InformationWeek India – October - EDGE Awards by Viraj Mehta

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Raising a toast to India’s finest business technology leaders

In this special issue of EDGE, we have several examples of firms which have used limited resources to fulfill their ambitious aspirations

echnology keeps evolving, and so does its business impact. And nothing more signifies this better than the entries we have received for EDGE — InformationWeek’s annual initiative to identify, recognize and honor end-user companies in India that have demonstrated the best use of technology to solve a business problem and improve business competitiveness. Our experience with this process has made us realize that while the business leaders keep on raising the bar of excellence, the relatively smaller and mid-sized players are not too far behind. Not burdened with legacy IT infrastructure, these smaller players are aggressively adopting emerging technologies such as cloud computing to leapfrog into the big league. A case in point is Classle, a startup that is focused on solving education problems for rural India where students do not easily have access to education. The firm uses a cloud-based infrastructure to deliver free education to students. The registration is absolutely free, so cost is no longer a deterrent in education, and rural students can seek knowledge, learn and compete equally with any other student in large cities. Classle already has more than 45,000 users using its platform, and is aiming at a target of 2.5 million students in the next one year. This is a classic example of a firm which has used limited resources to fulfill its ambitious aspirations — a trait seen among several EDGE winners. Classle is just one example, and this special issue of EDGE has several such interesting examples. Take the example of the State Rural Health Mission of the Government of Gujarat. The department has created a webbased application to track the health of beneficiary pregnant women and children. Today, more than 12 lakh pregnant women, 4 lakh infants and 3 lakh children in the age group of one to six have been tracked for essential services. The list of beneficiaries who are due for services in a village is available at the click of a button. As a result, the application has helped in reducing mortality (MMR) and infant mortality (IMR) rate. Besides these innovators, we also have industry stalwarts who are intelligently using the power of IT to further enhance their business value. State Bank of India, for instance, is expecting savings of ` 13 crore a month — thanks to a green channel counter initiative. Another industry leader, Mahindra & Mahindra has developed an integrated analytics platform that can be used by the top management to have a consolidated view across different functions of different group companies, to improve process efficiencies and reduce costs. Finally, do not miss the section on the Future Strategist Award winners — our initiative to identify the next CIO-in-the-making. We have identified eight bright young leaders who deserve special recognition for the way they have spearheaded IT projects, and succeeded in deploying technology intelligently. We do hope that this special issue of EDGE will act as a catalyst to further inspire and encourage your firm to convert limitations into solutions, and problems into opportunities.

u Srikanth RP is Senior Associate Editor, InformationWeek

informationweek october 2011

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contents Volume 3 | Issue 05 |

October 2011

Cover Design : Deepjyoti Bhowmik

future strategist award Vikas Malhotra, Dy. General Manager - Information Systems, Hero MotoCorp Arvind Subramani, Head IT Projects and Governance, SIVA Group Joy Bagish, Sr. Systems Manager, Apeejay Surrendra Group Manoj Singh, Deputy General Manager, HyperCity Retail India Prasad Patil, Head – Innovation and New Technologies, Essar Group Seema Gaur, Dy GM(Systems), IFFCO Tejas Mehta, VP-IT, IIFL (India Infoline) Uma Ramani, Vice President – Information Technology, IDFC

15 16 17 18 23 24 25 26

diamond edge Mahindra & Mahindra

North Delhi Power Limited

State Rural Health Mission, Government of Gujarat

State Bank of India

YES BANK

silver edge Aegon Religare Bharat Forge Biocon Classle Knowledge HDFC Bank IFFCO TOKIO General Insurance Infosys Marico Punjab National Bank Reliance Commercial Finance (Reliance Capital Group) Syngene TCS Vedanta Aluminium Wipro WNS Global Services

38 39 40 41 42 44 45 46 47 48 50 51 52 53 54

watch the awards ceremony of FSa, EDGE and Global CIO at: www.interop.in 6

informationweek october 2011

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DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT/MPS MindTree Oil Fields Warehouse and Services (OWS) Evalueserve

56 57 60

UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS Bharat Oman Refinery Aditya Birla Financial Services Group Gati

62 64 64

SECURITY Essar Reliance Capital Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) Infosys Punjab National Bank Reliance Life Insurance YES BANK Sterlite Technologies Toluna India Nucleus Software Exports Sharekhan Reliance Communications Forbes Marshall Group of companies

65 65 66 66 68 68 69 69 70 70 70 71 71

ENTERPRISE APPLICATIONS Aegis Logistics Asian Paints Limited Aircel APM Terminals Mumbai Indian Oil Corporation Atul Limited BSES, New Delhi Aurobindo Pharma Carnation Auto Larsen & Toubro Max New York Life Commonwealth Bank of Australia Cravatex Eaton Elder Pharmaceuticals ESIC Godrej Industries K C Mahindra Education Trust for Nanhi Kali initiative HDFC Standard Life Insurance Company Hero MotoCorp Mahindra Vehicle Manufacturers Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited HyperCITY Retail India ICICI Securities Intelenet Global Services Jindal Steel & Power Kotak Mahindra Old Mutual Life Insurance L V Prasad Eye Institute Larsen & Toubro Landmark Group LG Electronics India Mahindra & Mahindra Infosys Max Bupa Health Insurance Carzonrent India Godrej Properties MTS India [Sistema Shyam Teleservices Limited] New India Assurance Voltas Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute and Research Center Tata Teleservices Great Eastern Shipping Christian Medical College, Vellore HyperCITY Retail Welspun Abhijeet Projects WNS Global Services Essar Haldia Petrochemicals ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Infosys Kalpataru Kotak Mahindra Bank Tulsidas Khimji

72 72 73 73 73 74 74 76 76 77 77 78 78 79 79 80 80 81 81 82 82 84 84 85 85 86 86 87 87 88 88 90 90 91 91 92 92 93 93 94 94 95 95 96 96 97 97 97 98 98 98 99 99 99

GENERAL IT Government of Orissa Allergan India Anand Agricultural University, Anand Andhra Pradesh State Minorities Corporation Limited Government of Chhattisgarh Dhanlaxmi Bank

100 100 101 101 102 102

Government of Bihar HDFC Securities Gujarat Government Horticulture Division, Ministry of Agriculture Intelenet Global Services/ Sparsh BPO Services Mahindra Vehicle Manufacturers Ltd (MVML) Marico MHADA NPCI Punj Lloyd Reliance General Insurance (RGI) Reliance Infrastructure Shree Cement Indian Hotels Company Videocon Industries Vijaya Bank Sumul Dairy Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation HDFC Bank Mahindra Navistar Automotives Rajkot Municipal Corporation Reliance Infrastructure Nanavati Hospital Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation Ravi Jaipuria Group Karur Vysya Bank Kotak Mahindra Old Mutual Life Insurance Nagaland University IFFCO, Aonla Unit IndiaFirst Life Insurance Company Indore Traffic Police Godrej Industries ICICI Securities

104 104 105 105 106 106 107 107 108 108 109 109 110 110 111 111 112 112 114 114 115 115 116 116 116 117 117 117 118 118 118 119 119

VIRTUALIZATION Cybage Software Fermenta Biotech Firstsource Solutions Geometric Infosys Wipro Technologies K Raheja Corp Reliance Communications Syntel VFS Global Services AMG India International Jubilant Life Sciences Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services IFFCO (Kandla Unit)

120 120 121 121 122 122 123 123 124 124 124 125 125 125

CLOUD COMPUTING EXL Service L&T Infotech redBus Religare Asset Management Company Royal Orchid Sterlite Technologies UCP Direct Greytip Software DSP BlackRock Investment Managers Globus Stores Principal Pnb Asset Management Company

126 126 127 127 128 128 129 129 130 130 130

MOBILITY Lowe Lintas TVS Motor Company Mudra Communications Usha International Perfetti Van Melle (PVM) India Mahindra Shubhlabh Services

131 131 132 132 133 133

BI/ANALYTICS Mahindra and Mahindra Financial Services Marico Bangalore International Airport Mahindra and Mahindra Wockhardt

134 134 135 135 135

STORAGE/BCP/DR Orbis Financial Corporation Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) WNS Global Services Just Dial

136 136 137 137

OPEN SOURCE Sierra Atlantic SPML Infra Times Business Solutions

138 138 138

october 2011 i n f o r m at i o n w e e k 7

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Vikas Malhotra

Dy. General Manager Information Systems Hero MotoCorp

Arvind Subramani

Head IT Projects and Governance SIVA Group

Joy Bagish

Sr. Systems Manager Apeejay Surrendra Group

Manoj Singh

Deputy General Manager HyperCity Retail India

Prasad Patil

Head – Innovation and New Technologies Essar Group

Seema Gaur

Dy GM(Systems) IFFCO

Tejas Mehta

VP-IT IIFL (India Infoline)

Uma Ramani

Vice President Information Technology IDFC

Important Every effort has been taken to avoid errors or omissions in this magazine. In spite of this, errors may creep in. Any mistake, error or discrepancy noted may be brought to our notice immediately. It is notified that neither the publisher, the editor or the seller will be responsible in respect of anything and the consequence of anything done or omitted to be done by any person in reliance upon the content herein. This disclaimer applies to all, whether subscriber to the magazine or not. For binding mistakes, misprints, missing pages, etc., the publisher’s liability is limited to replacement within one month of purchase. © All rights are reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced or copied in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher. All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of competent courts and forums in Mumbai only. Whilst care is taken prior to acceptance of advertising copy, it is not possible to verify its contents. UBM India Pvt Ltd. cannot be held responsible for such contents, nor for any loss or damages incurred as a result of transactions with companies, associations or individuals advertising in its newspapers or publications. We therefore recommend that readers make necessary inquiries before sending any monies or entering into any agreements with advertisers or otherwise acting on an advertisement in any manner whatsoever.

informationweek october 2011

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letters

‘The finalists of Global CIO awards were crème de la crème’ I would like to thank InformationWeek for giving me the privilege of being a part of the jury of the Global CIO awards. As a past recipient of the honor, it was a big responsibility to judge my peers in the industry. Across the entries, the choice of CIOs was difficult with everyone having done so well in their respective companies and industries. Sifting through the nominations, the finalists indeed were crème de la crème. The wide mix indicates that there is no one formula for success and everyone can be a successful leader in their own right. n

Arun Gupta

Customer Care Associate & Group CTO, Shoppers Stop

Vijay Sethi

Vice President Information Systems and CIO, Hero MotoCorp

T G Dhandapani Group CIO, TVS Motor Company

I am extremely honored and happy to receive the news. The recognition will motivate me and my team to perform better by raising the bar. The InformationWeek team and UBM have done a wonderful job and executed the project professionally. I also take this opportunity to appreciate the valuable time taken by the jury. n

It is with great honor, pleasure and humility that I accept the award on behalf of all of us at Hero MotoCorp. This award means a lot to me as it is a testimony to IT’s contribution to business success and growing recognition of the role of IT in the enterprise. At a personal level, I feel the award urges me to strive for further excellence. n

K T Rajan

Director-Operations, Information Services & Projects, Allergan India I am delighted to be one of the Global CIOs and accept this honor with immense humility. I view it as recognition by my peers in the industry, which means a lot to me. I wish to thank InformationWeek and UBM for this initiative, which has become a hallmark in the industry. n

Umesh Jain CIO, YES BANK

Winning a prestigious award like the Global CIO award is a delightful experience. I aspired for this award as it is the most significant and meaningful award for CIOs due to the rigor and transparency involved. And even more so due to a very distinguished jury that evaluates the nominations. n

informationweek october 2011

Daya Prakash Head-IT (CIO), LG Electronics

The winners of Global CIO 2011 Award have made us proud by putting Indian IT on the global map. The jury has done a wonderful job in picking the most deserving candidates with strong proven records. I wish to congratulate them as well for the efforts they would have put to ensure that they choose the best of the best in the Indian IT industry. n

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News IT- IT E S

24/7 Customer to hire 5,000; bets big on predictive experience BPO company 24/7 Customer is betting big on online predictive customer experience solutions for which it plans to hire over 5,000 social and interactive media (SIM) advisors in India. Predictive Experience (Px) is a combination of cloud-based predictive software and analytics. The objective is to eliminate the need for customers to dial into a call center for resolving their queries. Px solutions focus on containing end users on websites by predicting their problems and resolving them in real-time through self-service and humanassisted interactions, such as online chat. “In the last two years, our Px solution has gained huge traction and new clients are increasingly signing up. Our sales have gone up and we are seeing a 10-15 percent improvement in conversions,” says Animesh Jain, Chief Delivery Officer, 24/7 Customer.

The company will be hiring 5,000 people mainly from Bangalore and Hyderabad and they will also be based in these two cities. The talent requirement is a mix of freshers and experienced people. “For developing the solution, we are looking at experienced people mainly from analytical and software engineering background. The other requirement is for people who will be interacting directly with the customers and here we are looking at freshers or people with about six months of experience in the field of BPO, banking, retail or sales,” Jain told InformationWeek. The company has already hired over 1,000 employees for SIM careers in the past nine months. 24/7 Customer currently provides Px solutions to Fortune 500 companies across the telecom, BFSI, travel and retail verticals. —Ayushman Baruah

Cloud Computing

Tata Communications announces cloud-based DDoS protection service Tata Communications recently launched its network-agnostic cloud-based Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) protection. The DDoS solution from Tata Communications constantly monitors traffic patterns across a network, detects attacks against a customer’s Internetfacing infrastructure and then ‘scrubs’ the data, discarding attack traffic while ensuring that legitimate traffic can reach the intended infrastructure. “By expanding our offering to be network agnostic, we’re now making

the capability available to a much larger community — a community that requires access to a high-capacity infrastructure where their traffic can be scrubbed rather than black-holed,” said Adam Rice, Chief Security Officer and Vice President of Managed Security Services, Tata Communications. As one of the largest global Internet service providers, Tata Communications claims that it will be able to route customer traffic through regional DDoS scrubbing centers. —InformationWeek News Network

october 2011 i n f o r m at i o n w e e k 11

News Cloud Computing

SVC bank offers federated cloud to smaller banks Federated cloud means shared resources (the hardware and software) available on a virtualized environment. In this model, the companies do not have to invest on the infrastructure and have to pay as per usage. Shamrao Vithal Co-operative Bank (SVC Bank) is providing one such infrastructure to help smaller banks. SVC Bank has set up an infrastructure, wherein the other smaller banks are able to use the bank’s same physical infrastructure but in shared mode. The different banks are set up and allocated different work areas, with appropriate security control so that the confidentially and integrity of each bank is maintained. SVC Bank currently has four banks using its hardware and software on cloud. The cloud offering has been made available for these banks since the past six months. “Federated cloud is not a business venture or a way of just sharing the spare space. The motive behind the same is to help the smaller banks with our technological expertise in addition to the banking requirements. The smaller

banks need technology but have insufficient skill sets and budget. In fact to support the cloud offering we have made investment in our IT infrastructure,” said Ravikiran Mankikar, General Manager - IT, Shamrao Vithal Co-operative Bank. For instance, the banking software on the cloud, which includes application like core banking, is developed by SVC bank. The software was developed in 2002 and today around 30 banks (mostly co-operative banks including the four banks on cloud) are using it. SVC Bank also has close bonding with many such smaller banks as it allows them to share their ATMs too. Thus, due to the rich banking expertise and bonding with SVC Bank, the smaller banks are choosing SVC Bank’s cloud offering. There are around 1,500 small co-operative banks but very few have a good IT infrastructure in place. In this scenario, SVC Bank’s initiative will help small banks to get access to affordable IT infrastructure with no expertise or operational cost involved. —Vinita Gupta

S E C U R IT Y

Trend Micro wants to lead in cloud security We witnessed an important trend in the year 2009. For the first time, the number of virtual servers shipped overtook that of physical servers. Although this trend was observed by IDC in Western Europe, this can soon happen in India too. This is an indication of the rate at which data centers are being virtualized. And increased virtualization also opens up new security challenges. According to Gartner, by 2012, 60 percent of virtualized servers will be less secure than the physical servers they replace. Analysts warn that virtualization deployment projects are being undertaken without involving the information security team in the initial architecture and

informationweek october 2011

planning stages. “ CIOs in India are asking us how to secure their virtualized infrastructure. They were so used to putting in the best perimeter security, IDS/IPS etc., in a physical data center. But when that physical data center is virtualized then the dynamics of security change. This is now becoming the cornerstone of Trend Micro’s strategy,” said Amit Nath, Country Manager, India & SAARC, Trend Micro. Trend Micro is now rolling out a new range of services and products for securing virtualized infrastructure. But there are a new set of challenges for security in a virtualized environment and security solution developers must take a different approach to protecting

thousands of VMs in an enterprise. “You can’t put anti-malware on 500 VMs running on a common platform. If all of these start to scan at the same time, you will have a system shut down,” says Nath. Beyond VM security, Trend Micro recently introduced new cloud security solutions at VMworld, which is VMware’s annual conference on virtualization and cloud computing. “We want to be number one in Cloud Security in India, and this is our vision for the next two years,” said Nath. “We believe that none of our competitors have integration at the hypervisor level. We have APIs from VMware.” —InformationWeek News Network

www.informationweek.in

Vikas Malhotra

Dy. General Manager - Information Systems Hero MotoCorp

Arvind Subramani

Head IT Projects and Governance SIVA Group

Joy Bagish

Sr. Systems Manager Apeejay Surrendra Group

Manoj Singh

Deputy General Manager HyperCity Retail India

Prasad Patil

Head – Innovation and New Technologies, Essar Group

Seema Gaur Dy GM(Systems) IFFCO

Tejas Mehta

VP-IT IIFL (India Infoline)

Uma Ramani

Vice President – Information Technology IDFC

watch the awards ceremony at: www.interop.in

october 2011 i n f o r m at i o n w e e k 13

Future Strategist Award

Preparing tomorrow’s IT Leaders InformationWeek picked eight IT pros who are most likely to assume the CIO/ CTO role in future. We are presenting them the Future Strategist Award 2011 in recognition for their achievement and skills By Brian Pereira

eing a CIO or CTO isn’t easy today. The role isn’t just about the success of elaborate ERP implementations or data center virtualization. CIOs will tell you that the “technical stuff” is now in the more able hands of their peers and subordinates. With evolved technology, advanced tools, and increased automation, technology implementations aren’t a big deal anymore. Nowadays, CIOs keep a watch on markets, on new and traditional competitors, and on ever-demanding customers. Their agenda is to support the business and make strategic decisions at the level of the Executive Management Committee/ Council — the core team of SBU heads and senior management. So, who wants to be a CIO? Are you up to it? We at InformationWeek interact with the CIO community (IT Heads) throughout the year, through forums, visits and numerous calls. A key input that we continue to receive during these interactions is the role played by the team that reports to the CIO. Some of the best ideas and innovation come from this team, under the guidance of a few good leaders. And we at InformationWeek would like to recognize these leaders and acknowledge their significant contributions to their respective organizations. So in 2010, we created the Future Strategist Award (FSA) and presented it to 15 people who our jury

“Winning FSA has unfolded a different perspective and approach towards my work. I firmly believe that this award will uplift my career to greater platforms and I am marching towards it” Nikhil Gundale

Vice President -Systems and Technology, Lowe Lintas

informationweek october 2011

“Due to FSA, I gained tremendous respect from internal and external stakeholders. I now get more leadership assignments within my organization” Naresh Sharma

Head IT/DGM IT (DYB), RSWM

acknowledged as “CIOs in the making.” The Future Strategist Award is an annual exercise that begins with an open nomination (online) in April. CIOs and IT Heads (mentors) must nominate mentees who they deem suitable for IT leadership This year we arrived at 39 valid entries after filtering out ones that did not qualify. The jury of InformationWeek editors picked entries with well articulated responses. The jury shortlisted entries that clearly showed the nominee’s contribution to the business. Points were awarded for experience, leadership, innovation, skills, project execution and delivery. They looked for qualities like strategy, timemanagement, delegation, sharp decision making, quick thinking, ability of handling multiple projects, and skills for dealing with people-centric issues such as change management. And they also checked for the kind of impact the nominee’s project made on his/ her organization. The end result was eight winners, who we feel are most suited for IT leadership. And they will receive their awards at INTEROP Mumbai on 28th September. Congratulations to all the winners, and we hope to see you leading the IT function in your respective organizations someday. Profiles of the eight winners follow.

www.informationweek.in

Future Strategist Award

A good blend of skills

ikas Malhotra has more than 20 years of experience in implementing IT-based solutions and in enhancing business productivity and competitiveness. This breadth of experience has helped him appreciate the business needs and how IT actions and priorities can be aligned to business priorities. He has a well-rounded experience, both with IT service providers, and in the manufacturing industry. His knowledge and experience encompasses project management, application rollouts, hardware, and systems support. In his current role at Hero MotoCorp, Malhotra leads the Business Solutions Group and is responsible for providing IT solutions for Human Resources and the Sales & Marketing departments. Apart from this, he is responsible for the implementation of business analytical and dashboard solutions across the organization. His mentor Vijay Sethi, Vice President and CIO, Hero MotoCorp, feels Malhotra has a good blend of infrastructure and project management skills, having spent a number of years at Hero MotoCorp. He also has a good grasp of processes and process mapping.

CHALLENGES

Malhotra has to ensure timely delivery

of solutions not just to internal stakeholders, but also to external stakeholders (dealers and SSPs). Internally, change management is perceived as a “tough” challenge; but it is even tougher when one deals with external stakeholders. For instance, during the rollout of the Dealer Management System (DMS), Malhotra had to deal with the change management issue that affected all stakeholders, including different dealer organizations’ staff and internal departments, covering more than 6,000 users. “Vikas did a great job there and ensured we rolled out to more than 530 dealers in a record time — making the DMS rollout one of the fastest implementations. He is also working on analytics, where making it pervasive in the organization needs a culture change, and he is again fairing quite well. He has my support and that of the team to help him cope with these challenges,” said Sethi.

PROJECTS

Malhotra has been leading the Business Solutions Group where he handles all IT solutions for Sales, Marketing and HR departments - primarily on SAP and Siebel platforms. One of his most notable projects as Project Manager was the

Track Record

Career Achievements

Vikas Malhotra has more than 20 years of experience in implementing IT-based solutions and in enhancing business productivity and competitiveness. This breadth of experience has helped him appreciate the business needs and how IT actions and priorities can be aligned to business priorities. He has a well-rounded experience, both with IT service providers, and in the manufacturing industry.

Malhotra played a significant role in the implementation of the Dealer Management System, which is regarded as one of the largest IT projects of its kind in the country (within the manufacturing sector). The DMS was rolled out to more than 530 dealers in a record time. He is also working on analytics, where making it pervasive in the organization needs a culture change.

Vikas Malhotra

Dy. General Manager - Information Systems Hero MotoCorp

Mentor: Vijay Sethi

Vice President Information Systems and CIO Hero MotoCorp

implementation of the DMS, which is regarded as one of the largest IT projects of its kind in the country (within the manufacturing sector). This project provides a platform, which connects all the channel partners through an integrated system with the primary objective of enhancing the customer’s buying and after-sales experience — resulting from the standardization of customer facing processes at the dealerships. Prior to his current role, he was responsible for IT infrastructure, which included LAN, WAN, SAP and other applications. He has been instrumental in the implementation and upgradation of the Business Intelligence solution, Business Partner Portal (for dealers and vendors), Supplier Relationship Management, Customer Relationship Management, and SAP ERP. One of his strengths is evaluating platforms and designing solutions to enable end-to-end business and IT transformations across complex environments. He is also adept at managing IT and consulting teams and user expectations.

october 2011 i n f o r m at i o n w e e k 15

Future Strategist Award

A great team motivator

rvind Subramani has over 10 years of experience in the information technology and telecom industries. Apart from leading several projects at SIVA, he is also responsible for the group’s IT requirements and for executing long-term strategies — ensuring group consolidation synergies and cost benefits. He has also assisted in Aircel’s GSM network rollout and WIMAX expansion and in Tata Teleservices’ CDMA rollout. He leads a 12 member team responsible for executing the group’s business requirement projects such as SAP, Business Process Management tool, Hyperion, Employee Self Service Portal, Internet Portals and various businessrelated software investments. He also heads the service desk operations. Subramani began his career as a programmer analyst in 1999. During his tenure at SIVA, he held various positions in other functions, such as heading the Techno Commercial department for GSM Mobile Operator STEL in India. His mentor Selvam K, CIO, SIVA Group feels Subramani’s strengths lie in partner management and team motivation for execution and delivery. His team members would surely agree that it’s nice to have someone like Subramani around especially when stress and work pressure gets to them.

CHALLENGES Ever since his mentor assumed the position of Group CIO in 2010, Subramani has been involved in diversified business requirements of the group ranging from e-mail migration to business process mapping projects. His biggest challenge has been to ensure implementation of various multi-vertical IT projects at the same phase, while handling routine IT operations. This is a tough task for anyone, notwithstanding experience. “But with efficient time management, key immediate decision making, proper delegation and guidance, Subramani is doing a fantastic job,” says his mentor.

PROJECTS

As mentioned before, Subramani has been involved in all the group’s IT projects. The key ones are: Basic infrastructure setup – This was done within three months (data center, servers and MPLS Network for group office connectivity). His role was in partner selection, commercial negotiation, and then in project implementation. Business Process Application for all workflow approval management – His role was in partner and technology selection, and project delivery according to the specific business functional requirements. One key

Track Record

Career Achievements

Arvind Subramani has over 10 years experience in the IT and telecom industries. Apart from leading several projects at SIVA, he is also responsible for the group’s IT requirements and for executing long-term strategies — ensuring group consolidation synergies and cost benefit. He has also assisted in Aircel’s GSM network rollout and WIMAX expansion and in Tata Teleservices’ CDMA rollout.

Subramani played a crucial role in partner and technology selection for various projects at the SIVA Group. His main achievements were the Basic Infrastructure setup and connectivity for the group companies. He also contributed to the group’s intranet portal – BUZZNET. For STEL GSM he helped significantly in the rollout of six telecom circles, within six months, since its inception in Dec 2009.

informationweek october 2011

Arvind Subramani

Head IT Projects and Governance SIVA Group

Mentor: Dr K Selvam Group CIO SIVA Group

business contribution is integration with BU’s ERP system for better management and license cost savings. New intranet portal BUZZNET – This is an intranet for all group company employees and HR (around 1,200 employees and 10 business units). His role was in partner and technology selection, requirement gathering with all group companies, the HR team, employee information, application management design and execution. During his tenure in different SIVA Group companies since 2005, Arvind worked on Aircel’s GSM network rollout and WIMAX expansion until 2006 and for Tata Teleservices from 2006 to 2008, in both technical and commercial strategy for their GSM and CDMA rollout. For STEL GSM, he helped in the rollout of six telecom circles, within six months, since its inception in Dec 2009. In this project he was responsible for planning, technical design and evaluation, partner and technology evaluation, commercial closure and implementation for both the network and IT department.

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Techie at heart with a mind for business

ith almost two decades of technical experience, Joy Bagish is an asset to the Apeejay Surrendra Group, where he is responsible for driving end-to-end IT infrastructure management practices and implementation — including telecommunications across the group companies. Joy has profound knowledge in setting up mail servers on different platforms. He is also a certified ITIL professional. His mentor Subhasish Saha, CTO, Apeejay Surrendra Group, says Joy has the ability to take up new challenges and provide solutions. For instance, he has a unique personal attribute — a high degree of enthusiasm and courage to take up new technology challenges. “We did not have an answer to provide secured e-mail access to company mails on iPad without compromising network security. Joy quickly came up with a unique solution to use an external SMTP service, integrating it with a separate in-house POP3 setup — and delivered this in a week’s time,” says Saha. While it is common to hear mentees talking about what they learn from their mentors, few mentors are outspoken about what they pick up from their mentees. In this case, Saha learned some important best practices from his mentee, Joy Bagish. “While creating the virtualization

strategy, I was initially not very comfortable in integrating multiple technologies, and was concentrating on VMware only. While discussing this with Joy, I found out that mix and match of multiple virtualization technologies would provide better business benefits. Joy had really pushed me to think differently,” says Saha.

CHALLENGES

These days Joy’s biggest challenge is protecting the group’s IT infrastructure in the advent of employees bringing in their own devices and plugging them into the corporate network. He says new technology (and gadgets) set him thinking about striking the right balance between control and providing access. “While users have a defensive attitude, my priority is towards safeguarding technology rather than providing customer delight. We faced a similar problem while providing access to social networking sites,” says Joy. The other challenge that he grapples with is changing people’s mindsets. According to Joy, IT is no longer seen as a technology department; rather it is a group of people who are supposed to be business partners. “I see challenges in the team emerging from the technology mindset.

Track Record

Career Achievements

Joy Bagish has two decades of technical experience with profound knowledge in setting up mail servers on different platforms. He is also a certified ITIL professional. He drives the end-to-end IT infrastructure management practices and implementation — including telecommunications across the group companies.

Joy set up multiple LAN and WAN implementations for various organizations. He was actively involved in setting up network infrastructure for Duncan’s Tea estates across India. When he began his career at the Apeejay Group, he was responsible for setting up the data center and network security. Joy contributed to the virtualization project by implementing multi-layer and perimeter security.

Joy Bagish

Sr. Systems Manager Apeejay Surrendra Group

Mentor: Subhasish Saha

CTO Apeejay Surrendra Group

A framework has been created to foster a discipline of participating and learning business processes through a formal learning and development program. They are also participating actively in business projects, with a substantial KRA percentage,” informs Joy.

PROJECTS

Joy has proved his IT infrastructural skills through large project implementations like consolidation and virtualization of the group’s data center, implementation of multi-tier network security and other projects. He was also involved in the Check Point firewall implementation. Virtualization at Apeejay was a unique implementation where existing low-end servers were used as VM servers, thereby consolidating almost 38 servers. Joy contributed by implementing multi-layer and perimeter security. He was also involved in the planning and strategy. Currently he is busy revamping the SAN for the entire group. Joy’s contribution in setting up the group’s DR data center at Badarpur for key applications, has been appreciated.

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Future Strategist Award

Passion for timely delivery

ith more than ten and a half years in the retail industry, Manoj Singh has vast experience in managing the supply chain at distinguished organizations such as HyperCITY, Pyramid Retail and Reliance. In his current role at HyperCITY Retail India, he’s moved up the value chain, as a second-in-line, and manages infrastructure, budgets and business critical projects. Singh joined HyperCITY without any technology background in 2006, and was assigned the task of setting up a distribution center/warehouse for a retail chain. He had to ensure that the Warehouse Management setup was in line with the business requirement. He also doubled as a functional expert for the Logistics Team. Singh achieved a lot by way of streamlining the warehouse processes, introduced mobility solutions for warehouse automation, and completed warehouse system setups several times. He is now not only responsible for distribution and logistics, but also for store infrastructure setups and store rollouts — thereby becoming a key functional lead for the organization. His mentor endorses his knowledge of the business, his ability to work with the business and understand its specific requirements. Says Veneeth Purushotaman, Head Technology,

HyperCITY Retail India, “Singh has a passion for getting work done on time, and that makes him ideal CIO material. His passion for work would be one ability to influence the business.”

