tougher crowd to please: IDFC AMC’s end customers and investors.

With over 18 years of experience in the mutual fund industry, Warrier knows that in the banking and financial services industry most competitors sell similar products. The only way a company can differentiate itself from the crowd is by service.

Warrier’s reporting manager, V.C. Kumanan, senior director-IT, IDFC AMC, approves of Warrier’s initiative. “You keep great uptime, good. But then you are expected to do that,” he says. “The best part of innovation is that even if you falter, there is not much to lose, but if you succeed there you have nailed it.”

That’s why Kumanan encouraged Warrier to take a risk when the business came and asked the IT team if they could help IDFC AMC open more channels for the customers to transact with the company.

Traditionally, customers who want to invest in IDFC Mutual Fund have the option of carrying out their transactions by

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physically visiting one of its offices, logging onto the company’s website or via phone.

Warrier thought that an SMS-based system would be a perfect addition in this day and age when almost everyone across the country is connected via a mobile device.

The new service Warrier created allows IDFC AMC investors the flexibility of moving funds from registered bank accounts to IDFC Liquid Fund for investing and vice versa. Partnering with technology partners, Warrier developed a system which allows an investor to send an SMS on a short code to CAMS. CAMS then converts this into a transaction and gets it processed through banks. The CAMS SMSBack Service also allows investors to obtain information about their mutual fund folio using SMS sent from a registered mobile phone.

“This SMS-based service was another easy mode of access for an investor and it was brought about by technology innovation. We were the first company to offer this service in a secure manner in the mutual fund industry,” says Warrier.

The project which was conceived by Warrier in August 2011 went live on December 2011. Just three months into the project IDFC AMC is reaping benefits.

“A large number of our investor base has already registered for the service which shows

that people are finding it a convenient and easy method to transact,” says Kumanan.

The new service also brings monetary and time-saving benefits to IDFC Mutual Fund.

Earlier, if an investor wanted to transact, they would have to sign a check to move money to their liquid funds and IDFC Mutual Fund would have to wait between 24 to 48 hours for that check to clear before it could invest the money on it’s customers behalf.

“Now money is transferred on the same day that an instruction is triggered from the investor’s side and we can start earning on that invested amount within 24 hours,” says Kumanan.

This initiative is a part of a larger project

by Warrier which includes menu-based interactions via a USSD application and a mobile portal. “Once all these services are bunched together and go live, we expect that they will constitute between 30 to 40 percent of our transactions everyday,” he says.

That’s the sort of innovation that would have paid off at Kodak. In the words of Harvey Firestone, the founder of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company: “Capital isn’t so important in business. Experience isn’t so important. You can get both these things.

What’s important are ideas. If you have ideas, you have the main asset you need, and there isn’t any limit to what you can do with your business and your life.” CIO Debarati roy is correspondent. Send feedback on this feature to debarati_roy@idgindia.com

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This Year’s Honorees: Adhunik Power and Natural Resources AEGIS-IT (An Essar Group Company) Ashok Leyland

O

Bharti Airtel Bharti Infratel Birla Sun Life Insurance

nes To atch W The

WInnERs pROfILEs

Average budget: Rs 25 crore. Average number of users they support: 3,346.

Average numner of staffers reporting to them: 26. The numbers that make this year’s 30 ones to Watch honorees. They are innovators, executors, and mentors in their own right. And that makes them CIos of the future. A sneak peek into their personalities.

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Blue Star India Ceat DLF Pramerica Life Insurance DSP BlackRock Investment Managers Essar Group Godrej Properties Haldia Petrohemicals Hero MotoCorp Himatsingka Seide Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India Hypercity Retail India IDFC Asset Management Company Kale Consultants Mahindra Vehicle Manufacturers Maruti Suzuki India Motilal Oswal Securities Radico Khaitan Sistema Shyam Teleservices (MTS India) SIVA Industries and Holdings Sterlite Technologies Voltas Welspun Group

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Adhunik Power and Natural Resources

he is someone to watch

Jitesh Patel, 39 General Manager-IT, Adhunik Power & Natural Resources If I was not an IT leader, I would have been…

PHoToS By IMAGES, foToCoRP, RoHIT GUPTA AN D DR loHIA

Nowhere.

A question you wish you had better answers to

Change management continues to be the biggest challenge in every project almost after over 20 years of IT in India.

Why? Who would you invite to dinner?

Shahrukh Khan. I would like to ask him how he strikes a balance between his family and his profession.

Biggest learning this year

that projects aren’t delayed.

What would you like to invent?

A robot that can remain in sync with my brain and can stay with my parents.

Because he eliminated a slow, manual, and error-ridden workflow and replaced it with process automation, unleashing efficiency. Because he moved the company away from legacy to a SAP-based transactional system. Because he designed a management reporting tool that lent immediate support to business growth. Because he created a BI reporting tool for sales, procurement, manufacturing and finance. Because this helps users stay focused on project priorities, track costs, and take corrective action promptly. Because he has brought in much-needed visibility to project cost monitoring, budget control, and stocks. Because he’s self-taught, and displays an unabashed keenness to better himself and acquire new skills.

A habit you wish you could get rid of

The strong desire to fix issues quickly; it leads to stress.

How do you deal with stress?

A CIO myth you would like to bust

By playing football with my five-year-old and browsing Google earth.

Domain knowledge is important.

What’s non-negotiable?

Most memorable vacation

Honesty and integrity.

When I went to Mount Abu this year.

This was planned almost nine years ago.

It’s important to plan in order to ensure

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AEGIS IT (An Essar Group Co.)

Gaurang V. Doshi, 34 Delivery Head-Systems Infrastructure, AEGIS IT If I was not an IT leader, I would have been…

A business idea that should get more attention

A police inspector. I’ve always had a fascination for the police force.

An alternative to petrol. In a few years there won’t be any petrol left on earth. If we don’t look for alternatives today, we may end up in a sorry situation.

A question you wish you had better answers to

How to anticipate the requirements of stakeholders in advance?

Who you would invite to dinner?

I would like to invite Anna Hazare and understand how to fight against all odds.

An insightful observation your CEO made in the last year

Data tells you the story; hence consider the right set of data or facts before jumping to a conclusion. Decisions based on data are more authentic than perception-based ones.

Biggest learning this year

Bringing predictability to my job and deliverables.

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A habit you wish you could get rid of

My fondness for sweets.

To

A technology you think will see significant adoption in 2012

Virtualization. Industries and organizations have understood the impact of their reducing carbon footprint and are looking for environment-friendly solutions.

he is someone to watch

Because he understands the pulse of the customer. Because he brought in customer-focus to Aegis IT’s projects, making them an instant hit among its tech-savvy end-users. Because he helped implement desktop virtualization across over 20,000 users in six different countries, in a diversified conglomerate like Essar where each set of businesses has their own set of applications and requirements. Because he can balance stakeholders’ eagerness to pursue new technologies while sensitizing them to the risks associated with it. Because he actively markets and promotes IT’s capabilities and offerings.

Because not only does he recruit smart, energetic, and ambitious individuals, he also grooms them to the next level.

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Ashok leyland

he is someone to watch

Vinod G., 39 Asst. General Manager-IT, Ashok leyland If I was not an IT leader, I would have been…

An automobile designer.

regulatory frame work and the supporting IT Act, need to go some distance, before we can really use it for critical applications.

Biggest learning this year

The importance of change management in any major transformation initiative.

A technology that will see significant adoption in 2012

Because he released a new level of zeal in Ashok Leyland’s IT by modernizing its supply chain management. Because he introduced predictive analytics that revolutionized the way inventory planning and ordering was done.

Because thanks to his initiative, vendors have better visibility into the demand pipeline and customers get better availability.

Because he armed the organization with the ability to negotiate better with suppliers and optimize resource allocation. Because he dismissed apprehensions about the accuracy of forecasts, through workshops, one-on-one meetings, and trainings, winning stakeholder support and eliminating resistance.

Because his incredible insight into customers’ businesses makes him adroit at architecting IT-enabled solutions for them.

A build-your-own-user interface, irrespective of the platform.

Mobility. The need for access to different solutions on the go will increase demand for mobility solutions across multiple devices and multiple operating systems.

How do you deal with stress?

A CIO myth you would like to bust

By thinking of options and discussing them with different people.

only those with an IT foundation can become CIo.

and building uniform process in the commonly used dealer management system.This led to transformation by way of providing uniform customer experience at all touch points.

A concept or technology you think is overrated

“Aha” leadership moment

What’s non-negotiable?

from merely engaging with customers tactically to strategically defining

Integrity and perseverance.

What would you like to invent?

Cloud computing. The governing and

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Bharti Airtel

Rajat Jain, 41 Head IT-Enterprise Services (India and South Asia), Bharti Airtel An insightful observation your CEO made in the last year

We all get paid by the money that our customer spends so we must treat him as God. Biggest learning this year

No matter how well you did it, there’s always a better way to manage change.

A question you wish you had better answers to

How do I delegate better?

Most memorable vacation

When I went to Jim Corbett National Park, especially because there was no network coverage!

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To

Who would you invite to dinner?

Close friends since they contribute as much to your success as your family.

A habit you wish you could get rid of

Jumping to action and sometimes snatching opportunities from others.

A professor.

A business idea you think should get more attention

By reading.

Niche clouds that address specific industries and geographical clusters like the Aligarh locks industry, ludhiana’s hosiery, Trichar’s cotton and Surat gems and sarees.

A CIO myth you would like to bust

CIos live in silos and are focused only on the performance of their function. The fact is that IT success in an organization is defined by its contribution to the business outcome.

If I was not an IT leader, I would have been…

How do you deal with stress?

he is someone to watch

Because he proactively identifies the IT needs of customers and contributes ideas to business.

Because he excels at driving greenfield initiatives that require mastering newer technologies or domains, and transformation projects involving panorganization change management.

Because he was nominated to lead one of the largest and most complex projects of the company: An enterprise-wide pan-India BSS transformation project. Because he conceptualized and spearheaded the automation of employee workflows that’s so powerful Airtel might use it for its enterprise customers. Because he can get executive focus and sponsorship.

Because he encourages his team to take decisions, shares their failures, and gives them credit for success.

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Bharti Infratel

he is someone to watch

Amit Bhatia, 35 Deputy GM & IT Head-Business Delivery, Bharti Infratel “Aha” leadership moment

When the chairman of Bharti Enterprises publicly lauded the success of an IES implementation at Infratel.

A habit you wish you could get rid of

key for the successful implementation of integrated systems.

If I was not an IT leader, I would have been…

An entrepreneur facilitating the IT sector.

Staying late at work to clean up my mailbox.

A question you wish you had better answers to

What can I do to increase the synergy between cross-functional teams.

What’s non-negotiable?

Commitment to stakeholders.

Biggest learning this year

Because he is passionate about technology and committed to excellence. Because he played a pivotal role in creating the stateof-the-art Infratel Enterprise Suite (IES). Because this project helped Infratel achieve business integration across departments.

Because he accomplished the Herculean task of migrating legacy data and identifying over 60-plus masters from 60 TB of data based on the new IES system’s architecture. Because he displayed excellent project and change management skills by launching the suite in 12 months. Because this saved Infratel approximately Rs 20 crore a year through automation of infrastructure asset issuance.

Because the caliber of his work has gotten the attention of his peers and senior management.

An insightful observation your CEO made in the last year

one should be innovative and raise the bar of operational excellence.

A business idea that should get more attention

A green and energy-efficient tower site. It is a transformative move for the passive infrastructure industry.

A technology you think will see significant adoption in 2012

Datacenter virtualization is a technology which will gain high momentum in 2012 since it’s the key to consolidating servers and reducing operational expenses.

A fool-proof data migration strategy is the

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Bharti Infratel

Nimisha Mehndiratta, 35 IT Head-Tower operations & Business Continuity, Bharti Infratel Biggest learning this year

using social entrepreneurship.

Any innovation or technology delivered will be effective only when effectively communicated to users.

A technology that will see significant adoption in 2012

Mobile technology for m-payments, m-bookings, and navigation in metros.

Most memorable vacation

When I went to Niagara falls.

To

If I was not an IT leader, I would have been...

A professor or a teacher.

A concept or technology you think is overrated

Smart mobile applications. In India, it will take a few years to penetrate rural areas.

What’s non-negotiable?

A CIO myth you would like to bust

Honesty.

IT doesn’t understand business.

What would you like to invent?

A robotic maid.

How do you deal with stress?

I go for a walk or listen to spiritual music.

A habit you wish you could get rid of

Being too serious at work.

A question you wish you had better answers to

A business idea that should get more attention

How to help my team to better manage work-life-balance?

finding a way to resolve social problems

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she is someone to watch

Because she single-handedly led IT and partner teams to develop a solution to monitor tower operations. Because this project enabled the organization to centrally monitor and effectively manage on-site tower operations to prevent breakdowns. Because this initiative is a first for the organization, its vendors, partners and the entire tower industry. Because its successful implementation saves the company approximately Rs 550 lakh a year. Because she also proactively groomed field staff to make them understand the functionalities of the system. Because she effortlessly leads interactions with vendors, partners, and business functions resolving business challenges with speed and determination.

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Birla Sun life Insurance

Krishnakant Gaitonde, 38 Head-Enterprise Systems, Birla Sun life Insurance

What’s non-negotiable?

Personal integrity and commitment to the organization.

An insightful observation your CEO made in the last year

A habit you wish you could get rid of

“Aha” leadership moment

Getting frustrated with the slow pace at which approvals for some of my key projects come through.

When we achieved the task of ripping-andreplacing our policy admin system. It was done seamlessly, without a day’s downtime, during a business-critical month.

A question you wish you had better answers to

A concept or technology that’s over-rated

IT needs to keep pushing towards aligning with existing work-centers.

A business idea that should get more attention

A 360-degree view of customers and strengthening customer engagement through better use of CRM/analytics.

he is someone to watch

Is there a methodology to measure and publish benefits accrued that is irrefutable and acceptable to user-departments?

End-consumer facing mobile applications.

It serves as no incentive for them to shift from traditional channels to the plethora of mobile oS versions.

Biggest learning this year

In the years when business growth is flagging, one automatically tends to prioritize projects yielding high cost-saves.

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If I was not an IT leader, I would have been…

An engineer. The way machines work has always excited me.

Because he is both businesssavvy and has a technical bent of mind. Because this duality has given Birla Sun Life a winning combination in the unforgiving insurance business. Because this ability led him to conceive and implement an internal salesprogression computational system for 15,000 users to fix complaints of data-integrity, a lack of control and disputes over accuracy.

Because it only took a month to revamp the entire system. Because he helped Birla Sun Life Insurance create a technology roadmap for the reuse of technology in a costeffective manner. Because he is a mentor to his team. Because he endows a sense of responsibility in his team and encourages them to engage in different roles. Because he is a steady learner and has an unflagging drive to succeed.

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Blue Star India

Pankaj Pandit, 40 General Manager-IT, Blue Star India An insightful observation your CEO made in the last year

A concept or technology that’s over-rated

When in a tunnel, keep moving. you will see the light sooner or later.

facebook. It’s less-focused compared to the likes of linkedIn. And neither can it replace good old e-mail.

A technology you think will see significant adoption in 2012

If I was not an IT leader, I would have been…

Cloud computing. Because of the way it’s

A consultant in the engineering domain.

associated with negligible capex, scalability, pay-per-use and its spread out opex.

Biggest learning this year

A business idea that should get more attention

Extending CRM functionality through mobile devices to business partners to enhance our service business.

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Do not underestimate process-adherence in an organization. Do not sacrifice process controls for the sake of achieving speedy changes.

To

he is someone to watch

Because he’s a got that special blend of skills, competence, and experience. Because he implemented an e-learning solution with 380 multi-media modules stringed in 45 courses.

Because it was deployed in 10 months. Because he won accolades from his senior management for training 95 percent of the company’s SAP users using this tool in 14,500 man-hours.

Because he has a mature approach and attitude towards making IT decisions. Because he believes IT is a tool to enable business.

Because he enhanced Blue Star’s service management software and that will generate Rs 10 crore.

Because the project was executed internally with zero capex.

Because his team trusts his fair and judicious approach.

One question you wish you had better answers to

How does one achieve better professional-personal-social life balance?

What would you like to invent?

What’s non-negotiable?

A teleportation machine.

Integrity.

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CEAT

Anita Kulkarni, 44 Manager IT, CEAT

Bring a paradigm shift in work culture by enhancing management vision.

A business idea that should get more attention

made changes while designing the ERP application which got me rave reviews from management.

Mobile-based applications.

Social networking. It gives a false sense of belongingness.

“Aha” leadership moment

Biggest learning this year

When I anticipated the y2K bug. I

Keep delivering your best even if things are not under your control.

The use of mobile devices and mobilitybased applications.

A concept or technology that’s over-rated

she is someone to watch

Because she’s self-motivated and committed. Because she helped CEAT achieve several milestones in its journey to become one of the most profitable tire companies in India by 2016. Because she made a project to integrate SAP and SharePoint on an online portal look effortless. Because she simplified user experience. Because she has the ability to understand the strengths and weakness of a process implementation. Because she customized the quality management system at CEAT, increasing transparency within departments. Because she helped establish the IT infrastructure for a Greenfield project. Because she did it with limited resources. Because she motivated her team to take up additional responsibilities without affecting routine SLAs.

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A technology that will see significant adoption in 2012

Who would you invite to dinner?

A habit you wish you could get rid of

I’m a workaholic and I never say no to work.

Shri Parthasarathy Rajagopal Chary, former executive director of TTK industries, because he is my spiritual guru.

If I was not an IT leader, I would have been…

An owner of an educational institute or business venture.

A question you wish you had better answers to

An insightful observation your CEO made in the last year

How to improve sustenance, consistency and motivation among our team so that they deliver their best?

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DLF Pramerica Life Insurance

To

he is someone to watch

Mayank Bhargava, 31 AVP & Head-Business Solutions Group, DLF Pramerica Life Insurance Biggest learning this year

Managing perception and building alignment paves the way to success.

An insightful observation your CEO made in the last year

A concept or technology that’s over-rated

Focus on the right inputs—people, processes, etcetera—and you will get the right output.

Using SaaS across the board. Sometimes it can dilute control of critical processes.

“Aha” leadership moment

What would you like to invent?

A time-travel machine.

A question you wish you had better answers to

How do I transform my performing team into a high-performing team?

What’s non-negotiable?

Honesty and integrity with customers.

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A three-month stint at a client location during my previous job enhanced my skills while dealing with various demanding stakeholders.

A business idea that should get more attention

Finding a cost efficient and sustainable business model for financial security that reaches out to our untapped—and vast —rural population.

Because he’s quickly learned the ropes of DLF’s Life Insurance business. Because he has been a pillar of strength to his IT team. Because he’s helped build the company’s application landscape and improve vendor relationships. Because his implementation of an OpenSource bug-tracking solution has bettered the management of 10 critical apps. Because he initiated change management for mover 250 users via trainings, user manuals and demos. Because he’s made himself a technology whiz by adapting to the latest technological trends. Because he has a result-oriented and customer-centric approach towards every project he handles.

Because he structured job rotation among his team so they all enjoy equal opportunity.

One technology you think will see significant adoption in 2012

Mobility-based solutions with the capacity to deliver ‘right here, right now’.

A CIO myth you would like to bust

That you need to be a technology expert to be a good CIO.

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DSP BlackRock Investment Managers

Paresh Makwana, 37 SVP and Head-Technology, DSP BlackRock Investment Managers

One technology you think will see significant adoption in 2012

Mobile computing.

An insightful observation your CEO made in the last year

Empower people to be emotionally attached to their work.

Biggest learning this year

Be more precise and to the point.

A concept or technology that’s overrated

Cloud computing. Although it assures cost saving, security and governance compliance, it’s tough to achieve everything using cloud computing.

A CIO myth you would like to bust

A CIO can’t become a CEO.

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If I was not an IT leader, I would have been…

A social worker or working in the hospitality industry.

What would you like to invent?

Technology gadgets that bring families together.

A question you wish you had better answers to

How to delegate responsibilities and still own accountabiity for tasks I assign to my team?

What’s non-negotiable?

Project SLAs and appropriate business value proposition.

A business idea that should get more attention

Social media and the automation of all legacy systems.

he is someone to watch

Because he’s fully focused on getting business and technology to collaborate to improve his organization’s profitability.

Because he automated the capturing of critical business documents safely and securely.

Because he leveraged a document management system which resulted in tremendous cost savings for DSPBR. Because he oversaw the setting up of a new datacenter and technology infrastructure platform. Because his business contingency plan ensured maximum uptime, quick turnaround, and 24X7 availability of services. Because he drives vendors to deliver high quality deliverables. Because he has created a healthy work environment which propells his team to deliver their best.

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Essar Group

To

he is someone to watch

Dharmesh Rathod, 37 Project Manager-Enterprise Architecture, Essar Group An insightful observation your CEO made in the last year

If you are doing something for the first time, do it right!

A habit you wish you could get rid of

Unorganized financial planning and management.

How do you deal with stress?

A business idea that should get more attention

By sketching landscapes and watching documentaries.

Business instrumentation/automation driven by IT intelligence.

A concept or technology that’s over-rated

A CIO does not require as much business acumen as a CEO.

Cloud computing. For the simple reason that the hype has made it more difficult for the technology to reach a certain maturity level across the IT environment.

What would you like to invent?

“Aha” leadership moment

Datacenters that are completely powered by an alternate source of energy. That’ll save costs.

Rolling out a 10G-based Cisco core switch network in 2007 when there were very few takers of the technology within the country.

A CIO myth you would like to bust

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Because he delivered quick results within a week of joining Essar. Because he has made wise technology choices, which extract maximum benefit from nascent projects. Because he implemented Essar’s first-ever public cloud.

Because this resulted in a 45 percent reduction in Essar’s opex costs. Because he ensured great user experience, which encouraged the company to pursue phaseII of its cloud expansion push.

Because he single-handedly led the Shell Stanlow Refinery transition to Essar, supporting 1,400 users. Because the project required handling IT experts from a number of countries. Because his extraordinary project management skills have ensured minimal operational hindrance. Because his excellent people skills have helped Essar conserve critical resources.

A question you wish you had better answers to

How to map professional aspirations of team members with business dynamics?

What’s non-negotiable?

The end results of any task should be accurate and precise.

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Godrej Properties

Shobha Shetty, 45 DGM-IT, Godrej Properties A habit you wish you could get rid of

A CIO myth you would like to bust

Being a workaholic. I constantly worry about my work which sometimes puts my social life on the back burner.

A good CIO is a chief technologist and not a business leader.

implementation in Nature’s Basket, my seniors recognized my leadership skills and instead of just handling IT, I was also involved in decision-making.

If I was not an IT leader, I would have been...

A teacher.

What would you like to invent?

A concept you think is over-rated

A tool which can read people’s minds.

Social media. It sometimes reveals a bit too much about you without your knowledge.

A business idea that should get more attention

Application integration with the cloud.

A question you wish you had better answers to

How do you keep pace with the rapid changes in technology?

An insightful observation your CEO made in the last year

Intensify your operational focus and remain agile to address customer needs.

What’s non-negotiable?

Being trustworthy and transparent about your views.

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“Aha” leadership moment

When I was involved in an SAP

he is someone to watch

Because she has the rare ability to convert IT ideas into successful business projects. Because this skill prompted her to integrate Web and SMS with the company’s CRM application. Because this has enabled the organization to handle its customer complaints effectively. Because she is result-oriented and juggles multiple responsibilities with ease. Because she successfully streamlined IT processes across 22 Godrej Nature’s Basket stores.

Because she convinced her management to release funds to enhance the operations of Godrej’s stores. Because people value her opinion and leadership skills. Because she recognized the potential of an almost ousted team member and re-assigned her to a critical job function.

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Haldia PetroChemicals

To

he is someone to watch

Debashish Banerjee, 44 Deputy General Manger-IS, Haldia PetroChemicals An insightful observation your CEO made in the last year

Your efforts may not bear fruit, but you should never stop trying.

A question you wish you had better answers to

How can I retain my in-house talent pool for a long time?

Biggest learning this year

In a downturn, sustainability, new thinking, new possibilities, and new ideas should emerge without compromising quality.

for various strategic initiatives that contain cost and reduce TCO. A concept or technology you think is over-rated

Mobility solution for business transactions. A strong mobile security policy is a must for enterprise-wide implementation.

A business idea that should get more attention

Mobile BI. This can help organizations take faster business decisions.

Because he’s totally committed to the cause of Haldia petrochemicals’ incessant growth. Because he accomplished a business transformation project, increasing his organization’s market share and profitability. Because he lead the implementation of an SAP enterprise portal, taking the entire sales process online. Because it ensured 24/7 availability. Because it saved Rs 5 crore annually.

Because he took upon himself to tackle a complex SAP upgrade with minimum downtime.

Because this helped the company save upto Rs 50 lakh. Because he has controlled his team’s attrition rate by assigning them challenging projects. Because this has helped his team members develop their skills for the benefit of the organization.

If I was not an IT leader, I would have been...

A business leader.

A CIO myth you would like to bust What would you like to invent?

A cost optimization tool to ensure support

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A CIO may not be business-savvy but needs to be a technologist.

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Hero MotoCorp

Vikas Malhotra, 44 DGM (Business Solutions)-IS, Hero MotoCorp Most memorable vacation

Turning point in your career

Visit to Vaishno devi. Best part? Mobile didn’t work!

Moving from IT infrastructure to business solutions in 2007. It has given me exposure to business problems that IT can solve.

Who would you invite to dinner?

E. Sreedharan. I want to know the critical aspects of handling big projects like the Delhi Metro.

A CIO myth you would like to bust

CIOs must be technology experts.

A technology you think will see significant adoption in 2012

In-memory database management systems. This will enable real-time analytics for planning systems.

A habit you wish you could get rid of

Losing my temper.

he is someone to watch

If I was not an IT leader, I would have been…

How do you deal with stress?

A professor.

I think stress is a powerful driving force. I listen to music to deal with it.

A concept or technology you think is over-rated

A question you wish you had better answers to

Social media analytics. Its actual relevance to business needs is yet to be established.

How to push users to use IT solutions extensively?

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Because he quickly aligns himself with business needs and delivers quality—on time.

Because his drive to deliver business-focused IT solutions help the organization tackle issues like a non-collaborative, disparate workforce. Because this ability helped implement a dealer management system (DMS) for more than 7,000 users across India and brought visibility to the company’s supply chain. Because he won the confidence of his stakeholders and successfully implemented the DMS in 640 dealerships at more than 1,000 locations in just six months.

Because his agility as a leader guided Hero Motocorp through perhaps one of the fastest DMS implementations in the industry.

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nes O Watch The

Himatsingka Seide

Ravi Prakash, 37

To

A CIO myth you would like to bust

CIOs cannot move across industries and still be successful.

Senior Manager-IT, Himatsingka Seide What would you like to invent?

What’s non-negotiable?

A cost effective and practical self-driving super car.

Discipline and the willingness to learn.

A concept or technology you think is over-rated

3G mobile technology. It hasn’t fulfilled any of its promises.

Who would you invite to dinner?

A question you wish you had better answers to

Why do people need to be pushed to give their best effort?

Narayana Murthy. I would ask him how he’s so humble despite his numerous achievements.

A habit you wish you could get rid of

Retiring late to bed.

he is someone to watch

If I was not an IT leader, I would have been…

A sportsperson.

How do you deal with stress?

If I have too much on my plate, I try to distinguish between the “shoulds” and the “musts.”

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Biggest learning this year

I learnt that freedom and flexibility are above other benefits.

A business idea that should get more attention

Because with his deep understanding of business needs and extensive IT knowledge, he championed the idea of implementing a private cloud at Himatsingka Seide. Because of his strong belief in the project, the company reaped the benefits of close to 99 percent uptime of business applications. Because his meticulous planning for capacity and resources has secured the organization’s future needs. Because he ensures that each member of his team beats expectations and delivers on time. Because that won his team an award for being the most punctual and most user-centric team in 2011. Because, under his leadership, not even one member of his team has quit in the last two years.

Smartphone apps. It could expand the user base and create brand awareness.

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Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India

he is someone to watch

Vimal Bansal, 31 Department Manager-Application, Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India An insightful observation your CEO made in the last year

Defining boundaries and limiting myself.

IT is a business tool to ensure better ROI.

A business idea that get more attention

A CIO myth you would like to bust

Social media. It brings customers closer and that’s why it is an important tool for consumer-oriented industries.

There is absoulutely no scope for innovation in standardization.

What would you like to invent?

Biggest learning this year

Relationships are important for success— especially on a global platform.

A technology you think will see significant adoption in 2012

Because in just two months with the company, he caught everyone’s attention by taking charge of a company-wide employee portal project. Because that replaced the company’s traditional SAP system and saved Honda Motorcycles Rs 1 crore in license costs. Because he conceived and implemented a sales communication portal that bridged the gap between dealers and logistics. Because this provided Honda’s dealer network with instant information about order and dispatch. Because he created a cordial environment and gave his team challenging assignments that brought his team’s attrition to zero. Because every distinguished milestone he achieves takes Honda closer to its goals.

A flexible business rules engine that incorporates process changes instantly.

A question you wish you had better answers to

How do I push my people?

Open Source. It’ll help IT support growth by providing flexibility and cost benefits.

A concept or technology you think is over-rated

Who would you invite to dinner?

Virtualization. It’s a complex beast.

A habit you wish you could get rid of

My best friend. He has always understood me and is an old and trusted associate.

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Hypercity Retail India

Manoj Singh, 36

Turning point in your career

Implementing our B2B vendor portal project. It gave me great exposure and took my career forward.

DGM, Hypercity Retail India Most memorable vacation

When I went for my honeymoon to Goa. It’s bound to be memorable!

A habit you wish you could get rid of

Pushing and putting pressure on my team.

he is someone to watch

Because he took up the challenge of joining the IT team without a technology background. Because he tapped into his potential and devised a warehouse automation system that runs on a mobile device to help the company’s warehouse manage work more efficiently. Because that increased Hypercity’s food and grocery sales by 23 percent within a month. Because the solution slashed the amount of time a vendor’s truck waited by 12 hours. Because with better store fill rates, he renewed efficiency in the company’s supply chain.

Because thanks to his unfaltering focus on timelines he completed a B2B vendor portal project serving over 1,500 vendors within just three months.

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To

Sometimes this creates an environment of discomfort and frustration.

Biggest learning this year

How do you deal with stress?

It is important to look at the ecosystem in which a system is being deployed for the implementation to be successful.

By spending time with my nine-month-old son. Listening to soft music is Also, a great stress reliever.

A technology you think will see significant adoption in 2012

What would you like to invent?

A unique and user-friendly home delivery application which will cater to all business verticals.

A concept or technology you think is over-rated

Cloud computing. The concept needs some more time to mature.

User friendly e-mobile solutions to help customers save time and provide a unique shopping experience.

A question you wish you had better answers to

How can technology add value to the growing demand and requirements of modern retail the businesses?

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IDFC Asset Management Company

he is someone to watch

Madhusudan Warrier, 42 Senior VP-IT, IDFC Asset Management Company A habit you wish you could get rid of

I keep looking for perfection in an imperfect world.

An insightful observation your CEO made in the last year

Be the change you want to see and make innovation a habit.

If I was not an IT leader, I would have been…

A crime research analyst.

Because putting himself in business’ shoes comes naturally to him. Because this ability led to the rollout of IDFC’s SMSbased service which provides its investors with a quick and easy way to transact. Because postIDFC’s acquisition of Standard Chartered’s mutual fund business, Warrier’s knack of cracking big projects helped in migrating and integrating the IT services of both companies. Because this centralized infrastructure not only resulted in benefiting business units but also created a sustainable process-dependant model. Because his leadership skills help foster team work, which in turn, ensure that IDFC’s services are delivered on time. Because this has increased the credibility of his IT team in the organization and made him a popular leader.

A CIO myth you would like to bust

IT strategy needs to follow business strategy. I believe strategic direction depends on a certain level of IT maturity, investment, and risk.

usage, e-mail, and smaller screens, tablets will suffice.

What’s non-negotiable?

How do you deal with stress?

Best effort and solutions that meet timelines.

Spend time with family or experiment with new gadgets.

A concept or technology you think is over-rated

Most memorable vacation

Biggest learning this year

Success is enjoyed more when it’s shared.

Netbooks. I think for minimal Internet

What would you like to invent?

A single biometric card with access to multiple systems within a network.

A question you wish you had better answers to

How do I talk and present in a diplomatic manner?

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When I went to Thirunallur via Pondicherry with my colleagues.

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4/11/2012 4:43:43 PM

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Kale Consultants

To

he is someone to watch

Amit Phadke, 34 VP-Systems and Technology, Kale Consultants If I was not an IT leader, I would have been…

phenomenal and the need for big data management is unstoppable.

An entrepreneur.

What would you like to invent?

Turning point in your career

e-Choupal project in 2001. It made me realize that if you strive a little hard and think beyond your boundaries, the opportunities are limitless.

Biggest learning this year

Business should own a process completely and IT should not leave lose ends behind.

A technology you think will see significant adoption in 2012

Big data. Data growth continues to remain

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A mind reader.

Who would you invite to dinner?

Because he is farsighted.

Because this vision made consolidating Kale Consultant’s infrastructure possible. Because this consolidation brought TCO down and facilitated scalability for growth. Because he raised the bar by making the company a 24x7 support provider from 8x5, without increasing employee headcount. Because his ability to boost employee morale motivated staff to work night shifts.

Because his focus on providing training and certification to his staff improved service delivery.

Because his rich experience—of working both at the end user and vendor side of the industry— brings pre-emptive tactics and quick decision-making skills to the table. Because that is an invaluable asset in a world sinking deeper in uncertainty.

My team. I strongly believe that they are my backbone.

An insightful observation your CEO made in the last year

Impossible is nothing. Our thoughts and imagination are the only real limits to our possibilities.

Mobility. The expectations and demand for mobility have skyrocketed but we are still stuck with 2G and 3G when the world has gone 4G. A CIO myth you would like to bust

CIOs cannot be business leaders.

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

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Mahindra Vehicle Manufacturers

B. Venkatakrishnan, 42 Head-IT, Mahindra Vehicle Manufacturers If I was not an IT leader, I would have been…

A farmer.

Consistency and perseverance.

Narayana Murthy, Azim Premji, and Anand Mahindra. I’d like to learn more about their way of bringing about a transformation.

What would you like to invent?

A technology to blend man and machine.

I meditate.

An insightful observation your CEO made in the last year

“Aha” leadership moment

For a cable TV company, I was instrumental in migrating its network from C-Band to KUband for 30,000 customers.

Nothing comes on a platter. One needs to strive to meet one’s goals.

A question you wish you had better answers to

Who would you invite to dinner?

How do I create a win-win situation in every assignment?

Industry legends and game changers like

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A concept or technology you think is overrated

Cloud computing. If you ask me, the cloud has been here for quite a long time. It jsut wasn’t known as cloud computing.

How do you deal with stress?

A habit you wish you could get rid of

Being too pushy, when it comes to project delivery and commitments.

What’s non-negotiable?

he is someone to watch

Because he is bold and thinks out-of-the-box. Because that led to a manufacturing execution system application with five physical servers—instead of 40 proposed by the vendor. Because the solution saved Mahindra Vehicle Manufacturers Rs 25 lakh. Because it provided the company with scalability and high data availability. Because he was instrumental in building a datacenter in just 100 days as opposed to 240 days. Because his attention to detail helped him create a holistic knowledgesharing platform and fostered synergy in his team. Because his exemplary technical skills helped create a future-ready virtualized environment. Because he can handle multiple projects simultaneously and come out with flying colors.

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4/11/2012 5:00:47 PM

nes O Watch The

Maruti Suzuki India

To

Abhilasha Kundra, 36 Senior Manager-Information Strategy Group, Maruti Suzuki India

If I was not an IT leader, I would have been…

An entrepreneur.

A habit you wish you could get rid of

and use my creative skills.

Getting stressed on the road to perfection.

A CIO myth you would like to bust What would you like to invent?

Business needs to adapt to IT solutions.

A cure for cancer.

A concept or technology you think is over-rated Cloud computing. While it does have its benefits, I don’t think it adds any real value to organizations.

Who would you invite to dinner?

A question you wish you had better answers to

How do I strike a balance between work and life?

Turning point in your career

The opportunity to move from a technical to a strategic profile. My current profile has given me great opportunities to prove my caliber, work on diverse projects, interact with a gamut of people, explore new areas

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I would like to invite my mentor, who has influenced me, and provided me with support and guidance whenever I needed.

A business idea that should get more attention

The use of mobile devices in enterprises and business applications.

What’s non-negotiable?

Respect, commitment and integrity.

she is someone to watch

Because she is keen to conceive and execute mammoth projects.

Because that was visible when she took a proposal—to SIAM—for a project to standardize electronic data interchange between OEM’s and suppliers. Because the project she conceptualized will now ensure consistency of data interchange between every OEM and supplier in the Indian automotive industry. Because that’s the sort of thinking the auto sector needs. Because she tapped into her leadership capabilities and built an in-house training academy focusing on the needs of both sides of the value chain— Maruti Suzuki’s widespread dealers and its suppliers. Because by introducing e-learning and Web learning into the training academy, she pioneered a new idea: Anytime, anywhere training.

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Motilal Oswal Securities

Rajesh Singhal, 41 VP, Motilal Oswal Securities What would you like to invent?

A gadget to identify people with black money!

One question you wish you had better answers to

How to make customers and stakeholders see the importance of the IT function?

always been by my side when I needed them the most.

Most memorable vacation

When I went to Coorg with my family and friends.

A habit you wish you could get rid of

Neglecting my morning walks

A business idea that should get more attention

If I was not an IT leader, I would have been…

Mobility. I think a special position called a Chief Mobility Officer should exist.

A chartered accountant.

How do you deal with stress?

By watching cartoons with my kids.

A technology you think will see significant adoption in 2011

An insightful observation your CEO made in the last year

Cloud computing. With the opex of running businesses touching the roof, I think the cloud will provide significant benefits.

Business will grow at its own pace. But if you want to grow, you have to support the business in its growth.

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Who would you invite to dinner?