CHALLENGES

Day-to-day, Singh and his team are confronted with a number of challenges, the main one being to continuously live up to the user expectation of delivering on time. The requirements for process improvements and customizations continue to stream in, and the team has to not only document the requirement, but also understand the cross-platform dependencies, and the impact on other applications, before confirming and signing off the requirements. The other challenge is providing the required resources to all stakeholders.

PROJECTS

Among the projects to Singh’s credit are: l DCMS (Distribution Center Management System) Implementation at HyperCITY Retail with customization l Vendor portal: B2B l Warehouse configuration to enable automation by JDA WMS DCMS - A warehouse automation system that runs on a mobile device to help the warehouse manage work

Track Record

Career Achievements

Manoj Singh has logged ten and a half years in the retail industry. He has a vast experience in managing the supply chain at distinguished organizations such as HyperCITY, Pyramid Retail and Reliance. In his current role at HyperCITY Retail India, he’s moved up the value chain, as a second-in-line, and manages infrastructure, budgets and business critical projects.

During his career in retail, Manoj Singh achieved a lot by way of streamlining the warehouse processes and introducing mobility solutions for warehouse automation. He completed warehouse system setups several times. Through his projects he helped HyperCITY reduce turnaround time by 12 hours, increase general merchandise sales by 17 percent, and sales for food & grocery by 23 percent.

informationweek october 2011

Manoj Singh

Deputy General Manager HyperCITY Retail India

Mentor: Veneeth Purushotaman Head Technology HyperCITY Retail India

on the floor. The product helped in considerably reducing the turnaround time of the vendor vehicles and improved availability at the stores with better fill rates. Within a month of implementation, sale increased by 17 percent in GM (general merchandise) and 23 percent in food & grocery. Staff costs at the distribution center fell by 23 percent. The turnaround time fell by 12 hrs because errors from misreading data virtually disappeared, and this improved the efficiency of the staff and also reduced staff costs. The solution also created a unique bond between IT and business processes, creating happier employees. Attrition is now near zero. B2B Vendor Portal - A vendor portal for all vendors of HyperCITY, where they can access all information pertaining to sales, inventory, transfers, payments etc. The site now has over 1,000 vendors online using the information to ensure better collaboration with the business. Store Rollouts – Singh and his team delivered five stores in the recent past with seamless IT operations right from day one.

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Catalyst of change

rasad Patil has more than 14 years of experience across the entire spectrum of IT: operations, turnkey projects, information security certification, solution architecting, and IT strategy. He brings to the table not just technology skills, but more importantly, an extremely good understanding of the business domain, and great people management capabilities. Presently, Prasad heads the Innovations and New Technology initiatives for the USD 15 billion Essar Group, which has diversified businesses like steel, power, energy, shipping, telecommunications, BPO, retail and EPC. He manages a team of 10 members who work under verticals like mobility, infrastructure, security, network, voice, open source, green IT and applications. His team is responsible for ideation, which when adopted by systematic planning formulates as a strategy for various business initiatives. Vendor Alliances for Technology Evaluation and Strategy are a part of his profile, included as specific tasks enabling the CTO Office. His mentor Jayantha Prabhu, CTO, Essar, feels that Prasad’s ability to weave together a business roadmap with the IT strategy is one of the most outstanding of the many abilities that he has. He is able to talk to the business

in a language that they are able to understand and put across the value that IT brings to their table. “Prasad heads Innovation and New Technology and is an integral part of the think-tank which creates the IT strategy roadmap for Essar. Prasad is always focused on what is the business benefit and value that technology is able to deliver, and this helps him identify relevant IT innovations and new technologies for our environment,” adds Prabhu. He works with the business folks, understands the problems deeply and then looks for IT solutions, instead of understanding tools and then figuring out problems to solve. A quality that Prabhu acknowledges: Prasad is assertive and focused and is able to manage relationships with his seniors, peers and customers very well. Other visible qualities are good leadership skills, immense knowledge of IT technologies, clarity and objectivity in all his tasks.

CHALLENGES

The biggest challenge faced by him is to get the right technology for implementation across the group, which while being diversified in its operations, also spread across multiple geographies and contrasting cultures — which is fast expanding at an

Track Record

Career Achievements

Prasad Patil has more than 14 years of experience across the entire spectrum of IT: operations, turnkey projects, information security certification, solution architecting, and IT strategy. He heads the Innovations and New Technology initiatives for the Essar Group and manages a team of 10 members.

In his short span of one and a half years at the Essar Group, Prasad handled multiple responsibilities and led several projects. His role in these projects ranged from conceptualization of the solution based on proactive and reactive inputs, up to the handover to the projects team with the statement of work, purchase order of the procure infrastructure and project plan for the implementation of the solutions.

Prasad Patil

Head – Innovation and New Technologies Essar Group

Mentor: Jayantha Prabhu CTO Essar Group

exponential growth.

PROJECTS

The major projects that Prasad was involved in were: l Citrix Desktop Virtualization l Centralized Exchange 2010 l SSL VPN l Active Directory Migration from Windows 2003 to Windows 2008 l Seclore DRM l HP Managed Print Services l HP ePrint Solution Prasad’s role in these projects ranged from the conceptualization of the solution based on proactive and reactive inputs, to the handover to the projects team with the statement of work, purchase order of the procure infrastructure and project plan for the implementation of the solutions. Within his organization, Prasad received top billing for the way in which he worked with the business teams, as well as the internal IT teams, to get the ownership, and buy-in for these implementations. His timely interaction with vendors to ensure adherence to deadlines was also commended.

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Future Strategist Award

Always keen to learn and explore

aving spent more than 25 years at Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative (IFFCO), Seema Gaur has worked herself up from the lower rungs to the position of Deputy GM (Systems). In fact, she spent the past four years heading the IT Department of a manufacturing plant within the group. Seema has an impressive list of responsibilities that include: IT infrastructure management; needassessment for computerization of business activities in the plant; hardware & software procurement; establishing the computer network; in-house development of software; implementation of applications; conformance to IT standards; end-user training. Serious, dedicated, sincere, knowledgeable and above all, fully involved. That’s how mentor SC Mittal describes Seema. “She takes a lot of initiative and is always willing to try something new. Seema has transparent interactions with the team and also the business users,” says S C Mittal, Senior ED (MS&IT) and Group CTO, IFFCO. “She has a habit of recording and documenting discussions and producing these at the appropriate time.” Technology itself is the biggest challenge for Seema, and she keeps up with developments through reading and by exploring new initiatives.

She has a unique way of convincing end-users, using case studies and presentations to drive her points across.

PROJECTS

IFFCO is a world leading fertilizer manufacturing and marketing cooperative. It has five manufacturing plants in India. IFFCO sells more than 11 million MT of fertilizer annually, through its cooperative societies spread all over India. Fertilizer manufacturing is a continuous operating chemical process. Maintenance and up-keep of plant equipment is an important aspect of plant operation. This system is aimed at automating the record keeping and analysis of various plant maintenance activities. While Seema has undertaken numerous projects at IFFCO, the most notable ones are the Plant Maintenance Management System and the Common Dispatch System. The Plant Maintenance Management System involved the development of a highly comprehensive software that was developed and deployed at the Aonla Unit — and later implemented at all five manufacturing units of IFFCO. It covers all aspects of recording, monitoring and analysis of maintenance activities of the plant. The system has contributed in shutdown

Track Record

Career Achievements

Beginning as a Graduate Engineer Trainee in 1986, Seema worked her way up the corporate ladder and 25 years later finds herself in the role of Deputy GM (Systems). She spent the past four years heading the IT Department of a manufacturing plant within the group. Seema has a solid technology background. She also acquired numerous certifications and won awards for herself and IFFCO.

While Seema has undertaken numerous projects at IFFCO, the most notable ones are the Plant Maintenance Management System and the Common Dispatch System. The other successful implementations at IFFCO are the e-procurement system, the Spare Parts Codification system, LAN upgradation, the Technical Reporting system, and Biometric Attendance Recording system.

informationweek october 2011

Seema Gaur Dy GM(Systems) IFFCO

Mentor: S C Mittal

Sr ED (MS&IT) & Group CTO IFFCO

planning, regular maintenance jobs and the creation of knowledge bank of issues and remedies, thereby reducing the plant downtime. Seema also led the project for Common Dispatch System. This helped in streamlining the dispatches of fertilizer by different modes, in reducing demurrage, in ensuring compliance of data entry into the Government of India’s Portal about daily fertilizer dispatches. Under Seema’s leadership, there were other successful implementations at IFFCO, such as the e-procurement system, the Spare Parts Codification system, LAN upgradation, the Technical Reporting system, Biometric Attendance Recording system, and infrastructure upgradation. In her long career in Systems, Seema has been instrumental in implementing major business applications like material management, payroll, financial accounting, budgeting, human resources management, product dispatch and distribution, complaints monitoring, and process stream quality analysis.

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The techno-commercial specialist

ith over 16 years of experience Tejas Mehta has a rich techno-commercial experience — a good grasp of technology and commercials backed by vendor management skills. He has diverse experience, encompassing technology, commercial, financials, leadership, general management and project management. His mentor Sankarson Banerjee, CIO, IIFL says Mehta is a focused and quality- and cost-conscious professional with proven business acumen. Banerjee observes and notes his “excellent” grasp of technology, complemented by “superior” execution abilities, “skillful” decision making, techno-commercial sense, meticulous planning and knowledge of project legalities. “Tejas is very detail oriented and has shown the ability to take decisions under deadline pressure. He is able to visualize solutions to broader problems and keep things running. And he has the ability to go into the tiniest details, and tie it into a broad picture,” says Banerjee. As Head of Infrastructure at IIFL, Mehta looks after operations, projects & financials for Technology Infrastructure. Ever since he joined IIFL, he initiated several projects within the company, bringing

stabilization to the infrastructure and introducing new ways to reduce IT costs. The infrastructure at IIFL had a rapid unplanned and organic growth. So the biggest challenge for Mehta was to deliver consistently to business expectations, while handling and improving this complex heterogeneous setup at a minimal cost.

PROJECTS

At IIFL, Mehta played an instrumental role in formulizing the Outsourcing Agreement that IIFL recently signed with IBM for managing its Technology Operations. He has been managing the transition of employees, processes and infrastructure from IIFL to IBM. This is expected to lead to long-term savings in excess of ` 50 crore in 10 years. Mehta is currently engaged in bringing several transformations to the way Technology Operations at IIFL work and expects to bring a major change in the near future. He has been involved with re-negotiating connectivity contracts with an expected saving of ` 30 lakh this year. Before IIFL, Mehta worked with Barclays Bank as Head - Operations and also at Reliance Industries as General Manager. Mehta played

Track Record

Career Achievements

With over 16 years of experience Tejas Mehta has a rich technocommercial experience — a good grasp of technology and commercials backed by vendor management skills. He has diverse experience encompassing technology, commercial, financials, leadership, general management and project management.

At IIFL Mehta played an instrumental role in formulizing the Outsourcing Agreement that IIFL recently signed up with IBM for managing its Technology Operations. As Head-Operations at Barclays bank he played an instrumental role in setting up Barclay’s production data center in Mumbai and migration of DR to a new facility. As General Manager at Reliance Industries, he lead large to mega-size projects.

Tejas Mehta

VP-IT IIFL (India Infoline)

Mentor: Sankarson Banerjee CIO IIFL (India Infoline)

several roles at Barclays Bank, right from leading execution of key infrastructure projects, heading operations to heading the sourcing function. He played an instrumental role in setting up Barclay’s production data center in Mumbai and migration of DR to a new facility. Apart from these, he executed several cost savings initiatives & virtualization projects. Mehta spent more than a decade at Reliance Industries contributing in diversified roles right from Project Manager in 1997 to General Manager before moving to Barclays in the technology and non-technology domains. In this span, he headed a team of up to 40 plus professionals and led large to mega-size projects. Apart from managing and directing projects, he played a crucial role in decision making, product selection and procurement for the group. He is an engineering graduate and is currently pursuing his part time MBA at NMIMS.

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Future Strategist Award

A strong focus on end results

ma Ramani has served the ` 4,933 crore Infrastructure Development Finance Company (IDFC) since 1998 (13 years) and has been instrumental in the conceptualization, design and implementation of IT policies and procedures at IDFC. In the capacity of Vice President - IT, her responsibilities include new standards implementation and compliance, besides facilitating internal, external, vendor and regulatory audits. She is a business management graduate, a qualified CISA (Certified Information Systems Auditor) and a CIA (Certified Internal Auditor), besides being an ISO 27001 lead Auditor and Implementer. Uma contributed significantly in helping the company get its ISO 27001 certification, four years ago. And more recently, she helped in securing TUV’s certification for Energy Efficient Data Center, which incidentally is the first such certification by TUV in India. In another major project, Uma helped the IDFC in getting a Tier III certification from the Uptime Institute, USA for its data center design. The primary role for Uma in the past few years is to provide assurance to senior management on appropriate security control in the IT environment supporting business. Her mentor V C Kumanan, Sr Director – IT, IDFC acknowledges Uma’s

grasp on the issues at hand and the challenges with regards to the business. He says, “While technology may be a complex area, understanding the business implication and the cost/value proposition is a quality in this person that makes her important to business — and therefore she is a CIO in the making. Uma takes every issue to its complete closure with focus on the end result. This is something I have learned from her and implemented.”

CHALLENGES

Compliance requires considerable cooperation from the rest of the team and the organization as a whole; everyone needs to understand the benefit of compliance rather than seeing it as a necessary evil. And Uma introduced some innovative approaches to ensure this — these were well received by the organization.

PROJECTS

Uma has been a catalyst for IDFC getting its ISO 27001 certification. More recently, IDFC completed a full cycle of certification, and the re-certification involved inclusion of its securities business as part of the scope. This initiative was much appreciated as this business was more real-time and regulated. Internal IT Audit was another

Track Record

Career Achievements

During her 13 year tenure at IDFC, Uma Ramani has been instrumental in the conceptualization, design and implementation of IT policies and procedures at IDFC. Uma’s major achievement in the last 12 months was getting the IDFC Data Center Tier III design certified by Uptime Institute, USA, making it the second in the country and the only financial institution in India to achieve this.

Uma is a business management graduate and a qualified CISA (Certified Information Systems Auditor) and a CIA (Certified Internal Auditor) besides being an ISO 27001 lead Auditor and Implementer. She is also a former Governor of IIA (Institute of Internal Auditors), Chennai Chapter as part of the Board. Apart from this, she has helped IDFC to receive two major certifications for its data center.

informationweek october 2011

Uma Ramani

Vice President – Information Technology IDFC

Mentor: V C Kumanan Sr Director-IT IDFC

initiative undertaken on a yearon-year basis. These audits are comprehensive and all aspects of information and related technologies are reviewed completely every year, with appropriate actions taken to plug weaknesses. This year a concept of pre-implementation audits for all new infrastructure and application implementations was also undertaken. The Tier III certification for IDFC’s data center design, was an initiative taken by Uma, who supervised the project right from the conception to design and certification. Apart from intricate knowledge of compliance and the mundane task of talking and convincing various vendors, Uma needed to develop knowledge of electrical systems, generators, fuel systems, and cooling systems. For the Green Data Center initiative, Uma had to identify a certifying body (TUV Rheinland) from Europe. Again, this was the first such certification in the country. More importantly, the green initiative was established not just as an one time effort but more as a sustainable improvement program.

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Diamond EDGE winners

32 to 36

silver EDGE winners

38 to 54

EDGE winners

55 to 138

watch the awards ceremony at: www.interop.in october 2011 i n f o r m at i o n w e e k 27

Methodology

EDGE Methodology

n July 2011, the InformationWeek editorial team sent out invitations to IT Heads of user companies, system integrators, and PR agencies to nominate their clients for the EDGE awards. We received a phenomenal response to our call for entries, with more than 200 companies submitting their projects. In totality, we received 270 projects. In the first phase, redundant and incomplete entries were removed from the list. Based on an internal assessment framework that focused broadly on the parameters of innovation, cost savings, scale and efficiency, this list was subsequently narrowed down to 176 projects. From this illustrious list of 176 projects, a filter was again applied, using the same parameters, to select 20 of the best projects. Projects of these 20 companies were submitted to an external jury who evaluated the projects on multiple parameters such as innovation; complexity of the problem and success of the solution; improvement in the market share, efficiency or productivity; cost savings; employee productivity; and the criticality of the solution to the overall business.

PARAMETERS FOR EDGE Innovation/originality/uniqueness of concept Role of the solution in addressing a business issue Complexity of the project Criticality of the solution to the overall business Business impact/benefits (cost savings, improvement in efficiency, customer service, employee productivity, etc) ‘Own Assessment’ score (Jury assessment score for the overall project)

informationweek october 2011

Our jury members for EDGE include four eminent and respected academicians who are well known for their understanding of the business of technology. The winners of EDGE were assessed by an external jury comprising of Professor Pradeep Pendse, Dean, Welingkar Institute of Management, Mumbai; Dr Nandlal L Sarda, Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Bombay; Dr Bharat Bhasker, Professor of Information Technology and Systems, Head of Internet Commerce Research Center, IIM Lucknow; and Sushanto Mitra, Chief Executive Officer, Society for Innovation & Entrepreneurship (SINE), IIT Bombay. In addition to these parameters, we added an ‘Own Assessment’ score that could be used by the jury member to rate a project based on his overall assessment. This could also be used if the jury member felt that the project was unique, and the parameters as described, did not adequately capture its success/efficiency. Like every year, we decided the five Diamond EDGE winners based on the combined score, after totaling the scores for the parameters and the overall assessment score by the jury. The remaining 15 projects were conferred with the Silver EDGE award citation. We have applied a broad list of parameters to ensure that every project gets an equal opportunity to score. While some companies score on cost savings, others may have an advantage in terms of competitive ability. For example, a project in the area of BI or analytics may score high in the ‘Improving Market Share’ parameter, but less on ‘Innovation.’ Projects in the area of security may be critical to the competitiveness of a business, but may not give returns in terms of say, an increase in the market share. Similarly, a project on disaster recovery may not show returns in terms of cost savings, but may have been extremely crucial to the survival of the business. In totality, we have five Diamond EDGE winners (chosen by the jury from the list of 20 projects), 15 Silver EDGE winners (chosen from the list of 176 projects), and 156 EDGE winners (chosen from the list of 270 projects).

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meet the jury

r Bharat Bhasker is currently the Professor of Information Technology and Systems, Head of Internet Commerce Research Center and former Dean of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Lucknow. Dr Bhasker is also a visiting professor at the ESSEC Business School, France; Chung-Ang University, Seoul, Korea; School of Business, University of Maryland; University of California; and University of Texas. Dr Bhasker holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics & Communications Engineering from IIT Roorkee; and Master’s and Doctorate degrees in Computer Science from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Dr Bhasker has been conferred the ‘Best Professor of Information Technology Management’ at the recently-concluded Asia’s Best B-School Awards in Singapore. He was earlier conferred the ‘Best Professor of Information Technology’ at the Dewang Mehta Business School Awards at Mumbai held in September 2008. In January 2004, he was honoured as the Best Researcher in the field of Electronic Commerce

ushanto Mitra is the CEO of the Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE). SINE is the technology business incubator at IIT Bombay, which promotes early-stage technology ventures. Mitra is a management graduate with over 20 years experience in technology and finance verticals. Before SINE, Mitra worked with Techcap

by the McMaster World Congress, Hamilton, Canada. In 2001, Rotary Club awarded him a Scroll of Honor for his work and public service in the field of Information Technology and Management. He won NASA’s Best Research Productivity Award in 1992 in recognition of his research contributions. Prior to joining IIM Lucknow, Dr Bhasker spent 11 years working in leading research establishments in the USA. He spent seven years with the Goddard Space Flight Center of NASA in leading research and research management positions. His research contributions in Heterogeneous distributed database management systems, Heterogeneous distributed information management, Information retrieval from mass repositories, and Network Information Retrieval protocols won him NASA’s Best Research Productivity Award in 1992 in recognition of his research contributions. Dr Bhasker was a member of the High Performance Computer and Communications (HPCC) initiative of NASA that lead to the Information Superhighway project. He worked for four years with MDL Information

Dr Bharat Bhasker, Professor of Information Technology and Systems, Head of Internet Commerce Research Center, IIM Lucknow Systems and Sybase, California, USA and was the architect of the massively parallel DBMS, Sybase MPP. Dr Bhasker serves in several advisory committees of the Indian Government. He is an honorary expert to the National Science Education and Research council of Canada, and a member of Governing Boards of several Engineering and Management Institutes. He has also served in several IT task forces and committees of the UP Government.

India, a human resources and financial consulting services firm, which he founded in 1999. He has also held senior leadership positions at firms such as PriceWaterhouseCoopers and HCL Infosystems. Mitra is a regular contributor to technology and business magazines. He is also a frequent speaker at industry events such as CSI, TIE and PANIIT.

The projects show an increasing integration of business issues into IT strategies and policies

Sushanto Mitra

Chief Executive Officer, Society for Innovation & Entrepreneurship (SINE), IIT Bombay

october 2011 i n f o r m at i o n w e e k 29

meet the jury

rofessor Pradeep Pendse has been associated with the Welingkar Institute of Management for more than 13 years. As Dean, Prof. Pendse defines the formal process for launching new programs. He also nurtures the internal innovation process within Welingkar. He has designed MBA-level and other post graduate programs. He is now drafting the first MMS (Systems) curriculum for the University of Mumbai. Prof. Pendse has had a long innings spanning 25 years, of which

It was interesting to note that a number of companies have explored and successfully deployed various aspects of the cloud for significant mission critical applications. As a professor of MIS, I was also happy to note a couple of interesting applications of BI and analytics

r Nandlal L Sarda is a professor in the Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering at IIT Bombay. After receiving his M.Tech. and Ph.D. degrees from IIT Bombay, he joined as faculty in 1972, where he has been teaching ever since. He was also a Visiting Associate Professor at the University of New Brunswick, Canada, between 1986 and 1988. Between 1994 and 1997, he was Head of the Computer Science and Engineering Department at IIT Bombay. In 2006, he was appointed Head of the Shailesh J Mehta School of Management.

As Dean of Academic Programmes, IIT Bombay, Prof. Sarda co-ordinated with the IIT Senate and its various academic departments for creating, revising, implementing and supervising the institution’s academic programmes. He served as Professor-in-Charge of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, from October 2004 to February 2006. In this role he co-ordinated with the Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE)

informationweek october 2011

he served 20 years in the industry. During this time he also devoted 15 years to academics. While serving the industry he assumed various roles like Systems/Business Analyst and CIO/IT Consultant for numerous companies. He was also the Founder/CEO of a 100-employee IT solutions company that served nearly 50 corporates for 15 years. Many remember Prof. Pendse for his two workshops on Project Leadership and Business Analysis wherein he trained over 3,000 participants drawn from leading IT companies in India. Prof. Pendse is a visiting faculty to many leading B-schools in Mumbai such as S P Jain Institute of Management, Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, NMIMS, TISS, and VJTI, to name a few. He has served on the Board of Studies, and as a paper setter/examiner for the University of Mumbai. He is also the recipient of awards such as

hosted by IIT Bombay, to encourage and actively facilitate IIT Bombay’s faculty and students to convert intellectual property developed by them into business ventures. Prof. Sarda’s main research interests are in the areas of Database Systems and Software Engineering. Recent research areas include temporal databases, data warehousing, and ontology-based schema integration. His research has been widely published in international journals and at conferences. He has also participated in many conferences. For instance, he was Programme Co-chair of VLDB’96, a premier international database conference, held in Mumbai. He was Programme Chair for the annual event of the Computer Society of India in December 2004. He was honored as Fellow of Computer Society of India at its convention in November 2006. Prof. Sarda is closely associated with many companies and government institutions as a consultant, offering

Prof. Pradeep Pendse

Dean, Welingkar Institute of Management, Mumbai

the Dewang Mehta Award for Best IT Teacher in Business School, CSI Chapter Patron Award for outstanding contribution, and Distinguished Alumnus Award by the Narsee Monjee Institute of Management.

Dr Nandlal L Sarda

Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Bombay

advice on planning, selection, implementation and evaluation of information technology solutions. He is a Director on the Board of Directors of Union Bank of India. He is on the Board of Directors of Clearing Corporation of India. He is also on the editorial board of some international journals.

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diamond edge

Integrated Analytics platform delivers huge benefits for Mahindra & Mahindra

s a huge conglomerate with diverse business interests, the top management at the Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) group wanted to improve their ability to make insightful decisions faster, through a consolidated group wide view. With this objective in mind, the IT team at M&M developed a common analytics platform that could be used for delivering integrated intelligence across the group. The project has been implemented for more than 40 business units across the Mahindra Group. The unique feature of the BI architecture is that M&M can pull in data from disparate source systems into its business warehouse and churn out meaningful comparative analysis for its users. Today, the top management has a harmonized dashboard that has been implemented across the group. It has also developed more than 50 industry specific operational dashboards, over 1,000 management reports, and more than 25 scenario specific reports that can be used for deep dive analysis. This in turn can be used by the smaller companies within the group, who on their own would not have been able to create or use the entire range of solutions. The biggest beneficiaries have

been the smaller business units and new acquisitions. Lack of relevant technology knowledge or lack of expertise would have actually lengthened the new technology learning curve. However to bring them to speed faster, the IT team provided these business units with ‘BI Joining Kit.’ This kit contains standardized reports and templates. The best part about the way these reports have been developed is that they can be enhanced to meet the new BUs requirement by just adding a few free characteristics, without hampering the original structure. The entire development is done centrally by a team of eight, who ensure sharing of the best practices. This amounts to savings of 7,200 man days on a recurring basis. Today, the BI tools are now widely used by the Sales Team. For example, in the auto division at M&M, all sales reviews across locations now happen on dashboards. Further, the use of BI as an analytical tool had enabled the sales team to not only monitor their performance against KPIs, but also determine the future course of action. For example, availability of accurate and timely information has led to reduced reconciliations and better management

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More than 50 industry specific operational dashboards, more than 1,000 management reports, and more than 25 scenario specific reports that can be used by smaller companies within the group

Company: Mahindra & Mahindra

Use of BI has led to savings of crores in procurement of material Savings of 7,200 man days on a recurring basis

informationweek october 2011

Project: Group Integrated Analytics platform Project Head: V S Parthasarathy, Group CIO, EVP – Finance and M&A, Member of Group Executive Board

V S Parthasarathy

Group CIO, EVP – Finance and M&A, Member of Group Executive Board

of the billing process, leading to quicker payment and a reduction in accounts receivable. The analysis of sales data coupled with production and inventory data has improved product mix and increased sales as it has reduced the loss in sales revenue due to timely fulfillment of orders. Improved visibility across locations has led to the reduction in inventory carrying cost. Use of BI resulted in savings in the procurement of indirect material. M&M’s cross-functional procurement team has developed a report, which provides the vendor wise, plant wise cost of a particular material and their payment terms. Vendor negotiations carried out for various material categories have yielded substantial savings to a significant number of every company in the group. For example, with the view of consolidated volumes and also the disparity in offerings, an exercise was conducted to determine the potential savings. Accordingly, negotiations were carried out with the relevant suppliers in some cases, while M&M adopted the e-auction route in other cases. Through this exercise, M&M has been able to generate massive savings.

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NDPL builds interoperability framework for consolidating AMR data

s an initiative to improve internal and external consumer satisfaction and system efficiency, North Delhi Power Limited (NDPL) commenced its journey of re-engineering of meter reading and analysis processes. In 2004, NDPL had pioneered Automated Meter Reading technology (AMR) with the implementation of traditional vendorbased software, which was used for the downloading of data from meters from remote locations using GSM technology. As the number of AMR meters increased manifold (Approximately 36,000) with different makes and models of meters (Approximately 40 various types), maintaining multiple vendor software with varied formats of downloaded raw files and its further compilation became a major challenge for NDPL. As a result, meter analysis was done manually — one meter at a time, through the meter vendor’s software. This resulted in user group frustration as they had to manually download data from 36,000 odd meters. Approximately 10 days were used in just downloading meter data alone. Manual tracking of meter and schedule update in Excel was an additional task. Any errors found by the

billing group in meter data mismatch led to rework on data download. Additionally, there was no direct integration between meter vendor software and billing systems. Thus, the design and flow of the system was prone to errors as too many manual steps were involved. To resolve the inherent problems of vendor-based software systems, NDPL evolved a centralized framework that was inter-operable with multiple makes of AMR meters and supported MIOS (Meter Inter Operability Solution) industry standards. In this model, the read and convert APIs of every meter manufacturer was used by the proprietary framework to download meter data and convert the downloaded raw files using convert API into standard XML formats, based on a paradigm defined by MIOS. To enable business users to view various reports and dashboards on downloaded meter data, an interface called SANGRAH (meaning collection of information) was provided to the user. A business intelligence tool consisting of complicated 26 business logics was also developed in SANGRAH, to identify probable tampered/faulty meters automatically. Further site visit is done by field

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NDPL recorded a total saving of

Company: North Delhi Power Limited

` 94.90 lakh per year Reduction in revenue cycle time from 10 days to 3 days Manpower reduction for billing activity from six resources to two resources and in analysis team from eight resources to five resources No manual intervention resulting in zero errors in bill generation

Project: Interoperability framework for integrating data from multiple AMR meters Project Head: Vijayender Kumar Gupta – Head (IT)

Vijayender Kumar Gupta

Head (IT) North Delhi Power Limited

crew for these identified tampered meters for re-confirmation and the cases are booked for enforcement proceeding. This process has a success rate of 90 percent. This system coined as ‘AMRDA’ (Automate Meter Reading and Data Analysis), works on a plug-and-play model and can handle meters of diverse makes and series through NDPL’s proprietary centralized framework called CFW. Data from AMR enabled meters is managed in the billing system through five automated processes. Post implementation of the solution, the company noticed an increase in market share in terms of new connection services leading to consumer satisfaction. In the year 2009-2010 total new AMR enabled connections installed were approximately 20,000, whereas the number rose to approximately 36,000 meters in 2010-2011. NDPL recorded a total saving of ` 94.90 lakh per year. Manpower reduction for billing activity from six resources to two resources and in the analysis team from eight resources to five resources saved approximately ` 5.8 lakh.

october 2011 i n f o r m at i o n w e e k 33

diamond edge

e-Mamta improves mother and child health service delivery in Gujarat

other and child health service delivery has been a challenge for public health providers in rural areas due to high dropout rates, high left out rates, quality of services, inability to track beneficiary pregnant women and children leading to high maternal mortality (MMR) and infant mortality (IMR) rate. With a vision to improve maternal and child health services delivery in rural as well as urban areas, the Government of Gujarat executed e-Mamta, a mother and child webbased tracking application in Gujarat. Conceptualized by the State Rural Health Mission of the Health and Family Welfare Department of Gujarat, the funding support for the initiative was sought under National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) and the program was developed through National Informatics Centre (NIC) Gujarat. To execute the initiative, a Family Health Survey was conducted in rural and urban areas by health workers, wherein individual records of around 92 lakh families comprising 45 million beneficiaries, covering almost 80 percent of population of Gujarat were entered in the information system. The data was then validated by comparing with below poverty line list, voters list

and ration card list. Secondly, a unique family healthcare ID was provided to capture migration details. After that, all pregnant women and children up to the age of six were registered and provided a unique mother and child ID. With the help of the e-Mamta initiative, 12.54 lakh pregnant women, 4.09 lakh infants and 3.62 lakh children in the age group of one to six have been tracked for essential Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) Services. This has increased considerably from 1,65,635 pregnant women and 74,204 infant tracked before the introduction of this initiative. Under the initiative, SMS alerts are sent to beneficiaries, health workers, and district and block level authorities to monitor due services. Customized and bilingual SMSes are sent to target beneficiaries or their relatives in each group before their due dates. More than 17,433 automatic SMSes have been sent to beneficiaries to inform them about antenatal care and 13,842 messages have been sent to inform about immunization for children under the initiative. Also, 3,634 automatic messages have been sent to officers to report maternal death and 14,156 to report infant death. Apart from this, 2,04,324 manual messages

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Â&#x2020; 12.54 lakh pregnant women, 4.09 lakh infants and 3.62 lakh children in the age group of one to six have been tracked for essential Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) Services

Company: State Rural Health Mission, Government of Gujarat

Â&#x2020; A record 16,000 SMSes were delivered to all nurses and doctors of Gujarat within minutes of infant deaths reported due to measles vaccine

informationweek october 2011

Project: e-mamta Project Head: Anju Sharma, Mission Director- NRHM

Anju Sharma Mission Director NRHM

have been sent for inter-departmental corporation and to mothers and families for the uptake of services. In addition, 16,000 SMSes have been delivered to all nurses and doctors of Gujarat within minutes of infant deaths reported due to measles vaccine. e-Mamta stores individual-based service information, which can be viewed at the state and district level. It enables instant retrieval of historical data and service records and allows the development of reports, such as height-weight charts and growth and immunization charts, which can be quickly accessed and analyzed by medical, block and district officers. Post the introduction of the initiative, 24 graphs are available, location and period wise, that can be viewed in various permutations for quick analysis. The system has also helped in cutting down the time used in the compilation of reports from sub center to block, to district to state. Earlier, the total time required for a complete report to reach the state center from the sub center used to take a minimum of 25-30 days. Today, the report can be compiled instantly.