My friends and colleagues who have

he is someone to watch

Because he’s a perfect mix of two attributes: Cost consciousness and customer centricity. Because these qualities helped him address the issue of customer dissatisfaction due to poor VPN connectivity. Because his auto failover solution won customers’ heart and saved millions for the organization. Because he managed to deploy the solution while maneuvering his way through project teams, other internal teams, and different regulatory bodies. Because he has always been the first choice when it’s time to devise and execute major projects for the organization—like migrating their datacenter from one end of Mumbai to the other. Because his attention to making his team comfortable brought the IT team’s attrition rate to a record low.

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4/11/2012 5:01:05 PM

nes O Watch The

Radico Khaitan

To

he is someone to watch

Alokesh Poddar, 34 Manager-IT, Radico Khaitan How do you deal with stress?

Stress brings the best out of me. So, stress deals with me!

between 10-12 hours a day, which makes them my extended family.

What would you like to invent?

A habit you wish you could get rid of

Being overly emotional.

A CIO myth you would like to bust

A currency converter. You input a Rs 100 note and you get a $100 bill.

Skills come with degrees.

A question you wish you had better answers to

A technology you think is over-rated

How do I balance project timelines and management meetings?

IPTV. With limited connection speed and bandwidth availability in India, maintaining service quality across wireless links is going to be really tough.

Who would you invite to dinner?

My colleagues and my boss. I spend

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If I was not an IT leader, I would have been…

Because his MRP project (material requirement plan) across 40 factories centralized the commercial dept’s and consolidated Radico Khaitan’s resources. Because he tapped into his knowledge of business dynamics to convince business users and bring more control over the procurement process.

Because his people skills helped him lead the project while ensuring seamless co-ordination between developers of various modules. Because his patience and knowledge of the nitty-gritty’s of a user’s needs makes staff training his forte. Because that made the hands-on training of unskilled users a big success. Because when he dons the hat of a technologist, he listens, reasons precisely and delivers on deadline. Because as a leader he motivates his team to deliver excellence.

system) and transforming it into a success story. It gave me a world of self-belief.

Running a business.

Turning point in your career

An insightful observation your CEO made in the last year

Revamping a scrapped in-house project called TMS (transportation management

Believe that IT can bring business benefits and add value to the organization.

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Sistema Shyam Teleservices (MTS India)

Kapil Gupta, 39

A question you wish you had better answers to

Associate Director, MTS India

How to deal with human souls?

Biggest learning this year

A habit you wish you could get rid of

Leadership is practiced not so much in words but in attitude and in action.

Being too much of a perfectionist.

Renewable sources of energy.

What would you like to invent?

An insightful observation your CEO made in the last year

A way to transmit electricity through air waves.

The growth and development of employees determines the success of an organization.

“Aha” leadership moment

A technology you think will see significant adoption in 2012

When a CEO (on the customer facing side) complimented me on making a particularly large migration look routine.

3G or 4G. The real-time access to information will demand better bandwidth and hence better data connectivity.

Who would you invite for dinner?

Warren Buffett, chairman, Berkshire Hathaway. I want to try and imbibe the mantra of investment strategy from him.

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A business idea that should get more attention

A concept or technology that’s over-rated

Cloud computing. It’s become more of a marketing gimmick.

Most memorable vacation

A skiing trip in Colorado. he is someone to watch

Because he is result-oriented, a trait he demonstrated when he steered several transformative and large-scale projects. Because he worked in the trenches to implement a complex system that has 10,000 users across India.

Because that system is tied in directly to the revenues of MTS. Because he showed tenacity in implementing the project as he grappled with a stream of change requirements. Because he was chosen to implement a core communication solution—one that was not built for India’s telecom ecosystem. Because people around him doubted the solution would work in India. Because he made a success of the project. Because his leadership skills have built and retained a winning team that is aligned with the business.

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4/11/2012 5:01:24 PM

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SIVA Industries and Holdings

To

he is someone to watch

Arvind Subramani, 34 Head-IT Projects and Governance, SIVA Industries and Holdings A CIO myth you would like to bust

Most memorable vacation

CIOs work solo, care only about their function, and are not proactive.

A three-week family trip to Doha in November last year.

A technology you think will see significant adoption in 2012

How do you deal with stress?

Today, the Internet is the channel for content and data distribution. So, app development for user accessibility on different devices will become a big deal.

By spending quality time with colleagues, discussing non-job related matters during breaks and team outings.

Because he has already established himself as a key member of Siva Industries’ IT team at a young age. Because he throws himself at large projects—from conception to execution. Because this attribute helped him implement the group’s private cloud, connecting national and international locations.

Because he plays the role of an initiator with aplomb and that was evident from his enthusiasm to build the company’s intranet from scratch. Because he has a knack for spotting new talent and he leveraged it to build a cross-functional team to fructify the vision of shared services and consolidation for the group.

If I was not an IT leader, I would have been…

Definitely in a key commercial role.

Who would you invite to dinner?

My close friends from college. We will always have a great time anywhere.

Biggest learning this year

Delivering quality on time.

A question you wish you had better answers to

A business idea that should get more attention

A habit you wish you could get rid of

How do I transfer knowledge from project teams to separate operations team?

Explore enterprise business model outside SIVA Group with the existing platform.

Get customer buy-in before deployment.

What’s non-negotiable?

The edginess to get faster results.

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Sterlite Technologies

Sunil Ghariya, 35 Unit-IT Head, Sterlite Technologies Biggest learning this year

Doing one degree extra can create wonders!

A business idea that should get more attention

Using social media to generate real leads.

A concept or technology you think is over-rated

What’s non-negotiable?

3G service in India. We need to upgrade

Integrity and commitment.

our infrastructure before we can make full use of the service.

What would you like to invent?

An insightful observation your CEO made in the last year

Get it right the first time. Excellence is our only core value. We would like to be excellent in every little thing we do.

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A time machine. I would like to relive the happiest moments of my life.

If I was not an IT leader, I would have been‌

he is someone to watch

Because he is constantly assessing the needs of internal customers and is keen to devise solutions to address their needs.

Because he undertook a strategic initiative to develop a software interface to alleviate the pain points of process engineers who monitor and analyz process data. Because he played the role of a change agent when he took it upon himself to develop an online platform for a performance management system. Because this futuristic initiative was extended to carry out several employee selfservice tasks thereby improving process efficiency, standardizing processes, and increasing transparency and controls.

Because his talent management skills reined in attrition and fostered a high-performance team.

A technology you think will see significant adoption in 2012

As businesses shift from a capex to opex model cloud adoption will gain momentum.

Running an NGO for the underprivileged.

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nes O Watch The

Sterlite Technologies

To

Manish Kapoor, 33

create more and more IT enabled services and solutions.

Head IT & SAP-Cables, Sterlite Technologies

An insightful observation your CEO made in the last year

A concept or technology that’s over-rated

None. In today’s business scenario, every technology has the potential to be a business enabler.

Biggest learning this year

IT people and process owners together

should take responsibility for end-to-end deliverables of IT projects.

A question you wish you had better answers to

Technology can be a game changer, if delivered on time and within scope.

A technology that will see significant adoption in 2012

How can I achieve business value from IT investments?

Technology that bridges customer expectations and customer intelligence together.

If I was not an IT leader, I would have been…

Most memorable vacation

A management consultant.

Any vacation with family is memorable

A habit you wish you could get rid of

How do you deal with stress

Eating junk food.

By listening to music.

What would you like to invent?

What’s non-negotiable?

I am not a scientist! But I would like to

Integrity and motivation.

he is someone to watch

Because he’s a revolutionary thinker and has changed the way business drives value at Sterlite. Because he is a self-starter.

Because his operational excellence reflected in the deployment of a real-time production dashboard in SAP. Because complexity does not faze him. Because this has helped Sterlite meet deadlines and tighten order scheduling in the manufacturing process.

Because the project has also helped Sterlite improve productivity, customer service, and timeliness.

Because his focus on IT-business alignment is coupled with strategy and innovation. Because he stresses on individual learning and development opportunities for his team. Because he’s taken upon himself to keep pace with technology to help business realize its goals.

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4/11/2012 5:01:51 PM

nes O Watch The To

Voltas

he is someone to watch

Prasanna Wadke, 42 Senior Manager-Corporate IT, Voltas A habit you wish you could get rid of

Turning point in your career

Saying yes to everything.

We scrapped a so called “reputed” CRM solution and implemented a partly homegrown one in 2008. I was confident of it even when our senior manager developed cold feet a day before go-live. The solution was a roaring success.

If I was not an IT leader, I would have been…

A scientist.

What would you like to invent?

Cold fusion—to solve the world’s energy problems.

A business idea that should get more attention

A question you wish you had better answers to

Real-time analysis of large amount of data. It’s the key to make an organization more agile, responsive, and flexible.

How do I make people talk about real challenges instead of beating around the bush?

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Because he steered the implementation of a CRM system on a .Net platform for the company’s call center and service partners. Because this project prepared the ground for his organization’s move to outsource its call center operations.

Because his endeavor enabled the service force with vital online information of response time and downtime for every call logged in the call center and enhanced customer satisfaction. Because when he was cherry picked as the project manager for an SAP GRC project he demonstrated exemplary skills in strategic planning and budgeting. Because he has the ability to groom talent and enhance their knowledge when he managed to train a cross functional team on a new SAP methodology.

How do you deal with stress?

Exercise, meditation, and reading.

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Congratulations Winners nes O Watch The To

2012

nes O Watch The To

Welspun Group

he is someone to watch

Guna Nand, 44 GM-IT, Welspun Group What would you like to invent?

A time management machine.

If I was not an IT leader, I would have been…

A doctor.

A concept or technology that’s over-rated

Cloud computing. Its benefits are not always realized.

An insightful observation your CEO made in the last year

Dare to commit.

A habit you wish you could get rid of

Reading e-mail and messages on my Blackberry even when I am on holiday.

Because he has impeccable project management skills and a propensity for managing multiple projects simultaneously.

Because he spearheaded a server consolidation and technology standardization project and saw them through. Because he is a hands-on leader who conceived and executed a green IT project aimed at power conservation and carbon footprint reduction.

Because he gave his organization its first functional DR project.

Because 22 years of experience has honed his people management skills, allowing him to manage complex, cross-functional project teams. Because he plays a proactive role in nurturing talent and deploys methods like on-the -job training, motivational workshops, and continuous reviews for team members to unleash their potential.

Most memorable vacation

A family trip to Kulu-Manali in November 2010.

How do you deal with stress?

I listen to old Hindi melodies.

Who would you invite to dinner?

A business idea that should get more attention

A question you wish you had better answers to

I would like to invite my boss, colleagues and team members because they have always helped me achieve my goals.

An IT-enabled shared services delivery model for common functions in a multilocation manufacturing business

How to keep my team motivated, irrespective of the situation?

What’s non-negotiable?

Honesty and values.

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S

The

taffing

survey 2012

Key staff indicators, staffing trends, the numbers behind India’s least-stressed IT departments, and the retention strategy that works best (clue: It isn’t the most popular one). All in this survey.

Retention Mechanism vs. Level of Attrition

32% 5.2% 22% 5.8% 34% 5.8%

Helping with personal problems Non-cash based awards Business training

Creating a healthy and respectful working environment Level of Popularity

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71% 6.0%

Level of Attrition

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nes O Watch The To

Staffing Survey

Key INdICators The numbers point to over-worked and highly-stressed iT depts, a situation CiOs foresee will only get worse in the following months. and although almost all CiOs expect pay increases, most of it could be wiped out by high inflation.

Staff Compensation

Attrition by Sector

The fewest number of CiOs expecting an increase are in services. CiOs in BFSi expect the smallest increase.

CiOs in most industries expect more attrition than they find acceptable*.

96%

IT/ITES Manufacturing

93%

11%

BFSI

92%

9.4%

Services

77%

aCCeptaBle attrItIoN*

CurreNt attrItIoN

expeCted attrItIoN

Services

upto 6%

6%

8%

Manufacturing

upto 6%

6%

8%

BFSi

upto 6%

8%

9%

iT/iTES

upto 9%

9%

9%

11.3%

9.7%

Number of CIOs that expect an increase in staff pay Expected increase in 2012

* According to the majority

Curent Work Load

Workload by Sector

Most CiOs say their staff’s current workload is heavy. Over half expect it to increase by a little; a third by a lot.

BFSi has the most number of CiOs who say their department’s workload is heavy. Most CiOs in manufacturing expect it to go up in the next 12 months.

7% Very heavy

58% Heavy

1% Light and very light 34% Neither heavy nor light

My staff's Workload Is Heavy or very Heavy

2012

2013

BFSi

81%

86%

Services

67%

82%

iT/iTES

64%

77%

Manufacturing

55%

87%

Stress Levels

Stress Levels by Sector

Over half of indian CiOs—54%—say their department’s stress levels are neither too high nor too low.

But CiOs across the board—led by manufacturing—expect stress levels to increase drastically in the next 12 months.

9% 37% High and very high

Low and very low

54% Neither high nor low

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My staff’s stress level Is HIgH

2012

2013

BFSi

49%

62%

Services

36%

49%

iT/iTES

32%

36%

Manufacturing

28%

47%

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Staffing Survey

nes O Watch The To

Staff treNds Hours of Work On an average, iT staffers work 49 hours a week. This doesn’t vary too much across industries. Worryingly, 50% of iT staffers work over 8 hours a day, six days a week.

50% 48 Hours and below

There are changes in the way organizations see staff and staff management possibly coinciding with the economy.

Top IT Dept Challenge The last slowdown created an employers market, but not the present economic uncertainty.

2010

Demanding workload/ preventing burnout

2011

retaining needed skill sets

2012

retaining needed skill sets

Focus on Training

39%

Fewer organizations are mandating the number of days their staff—including iT staff—gets training.

66%

49-59 Hours

11% 60 Hours and above

2010

44%

43%

2011

2012

Staff Satisfaction The number of companies with formal mechanisms to monitor employee satisfaction is rising to 2010 levels.

Staff Size by Sector The majority of CiOs say that their iT departments are adequately staffed, with the exception of CiOs in BFSi.

68% 61%

63%

My dept is adequately staffed 66%

2010

Services

2011

2012

66%

Manufacturing 57%

IT/ITES 34%

BFSI

Staff Strength Many iT depts were forced to work with smaller-thanoptimal sizes in 2011, a trend that seems to have halted in 2012 but not reversed.

My dept is adequately staffed

6.6%

THE AVErAgE ATTrITION rATE OF IT dEPArTMENTS.

79% 2010 56% 2011 56% 2012

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nes O Watch The To

Staffing Survey

Staff treNds (Continued) Strategies to Retain Staff annual pay hikes, training (for both iT and business) have become less important as ways to retain staffers. Flexible work hours and non-cash-based awards, more important.

2010

2011

Reasons Staffers Quit More CiOs believe that staffers are leaving because of iT’s low profile, the only indicator that has risen in the last year.

2010

2011

2012

Salary / compensation

86%

80%

79%

2012

Creating a healthy and respectful working environment

—

71%

71%

limited career options

—

47%

39%

annual pay hikes

—

69%

61%

The iT dept has a low profile

—

15%

17%

Mentoring

74%

52%

54%

Monotony of work / projects

36%

20%

15%

iT training

69%

55%

49%

13%

14%

9%

Job rotation

—

39%

39%

Dissatisfaction with the management

Helping with personal problems

—

—

37%

Flexible working hours

31%

41%

36%

Business training

51%

34%

24%

Fast-tracking career growth

—

29%

24%

Non-cash based awards

—

19%

22%

21%

17%

8%

Stock options

—

6%

5%

11%

9%

5%

Monthly cash incentives Telecommuting

1.4%

The increase in attrition levels within Indian IT departments between 2011 and 2012.

Top 3 Most Sought Skills 2010

2011

2012

project Management Initiative / attitude

Initiative / attitude

analytical skills

analytical skills

Communication skills

Interpersonal skills

Initiative / attitude

Innovativeness (new option)

77%

The number of Indian CIOs willing to accept attrition between upto 9%—compared to 66% last year.

Snapshot of the least-stressed IT Depts Because stress is an important staff indicator, we looked at what indian CiOs who had the least-stressed iT departments were doing differently from those who ran highly-stressed ones.

Workload

Staff Strength

Fewer CiOs running low-stressed depts describe their teams’ workloads as heavy. less obviously, high-stressed iT depts work only one hour more a week than lowstressed ones.

How well-staffed an iT dept is makes a huge difference to its stress level. also, more CiOs running high-stressed teams have lost more people in the last six months than CiOs running low-stressed teams.

My dept Has a Heavy Workload

My dept is Inadequately staffed

51% CIos running low-stressed depts

CIos running low-stressed depts

32% 60%

88% CIos running high-stressed depts 86

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CIos running high-stressed depts Vol/7 | ISSUE/06

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Staffing Survey

nes O Watch The To

Which reteNtIoN Strategy Works Best?

CiOs say money is why most staffers leave. But throwing money at people doesn’t lower attrition.

Retaining Mechanism vs Level of Attrition 32%

Helping with personal problems Non-cash based awards

22%

Level of Popularity Level of Attrition

5.8%

24%

Business training

5.2%

5.8%

Creating a healthy and respectful working environment

71% 54%

Mentoring 36%

flexible working hours

61% 50%

It training 39%

Job rotation fast-tracking career growth

24%

7.6%

5%

7.6%

telecommuting

5%

9.0%

Monthly cash incentives

8%

9.3%

32%

The number of CIOs with attrition levels of 6% and below.

Survey Methodology

THE AMOuNT OF ATTrITION CIOs wITH HIgH-STrESSEd dEPTS ExPECT, COMPArEd TO LOw-STrESSEd dEPTS (7.6%).

Training Increases Stress Companies that are determined to train staff seem to produce more stress in their teams. yes, we mandate the number of days staff gets trained 38% CIos running low-stressed depts 52%

SURVEY_Ones_To_Watch.indd 7

48% VS

stock options

CIos running high-stressed depts

7.3%

6.9%

6.7%

Limited Career Options is a Primary Reason for Attri tion

The number of CIOs with attrition levels of above 6%.

8.9%

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6.4%

6.5%

annual pay hikes

6.0%

The Staffing Survey 2012 was administered online over four weeks in February and March, 2012. Two hundred and eighteen IT leaders participated. A qualification process ensured that all were heads of IT. Thirty-eight percent of respondents were from organizations with annual revenues under 1,000 crore; 35 percent were from companies between rs 1,000 crore to rs 5,000 crore, 15 percent from enterprises between rs 5,000 crore and rs 20,000 crore, and 12 percent from organizations over rs 20,000 crore. All responses were gathered using a secure server with all individual data kept confidential. The degree of error is +/- 5.5 percent at a 90 percent confidence level.

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EVENT REPORT

Mobility -

A New Wave of Opportunity Mobile technologies now drive efficiency throughout organizations,

increase collaboration and productivity, provide real-time insights into enterprise data, accelerate decision-making, and enhance customer relations—and that is naming just a few impact areas.

A

dvances in smartphones and other mobile gadgets are transforming these devices from channels of convenience to the primary means of digital interaction. Mobility will not just connect the marketplace to the web, but also offer advantages previously impossible in e-commerce.