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SBI chooses to go ‘the green way’

tate Bank of India today has over 14,000 branches across the country, and the number of transactions at each branch varies from 300 to 3,000 depending upon the size of the branch. As the largest bank in the country, State Bank of India wanted to go the green way by reducing its carbon footprint. Whenever customers enter the branch to deposit or withdraw funds or to remit funds from their bank account, they have to fill in the deposit, withdrawal, remittance request voucher or ticket and wait in the queue for their turn to come. Resultantly, a large quantity of paper is used in the form of deposit or withdrawal vouchers and tickets. The bank came up with a very innovative first of its kind technological solution ‘Green Channel Counter’ (GCC) in order to conquer the above challenges, and to provide the best of customer service by adopting ‘the greener way.’ The goal of the project was to move towards green banking by bringing in reduction in the usage of papers, which in turn will lead to reduction in the cutting of trees. The bank also wanted to simplify transaction data capture and dispense with the verification process related to a transaction, resulting in

further saving of paper. At present these counters are successfully running in over 5,000 branches of the bank with an average volume of 75,000 transactions daily, which is growing rapidly. This solution also helped to save the customer’s, as well as the bank’s time spent in transactions. Another objective was to encourage inactive debit cardholders like senior citizens, rural customers who are relatively less tech-savvy to use their cards in alternate channels viz. ATM, POS, etc. by handholding them in a branch environment. This initiative was aimed at a behavioral change on the part of customers to carry and use their debit cards for financial transactions at the branches. The solution uses point-of-sale (POS) devices at core banking teller counters, encouraging customers to enter transaction details by swiping their debit cards without the need to fill up paper-based forms. The solution designed and developed uses the existing infrastructure, i.e., ATM switch, CBS and branch server. A POS device has been used for data entry operation for each transaction. The GCC initiative has offered a number of benefits to customers, allowing them to save a lot

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Savings of approximately ` 20 per transaction routed through the GCC

Company: State Bank of India

Till date, 17 lakh transactions have been routed, which has resulted in savings of ` 3.4 crores. Over the next few months, SBI expects savings of ` 13 crore every month With GCC, SBI expects to save 26,00,000 A4 sheets every month

Project: Green Banking by bringing in reduction in the usage of papers Project Head: Pradeep Kumar, Deputy Managing Director - IT, State Bank of India

Pradeep Kumar,

Deputy Managing Director - IT State Bank of India

of their precious time as they need not fill up various slips to their transaction through GCC. They can always have currency in their preferred denominations. Teller does not have to enter anything in the system as digitized information is transmitted from POS device to teller’s terminal. Furthermore, customer identity is also authorized by the system when the customer swipes his card and enters the PIN. It saves stationery, vouchers and cheque leaves, thereby enabling cost savings. Apart from this, GCC can help in gradually migrating inactive cardholders to card-based transactions, thus increasing the bank’s active card holder base and reducing its transaction costs. The GCC project leads to cost savings of approximately ` 20 per transaction routed through the GCC vis-a-vis the normal banking transaction. Over the next few months, SBI expects savings of ` 13 crores every month. Apart from this, SBI expects to save 26,00,000 A4 sheets every month with the GCC initiative.

october 2011 i n f o r m at i o n w e e k 35

diamond edge

YES BANK improves customer engagement with Insights 2 Engage

n an extremely competitive industry like banking, where almost identical products are offered by various banks, customer service, engagement and delivery becomes critical for establishing competitive advantage and for reducing customer churn. To stand out and differentiate itself from other banks, YES BANK has undertaken an innovative initiative called ‘Insights 2 Engage.’ This is YES BANK’s in-house initiative to develop a holistic, single interface to view all the customer details and relations that a customer has with a bank across all delivery channels. The bank was using discrete and independent applications to store a customer’s relationship. For instance, the bank relied on excel sheets to store insurance data, wealth management system to store investment details, channel registration system for maintaining registration of each channel, and so on. Since, the entire customer data was spread across systems, the retail branch staff, support staff and relationship managers did not have a single consolidated view of the customer. Plethora of applications made it impossible for the sales and the service staff to log in to each

application separately and collate information while interacting with the customer in real-time. This was significantly hampering the productivity of the staff involved in the tedious task of keeping track of the customer transactions across multiple systems, while at the same time raising questions about the veracity of the information. Additionally, there was no clarity regarding what products can be crosssold by the bank to the customer, leading to lost opportunities in generating revenues. Customer service was greatly hampered in this scenario. Thus, there was an urgent need for a system that could integrate the data from these disparate systems. Insights 2 Engage was conceptualized to address these issues. The solution, conceptualized and implemented in six months, provides an integrated view of all the bank’s relationships with a customer ranging across various categories, such as customer demographics, profile, financial relationship, and so on. It enables the bank to understand the customer better, generates cross-selling opportunities and allows proactive customer engagement. The solution allows intelligent

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The bank experienced productivity gains of ` 3.9 crore annually

Company: YES BANK

The solution has significantly brought down the effort required to source information per customer by a factor of four-six hours Average call holding time of a customer in contact center has come down by 65 percent

informationweek october 2011

Project: Insights 2 Engage Project Head: Umesh Jain, Senior President & CIO

Umesh Jain

Senior President & CIO YES BANK

searching of the customer profile using any one of the customer data as keyword, like customer name, ID, account number and mobile number. It also provides activation and usage details indicators for various direct banking channels such as ATM, point-of-sale, net banking, mobile banking and phone banking, thereby increasing customer retention. Post deployment of the solution, YES BANK has experienced productivity gains of ` 3.9 crore annually and identified eight areas of revenue generation opportunities. The bank achieved over 200 hits within the first 10 minutes of its launch and over 2,000 users on the first day. The solution has significantly brought down the effort required to source information per customer by a factor of four-six hours. It has also increased productivity for relationship managers as the effort required per manager has come down by 0.5 hour per day. In addition to this, average call holding time of a customer in the contact center has come down by 65 percent and users subscribed to auto alerts have increased by 16 percent.

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silver edge

AEGON Religare reduces underwriting cost per policy by 50 percent

eing in a life insurance business, AEGON Religare Life Insurance needs to underwrite proposals before they are issued. The company was facing challenges with manual underwriting procedure currently in use. Manual underwriting procedure had several limitations, including the possibility of occurrence of errors due to volume and turnaround time involved in the process. Another major drawback of using the procedure was the cost involved in manual underwriting. Due to the increase in volume, the number of employees required were on the higher side, resulting in increased resource cost, training and management cost. To address this issue, AEGON Religare Life Insurance decided to implement an expert underwriting system on a customized hosted model in a private cloud. The solution hosts only underwriting rules to ensure that no customer related or organization-level data is accessible in the hosted environment. Based on J2EE with real-time interfaces across the applications, the solution integrates with core policy administration system, data entry application and workflow solution. The solution comes into use after the

completion of data entry by operators. The data entry application calls the expert underwriting system on a real-time basis by means of a web service, which provides the necessary and required inputs to take an underwriting decision by the latter. Since there is minimum data exchange, the speed of transmission with simultaneous update to different applications is very fast and is well appreciated by the company’s network provider, business partner and application partners. Also, data exchange is built on the platform of Extended Mark Up Language (XML), which is faster to develop, easy to maintain, adaptable to changing requirements and has the ability to mask/encrypt depending upon the sensitivity of the data. Since the first six months of its implementation, the underwriting cost per policy has come down drastically by at least 50 percent. Also, no errors have been reported and the turnaround time for the underwriting procedure has come down from more than two days to less than few minutes. Although, the current year volume is double the last year volume, the company has not recruited any new underwriter. This has resulted in

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Cost savings of ` 27 lakh have been recorded in the first six months of the implementation

Company: AEGON

Non-medical cases can be issued within 10 seconds of the completion of data as expected to earlier two or three working days The company is able to manage double the volume from last year without recruiting any new employee

informationweek october 2011

Project: Automation of underwriting system Project Head: Sankaranarayanan Raghavan, Director – Information Technology

Sankaranarayanan Raghavan Director – Information Technology AEGON Religare

cost savings of ` 27 lakh in the first six months. Further, the company expects cost savings of at least ` 41 lakh in nine months of implementation. The solution has enabled the company to issue 55 percent of its contract on the day of login. Also, the company can now issue non-medical cases within 10 seconds of the completion of data, which was earlier in the range of two to three working days. Looking at the efficiency and profit trends, the company is planning to take the number of cases underwritten to 75-80 percent in the next four months, without any increase in the workforce. The solution enables the generation of customized underwriting worksheet for all cases, which reduces screening time and improves employee productivity. The solution also allows the company to validate assumptions made during the product design and its effectiveness. Apart from this, being fully disaster recover (DR) compliant, the system is able to switch over to a DR during the time of crisis with minimum impact to production.

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Consolidation of IT infrastructure gives Kalyani Group huge cost efficiencies

large conglomerate, Kalyani Group is primarily known in the world due to its strong presence in the auto component sector. The group has also recently started diversifying with a very strong focus on the energy and infrastructure domain. To boost its competiveness using IT, the group took an ambitious initiative to consolidate its IT infrastructure under one umbrella, and take advantage of the benefits of standardization, cost optimization, security and resource optimization. For this initiative, the group selected 19 companies to be a part of the IT consolidation initiative. The objective of this project was to transform the IT within Kalyani Group with the help of shared services. The intent of this transformation was to reduce the cost within IT, bring about IT service improvement and enhance enterprise security. This was a highly complex task as there were multiple technologies involved, including storage, servers, backup devices, networks, e-mail, communications and applications. The firm consolidated IT service delivery and support function with ITSM best practices, followed by establishing a process framework based on ISO 9001,

ISO 27001 and ITIL best practices. The firm also undertook an IT procurement standardization initiative. The key to infrastructure consolidation was the vital role of the core architecture. The objective was to ease authentication and access control across the companies without compromising security and manageability. Today, any user from any location has seamless access, based on his credentials and allowed access privileges. Post storage consolidation, the firm has increased the availability of the data based on high availability architecture. Data deduplication has resulted in less storage requirements, while policy driven archival has helped in reducing the data. The consolidation of ISP links has helped in reducing the total Internet bandwidth requirement from 15 Mbps to 6 Mbps. The total number of ISP links has been reduced to two from four, with reduced management of multiple network devices. This initiative has also helped in utilizing a common disaster recovery site, which has resulted in significant cost savings on infrastructure, power and cooling, and manpower costs. Prior to this initiative, the Kalyani group had different mail services at

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20 percent reduction due to license consolidation

Company: Bharat Forge

25 percent reduction in Internet link costs 20 percent reduction in MPLS link costs

Project: IT consolidation initiative across group Project Head: Yogesh Zope, VPIT, Bharat Forge & CEO, Kalyani Technologies

Yogesh Zope

VP-IT, Bharat Forge & CEO, Kalyani Technologies

different locations. Most of the group’s companies were not able to deploy the advanced e-mail services and had inadequate security measures to protect business information. Post consolidation, the group has eliminated multiple mail server license costs, with centralized manageability for multiple locations. A single highend content filtering solution at the gateway helps in reducing spam and virus attacks for the entire group. IT procurement at a group level has played a vital role in cost reduction. Significant savings were achieved by shifting the unutilized licenses within the group. The firm achieved a minimum 20 percent reduction due to license consolidation. By renegotiating ISP rates, the firm achieved almost 25 percent reduction in Internet link cost, and 20 percent reduction in MPLS link cost. At a group level, the project has helped in the quick deployment of technology for new companies in the group. Today, new companies just get connected to shared services and start using the service.

october 2011 i n f o r m at i o n w e e k 39

silver edge

Biocon automates artwork management with a cloud-based solution

rtwork management is one of the key processes in any FDA regulated industry. The development of artwork such as labels, leaflets and packages requires extensive collaboration among diverse functional groups such as regulatory, packaging, quality, production and marketing. Biocon, a key player in the pharmaceutical space in India, was facing this monumental challenge. The traditional approach to managing this process is time consuming and error prone and often results in the recall of the product, which affects the brand image. Biocon also faced challenges in exercising security and control as the process was manual. Further, the distributed and dynamic nature of usage patterns resulted in unpredictable supporting infrastructure needs. To address these challenges, Biocon wanted to automate the artwork creation process, which would comply with regulatory governance, as well as improve collaboration, reporting and predictability of business outcomes. After extensive evaluation of various options available, the firm decided to implement a solution from AppPoint Software Solutions. Using the vendor’s solution, the firm developed a cloud-

based Artwork Management System (AMS), which gives it the ability to automate and control the entire artwork lifecycle from concept to production. The application manages the entire artwork lifecycle from product initiation and approval from formulation, production, quality, and regulatory teams to printing and archiving of approved artworks. Earlier, getting approvals manually across geographically dispersed teams was a time consuming process. Today, with the new application’s built-in capabilities, such as rules based escalations, notifications and automated workflows, Biocon has seen a significant reduction in the cycle time. As a result, predictability, automation and control have increased efficiency by over 50 percent. Further, integration and reporting on various sub-processes and getting relevant information has improved significantly. Today, auditing is no longer a long drawn out process; the organization can track each and every artwork through its lifecycle. Automated date, time and employee details are stamped on each change and at every step of the workflow. Biometric approval process has enhanced reliability of digitized approval process flows.

highlights

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Predictability, automation and control have increased efficiency by over 50 percent

Company: Biocon

More than 25 artworks can be processed on a daily basis Development time cut by 90 percent

informationweek october 2011

Project: Cloud-based Artwork Management System Project Head: Radhakrishnan Menon, CIO

Radhakrishnan Menon CIO Biocon

The web-based collaborative development approach with built-in change management has helped in building solutions with continuous review and refinement by end users. This has drastically reduced the risks associated with developing solutions in the traditional approach, where time to develop and change is longer and most of the times results are unpredictable. As the solution is cloudbased, the entire process of design, development, testing and delivery has been done without any investment on any hardware, software or having to write a single line of code. From a capability perspective, the cloud-based artwork management solution allows the firm to process over 25 artworks on a daily basis. The deployment model adopted offers high levels of availability, scalability and uptime. Anytimeanywhere access to the solution ensures that all stakeholders are connected at all times. This, combined with built-in capabilities such as instant messaging, has helped in improving the level of collaboration among users.

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Cloud helps Classle deliver education to the rest of the pyramid

emographic studies indicate that by 2030, 25 percent of the global youth will be in India, of which 85 percent will come from the rural part of the country. Thus, the fact that students in rural areas are deprived of quality educational services is quite alarming. This issue was the basis of the foundation of Chennaibased company, Classle. The company started with a vision to bring education empowerment for post-secondary students, especially in rural India and its mission was to take learning and education to the bottom of the pyramid. Being a start-up, it was not easy for the company to receive the funding, thus it was looking at a very cost-effective and yet highly scalable and elastic infrastructure platform. Looking at its requirements, the company chose a cloud-based platform from Amazon Web Services (AWS). Accordingly, the company built its 100 percent infrastructure on AWS cloud platform and used the complete range of the infrastructure web services on the platform to build its applications and offerings. Classle built its platform using opensource technologies, wherein students and learners interact with their peers, teachers, professors and professionals.

The modules, features and content can be accessed and delivered offline, as well as through the Internet and mobile technology. The ability to use mobile devices, even low-cost ones makes the entire learning ubiquitous and accessible. Once students register online, they can access content, attend live online classes, review audio and video recordings, ask questions and consult experts on topics they choose. The registration is absolutely free, so rural students can seek knowledge, without having to worry about the cost. Adopting AWS and open-source technologies has given Classle a competitive advantage. AWS allowed the company to begin operations six months ahead of schedule and helped them speed up their development work. With AWS cloud platform, Classle was able to roll out nine features initially, as compared to five features it would have rolled out with on-premise infrastructure. Further, the company needs to pay by hours it actually uses AWS. Today, Classle has multiple platforms integrated around its website, www.classle.net. The website is a social learning platform with more than 45,000 users across over 1,400 engineering colleges. Nearly

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The website, www.classle.net, has more than 45,000 users across over 1,400 engineering colleges

Company: Classle Knowledge

Allows students and learners to interact with their peers, teachers, professors and professionals Nearly 30 educational organizations use ‘Campus Classle,’ the company’s free, private, on-demand cloud campus

SI/Vendor: Amazon Web Services Project: Cloud-based education system for rural India Project Head: Vaidya Nathan Founder and CEO

Vaidya Nathan Founder and CEO Classle Knowledge

30 educational organizations, such as the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras, IIT Patna, and the PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, have partnered with the company to take their free, private, on-demand cloud campus, ‘Campus Classle.’ The cloud campus helps to connect resources and students of these institutions, as well as experts from outside. After its success in India, Classle has now expanded its social learning platform to the worldwide market. It is growing rapidly and increasing the volume of usage for AWS cloud platform. Classle is working on building multimedia apps and is aiming at a target of 2.5 million students in 18 months. In the next eight months, Classle plans to launch pure play social networking, which is a tool that will help it to continue the relationship with students and help them in the journey towards life-long learning. The interconnections in social networking and the analysis of how Classle’s customers interact with one another is an important development area the company is looking forward to.

october 2011 i n f o r m at i o n w e e k 41

silver edge

DR gives HDFC Bank a strategic advantage

DFC Bank is the second largest private sector bank of India with 1,986 branches and 5,471 ATMs in 996 Indian towns and cities. Being one of the biggest private banks in the country with such a huge customer base, it was imperative for the bank to provide continuous and efficient service to its ever-growing customer demands and needs. The bank had to ensure that in the event of a disaster it is able to provide a high availability of its functions and services through its critical applications. With this thought, the bank embarked upon the Business Continuity Planning and Disaster Recovery (BCP/DR) project for resuming business services from DR site and data recovery within defined Recovery Point Objective (RPO). The main objectives of BCP/DR project were to ensure adherence to the compliance of RBI’s mandate, formulate guidelines to set up a BCP framework and management office, mitigate systemic risks and business continuity, resume business services from DR site and enable data recovery within defined RPO. The project was designed to make each and every system DRP-managed. It mainly aimed at providing a user

agnostic DR solution for each missioncritical application; setting up an automated switchover, switchback, fail over and fall back processes; preparing the recovery process document for these applications and undertaking periodic reviews; and carrying out periodic drills for the BCP ready applications. Since the initiation of the project, the bank has achieved full disaster simulation at network level. Presently, the bank has 33 applications that are completely BCP ready and it has successfully conducted 202 BCP drills to validate the readiness of the BCP site. Through periodic testing, the bank has been able to switchover to BCP for various DR facing applications within 20 minutes, which ensures that BCP systems are available to employees within 20 minutes of production downtime. Also, manual errors and dependency on multiple personnel has come down to nil due to DR/BCP automation. Given the fact that over 30,000 employees access various applications at any given point of time, the bank has innovatively used a global load balancing appliance for providing seamless connectivity to applications post switchover by using the IP

highlights

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Ability to switchover to BCP for DR facing applications within just 20 minutes

Company: HDFC Bank

BCP has helped the bank to lower its RTO from 2 hours to 20 minutes During a disaster, all interfaces between all the applications continue to work, irrespective of the location they are hosted on, involving no manual intervention

informationweek october 2011

Project: BCP/DR project Project Head: Anil Jaggia, CIO

Anil Jaggia CIO HDFC Bank

natting concept. The solution implemented helps in invoking BCP for any one or multiple applications. During such scenarios all the interfaces between all the applications continue to work, irrespective of the location they are hosted on, involving no manual intervention. The bank has also re-worked on its BCP implementation strategies. As a result, it has lowered its recovery time objective from 2 hours to 20 minutes. It has also succeeded in reducing its RPO to less than a minute for its Oracle-based applications. The periodic BCP drills involving switchover and switchback of an application and multiple applications at a single moment, has increased the confidence of the bank in handling any eventuality, in case of a disaster effectively. As a result, the end-user remains practically unaware of the environment he is connected to. The DR/BCP implementation in the bank is a strategic initiative, as it helps in assuring customers that the business of the bank will be safeguarded under any eventuality.

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silver edge

IFFCO TOKIO automates underwriting process

raditionally, at IFFCO TOKIO General Insurance the insurance agents or intermediaries were using paper-based proposal form/cover notes to insure a motor vehicle, subsequently the data collected was transferred to the main policy administration systems. Discounting mechanism was based on the market response and discretion of the underwriter. Intermediaries were expected to adhere to the underwriting guidelines as communicated to them. However, under this model, it was difficult to ascertain that underwriting guidelines are properly followed. Motor insurance is one of the important portfolios of the general insurance business. It is one of the fastest growing retail products and constitutes about 90 percent of total insurance policies in terms of volume. A proper underwriting control on these policies is required to maintain a profitable portfolio in the retail line business. To address this issue, a time tested principle of management by exception and automated workflow concepts were innovatively utilized for ensuring adherence to underwriting guidelines while procuring motor

insurance business. The solution was implemented in the existing pointof-sale (POS) solution developed in Siebel. A specific discount calculator was developed using various parameters like vehicle model, age of vehicle and geography. To adjust it with the market realities, discretionary powers were allowed at branch, region and corporate level. Similarly discount calculator was developed for generation of renewal quotation using the above parameters and claim history of the vehicle. Rules were also defined and implemented to improve the productivity and cash flow of the company based on the mean time lag between the collection of check and the issuance of policy. Before the implementation of this solution, it was possible to ignore underwriting rules as many parameters were to be decided manually by the intermediary. However, after the implementation of the solution, the system decides on these parameters based on the rule engine. Any deviation from system parameters requires escalation to the higher authority. Now the process cannot be manipulated and discounts/loading is done by

highlights

snapshot

Â&#x2020; Automatic adherence to underwriting guidelines and proper premium for motor policies

Company: IFFCO TOKIO General Insurance

Â&#x2020; An investment of about ` 30 lakh in developing the solution is expected to contribute ` 20 crore each year to the bottomline Â&#x2020; Achieved profit of ` 7 crore on account of 1 percent reduction in motor OD loss ratio from last year

informationweek october 2011

Project: Automation of Motor Underwriting process Project Head: U C Dubey, Executive Director ( IT )

U C Dubey

Executive Director (IT) Iffco Tokio General Insurance Co.

the system automatically based on the make, model and geography applicable. The system also facilitates issuance of policy at POS, reducing the turnaround time to a minimum. As the solution ensures adherence to underwriting guidelines automatically through web-based system, it increases the reach to smaller towns and rural areas. Also, no blanket restrictions need to be put on loss making model/geography, as the system itself handles these cases through escalations. This helps in selling more number of policies. Post deployment of the solution, the company has achieved 1 percent reduction in motor OD loss ratio resulting in profit of ` 7 crore. Also,

the company expects a huge return on investment (ROI) with the solution. Developed at ` 30 lakh, it is expected to contribute about ` 20 crore each year to the bottom line. Furthermore, the implementation of the solution has led to a significant increase in the employee productivity, as well as resulted in the improvement in the quality of underwriting.

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SAM implementation enables Infosys to slash costs on software licensing

omputers and Communication Division (CCD), the Global IT team of Infosys is responsible for building and running large, efficient and complex IT infrastructure and services, which spans globally with over 130,000 nodes and other backend infrastructure. The scale of the firm’s operations can be gauged from the fact that Infosys has a global footprint with 65 offices and 63 development centers. Since, software is one of the key resources for delivering IT projects, effective license management is a critical requirement. To address the requirement of improving software license and the software asset lifecycle management with license compliance, the CCD embarked the Software Asset Management (SAM) initiative. SAM initiative adopted an end-to-end approach by addressing the entire software asset life-cycle including all the three dimensions — process, people and systems. The tools that were developed and deployed under the project are Global Software Delivery Platform (GSDP), Software Catalogue (SWC), Central License Management (CLM ) and Enforcement and Manageability Mechanism. With SAM process implementation, 100 percent capturing and registration

of software applications procured in the inventory system is possible due to tight integration of procurement and inventory process. Enhancement to inhouse project management system and its integration with in-house inventory system, AMANAT, has led to accurate information gathering about software requirements and better planning and budgeting for the same. Post SAM implementation, hardware and software data independently linked to the user of the resource in AMANAT was changed such that interdependency among hardware, software and the user could be captured.This established a tighter control on software allocation and improved compliance as all the desktop/laptops were re-imaged before re-allocation. Infosys has also built the software catalogue, which grounds-up as a part of SAM initiative and has enabled standardization of the software application name, version and other information in project planning, procurement and inventory systems. Prior to this initiative, software deployment on end-points was cumbersome with both the requester and the IT support staff involved during installation. With the

highlights

snapshot

50 percent of software was reallocated more than once

Company: Infosys

98 percent service level agreement (SLA) compliance in software installation requests The ratio of expense towards new procurement versus AMC reduced from 5.5 during FY 2010 to 1.5 this year. Wait time for software deployment has reduced by over 50 percent

Project: Software Asset Management implementation Project Head: Muralikrishna K, Senior Vice President and Head - Computers & Communication Division

Muralikrishna K

Senior Vice President and Head - Computers & Communication Division, Infosys

introduction of GSDP, the requester can install the software himself at his convenience even if he doesn’t have administrator privileges on the computer and the IT support staff just needs to schedule it. Infosys has filed a patent for this initiative. Due to automation and other enhancements, the company has achieved about 50 percent reduction in time to deliver the software on to desktops or laptops. There has been an 80 percent increase in the desktops or laptops re-imaged before allocation as compared to the financial year 2010. The company achieved 98 percent service level agreement (SLA) compliance in software installation requests and registered a 200 percent increase in the number of software licenses having information about the host on which it is installed. The number of projects with software requirements documented in the project planning system has come up from 5 percent last year to 80 percent this year. In addition, with increased SLA compliance and faster software delivery, user’s wait time for software deployment has reduced by over 50 percent.

october 2011 i n f o r m at i o n w e e k 45

silver edge

Marico automates financial consolidation, improves efficiency

arico is one of India’s leading consumer products and services group that owns and operates 23 subsidiaries. During the financial year 2010-11, Marico recorded a turnover of ` 31.3 billion through its products and services sold in India and 25 other countries in Asia and Africa. Financial consolidation and statutory reporting was a challenge for the group of this magnitude. The company was using manualbased system on Microsoft Excel for consolidation of financial reports. As a result, it was grappling with several challenges on a regular basis. With the manual process, analysts were required to invest a lot of effort towards data collection vis-à-vis data analysis. The Excel driven manual reporting was subjective to several limitations like reliability of Excel sheets, data hygiene and ensuring minimum iterations. Additional complexities involved the huge geographical spread, which made the reporting at country and segment difficult. The present solution also posed challenges related to low scalability, data integrity and missing audit trail. Due to these issues, user time was

spent more on the verification of data efficacy than on the data analytics. Also, as Marico is a listed company, the quarterly consolidated financial statements had to be reported within a strict timeframe. With the inorganic growth ambitions of Marico, these challenges needed to be addressed on a priority basis. Thus, the company implemented a financial consolidation project called eMerge to automate the financial consolidation process. By deploying this solution, the company was able to address issues related to multiple reporting - local and international, data integrity and scalability. This also enabled quick and effective reporting at statutory and business and geographical segment. Apart from this, the deployment of the solution made reporting possible in multiple currencies. Another major advantage Marico experienced post deployment of the eMerge solution is the scalability of the solution at no additional cost. For example, even as the firm has grown from 12 entities to 23 entities in a period of one year, the firm has been able to scale and consolidate with no additional cost. With the solution, the company is able to generate additional

highlights

snapshot

Scalability of the solution at no additional cost. For example, even as the firm has grown from 12 entities to 23 entities, it has been able to scale and consolidate with no additional cost

Company: Marico

Reduction of four critical calendar days from accounts closing process Improvement of process efficiency by 300 percent

informationweek october 2011

Project: eMerge Project Head: Girish Rao, Head - IT

Girish Rao Head - IT Marico

value-added managed information system (MIS), like cash flow segment report and variance analysis. It has completely eliminated the need of manual intervention, resulting in considerable improvement in reporting confidence and eliminated the possibility of manual errors. Since the project was implemented without onsite vendor support, the implementation cost of the project was zero. Post deployment, the company registered overall time savings of 80 percent, crashing timelines by four critical calendar days from accounts closing process. The solution also resulted in additional value-added MIS, including cash flow segment report and variance analysis. Apart from this, the scalability of the solution at no additional cost improved efficiency by 300 percent for the organization. Normally the industry uses a financial consolidation tool for only statutory reporting but Marico has used it innovatively for providing segment reporting, business reporting and variance analysis.