By putting mobility at the heart of their product and their organizational processes, companies will better engage both customers and employees. It is, therefore, a must for organizations to start investing significant thought and money in coming up with an effective mobility strategy.

CIO Magazine, in collaboration with Accenture, spoke to IT leaders to understand what steps they are taking to achieve efficient mobility.

It would be an understatement to say that mobile technology has evolved and flourished astoundingly in the past few decades. Stressing on the rapid proliferation of this technology and its impact on business, Paul

CUSTOM SOLUTIONS GROUP ACCENTURE

Daugherty, Chief Technology Architect, Accenture, said “Mobile technology has come so far that terms such as ‘appstore’ have become commonplace today. There are fi ve billion mobile subscriptions for the total world population of seven billion, which means almost two-thirds of the globe is mobile-enabled. In the Indian context, these statistics convert to 900 million mobile users. There is a huge market to be tapped into, and organizations must leverage this technology for their own benefi t.”

The need to enable mobility is indeed gaining traction among organizations, irrespective of their verticals. Sandeep Phanasgaonkar, President and CTO, Reliance, spoke about the two dimensions of mobility when he said, “Mobility has two important aspects to it – one of them is customer-facing and the other is employee-facing. In the customer-facing aspect, we are required to push content to customers’ devices, provide them with self service capability, and also introduce new business services and solutions. In the employee-facing aspect, we must create new ways which let them work anywhere, anytime. Desktop computers are slowly starting to lose their significance in the current scenario.”

“With close to 900 million mobile users, there is a huge market in India to be tapped into, and organizations must leverage the potential of mobile technology for their own benefit.”

PAUL DAUGHERTY

Chief Technology Architect, Accenture

Consequently, in their quest of enabling mobility, IT decision-makers should also figure out what exactly the end users look for.

Shedding light on the primary requirements of employees when it comes to a mobile strategy, Jayantha Prabhu, CTO, Essar Group, said, “The first most important thing employees expect is seamless integration with the network.

There is increased usage of tablets among employees because of the devices’ video conferencing and other collaboration facilities.

One can find useful applications that reduce cost and increase productivity by enhancing collaboration. We have started giving out iPads to our senior employees, provided they are willing to surrender their laptops.”

One crucial aspect IT decision-makers must keep in mind while formulating a mobility strategy is the cross-platform support they should accommodate in the IT infrastructure. Since the number of tablets and mobile devices are now increasing by the day, standardization of devices does not seem to be the way to go for organizations.

Many CIOs are united in this approach. Ajay Kumar Meher, VP – IT & New Media, Sony Entertainment, substantiated the need for cross-platform support when he said, “As of now, the Apple iPad and the Blackberry Playbook are the two devices that are increasingly used in organizations. We are repurposing content and creating apps to suit these devices currently. As a customerfacing initiative, we are working on bringing live television capabilities to mobile devices.

We wouldn’t benefit much in this initiative if we go for standardization of devices.”

The other aspect, apart from multiple device support, which IT decision-makers have to work on is user experience. Jitendra Jadhwani, CIO, Tata Motors Finance, spoke about the critical nature of this particular aspect. He said, “In the ‘Shrink the Screen, Expand the Experience’ program we have initiated in our organization, we are following this strategy called BEAM – Business, Employees, Automation and Mobility. We have realized that the only customer-facing move one has to make as part of the mobility strategy is improving user experience.”

On the same line of thought, Manish Panjwani, Country Managing Partner for Technology, Accenture, advised on what constitutes an effective mobility strategy. He said, “We have learnt that one has to follow a need-based approach while developing apps. This should not be confined to just the need of the employees, but also of the customers and agencies the organization

works with. New business models can then be engineered based on these.”

Just like any other technology, even a mobility strategy comes with its own share of challenges and complications. Chaitanya Wagh, Group Head – IT, JM Financial Consultants, raised this issue when he asked, “The different form factors of mobile devices and the senior management’s expectations of having everything intact in their own devices requires making changes at the backend of the IT setup. This would certainly result in hardware, software and other infrastructure complications. How can one encounter this kind of a situation?”

The general solution that most of the CIOs offered was integrating virtual desktop interface (VDI) with the mobility strategy. Many leading organizations have taken this route and are now experiencing benefits they could not realize earlier.

All CIOs were united in the view that an efficient strategy for enabling mobility is the need of the hour because of the boom in acceptance of cloud computing and entry of social media into enterprise IT.

This event report is brought to you by IDG Custom Solutions Group in association with

VIEW

from the TOP

R. S. Sodhi, MD, Amul, says without IT it would be difficult for Amul to source its products from rural India, cater to the country's smaller towns, and grow faster than its competition.

What do CEOs and other C-level executives expect from you? Read all about it in View from the top.

Visit www.cio.in/ceointerviews

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Value for

Many

By Varsha Chidambaram

There are very few brands that evoke a sense of fondness and pride in its customers the way that Amul does. Whether it's Amul's witty socio-political ads or its business culture that has lead to the upliftment of 3.5 million Indian farmers, Amul is a company people are proud to be associated with. It’s no wonder then that R.S. Sodhi, MD, Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (Amul) has been with the co-op for 30 years. “It’s my first job,” he jokes. Born in a village, raised in the country’s lustrous farms, Sodhi has grown with the organization the way we have grown on Amul’s ghee, butter, and milk. And today, at the company's helm, he’s taking Amul to new heights, never once forgetting the humble values Amul was built on. And he reveals, that behind Amul’s remarkable success bridging rural and urban India, is the strength of IT.

CIO: Since you took over, there's a new vigor in Amul’s growth plans.

What’s changed?

R.S. Sodhi: Amul has been thriving for 60 years. In the last three years, we have grown at over 20 percent which is much more than the previous years. Last year, our turnover

was Rs 9,800 crore, this year it will be above Rs 11, 000 crore. This is the result of a few steps that we have taken.

We are the only FMCG company in India to have four distribution channels—unlike others who have only two or three. But we were not able to cater to smaller towns as our distributors were located only in the major

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R. S. Sodhi expects I.T. to: Help Amul reach rural areas Predict demand better

Photos by Images

Improve the company's supply chain

towns of the country. So we introduced the concept of the super distributor. We identified 200 districts and added a super distributor to each of the districts. This super distributor would then cover 15-20 small towns. Last year, we added 3,000 more towns and cities to our distribution network. Today, all our products reach the whole length and breadth of the country.

The second change relates to sourcing of milk. Until recently we sourced our milk only from farmers in Gujarat. Therefore, we were able to sell fresh milk only

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within Gujarat and weren’t able to meet the increasing demand for milk in other states. Hence since the last year, we have started buying milk from the co-ops in West Bengal, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and UP. Today, we produce 145 lakh liters of milk, out of which 17 lakh liters come from other states. We have increased our milk production by 22 percent.

We also changed our product mix. We’ve expanded our product portfolio to include non-conventional products such as sweet lassi, and frozen yoghurt.

By foraying into new products are you trying to re-invent the Amul brand?

We have tried to re-brand ourselves deliberately to appeal to the youth. For example, we’ve introduced a slew of low-fat products, and promoted them as alternatives for a healthy lifestyle. We’ve also increased emphasis on beverages.

We’ve run campaigns that highlight the ill-effects of carbonated drinks and promote the benefits of natural beverages. However, our basic value proposition remains

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View from the Top

unchanged: Value for many, value for money.

We want to give the best value to all of our 3.5 million farmers for their products, and when we sell it to our consumers our products are value for money.

How are you dealing with competition from profitfocused MNCSs? Amul was born out of competition.

Right from the start we have been fighting competition from large MNCs such as Unilever and Nestle which is good because when you fight you become more efficient and you learn a lot.

We face competition from two sides; one from the milk procurement side and the other from marketing and distribution. Because of our business strategy which is to give the highest price to the farmer and also value for money to the customer we are able to counter competition to a great extent. We give 15-20 percent more to the farmer than others so we get better quality milk. We are able to sell our products at a very competitive price in the market. We don’t compromise when it comes to content, ingredients, or even technology.

We have the largest market share wherever we operate.

I believe fighting a national player or an MNC is not difficult. Fighting local competition is a greater challenge for a national player like us. Their overheads are small and they are more flexible.

Apart from local competition, what is your biggest challenge?

My biggest challenge is to keep the interest of milk producers and dairy farmers alive.

Today’s educated rural youth is no longer interested in waking up at 4 AM to bathe, clean, and feed cattle. At the end of a whole day’s toil he’s just left with Rs 100-150. If we don't encourage milk production, we’ll become import-dependent for milk too.

Therefore, our biggest challenge is to ensure that the next generation finds the business of milk farming and production lucrative. They 92

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know in which village which farmer has given me how much milk. Product integration with IT also helps me predict demand and adjust my produce to meet that demand.

“We collect milk from 3.5 million farmers across 16,000 societies, twice a day. That can't be done without IT ."

—R.S. Sodhi should be able to make money such that at the end of the day they get at least 2 paise more than urban factory workers.

So, in the last three years we have increased the price at which we buy milk from farmers by 50 percent. Today, if a farmer gets a few a little more money he’s ready to invest more, but his return on investment must increase.

Besides, people no longer have 2-3 cows, but many more. They need milking machines to make their jobs easier. In fact the joke is, girls in Gujarat don’t want to marry into households with more than two cows because that’ll increase their workload!

So what’s the secret of your success?

It’s IT! It is core to our business. Without IT, one cannot work in rural areas considering the numbers involved. We collect milk from 3.5 million farmers twice a day, that’s more than six million transactions a day scattered over 16,000 village societies. We’ve been able to achieve such geographical dispersion and diversity only because of IT. Sitting here, I

How have you leveraged IT to help Amul grow?

IT provides an integrated and holistic view of all stakeholders data for a quick and accurate analysis. It helps in understanding the market share of Amul and identify where we should focus our efforts. IT also helps us bring process level efficiencies and improve our entire supply chain. IT is also helping us automate critical processes across the entire network.

We have integrated technology at all stages of distribution by implementing software solutions across the entire value chain on a robust and reliable communication backbone. These include software focused on automating rural operations to enterprisewide SAP implementations. We are also improving our distribution reach through robust GIS-based analytics.

IT is a strategic differentiator. It has helped us cut costs and improve customer service. This has helped Amul turn complex, duplicate, fragmented and error-prone systems into simplified, standardized, and customer-enabled systems.

What does the future for Amul look like?

Our plan is to double our capacity by 2020.

At the rate we’re growing, we’ll probably reach our target by 2018. I’ve been with Amul for three decades now. It’s my first job! When I joined Amul it was an organization of Rs 120 crore, this year we expect it to be Rs 11,000 crore. I want to take it to Rs 30,000 crore.

A lot of people are ready to work for the rich and powerful, but a very few are ready to work for the have-nots. Besides the salary, the satisfaction you get from working with the 3.5 million marginal farmers of India is something else. CIO Send feedback to varsha_chidambaram@cio.in

Vol/7 | ISSUE/06

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An IDG Custom SOLUTIONS initiative IN ASSOCIATION WITH

Transforming Business Through Judicious Application of IT

PLUS Cheque processing has evolved from being a cumbersome and time consuming task to become efficient, paperless and even profitable. Yes Bank embraced a hosted solution to implement Cheque Truncation Services (CTS), striking a balance between cost and operational efficiency.

INTERVIEW Subhakanta Satpathy, Sr.VP and Chief – IT, Axis Bank, speaks about the evolution in the CIO’s role and what one must do to stay ahead in the race.

TRANSFORMERS CASE STUDY

Clearing Cheques Company Yes Bank Industry Banking Offering Corporate Banking, Investment Banking, and Personal Banking services across India

on The Cloud Cheque processing has evolved from being a cumbersome and time consuming task to become efficient, paperless and even profitable. Yes Bank embraced a hosted solution

to implement Cheque Truncation Services (CTS),

striking a balance between cost and operational efficiency.

Custom Solutions Group TATA CONSULTANCY SERVICES

O

ver the past few decades, banks have mastered the art of processing paper cheques. Indian banks process about 1.2 billion cheques annually. The National Capital Region (NCR) alone processes 6,00,000 cheques a day, while countries such as Singapore clear 4,00,000 instruments daily. However, banks are now ready, even eager, to get to the world of all-electronic payments.

Business Scenario and regulatory mandate Despite the comparative ease of use of debit cards and internet banking that offer electronic modes of money transfer and making payments through National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) and Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS), cheque transactions are here to stay. According to reports released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the total value of transactions through cheques across the country amounted to Rs 8.17 lakh crore in December 2011. In fact, Delhi and Bangalore reported a rise in the value of clearances last fiscal year. Commercial customers continue to issue and get cleared a large volume of paper cheques as part of their routine business.

However, the overall value of cheque transactions in India declined by 2.6 per cent year-on-year to Rs 101.33 lakh crore in 2010-11. Since cheques remain a popular form of payment, RBI continues to classify paper clearings as a System-Wide Important Payment System (SWIPS) due to the high volumes of transactions.

Cheque Truncation System Goes Live In order to enable banks to clear cheques faster, RBI implemented the Cheque Truncation System (CTS) in NCR, on a pilot basis. This resulted in increased operational efficiency by cutting down on overheads in physical cheque clearing by using the cheque image and MICR data. The cheque image is truncated at the presenting bank.

Subsequently, the cheque image moves through various steps in the cheque-clearing cycle and transactions are settled on the basis of images and the data.

We chose the cloud hosted model because it is not just more economical, but also extremely efficient and scalable.”

Surendra Shetty, President and Deputy CIO, Yes Bank

This has not only helped in avoiding human errors but has also immensely helped the bank to do their reconciliation more efficiently.

Yes Bank’s Initial steps for CTS mandate Yes Bank, India’s fourth largest private sector bank, was looking for an efficient and costeffective solution to meet the demand for clearing a rising number of cheques. Though the Bank was a late entrant, compared with other private sector banks, it has witnessed an unprecedented level of growth since it started operations in late 2004.

Mr. Surendra Shetty, President and Deputy CIO, Yes Bank, commonly known as Suren said ““We needed to ensure that our customers get the best-suited, customized and affordable banking solutions and products.

For YES Bank to compete with well-established public, private and co-operative banks, we recognized the competitive edge technology would bring about, quite early in our life cycle, and used it to differentiate our proposition.

1.2 billion

cheques are processed by Indian Banks annually.

right model and approach In early 2006, when Yes Bank implemented CTS in the Na-

TRANSFORMERS CASE STUDY

tional Capital Region, it was essentially to meet the regulatory requirements mandated

by RBI. “Internally, we were debating whether we should implement cheque truncation even before receiving the RBI mandate. But our volumes did not justify the need for setting up a complete infrastructure.

Hence, we created an in-house solution. We also considered implementing CTS in other branches across the country, in order to realize economy of scale and process efficiency.” says Suren.

With the successful rollout of CTS in the NCR, RBI had set-up the next mandate for Chennai grid roll-out of CTS in 2011 with plans for pan India expansion subsequently. RBI also mandated and emphasized the need for cheque truncation through the NPCI (National Payments Corporation of India). The management at Yes Bank debated if they should implement the project in-house or outsource the implementation. According to Suren, “We

101.33 lakh crore

rupees was the total value of transactions through cheques in 2010-11.

did a cost and efficiency comparison of implementing these processes in-house or going for a cloud-hosted model. Finally, the outsourced model was opted because it was not only more economical but also extremely efficient and scalable.”

Deciding the right partner and Solution

W i t h c le a r i n g o p e ra t i o n s becoming a specialized service, there was a requirement for a central archival solution for easy image storage and retrieval. Also, timely and accurate processing of cheques for quick fund realization and high customer satisfaction was critical. Yes Bank was looking for a partner with a vast experience in the banking sector in India and globally.

The key requirement was to enable a unified shared services based model for technology and operations, to perform end-to-end operations in the clearing process. “The solution should not

Solution Offerings Outward Processing

Inward Processing

scan and capture

Download of files from rbi

Data entry

Clearing house interface (chi)

Technical validation of cheque image

Data entry

File creation and submission for rbi

echnical validations on cheque image T (bank, signature availability, date, amount (lar/car)

Providing posting files to the bank

Online storage & retrieval

Returns processing

Providing inward “files to bank”

Online storage and retrieval

Return file creation

Re-presentment

Reports (mis, audit, statutory / regulatory)

Custom Solutions Group TATA CONSULTANCY SERVICES

only cater to the current volume requirements but also be scalable to meet our aggressive volume projections and extendable to all the regions at national level, “says Suren.

After evaluating several vendors, Yes Bank opted for the web-based model provided by TCS. “Our philosophy has always been ‘outsource what is not core’ as it is more challenging to build in-house expertise for non-core business processes,” says Suren.

The fact that the solution was available on a pay-per-use model based on the number of cheques processed was critical. “When we started discussions with the service providers, the volume was just around 800 cheques per day because our retail scale was not very high,”says Suren. The solution opted was a customized package to suit the multiple processes and requirements of Yes Bank. “The highlight of this solution is that it is a scalable business and technology solution with rich MIS features. It also has the ability to archive images online, making it extremely flexible. The solution easily interfaces with our core banking solution. This solution is deployed on the TCS cloud, at a Tier III datacenter with the availability of a DR as well, which is an added advantage. ” says Suren.

Reaping the benefits of the transformation The complete solution provided by TCS can be deployed quickly, with minimal changes to go live. It is centralized, web-based and remotely accessible and does not require any software to be installed at the user end. The architecture gives the flexibility to the bank to start with deployment initially for one region and gradually scale up to roll out at a national level. “We do not need to deploy or install any hardware or software at our premise and only connect to the CTS application through a browser for performing the operations involved with clearing cheques. Also, it does not require any direct capital investment on hardware or software which usually hinders scalability in the future,” says Suren.

Another benefit of CTS is the removal of paper from the system, leading to reduced costs and increased processing efficiency. Cheque imaging also helps reduce fraud losses by providing earlier notification and faster identification of fraud while minimizing operational risk by securing the

transmission route. The system has also reduced the time and manpower required at a service branch or a branch manning these activities through human interface. Transportation costs, except for some limited number of physical items, are also significantly reduced.

What Next The new approach envisioned as part of the national roll out is grid-based. Under this approach the entire cheque volume in the country cleared across numerous locations will be consolidated into a fewer number, comprising of five or six grids. Each grid will provide processing and clearing services to all the centres under its jurisdiction, which could involve an entire state or a group of contiguous states as well. Banks, branches and customers based at small or remote locations falling under the geographical jurisdiction of a grid would be benefitted, irrespective of whether there exists, at present, a formal arrangement for cheque clearing or otherwise.

“The Chennai grid presently introduced and once fully operational, will not be confined to the city of Chennai alone, but will cover as many as 17 MICR centres and ECCS centres managed and operated by other banks as also areas where clearing infrastructure is unavailable in the states of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu,” says Suren. “The potential benefits include enabling the Bank to introduce new product and re-engineering the total receipts and payments mechanism of the customers,” he adds.

With this system in place, Yes Bank is looking to add more offerings based on the cloud hosted CTS solution. Large corporate houses and government agencies, which transact in a large number of cheques, could have tie-ups with their banks. Instead of sending the physical cheques, they can send scanned images to the branch concerned, which would then forward it to the RBI for settlement. The truncation can also be done at ATMs. You could send the image of the cheque by inserting it in the machine. The captured image will be sent to the service branch for settlement and clearing. Customers would get a receipt. “There are many possibilities, and the sky is the limit when it comes to implementing these ideas, provided they are justified by the business,” concludes Suren.