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Enterprise DW enables PNB to save around ` 100 million per year

he Enterprise wide Data Warehouse (EDW) project was initiated by Punjab National Bank (PNB) for leveraging the bank’s operational data available in multiple sources systems, for facilitating ready access to data required for regulatory, statutory reporting and for various other analytical purposes. The solution has facilitated the consolidation of data available in multiple source systems for unified reporting. Some of the business drivers for this initiative include improving the quality of available data, transformation of data into information and timely availability of the same for improved decision making. EDW had helped in achieving operational efficiency and enhanced business decision support at various levels of the bank. The project also aims at enabling PNB to meet business challenges such as Basel II compliance for risk management, increasing profitability through customer relationship management (CRM) solution and implementing Anti Money Laundering (AML) solution as per the regulatory guidelines. The implementation of EDW has certainly transformed how the PNB

will do its business going forward. The senior management dashboards go a long way in proactive monitoring of the key performance areas. The single view of the customer that EDW is providing to the bank is helping the business in retaining customers, crossselling and up-selling of the products and reducing the sales cycle time. The solution provides complete automated MIS reporting service, resulting in operational efficiency and reduced manpower cost. The expected cost saving is about ` 100 million per year. Business worth ` 11.3 billion has been accrued, over 87,000 leads captured in CRM, 38,000 converted, thus providing systematic approach for monitoring marketing activities. Also, annual cost saving on account of AML solution is estimated to be ` 5 million. Revenue leakage, which would have otherwise gone unnoticed in the respective source system, was identified through querying in the data warehouse and got plugged, which increased the revenue by more than ` 100 million. More than 1,20,000 man days effort per year (two day effort per month for 5,000 branches x 12 months) has been saved on account of compilation of reports on a

highlights

snapshot

Has enhanced operational efficiency and business decision support at various levels

Company: Punjab National Bank

Expected cost saving is approximately ` 100 million per year Business worth ` 11.3 billion has been accrued Over 87,000 leads captured in CRM, 38,000 converted

Project: Enterprise wide Data Warehouse Project Head: Ajay Misra, CTO, Punjab National Bank

Ajay Misra

CTO Punjab National Bank

very conservative estimate. This translates to ` 12 crore at an average cost of ` 1,000 per man day per person. The robust and scalable architecture of the EDW solution along with the design and implementation strategy adopted has ensured that the solution is capable of supporting extremely high data volume (15 TB), processing capabilities and users (up to 1,000 concurrent users) — ensuring that the business is able to completely exploit the program for intended benefits. With the implementation of AML, the alerts are now generated automatically based on the rules set for identifying suspicious transactions. Annual Cost saving on account of AML solution is estimated to be ` 44 lakh. Improved monitoring of performance through dashboards, enables focusing on weak areas. This has improved the performance across the bank by at least 10 percent on key parameters. Further, the bank has been able to get the expected return on investment in this program.

october 2011 i n f o r m at i o n w e e k 47

silver edge

Mobile Lead Management system powers Reliance Commercial Finance

eliance Commercial Finance, a member of the Reliance Capital family, offers an exhaustive suite of financial solutions. In the firm, large volumes of leads were generated through various marketing channels. These leads were allocated to Direct Sales Teams (DST), which was responsible for contacting, convincing and closing the leads. However, there was no method to authenticate. Also, neither the leads nor sales managers were efficiently using the CRM system by going to the branch for updation or by referring to it. Typically, the firm used to follow a manual and time-consuming process for distributing and allocating leads across its branches, Direct Sales Teams & Direct Sales Agencies. In this process, sales managers were not able to determine the effectiveness of Direct Sales Team & Direct Sales Agencies reporting to them. Also, attrition in the sales force resulted in the loss of the lead information. In order to resolve the above challenges using technology, the company has integrated on a realtime basis all leads originating from marketing channels like SMSes, web, mailers, hoardings, or at the call centers, directly to the mobile phone

of the sales person, by developing a system called MLMS (Mobile Lead Management System). The MLMS is built using low cost mobility technology using a low-cost phone which costs just ` 4,500. Today, all enquiries from customers are attended immediately from the time it is placed trough the website, SMSes or other marketing channels. Earlier, these queries used to go unattended or were answered late. Due to MLMS, a sales person does not need to come to office for referring to CRM for contacting leads and updating the status. All details are available on their mobile phones. This has reduced the lead time to contact the leads generated through CRM system. Additionally, a sales person has the provision to refer high ticket case to senior managers in hierarchy by referring and routing the lead through mobile phone itself. This enables faster decision making process. A supervisor can check in real time the lead status like assigned leads, work in progress leads, closed leads and converted leads. This monitoring in turn helps in improving conversion. As a result, productivity of sales personnel has improved by 20 percent

highlights

snapshot

Â&#x2020; Saving of infrastructure cost to the tune of ` 5.7 crore annually

Company: Reliance Commercial Finance (Reliance Capital Group)

Â&#x2020; Cost savings due to productivity improvement is around ` 50 lakh

Project: Mobile Lead Management system

Â&#x2020; Prior to implementation, time taken to attend to enquiry was 7 days average. Now its attended in the same day within hours

Project Head: Shashi Kumar Ravulapaty, CTO

informationweek october 2011

Shashi Kumar Ravulapaty CTO Reliance Commercial Finance

Post deployment of the solution, employees can go to the field directly, basis the information provided through the mobile phone. This has helped in saving infrastructure costs to the tune of ` 5.7 crore annually. There has been a reduction in the response TAT from average 7 to 10 days to same day within one hour. Apart from this, cost savings of around ` 50 lakh have been registered due to productivity improvement. Projected ROI by additional business expected on a year-on-year basis is around ` 24 crore. The firm has already managed to get additional business of ` 1.6 crore on a monthly basis in the first six months. Before the deployment of the solution, no method was available to measure the quality of sourcing, however, post deployment due to MLMS integration with delinquency details, the issue has been resolved. Additionally, the deployment of the solution has enhanced customer satisfaction and experience, as well as has resulted in robust reporting mechanism for the top management.

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silver edge

Syngene simplifies complex business processes with ERP

hile ERP implementation in different industry segments is common, an ERP deployed for a firm in the Contract Research Organization (CRO) space is rarely heard of. CRO firm, Syngene, achieved this feat when it deployed Microsoft ERP (Microsoft Dynamics Ax), which is a first of its kind for a CRO in India with high degree of business process complexities, diversified requirements arising out of different business segments and business models. At Syngene, scientists performing research, require varied chemical resources for conducting successful experiments. Unlike in a typical manufacturing set-up, in R&D there is no pre-defined outcome, and the research requires a large number of chemicals with the dispensing quantities varying from very small to small scale (milli gram to gram). In Syngene’s case, this process was more complex as there were more than a thousand scientists working on over 300 client projects. These R&D projects required around 175-200 chemicals/ lab consumables to be ordered on a daily basis. On an average, each scientist spent more than five man hours per week for chemical inventory search, raising purchase requisition and

tracking material receipt. To resolve these issues, Syngene deployed an ERP solution from McAfee. Post deployment, the solution has helped Syngene in resolving complex supply chain issues. The firm estimates conservative savings of 2,000 man hours per week (2 hours per scientist), which is now being utilized for core R&D work, and has resulted in productivity improvement for the entire scientific community. The ERP solution has been integrated with bar code and weighing machine for chemical receipts and issue. A unique bar code is generated for any chemical received and is pasted on chemical pack by the store staff. Chemists fill the material requisition against project/batch number and submit to stores. Store staff, then, scans the bar code, weighs the chemical bottle and issues the chemical to scientists. All the desired information on chemicals gets transferred automatically to the system along with the creation of consumption journal entry. Once the experiment is over, chemists return the bottle to the store. The store staff again scans and weighs the bottle. System at the backend does all the calculations of unit conversions and posts the actual chemical

highlights

snapshot

Approximately 250 man hours saved on a daily basis across 500 scientists

Company: Syngene

Online availability of data has reduced response time to client queries by 50 percent Conservative savings of more than ` 50 lakh on account of avoiding repeat purchases of expensive chemicals

informationweek october 2011

Project: Implementation of Microsoft Dynamics AX Project Head: Ajit Manocha, CIO

Ajit Manocha CIO Syngene

consumption in the system against the consumption journal created during the time of issue of chemical, resulting in 100 percent accuracy in matching physical inventory with the system inventory. This has helped Syngene save cost, as it can avoid repeat purchases of expensive chemicals available in the inventory. The firm estimates conservative savings in excess of ` 50 lakh. The solution has enhanced the functional effectiveness of the analytical department. It has managed more than 165,000 analytical requests with an average of 750 plus requests managed per day containing 1,100 plus tests to be analyzed on a daily basis. Today, the system is being used by 500 scientists across Syngene. The firm estimates that each chemist is saving 30 minutes on a daily basis. Additionally, online availability of data has reduced response time to client queries by 50 percent. Earlier half of the time was spent locating hard copies. Going paperless has made overall system more efficient by enabling online review mechanism between group leaders and scientists.

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TCS onboards talent faster through global talent acquisition solution

or efficient deliveries ensuring a level of certainty, it is critical for TCS to hire high-quality talent across the globe. For ensuring this, TCS required a set of integrated processes and IT systems. This involved managing talent demand, sourcing, screening, selection, offer disbursement, pre-employment checks, on-boarding and talent integration within the organization. To further strengthen this, TCS has deployed a Global Talent Acquisition Solution (GTAS) that helps to identify and recruit (hire) appropriate talent (human resource) and on-board them for various projects globally. The solution enables hiring from all possible modes and channels including direct or referral candidates and provides interfaces with external entities like placement and background-check agency. It is seamlessly integrated with other systems (workforce planning, HR management and enterprise reporting). The solution also facilitates tracking of expenditure incurred during recruitment drives, strengthens communication between candidates and TCS and enables process standardization globally. Using this solution, TCS was able

to right source the talent and deploy it at the right time globally, meeting its recruitment targets. Processes were integrated end-to-end with automated workflow and human tasks, resulting in standardization across the globe. It also facilitated reviews, tracking and monitoring using dashboards. Prior to this initiative, some of the steps were managed using dedicated systems and sometimes required manual/local support for data consolidation and co-ordination (e.g. joining letters were systemprinted and then manually shared with the candidate). Earlier, the overall cycle time was relatively higher due to integration efforts needed during some of the steps. This initiative has helped to further consolidate, streamline and improve the underpinning processes. It also helped in reducing the cycle time (e.g. now offer letters can be released on the same day) and supports high volume transactions. Currently, the system provides profiles of over 250,000 experienced professionals out of which 150,000 aspiring professionals were registered during the last four quarters. Over 600,000 fresh candidates seeking

highlights

snapshot

Â&#x2020; Resulted in cycle time reduction for release of offer letters by over 80 percent (same day)

Company: TCS

Â&#x2020; Currently it houses profiles of more than 250,000 aspiring professionals and processed over 600,000 applications for trainees Â&#x2020; Has helped TCS to on-board over 50,000 associates in India alone during last four quarters

Project: Global Talent Acquisition Solution Project Head: Alok Kumar - Vice President & Global Head - Internal IT & Shared Services

Alok Kumar

Vice President & Global Head - Internal IT & Shared Services, TCS

job opportunities in TCS have responded to NextStep and DT Portal. Deployment of this innovative solution has helped TCS to on-board over 50,000 associates in India alone, during the last four quarters. This includes 23,000 plus laterals (experienced professionals) and over 27,000 trainees. The solution empowers talent (candidates) across the globe to match its skills translating into job options in minimum time at low cost. Candidates can conveniently plan their career options while in campus. Digitized solution helps to cut down paper usage and travel needs, resulting in lower carbon footprints. Thus using GTAS, TCS was able to right source the talent and deploy it at right time globally, meeting its recruitment targets. Since the processes were end-to-end integrated with automated workflow and human tasks, the processes were standardized across the globe and the management was able to review and track the processes to its completion with the use of process monitoring dashboards.

october 2011 i n f o r m at i o n w e e k 51

silver edge

Private cloud saves ` 64.1 crores per annum for Vedanta

edanta required a swift and hassle-free provision of IT services in the organization. Along with this, the company was looking at high availability of IT resources and services, better control and monitoring of infrastructure cost and scalability and resiliency to business requirements. Thus, the company deployed Vedanta Private Cloud Computing Environment (VPCCE). This environment has enabled the company to host applications, infrastructure and services over the private cloud, which caters to around five subsidiaries (Sterlite Energy, Talwandi Saboo Power, Vedanta Alumina, Allied Port Services and Vedanta Aluminum), corporate and regional offices, depots and manufacturing plants across the country. Vedanta is also providing private cloud services to third-party companies like Sterlite Technologies, Evonic Energy, KPS, Siemens and L&T, to name a few, which leverage Vedanta’s communication/ infrastructure services over the private cloud for their operations. Keeping in line with the reduction in company wise IT budget, Vedanta came up with an innovative idea of

opting for private cloud to support the five companies and more than seven third-party organizations, currently providing enough IT budget and resources to deliver growth-oriented IT projects and rationalize IT project cost across the sector. The total investment on VPCCE was ` 9.88 crore and total savings and cost optimizations achieved across locations through this project is ` 64.1 crore per annum. Along with cost savings, the project had improved the customer services by more than 25 percent by providing production order fulfillment accuracy, speed of response and accurate status information through improved processes due to MES. Before the VPCCE implementation, the companies were siloed and each legal entity had separate department such as time-office, telecommunication, plant communication, plant automation and IT, which incurred multiple budgetary/ resource pool. The result was only implementation achievements and that too after losing a certain amount of time for doing the same. With VPCCE in place, the scenario has changed to a centralized location for implementations with an easy manageability and cost benefits. Cost optimization has happened to

highlights

snapshot

Total savings and cost optimizations of ` 64.1 crore per annum achieved

Company: Vedanta Aluminium

Ability to rollout applications quickly with no extra CAPEX Improved customer services by more than 25 percent

informationweek october 2011

Project: Private cloud Project Head: Subrata Banerjee, Head - IT, Aluminium Sector

Subrata Banerjee Head - IT, Aluminium Sector Vedanta Aluminium

a great extent in terms of SaaS/PaaS/ IaaS, apart from the elimination of effort duplication. Now the sector is controlled from a single location, with only cost being the additional licenses for increasing the end-user. For the aluminium sector, the IT department takes care of all the activities performed by time-office, telecommunication, plant communication, plant automation and IT centrally for all five companies. VPCCE has also been able to deploy application/systems in quick time. For example, the company was able to deploy Gate Security system for Vedanta Alumina in three days time, completed template based SAP implementation for Talwandi Saboo Power in 10 days, without spending additional resource. Leveraging the benefits of the cloud environment, VPCCE was able to achieve the SAP, Gate Entry, Communications, e-recruitment and desktop video conferencing deployment in the last six months in the aluminium sector, which included two new business line items, three port projects and one power plant in line with the business plan, with no extra CAPEX spent for individual locations.

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Wiproites can now bring their own devices to work

usiness users at Wipro especially senior management and the field force wanted to use the devices of their choices such as iPhone, iPad or Android to leverage access to corporate applications and also to have the freedom to install the applications. In the current scenario, where mobile e-mail access was extended only to BlackBerry, users did not have the freedom to install the applications of their choice. In order to address the issue, Wipro initiated BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) project. The goal of the project was to enable “Anytime, Anywhere Any device” secure corporate application access and aid in business transformation. BYOD has brought business transformation as it enables Wiproites to access corporate e-mails and web applications (and also to access virtual servers/desktops in future) both from the Internet and Intranet with the choice of their own device. Further, it provides users the freedom to install applications of their choice on their device. This solution has been deployed with appropriate policies and processes using various technologies such as Microsoft Exchange 2010 (Exchange Activesync), Mobile Device

Management, WiFi Security, Unified Access Gateway and Firewall, etc. For the deployment of the solution, virtual servers have been deployed for Mobile Device Management Server and Unified Access Gateway. The solution uses Zenprise MDM, Windows Active Directory, UAG and VMware software. To ensure security and compliance, Wipro first laid the framework on how users with their own security compliant devices, could access the applications seamlessly and securely. Subsequently, Wipro migrated users to Microsoft Exchange 2010 (to leverage increased security on mobile e-mail access, increased mailbox size and number of mailboxes per server), which paved the way for users to get their own devices. As users bring their own devices, Wipro ensured that policy acceptance (such as remote policy, password policy), authentication and authorization were in place. Wipro also innovatively ensured that users could configure their respective devices by just importing the configuration files and managing the devices. For the BYOD Service, Wipro has migrated from Exchange 2003 to Exchange 2010, which is expected

highlights

snapshot

Users can bring any device of their choice with adherence to respective security policies and compliance levels

Company: Wipro

Cost saving of USD 2 million over the next five years

Project: BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) Project Head: R Srinivasan, Head IT, Wipro Technologies

R Srinivasan

Head -IT Wipro Technologies

to result in cost savings of USD 2 million over the next five years. With the service being extended to Intranet (wireless), the users will now have the option to disable 3G services and use wireless services when on Wipro Network. Also post BYOD service, the users have a 1GB of mailbox size, which eliminates the need to continuously manage and clean up mailboxes. The entire mobility management solution has been implemented on virtualized infrastructure, which has resulted in cost avoidance of the procurement of physical servers. The service generated an immediate interest in the users — more than 10 percent of the users subscribed for it within a week of its launch. With this service, potentially 1,500 users now can opt for better data plans which would result in saving of ` 400/month/user totaling up to ` 75 lakh per annum. The BYOD policy is a pioneering effort, which will help in improving productivity as it will provide complete freedom to employees to bring devices of their own choice to work.

october 2011 i n f o r m at i o n w e e k 53

silver edge

WNS executes complex migration project with detailed planning

igration of BPO operations from Sofotel, which was WNS’ oldest and primary site in Pune to Weikfield, along with the core IT infrastructure set-up, was a massive IT/ BPO program management exercise. This required detailed analysis for identifying all program deliverables and detailed planning across various functions such as IT (PMO and infrastructure), operations, facilities, procurement and finance. It also required identification of risks, having strategies in place to mitigate these risks and of course, flawless execution. Any error in analysis, planning or execution would have lead to direct monetary loss of ` 67 lakh to be paid to a builder. Far more importantly, any error in the project execution would have resulted in potential adverse impact on more than 350 processes pertaining to over 60 global clients, which would in turn have significantly affected the credibility of WNS. Further, this would have led to loss of revenue and market share for WNS. What makes this project credible is the fact that the entire task was completed within a span of just three months with zero unplanned downtime and zero client impact. The scale and complexity of the migration

can be seen from the fact that more than 2,000 plus seats were re-aligned and migrated. In addition, the migration of a variety of applications, pertaining to 350 plus horizontal processes (covering F&A, R&A, legal and contact center), as well as industry-specific processes pertaining to 60 plus clients, ranging from varied industry segments, such as travel, insurance, healthcare, logistics, utilities and BFS, were carried out. Apart from this, shared processes sharing infrastructure from a common pool were a challenge. There are more than 100 plus processes, which were in the shared infrastructure. Ensuring that these processes were migrated meant that their backend infrastructure was up and running. This included authentication, user shared drives, printer access, group policies and security. For this, the company did a parallel set-up at the destination site using the server virtualization methodology. This ensured that when the processes were shifted, no problems were encountered. There was also a risk related to clients raising objections or their IT team causing delays, which had to be accounted for and mitigated. The core IT infrastructure that was migrated include networks (service provider links, Juniper Routers, core

highlights

snapshot

Migration of 2,000 plus seats, 350 plus processes, 100 plus shared processes from 200 plus clients

Company: WNS Global Services

Entire project was completed within three months with zero downtime and zero client impact

informationweek october 2011

Project: Migration of BPO operations Project Head: Sanjay Jain – Head, Global Transformation Practice and CIO

Sanjay Jain

Head, Global Transformation Practice and CIO, WNS Global Services

switches, and firewalls), telecom (Nortel Passport, CM set up, Avaya Gateways) and servers (NAS Server, process servers and back-up library). The migration activities of the shared processes were kept to less than five hours. Some of the complexities involved in planning this project were seat shifting and re-alignment complexities. For example, shifting of 1,700 seats from the earlier location to the new location and re-alignment of 300 plus seats within the new location to enable consolidation of similar process modules was a highly complex task. During the migration exercise, the training rooms were made ready in the destination in tandem to the movement of the processes. Detailed scheduling was carried out to ensure that the correct processes with training schedules were moved to the destination and their training rooms were available for use upon movement.The entire migration exercise was executed flawlessly by the project management team within three months with zero downtime, zero client impact and the optimum utilization of resources.

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Document

Management

document management / mps

MindTree uses MPS to cut down printing costs

s a fast growing IT organization with operations in several countries, MindTree derived a major part of its business based on the long term relationship it enjoyed with its clients. Like a typical Indian software services firm, a fundamental part of MindTree’s success has been due to the high level of trust and accountability that the firm has maintained through meticulously followed security policies. While the firm was using the latest tools and technologies to prevent information leakage on the network, there was a possibility of information leakage via network printers. As MindTree was using network printers, there was a potential risk of printouts being left uncollected at these devices. This created a risk of information leakage, as employees would sometimes delay collecting their printouts or even not claim them at all. To ensure information confidentiality, the firm wanted to produce an audit trail or track the company’s print, scan and copy activities. Besides the security risk of information leakage, MindTree also found out that uncollected printouts created a lot of wastage. After looking at the aspects of cost, security and control, the IT team

informationweek october 2011

highlights

snapshot

Overall reduction of 50 percent in paper consumption, 25 percent reduction in printing costs and overall savings of over USD 62,000

Company: MindTree Project: Managed Print Services for cutting printing costs Project Head: Sudhir Reddy, CIO

Audit trails are now possible

decided that it was more feasible to go in for a Managed Print Services (MPS) model, where a specific vendor would take over the entire activity of managing printing at a specific cost. Accordingly, the firm floated a RFP, asking vendors to deliver a wide range of print-related services, which included printing, scanning and copying. The firm appointed a managed services provider, which took the approach of a consultant, and evaluated the printer landscape at MindTree. The services provider noticed that MindTree had 60 network printers located across different offices. It also noticed that apart from unnecessary printouts and singlesided printing, uncollected printouts or faxes were also common at the

machines. This contributed to the overall increase in printing costs. While print wastage was noticed, the absence of a systematic way to track usage in the company prevented the firm from imposing meaningful controls over its large employee base. To overcome these problems, the managed services provider analyzed the firm’s concerns and other challenges related to flexibility, control and growth. It proposed a solution, ensuring that only an authorized user can activate and collect the documents at the device. User authentication is achieved by enabling SSO access to the device. By letting users authenticate and retrieve jobs, MindTree also reduced the number of printouts left in the tray, forgotten documents and even accidental multiple printouts, which were often thrown away. MindTree has the capability to monitor at a granular level who prints what, how it is printed with which devices and how much it costs the company. With the integrated solution, the company is able to account for every single document that each staff scans or distributes. The company can also keep a track of when and how the document was delivered. This has created a culture of accountability within the firm. This in turn, has helped the firm realize massive benefits. In totality, there has been an overall reduction of 50 percent in paper consumption, 25 percent reduction in printing costs and overall savings of over USD 62,000 in MindTree.

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OWS deploys document management system

il Field Warehouse & Services (OWS) was established to provide a holistic approach to the material management and logistical requirements of the oil & gas industry. With warehousing facilities within a Special Economic Zone (SEZ), OWS offers ease of operation for its clients, eliminating the need for repeat re-imports of equipment as SEZs are deemed to be foreign territories for the purpose of trade operations, duties and tariffs. The logistics industry is document driven with a range of documents like customs forms, air-way bills, invoices and packing lists involved in it. OWS has about 50 clients and handles about 500 to 600 shipments per month from four branch offices across India. Each shipment has to maintain a minimum of 40 to 50 documents and each document has two pages on an average. OWS has to keep the copies of all the documents pertaining to the shipments for future reference and bill payment and needs to provide information incase client asks for it. In this process, heaps of paper gets created, which in turn causes problems of lost and misfiled documents, documents lost in transit and storage-related overheads. As a result, the accounts department was not in a position to generate bills to clients in time and there was a delay in receiving the payments. The other documents included employee leave application forms, expense claims and income tax declarations. Physical movement of these documents for approvals

sometimes led to loss of pay for the employees. To enable the organization to effectively and efficiently automate management of electronic and paperbased documents throughout the entire life cycle of the document, OWS implemented a document management system. It used MS SharePoint, which is used to manage document workflow and archive documents. The product’s search capacities are used to find the documents. When MS Office is used to produce those documents, it is an extremely simple process to load them on SharePoint.

highlights

snapshot

Central management and storage of scanned documents

Company: Oil Fields Warehouse and Services (OWS)

Tight control of document security

Project: Document Management

Virtual elimination of paper in the office

Project Head: L B Subrahmanyam, Head – IT

For documents that are not generated in MS Office, they are scanned and pushed into SharePoint. OWS has developed an Intranet portal which can be used across the organization. A process was set to scan the documents from any branch and stored in the central database at Mumbai. A workflow was designed to attach the other necessary documents required by accounts department to generate bills for the clients. A workflow process was developed for leave management, expenses management and tax-related information, wherein all the data can be captured and pushed into the database. An employee can get his leave balances before applying for leaves. An approval process was set up and all the data was made available to the HR department. Deployment of this system helped OWS to improve support to its clients, nurture relationships, deliver quicker responses and provide higher quality service with enhanced loyalty.

october 2011 i n f o r m at i o n w e e k 57

document management / mps

Evalueserve reduces printing costs using MPS

valueserve, a KPO firm, was facing issues in managing the printing setup, with respect to support, different makes and types, and management of toners. It also had issues with respect to high cost of manageability, tracking of usage and security. To resolve these issues, the firm decided to go in for Managed Print Services (MPS). Today, MPS has helped Evalueserve replace all old printers. MPS has provided Evalueserve an integrated solution where a user can print, copy, scan and e-mail in a secure way (using access cards). It also offers tracking, remote monitoring and roaming printing, which enables users to print from any printer at any of the offices. Today, Evalueserve has been able

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Â&#x2020; MPS has helped the firm save 40 percent of paper usage

Company: Evalueserve

Â&#x2020; The firm has reduced the number of printers from 54 to 25

Project Head: Sachin Jain, CIO

to save approximately 40 percent of paper usage due to forced duplex printing. MPS has also provided a way (due to security and tracking) to reduce the number of printers from 54 to 25, as the new arrangement provides the firm secure printing, which in turn allows the firm to share printers between multiple groups. The new printers consume low energy as

Project: Managed Print Services

compared to old printers, leading to 70 percent savings on electricity costs. As the printers are being monitored and managed by an external vendor remotely, Evalueserve does not need to deploy its own dedicated engineers to manage printers. As a result, the firm has been able to cut down the size of IT team by two people.

Enterprise Digitization accelerates paperless drive

he Enterprise Digitization initiative was aimed at meeting the digitized enterprise and sustainability visions of Infosys. The digitization initiative provides Infosys the needed cover against risks of damage, as well as contributes to the environment by reducing paper consumption. The solution is based on Microsoft SharePoint 2010 and comprises of a scanning solution and OCR capabilities using IRIS PowerScan. It also provides a single document store across the organization and enables search on

both authored, as well as scanned documents. Besides, the document management system also serves as a key vehicle in reducing cycle time of LOB applications by leveraging the scanning and document storage capabilities of the new system, document collaboration and coauthoring features across teams. The enterprise digitization initiative has also helped in improving enterprise risk management and compliance through digitization. A huge number of documents pertaining

highlights

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Â&#x2020; The Infosys finance department has extensively used the DMS and digitized close to 2,50,000 documents and 2,50,0000 images

Company: Infosys

informationweek october 2011

Project: Enterprise Digitization Project Head: Ganesh Gopalakrishnan, VP and Group Head, Information Systems

to legal, regulatory and other company related information are kept in the form of hard copies. This poses a huge risk in the case of disaster situations like floods or fires, which may result in the loss of important documents and can potentially have a financial impact on the company. Today, using a DMS, all the physical documents are digitized and moved to a centralized location. This provides the firm with enhanced security and good search capabilities. Till date, the team has scanned and uploaded around 250,000 documents and 2,50,0000 images to the DMS repository, which consists of invoices, claims, contracts, master services agreements and statements of work. This initiative is expected to bring significant benefits over a three year period in terms of the effort savings for document search, retrieval and spacerelated savings.

www.informationweek.in

Unified

Communications

unified communications

Unified Communications slashes communication costs for refinery A s an upcoming refinery, Bharat Oman Refineriesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; requirement was to set up a common communication infrastructure and network platform, which could cater to basic data communication services and enable secure access to corporate applications over a 3,000 acre campus. As this was a large campus with no basic communication infrastructure, staff recruited initially was provided with mobile phones for voice communication, which was used even for internal communication, resulting in avoidable expenses. The organization was in dire need of an internal telephone exchange for its internal and external voice communication. After multiple rounds of evaluations and discussions, the organization decided to implement Unified Communications with IP Telephony to enable secure data, voice and video communication on the same network. In line with this strategy, the firm deployed collaboration tools like audio, desktop video and web conferencing to schedule and record meetings. Based on the requests from business users and keeping in mind fire and safety precautionary measures required for the refinery, the IT team further configured features like hotline/PLAR ( Private Line Automatic Ring) to dial preconfigured numbers in case of emergencies like fire at locations such

as fire stations and control rooms. These features encouraged the users to think of innovative ways to use unified communications. Bharat Oman Refinery also designed, developed and implemented many IP telephony applications to aid business processes. This could be accessed by clicking on the services button on the IP phone. Physical security is ensured with the use of IP cameras at strategic locations and gates along with storage and video surveillance. Leveraging the investment made in video surveillance, the firm has enabled

A budgetary quote received by the Electrical Department for Telephone Exchange prior to UC implementation was around ` 2.91 crore including cost of instruments and telephone exchange room. Actual cost as per purchase order placed for IP Telephony including

the motion detect feature on the IP cameras. It has configured the recording of videos only when motion is detected, thus saving unnecessary recording and wastage of storage space.

the management tool, IP telephones and conferencing solution was just ` 1.59 crore. Thus, there was a clear saving of ` 1.32 crore immediately. Today, one time savings are attributed to avoiding pagers, saving on STD costs for voice communication, and travel costs which comes to ` 73 lakh. Additional savings are due to recurring savings of ` 56 lakh on telephony for operational, maintenance and personnel-related costs. This comes to approximately ` 82 lakhs per annum.

highlights

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Â&#x2020; Savings of ` 1.32 crore on telephone infrastructure

Company: Bharat Oman Refinery

Â&#x2020; Savings of ` 73 lakh on communication, and ` 82 lakh per annum on operational and maintenance costs

Project Head: Gita Ramachandran, VP-IT

informationweek october 2011

Project: Unified Communications

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unified communications

UC enables OPEX savings of 60 percent p.a.

he challenge at Aditya Birla Financial Services Group (ABFSG) was to manage multiple platforms across seven business units, 15,000 employees situated across 1,000 plus locations. To address this issue, the company established a single authentication platform for desktop authentication and applications. The solution was designed to have a common authentication platform (single sign-on) for Windows, applications and e-mails. The organization was also looking at an intranet, which was far more engaging for users to share information, contribute content and ideas and benefit from collective intelligence to solve business problems. This project was a complex migration of hybrid mail platforms to a common mailing platform. This had to be done without any business

highlights

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Moving to a single platform from multiple platforms

Company: Aditya Birla Financial Services Group

OPEX savings of over 60 percent per annum

Project: Collaboration and unified communication

Reduction in help desk calls by over 30 percent

Project Head: Tarun Pandey

downtime. The project also included a complete implementation of a new portal platform, which was tightly integrated with unified communication and collaboration. Deploying the solution across multiple locations without any loss of e-mail, as well as achieving single signon for various applications at the same point in time meant multiple projects were impacting various IT systems. This innovative use of various

technologies and projects at the same point of time ultimately resulted in increased user productivity, lesser travel and communication costs, reduced IT calls, thus leading to enhanced user satisfaction and more manageable systems. The collaboration platform is being leveraged to automate processes and is helping the company in streamlining customer service and experience.

Gati gains from its VC solution

ati, express distribution and supply chain solutions company, implemented a cost-effective video conferencing (VC) solution. The software-based VC facility is available at 62 locations and is seamlessly integrated with high-end Polycom VC facility at key locations. The solution was rolled out with very little investment. In video conference room all that was required was a web camera and audio device.

Also, the laptop users could use the laptop camera and audio to get connected. The biggest advantage of the facility is that the participants can get connected using a data card. This means the VC can be done even while travelling in a car. Also, external participants such as customers/vendors can join the VC by clicking the web invite. One extremely powerful usage is the sharing of document. The refresh is instantaneous

highlights

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Huge reduction in traveling costs

Company: Gati

Face-to-face review through VC has increase business benefits

Project: Deployment of softwarebased video conferencing facility

ROI achieved in less than three months

Project Head: G S Ravi Kumar, Chief Information Officer

informationweek october 2011

— all participants can see the PPT or any other document similar to seeing a local presentation. This has helped in doing training at multiple locations and conducting software application demonstrations. About 570 VCs have taken place in the last six months, i.e. approximately 95 VCs per month which comes to nearly four VCs per working day. Earlier, all meetings, reviews, trainings and interviews used to happen face-toface wherein participants needed to travel to their respective locations. Sometimes, the company used VC facilities from external service providers at their premises where the cost was quite high. It used to conduct audio conferences as well, which was not very effective. Post implementation, Gati is using the VC facility for management meetings, reviews and multi-location interviews.

www.informationweek.in

security

Essar fortifies security for the Web 2.0 era

aced with the growing trend of consumerization of IT, the IT team at Essar decided to initiate a project that would help it to secure information across all delivery channels and access mediums. Some of the key objectives to implement this project were to discover critical data in sensitive business units, identify critical business processes which had access to sensitive data and monitor and prevent sensitive information getting leaked through the corporate network. To do so, the firm implemented a comprehensive DLP solution from Websense that enables the firm to discover, monitor and protect sensitive information. Essar has implemented both network and end-point DLP, thereby ensuring security of all possible channels through which information can leak. The firm has also deployed Websense Secure

highlights

snapshot

Ability to successfully monitor and protect almost 1,200 critical types of information

Company: Essar

Ability to provide access to social networking websites without compromising on security

Web gateway components, which allows it to enforce Internet usage policies comprehensively. The realtime scanning and categorization capabilities of the solution allow Essar to enable access to social networking and other Web 2.0 content to its employees, without compromising security. A remote filtering solution from Websense allows Essar to enforce Internet usage policies on the corporate provided asset even when

Project: Data protection solution for Web 2.0 environment Project Head: Jayantha Prabhu, CTO, Essar Group

the user is accessing Internet outside its network. Today, Essar can monitor and prevent leakage of sensitive information through its corporate network. Using the solution, the company has successfully monitored and protected almost 1,200 critical type of information every month on an average from getting leaked. Essar has also minimized bandwidth loss risks, as non-productive and bandwidth choking content.

Enterprise Security Framework shields RCL

hile Reliance Capital (RCL) had historically invested a lot of effort in securing its critical company information, the focus was traditionally on external threats, and not internal risks. To address this issue, the RCL team developed an Enterprise Data Risk Management Framework to meet its business objectives. The framework comprises of five dimensions — data flow analysis, document rights

management, data loss prevention, encryption security and centralized management. To design this framework, RCL followed a phased approach, wherein business units deemed critical by the senior management were included in the first phase of the project. The team looked at key business drivers, industry pain points, regulatory guidelines and other aspects specific to the financial services business to

highlights

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More than 15,000 documents have been secured till date

Company: Reliance Capital

Around 250 plus malicious incidents to send out corporate data detected and blocked

Project: Enterprise Security Framework Project Head: Murli Nambiar, Senior Vice President – IT, Group CISO

develop a four-pronged Enterprise Data Risk Management Framework. This framework was tailored to the unique requirements and challenges of the industry. Within just six months of its implementation, the IT team was able to highlight data leakage prevention for critical information and demonstrate cost savings for the organization. This solution has helped RCL in ensuring adherence to mutual fund, broking, insurance regulators and IT Act of India requirements. Today, the firm has improved traceability and reactive measures to data leakage. Around 250 plus malicious incidents were identified and data saved from being sent out. The team was also able to address over 300 potential data leakage gaps in corporate processes.

october 2011 i n f o r m at i o n w e e k 65

security

IOCL implements comprehensive security architecture

orporate Information Systems (COIS) of IndianOil Corporation Limited provides business critical Information and communication technology services to the corporation. The information being stored at COIS’ data center is critical to the business of the corporation and any loss of integrity, confidentiality and non-availability of such data at any time can have an adverse impact on the organization. To safeguard such information from being tampered and to make sure that the correct information is available at all times to the authorized personnel, IOCL implemented perimeter security for mission critical ERP services. Additionally, a comprehensive network security architecture for the data center and disaster recovery sites has been implemented by IOCL. The solution includes multi-staged heterogeneous firewalls and Intrusion

highlights

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Different security architectures have been used for different groups of users to access corporate data center

Company: IOCL

Prevention System (IPS) for any traffic related to ERP servers. A Security Operation Center (SOC) is maintained at the corporate data center. The SOC continuously monitors the traffic passing through the devices using the latest SIEM tools and takes proactive action to mitigate any threat. Different security architectures have been used for the different groups of users (viz. LAN, WAN and Internet users) to access the corporate data center To

Project: Security for mission critical ERP Project Head: S Ramasamy, Executive Director (IS)

attain immediate roll-over to the BCP site with full services as of active site, the same level of security architecture has been implemented in case of failover to DR BCP site. IOCL has also implemented an SIEM solution to analyze and corelate the different security activities. The international standard on Information Security Management System (ISMS: 27001) has already been framed for the business-critical ERP setup.

Infosys pushes limits of security with DOT1X

roject DOT1X was conceptualized and implemented to enhance the security posture of the access layer in the Infosys corporate network across the enterprise, thereby preventing rogue end-points trying to gain access into the network through both wired and wireless mediums. This initiative establishes a security framework using 802.1x standards, where only authorized end-points that have valid machine accounts on the Enterprise

Active Directory (AD) can gain access to the network. Today, with 802.1x enabled on the access layer, devices that do not have a valid machine account in the Infosys AD are unable to access the corporate network. The technology prevents unmanaged hubs from getting connected to the network that can potentially cause layer-2 loops in the network, thereby bringing down the access switch. Additionally,

highlights

snapshot

Savings of 1 million USD

Company: Infosys

Transparent rollout with zero downtime

Project: DOT1X

Ability to protect sensitive and

confidential customer data

informationweek october 2011

Project Head: Muralikrishna K, Senior VP and Head - Computers & Communication Division

a foundation is laid to implement Network Access Protection, wherein policy servers that verify patch levels of devices connecting to the network for compliance can be deployed in conjunction with NPS servers. This increases the end-point security compliance and reduces end-point vulnerabilities to a greater degree. From an infrastructure and solution point of view, the initiative has helped the organization to save cost to the tune of 1 million USD, when compared to an out-of-the-box commercial appliance-based product. The solution is non-intrusive and the rollout was transparent to the end-user community with zero downtime. Infosys operates in various industry segments that deals with sensitive customer data. Post implementation of the solution, the company can now protect sensitive and confidential customer data.

www.informationweek.in

security

Operational Risk Management secures PNB

BI has mandated that all banks should adopt the BASEL II guidelines within a certain timeframe. To adhere to this requirement the Punjab National Bank implemented the Operational Risk Management Solution as a downstream project, with data feed from the Enterprise Data Warehouse. After implementing this solution, the bank realized several other benefits. This solution has helped the bank to capture lost data pertaining to KRIs (Key Risk Indicators), in scenario analysis (for capturing rare loss events). Further, it has introduced Risk & Control Self Assessment (RCSA) surveys. Before implementation, the bank incurred high travel costs for its people to conduct RCSA surveys on the field. Nearly 140 people were involved in these field surveys and the bank was spending ` 5,000 per person, per quarter for travel. Travel

highlights

snapshot

Savings of ` 28 lakh per year on travel

Company: Punjab National Bank

Approximate cost saving of ` 12 lakh per year (conservative) on manpower and administrative costs

costs were drastically reduced after the implementation, and the bank has saved ` 28 lakh per year, by a conservative estimate. Consolidation of information online, instead of follow-up through e-mails and letters has also boosted productivity levels. The follow-up process was reduced from one month to just a day. That translates to approximate cost savings of ` 12 lakh per year on telephone charges,

Project: Operational Risk Management System Project Head: Ajay Misra , CTO

manpower and other administrative costs. Earlier, only a few risk assessment surveys were conducted due to cost considerations and the time required for compilation. With this solution, more than 48 surveys can be conducted. The bank anticipates an expected return of approximately ` 25 crore in the next five years. This will come from unlocking of capital, improved loss prevention monitoring and improved procedures.

Reliance Life Insurance has holistic outlook on security

ith a network of more than 2,000 computers and 22,000 assets, Reliance Life Insurance has one of the largest IT setups in the country. As the organization was growing exponentially, it was facing unique challenges in terms of IT infrastructure, standardization and security. To address these issues, Reliance Life Insurance tightly balanced combination of agility and security by using an integrated

information framework. The company integrated information security in the IT architecture in the form of processes, guidelines, procedures and technology implementations. It implemented a multi-layer security framework to protect its information assets. The approach to information security begins at business process analysis, which is the source of data generation till information protection on storage devices.

highlights

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Installation of DRM solutions across all desktops and laptops, enabling sharing of secured confidential business data without the risk of data leakage

Company: Reliance Life Insurance

informationweek october 2011

Project: Holistic Security Framework Project Head: Chandrasekaran Mohan, CTO

Today, all devices like CD/DVD writers, USB ports are configured for read only access only. The firm has also installed DLP agents across all critical desktops and laptops. In addition, it has installed DRM solutions across all desktops and laptops, which has enabled sharing of secured confidential business data without the risk of data leakage. This has resulted in a better security posture with multiple level of defense across all production desktops throughout the enterprise, resulting in drop of call volume and improved availability of computing resources. For external vendors, the firm has designed a vendor security framework. This ensures that only the designated computers and applications at the vendor’s location have an access to the data.

www.informationweek.in

GRC framework improves security posture

s a new-generation bank, YES BANK realized the strategic importance of the right governance, risk and controls mechanism to attain its business objectives. To address these business requirements, the IT team at YES BANK developed a comprehensive, yet simple to implement Governance, Risk and Compliance Competency Framework to manage its technology. The framework uses a combination of basic tools such as project portfolio management, service request management, and problem/incident management. It draws upon the processes/practices prescribed in the industry frameworks such as Gartner IS Lite, PMP, COBIT, ISACA and VAL-IT. It has adapted and adopted these practices to make the framework simpler, comprehensive and business focused. The framework has 15 high

highlights

snapshot

Contribution of over USD 5 million to the bottom-line last year through savings

Company: YES BANK

30 percent reduction in overall budgets for RTB even though bank grew by over 50 percent

level processes. Under each of these high-level processes, there are 10-15 sub processes. Post implementation, the bank has better business alignment with focus on growth and transformation of the bank rather than technology. There is a higher level of strategic and tactical alignment between product, operations, technology and sales teams, resulting in multiplier effect and true partnership. Resources have been moved

Project: IT Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) Competency Framework Implementation Project Head: Umesh Jain, CIO

away from operations to focus on transformational activities. This has resulted in drastic reduction in costs, leading to significant commercial advantage for the bank on the pricing front. YES BANK now has a highly controlled environment with no major downtimes or frauds, resulting in consistent and superior customer experience. There has also been a significant improvement in project delivery timelines.

Sterlite enforces security policy from central location

terlite consists of three different organizations, which came together at different times via mergers. Each business vertical is run as a full-fledged unit by itself. Hence, it was challenging to implement a common IT security policy across the enterprise. Sterlite was thus looking at a solution, which could provide centralized control over perimeter firewalls, using which policies could be implemented. Hence, Sterlite opted for UTM

devices at nine different locations, which are controlled from a central location. The central location uses a mix of open source technologies to update the firewall configurations based on the timestamps. Before the solution, the IT security policy had to be deployed at each appliance individually. Post deployment, it’s possible to enforce the IT security policy from a central location. By adding the MAC address to the database, it’s

highlights

snapshot

Ability to enforce IT security policy from a central location

Company: Sterlite Technologies

Management of multiple firewalls has become easier

Project: Centralized security policy Project Head: Jawed Ahmed, HeadIT, Power Business

possible to access Internet services with the same privileges throughout the enterprise. Now the company is able to get reports which shows the enterprise status at any given time. The management of multiple firewalls has become easier. Earlier, the firewalls were managed by three different persons at different locations. Today these firewalls are managed by a single person. Sterlite has full visibility of the bandwidth utilization. Additionally, after the implementation of the controls, end-user experience has improved as the Internet pipe is clean from bandwidth hogging malware. Sterlite is able to assure high standards of data privacy and security to its customers by the use of this system. Additionally, travelling users are able to work immediately at each location without waiting for the local IT team to configure settings.

october 2011 i n f o r m at i o n w e e k 69

security

Access to real-time security events

oluna is an online market research company; every single penny the company earns comes from being online. The ever growing threat of cyber attacks poses a great risk for its business. Toluna saw multiple attacks against its corporate application infrastructure, as well as various downtime incidents for end-user machines. The overall loss of revenue and man-power was so high that it unanimously decided to implement a

snapshot Company: Toluna India Project: Network security Project Head: Vikas Arora, Director â&#x20AC;&#x201C; IT & Security

comprehensive security solution. Toluna chose the HP Tipping Point solution to protect its network perimeter and internal network. Today, the central monitoring desk has access to real-time security events and can raise alarms in case they find anything suspicious. The accuracy of filters in the solution is able to mitigate multiple attacks and loss of business revenue. Post deployment, the company has not seen even a single instance of breach of security. The firm has also mitigated risks emerging from social-engineering methods and drive by download attacks. The downtime of corporate application infrastructure and end-user computing has also gone down significantly. Today, end-user computers are infection free, which results in more uptime and better productivity for users.

Nucleus Software saves ` 10 lakh

eing a software product company, Nucleus Software Exports required to ensure that it was adequately protecting its IPRs and controlling sensitive data flow within and outside the organization. Its employees maintained source code-related information on their desktops to develop, customize and support the product or customers. In this scenario, it was extremely difficult for the IT team to track and prevent the leakage of information. In absence

snapshot Company: Nucleus Software Exports Project: Implementation of Internet Content Filtering tools and DLP Project Head: Rajesh Garg

informationweek october 2011

of any tracking mechanism, data copied to USBs could not be tracked. To overcome these challenges, the company decided to deploy Internet content filtering and Data Loss prevention (DLP) solutions, Websense Data Security Suite and Websense Security Gateway. These tools helped in controlling, blocking and tracking not only sensitive information, but also in restricting users from visiting non-business sites, prohibited as per the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s policy. After the deployment, data leakage incidents monitored came down by almost 95 percent within two months. The solution also resulted in immediate direct savings of over ` 10 lakh. The ROI on the solution was achieved within two months of its deployment. In addition to this, 35 machines used for Internet kiosks got freed after this implementation.

CodeSecure system at Sharekhan

leading online retail broking house, Sharekhan wanted to ensure security of its applications and customer-related data. To resolve these challenges, the firm decided to deploy the CodeSecure source code review solution. Sharekhan also began a series of workshops for its developers on secure coding practices. The third aspect of this approach was conducting bi-annual comprehensive penetration tests, covering over 250 IP addresses and 50 plus online applications. Previously, there was no formal mechanism for testing the security of the source code in the development stage. Vulnerabilities would come up during penetration/vulnerability testing, which was done just once a year. By introducing the CodeSecure system and providing training to the development teams on secure coding practices, most of the vulnerabilities are being addressed at the development stage itself and the applications are less vulnerable before go-live. Recent penetration tests done show a dramatic reduction (over 70 percent from the previous round) in terms of critical and easily exploitable vulnerabilities on the web applications. The amount of time taken to release an application has also drastically reduced, since the security issues are fixed much before testing.

snapshot Company: Sharekhan Project: CodeSecure Project Head: Ketan Parekh SI/Vendor: Network Intelligence India

www.informationweek.in

Security dashboard improves health of IT

n addition to fully automated systems, perseverant human intervention and good governance tools are required to maintain desktop hygiene on a daily basis to mitigate the risk of entry of malicious contents. In line with this objective, the IT team of Reliance Communications has developed a fully automated governance tool named WDRAM (acronym for WSUS, Domain, Remedy, Antivirus and Marimba) which tracks deployment and efficacy of five proven technologies to improve health of the computing environment. Each machine is checked for the deployment of all the five technology components and in case of absence of any of the components, health of the machine is decreased accordingly. Further, for these technologies, the IT team has identified more than 20 important checkpoints. In case,

highlights

snapshot

Reduction in reactive calls by 300 percent

Company: Reliance Communications

Reduction in field IT manpower by 22 percent

Project Head: Alpna Doshi, CIO

Project: Security Dashboard

User uptime has improved from 95.72 percent to 99.51 percent

a machine suffers from specified checkpoints, the health of the machines is further reduced. Each machine is hence assigned a health score depending on the presence of five components and presence of checkpoints pertinent to these technologies. The project is a unique mix of five widely used technologies to measure and correct computing health of desktops and laptops. Today, the WDRAM dashboard is

used on a daily basis to view unhealthy desktops and take corrective action. This proactive preventive initiative has resulted in the reduction of reactive calls by 300 percent with resultant reduction in field IT manpower by 22 percent. The initiative which started last year has resulted in the number of calls per asset per month reducing from 1.5 to 0.5. Additionally, user uptime has improved from 95.72 percent to 99.51 percent resulting in less downtime.

Para-virtualization secures IP

sers in the R&D section of Forbes Marshall work on their respective projects, managing security on their own. They create a number of documents and drawings that are regarded as Intellectual Property (IP). The proprietary designs and documents can easily leak out of the company through CD, USB thumb drives or the Internet. The challenge was to deliver these documents in a secured manner to other teams. Making the correct

versions of these documents available in real-time was also a challenge. So the problem was twofold: securing IP and document management. To address these problems, Forbes Marshall opted for para-virtualization. The solution is based on open source architecture. It was conceived that a customized solution would manage the vast amounts of documents being created; it would give users the right to create and manage

highlights

snapshot

Savings of nearly ` 50 lakh on new hardware (since existing PCs are used)

Company: Forbes Marshall Group of companies

Reduction in electricity by 26,280 KW resulting in savings of ` 3,15,360

Project: Para-virtualization Project Head: Sharat M Airani, ChiefIT (Systems & Security)

their documents, and also track the movement of the documents through a workflow. It would provide alerts and notifications for actions applied on the documents. The solution also addressed the security of IP. To prevent data leakage it was decided that all documents, designs and data had to be stored in a central location. All users had to move their useful business data to a centralized storage location. All local storage devices were disabled or removed. Documents are managed by DMS, which is a web-based application, serving across the different functions. Post implementation, there is now a single point of document and project handling. Cross functions are able to get the current and final version of the required document through a simple search, thus saving time and increasing productivity.

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SAP enables Aegis to increase annual turnover

egis Logistics has a current group turnover in the range of ` 1,800 crore per annum and has six other group companies. The company was utilizing heterogeneous systems for its different functions and on various hardware platforms. However, these software were not sufficient to cover all the business aspects of those functions. Further, all the important and business critical functions were not computerized. These systems were neither robust nor scalable in terms of volume of data, number of users, security and connectivity. With the present system, disaster recovery (DR) and business continuity (BC) plan and infrastructure was not in place. The company also faced revenue leakage issues as at times, due to software problems, the bill was not raised to customers. To overcome these challenges,

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The group saved revenue loss of approximately ` 1 crore per annum

Company: Aegis Logistics

Around 99.7 percent increase in the uptime of applications

the company embarked on Project Bluewater, wherein it deployed SAP ERP 6.0 along with industry specific solution SAP IS-OIL & GAS. The initial implementation in the first phase was planned for nine modules for the business-critical processes. With the implementation of the project, the company increased group annual turnover from ` 1,000 crore to ` 1,800 crore. It has also reduced inventory cost and controlled

Project: SAP ERP 6.0 deployment Project Head: Manoj Kumar Mittal, Head - IT

pilferage of stock. The solution allows automatic mailing of daily stock and dispatch position to customers, leading to increase in employee productivity. SAP ERP’s integrated approach has resulted in the reduction of the duplicity of work, integration of other group companies and availability of standard reports. In addition, the virtualization of servers has minimized energy costs.

Asian Paints enhances business networking

sian Paints wanted to do efficient business networking within the organization on a common platform to act as a repository for critical business knowledge. The idea was to get close communities for discussion and knowledge sharing including company policies and files. The company wanted to have instant messaging and store messages of people even when they were not logged on. Maintaining company-confidential wikis, status

updates, mini-blogs and discussions on work-related topics were some of the other objectives of Asian Paints. To achieve these business needs, the paint company implemented Lotus Connection (LC) on Linux operating system. Though, the company is yet to utilize the full potential of the product, it is content with the initial results. The company has created dedicated communities for important projects. For example, the HR is using LC for getting

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HR is using LC for getting employee feedback

Company: Asian Paints

Managers are using it for project monitoring and tracking

Project Head: Deepak Bhosale, Chief Manager – Systems Development

Senior management is using it for providing strategic directions

informationweek october 2011

Project: Business Networking

feedback from employees for policy formulation. The managers are using it for project monitoring and tracking and the senior management is using it for providing strategic directions to the company and communicating important information. Post deployment, the company has been able to address all their requirements. Asian Paints feels Lotus Connections is able to handle these scenarios because of its varied features, ease-of-use and its business-ready social-networking applications, among others. It has acted as an approachable repository of important discussions where many relevant issues are discussed. It regularly covers important organizational events of the company and has helped the employees to connect with each other in carrying on important projects with a platform to collaborate.

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Aircel slashes average call handling time

IOCL reduces TCO with CARE

ircelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s call center executives were required to query 10 line-ofbusiness applications and over 130 VAS applications to fetch relevant information and respond to queries. Navigating 140 disparate applications for each call was a tedious and timeconsuming activity and often led to errors, as the applications didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t auto-refresh with each call. To address these issues, Aircel worked closely with

snapshot Company: Aircel Project: Enterprise Application

Integration Framework Project Head: Ravinder Jain, CIO

Microsoft to deploy and customize the Customer Care Accelerator (CCA) for Microsoft Dynamics CRM. Using Enterprise Application Integration Framework, Aircel integrated information from various line-of-business and VAS applications with the Computer Telephony Integration to create a customer snapshot. The solution presents data analysis from various applications, such as demographics, behavioral patterns, mobile phone capabilities etc., and suggests products and services the customer is likely to be interested in, increasing up-sell and cross-sell revenue opportunities. The deployment of the new solution has streamlined call center processes, as well as has reduced overheads significantly.

APM Terminals upgrades workforce scheduling

PM Terminals was facing a challenge with the manual scheduling of workforce and time and attendance management. The company maintained the same in an Excel sheet, which was referred to while preparing schedules. These schedules were then uploaded in the time and attendance system with subsequent eleventh hour changes. This was a time-consuming task, which affected workflow efficiency.

snapshot Company: APM Terminals Mumbai Project: Kronos Workforce Management System implementation Project Head: Ananthakrishnan Ganesan

To address this issue, the company decided to implement an integrated software system, which can be used for workload planning, auto scheduling and timestamp recording. Accordingly, it deployed Kronos Workforce Management System. The solution enables easy pattern-based scheduling and allows quick changes to be made to schedules. With the solution, an employee can check his timecard, leaves and schedule in a single webbased system, leading to increased employee satisfaction. The deployment of the solution drastically reduced the time taken for preparing schedules and collating employee data for payroll, which resulted in the saving of 260 man hours on account of coordination and system updates.

ndian Oil Corporation (IOCL) saw an opportunity to capture a place for itself in the polymer market. To achieve this, the firm worked closely with Microsoft and its partner Mahindra Satyam, to deploy a fully functional Customer Acquisition, Retention and Enrichment (CARE) platform. As polymer marketing was a new venture, IOCL wanted to leverage the existing SAP ERP infrastructure, by extending it beyond the enterprise, to acquire, retain and enrich customers for this business. The envisaged CARE platform was thus implemented to provide these capabilities and also to integrate with the current SAP ERP system. The CARE solution consists of an integrated stack of Microsoft business applications. Executives across the company now view the same tactical and operational information, which enables them to gain business insight to drive improved decision-making. Additionally, the solution reduces cycle time by approximately three days and the total cost of ownership by 30 percent. CARE has also ensured faster approval of pricing and discounting. As activities will be filed online, the solution will result in approximately five days reduction of cycle time. Post deployment, the firm has gained ` 40 per MT of sold products due to shortened revenue realization cycles. IOCL has also reduced unproductive travel.

snapshot Company: Indian Oil Corporation Project Name: Customer Acquisition, Retention and Enrichment (CARE) Project Head: George Mathew

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Atul streamlines accounts payable process

raditionally, the process from invoice receipt to payment release at Atul Limited (a chemicals manufacturing company) included physical movement of the party’s paper invoice from the invoice receipt desk to the final payment cheque/draft preparation desk. The process being manual, without any intervention of IT-enabled controls, inherently had its inefficiencies and was vulnerable to errors — which adversely impacted the cost effectiveness of operations in various functional aspects of the organization. Some of the key business issues prevailing in the accounts payable cycle were inefficiency and approval delays, loss of invoices, lack of visibility and transparency of the accounts payable cycle to stakeholders, and delays in responding to paymentrelated enquires.

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Accrual of ` 12.10 Lacs in cash flow

Company: Atul Limited

Zero vendor payment delay from earlier 500 invoices/month Zero loss and instant visibility of invoices

To enhance the efficiency of its accounts payable process, Atul implemented integrated accounts payable and digital invoice image scanning system. The system integrates the Oracle Applications eBusiness Suite R12 and ERP’s accounts payable module with an innovative automated invoice scanning system. The system seamlessly picks up the PDF file of the supplier invoice from the file server and shares the same with the accounts payable

Project: Digital invoice image scanning system Project Head: Rajat Sharma, President – IT

executive, who can immediately take an action for the payment activity. Post deployment the company registered instant visibility (from the delay of 8 to 12 days) of invoice on the accounts payable desk upon creation of the receipt entry in the system. The solution deployment also resulted in increased visibility of procure-to-pay cycle to all stakeholders through the online system and auto mail alerts of all stages of the invoice.

BSES on a road to automation of processes

t power distribution company BSES, New Delhi, the entire billing system for their high-consumption key consumers existed on an in-house developed legacy application, without proper data integration with SAP R/3, GIS and SCADA. The applications were also very heavy and required heavy bandwidth for each transactions. Hence, payout on bandwidth upgradation, maintenance and creating redundancy was very high. Further, with time and

dynamic business requirement, the processes needed to be reviewed and aligned. It required a single face to these elite consumers, and a 360 degree view resulting in increased customer satisfaction and improvement in revenue cycle management. At BSES Delhi, 60 percent of the assured revenue gets generated from 20 percent of its key high-value consumers. To provide better services to customers, project ‘EDGE- Key Consumers’ was

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ROI of ` 10 crore per annum

Company: BSES, New Delhi

Enables energy accounting resulting in the reduction in AT&C losses

Project: EDGE for key consumers

Reduced billing errors Faster and robust tariff setting

informationweek october 2011

Project Head: KB Singh, Vice President- Information Technology (Head IT)

started, which is an initiative towards automation of business processes. Here, ‘EDGE’ means Enhanced Data Generation for Enterprise and the ‘Key Consumers’ include those with high usage and billing. The total project cost was ` 21 crore and BSES expects a huge ROI of ` 10 crore per annum. Post project implementation, BSES has experienced a number of benefits, including reduced billing errors through tried and tested core logic, validations and controls; faster and robust tariff setting process; and reduced cycle time and improved controls through integration with the meter management module. BSES now has an improved credit management facility to generate behavioral scoring based on past payment history and possibility of interfacing with third-party credit databases.

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enterprise applications

Aurobindo Pharma integrates processes

urobindo Pharma, one of the largest vertically-integrated pharmaceutical companies in India, wanted to integrate several functions and processes across the organization on a common platform. Aurobindo’s Oracle eBusiness Suite R12 (Project Emerald) initiative involved a complete infrastructure revamp, where the design of the architecture was based on the foundations of investment protection and reduced TCO. The infrastructure design incorporated re-utilization of the existing systems across compute and storage so as to reduce the outflow of the procurement of the new systems and also address the Business Continuity (DR) . Earlier, Aurobindo was using Oracle eBusiness Suite 11i (11.5.10 version). Excel spreadsheets were used for generating costing and

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Transaction time reduced from 20-25 minutes to 5 minutes or less

Company: Aurobindo Pharma

MIS reports which were earlier scheduled off-peak hours during the night due to performance issues, now run on the fly

other financial and costing related MIS. The re-deployment of Oracle eBusiness Suite R12 (12.x) brought all relevant data together — integrating applications and information to provide business with critical knowledge as it is generated. This initiative assisted Aurobindo in aligning its processes to the best practices that may be leveraged with the deployment of a world-class ERP system. A common application platform

Project: Deployment of Oracle eBusiness suite R12 Project Head: Mahesh Kumar Pinnamaneni, CIO

across the organization enables Aurobindo to close its financials faster. The system caters to multiple currencies, pharma industry requirements and statutory tax compliances. Access to real-time data on actual costing, outstanding requisitions, etc. optimized the procurement process, resulting in financial benefits. It allows reviewing the cost of products allocated at the raw material stage and stages of the overheads.