TRANSFORMERS INTERVIEW

surViVAl OF THE FITTEST The role and responsibilities of CIOs are not confined to managing IT anymore.

Their new role requires them to acclimatize themselves to the changing business dynamics and evolve accordingly, opines

Subhakanta Satpathy, Sr. VP and Chief – IT, Axis Bank.

Subhakanta Satpathy

Sr. VP and Chief – IT, Axis Bank

Custom Solutions Group TATA CONSULTANCY SERVICES

Essential aspects of IT infrastructure are offered as a service today: namely, IaaS, PaaS and SaaS among others. Which of these is most relevant to the BFSI sector and how can banks and financial organizations leverage them to realize business benefits?

This whole technology as a service offering trend is indeed gaining traction in the BFSI vertical. Particularly, there is significant adaptation of PaaS in the banking sector where smaller banks and cooperative banks have obtained Core Banking Solutions on this model. I foresee some adoption of IaaS in coming years to handle turnaround time (TAT) for new projects, and to set up test and user acceptance testing (UAT) environment. However, the high cost of IaaS is still a concern and it will take some more time – at least three or more years – to see industry-wide adoption of the technology. With regards to SaaS, there are not many BFSI-specific services or models on the horizon yet.

Some industry experts believe that with the advent of cloud computing and other technologies which enable outsourcing, the need for IT expertise might go down gradually.

How will this transformation impact the role of CIOs? The way of managing technology is evolving as fast as the advancement in technology itself. Today, it is imperative for CIOs to be well-versed and knowledgeable in business parlance and dynamics. The debate on whether CIOs should don the hats of CFOs as well is still wide open. Regardless of one’s opinion on this, it is true that CIOs will have to evolve in their roles. Right now, the role and responsibility of CIOs is shifting from enabling IT to enabling business. This is to the CIO’s advantage as it provides him/her the opportunity to gain business knowledge and think tactically. The CIO’s role will not be limited to managing IT anymore.

What technological trends according to you will propel IT’s role in BFSI to greater heights in the coming years?

Different channels of delivery such as internet banking, ATM, mobile banking and kiosk are becoming increasingly crucial. The ability to significantly improve on self-service capabilities, sell and cross-sell products and be able to complete the sale on the channel, enable personalized capability v/s generic capability on the channels, provide similar experience across all channels on functionality and response time will be the primary game-changers of tomorrow. This ability will play a crucial role in improving brand positioning as well.

Consequently, a good CRM system is the best complementing technology for the delivery channel. Without a CRM, the capability to provide differential service on channel will be affected.

Another area banks have to look into keenly is the modes of payment. Having an enterprise-level unified payment infrastructure is key to handle the increasing electronic payments including B2B, B2C and C2C among others.

Finally, banks must also consider transforming their fundamental way of operating. Most of the existing processes are, in reality, manual processes which have been forcibly fitted

into the IT environment. In order to drive process efficiency and improve on TAT, organizations will have to invest in business process re-engineering (BPR) to truly unlock IT’s potential.

Adaptation of BPM platform to drive the re-engineered process will drive efficiency and TAT, and reduce cost significantly.

All these are not easy to implement and one will certainly face many challenges and delays. Those who have the maturity and resources will succeed in positioning their organization in a different orbit.

How important are business intelligence (BI), analytics and data warehousing in the BFSI sector?

How do they add value to business?

Having a pragmatic BI strategy is most important.

Analytics has the power to redefine risk, business model of the future and has all potential locked inside on products and their delivery strategy. It requires a matured strategy to unlock the true potential of BI and put it to use.

There are two challenges with regards to BI: namely, availability of the right data attributes in enterprise and having a low risk approach to implement a data warehouse. These challenges have to be dealt with carefully, failing which the whole project is prone to become unfruitful.

It has been more than a year since your collaborative effort with TCS on axisdirect.in went live. What has been the response from your business stakeholders and customers? What kind of business benefits have you seen?

Customer and stakeholder expectations are always high when an organization embarks on a high profile initiative or new technology implementation. The same applied to us when we started building an integrated trading cum information portal, which is a complex exercise in itself.

We knew right from the beginning that the system had to give us great RoI in order to justify the heavy investments we made. We are very glad that our efforts have yielded us the kind of business benefits we expected. We have received very positive response from customers for the axisdirect.in portal.

This online trading cum investment platform has allowed Axis Bank to deepen its relationship with its customers and address their investment needs in a holistic manner.

Transformers is brought to you by IDG Custom Solutions Group in association with

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CIO Role

Business

Dis connect There’s a distinct lack of alignment of priorities between many of your American counterparts and their businesses’. The question is: Are you better off?

By Kim S. Nash This cross-pollinated, matrixed and hybrid business-IT world, At Maple Leaf Foods, a $5 billion (about Rs 25,000 crore) however, is fantasy for most American CIOs, according to the latest consumer packaged-goods company, IT doesn’t just respond US State of the CIO survey (not to be confused with a similar survey to business decisions, it participates in the planning that leads done in India). to those decisions. For starters, CIO Jeff Hutchinson sits on the In its 11th year, the US survey uncovers how the role of the executive committee, and some of his IT leaders sit on business CIO continues to evolve as business and technology change. unit committees. In addition, non-IT managers report to the CIO, Its latest data shows that while American CIOs have gained and several IT staffers report to those managers. The IT group strategic influence generally in the past few years, most—57 influences what the company does and doesn’t do—which plants percent—say they are perceived as a service to close or expand, which customers to cultivate— provider or technology-only collaborator. and a major part of Hutchinson’s bonus depends Reader ROI: Another 21 percent say IT is unappreciated and on meeting corporate profit goals.

Reasons why business and misunderstood as a cost center. In comparison, Being the strategic partner that many CIOs IT are disconnected 35 percent of Indian CIOs say they are viewed as say they want to be means so much more than Why CIOs should meet service providers and 20 percent are viewed as just having an understanding of your company, more end customers cost centers. Just 22 percent of respondents say Hutchinson says. “Be part of the business. Be part The importance of they are viewed as a true peer or game-changer, of the decisions,” he says. “That’s different.” marketing IT. Vol/7 | ISSUE/06

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CIO Role

T

o align better with

the business by as in the Maple Leaf model (The number for India making Facebook’s is higher at 47 percent). Those CIOs who identify staffers more themselves among the elite see things differently productive, Tim from other CIOs, and not just because they are paid Campos, director of IT more than other CIOs (also seen among Indian CIOs for Facebook, put up a who are considered competitive differentiators) and vending machine that enjoy bigger budgets and a smaller staff-to-user ratio. sells IT equipment.

The elite are more likely to predict a good year ahead, confident they are improving risk management and expecting to invent new IT-infused products and services for competitive advantage.

Among the broader pool of respondents, though, we find a worrisome disconnect between American CIOs and non-IT leaders on the importance of key issues: Cost cutting and the assault from competitors.

CIOs generally consider both lower priorities than their business counterparts do. If you don’t think the same way about money and competition, how can you align with—never mind accelerate or help set—business goals?

Well, you can’t.

“We need to be in lockstep,” says Karla Viglasky, CIO of ITT, a $2 billion (about Rs 10,000 crore) manufacturer. Viglasky, whose career includes stints in engineering and e-commerce, was named ITT’s CIO in November. “I’ve been the victim and the torturer when it comes to IT,” she says. “You can’t gain credibility with the business by saying, ‘I need to help you understand what I do.’ They don’t care.

Instead, you prove yourself every single day.”

Part of the proof for the CIOs we surveyed may come from major investments planned for 2012 in analytics, collaboration, mobility and other technologies that reduce the time and space between employees (also a strong trend among Indian CIOs). That’s if they can overcome abiding concerns about enterprise security, as well as about the macroeconomic issues of stagnant job growth and the global recession. It’s a tense time, certainly.

But CIOs leading through it have devised creative ways to handle Worrying about the competition, meanwhile, is low or not a priority these challenges. for 52 percent of American CIOs, while 78 percent of business colleagues view it as a high or critical priority.

This misalignment can result in projects that don’t quite produce Live or Die by Corporate Goals the results business units want and a lot of meetings trying to figure In addition to State of the CIO research, this year the US team worked out why, says Nancy Wolk, CIO of Alcoa, a $24.6 billion (about Rs with Forrester Research to survey non-IT executives to get a handle 123,000 crore) aluminum manufacturer. on how their thinking compares with that of CIOs. They found that Strategic CIOs advise fellow IT leaders to think of themselves IT leaders disagree with their colleagues in some crucial areas. as company citizens first, then members of their department. Live About cost cutting, for example, 37 percent of 386 CIOs in North the larger goals of the company, they say. No one’s advocating America say rising pressure to reduce costs is a low priority or any Manchurian candidate brainwashing, but a little rhythmic is not on their agenda. But 84 percent of 377 business decision meditation on the corporate objectives while lining up at Starbucks makers in North America called it a high or critical priority. (There every morning couldn’t hurt. is much less misalignment among Indian CIOs; 70 percent say that Wolk suggests coming up with a simple test to sort ideas. “We they want to lower costs in 2012 and 62 percent say they are going think in terms of, Does it help us grow or help us generate cash?” to spend time doing that.)

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CIO Role An upcoming project to provide the sales staff with mobile dashboards about customers will help Alcoa grow, she says.

Green light.

A proposal to pilot collaboration tools for problem solving and innovation might boost productivity but is a step or two removed from company growth. It goes into the queue, but further down.

At ITT—one of three companies created by a spin-off plan executed by a company of the same name in October of 2011—senior leaders have set an objective to provide a premier experience to customers, Viglasky says. IT can then find the points at which the customer connects with the company to see how technology can make those interactions faster or more enjoyable, or both, she says.

Upgrading customer-facing systems makes the agenda, as does a pilot of iPads for staff that serves customers.

One way to internalize the corporate goals quickly, says Hutchinson at Maple Leaf Foods, is for the IT group to keep close to sales and marketing. Those departments are at the forefront, with much of their compensation riding on how cheery they can make the CEO and CFO.

Going Through Labor Pains Whether a company can achieve its strategic goals depends on whether it can get the right people into the right positions. Staffing, however, is difficult both inside and outside IT. Many companies don’t have money to hire. Some that do are finding a mismatch between what they want and who’s available.

One problem is that people are stuck, explains Katrina Lane, CTO at Caesar’s Entertainment, an $8.8 billion (about Rs 44,000 crore) casino company. As the rough economy curbs home sales, the workforce becomes less mobile, Lane says. She’d like to hire senior IT staff in various disciplines but has had challenges in

Top Five Expected Accomplishments in 2012 INDIA 1. Drive innovative new market offerings or business practices 2. Improve security/risk management 3. Re-engineer core business processes 4. Lower the company’s overall operating costs 5. Improve end-user workforce productivity

finding talent.

“They can’t get rid of their houses, and you end up having a smaller pool of people to draw from,” she says. Caesar’s has major offices in Las Vegas, with additional staff in Nevada and New Jersey, and teams at each casino, which has helped. Still, she’s learned to screen candidates early to find out whether it’s realistic for them to relocate.

Tim Campos, director of IT for Facebook, worries more about the hiring plans of the customers of the $6.3 billion (about Rs 31,500 crore) social network. Companies that can’t hire the right people won’t grow and so won’t advertise as much on Facebook, he says.

But like Lane, Campos also has trouble filling some jobs. The company, which has 800 million active users, has grown from just a few co-founders in 2004 to more than 3,000 employees today.

“We can’t hire fast enough,” he says.

Software engineers, data analysts and strong all-around IT managers are high on his list of wanna-gets. Although company headquarters is in Silicon Valley, “It’s still very difficult for us to find the best talent. There’s a mismatch in what’s available and what we need to grow,” he says, adding that Facebook also competes with other technology companies for “people who can make a big impact.”

Facebook leaders decided that a prime differentiator for the company is its talented employees, which crystallizes IT’s mandate: Make hiring easier, make hiring more efficient, make new employees productive sooner.

The IT group is the first department new employees meet on their first day, during an on-boarding process that takes no more than 45 minutes. Their workstations, computers and other devices are already set up; IT teaches them how to access the data and applications they need.

How Business Views You 17%

Competitive differentiator

28%

Trusted partner/business peer

20%

Cost center

35%

Valued service provider

US 1. Improve end-user workforce productivity 2. Re-engineer core business processes 3. Improve quality of products and/or processes 4. Lower the company’s overall operating costs 5. Develop innovative new market offerings or business practices

7%

Business game-changer

45%

IT partner/ business peer

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21%

Cost center

27%

Service provider

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CIO Role If employees need new accessories, such as a keyboard, mouse or power supply, they can swipe an ID card at a vending machine that dispenses equipment. Campos doesn’t want to make people submit to a long procurement process for simple requests. The vending machine cuts overhead while still tracking technology costs, he says.

The Tech Agenda As 2012 unfolds, companies plan to complete major initiatives using technologies that they expect will change the role of CIO, according to CIO’s survey. These include analytics, cloud, mobility and social media. But the effect of these technologies will vary by company. As part of the mission to provide top customer service at Alcoa, for example, Wolk is experimenting with visual analytics.

That is, she’s providing sales, marketing and other employees with desktop and mobile applications that graphically depict trends and information about customers.

Charts, graphs and perhaps animation will eventually show

items such as contract details, orders in process, and sales volume compared to forecasts. Visual analytics will make employees more productive, Wolk says, because people can get meaning more quickly from pictures than from lists and numbers, especially on the small screens of mobile devices.

At Restaurant Technologies, a privately held restaurant supply company, IT is branching into revenue generation with services that use data collected from sensors and other technology built into kitchen equipment. For example, the company can monitor how often the 17,000 restaurant locations it services, including 8,000 McDonald’s locations, filter the cooking oil in their fryers and use that information to recommend the most efficient practices, says Randy Witt, director of IT. Restaurant Technologies was bought in 2011 by a European private equity firm, which is pushing it to expand both geographically and in the number of data-focused services it offers, Witt says. Two new project managers are leading development, and Witt has hired two business analysts and is seeking a third.

Insecure About Security

K

atrina Lane, CTO at Caesar’s Entertainment, says the risk of computer crime is growing, yet that risk is maddeningly difficult to quantify.

Beneath these project plans lies a pervasive anxiety about security.

In our survey, 69 percent of CIOs say they expect a security problem to hit their organizations within the next three years.

(About 65 percent of Indian CIOs say that improving security/ risk management is one of the things they want to accomplish in 2012.) As society grows ever more connected, threats can propagate fast. As companies use more mobile and cloud technology, data constantly moves and becomes harder to protect.

“How you architect, how you choose to leverage the cloud, how you implement applications [all illustrate how much] enterprise security is becoming a significant issue for CIOs,” says Facebook’s Campos.

The primary reason Allergan has moved cautiously towards cloud computing, says CIO Sue-Jean Lin, is risk. The $4.9 billion (Rs 24,500 crore) pharmaceutical company must comply with hundreds of government rules and regulations, and Lin wants a cloud vendor to be fully compliant with security standards and applicable regulations governing the pharmaceutical industry.

She isn’t satisfied with what she’s seen so far. “The basic principles behind cloud computing make sense,” she says. “But we can’t ignore compliance.”

Computer criminals are more professional and organized than ever, so the risk is bigger but maddeningly difficult to quantify, says Lane at Caesar’s Entertainment. As a result, deciding how to handle security involves more assumptions than some CIOs feel comfortable with. Analyzing the risk isn’t as straightforward as planning for server downtime, for example, because reliable data on scary scenarios doesn’t exist, she says.

“We care immensely about protecting company secrets and customer data. With a server outage, I have years of data to draw on when I judge which technologies to use,” she says. “But this is: We think the current status of the hacker world is X and therefore, we think Y. It’s very hard to know.”

Restaurant Technologies outsources most of its security, at least

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CIO Role for now. The company is small, with a staff experienced in many technology realms, but not security, Witt says.

A consultancy monitors for intruders and performs penetration tests, among other services. The company is also helping Witt’s staff develop security policies and practices, with an eye toward the day, perhaps within two years, when Restaurant Technologies will bring security in-house. “This is instead of trying to figure it out on our own through trial and error. Those would be pretty unpleasant errors.”

Cut Costs, Gain Efficiencies

Being the strategic partner is so much more than just having an academic understanding of your company or industry. It means being part of the business and being part of the decisions.

Seventy-seven percent of the CIOs we surveyed hope that helping their colleagues understand IT will produce positive results for the IT group in the next three years. (About 35 percent of Indian CIOs say that proving the value of IT is one of the biggest barriers to their effectiveness.) Yet our data suggests that a fair number of CIOs aren’t making the effort to build relationships with business peers: 43 percent say marketing the IT department so that the business has a better understanding of IT’s capabilities and processes is a low priority or not a priority at all.

There’s no doubt that IT contributes to corporate growth by, for example, finding new streams of revenue with technologyenhanced products, like at Restaurant Technologies. But colleagues generally expect IT to reduce costs, says Khalid Kark, a Forrester analyst. “You should not lose sight of that. Business considers it hugely important,” he says.

But the mandate isn’t necessarily to slash spending and, thereby, IT services, says Yuri Aguiar, CIO of Ogilvy and Mather, a privately held global advertising firm. One CIO’s cost is another’s efficiency.

It’s not semantics. There’s real math involved. Expenses may hold steady, but if IT can provide more server power, say, or a better way to collaborate with co-workers for the same amount of money, that’s a gain in efficiency, Aguiar says. IT is not spending money it might otherwise have had to spend.

The next step is to quantify the efficiency gains and share them, Aguiar says. The LifeRay open-source software at the heart of Ogilvy’s new collaboration system saves the company money compared to buying Microsoft’s SharePoint or some other commercial product. The virtualized servers on which it runs reduce up-front hardware costs while providing more power and quicker time to market, he says. But virtualization also decreases depreciation costs over time, a factor that should be figured into any calculation of IT expenses for the project, he adds. “Maybe now I invest that in [hiring or training] a business analyst,” he says.

Many CIOs don’t want to be seen as the “no” guy who turns down lots of requests for reasons that are mysterious to the asker, such as cost, Kark says. That’s why at Facebook, for example, Campos likes to show employees some IT costs, such as telecommunications bills.

Cell phone service is one of Facebook’s biggest technology expenses, and he provides reports that chart how much each person racks up compared to the rest of their department. In those IT vending machines, each piece of equipment carries a visible price tag.

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“That awareness drives costs down in a way that doesn’t impact IT’s service,” he says. He’s glad not to have to police every penny.

“Instead, I empower employees to make the right decisions.”

CIOs continue to progress toward an ever-more-strategic role in many ways, including, as this year’s survey finds, by delegating more of their operations to trusted lieutenants; 46 percent of CIOs say they are doing that, up from 35 percent last year (about 55 percent of Indian CIOs do that). Also, CIOs are aligned with non-IT business managers in their view that rising regulatory requirements and government involvement in the economy are high, even critical, priorities. Similarly, they agree that so is sorting out what the accelerating rate of technology change will do to their own company’s products and services.