Driving superior customer experience with IT

arnation Auto, India’s first independent multi-brand automotive solutions provider, offers a range of solutions from its 24 outlets, customer site through mobile and well-equipped vans called Workshop on Wheels (WOW). The company was looking at an end-to-end integrated enterprise IT solution to achieve its goal of superior and consistent customer experience. TCS was chosen to provide a turn-

key solution for end-to-end integrated enterprise IT solution that included implementation of SAP Dealer Business Management (DBM) business suite and supply and installation of server/storage solution. Core SAP functionality was rolled out on a very fast track (in four months) through collaborative efforts of Carnation Auto and TCS. Carnation claims this to be the first SAP DBM implementation in India. The solution caters to end-to-end business

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Uniform and consistent services across outlets

Company: Carnation Auto

Auto calculation of the next service due Mapping of WOW service to the system for better integration

informationweek october 2011

Project: End-to-end integrated enterprise IT solution Project Head: Mohit Agarwal, CIO IT

operations right from order booking, order execution, billing and collection at outlets (SAP DBM) to back-office operations at corporate like finance, procurement, HR (SAP Core ERP) and reporting through SAP BI. Through SAP CRM deployment, the customer feedback has been streamlined and can be analyzed for providing better service. The solution has helped Carnation in reducing time-to-market. The solution implemented is rolled out to all outlets (as and when the new outlets come up) right from the first day of operations. It has helped in improving customer service with faster responses to customer feedback/complaints and ensures consistent brand experience. The solution has also improved productivity with centralized and streamlined finance, procurement and HR system.

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Mumbai Monorail boosts speed with AutoCAD

n L&T-led consortium needed software that would help meet the challenge of building this first-of-itskind Monorail project in the country within the stiff timelines and standards and to help bridge the multi-pronged simultaneous collaboration between many teams and stakeholders. The consortium chose to adopt AutoCAD Civil 3D software, a comprehensive product for the design, drafting, and management of a range of civil engineering project types — including challenging transportation projects. Autodesk generated a fully customized software solution that helped the L&T team use 3D technologies to visualize, simulate and analyze the real-world performance of their designs early in the process. Given that different divisions of L&T were already using Autodesk software such as AutoCAD as a basis for 2D design,

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The software helped the team achieve accuracy levels of 1 mm per meter

Company: Larsen & Toubro

Team is able to deliver one beam of 25 m length within 30 minutes, including quality checks

detailing and documentation, the deployment of AutoCAD Civil 3D for the monorail project created an optimum advantage because it allowed a solution within the Autodesk environment. The advantage of the software’s model-based design and its scalable and reusable technology became a pivotal link between the survey, design, drafting and execution teams. This approach allowed the process to be developed at its convenience, wherein

Vendor/System Integrator: Adobe Project: Mumbai Monorail project Project Head: Swaraj Datta Gupta, Head, Construction Engineering,

any change automatically factors into other parameters. Since it evolved as a digital prototype and accommodated changes digitally, the margin for error in a time-bound project could be minimized. For example, one of the challenges of the project was the replication of design from paper output into reality and the solution facilitated the translation of hard copy into actual coordinates.

MNYL opts for knowledge management system

growing organization like Max New York Life Insurance (MNYL) generates large volumes of content. Managing the variety of documents was a challenge for the company. Range of regulatory and auditing requirements to retain documents, images, and other business records added further to the complexity. The company relied on individual desktops/laptops, shared network drives, e-mails, and instant messenger.

But these methods did not include content management, version control, single search, centralized repository, and collaboration capabilities required to efficiently create, store, manage, retrieve and share content and enhance organizational knowledge. Also at MYNL, the knowledge existed in various silos, which resulted in additional cost and wastage of resource and time. To address these issues, MNYL deployed a Knowledge Management

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Enables speed in business results-typically takes one third to one fourth of time to implement as compared to before

Company: Max New York Life Insurance Project: Knowledge Management

Saves productive time of the employees

Project Head: Hitesh Arora, Director and Head - Information Technology

System with an aim to shorten product development time, improve customer service, deliver high-quality products, enhance flexibility and adoption and capture information. Multiple functionalities are included in the system such as document management, collaboration tools, wikis, web portals, blogs, and personalization. Post deployment, the system’s content management features have allowed employees to develop a centralized repository, which includes storage, versioning, metadata, security, as well as indexing and retrieval capabilities. It allows automatic updation of version history with any modification in document. Its ability to integrate with Microsoft allows users to directly save their working documents on Alfresco. Its Google-based tag-wise search allows users to get all relevant content with a single click.

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CBA improves operational efficiencies

his project driven by TCS, involved implementation of TCS BaNCS Treasury solution and Core Banking solution suite to help Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) to enter into the Indian market, which is one of the most important emerging markets in the world. This enabled CBA to soft-launch its first Indian branch at Mumbai with Treasury operations in April 2010. The deployment of the solution helped CBA to provide superior trade finance, remittance and foreign exchange services to organizations trading between Australia and India, and to individuals. Costs have been reduced significantly through TCS BaNCS Treasury system implementation, which has further offered high STP capabilities, interfaces to core banking, risk management and GL systems, and readily available regulatory and MIS

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Enabled the bank to commence its operations in India

Company: CBA

Consolidated view of operations

Project head: Neeraj Chandra, Senior VP SI/vendor: TCS

Readily available interfaces and reports minimized manual efforts

reports, thus minimizing any manual efforts involved and keeping treasury overheads to minimum. Additionally, TCS BaNCS implementation helped CBA with the Central Data Warehousing system interface at its head office in Sydney. This enabled the bank to have a consolidated view of all operations (including its India operations). With this interface, CBA benefitted from minimized manual efforts, which helped

Project: Core banking solution

in saving costs in consolidating the bank’s overall position. It also helped the bank in generating reports that are significant from a MIS and regulatory (external reporting) compliance perspective. This user-friendly solution enabled CBA employees to easily carry out their day-to-day operations independently. The readily available interfaces and reports minimized manual efforts and boosted employee productivity.

Retail ERP at Cravatex

manufacturer and distributor of fitness products, Cravatex required a solution, which would handle a mix inventory of fitness equipment and apparel and streamline operations in its chain of 64 stores and warehouses. The firm required a retail ERP package, which could tackle operational transactions and give them a 360 degree view of the business. Additionally, the distribution of highend fitness equipment with matrix style

sport apparel required an end-to-end solution which could handle ad-hoc inventory for the service requirements and also maintain the apparel inventory. To address these business requirements, Cravatex chose Sage ACCPAC ERP, and roped in Greytrix India as the system integrator. The ERP is also integrated with Sage CRM , which allows sales and support staff to track customer buying patterns, warranty, spare inventory and respond to

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Efficient inventory management of over 10,000 SKUs spread across 50 locations across India

Company: Cravatex

Complex MIS reporting and retail analytics to monitor customer buying patterns

informationweek october 2011

Project: ERP Project Head: Rohan Batra - VP Group Strategy and Operations SI/vendor: Greytrix India

customer queries very efficiently. Efficient inventory management allows Cravatex to maintain economic quantities at retail outlets as well as distribution centers, reducing inventory carrying costs and stock out situations and helping the organization to improve the bottom line. With adoption of technologies like bar coding at distribution centers, Cravatex is equipped for automated procurement monitoring and deliveries. The solution has ensured fast and reliable billing for its customers at retail outlets. Additionally, inventory management of over 10,000 SKUs, spread across 50 geographic locations across India, has improved substantially. Further, interactive dashboards allow customer service managers to monitor service requests in real-time with visual indicators and escalations, improving customer experience.

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Eaton increases profits with ERP dashboard

aton is a global technology leader in electrical components and systems for power quality, distribution and control, hydraulics components, systems and services for industrial and mobile equipment and aerospace fuel. In order to support Eaton’s aggressive growth goals and at the same time ensure consistent deployment of fundamental business processes, ERP health check dashboard was deployed. The solution provided operational leaders the capability to monitor in near real-time, through a visual tool, ERP data health accuracy and effective utilization within multiple ERP systems, across numerous businesses. Prior to the deployment of the ERP health check dashboard, there was a lack of standard process or a common means to check the effectiveness of an ERP implementation. Moreover,

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Operational contribution is a combined USD 2 million for a period of 12 months post deployment and growing

Company: Eaton

Acts as an effective user interface for the operational leaders

there was an absence of clear direct tie between standard business processes (for example cycle counting) and how to leverage the ERP functionality to support those processes. The deployment of the ERP health check dashboard had a direct impact on improving the velocity within the operations in the form of improved cash conversion cycles, cycle times and inventory turn. The biggest impact was the fundamental process of associating

Project: ERP health check dashboard Project Head: Viswanathan, VP Corporate IT - APAC

key data elements to data owners and the deployment of a process to ensure that the health of the information in the ERP is accurate and current. Operational contribution of the ERP health check dashboard is a combined USD 2 million for a period of 12 months post deployment and growing, which is a resultant of holding the right amount of inventory, reducing premium freight, managing labor cost and improving productivity.

Elder Pharma ‘empowers’ staff with Intranet

lder Pharmaceuticals was in a difficult situation as its vital information was fragmented and there was a huge dependency and uncertainty on information accuracy. There was no team or workgroup collaboration. and employees’ tendency was to seek information on their own, since no standard practices were in place. The company wanted its employees to communicate and collaborate more effectively. Thus, it undertook

the project Elder corporate Intranet (emPower) for enhancing business relationship and improving productivity with an idea of single window for information flow and automation with a cost-effective approach. Elder emPower portal facilitates communication and access to information, which allows employees to collaborate on projects. The website promotes the sharing of knowledge, ideas and provides a single secure,

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Annually savings of ` 18.5 lakh in travel, telephone and printing cost

Company: Elder Pharmaceuticals

Improved customer service

Project: Efficient employee communication and collaboration with Intranet

Greater employee productivity

Project Head: Jitendra Mishra, CIO

Increased team collaboration

reliable access to a company’s private information. This has improved the company’s ability to manage its information and streamline document distribution. It has also resulted in higher productivity because of better access to quality information. Also, the re-use of existing information has reduced the cost of information sourcing, printing and distribution. The corporate Intranet is closely tied to business processes and the company is using it to deliver tools and applications, such as collaboration (to facilitate working in groups and teleconferencing). The company has improved customer service with highquality content. It has also achieved significant savings in travel, telephone and printing costs. In addition, the portal offers advanced training, educational and career development opportunities.

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ESIC ushers in huge efficiencies using IT

he Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) is a governmentowned corporation under the Ministry of Labor and Employment, touching the lives of some 150 million workers with its health insurance schemes. With operations across the country, ESIC was facing huge challenges with respect to getting access to information. The submission and processing of claim forms was done manually and would take as much as three hours. The result was delays, long queues, and ultimately, frustration for the end beneficiary. To address these issues, ESIC partnered with Wipro for implementing Project Panchdeep, which was the existing five-step IT initiative of ESIC. To start with Wipro provided ‘Pehchan Cards’ to some 7 million workers, reaching another 28 million people including their dependents. The cards capture all the necessary information

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ERP solutions at over 2,220 locations led to the creation of one of the world’s largest medical records database

Company: ESIC

Automation resulted in faster processing of claims

of the workers, including biometric identification. Pehchan has enabled workers to seek ESIC benefits anytime at any location even in the absence of the head of the family/workers. In project Pashan, Wipro set up the IT infrastructure needed, including a centralized data center and disaster recovery system. Under Project Dhanwantri, Wipro provided services related to IT support and Medical Information System for all

Project: Panchdeep Project Head: S K Garg, Additional Commissioner Systems Vendor / SI Partner: Wipro Infotech

ESIC hospitals and dispensaries. Wipro provided services related to various ERP components such as finance, HR, legal, procurement, and health insurance under Project Pragati. Wipro also networked all the 2,220 locations by providing the network backbone. As a result of this project, ESIC benefited from improved operational coordination and reduced operational costs. It resulted in better revenue utilization and faster service delivery.

Godrej enhances customer experience

odrej Industries manufactures chemicals and surfactants in India, with a customer base spread across India and abroad. The company was looking at a solution that could improve response time and enhance overall customer experience. In line with this objective, the team focused on developing a web-based, self-service customer-relationship software that would enable buyers to interact with the Godrej team on each

and every stage of the sales cycle. As the requirements of the international customers were extremely different from domestic customers, the company decided to launch two separate portals. Both the portals were designed on SAP platform to ensure real-time information. The team also decided to build alerts for dispatch and paymentrelated information to meet day-to-day needs of customers.

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Self-service portal is used by more than 150 domestic customers and more than 50 international customers

Company: Godrej Industries

informationweek october 2011

Project: E-CRM Project Head: Shailesh Joshi, AVP–IT

Today, the e-CRM system has ensured that there is no need for any follow-up by the customer for routine queries. Information is available on a real-time basis, and is personalized for every customer. Customers are able to view their dispatch details through the portal, which in turn helps them in planning their supply chain in a better way. This has also helped the sales and logistics team to save their time on better activities, as they are no longer required to provide routine information to customers. The domestic portal, named Rishta has been rolled out to more than 150 customers, while the international e-CRM has more than 50 key customers. The portal is being effectively used by many high-profile customers such as HUL, P&G, ITC, JK Tyres, MRF and CavinKare.

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Nanhi Kali blooms with SAP implementation

n initiative of the KC Mahindra Education Trust, NGO Nanhi Kali has brought education to the lives of more than 70,000 underprivileged girls in nine states across the country. The Nanhi Kali website (nanhikali. org) allows donors to register and sponsor the education of Nanhi Kalis (girl child) under different schemes, for a minimum period of one year. Donations are received in various currencies, converted to either ` or USD equivalent amounts and subsequently a Nanhi Kali is allotted to the donors. The growth and expansion of Nanhi Kali made it increasingly challenging to track the vast data pertaining to the donors, their Nanhi Kalis and the NGO implementing partners carrying out the intervention on the field. Further, if particular donor(s) decided to discontinue their sponsorship, then it was equally challenging to change the

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The allotment processing time has reduced from 40 days to 7 days

Company: K C Mahindra Education Trust for Nanhi Kali initiative

Nanhi Kali portal operations are

seamlessly integrated with various complex donation scenarios current mapping. The IT team at Mahindra & Mahindra decided to leverage the existing Harmony platform based on SAP. The solution thus designed was an integrated system with SAP as its Core ERP and a donor facing e-portal. This enabled an end-to-end integration across their entire value chain right from donations, adoptions, assigning of Nanhi Kalis, progress reports, funding of NGO to finally

Project: SAP implementation Project Head: Richard de Souza, GM – IT, Mahindra & Mahindra

integration to the SAP accounting system. Further, using the BI architecture deployed as a part of Harmony, the team was able to provide analytics dashboards to the NGO to help them track their KPIs and monitor its progress. Donors can now view their donation status in real time. All correspondence (Donation receipts, allotment details and renewal reminders) are sent through the system itself.

HDFC Life enhances premium collection process

n order to maintain its retention/ persistency/conservation levels, HDFC Life had assigned the task of managing customer relationship to the customer service and branch operations teams. These teams were provided with the list of lapsed, paid-up policies and the corresponding customer information in a spreadsheet format. The data was uploaded into the CRM of the contact center, which was then used for customer follow-up by the customer

service team. This data was also manually segregated and allocated to multiple operation users across 400+ branches for follow-up with the customers. This process was time consuming and inefficient. Without any central control and reporting, activities were not being tracked. To overcome the above problems, HDFC Life designed MINT — a renewal and retention system. The system

highlights

snapshot

Persistency ratio increased to 82 percent from 72 percent

Company: HDFC Standard Life Insurance Company

Renewal premium increased to ` 49.45 billion from ` 33.8 billion

Project: MINT

Market share rose to 11.9 percent in private space from 8.7 percent

Project Head: Thomson Thomas, VPBusiness Systems & Technology

facilitates revenue collections and drive up the persistency/conservation levels, which is a key business objective for any insurer. MINT is used by the customer service and branch operations groups within HDFC Life and is a configurable and scalable solution. MINT manages the premium collection process and automatically notifies contact center agents and HDFC Life’s front office team, which then informs the customers about renewals and revival details. If a customer’s contact details are not updated, the system creates a workflow so that an offline process can be initiated to trace the customer and alert him. The system is integrated with auto dialers for automatic dial out to the customers, which increases the productivity of the call center agents. It also helps to provide data analytics for lapsation and non-payment of premiums.

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Hero MotoCorp improves efficiencies using DMS

ero MotoCorp, the largest manufacturer of two-wheelers in the world, relies heavily on its network of 700 dealers to give appropriate service to its customers. As each dealer handles huge volumes, the firm wanted to automate its processes with dealers by using a comprehensive Dealer Management System (DMS). Hero MotoCorp has done this by implementing the Siebel Dealer Management system, which in turn has been integrated with other enterprise applications. Prior to the implementation of DMS, the communication with partners was either done through the traditional ways or through a business partner portal. The processes at the dealerships were also not standardized. DMS was the firm’s endeavor to ensure that it was able to track all customer information, sales

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Central enquiry management system provides online access to data across the country

Company: Hero MotoCorp

Lag time in customer service has reduced considerably thereby improving customer experience

and service trends and defect analysis. The solution has helped the firm automate and centrally maintain an enquiry management system, which made available all the data related to enquiries across the country online. The availability and analysis of enquiry data helps the firm in satisfying more customers in a structured manner. Getting all channel partners to a single integrated platform has drastically improved the availability

Project: Dealer Management System Project Head: Vijay Sethi, VP, Information Systems and CIO

of information across the chain. This has helped the firm in increasing the productivity of its sales force, as earlier most of their time was spent collating data coming from different dealers, areas and zones respectively. This has resulted in huge cost savings. In addition to this, the automation of various activities like monitoring of SKU inventories and availability of warranty data has reduced cycle time of most processes.

Integration of time evaluation with SAP

ahindra Vehicle Manufacturers Ltd (MVML), a sister concern of Mahindra and Mahindra, located at Chakan in Pune, was designed and built as a green-field facility to integrate the best in technology, environmental sustainability, social responsibility, and operational excellence. During the development of the facility, the major task was in understanding and regulating employee movement in and out of

the facility; besides bring in discipline related to the work schedules. This requirement called for devising a solution based on the concept of time evaluation with access control. The solution was integrated with SAP for central data processing, resulting in quicker, accurate and faster availability of data for payroll processing. Currently, as part of the phase one implementation, 77 time stations have been installed for getting time data of

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Payroll processing activity reduced to less than one day from seven days

Company: Mahindra Vehicle Manufacturers

Number of resources required for processing reduced to two

informationweek october 2011

Project: Time Evaluation with Access Control Project Head: Manoj S Nair

employees. Time data pulled locally is transferred to the central repository on a real-time basis to avoid data clogging and delay. Each time station is generating approximately 2,000 plus transactions per day. End users can see the time events from their desktop on a daily basis. Before implementing the centralized solution, time-office personal required seven days for data synchronization, processing and finally making this data available for payroll processing. With this new solution, the entire processing activity has reduced to less than a day with minimum manual effort. To meet the statutory and regulatory compliance requirements, the company developed around 30 plus MIS reports from the time evaluation system, which are used on a regular basis. These reports were deployed and rolled out as per project plans.

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enterprise applications

B2B integration for Oil Exchange at HPCL

nter-Oil company product exchanges are an integral part of operations of oil companies in India so that the infrastructure and facilities built by one company can be leveraged by the other company. Traditionally, product exchange data was settled between two oil companies through manual joint certificates. Today, due to online B2B integration, oil exchange settlements are accurate and quick. Prior to B2B integration for Oil Exchange with other oil companies, both selling and buying company used to take end-of-day reports from their respective ERP systems and a lot of work needed to be done to reconcile oil exchange data on a daily basis. Today, since these systems are integrated, it has simplified the task tremendously, leading to quick settlement of transactions. Since the data is exchanged electronically, the

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Accurate and speedy oil exchange settlements

Company: Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited

Reduced time to prepare invoices

Project: B2B integration for Oil Exchange (ERP)

Transactions worth ` 54,000 crores per annum are carried out

purchasing company is able to proceed quickly with the next step. The company is now able to do inventory accounting of purchase, sales order preparation, ship confirmation, inventory depletion and invoice printing, thus leveraging full benefit of electronic receipt of error-free data from the selling company, reducing processing time significantly. This initiative has primarily addressed the need for accurate and speedy oil exchange settlements. Till

Project Head: S T Sathiavageeswaran

date, transactions worth ` 54,000 crore per annum have been carried out using this B2B system. HPCL expects close to ` 98,000 crore per annum worth of transactions, when it rolls out this initiative at the balance locations. Today, a transaction is available in the HPCL server within 15 seconds once an invoice document is generated by the selling company. HPCL is also able to present error-free oil exchange settlement to other oil companies.

B2B portal improves vendor collaboration

o make certain that the hypermarkets’ shelves are always stocked, the turn-around time for HyperCITY became crucial. Accordingly, Distribution Center (DC) personnel set themselves a target of achieving a minimum of a 95 percent fill-rate across all categories for store transfers and receiving goods with minimum vendor vehicle turnaround time. Manual activity in the warehouse process led to transition and

transposition errors. An end-to-end solution was proposed to meet the above challenge. The proposed solution included a vendor portal. This portal would provide end-to-end information of HyperCITY-related data to all vendors. The same portal could be used internally to download data shared by vendors and bring efficiency within departments. Today, online information is shared between vendors

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Staff costs at the DC fell by 23 percent, turnaround time by 12 hours and sales have risen by 17-23 percent

Company: HyperCITY Retail India

More than 2,000 vendors are utilizing the B2B portal

informationweek october 2011

Project: B2B portal Project Head: Veneeth Purushotaman

and DC users through B2B portal in terms of shipment details, purchase order, receiving, stock details etc. Advance shipping note upload and download feature of B2B made a huge difference in terms of reducing the lead time in receiving materials. As a result of this solution, a DC can now plan well in advance before a shipment arrives, and the time taken previously for receiving one FMCG truck load from a vendor has been reduced from five hours to one hour. Also, labour management has become easier. Within a month of implementation, the business saw growth in sales accompanied by a subsequent reduction in staff costs. Today, more than 2,000 vendors have the B2B portal. Thus, the data information shared has increased in great lengths from the past one year.

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CRM boosts sales efficiency for ICICI Securities

s a leading financial services business, ICICI Securities had over 225 financial stores and more than 2.5 million retail customers. To get a 360 degree view of a customer across channels and products, the firm decided to implement a CRM solution across all sales teams in the organization. By doing so, the firm wanted to automate all sales-related processes and consolidate all disparate CRMs and manual processes into a common enterprise platform, thereby reducing costs of hardware, development, licenses and manpower resources. Previously, various legacy systems were used by different teams in order to meet CRM needs. Migrating to a unified platform enabled ICICI Securities to consolidate IT production support teams, IT infrastructure and software licenses. With the implementation of the

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Cross sell of products helped increase sales by 25 percent

Company: ICICI Securities

20 percent increase in employee productivity

Project Head: Joydeep Dutta, CTO

integrated financial planner and the 360 degree view of customer, sales personnel are able to target the right product to the right customer at the right time. This helped increase cross sell of investment products. This solution also alerts the firm in advance on the attrition of a particular customer. Of the 10 percent of top customer base likely to attrite, the firm has managed to hold back customers who have given it revenue of ` 15,000

Project: Integrated CRM

per customer per month. The customer intelligence available in the data warehouse helped the firm to automate the process of populating the daily plans of each relationship manager. The daily sales report (DSR) is filled at the end of the day, which helps a superior to know whether all the activities were completed as planned. The implementation of the DSR functionality brought about 20 percent increase in employee productivity.

PMS provides huge ROI at Intelenet

he earlier system of procurement process at Intelenet Global Services involved manual preparation of the documents. For preparing the same, there was a mailing system or hand-tohand process. The company was facing a number of difficulties with the earlier management system, including difficulty in searching of POs, chances of fraud due to manual verification and insufficient data at the time of

verification. Also, there was a possibility of data loss and damage as it was stored in a paper format. Thus, the company implemented PMS (Procurement Management System) — a web and smartphonebased workflow application that handles the entire procurement process for IT and admin-related requests. This system enables users of the organization across various countries to prepare and send a request, monitor

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Savings on hardware & software costs: USD 25,000

Company: Intelenet Global Services

Savings on stationery printing costs & operations: USD 21,000

Project Head: Sriniwas Narayanan, GM

Project: Procurement Management

SI/vendor: Doyen Infosolutions

approval cycles and send reminders in case of any delay to the concerned approvers processing the request. Procurement request is maintained for the reference of stores and procurement and finance departments, as well as for the generation of reports. The action on a particular request can be taken with a single click. When an approver gets the mail for approving a request, approve and reject links are separately embedded in it. PMS has significantly reduced the overall cost to approving and creating POs, and receiving and paying invoices. It has dramatically cut down on costly labor traditionally associated with paper-based procurement methods. The centralized web-based PMS system eliminated errors and duplicate data entries. All these benefits have resulted in rapid and quantifiable ROI.

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JSPL automates processes

indal Steel and Power Ltd (JSPL) at Angul, Orissa, was following a manual procedure for record and document handling especially engineering drawings. This led to increased operational cost in manual document filing, its search and retrieval. Also, hardcopy documents are prone to security threats because they are not in a digital form. Thus, ensuring safety of the document created an urgent need to go for a secured system. In JSPL, enterprise-wide critical business processes were not automated due to which JSPL Angul had no control over process monitoring and optimization, which frequently resulted in reduction in operational efficiency. JSPL was looking at a paperless work environment with centralized repository of digitized documents and automated business processes. JSPL developed a unified portal in

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Bill payment cycle reduced by 20 percent

Company: Jindal Steel & Power

Swifter response time to vendor queries

an integrated environment with Document Management System (DMS) and Business Process Management (BPM) processes. The company also integrated the DMS-BPM system component with its existing ERP application, i.e., SAP ECC 6.0. Post deployment, JSPL experienced a number of benefits. The unified portal automated the manual record keeping process. This helped individuals in getting approvals from

Project: Unified portal with DMS and BPM processes Project Head: Rakesh Mishra, Head – IT&C

competent authorities in a faster way, which led to better productivity in terms of project progress. The portal is integrated with the Microsoft Office application and AutoCAD application, in addition to being integrated with SMS Gateway and e-mail to receive alerts regarding the process status. The complete document management system appears as just another hard drive on the user’s SAP interface.

Kotak Life streamlines communication

otak Life Insurance’s existing communication system was unable to support expanding requirements and had become a bottleneck in building an efficient correspondence process. The existing system also had scalability limitations and could only handle the outflow of about 15,000 printed documents per day, less than the company’s requirements. Additionally, with the existing system, maintenance of the documents including its version

control, re-printing and personalizing of documents was a challenge. So, the firm decided to replace its existing printing solution by an integrated communication platform using Adobe LiveCycle Enterprise Suite 2 (ES2) solutions. The solution has not only standardized the processes and improved productivity, but has also saved significant costs for the organization. The application interacts with the firm’s Core Policy

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Estimated savings of 20 to 30 percent in correspondence costs

Company: Kotak Mahindra Old Mutual Life Insurance

40 to 50 percent reduction in printing costs

Project: Integrated Communications Platform Project Head: Dhiresh Rustogi, CTO

informationweek october 2011

Servicing Application for data and generates documents. Post deployment, the firm has observed a significant reduction in correspondence costs as the new system made the merging of related documents possible, such as the merging of renewal notices with dual statements. This resulted in estimated savings of 20 to 30 percent in the correspondence costs. The firm has also observed a significant reduction in printing costs. This is estimated to be 40 to 50 percent in phase one of the system implementation. Today, an optimized communication process has greatly reduced costs, while improving the productivity simultaneously. This has enabled the firm to perform all the documentation printing in-house, as against the industry norm of outsourcing to vendors.

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EMR improves productivity at eye institute

yeSmart is a web-based Electronic Medical Records (EMR) system developed by L V Prasad Eye Institute to cater to a wide variety of functions required to run an eye care center. It is an enterprise application that has been designed to suit the various levels of eye care namely tertiary, secondary and primary centers. The final goal is to integrate all medical records so that patients can seamlessly approach any of the centers for healthcare delivery. Currently, it has made six hospitals totally paperless and is rolling out the applications in other centers as well. It has used a concept of totally integrating all functions of a hospital from a common point of the patient. All functions, clinical and administrative, are interlinked in a single EMR and HMS system and through a single patient record. L

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Lesser time spent on written records (30 percent less time)

Company: L V Prasad Eye Institute

Faster processing of information of patient statistics (90 percent less time)

V Prasad has made use of different flash tools, document viewers to intelligently assist doctors to manage patient data at the convenience of a click anywhere, anytime. Access to case sheets on mobile phones has enabled the doctors to access their records at any given time. EMR enables the hospital to manage the patient records more efficiently. Legibility issues are resolved, along with errors involving prescriptions.

Project: Electronic Medical Records (EMR) Project Head: Dr Anthony Vipin Das Chief Archiect – eyeSmart EMR

The institute has considerably reduced paper printing costs, as well as saved on man hours required in preparing elaborate reports. The other benefits include lesser time spent on written records (30 percent less time), faster processing of information of patient statistics (90 percent less time), reports at a click, live patient status displayed dynamically to administrators, and accurate and comprehensive medical reports.

Open source portal boosts vendor efficiency

arsen & Toubro took a strategic decision to roll-out SAP portal to support its growing ecosystem. While the portal provided self-service capability to the vendors, the firm faced operational challenges in maintaining the portal. For example, the vendor base increased with the increase in costs, as SAP Enterprise portal had a user based licensing, which meant additional investments when users were added. Additional issues were related

to high maintenance and support cost to maintain the portal. The usage of this portal was not very well received within the vendor community because of performance and serious functional issues. As the vendor portal was of strategic importance to L&T, the firm wanted to enhance this portal. To address these issues, a vendor portal was developed using open source JBOSS portal and the MySQL platform. Today, the portal has functionalities

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The system has been fine-tuned and tested for supporting a minimum of 75,000 vendors

Company: Larsen & Toubro

By using open source technologies, the firm has saved huge amount of money

System Integrator: L&T Infotech Project: Open source vendor portal Project Head: HR Khona, GM, L&T (Electrical & Automation)

like tracking procurement of goods from vendors, tracking accounting/ invoices, information on quality of products, chats, notices and advertisements. An intuitive user interface is provided to enhance the vendor’s experience while conducting business over the portal. The system has been fine-tuned and tested for supporting a minimum of 75,000 vendors and users in the next five years. As open source technologies are used, there is no cost involved in adding new users to the portal. This saving is huge, when you look at a user base of 75,000 anticipated users. The new system has helped the firm in reducing the working capital requirements, optimizing quantity requirements, avoiding scrap generation and most importantly, ensuring material availability for production and maintenance in time.