But overall, progress is uneven. For example, according to our survey, fewer CIOs now report to the CEO, a metric typically used to estimate CIO influence. Thirty-eight percent of CIOs this year report to the CEO, down from 44 percent last year and 43 percent the year before. Few CIOs call on customers as they try to improve relationships with business stakeholders—just 23 percent, up only slightly from last year’s 18 percent.

That, of course, makes Maple Leaf Foods all the more notable.

Hutchinson says he and his IT staff spend as much time figuring out what customers are doing as they do learning about the competition.

The CIO of one of Maple Leaf’s biggest customers happens to have an office near Hutchinson’s, and the two get together regularly to talk technology and business, he says.

And so successful are Hutchinson’s efforts to cross-pollinate IT and business units that when one of his technology managers didn’t attend a business-side meeting recently because of a scheduling conflict, Hutchinson got a call.

“The president of the business unit says, ‘I’m mad at you because your person is in your meeting, not mine,’” Hutchinson says. “It’s happened in a couple cases. That’s how I know this is right. This is working.” CIO Kim S. Nash is senior editor. Send feedback on this feature to editor@cio.in

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casefiles real people

* real problems * real solutions

the cloud

Rules

A cloud-based automated underwriting solution helps Aegon Religare fix one of the insurance industry’s most trying challenges and gives it competitive advantage.

By Sneha Jha

Photo by sujit h sujan

Here’s a fun way to spend a few hours. Go around telling people you’re an underwriter. Now watch closely as their eyes dart around, then blink dumbly as they try to figure out what that means. Undertaker? No, can’t be, he’s too well dressed.

Tip: Do not try this with friends in the insurance industry.

To the insurance industry, an underwriter is as crucial as a taxi is to a taxi service or tea to a tea-taster. That’s because underwriters are entrusted with the hard job of assessing the risk level of an insurer’s customers and attaching an appropriate premium to that risk. If they get it wrong, bad stuff happens.

“For an insurance company, underwriting is a core business activity. All other activities emanate from this activity. Underwriters analyze information on insurance applications to determine whether a risk is acceptable and will probably not result in an early claim to the insurance company,” says R. Qaiser, professor, National Insurance Academy.

The amount of importance attached to them, however, has made underwriters an expensive resource—and a significant risk to their businesses.

Aegon Religare, like any insurer worth its salt, wanted to find a way to lower that risk.

Risky Business Way back in 2008, Sankar Narayanan Raghvan, director-IT, Aegon Religare, was already toying with the idea of automating some of the functions of his company’s underwriters— and hopefully lower the company’s dependence on them.

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He probably wasn’t alone. With the growth of the insurance sector and other risk-based businesses, good underwriting skills were getting hard to come by. And as the greenest shoot on the Serengeti—the company had just launched pan-India operations earlier that year—it wasn’t always easy for Aegon Religare to attract killer talent, which preferred to graze on more well-known pastures.

Even when Aegon did succeed to hire talent, there was no certainty that its underwriters would stay. “We do 40 to 50 percent of our annual business during December to March.

But during that period there is a sharp increase in attrition levels among underwriters. When they quit during peak business season it poses a grave challenge to the business; it puts at risk the profit matrix of our business. And recruiting new underwriters in the middle of frenzied business activity is tough; even if you do find new resources it takes time for them to understand each of your products and the rules of the company. This can lead to weak underwriting process and mounting losses,” says Raghvan.

But that was not the only reason Raghvan was looking at automating Aegon’s underwriting. Manual underwriting is open to errors, expensive errors. If, for example, an underwriter overlooks that a prospective customer has a cardiac problem, he could decide to okay the policy or price it with the wrong premium.

“The quality of underwriting will determine the long-term survival and profitability of insurers. A lack of prudent underwriting practices can result in rising underwriting losses. Insurance companies ignore this at their own peril,” says prof. Qaiser.

While such errors are few and far between, their impact can be quite severe. The industry average for underwriting errors is a minuscule 2 percent but if the sum assured and the coverage is high then the financial loss incurred by the company can be sizeable. And Aegon Religare wanted to lower those odds.

But, in 2008, unable to work around the Rs 3.8 crore price tag for an automated

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Sankar Narayanan Raghvan, Director-IT, Aegon Religare, gave his company an automated underwriting solution that shrunk turnaround time to issue a policy by half.

underwriting solution, Raghvan walked away from the project.

Insuring Efficiency Two years later.

At his desk, Raghvan squinted in concentration at his plan for an automated underwriting solution. He had put the idea into cold storage long ago, re-visiting it

occasionally to check if there was a new way to get around the price.

In 2010, with the growing maturity of the cloud, that time could be now. He felt excitement bubble up inside. If he figured right, the cloud could help the company do away with the costs associated with hardware, software, and licenses and cut the Rs 3.8 crore price down to size.

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Case File | Aegon Religare

In the meanwhile, other developments, like the beating Indian insurers were taking, began to make automated underwriting seem like an inevitable decision. For one, it could lower their losses and up their efficiency.

“International best practices point to the automation of underwriting as a means of becoming more sophisticated in insurance operations. Automation of underwriting can have a double impact on profitability: It can improve loss ratio and also decrease intermediation costs, making processes cost effective,” says Anshu Vats, Principal of A.T. Kearney Middle East.

To get started, Raghvan sent out RFPs for an automated underwriting solution. Some of the parameters were: A focus on tight execution timeline, the sturdiness of a solution, and the resilience of the technology platform.

“Technologically, we needed a workflow and a strong rules-engine because underwriting is based on rules. We were open to a programming platform agnostic solution. It could be either Java or .Net platform,” says Raghvan.

With an eye on the cloud, he says his RFP he clearly stated that Aegon was open to a hosted solution and that he paid special attention to an exit strategy, back up and disaster recovery. Within two weeks of receiving submission from vendors, the evaluation was complete.

They had decided to implement a hybrid cloud model and zeroed in on a product called AURA. “AURA was a robust system with high processing accuracy and consistent throughput. It enhanced our end-to-end management of the issuance process,” he says.

Because he was using a hybrid model, Raghvan spent a lot of time studying security issues. Since the cloud provider’s servers were located in the UK, he was very careful about safeguarding sensitive customer data.

In order to protect data privacy, he ensured that no personal data of a customer is shared on the rules engine.

“Confidential data like the name of a customer, his address and contact number are not put on the rules engine. At the time

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By using a hybrid cloud model, Aegon Religare shrunk the size of the automated underwriting project from Rs 2 crore it had earmarked for the solution to Rs 33 lakh. of issuance we give a contract number to the customer and only that detail is used for underwriting purposes,” says Raghvan.

Raghvan says that because Aegon Religare’s internal team did not have the expertise to build the rules on AURA, he decided to rely on the expertise of his implementation partner who had some underwriters.

Partially thanks to the cloud, Raghvan had the system up within six months. He decided to phase out the implementation and automate 50 percent of all policies that Aegon Religare receives. The cloud strategy, he says, also shrunk the size of the project’s cost significantly from Rs 2 crore that he had earmarked for the project to Rs 33 lakh.

Premium Benefits Perhaps more to the business’ pleasure, the solution gave the Rs 450-crore Aegon Religare a competitive advantage that neither it—or most of its larger competitors ever had: Faster turnaround time for policy issuance.

One of the many aims of Project EUS (Expert Underwriting System), says Raghvan, was to shrink the time it took underwriters to pass a policy. Because they worked manually, underwriting a policy could take up to four days, delaying issuance, which could anywhere between seven to nine days, matching the industry standard.

“We wanted to improve the customer value proposition. With the shortest TAT for issuance in the industry we wanted to show them that we honor their time. If we could reduce the timeframe to three to five days we would gain a competitive advantage over our industry peers,” says Raghvan.

Today, any policy run through the new system, which now covers about 65 percent of all policies, is issued and out of the door is a total of four days, putting Aegon Religare

streets ahead of the competition.

Apart from shrinking underwriting time, Aegon Religare also saw many of the benefits that are associated with automated underwriting including lowering underwriting cost (the company did away with 12 underwriters), increasing efficiency (Aegon currently has 23 underwriters, a number it has maintained over the last year), ensuring consistency of underwriting (Raghvan says they have minimized errors in risk assessment), minimizing the invasiveness of underwriting, and entering new markets and channels.

It also introduced other long-term benefits.

By equipping Aegon Religare with an automated underwriting solution Raghvan is winning brownie points with the insurer’s re-insurer Reinsurance Group of America.

In the insurance world a re-insurer shares risk with an insurer.

“If I collect Rs 50 lakh in premium from a customer, I am taking a risk of Rs 10 lakh and passing on the risk of Rs 40 lakh to the re-insurer. Consequently, I also have to pass on the premium to the re-insurer to manage that risk. If I can assess risk more meticulously and adopt a structured approach to underwriting then I can better my claim ratio and my re-insurer will pass some of those benefits to me. Over time the premium rates will come down. This could be called underwriting profit,” says Raghvan, who says that Aegon Religare hopes to derive some of these advantages over the next six to seven years. CIO

Sneha Jha is senior correspondent. Send feedback on this feature to sneha_jha@idgindia.com

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casefiles

Eveready

Battling inefficient manual systems, Eveready Industries’ new businesses were reporting 60 percent forecast errors.

Here's how its CIO turned that number into75 percent accuracy rate.

Arup Choudhary, GM-IT, Eveready Industries, automated demand forecasting and increased accuracy by 30 percent.

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*

By Shweta Rao

The Organization: Not many companies have as diverse a portfolio as Eveready Industries. From manufacturing rechargeable batteries, the Rs 925 crore company has extended its profile to include insect repellents, halogen lamps, home lighting, LED lanterns and tea. Today, Eveready’s network of 2,600 direct distributors reach out to 3.5 million retail outlets in India.

Business Case: Typically, Eveready’s products are either sent to six 'mother' warehouses or 32 'child' warehouses based

on truckload. Mother warehouses accumulate goods and supply them to the respective child warehouses based on a dispatch schedule.

The direct distributors then pick up goods from these warehouses and transport them to retail outlets.

Now, the most important component, the dispatch schedule, was planned by carrying and forwarding agents (C&F agents)—mostly non-skilled workers–based on the availability of trucks.

“Demand was entered on an excel sheet based on ‘gut feel’. We spent a lot of time consulting other departments and phoning carriers,” says Arup Choudhury, GM-IT at Eveready Industries.

Due to processes that were unplanned and untrackable, there were occasions when truckloads of material ranging from 9-16 tons had gone missing. “No one could be held accountable.

Unplanned transportation was also increasing our freight costs,” he says.

Often, goods sat at warehouses, blocking space reserved for other goods.

“There was a significant gap between our forecasts and actual sales. We found that our newer businesses like lighting were suffering from forecast errors of 60-70 percent,” he says.

Solution: What Eveready needed was an automated forecasting system.

Chaudhary decided to

expand the existing supply chain’s production planning horizon from 30 days to three months with Oracle’s sales and operations planning module. Integrated with its ERP, this planning module forms a link between production planning, sales and dispatch. Sales people input demand figures into the planning module. Then demand planners—managers at Eveready’s headquarters, not C&F agents—validate the figures and send final forecast to the supply chain head. The system then runs a material and dispatch requirement plan to arrive at a demand forecast number.

While the production plan materializes, Eveready’s warehouses receive their trip planning sheets created daily by the head office based on the availability of trucks.

Benefits: And today, this has helped Eveready improve forecast accuracy. Its batteries business clocks 85-90 percent accuracy rate and the lighting business at 75 percent.

Not only did the project allow managers to identify issues that slowed down production and distribution, it also dramatically reduced the time it took to develop a consolidated distribution plan from 72 hours to merely 1.5 hours.

Today, The company is ever-ready to forecast demand and get it right. CIO Send feedback to shweta_rao@ idgindia.com

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casefiles

Atul

Manual processes created lags in Atul’s accounts payable process, resulting in the loss of Rs 3 crore of Cenvat claims a year. That wouldn’t do.

The Organization: There’s one distinction that Atul Limited, part of the Rs 20 billion Lalbhai Group, has that no other company in India can have—ever. Atul, which produces agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, aromatics, polymers, etcetera, is India’s first private-sector enterprise to be inaugurated by the country’s first prime minister.

The Business Case: Like most organizations, Atul’s accounts payable (AP) process was built on manual processes. The process kicked off when a shipment of goods—like raw material, for instance—arrived at Atul’s factories and was received by a store clerk who checked it for quality and quantity. The clerk then inputted its details into Atul’s ERP system, and churned out a goods receipt note (GRN).

Every so often—but not often enough—the invoices for the material accompanied by their GRNs were hand delivered to the accounts payable desk, whose staff then inputted

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* By Shubhra Ri shi

details into its system and created an accounts payable invoice. This new invoice was then sent to the company’s Cenvat (Central Value Added Tax) reversal cell, whose job was to reclaim Cenvat.

But many manual processes created a delay of up to 15 days between the time a store clerk received goods and the Cenvat team could reclaim Cenvat. It also held up vendor payments.

“There was a delay in payment of 500 vendor invoices per month (out of a total of 15,000) due to the physical movement of invoices from the stores desk to the accounts desk,” says Rajat Sharma, president-IT, Atul.

Because Atul couldn’t book reclaims faster, it was losing Cenvat claims worth Rs 3 crore a year from its books.

The Project: To get around the challenge, Sharma and his team integrated the accounts payable module of Atul’s ERP with an automated invoice scanning system.

The solution cleansed the accounts payable process of manual delays and mistakes in entry—ensuring that invoices are sent to the accounts payable team instantly, and that AP invoices are sent to the cenvat team swiftly.

“Our IT team got in touch with Canon’s support and programmed the plug-ins and interfaces of a Canon multi-function device to

Rajat Sharma, President-IT, Atul, created a system that made shrank the time it took to claim Cenvat and paid out suppliers.

automate the scanning, conversion and storage of the invoice,” says Sharma.

“This entire initiative was achieved with zero capital investment and was live within 48 days.”

Sharma also put in place a governance framework which ensured that delays within the accounts or cenvat teams—potentially affecting Atul’s ability to claim cenvat—were escalated.

The Benefits: The solution added Rs 3 crore worth of Cenvat credits in Atul’s books. Although this was a one-time addition, the process also introduced

long-term benefits. The visibility of invoices at the accounts payable desk increased incredibly resulting in multiple benefits. First, the number of misplaced invoices or related documents shrunk to zero from about 50 a month. The increased visibility ensures that payments to suppliers are made faster, shrinking late payment charges and increasing early payment bonuses. And it also allowed for the faster identification of payable liabilities. CIO

Send feedback on this feature to shubhra_rishi@idgindia.com

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Final

Destination Reaching the last milestone is what counts, come rain or shine.

Just like with so many other things in life, attaining the goal matters more than anything else in business. This season's CIO Leadership Summit centered on a similar theme, that of retaining focus even during difficult times.

"Humans have the innate ability to change their environment," IDG's Editorin-Chief Vijay Ramachandran said at his key-note address. Ramachandran took the example of crocodiles living in different habitats to illustrate his point.

Two members of the species with similar gene constitution grow up differently when allowed to breed in a pond or beside a river, with the one by the river outgrowing the one by the pond by a large factor. This could only be explained on the basis of how the crocodiles reacted to their surroundings. The analogy to enterprises teaches us a worthwhile lesson: create the right environment for your employees to think big, and the company will grow big!

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From Slowdown to Acceleration Vijay Sethi

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The Right Time to Grow N Chandrasekaran

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Distress Innovation Porus Munshi

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Getting Social Sebastian Joseph

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Connecting Minds Sudhir Reddy

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Unlocking new KPIs Measuring IT Performance

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A Case for Good Defence Enterprise Security

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The CIO - CFO Partnership What CFOs Want

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PEER-TO-PEER

The New Face of Innovation:

5 Leaders Tell their Tales The CIO Leadership Summit had many real-life stories by CIOs who had weathered the storm. The achievements ranged from being bold enough to throw away the old pitcher to tackling customer relationship with a novel approach.

From Slowdown to Acceleration Vijay Sethi’s presentation was an inspiring tale of how Hero MotoCorp beat recessionary blues in 2008. The company’s IT-driven initiatives helped it battle the rough weather and boost its confidence. While most companies were trying to cut cost and postpone IT investments, Hero MotoCorp went against the grain and implemented a dealer management system that would cover their entire eco-system of dealers across 1,000 locations. “The downturn was an opportunity for us to re-invent our business, and our primary focus was the customer,” said Sethi.

The CRM-based system encompasses the company’s entire network of dealers, standardizing dealer interaction, eliminating manual intervention and promoting efficiency and synergy between partners. The investment has succeeded in future-proofing the company’s customer relationship system.

Vijay Sethi,

CIO, Hero MotoCorp

The Right Time to Grow Persistent economic uncertainty has pushed businesses to think in innovative ways. “Change: It is one thing that keeps you in tune with business needs,” said N. Chandrasekaran, special director-IT, Ashok Leyland in his presentation on why the company moved from its legacy ERP to an Oracle platform during a slowdown.

“It is not that our legacy systems were bad, but our business expectations had changed.” He said that processes that no longer serve the organization’s USP have to be isolated. Involving stakeholders and explaining project ROI helped Chandrasekaran in supporting the company’s growth. He also stressed on risk mitigation when deploying new technologies and the need for CIOs to tackle change management.

N Chandrasekaran,

Special Director-IT, Ashok Leyland

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PEER-TO-PEER

Distress Innovation “Innovation is about non-deference,” said Porus Munshi, innovation coach and author who conducted a workshop—CIO’s Leadership Summit—on how CIOs can innovate in times of crisis.

He also stressed on improving employee potential to boost the growth of an organization. Munshi discussed the different methods that CIOs can use to make their staff more efficient and better approaches to execute new ideas in the company. “Innovation is more a contact sport than an intellectual exercise. Be prepared to get your hands dirty and often, your nose bloody,” he said. “When one pushes out of the comfort zone and decides to take massive action, what was impossible now becomes possible.”

Porus Munshi,

Innovation Coach and Author

Getting Social During his interactive session titled "Getting Social", Sebastian Joseph, EVP and head of technology at Mudra Communications, walked the audience through Mudra’s in-house built social platform. The social media initiative, he said, was a response to the increasingly younger staff profile of the ad agency because the agency’s young staff wanted to get away from the rigidity of enterprise applications.

Joseph said that today’s workers prefer to interact over messaging and video, both of which have been provided to them. The social platform, which resembles Facebook, allows staffers to collaborate on jobs better, define work, and follow up on progress. Employees with bright ideas now have a receptacle for their ideas.

Sebastian Joseph,

EVP and Head-Technology, Mudra Communications

Connecting Minds In his presentation, Sudhir Reddy, VP and CIO, MindTree, talked about how he built the organization’s Google-like portal: The PeopleHub. In a bid to accommodate BYOD and simplify employee access to critical applications, Reddy decided to integrate all applications—from mail, collaboration and discussion forums to HR and ERP—on the portal.

The portal acts as a single window allowing MindTree’s employees to access transactional, communication-related or social apps. Reddy said that he wanted to make the portal intuitive, to provide a 90 percent search accuracy rate, and a customized user interface. “Today, ‘enterprise class’ has lost its sheen and we wanted to change that by being the Google of the enterprise,” Reddy said.