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Landmark steps into a common IT platform

andmark Group was looking for a common IT platform for common processes across the group, which consisted of various formats of retail stores spread over India. For this, it chose Oracle Application (E-Business & Retail) as the platform to be implemented within the group. Entirely new and high scaled hardware were set up to host Oracle Retail Applications in production and DR sites. The entire hardware was scalable and clustered so as to ensure the high availability of the system. Given the huge scale of the projects, a 100-person team of consulting partners and the internal team worked together during this project. There were a number of classroom trainings; UATs were conducted to make users fully aware about the new application system. Several scripts were written to generate exceptional results to ensure

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Improved analytics expected to improve market share

Company: Landmark Group

Savings of 20-25 percent of present IT cost in a year

Project: Common IT platform with Oracle E-business and Retail application Project Head: Sudesh Agarwal

data integrity and accuracy. The implementation phase went live in just eight months, making it one of the fastest and successful projects in India with complete Oracle Retail footprints. The group benefitted from the project in a number of ways such as having a user-friendly and scalable environment for recording all transactions. It increased the efficiency of replenishment of stock, thus ensuring

better inventory management. A single integrated platform for flow of information enabled smooth and controlled processes. Prior to this system, the company relied on a legacy system, which was not integrated. Thus, the company was facing challenges related to real-time data/information availability. With the new system, the company overcame this and is now able to give information in real time.

LG goes collaborative with SOMS

G Electronics India Pvt Ltd (LGEIL) has a wide-spread operational network, which poses a big challenge for IT to enable tight business integration with its trade partners. To address these challenges, the company developed Sell-Out Management System (SOMS). This platform gives end-to-end visibility of crossorganizational information in real time to both LG and its trade partners. LG had visibility of sell-through data but

the key challenge was to gain visibility of sell-out data. Thus, the company provided a collaborative platform, called SOMS, for trade partners. The project was conceived due to organization’s need of getting real-time information and sold data of channel partners. This would enable the company to get the stock of the market situation and make sales and production strategies accordingly. LG SOMS is essentially an interface

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Market share increased more than 28 percent

Company: LG Electronics India Project: Collaborative platform with Sell-Out Management System (SOMS)

Year-on-year sales growth of more than 25 percent Improved employee productivity with real-time sales data available

informationweek october 2011

Project Head: Daya Prakash, Head-IT

to facilitate two-way communication between LG and trade partners. LG SOMS brings all LG trade partners on a single platform, creating a uniform transactional identity for consumers of the LG brand. Earlier, trade partners created invoicing from his/her local ERP/Tally system. Post implementation, it can be created from the SOMS system. Actual sales can be easily known now. SOMS also helps in providing employees with the customer information. The company can now analyze consumer buying behavior patterns and source pre-sales information. SOMS enables LG to capture market dynamism that helps in defining future action plan like product improvement, product communication improvement and scheme introduction. It also helps in identifying the real market trend for a specific product.

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enterprise applications

Dealer Management System drives sales

n the last financial year, Mahindra Tractors sold more than 1 lakh tractors in a single year. With growing sales and business and increasing number of channel partners (more than 1,200 channel partners in India), control and performance monitoring of the channel partners became very difficult. To address these issues, Mahindra decided to develop a system that would help in providing details on enquiry generation, enquiry conversion and contact information of customers. To capture information, as well as to make sure that the organization was connected to end-customers at all times, an auto SMS system was implemented. This was done to update critical summarized dealer performance information on a scheduled basis. An auto mailing system was developed to update data in an Excel file through an auto mailer received by the

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Better monitoring and control over dealers helped in selling more than 40,000 tractors

Company: Mahindra & Mahindra

Data pertaining to enquiry generation and deliveries is available on SMSes

marketing officer. This data captured the monthly performance of the dealer on critical parameters through which the marketing officer could measure monthly and yearly target plans versus actual sales. The IT team also developed a web-based SMS manager, through which the organization reached customers via SMS campaigns. Today, around 400 users are using the system on a daily basis. The organization has access to data

Project: Dealer Management System Project Head: Bishwanath Ghosh, VP-IT & KM

pertaining to enquiry generation, deliveries and industry sales on finger tips through SMSes. There is no need to access any system to view and analyze the data. As SMSes are system triggered, there is no manual intervention required. Due to availability of these systems last year, the organization gained from better monitoring and control over the dealers. As a result, the company has sold more than 40,000 tractors in the current year.

ALM simplifies IT application landscape

he IT landscape of Infosys comprises of a complex suite of more than 300 applications on a wide range of technological platforms. While a set of core business applications were on SAP platform, the other set of core applications were on nonSAP platforms. Conceptualizing, architecting, institutionalizing and then managing such a varied landscape was no easy task. Non-availability of central tool to monitor and administer

all SAP solutions resulted in higher maintenance and operational costs. Accordingly, the IT team created a comprehensive Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) strategy that comprises of tools, processes, services provided by SAP, Microsoft and other partners to manage SAP and non-SAP solutions throughout the application lifecycle. The objective was to have an integrated system with seamless management capabilities

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50 percent reduction in administration effort in system monitoring and issue resolution

Company: Infosys

Administration cost reduction per annum to the tune of USD 13,000

informationweek october 2011

Project: Application Lifecycle Management Project Head: Ganesh Gopalakrishnan, Group Head - IS

to keep mission-critical systems operating smoothly and reliably with minimum downtime, with reduced cost of ownership. The SAP Solution Manager and Central Monitoring has helped in improving reliability, availability and efficiency and lowering TCO. Maintenance efforts too have reduced, as the solution automatically alerts administrators of potential problems. The implementation of the SAP solution manager has yielded administration cost reduction per annum to the tune of USD 13,000. Similarly, SAP CPS has yielded one time saving of USD 94, 336. Overall, the firm has observed an 83 percent reduction in administration costs. Monitoring and alerting systems and dashboards in SAP CPS have helped business process owners to get a realtime update on execution status of various business processes.

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Max Bupa’s new way to health underwriting

ax Bupa Health Insurance has implemented an IT solution called Health Underwriting Management System (HUMS) that facilitates the underwriting process by helping underwriters to take information-based underwriting recommendations and bring standardization in decisions. Currently HUMS is configured with underwriting risk adjustment recommendations and scores customized for 120 medical and surgical conditions for Max Bupa customers, which covers more than 95 percent cases in the industry. HUMS includes workflow capability and the ability to define multiple products with different and complex underwriting rules. It also includes the capability of triggering and managing pre-policy medical checkups based on defined business rules and has

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Cost savings allows Max Bupa to underwrite more cases per day with the same team

Company: Max Bupa Health Insurance

Boosts transparency in the system, leading to faster risk decision and smoother claim

the capability to trigger and mange previous medical reports. The system has a built-in escalation matrix to ensure compliance with defined TAT to complete underwriting. The solution helps in building the insurance company’s customer health profile, which acts as a key driver for defining new products and provides insights when planning for price revisions. HUMS eliminates manual judgment and enforces universal

Project: Health Underwriting Management System (HUMS) Project Head: Pankaj Jain – Head IT

rules for defining risk scores, leaving the underwriting decision without any scope of human bias or error, resulting in complete transparency and customer satisfaction. Medical histories of customers for all the previous policies and test reports are available at a single location and accessible to underwriters. The same location is shared with claims team that facilitates in faster and accurate processing of claims.

RMS enables Carzonrent India to save ` 1.6 crore

arzonrent India runs its car rental business from more than 50 locations. The company accepts payments through direct, cash, credit and float methods. To ensure efficiency in the system, it was using several solutions such as online credit card payment integrated with its CRM and shared service center for the central submission of bills. Despite using these solutions, many transactions were going unnoticed.

As the company was doing more than 53,000 transactions per month in different modes of payment, tracking each and every transaction was a cumbersome task. Also, the revenue leakage was becoming a major challenge for the company, as either the bills were lost or were not submitted to the customers timely. To overcome these challenges, the company decided to build the Revenue Management System (RMS).

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Saving of approx ` 1.37 crore as there was no revenue leakage

Company: Carzonrent India

Saving of nearly ` 23.4 lakh on account of reduction in manpower cost

Project: Revenue Management System Project Head: Rajesh Munjal

The solution tracks each and every revenue transaction whether for credit card payment, bill to customers, cash, etc., and ensures that payment is received against every transaction. The solution was implemented on the cloud to ensure online real-time access to each unit responsible and also for quick analysis on revenue transactions. With a small investment of ` 1.5 lakh for the deployment of RMS, the company has standardized its revenue recognition process and improved customer service by timely submission of bills through centralized workflow system. The company evaluated a saving of nearly `1.37 crore after the deployment of the solution, as revenue leakage had completely stopped. It also registered a yearly saving of ` 23.4 lakh due to the reduction in manpower cost, as the employee productivity improved drastically due to real-time analysis.

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Godrej Properties uses BPM to improve ERP

ne of the fastest growing players in the real estate space in India, Godrej Properties had implemented an ERP solution from SAP. While SAP helped Godrej Properties streamline many business processes, some of the existing processes were not getting covered under the ERP. This impacted decision making as some of the processes continued to remain manual, leading to delays and limited visibility in processes. The firm wanted a system that could provide an interface for users where they could input information in the processes they were familiar with. This meant creating a workflow above the ERP, which could automate the manual processes not addressed by the ERP. After evaluating different technology options, the firm decided that the only effective option was to deploy a BPM solution. Godrej Properties decided

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External partners can connect to Godrej’s systems through the BPM

Company: Godrej Properties

Reduction of 30 percent in turnaround time

to go for a BPM solution from Savvion (now a part of Progress Software). In a typical ERP, changing of process is an extremely cumbersome task. With the BPM solution, Godrej Properties can create a new workflow around the existing ERP. The transaction starting point is SAP, which triggers a workflow for further approval and completion process, with auto generated mail intimation. The chain of approvers can be defined separately as per transaction

Project: BPM on ERP Project Head: Shailesh Joshi, AVP–IT

type or location. Further, approval requests can be sent via e-mails. Escalation rules can be defined based on the transaction type. Godrej Properties has demonstrated a reduction of 30 percent in turnaround time. Real-time visibility into processes can now be exploited to identify and eliminate bottlenecks so as to optimize processes, in order to eliminate costs associated with unnecessary work steps.

MTS deploys PCRF for competitive advantage

n India, brand MTS offers voice & data services to over 11 million subscribers and operates across all 22 telecom circles of India. In the highly competitive and dynamic Indian Telecom space, service providers (SP) offer surfing packages that are tailor-made for a subscriber’s browsing requirements. The SP needs to manage the IP network by implementing policies on the usage of network resources and ensure assured and quality services for every customer.

All this can be provided by a PCRF (Policy and Charging Rules Function) solution. SPs can use PCRF to charge subscribers based on their volume of the usage of high-bandwidth applications; charge extra for QOS guarantees, limit app usage while a user is roaming; and lower the bandwidth of wireless subscribers using heavy bandwidth apps during peak usage times. Thus, the implementation of

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MTS can introduce special access packages for SMBs and enterprise customers

Company: MTS India [Sistema Shyam Teleservices Limited]

PCRF supports MTS’ entry into the postpaid segment

informationweek october 2011

Project: Implementing a PCRF solution Project Head: Rajeev Batra, CIO

PCRF has had a strategic, customer and financial impact on MTS. PCRF implementation has enabled MTS to design special access packages for SMB and Enterprise customers, thus supporting an entry to new markets in both postpaid and prepaid markets. This further strengthens MTS’ hold on the prepaid segment, yet gives it the required support for entry into the postpaid market. MTS subscribers, both prepaid and postpaid, now have more choices in data plans. Subscribers can choose from a variety of unlimited plans based on their usual Internet usage requirements, or from plans, which can be customized to browse only certain set of websites depending on business requirements and so on. There has been an increase in customer stickiness and enhancement in revenues, due to the availablity of a variety of data plans.

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NIA improves processes with CWISS

ew India Assurance (NIA) is one of India’s largest non-life insurance companies. Apart from conventional channels, NIA sells policies through its bancassurance channel, brokers, dealerships and other third-party providers. This extensive network presented a number of problems. Different business processes were followed without verification across its branches. Various products were used, under the same name. And even though the broad characteristics of the products were similar, the details varied. Customer and supplier data were distributed across branches. In the absence of a consolidated source of data, duplicate and inaccurate information was collected. To counter all these challenges, NIA decided to merge its operations into one consolidated platform. TCS

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NIA is able to process more than

Company: New India Assurance

40,000 policies and service over 5,000 users on a daily basis The company issues and services more policies without increasing manpower in the peak months

BaNCS Insurance was selected as the core insurance platform, along with peripheral applications for analytical CRM, HR, payroll, general ledger, accounts receivable and payable. The project, Centralized Web-based Insurance System Solution (CWISS), has introduced uniformity in processes — all branches follow the same business processes, centrally controlled rules, prices and validations. The same products are used across

Project: Centralized Web-based Insurance System Solution (CWISS) Project Head: K Sanath Kumar SI Partner: TCS

all 1,000+ branches. Earlier premium was not being calculated because of the diversity of product portfolio. But now premium and other calculation items across all business processes are systemgenerated. CWISS introduced easy central deployment of products, so it is now easy to introduce new products or make changes to an existing product. The web-based system has also improved customer service as policies and claims can be serviced anytime.

Voltas achieves greater control on service delivery

oltas is a well-known brand in the air conditioning market. Since the company operates in a competitive market with multinationals with similar product offerings, service is the key differentiator. For efficient service delivery; monitoring and controlling response time (RT) and down time (DT) is very important. These two factors directly affect customer satisfaction. Voltas was facing challanges with accurate capturing of RT and DT as

the data entry was done offline. Also knowing the latest status of the call from the system was a challenge. To control service operations, the organization was looking at an effecient CRM system. Accordingly, the company decided to capture key service parameters such as time in, time out (for measuring RT/DT), work done, part required, status, etc., on the mobile handset of the technician. Data related to ‘spare part required’

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Greater control on service delivery as RT and DT is measured properly

Company: Voltas

Real-time call status availability Turnaround time for part replacement has reduced

Project: CRM Project Head: Asmita Junnarkar

is entered on the mobile app (J2ME). This information flows to create a service call in CRM application (.net platform). Based on the approval of the service call, information flows to SAP ECC6 and service order is created in SAP. This service order is used to issue the spare part to the service partner. With the mobile app, data gathering has become efficient and better monitoring of operation has become possible. Accurate reportage of RT and DT parameters has improved service delivery, resulting in improved customer satisfaction. Monitoring time in and time out of the technician has given a better control on the deployment of the technician on the call. This has resulted in improved technician productivity as there is a lesser possibility of technician to remain unloaded (no allocated calls).

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enterprise applications

PARAS brings a smile to patients at RGCI

ajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute and Research Center (RGCI) is a 241 bedded hospital, with state-of-the-art facilities for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. RGCI faced a challenge when it came to managing crucial patient data. Hard copies of patient notes, prescription, and test results were collected in a physical file. Physical documentation posed challenges of preservation and storage, since patient treatment usually spans several years. Towards this, RGCI deployed an HMIS called PARAS, which is completely integrated with clinical activities. Information is now more accessible, leading to efficiency in patient services. Hospital management processes are automated and are less paper-intensive. This has brought down the overall cost of patient care. HR processes, payroll and doctors accounting now takes less time and can be accurately linked to

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70 percent reduction of the total cost incurred on paper.

Company: RGCI

Registration time reduced to less than a minute.

Project head: Kakkar Vishal- IT Head

Number of patients discharged in a day has doubled

finance and banking functions. ‘Shift handover’ was a critical area where there was a huge gap in terms of handing over patient information from one shift to another. The new process ensures that this handover happens quickly. There are minimum chances of prescription errors as medication and prescriptions have validation alerts. Customer satisfaction levels have been boosted too. Registration time per patient has reduced from five

Project: PARAS HMIS SI Partner: Srishti Software Applications

minutes or more to less than a minute. As a result, the hospital can now admit 40-45 patients in an hour, as compared to 20-25 patients earlier. Also, the consultation process has become faster as the hospital can now service 300-350 patients in a day in contrast to 200-250 patients earlier. Going forward, PARAS is expected to increase the patient flow by 20 percent next year. Also, a 20 percent increase in revenue is expected in the next financial year.

Tata Teleservices gets a pulse of distribution

ith more than 6,000 distributors, Tata Teleservices had a huge supply chain that supported millions of business transactions every day. In this kind of huge volume-based scenario, the firm found it highly challenging to track its products, stock positions, sales and performance at all distribution points. This complexity was aggravated due to the fact that different distributors used different systems to track sales at

distribution points, which were a key input to Tata Teleservices to track the overall stock movement. As data was input in multiple formats, it became a huge challenge for consolidating this data. The above challenges created an opportunity for Tata Teleservices to create a solution that would address the key business requirements of distribution channel management. Accordingly, Tata Teleservices created PULSE — a combination of

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Efficiency in tracking operator products across supply chain increased from 4 to 100 percent

Company: Tata Teleservices

Saving of about 10,000 plus person months effort per annum across distributors

informationweek october 2011

Project: PULSE Project Head: Ashish Pachory

Tally and a centralized back-end system that brings the comprehensive list of functionalities for both, internal channel members and external channel partners. As the users were already using Tally for accounting, the firm decided to use a customized version of Tally for secondary sales tracking. Today, PULSE helps the company to define its complete distribution hierarchy, starting from senior management to the last point. The company can also have a real-time view of the inventory in the market and define company-specific inventory thresholds at each distribution point. The implementation has helped in increasing the efficiency in tracking operator products across supply chain from 4 percent to 100 percent. This in turn has helped in completely avoiding the customer loss due to the nonavailability of the stock.

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In-house ERP accelerates productivity

he Great Eastern Shipping has deployed gNEXT — an in-house built ERP system. The firm developed this in-house as the standard ERP system available in the market was not able to incorporate the functionality required for a shipping company in the tanker and bulker logistic operations. The firm also faced a problem of non-availability of affordable and reliable Internet connectivity between the ship and the shore, which puts the organization on the back foot for integrating between ships and the shore. The ships are revenue earners and they are looked as floating branches of the organization. Hence it was essential for the firm to have online data available from ships on daily/ hourly basis. Today, there are modules of ERP, which take care of daily operational data from ships. This data

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Streamlined different processes across various functional areas like operations, technical, chartering and finance

Company: Great Eastern Shipping

Increased the productivity and transparency on transactions

SI/vendor: Omnitech Solutions and Uforic Technology

is transmitted by way of an automated e-mail in XML form to shore and gets integrated in the central database of ERP, and similarly data traverses in the reverse direction to each ship. The ERP has helped in streamlining operational functions such as chartering, invoicing, accounts, payroll, ship operations, bunkering management, materials procurement, HRM, travelling etc. The single integrated platform has increased

Project: ERP Project Head: Anjan Deb

the productivity and transparency on transactions. It has smoothened and streamlined different processes across various functional areas like operations, technical, chartering, finance etc. The firm can also calculate profitability on each voyage, and improve efficiencies. Apart from this, data integration has improved the quality of data, due to the elimination of chances of data duplication.

HIS helps CMC automate processes

hristian Medical College (CMC) was facing challenges with the lack of integration of various sections of the hospital. This resulted in significant delays in patient billing, increased waiting time and caused additional costs, in terms of both — finance and resources. Since the hospital was following a manual process, patient information was available at limited areas. To overcome these problems,

CMC was looking at a fully integrated Hospital Information System (HIS) for the main hospital and peripheral centers. Accordingly, the department of CHIPS in CMC developed the solution in-house. The solution has built-in security with authentication for all levels of information. HIS includes Clinical WorkStation, which can be used by doctors to view patient results; create reports; view and create appointments and schedules; and view inpatient

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Easy documentation of patient reports, logbooks and score sheets.

Company: CMC, Vellore

Information on drug interactions and patient history is available anywhere on campuses

Project: Deployment of Hospital Information System Project Head: Ebenezar Sundararaj, Systems Manager

bill information. The solution allows patients and doctors to receive online alerts via SMSes. With the deployment of the solution, secure real-time relevant information on drug interactions and patient history is available anywhere on institutional campuses. It has also significantly reduced delays in billing as it allows patients’ reports to be generated quickly. The solution enables easy access to Management Information System, which can be reviewed by administrators and auditors. HIS has improved customer service as patient appointment information is available online. Also, there is an option to repeat appointments and book and confirm them online. With the automated procedure, employee productivity has increased, as relevant information is available with just a single click.

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HyperCITY displays faster with digital signage

n the retail industry, highlighting the right offers and bargains to customers plays a crucial role in attracting and influencing the customer to buy the products, thus positively impacting the sales. In a brick and mortar model, this communication is best achieved through signage. HyperCITY was looking for an integrated signage application for the buying and merchandizing (B&M) and store team, where the B&M team could choose the right product to create professional looking signage with different formats. The signange would then be available to the store team for printing at intended store locations. These features would help HyperCITY in overcoming the challenges faced by the existing inhouse signage application where the signage had to be created every time there was any change. Thus, HyperCITY

highlights

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Process of displaying the signage against the product is much quicker

Company: HyperCITY Retail

Data consistent with the POS data, eliminating the possibility of price mismatch

deployed a retail enterprise solution from Episys. Prior to the deployment of the enterprise signage solution, the B&M team used to create signages for each product or store. Whenever there was a change in price or description, the B&M team used to create a new signage for product or store. This activity used to take a long time in creating and printing the signages for B&M and store teams. Post deployment, whenever there is a

Project: Digital Signage system Project Head: Veneeth Purushotaman, Business Head – Technology

change for a SKU, details are sent from the host system to the signage system, which then triggers a sign automatically. As a result, signs get printed at the stores in batches. As the signages are already segregated while printing, the process of displaying the signage against the product is much quicker. Today, manpower at the corporate office and stores, which was being used for signage-related manual activities, is available for more productive work.

Welspun automates yard management

or Welspun, the production output of Plate and Coil Mill Division (PCMD) was impacted due to constrained inputs from the slab yard. This was because the coil production process required slabs for feeding into the furnace according to the heat. If the feeding was done in a mixed lot, it increased the processing time, production cost and quality. The requirement of the plant was to stack the slabs heat wise so that the feeding could be done without delay.

Typically, slabs were produced and stacked at the OEM and stored at the port. They were then unloaded at the plant. This made it difficult to send slabs according to the heat. The firm wanted a solution, wherein the port could send the slabs heat wise. The immediate requirement was to receive the slabs from the port to the plant according to the heat. For enabling this, the port deployed a system, which gave advance

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Improved logistics for the storage and retrieval of slabs

Company: Welspun

Optimal usage of storage space and yard infrastructure

informationweek october 2011

Project: Automation of Yard Management Project Head: Mukund Prasad, CIO

notification of the location in which the incoming slabs were to be stored. The next challenge was to design a process of storage at the plant. Accordingly, a bar coding solution was implemented at the plant, which on receipt prints a bar code along with a planned location on the slab. The operator scans the bar code for the location and places the slab appropriately. The slabs discharged by the port can now be stored at the plant properly with the ease of retrieval and a design through which multiple handling is avoided. As a result of this solution, today, slots are kept empty and the system proposes the storage location. The solution has also ensured that there is a proper process to receive, store and retrieve slabs. The earlier time of collecting the slabs from an open yard has gone down to almost zero.

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Abhijeet Projects cuts down cost and boosts efficiency with SAP SRM

n order to develop bidding along with reverse auction and ensure the best price with best solutions, Abhijeet Projects implemented SAP Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) application.

snapshot Company: Abhijeet Projects Project: SRM implementation Project Head: Vijay Kumar Singh, GM - IT

Prior to the deployment of the application, the company relied on Ariba, which had some constraints like integration with existing system and limited participation for registered vendors. With SRM implementation, Abhijeet Projects is now able to close the tender and auction as per their convenience. The company uses Linux as a platform and its high-level integration with SAP R3 in turn enables the users to save their time and energy. This also avoids the chances of the duplicity of entries. With the application, the company is able to save three to five percent on each tender, which results in total saving of around 1.5 to 2 crore annually.

Automation helps WNS slash processing time

or BPO firm, WNS, the F&A practice was one of the fastest growing business units. To improve its efficiencies further in the accounts payable process, the firm wanted to automate the process. In this process, typically, the vendor would send invoice and attachments to the client’s mailroom. The client‘s mailroom would scan the invoices and attachments and introduce it into the workflow. Subsequently, invoices were manually routed and coded. As the process was manual,

snapshot Company: WNS Global Services Project: Accounts Payable Workbench Solution Project Head: Sanjay Jain, CIO

there was a possibility of errors, and the vendor did not have visibility on the status of the invoice. To address this issue, WNS developed a solution called Accounts Payable Workbench (APW) solution. The solution integrates invoice scanning and indexing solution (OCR/ICR engine) into a web-based approval system for invoice completeness validation, approval and exception handling. This is further integrated with the ERP for invoice processing. The workflow offers a supplier portal that allows the supplier to submit, view and query invoice information. Organization specific business rules and policies can be embedded for better governance, tracking, audit trail and compliance with increased efficiency and accessibility. This has resulted in improved customer service as end users can view the status of their invoices.

Essar Group simplifies SAP landscape

ssar Group has operations in more than 25 countries across five continents. The group has a huge IT landscape that includes more than 150 SAP solutions instances and around 340 other integrated solutions. Managing such a big IT setup was a challenge, particularly when it involved a diversity of IT solutions. To bring down costs and simplify management of SAP, Essar wanted to consolidate the SAP software landscape on the basis of a single central management solution. After evaluating several options, Essar decided to implement SAP Solution Manager 7.0 ALM tool. With greater automation and proactive recognition of issues post deployment, Essar has saved up to 30 percent in personnel resources — with a return on investment within less than 10 months. The solution has provided a central point of performance dashboards for business owners. This in turn, has helped the team in quickly understanding problems before they become incidents. After successful completion of this mammoth task, SAP Solution Manager provides an extensive set of features in the IT Support area for enhancing and automating the management of SAP servers and software. Today, a team of only 25 administrators manages more than 150 SAP servers by leveraging solution manager and supporting 50 operational business entities of Essar Group worldwide.

snapshot Company: Essar Project: Consolidating the SAP software landscape Project Head: Jayantha Prabhu, CTO, Essar Group

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Enterprise portal at Haldia Petrochemicals

he main focus behind the project at Haldia Petrochemicals was to make the online sales process easier and user friendly with full security and authentication. The enterprise portal enables the end-user to create a sales order without installing SAP on their PC. It also lets users check various reports with live data directly from the production server. The e-payment

snapshot Company: Haldia Petrochemicals Project: Enterprise portal Project Head: Samir Mandal

services provided by this is the most beautiful feather, which has added a new benchmark. The innovativeness of this project is that the user can do most of the required task without facing any data connectivity challenge. Online booking of orders directly by customers via the Internet helps in saving 32 man hours in four regional offices per day and avoiding loss of market opportunity. The enhanced collection cycle reduce loss of bank interest for minimum three days. Customers can directly enter the bank, transfer details in portal to park their own respective payment details on a regular basis and can view the payment status from the account balance report on the portal. Hence, the entire payment process has increased customer satisfaction.

ICICI Prudential manages end-to-end life cycle of every employee

o manage end-to-end life cycle of every employee joining ICICI Prudential and give them a better experience on-board, the company implemented an automation solution using HRMS and satellite applications. The solution achieved above 95 percent automation in employee joining process and meets the ROI due to tangible cost savings of ` 30-35 crore from the investment.

snapshot Company: ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Project: Automated HRMS solution Project Head: V.V Balaji

informationweek october 2011

Satellite applications include career portal (handles all stages online right from candidate registration, job application and hiring of a candidate), on-board tracker (helps in allocating and tracking new joinee requisites), payroll and claims processing, and document tracking and maintenance. The solution has also improved employee productivity, since all the system processes are automated and for all operations TAT/accuracy nears six sigma levels. Apart from this, the turnaround time adherence of 20 HR operation processes has achieved an average of five sigma levels, while the accuracy adherence of 12 HR processes has achieved an average which is above 4.5 sigma levels.

Infosys enhances employee collaboration

eeping in mind the growing aspirations of its employees in the Web 2.0 era, Infosys took an initiative to make its corporate Intranet social. Accordingly, a platform called ‘Infy Bubble’ was launched to provide freedom of expression to employees, so that they could express themselves uninhibitedly and also in a responsible manner within the enterprise. Just like a social networking website, employees can connect with their peers and follow activities of their friends. They can also search for like-minded people within the organization and connect with them. Employees also have the option of setting up a watchlist for topics that they want to follow. The solution has been implemented using SharePoint 2010 and .NET 3.5. This is one of the first implementations of SharePoint 2010 as a social networking platform, which is now open to the whole employee base of more than 130,000 people at Infosys. Knowledge is now crowdsourced rather than being done using traditional methods. For Infosys, it provides a real sense of the pulse of employees in the organization. Now, Infosys does not have to wait for an annual employee satisfaction survey to understand what’s going on with the staff — it can get real-time feedback from discussions happening in the forums.

snapshot Company: Infosys Project: Enterprise Networking platform Project Head: Ganesh Gopalakrishnan, VP and Group Head, Information Systems

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ERP migration delivers huge benefits for Kalpataru

alpataru was relying heavily on its IT infrastructure to support its business initiatives. However, as it was running its ERP on a proprietary platform, it was facing issues, as the vendor had stopped upgrading the platform. To address this problem, the firm decided to migrate from a proprietary platform to an industry standard platform to run SAP. It moved from

snapshot Company: Kalpataru Project: ERP Migration Project Head: Sanjay Mittal, CIO

the proprietary platform to a Windows based computing platform. It also deployed CISCO-based UC (blades) under complete virtual environment, which gave it the capability of ondemand capacity provisioning, high availability and resource assurance. Server consolidation was also achieved as a part of this project. The entire SAP landscape including production servers was done on a virtual environment. The firm used Cisco blades in a virtual environment with EMC storage. Each and every server in landscape was virtualized, which gave it an advantage in terms of capacity on demand and huge reduction in costs. Since the firm moved to an open industry standard, its computing capacity went up by nearly three times. The firm estimates cost savings of ` 3.35 lakh per year due to this initiative.

Kotak enables 360 degree view of the customer

o better understand and service its customers, the Kotak Group (Kotak Mahindra Bank, Kotak Life Insurance, Kotak Securities, Kotak Mahindra Prime) wanted to implement a uniform technology platform across multiple business. To achieve this, the group partnered with TCS. TCS implemented the CRM Siebel Financial Services Application covering the functional areas of

snapshot Company: Kotak Mahindra Bank Project: Group CRM Project Head: Aruna Rao, Group CTO

sales, services, marketing, in three key phases. Post deployment, every customer gets a unique service request, which can be used to track a query across multiple channels. The group also benefits from automated tracking of leads across the sales stages. A Single CRM system for users enables a 360 degree view of the customer within each business unit â&#x20AC;&#x201D; improving cross-selling opportunities. The system helps the business to accurately track various customer complaints and their current status. This has resulted in reduced turnaround time for resolving a customer complaint. Also, the group has registered huge cost reduction as the cost of deployment is now shared by multiple business units due to single CRM application implementation across multiple group companies.