Sudhir Reddy,

VP and CIO, MindTree

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Leadership Summit I CIO Discussions

Unlocking New KPIs Organizations are moving away from traditional KPIs to new measurable performance indicators that are tightly integrated with business results.

T

he traditional set of parameters for KPIs in the IT departments has been about availability and capacity. However, according to CIOs at the roundtable hosted by HP Software, “IT uptime” and “keeping the lights on” are soon fading into oblivion as IT departments become increasingly conscious of their value proposition to business. Today, business leaders are no longer looking at department-wise KPIs in isolation. They are relating inter-department functions to bring out a new set of KPIs focused on measuring business value.

“Business is not interested in uptime.

Business is interested in how IT is helping manage and improve customer satisfaction and quality of products and how quickly IT can deliver value to business,” said Bhupendra Pant, head-IT at L&T EWAC Alloys.

The fundamental argument behind KPIs remains clear: what gets measured gets done better. The CIOs present also agreed that just like in the sales department, the IT function too can also be assigned visible targets that can be measured.

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S Sridhar from Vodafone has gone a step further to institute a healthy atmosphere of competition among his employees. “All our SLAs are based on business parameters.

To encourage efficiency, we have set up competition amongst our employees in

Our products offer dashboards that help companies to measure their performance.”

different circles where their ability to deliver on the SLAs is taken into account,” he said.

The group agreed that the real maturity of KPIs will be achieved when an organization can get a consolidated view of all the functions on a dashboard that measures performance of interlinking functions and highlights gaps and improvement areas.

Shalabh Raizada, head-IT, Safexpress has a rather scientific way of measuring KPIs. “We too use the regular parameters. However, for conflicting indicators, we use a unique algorithm. It took us a while to get consensus across function, geography and hierarchy, but today it is working very well.”

By the end of the discussion, one thing was clear: what is missing is a piece of technology that co-relates functions and presents it as a dashboard of KPIs. Subramanian’s final comment summed up the discussion. “As the pilot climbs up into the cockpit, he has a checklist that he has to go through. KPIs should ideally be a checklist that can help us arrest a problem proactively before it disrupts business."

This roundtable is brought to you by IDG Custom Solutions Group in association with

AMIT CHATTERJEE,

Country Director, HP Software & Solutions

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Custom solutions Group McAfee

Leadership Summit I CIO Discussions

A Case for Good Defence With 2011 going down as one of the worst years for security breaches, CIOs want to ensure that history is not repeated.

A

ccording to a Pricewaterhouse Coopers Global State of Information Security Survey 2012, 47 percent of CXOs reported that their organizations have the security capabilities in place to address risks associated with new threats, endpoints and social tools. But mere ability is not enough, a definite plan of action is called for. A key topic of discussion at this year’s security roundtable, sponsored by McAfee, focused on CIOs’ preparedness in handling new risks and threats.

Prashanta Ghoshal, Director-ITES, Geometric, felt that with the onset of trends like 'Bring Your Own Device', it is important to devise new ways of developing new standards, ensuring compliance and performance. But in order to do that, a CIO needs to stay abreast of new devices and technology proliferating the corporate environment.

Rajeev Batra, CIO, Sistema Shyam TeleServices, said that his company restricts access to devices and endpoints, has a monitoring mechanism in place, and blocks what is not required. MTS allows only email

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access through Blackberries or Android phones which support VPN-level tools.

Like MTS, Vodafone dodged 8 billion security attacks last year, worldwide.

S Sridhar, GM-IT, Vodafone says, “Our

Organizations need to consider both security and performance, and look for solutions that address both these concerns.”

endpoints are well protected from external devices. Therefore, the data at the end points is properly secured.”

While securing endpoints from data breaches is relatively straightforward, tackling the insider threat is a greater challenge for CIOs. V Subramaniam, CIO, Otis Elevators, India said, “Although there are tools that can help minimize the likelihood of insider attacks, we expect a sense of ownership from our employees so that such incidences never happen.”

According to a survey jointly undertaken by the Data Security Council of India (DSCI) and PwC in September last year, the magnitude of the impact of an insider attack is at least ten times more than that of the total impact from an external attacker.

Ashish Chandra Mishra, CISO, Tesco who set up a computer forensic investigation lab in his company, has noticed an increase in employees’ tendency to download disallowed content or bypass the VPN. “There’s a difference between employee awareness and employee behavior. The organization becomes more prone to security threats created by internal staff serving notice periods,” says Mishra.

This roundtable is brought to you by IDG Custom Solutions Group in association with

PINAKIN DAVE,

National Manager-Channels & Alliances, McAfee India Sales

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Custom solutions Group TCS

Leadership Summit I CIO Discussions

The CIO - CFO Partnership In the backdrop of the global economic turbulence, CIOs from various industries discussed their business challenges.

C

IOs today have to tackle challenges related to scaling up infrastructure, reducing cost, increasing efficiency, and ramping up productivity to meet business demands. In such times, working with the CFO can be challenging. CIOs at a roundtable sponsored by TCS discussed various possible approaches.

Satyajit Sarker, DGM-IT at DTDC said, “A CFO has a limited say in IT’s internal decisions.

However, to get the IT budget sanctioned, the CIO must convince the CFO about the project’s Return on Investment (RoI). RoI justification is always a thorny issue.”

Showing RoI on paper is, in itself, not enough. One needs to revisit them before the budget – an important exercise which many companies fail to do. “It is two years since we shifted from our legacy systems to ERP, but it is only now that we have been able to define some tangible benefits. In such cases, revisiting an RoI is not easy unless performance has changed so favorably that it is noticed by business,” said Sudesh Agarwal, VP-IT of Lifestyle International.

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Marshall’s Chief of IT, Sharat Airani, believes in a more business-inclusive process. “We have begun to take the CFO into confidence in all our project proposals.

As a joint exercise with business, we are currently into re-implementation of our decade-old ERP. IT wanted to upgrade the old version and business wanted to

CFOs are taking a keen interest in understanding technology while CIOs take the effort to factor in the company's budget planning."

include newer processes. Meeting KPIs is now a united effort.”

Mudra Communication’s VP Sebastian Joseph concurs. “At our weekly coffee meetings, my team and I sit with people from the business side to discuss the optimum path to address their pain areas.

Unless you do that, it is difficult to gain their trust,” he said.

Arup Choudhury, CIO at Eveready Industries, on the contrary, believes that including the business in IT projects will only complicate matters. “Sharing the meeting room with members of the finance team will result in operations getting overlooked. Only if operations and finance have an equal footing will they be able to resolve their conflicts during meetings,” he said.

This roundtable is brought to you by IDG Custom Solutions Group in association with

RAVI VEERARAGHAVAN

VP - Business Process Outsourcing, TCS

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Everything Virtualization Under One Roof

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server, storage, desktop, applications, OS and network virtualization, management, security and more.

Get In the Zone Today!

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By Dan Tynan

IT’s Worst Addictions Feature_IT_addiction.indd 50

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IT Management

Forget the LSDs and the weeds of the world. Your IT addictions are much more severe. Here are seven ‘IT substances’ you’re most addicted to and ways to cure them.

Are you a jargon junkie?

Reader ROI:

Why some addictions are Got an insatiable appetite for harmful and expensive for information? Do you rule over your organization your company’s systems with Importance of letting go an iron fist, unwilling to yield How to get rid of your IT control until someone pries the addictions keyboard from your cold, frozen, dead hands?

You’re going to have to face it—you’re addicted to tech. It’s not an uncommon problem, but it can lead to bad decisions, lost productivity, wasted money, and data breaches, to name just a few downsides.

Fortunately, there are cures. But first you must admit you are powerless over your addiction to acronyms, your dependence on data, and your cravings for power. You must resist the illusion you can make your network perfectly secure or that technology can solve all your problems. And you must stop clinging to old ways of doing things—or lusting for anything shiny and new.

Consider this your first step on the long road to recovery.

You need someone technically competent enough to call BS or say the emperor has no clothes.”

The Cure: Smart IT pros know good communication skills are essential, and they work hard to develop those skills, says Phillips.

But executives must also be willing to admit they don’t have the slightest idea what their techs are telling them.

“A good leadership team can cut through the jargon by not running from it,” he says. “If you don’t understand what your IT guys are saying, say, ‘That’s fascinating; now try it again in language that makes sense to the rest of us.’ Otherwise you think you’re delegating responsibility for your company’s technology when you’re actually just ignoring it.”

IT Addiction No. 1: Jargon Geeks love their jargon. It’s a way to show off, not to mention an effective technique for fooling others into thinking you know more than you actually do. But an acronym addiction ultimately serves no one well, says Glenn Phillips, president of Forte, which builds custom software and offers “nerd-to-English” translation coaching for executives.

“Some tech may say things like, ‘We need a RAID 5 SAN or our backups will fail,’ and management won’t have any idea what that means,” Phillips says. “Instead he could say, ‘We don’t have enough space to store our backups; we could lose all our data.’ And if he’s just making up a bunch of crap, management won’t have any idea.

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Addiction No. 2: Power A little power can be a dangerous thing, as any organization that has endured a rogue system administrator can tell you. Because technology is both so central to how modern organizations operate and so poorly understood by those outside the IT department, it’s easy for tech whizzes to perpetuate their own internal fiefdoms.

“The worst addiction IT employees succumb to is, what fire wardens call, the lookout syndrome,” says Bill Horne, owner of William Warren Consulting. “It happens to wardens who serve in remote posts for long periods of time. After a while they start to believe they’re in charge of everything that happens in their area. Likewise, system admins start to assume they’re in charge of everything that happens on the systems they maintain, which can lead to childish rules about which applications users are allowed to run, what their log-ons should look like, even what countries are allowed to send e-mail to ‘their’ system.”

As a result, IT pros often forget they exist to support the business, not the other way around, says Forte’s Phillips. “Using a computer should be easier than not using one, but too many IT professionals have created private little kingdoms that make that hard or impossible,” he says.

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IT Management The Cure: The tendency to consolidate power is not exclusive to IT professionals, notes Jeffrey Palermo, president and COO of Headspring, a custom software development and consulting firm. But it may happen more often in IT because that’s where technology decisions and resources are usually centralized.

“The root cause is that most companies are organized by department instead of by function,” he says. “Companies need to realize that having all of their computing resources in one massive IT department that’s supposed to magically manage priorities and resources for every other department just doesn’t work any more,” he says. Palermo believes that organizations need to disband the big IT departments, give each functional department their own tech staff and computing resources, and allow them to set their own priorities.

IT Addiction No. 3: Data Blame impossibly cheap storage or the magical belief that big data will revolutionize your company, but many IT pros are unrepentant information junkies—and that can lead to data overload, or worse.

“Technology departments are addicted to collecting an inordinate number of events that are not necessarily used for decision support,” says Charley Rich, VP of product management at Nastel Technologies, a maker of application performance management solutions. “They just think they need to have all this information, but don’t know what it means or what to do with it.”

Collecting too much data not only makes it harder to reach decisions, it also increases the risk of damage caused by data leaks, says Dr. Donn DiNunno, quality director at engineering, management, and integration consultants EM&I. “While data storage advances make data retention and distribution easy, they also make privacy hard,” he says. “If data is never erased, potential threats to privacy and security endure for years, in the form of Social Security numbers, credit usage, medical information, and more. The power and visibility of this data puts us at risk.”

The Cure: IT needs to look more selectively at the data it collects and retains, says DiNunno.

“The cure is a more rigorous analysis of the whole value chain,” he says. “Privacy controls, better understanding of the user’s needs, working on the value and quality of data, and respecting the use of ‘IT power’ so that that power doesn’t corrupt us all— these are the cures.”

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IT Addiction No. 4: Old Methods It’s natural to fall back on the techniques you know best. But if you’re still clinging to the methodologies you were using five, 10, or 20 years ago, you have a monkey on your back—and it has a gray muzzle.

“Olde Tyme Methodologies are serious killers of productivity, especially when they’re accompanied by an addiction to voluminous useless documentation,” writes Steven A. Lowe, CEO of Innovator, a consulting and custom software development firm.

Forexample,softwaredeveloperswhoclingtowaterfallmethodologies or structured design techniques can end up creating software that’s obsolete before it’s even implemented, or pouring valuable resources into creating documentation no one else will ever read.

“Back when computing time was expensive and programmers were cheap, these methodologies made some sense,” he says. “And if you are working on a static project with a low-skill implementation team, they may still do. But for modern systems with fast time-tomarket, they’re a death march.”

The Cure: Get agile. Adopt modern methodologies like extreme programming or behavior-driven design. Develop an understanding of the underlying business processes so that you can communicate intelligently with the people who have to use what you build.

“Letting go of beloved techniques can be difficult,” Lowe says. “After all, if method X has served you well since 1970, why abandon it for some newfangled acronym-soup? For the same reason people traded bicycles for motorcycles and horses for cars: To get there faster.”

IT Addiction No. 5: New Machines Everybody loves new toys. For most techies, strolling through a datacenter full of gleaming servers, humming drives, and blinking lights is like waking up on a Christmas morning. But having the latest and greatest of everything is a costly fixation that can drag you and your organization down the money hole. Take storage, for example.

Most big enterprises and government agencies rip and replace their

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IT Management storage systems every few years to store a ton of data they will never use again, says Anthony R. Howard, a best-selling author of The Invisible Enemy: Black Fox and independent technology consultant for Fortune 50 companies and the US military.

“The shocking fact is that most IT data isn’t touched again after the first 30 days,” he says. “Companies are wasting millions buying storage for the big data they need now, and then forklifting it to a new system every three to five years. Imagine a tiering system where only the data you need would go on the expensive drives, and the data you don’t would automatically go on the cheap drives. Imagine if organizations only paid for the components that actually needed to be upgraded, then added them to their current infrastructure. Imagine a world where our government would never have to pay for multimillion-dollar forklift upgrades. Think about what they could do with that money.”

The Cure: Most IT pros are fixated on initial purchase price when they should be analyzing total cost of ownership, says Howard. A hard look at real costs may help curb their addiction to the latest and greatest of everything.

“Forget about the prices of the server or the storage,” he says. “The important questions to ask are how much it will cost you to deploy, manage, maintain, and run these things over their lifetimes. Most companies let the vendors tell them what’s included in TCO. Most vendors usually don’t include the important stuff.”

IT Addiction No. 6: Illusions of Security In an age when hackers make headlines almost daily, it’s easy to see why many enterprise IT shops have developed a serious security habit. The problem? You can pour millions into building a ‘bulletproof’ network, only to discover that it isn’t—and never will be. “IT departments are addicted to the perception of security,” says Headspring’s Palermo. “They think it’s something you can turn on and off like a switch. Instead of using policy to guide employees about how to properly handle information, they embrace things like PINs, passwords, and user roles that offer the illusion of security.”

Ron Bittner, IT director at computer parts distributor National Parts Depot, says security is still a crapshoot, especially for smaller organizations.

“I’ve established and monitored firewalls, anti-virus, and other security tools, and I still don’t know conclusively whether I’m properly protected,” says Bittner, a 20-year IT veteran who has also worked for major book publishers and film studios. “Without major resources to dedicate staff to computer security, SMBs are constantly worried they haven’t bulletproofed their operations so that amateur or organized hackers can’t get to it.”

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The Cure: Embrace the reality that no network or organization can ever be 100 percent secure. Close the security gap through traceability, says Palermo.

“You want to keep improper access to data from happening, but once it does happen, you need to trace it back to its source,” he says. “You want to be able to find the employee who broke company policies or the ISP that hosted the outside person coming in. And you want to advertise your traceability efforts so that people who try to break in know they’re not going to get away with it. Technologists are constantly coming up with better ways to protect our data. Along with their advancements, rigorous traceability measures can be a powerful deterrent and smart investment.”

IT Addiction No. 7: Delusions of Grandeur Call it the myth of omnipotence. Technology has progressed at such an astounding rate that many become addicted to the notion that anything is possible—no trade-offs or sacrifices required.

Some IT people still believe any problem can be solved if you just throw enough resources at it, says Michael McKiernan, VP of business technology at Citrix. If they could just collect enough data and dump it into a massive BI system, they’d emerge with a single source of truth for making decisions. If they were only freed from the arbitrary constraints imposed by management, they could have systems that are affordable and always available.

They can’t.

“If you build something on Amazon Web Services that can do a million transactions in an hour, do you really think you’ll also be able to do a hot fail-over disaster recovery site?” he says. “If you’ve created something that can process really large transaction volumes, do you really think you’ll be able to change it every week?

If you want it to be massively scalable, you may have to give up having it be highly available.”

The Cure: Get real. Develop an IT portfolio that balances risk and reward, and hedge your big bets. Don’t swing for the fences every time unless you enjoy striking out. It’s better to hit for singles and doubles to boost your enterprise batting average instead of going for personal glory.

“People need to realize they can’t get there simply by being smarter or working harder,” he says. “You can’t have it all. You can have anything you want, you just can’t have everything you want.

The antidote is knowing what the trade-offs are, then trying to get as close to the edge as you can.” CIO Send feedback on this feature to editor@cio.in

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technology image by photos.com

A CLOSER LOOK AT Social Collaboration

Social collaboration in the enterprise goes beyond social marketing and reputation management.

Today, social technology is serious business.

Here’s what it really entails.

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Getting Into the Social Groove

By Robert L. Scheier

Social Technology | Although companies have been urged to adopt Web 2.0 and social technologies for years now, the truth is that relatively few have done so internally in any serious way—and use inside the business is where the most value can be gained.

Instead, the corporate focus on social technologies has been in marketing organizations that use it to monitor what customers are saying about the company and to try to influence customer views—what's called reputation management—by adding Twitter, Facebook, and so on to the traditional advertising and marketing channels. (And individual employees use social networking technology to build business relationships for their own benefit, of course.)

Despite the slow actual adoption for internal business benefit, the allure of social technology remains strong because of its potential to be a key value generator in a workplace that depends on collaboration, communication, and insights. Gartner analysts Anthony Bradley and Mark McDonald say that serious use of social tech in business is thwarted by several reasons: Executive fear, a misplaced focus on using social media solely for marketing, and a lack of "purposeful reasons" for building communities. That's too bad, they say, because the potential of social tech used within the business dwarfs the marketing benefit that so many focus on today.

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But some companies have moved past the pilot stage and are enjoying serious benefits from social technologies used inside the business. For example, at IBM, social networking isn't just for spreading the word to customers. Employees use an internal Facebook-like network to find colleagues with the skills they need to solve pesky customer problems. Business travel site Egencia uses an internal social media platform to host ‘Know Your Enemy’ feeds that give salespeople the competitive intelligence to win deals. And software giants such as Microsoft and Google use crowdsourcing to test applications more quickly and less expensively than they could in-house.

A recent Forrester survey shows only 28 percent of US workers use social networking, and most of them are early adopters who are only testing the waters for its internal purposes. For example, Dell is regarded as a leading user of social media. It maintains several internal blogs for employees and uses the Chatter add-on to Salesforce.com to share information among its sales staff. But chief blogger

training, and (for 4 out of 10) to "foster team spirit" or to "increase job satisfaction."

Collaboration: Social Tech's Low-hanging Fruit One enthusiastic user is grocery giant Supervalu, which operates or supplies 4,200 grocery stores under about a dozen brand names. It now has 8,000 users on the social networking platform Yammer, a number expected to nearly double this year in a move to increase collaboration, says CIO Wayne Shurts. One example: Managers of stores operating under different brands used Yammer to coordinate a campaign offering college students small refrigerators stuffed with discount coupons to generate repeat visits.

IBM's internally developed Connections platform includes capabilities such as text chat, video, blogging, and document sharing, and it's searched about 1 million times a week, says Luis Benitez, a social software product manager at IBM. He himself used it to find an IBM expert who, unbeknownst to Benitez, was working at the same floor of the same building. Connections is also

The potential of social tech used within the business dwarfs the marketing benefit that so many focus on today, say analysts at Gartner.

Lionel Menchaca says that most of the users are early adopters, and only about 5,000 of Dell's more than 100,000 employees have taken company-offered courses on social technology.

Gartner's research shows that, in 2007 and 2008, about 80 percent of companies were using social technology for marketing and 20 percent internally, but analyst Bradley recently wrote that "the mix has since shifted closer to 50/50." A 2011 Frost & Sullivan survey showed 56 percent of surveyed organizations using social technology for professional purposes; of those, nearly 6 in 10 used it for internal purposes such as internal communication,

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helpful for gathering answers to RFPs in a single place rather than creating a string of unwieldy e-mails, he says.

Connections also saved $4 million (about Rs 20 crore) in one year by making it easier for employees to find information, and another $100 million (about Rs 500 crore) by allowing customers and other outsiders to get information online rather than calling IBM, Benitez says.

Software vendor SAS says its use of the SocialCast platform helps employees quickly find both answers and skilled colleagues. Some 63 percent of its 12,370 worldwide employees have begun using SocialCast since it was rolled out in

$6.4 b

The size of the enterprise social collaboration market by 2016, from $600 million last year.

Source: Forrest er

January 2011, helping to "build on a culture of transparency and trust," as well as "dynamic working relationships" that led to the highest employee and customer satisfaction rates in the company's history, a spokesman says.

Egencia, the business travel arm of consumer travel site Expedia, uses Chatter to share competitive information such as pricing among its sales force, says Courtney House, the unit's senior director of sales operations. She estimates about 40 percent of its sales force is actively using Chatter, with another 30 percent "lurking" (reading but not contributing often); the remaining 30 percent is uninvolved.

E-mail marketing vendor StrongMail used Jive Software's social media platform to create one collaboration community for customers and a second internally to help sales reps with such tasks as finding and sharing customized sales material, says Kristin Hersant, vice president of corporate marketing.

In an online world, collaboration tends to be through text-oriented venues. But that method of communication doesn't always fit the reality of complex tasks, understanding complicated information, and working together based on a shared corporate culture. One approach to make collaboration more humanly social is through the use of virtual interaction, REAL CIO WORLD | a p ri l 1 5 , 2 0 1 2

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such as via avatars. That's the idea behind ProtonMedia's 3D virtual environment for learning and collaboration.

It isn't cheap to develop the virtual SaaS environments; pilots typically cost $30,000 to $50,000 (about Rs 15 lakh to Rs 25 lakh), and full production systems typically cost $200,000 to $300,000 (about Rs 1 crore to Rs 1.5 crore). But compare that to contract clinical researcher Pharmaceutical Product Development, which usually spends $2 million (about Rs 10 crore) a year sending field staff to central locations for training.

The $650,000 (Rs 3.25 crore) it paid for ProtonMedia's service was still a bargain, says CIO Mike Wilkinson. Even better, he notes, the levels of engagement and knowledge retention in virtual training

hardly the only areas where crowdsourcing can be applied.

CrowdFlower's "enterprise crowdsourcing platform," for example, taps 1.5 million online "contributors" for work such as trolling social media sites for information about sales prospects or ensuring eBay offerings are listed in the right category. This can save as much as 40 percent compared to using a traditional outsourcer, the company claims.

The contributors, who are recruited from gaming sites and other online venues, are paid as little as 5 cents for simple tasks and as much as $10 (about Rs 500) for more involved work such as taking a picture of a physical location. uTest crowdsources testing to "contributors" whom it categorizes based

At grocery giant Supervalu,store managers under different brands use Yammer to coordinate a campaign offering college students small refrigerators stuffed with discount coupons to generate repeat visits. were as good as face-to-face sessions—and in some ways better.

Unlike traditional classroom training, the virtual classes allow a student to "monitor data, and have their instructor in another part of the world or even their line manager in their region, monitor what they're doing" and provide real-time feedback, Wilkinson says. And although many people are "pretty shy" in a real classroom, they're more likely to speak up in the virtual environment because "it's kind of not you doing it, it's your avatar. It's a safer environment."

Crowdsourcing: Cheaper, Faster, and More Flexibly Another area where social technology has proven value is in crowdsourcing, a technology often associated with social media and gathering content for use in blogs, videos, and podcasts. But those are 124

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on their technical skills, geography, and demographic characteristics.

Direct marketing and teleservices firm RuffaloCody estimates uTest costs only 15 percent of what using its own staff for load, functionality, and user acceptance testing would have entailed, says Paul Ruffalo, the firm's director of information systems.

He also says the crowd-based testers did a better job than in-house engineers of finding creative ways to break the software and ensure it will work, allowing the firm to deploy fixes more quickly.

Likewise, mobile video software vendor Viddy found uTest to be faster and less expensive than using in-house testers, says David Dean, Viddy's head of operations. The service also made it easier to find testers who can check the app on various versions of the iPhone on different networks, he says.

Social Media Killers Social tools debuting at the enterprise level face many pitfalls that can derail even the best laid plans. Here are two to watch out for.

No Followers: A poor first showing of a social collaboration site or tool can put an end to the technology before it has a chance to take hold because a social network needs to get to critical mass fast.

Dan Pontefract, senior director of learning and collaboration at Telus, a major wireless telco in Canada, tried to get out in front of this conundrum by putting together a site and video about collaboration and social tools that are coming to a computer screen near you.

Called What If, this "movie trailer" was designed to inform and excite.

"Didn't go as well as it should have," Pontefract says. "People didn't have any idea what this was and got more confused. Lesson learned is that you need some of the tools already in place.

Social Critics: Enterprise social networking experts should not stop people from making critical comments about the company. At Eli Lilly, Bryce Williams, social collaboration consultant charged with making social networking pervasive at the pharmaceutical company, was worried that management would take a tough stance against an employee who posted critical comments.

As it happened, the critical comment received 88 replies. The issue quickly rose up the command chain to the VP of HR. Within four weeks, Eli Lilly responded positively to the issue. "It's the value of working out loud," Williams says.

The flip side, of course, is the handful of employees who constantly complain, vent and bicker, usually on microblogging platforms. IT leaders advice: Let them do it. If you staunch their voice, then you destroy trust. —By Tom Kaneshige

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Social Babble

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Crowdsourcing a basic function such as data entry can be 60 to 70 percent less expensive than traditional outsourcing, says outsourcing consultancy Everest Group. It cautions, though, that large customers worry there is less accountability with the crowd than with a traditional staff, and that Webbased contributors do a better job on welldefined tasks than on more complex business processes. Some firms are also nervous, it says, about protecting information shared with anonymous workers over the Web.

Rolling Out Social Tech

ChickenFeed

Knowledge management |Dickie Oliver is on a mission to build an enterprise "know-how platform" so that 1.6 million employees across 110 countries can do a better job of selling chicken, pizza and tacos.

Oliver is vice president of global IT at Yum Brands, the $11 billion (about Rs 55,000 crore) owner of the KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell restaurant chains.

In a highly competitive business, Yum has to continually generate profitable new ideas for domestic and international markets. Oliver said that he has a four-point IT strategy for getting employees at his "very spread-out global company" to break out of silos and share know-how. It includes the following elements: An internal social network, called iChing, based on the Jive software platform.

Employees use the network to post documents, ask questions, collaborate and learn about successful strategies in other areas.

Enterprise search technology from Coveo layered on top of iChing and other data repositories. This provides a user-friendly tool that employees use to glean insights from unstructured and structured data. In essence, the search technology stitches together multiple information sources without expensive data integration.

A Saba online learning system that lets employees across the planet participate in training and webinars in several languages, eliminating the need for trips to the US. A high-definition Tandberg videoconferencing system that lets employees have virtual meetings so they don't have to travel as much.

Krushers, a slushy drink that tested well in Australia, is an example of an innovation that the new platform helped nurture, said Oliver. The concept was posted on the iChing network, which led to other markets rolling it out quickly and with great success, he said.

The next step, now in beta, could be using the Coveo search capability to pull information from various systems to provide a consolidated, 360-degree view of each employee and present it to managers in a single dashboard. — By Mitch Betts

image by p hotos.com

Like any other technology, business social technology must be deployed and managed right to deliver a return.

Several early adopters recommended deploying social tech platforms as add-ons to existing applications rather than forcing users to install and learn something new. As proof, IBM's Benitez points out that more than half the traffic on Connections comes from links to regular office applications and users' e-mail clients.

Some customers are integrating the new social tech platforms with existing collaboration platforms such as Microsoft SharePoint. In those cases, SharePoint often becomes a repository for reference material, with real-time conversations migrating to social media tools.

Egencia did a "road show" educating skeptics on the value of Chatter, as well as an internal marketing campaign that offered prizes for users who found information using Chatter. Users organize information themselves as they create it through the use of hash tags and groups, which allow others to find information months or years after it was created.

Although it gets less attention than its fancy customer-facing social networking counterpart, business social tech can deliver both cost savings and harder-to-measure benefits such as involvement, commitment, and speed. In a tough, uncertain economy, that's more than enough reason to try to bring social tech in-house. CIO Send feedback on this feature to editor@cio.in

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Connected, Virgin-Style Telecom company Virgin Media turns to collaboration tools to increase collaboration and cut back on the time staffers travel and the company’s reliance on e-mail.

By Sharon Gaudin

Social Media |UK-telecom provider Virgin Media is reducing travel time, increasing team work and decreasing e-mail dependence by deploying social enterprise collaboration tools.

Executives at Virgin Media, which provides Internet, television, and mobile and fixed phone services in the UK, had been looking for a way to help employees

Colin Miles, head of technical services at Virgin Media, said social collaboration tools would be the best way to take care of these issues.

"It's not just centered around the cost of travel, but the amount of time people spend traveling," Miles said. Employees are often working on trains or using hands-free devices while driving their cars, he added.

image by photos.com

To make new users comfortable, Virgin Media used training videos and set up self-help communities so users could pose and answer each other's questions. reduce the time they spend on the road so they can spend more time at work or at home with their families. They also wanted to encourage employees to engage more with their colleagues, while cutting down on the barrage of e-mail flooding many inboxes.

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"They're not as free as doing the work at their desks. We wanted more of a choice in how people conduct themselves. The introduction of these tools enabled people to spend more time at their base location. It was positive for the organization, but they

were more productive and spent more time dealing with what's important."

About eight or nine months ago, Virgin Media, which has about 20,000 employees around the UK, began a pilot test with 1,000 workers of Cisco Quad and WebEx. Cisco has been a longtime player in the enterprise social collaboration market. Its Quad is an enterprise Webbased collaboration platform designed to pull together Facebook-like update posts, instant messaging, document sharing, video communication, micro-blogging and communities. WebEx is a suite of collaboration-focused applications.

Since the pilot went well, Virgin Media is rolling out the tools to another 4,000 workers, which would bring the number of employees using the enterprise social tools to 5,000, a quarter of the staff.

Miles said he'd like to see Cisco Quad and WebEx rolled out to all 20,000 employees sometime in 2013, but there's no specific plan for a full deployment.

Zeus Kerravala, an analyst with ZK Research, said he's not surprised that Virgin Media is turning to social collaboration tools to better their business. Enterprises are increasingly heading in this social direction, he said.

"Social networking can streamline communications as they enable workers to deliver messages and content to people in common communities," he added. "Instead of posting status messages about where you're shopping, you'll post messages about what you are working on. Instead of posting pictures, you'll post documents." Kerravala also said it's only a matter of time before social tools replace corporate e-mail.

The social tools are being rolled out as part of a program Virgin Media dubbed

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the Flexible Working Initiative, with the goal of helping employees work together from offices or from their homes by using tools like instant messaging, video calls and shared documents.

Miles said it was key that workers be able to easily use the social tools regardless of whether they're using their laptops, tablets or smartphones. The ability for people to have the same experience with the software, no matter what device they're using, is one of the main reasons Virgin Media chose Cisco. He wouldn't go into the costs to deploy the Cisco tools.

Miles noted that Virgin Media considered using enterprise collaboration tools from other vendors in that sector, including Jive and Microsoft. The company picked Cisco because the networking company provided a consistent experience regardless of what device was used. The company also liked the fact that Cisco's products enabled it to access various tools, such as voice and video calls, from the same place, instead of needing to install different tools to get the same feature set.

a game changer in how people receive information."

Rather than trying to stay updated on projects via e-mail, Miles explained that Quad users can join various communities that are devoted to specific jobs, projects and company needs. They can check into their communities and see what's been posted and what documents are being worked on—all in one place.

However, while there have been many benefits, it hasn't always been easy to convince everyone that using a social tool is a good idea.

"We found that people were naturally wanting to get all over [the new tool] because it's got the word 'social' within it," Miles said. "They wanted to start communities and start collaborating ... Others were turned off by the word 'social'. We concentrated on making people understand the value of these tools. One size doesn't fit all. We had to create and design a different set of training tools."

To make new users comfortable, Virgin Media used training videos and set up

A social tool is a game changer in how people receive information. It's only a matter of time before social tools replace corporate e-mail.

"A social business tool like Quad gives you more flexibility in terms of business flow," Miles said. "People can get information that is pertinent to them. They can get in the morning, open Quad and then go see exactly what is pertinent to them."

And that, he added, should help them decrease employees' use of e-mail, which floods users' inboxes and is prone to seemingly endless strings that quickly lose their benefit in their sheer volume.

"We definitely need to do something to break the e-mail growth cycle," Miles said.

"E-mail is an equal measure productivity hindrance and productivity enabler. We are at a cusp ... A social business tool is

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self-help communities within the new tools so users could pose and answer each other's questions. It also scoped out which employees were the bigger social networking users—with memberships in Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn—and asked some of them to be evangelists for the enterprise social tools.

"With the use of evangelists and trainers, we found a groundswell of engagement," Miles said. "We're starting to see a higher level of agility in the organization ... People are able to make decisions quicker ... They're more apt to look to work together." CIO

85,000-Strong and Connected Built via a slew of M&As, TD Bank Group in recent years had seen its employees lose the ability to easily collaborate with one another as its workforce grew rapidly across the United States and Canada.

"It was really hard to find [internal] experts and know who to go to for different issues," said Wendy Arnott, vice president of social media and digital communications.

"We needed a way for people to communicate and help each other," added Glenda Crisp, vice president and CIO of the Toronto-based parent of TD Bank, TD Canada Trust, TD Waterhouse, TD Auto Finance and other financial services firms. "[Employees] needed to be able to work together more effectively."

TD Bank Group says it has 19 million customers and more than 85,000 employees, mostly in the US and Canada. Arnott said that as the bank grew over the past decade or so, executives noticed some employees using social networks like Facebook to communicate. By 2007, the bank formally began using social tools, first publishing articles on its intranet and then allowing employees to offer advice or ask questions, Arnott said.

Yet, said Crisp, Canada-based staffers like herself generally "weren't able to see [and easily communicate with] the US employees."

That has changed, she said, when TD Bank completed a broad rollout of IBM's Connections collaboration software to 55,000-plus workers in Canada and to more than 28,000 in the US. "Now I can see all of my US colleagues and [can] search for their expertise," Crisp said. "I've never been able to do that before."

—S.G.

Send feedback on this feature to editor@cio.in

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bookclub what we’re reading

by Vijay Ramachandran

* Beyond Performance Management

Right Choices An expert class on how to choose and use management tools wisely and to their fullest potential.

IN SUMMARY: Can performance really be managed? And, if so, what’s the best way to go about it? These queries form the crux of Hope and Player’s book, as they set out to catalogue 40 tools and best practices and how, when and why companies should use them for benefit.

Many tools, systems and processes exist to help organize measure, analyze and (hopefully) improve what they set out to do—it’s a bewildering array.

Yet research shows that only about 30 percent of change initiatives succeed.

Why is it that exceptional tools pushed by equally exceptional consultants fail to have their advertised impact? Why are some organizations hyper-committed to using tools while others see no real reason to try out any? And, importantly, how do some companies derive tangible value while others only see millions wasted?

The authors do point to ineffective leadership, lack of commitment and poor implementation as prime suspects.

They believe that most tools are sound in theory but suffer from poor practice, which means that after companies expend huge amounts of management time and expense, many abandon the tools after consultants leave and internal project champions move on. “Abortive tools and systems are a major source of management frustration, added complexity, and wasted time and cost.

Most should not have been used in the first place. Many organizations rush into

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buying and implementing tools without first considering the fundamental question “What problem are we trying to solve?”, they observe.

Hope and Player observe that in many cases these tools or practices become an instrument to command and control front-line teams rather than to empower them. The result, employees who are underprepared to deal with the dynamic environments that they inhabit— environments that demand flexibility and adaptability and creativity. “We cannot command innovation and adaptation.

We can enable and encourage and inspire and even lead,” they state, while calling for moving beyond traditional performance management to one which empowers people.

The authors do a great job of re-examining the tools and practices, and re-packaging their wisdom. I can’t begin to tell you what an invaluable asset this book is, with its depth of knowledge, practical insight. If you are serious about improving your team’s and organization’s performance, read it.

As organizations go about creating a performance-driven culture it’s good to reflect on the wide range of management tools and practices that exist to improve performance and keep it as a sustained level. This is where this book comes handy. The book is well structured into areas which cover strategic planning,

Beyond Performance Management

By Jeremy Hope, Steve Player Publisher: Harvard Business School Press Price: Rs 800 shareholder and customer value, lean cost management, performance measurement and performance evaluation. Each of these areas details various tools like Balanced Scorecard, Customer Value Proposition, ERP, EVA, Six Sigma, Activity-based Costing, KPI, Best-Practice Reporting...

These tools are guides which can be applied to create sustainable performance. At the same time the authors believe it is important to get insights about the applicability of these tools and further strengthen the same.

For a CIO, in leadership role, this is indeed a great book, because it presents insights on the tools that drive organization performance, and how these can be IT-enabled.

As most organizations have just entered a new fiscal it’s time to rethink our strategy on creating a performance driven culture.

V. Subramaniam, Director-IT & CIO, Otis India and Gulf Area Sounds interesting? We invite you to join the CIO Book Club. CIO Send feedback to editor@cio.in

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WWW.LENOVO.COM corpsales@lenovo.com This image is a creative representation and not an actual shot. † IDC's Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker Q4 2011, for shipments in the Q2-Q4 2011 to businesses of 500 employees or more. © Lenovo 2012. All rights reserved. Lenovo, the Lenovo logo, For Those Who Do and ThinkPad are trademarks or registered trademarks of Lenovo. Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Intel, the Intel logo, Intel Inside, Intel Core and Core Inside are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. Lenovo reserves the right to alter product offering and is not responsible for photographic or typographic errors. Product images are just for reference and might not resemble the actual products.