ERP integrates operations at logistic company

ulsidas Khimji Pvt. Ltd. (TKPL) is a leading logistics service provider with over 30 branches across India.The company was finding it difficult to manage its operations using independent legacy systems that were being operated locally. Thus, TKPL implemented Logi-Sys, a specially designed ERP solution that integrates the operations of a logistics service provider across operations and facilities, right from inquiry to finalization of accounts. Logi-Sys has enabled TKPL with full visibility across branches, which has helped them to deliver better value to their customer and improve market share. It has empowered TKPL with competitive advantage in the global logistics market. Integration of information within the organization has become a powerful enabler for reducing costs, increasing productivity, plugging revenue leakages and improving customer service. Access to real-time information of customers in the form of daily status report (DSR) and notifications via SMSes and auto e-mails have enhanced TKPLâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s service capabilities. Employee productivity has increased manifold with seamless sharing of information between employees within and across departments, which in turn has helped the company in delivering better customer service. Elimination of data redundancy has also lead to greater employee productivity.

snapshot Company: Tulsidas Khimji Project: ERP Project Head: Naren Tambe SI Partner: Softlink Global

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Orissa government revolutionizes TPDS

n India, the state government is responsible to identify the eligible households/beneficiaries and issue a ration card. The state governments use Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) for ensuring access and availability of food grains and other essential commodities. However with conventional TPDS, the identification of eligible beneficiaries is a challenge. In most of the states, the problem of duplicate and ghost ration cards was prevalent. Another major challenge was to ensure transparency and accountability of the distribution of commodities by the fair price shop dealers. To ensure that the entitled commodities reach the actual beneficiaries, The United Nations World Food Programme (UNWFP) undertook a project on the behalf of the Government of Orissa. The project

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The project resulted in annual savings of nearly ` 90 crore

Company: Government of Orissa

Eliminates possibility of bogus and duplicate cards

Project: Biometric identity platform for ration cards

Allows to keep a check on the activities of fair price shop dealers

involved managing and monitoring the distribution of food grains in Rayagada district of Orissa, which is predominantly a tribal area. The organization decided to deploy 4G Identity Platform, which is an interoperable identification engine. Using multi-modal biometric technology of the platform, the facial photograph, fingerprints and iris of the citizens were captured to eliminate instances of multiple enrollments by

SI/Vendor: 4G Identity Solutions

Project Head: Himanshu Bal

the same citizen. As the system is completely automated, any attempt by a fair price shop dealer to withhold commodities can easily come to the knowledge of government officials. Now, only genuine ration card holders are able to get commodities in the prescribed quantity. The project has resulted in significant savings for the Government of Orissa on account of the elimination of bogus and duplicate cards.

Allergan bets big on Green IT

n order to improve efficiency, enhance savings and more importantly to reduce operational impact on the environment, Allergan undertook several measures to implement green IT initiatives, which had a big impact on cutting down carbon emissions. The first initiative was server virtualization, wherein the company virtualized 13 servers into two. Virtualization reduced Allergan’s

data center costs by a considerable percentage. Allergan secondly went on a paper saving spree and employed document management system so that paperwork was kept to a bare minimum. Electronic documentation not only enabled the organization to save a few trees, but also led to better documentation of the past data. Apart from this, the company embarked on the development of

highlights

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Allergan saved 2,000 paper sheets per training session

Company: Allergan India

Saved power and cut down on data center maintenance cost

Project Head: K T Rajan

Brought down travelling expenses

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Project: Green IT

online training modules. Previously, a lot of paper was wasted during training — with online learning management, at least 2,000 paper sheets were saved per training session. Also, timesensitive quiz applications simplified the company’s processes significantly and ensured a foolproof grading system. Further, instead of a hard copy, Allergan started issuing an e-certificate to mark the completion of training. As face-to-face interactions are important in any business, Allergan used video conferencing to ensure that all its offices were connected. The company’s promotion of in-house web meetings and video conferences not only allowed it to avoid greenhouse gas emissions, but also helped it to save travelling expenses ranging up to few lakh, on account of interviews, meetings, and sales and financial reviews.

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Gujarat farmers get ‘individual’ attention

ujarat government felt there was a need to transform data related to agricultural science, which normally remains restricted to labs and research stations across the agricultural universities, into technologies. The objective was to make the data available to farmers as technological interventions suitable to a specific farming condition. The Gujarat government traditionally relied on individual, group and mass extension methods. However, it was extremely difficult for the government to engage personal sessions for 18,600 scattered villages in the state. Contrary to this, mass extension method was less expensive, but was not useful in providing guidance on a particular farm situation. To overcome these challenges, the Government of Gujarat launched an online program e-Krishi Kiran

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Village Soil Health Card, based on fertility index, can be generated for 18,600 villages of the state

Company: Anand Agricultural University, Anand

Includes alternative crop planning and recommendations for all the 225 talukas of Gujarat

Programme (Soil Health Card Program). Designed to run on the Internet and Intranet (Gujarat State Wide Area Network), the data bank includes information on topics like soil-test values of individual farmer’s field, soil characteristics, meteorological data, etc. It provides Soil Health Card (SHC) to each farmer to guide them about the soil conditions of their farms and cropping practices to be followed. It contains soil fertility index of each

Project: e-Krishi Kiran Programme Project Head: Dr A M Shekh, Vice Chancellor

village on the basis of available soil analysis reports of individual farmers. With the solution, the farmers can easily search for fertilizers recommended for a particular crop based on the nutrition status of a particular farm’s soil. They can also generate information on alternative crops and access state-wise, districtwise, taluka-wise and individual farmer-wise model action plans for crop production.

Online scholarships for minority students

he Online Scholarship Management System (OSMS) for minority students in Andhra Pradesh was taken up to enable students in class XI to PhD to apply for fee reimbursement and scholarship through the website www. apsmfc.com. Andhra Pradesh State Minorities Corporation started this initiative with many objectives, such as creating awareness among the minority students about the scholarship, bringing

transparency and accuracy into the system and developing a user-friendly system that would subsequently reduce the dropout rate. Students and colleges have been given online facility for tracking their online application by typing a unique token number issued to the students. Similarly, colleges have been given password through which they can track how many students have been sanctioned scholarship and fee, and

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In the year 2010-11, over 5 lakh students benefited from the system

Company: Andhra Pradesh State Minorities Corporation Limited

The fee and scholarship disbursed is expected to reach ` 350 crore this year

Project: Online Scholarship Management System (OSMS) for minority students

for how many students the tuition fee and scholarship is pending. SMSes and e-mail alerts are also sent to the students for giving them information regarding sanction of their fee reimbursement and scholarship. Due to online scholarship system, drop-out rate among the minority students has reduced to a large extent. Number of minority students taking admission in the professional and specialized courses is increasing year-by-year. The processing time of applications has reduced from several months to few days. Also, duplication was a big problem in the sanctioning of scholarship and fee reimbursement in the manual system, which has been eliminated through security checks. The accuracy in sanctioning and processing has increased by 100 percent.

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Chhattisgarh going the e-procurement way

hhattisgarh is adopting a professional approach in implementing e-procurement to enhance efficiency and transparency in public procurement. This is being implemented through Chhattisgarh Infotech & Biotech Promotion Society (CHiPS). The state has implemented a single, unitary and end-to-end eProcurement solution across the state on a build-own-operate (BOO) model. After the implementation of the eProcurement solution, every detail w.r.t. the tenders floated online by the departments are made available on the eProcurement website 365x24x7. All information on the tenders published by the respective department is web-based. Now, the bidder can access the website from any corner of the world and submit his/ her bid online, even during the nonbusiness hours.

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8,303 tenders worth ` 23152.83 crore processed till date

Company: Govt of Chhattisgarh

Improved efficiency, time and money in terms of reduced cycle time & manual labor and improvement in work culture

Project Head: AM Parial, CEO, CHIPS

Taking into consideration the efficiency and reduced tender cycle time, administrative expenses and overhead costs have greatly reduced. For example, a tender of works department worth ` 105.81 crore ( according to government estimates), which was earlier done through the conventional mode was done via e-tendering. In this mode, the lowest bid received was less by ` 27.43 crore, at ` 83.50 crore.

Project: e-procurement project SI/Vendor: Wipro/NexTender

The system provides features like price bid comparison and product comparison where the information is provided exactly according to the templates given. The system also has a comprehensive MIS report, which forms the base for many decisions like the evaluation of bidding patterns, bidder participation, expenditure study, etc. Since the launch of the system, 8,303 tenders worth ` 23152.83 crore have been processed.

Dhanlaxmi Bank transforms itself using IT

hanlaxmi Bank’s technology team embarked on a six step technology transformation program to give a competitive edge to the bank. The bank put together an elaborate plan supported by the board and partnered with able technology providers. The entire transformation strategy took only nine months, which otherwise would have taken over 24 months considering that the changes were not incremental but transformational.

Accordingly, across 177 Branches, technology infrastructure pertaining were completely overhauled, and network links were enabled on MPLS. Today, policy-based routing is established for core banking systems. The bank has also virtualized its server and storage infrastructure. As a result of these initiatives, the end-of-day processing times, which stretched from 8-12 hours on a regular basis, have now been reduced to just 4-6 hours even on

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EOD processing times reduced from 12 hours to 4-6 hours

Company: Dhanlaxmi Bank

By moving transactions from branches to digital channels, the cost saving is more than 3/4th of branch transactions

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Project: Transformation of technology infrastructure Project Head: Muralidharan Rajamani, COO

month ends. The bank has also shifted its data center to a managed data center, with a provision for 100 servers, which can last for the next three years. Today, customer transactions are increasingly being channeled through alternate channels as against the traditional brick and mortar route, which carried 93 percent of transactions earlier. A study of transactions undertaken for March 2010 and March 2011 indicates that while transaction processing through branches has almost remained flat, transaction processing through ATM and other digital channels has increased rapidly. There has been substantial saving of cost. By moving the transactions to a centralized location, there has been cost reduction in comparison with business volumes. The cost saving is more than 3/4th of branch transactions.

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general it

e-Shakti empowers rural households in Bihar

he Rural Development Department of Government of Bihar was facing challenges in identifying eligible beneficiaries of NREGA scheme. As a result, there was a huge gap between money disbursed by government and money received by a beneficiary. Thus, Glodyne partnered with the government for implementing and managing the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) project in Bihar, called e-Shakti.This is a five year BOOT project, which has the potential not only to generate more employment directly and indirectly, but also to transform rural economic and social relations at many levels. With e-Shakti, the processes of registration, receipts, job demand, muster rolls, works, attendance, calculation and disbursement of wages has been been digitized.

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Turnaround time between the work done and wages received has been significantly brought down from 6-7 weeks to 5 days

Company: Government of Bihar

Automation has resulted in visible cost savings for the government

Technology is being used for the empowerment and enrichment of the rural households of the state. This project is one of the largest projects globally to be hosted on a private cloud technology platform. In addition, advanced deduplication technology has been deployed on this project. Today, even an illiterate poor person from a remote village in Bihar can get work and get paid under the NREGA

Project: e-Shakti Project Head: Santosh Mathew, Principal Secretary, Rural Development Dept

scheme, in a very transparent manner. The turnaround time between the work done and wages received has been significantly brought down from 6-7 weeks to 5 days. Real-time MIS reports are possible across levels, thus bringing in transparency. The MNREGA budgets are being successfully and properly utilized for the development of the state. The automation has resulted in visible cost savings for the government.

Online self-service improves customer service

lients using the online trading application at HDFC Securities had to remember complex passwords with regulatory constraints namely the password needs to be alphanumeric; restriction on the usage of previous three passwords; and the password needs to be changed every 15 days. In light of the complexity of the password policy, on an average the company received 10,000 password-related requests (75 percent of which related

to password re-generation and the rest accounted for by queries related to nonreceipt of passwords) each month. Also, incidents like improper printing and delays in dispatch by courier agencies further restricted customers from accessing their trading accounts. HDFC Securities, therefore, wanted to reduce the dependency on the password print and dispatch process. Accordingly, it implemented an

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In the six-month period between Oct 2010 and March 2011, nearly 1,000 clients re-generated their passwords online every day

Company: HDFC Securities

Total potential cost saving of approximately ` 12,00,000 p.a.

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Project: Online Password Self Service Project Head: Munish Mittal, Executive VP, IT

online self-service based solution with multiple levels of authentication for existing customers who have forgotten their trading passwords. In the first step, clients were asked to key in the Internet login ID. On validation, a page with prepopulated customer ID and a field to key in their net banking password was displayed. On successful authentication of bank details, customers were redirected to the password generation page. The key innovation here was to use the login validations of an external entity (HDFC Bank Netbanking) to authenticate customer requests. HDFC Securities now saves on operational costs as well as monetary costs involved. Savings on courier, printing and operational expenses are estimated to be close to ` 12,00,000 on an annual basis. The service implementation has also resulted in increased productivity.

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Integrated district planning improves efficiency

o enhance the quality of services, the Gujarat Government undertook a Decentralized District Planning program so that various schemes could be implemented successfully and on time. For this reason, iOjN 4 Planning (Integrated Online Junction on Net for Decentralized District Planning), a webenabled application was developed and introduced. The objectives were to streamline decision making, eliminate multiple time data entry of various parameters of developmental projects, make status of developmental projects online and make the system more transparent and accountable. Apart from this, the program is targeted to make the administrative procedure less paper-based, smoothen treasury processes, promote balance regional development within geographical areas across the taluka

highlights

snapshot

Time taken to reply has reduced from 20 days to 4-7 days per application

Company: Gujarat Government

Administrative expenditure has reduced from ` 1.5 lakh to ` 0.5 lakh

(block) and ensure conversion of various government schemes. As the application maintains related parameters of developmental projects in the electronic storage system, quick retrieval process helps in the timely analysis of data and need-based report generation. This reduces the administration cost, as well as expenditure information of developmental project. iOjN 4 Planning system also helps

Project: Integrated solution for Decentralized District Planning Project Head: VN Maira, Additional Chief Secretary

in the file tracking system. Additionally, sector-wise and sub sector-wise report generation has helped in the formulation of policy. The status of the developmental project of interest is available through the system software from any place with the Internet connectivity. The online review process has reduced the recurring expense to approximately ` 1 lakh per annum.

Online interface for citizens and farmers

nformation Communication Technology (ICT) enabled workflow and monitoring system has been implemented successfully at National Horticulture Mission (NHM) to facilitate effective progress monitoring of the scheme established presently at central and state levels, which is in the process of extension to the district and grassroots level. It has been implemented in 18 states and three UTs. The system provides online

interface for the citizens/farmers to query the system. It also facilitates NHM Management to track the critical issue of successful implementation by providing 100 percent visibility and control over the implementation process. Major features of the system are SMS alerts for intimating farmers, reduction of paper work and increased throughput, local language support, facilitation of online feedback and citizen-centric and farmer-centric portal.

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100 percent transparency with G2C and G2G interface

Company: Horticulture Division, Ministry of Agriculture

Online interface for farmers

Project: Online monitoring mechanism

371districts in 18 states and three Union Territories have access

Project Head: Sanjeev Chopra

ICT is widely used for physical and financial progress monitoring purposes. A portal for NHM (http://nhm.nic. in) with online, progress monitoring software facilitates at the state level is being extended to the district level and further at the beneficiary level through a workflow-based system under development. Information on market arrivals and price of horticulture produce, through AGMARKNET has been integrated with the NHM portal. All the 371 districts in 18 states and three Union Territories have access to this progress monitoring software. The market information on market arrival and price is available on a real-time basis. The portal has enabled 100 percent transparency with G2C and G2G interface for citizens and farmers.

The system has facilitated in the reduction of paper work and increased throughput.

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Intelenet slashes bandwidth using Cisco WAAS

oday, enterprises face numerous challenges in the delivery of applications and critical business data to the enterprise edge. As the global workforce continues to become more distributed, providing adequate service levels throughout the organization becomes increasingly difficult, causing IT departments to deploy costly and difficult-to-manage infrastructure at each location. BPO solutions provider, Intelenet Global Services, deployed Cisco Wide Area Application Services (WAAS), which includes application acceleration and WAN optimization capabilities. Intelenet Global Solutions faced some challenges like high bandwidth utilization, WAN latency, degraded application performance and slow data transfer rates across WAN, network congestion and high operating costs

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Bandwidth will reduce with an expected 25 percent reduction in cost

Company: Intelenet Global Services/ Sparsh BPO Services

Heavy files can be accessed quickly

due to high bandwidth utilization. Deployment of Cisco WAAS has provided a significant improvement in data accessed over the WAN/MPLS. By adopting this new technology, the firm has achieved reduction in recurring maintenance costs, increase in WAN efficiency and reduction in business downtime. This implementation has helped the firm in centralizing its file server, print, e-mail and application servers.

Project: Bandwidth Compression, Caching Device- Cisco WAAS Project Head: Rajendra Deshpande

This has helped the firm in achieving high availability, performance and throughput. By employing a series of techniques ranging from TCP optimization to advanced cross-protocol data suppression, all working together, the solution has helped in ensuring that application data traverses the WAN more efficiently, thereby improving application performance and employee productivity.

Mahindra Vehicle Manufacturers goes green

ahindra Vehicle Manufacturers (MVML) located at Chakan, Pune constitutes the complete facility for manufacturing heavy and light commercial vehicles, SUVs, pick-up vehicles, and four wheeler vehicles for domestic and export business. MVML was designed and built as a green field facility to integrate the best in technology, environmental sustainability, social responsibility, and operational excellence.

As this was a green field scenario, there were challenges with respect to provisioning of utilities, service provider connectivity, manpower and resources, uptime of application and services to meet project and operational requirements. There were challenges of hosting and administration of multiple applications from isolated setup with minimal resources to meet ad-hoc operational and high demanding project needs. To overcome these

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Due to pre-completion of project by 14 months, 29,400 resource hours were saved

Company: Mahindra Vehicle Manufacturers Ltd (MVML)

As start of production started from 22nd month, it led to early vehicle rollout

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Project: Green Field IT setup Project Head: B Venkatakrishnan – Head of IT

challenges, the company implemented a campus backbone and converged network infrastructure , which was designed and implemented on a single platform catering to data, voice, video, security surveillance, digital manufacturing and MES control networks. It also implemented PLM with hybrid network integration. MVML also set up portable cabins and temporary sheds, which were converted to mini DC providing services like VOIP, file and print, team center (data vaulting) services, SAP, mailing on wireless and wired network connectivity for campus and underdevelopment shops. Though the project phase was timed at 36 months, the frugal mindset and innovative approach like reverse engineering with alternative thinking helped MVML to complete the Phase-I project in a record breaking time of just 22 months.

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Marico streamlines IT landscape

MCG major Marico is known for leveraging IT. It did a roll out of SAP-R3, SAP APO & SAP BI way back in 2001. As the business expanded and Marico expanded its IT setup, there was a need to increase availability of the IT landscape for business. There were two separate IT landscapes at different locations at Marico. The SAP production landscape consisted of SAP software like BW and SAP R/3 running on HP-UX Itanium servers and APO running on Windows Itanium servers. Other line of business applications were running on x86 servers. Most of these servers had been in service for 4-5 years. Replacing the servers in the SAP landscape with newer servers was a very expensive proposition with no flexibility. The team moved to a blade architecture with two HP-UX blades for running database instances of BW and

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Using blade servers instead of traditional rack mount servers resulted in CAPEX savings of ` 35 lakh

Company: Marico

Virtualization brought in 70 percent power savings

SAP R/3. The team also replaced the three HP-UX applications servers with four x86 servers running RedHat Linux. It implemented a technology called ID-VSE and Virtual Connect to achieve hardware virtualization. This technology creates virtual logical servers with virtual SAN and IP addresses for SAN switch and storage configuration. The development servers for SAP were hosted on a single HP-UX blade running HP-UX virtualization software.

Project: Rearchitecting the IT landscape Project Head: Girish Rao, CIO

This gave the team the flexibility to host multiple development servers along with the flexibility to create as many QA instances. The Marico team chose to use software virtualization for consolidating the other line of business servers. VMware was used to consolidate around 30 servers onto three physical blades. This achieved a power saving of around 70 percent translating into revenues of ` 7 lakh per annum.

MHADA ushers in transparency

s a state organization, MHADA’s mission is to promote and assist in housing development for all income groups of the society in the state of Maharashtra. With a growing demand for reasonably priced housing, there is an increasing pressure on MHADA to deliver additional houses. The traditional methods of lottery like drawing of chits proved to be timeconsuming. Allotment of houses would take several days. In addition, these

systems were open to manipulation. There was therefore a need to use technology and ensure an efficient method of allotment of tenements. Keeping this in view, MHADA decided to go in for an IT-based lottery system, under the guidance of TCS. The objective was to increase transparency, reduce excess printing of forms, and reduce the time taken for issuing refunds. Today, the online lottery system has ushered in speed, efficiency

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Ability to apply from multiple locations including home and workplace

Company: MHADA

Refunds within 7 days of close of lottery

Project: Online lottery system for allocating homes Project Head: Satish Gavai SI Partner: TCS

and transparency to the whole process. Citizens, today, have the option of applying from their residences, workplace or any cyber cafe. Also, due to the built-in checks, an applicant is not allowed to feed in wrong data, thus eliminating the chances of rejection. At the end of the lottery process, it had been typically observed that the manual systems could not cope with the demand for refunds. Today, all these issues have been tackled effectively. In 2011, MHADA received 180,028 applications for 4,038 tenements. The draw was conducted within 10 days of the last date for the receipt of applications and refunds were made within seven days of the draw of the lottery. The IT systems behaved perfectly, and no applicant had poor response even on the last day when over 25,000 applications were received.

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NPCI plugs revenue losses

ational Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) operates the Financial Transaction Switch, which acts as the intermediary to provide message switching services for ATM transactions between the banks in India. NPCI’s revenue is tied to the successful switching of messages. These messages pass through multiple service provider networks and involve ATM switches deployed at banks, as well as NPCI. The project addresses the need to monitor the delivery of applications over the WAN to measure network latency, measure application response time for the messages passing through the financial switch, and alert IT staff when any network and ATM switch response times exceed thresholds. The solution has helped the firm to lower loss of business transactions while being delivered on the network, lower mean time to resolve performance

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Plugged revenue losses by monitoring performance of financial switch application

Company: NPCI

Reduced Mean Time to Repair for application performance problems

issues that limit successful application delivery, thereby increasing customer experience of applications, leading to improved customer satisfaction. The firm has used Fluke Network’s Network Time Machine (NTM) at its datacenter and disaster recovery center. The solution bridged a key gap — passive monitoring of actual application transactions on the network, a capability, which was not present pre-deployment. This removed finger-

Project: Monitoring application delivery Project Head: Dr Rajendran N SI/Vendor: Fluke Networks

pointing among IT management teams, reduced the time taken to resolve application performance problems, thereby resulting in plugging revenue losses and making efficient use of it resources. NPCI earns revenue based on a number of successful transactions put through the switch. The solution plugs revenue losses by monitoring performance of financial switch application at NPCI and resolving the problems in the least possible time.

Punj Lloyd improves budgetary controls

s a project-based organization, Punj Lloyd is involved in multiple projects. For very project, a seperate profit and loss account is maintained. While analyzing projects, the firm found out that the project teams used to start spending without defining budgets in ERP, thus there was no visibility on profitability status. Even though cost budgets were defined in ERP for a few projects and were supposed to be followed by project teams, there were

frequent overruns as there was no way to control spending by project teams even beyond budget. Punj Lloyd embarked on a project that sought to put budgetary controls in place. Accordingly, a workflow-based technology solution was put in place to ensure whatever budgets are defined in ERP, are enforced in a way that no spending can be done beyond budgets. The most significant feature of this solution was that not only it stopped

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18 percent more project milestones were reached without overshooting the budget

Company: Punj Lloyd

Senior management can keep a track on money spent

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Project: Budgetary control in ERP Project Head: Puneesh Lamba, Group GM & Head – Enterprise Applications

further spending in each project task beyond budget but also ensured that key stakeholders got alert mailers when spending reached 80 percent. This ensured that the project team had relevant time to get the budget revised, if required. The solution was deployed in a record four months time. Post deployment, the firm has realized huge benefits. For example, disciplined spending from project teams ensured that 18 percent more project timelines were reached without overshooting the budget. This has a direct impact on the bottom-line. Since budgets are mapped till the bottom level tasks for a project, the senior management is able to identify exactly where the money is spent. Currently, the total approximate combined size of projects where this solution has been deployed is ` 10,000 crore.

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RGI reduces fraudulent behavior of claims

eliance General Insurance (RGI) had uncovered several fraudulent cases as reported by the claims department. The company was desirous of detecting and controlling fraud as it was impacting the profits significantly. Without an integrated mechanism to centralize information about a policy/ claim, it was nearly impossible to detect fraud, resulting in constant risk of slippages. Thus, RGI decided to set up a rules driven system built using FICO Blaze Advisor, that would help the claims team, and integrate it effectively with other enterprise applications. The solution will reduce the overall number of frauds or errors as it is rules driven. Any claim would have to pass through the automated and stringent rules driven system before being processed. Many anomalies will get detected in the early stages of claims

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The solution will reduce overall

Company: Reliance General Insurance (RGI)

number of frauds as it is rules driven Even low claim amounts can be scrutinized easily

processing (due to instant availability of historical data) which will result into fraudulent intent getting detected easily without any waste of time, money or effort. The concept of claims scorecard was handy and was applied automatically to every claim, which will help to prevent future frauds and aid in decision making. Severity of risk and percentage severity score are key metrics that have been made available instantly to aid decisions. Even low

Project: Rules driven claim system Project Head: Sudip M Banerjee, CTO & Head – Online Sales

claim amounts can be scrutinized easily. Hence, there will be no revenue leakage. The quicker processing of claims and more accurate decisions will result in significant savings. Quicker service will result in better relationships and enhance customer confidence. Genuine customers are more likely to get requisite attention from the company. With a single system as a custodian of truth, the amount of manual verifications will significantly reduce.

Road Management system delivers huge efficiencies

eliance Infrastructure, one of the largest developers of roads and highway projects in India, was looking at using IT to address some of the major issues faced by companies operating in this segment. Some typical challenges included absence of a central monitoring tool for widely dispersed toll plazas; lack of proper and efficient IT systems, which led to revenue leakage due to misrepresentation of vehicles, and absence of an automated revenue

audit module. To resolve these challenges, Reliance Infrastructure implemented an Enterprise Road Management System (ERMS). The ERMS system captures the data and images on a real-time basis from the remotely located, geographically dispersed toll plazas, with the help of a real-time reporting module. This has helped it in reducing and arresting the revenue leakage as all

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Reduction in revenue leakages and frauds due to central monitoring system

Company: Reliance Infrastructure

Centralized management of operational activities of multiple sites using a single console

Project: Enterprise Road Management System Project Head: Rajiv Sharaf

the toll plazas are centrally monitored, which has resulted in keeping a check on the outsourced staff. Additionally, the revenue collected at the toll plaza is audited at the end of every shift, which has subsequently helped in arresting any revenue fraud instantly. Today, the ERMS provides a centralized system for capturing various operational activities. The organization can manage operational activities of multiple sites, using a single console. This includes processes of repair works, site inspection reports of consultants, communication with NHAI and digital document management for the efficient storage and retrieval of documents. The ERMS has a web-based interface for reporting of accidents, which ensures proper workflow for communication to all associated agencies or partners with related mapping on GIS for marking of accident spots.

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Shree Cement uses IT for optimal mining

hree Cement has its own captive mine for limestone (a basic raw material for manufacturing cement). The mine is fully mechanized and Heavy Earth Moving Machineries (HEMM) are used for the excavation and transportation of material. Around 50,000 tonnes of limestone and waste rocks from the mines are handled per day. As the mine working areas are spread over a length and width of 2.5 km in a hilly terrain, the supervision and control of such a big fleet was a big challenge. In case of any break down or stoppage of crusher or excavator, the dumpers were kept waiting as no communication could be established. To cope up with these challenges, a central monitoring system with two-way communication was essential without hampering the safety. This led the cement company to

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Capital expenditure saving of `3 crore

Company: Shree Cement Limited

Saving of manpower amounting to ` 1, 50,000 per month

Project Head: RK Srivastava, Assistant Vice President (IT)

deploy a solution, which automatically allocates dump trucks to excavators optimally on a dynamic basis to maximize production and displays vehicle position, speed on a real-time basis on a map. It generates alerts for vehicles entering restricted zones and logs vehicle movement for subsequent replay. It also allocates operators to different HEMMs at shift beginning as per operating skills, preferences

Project: Central monitoring system

and priorities. The operational advantage is that no intervention is required by operators to capture data. It offers continuous and real-time display of locations of mobile and semi-mobile HEMM over mine map on graphics monitor at the central control room for use by shift supervisors. There is faster response to crisis situations as vehicle locations are pin-pointed on the computer screen of the control center.

Taj delights customers with a Gigabit network

he latest project in Taj’s endeavor is an ambitious high bandwidth network backbone to be rolled out in all new hotels. Unlike the conventional copperbased unshielded twisted pair (UTP) category 5/6 (CAT5/6) cables, the planned network will primarily consist of optical fibers. The foundation of this network is derived from the standards of the Gigabit Passive Optical Networks (GPON). GPON is already being used

by telecommunication companies to support subscribers across large geographical distances. By using a RF overlay system, TV channels will be distributed over the GPON, eliminating the need for separate coaxial cabling. It replaces the pain of laying multiple cables, namely multiple Ethernet cables, RF cable for TV, phone cables etc., from multiple distribution rooms to all the end-points. GPON aggregates all the traffic and distributes

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Minimum bandwidth of 2.5 Gbps

Company: Indian Hotels Company

Solves the eternal problem of choked Internet traffic and poor streaming experience

Project: Gigabit Passive Optical Networks (GPON)

Easy to build, add nodes and simpler to maintain

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Project Head: Khushru Siganporia, Director IT

it over a single optical fiber cable to all end-points. The second advantage of GPON is scalability. In a conventional multi-cable network, adding more nodes involves much trouble and coordination between various agencies. Using GPON, the scenario is different. Easy to build, easy to add nodes and simpler to maintain, it removes the pain points of any cabling system. Another considerable problem, which is also addressed by GPON is interference. The backbone of GPON is passive, which means there are no active components in the network. This means fewer breakdowns and lesser cost to maintain. It also means lesser downtimes of the service provided. Also, all these benefits are tripled or quadrupled as instead of three to four active networks GPON has only one passive network, making it further beneficial financially.

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Videocon handles larger customer call volumes

or Videocon, customer service has always been one of the most crucial factors of growing its business. Empowering its service staff by providing an in-house distributed application was the first step taken for customer service automation. This system was extended to users, located at various call centres, branches and service franchises spread across India. However, with time, the company recognized that the existing solution had outgrown the organization’s requirements. The company decided to build a solution that would help it to deliver instant customer service, with the capability to handle larger call volumes. Path Infotech which, was engaged to design the solution, analyzed Videocon’s business requirements and re-designed the existing homegrown system. The solution now has the capability

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Reduction in bandwidth consumption from 6 Mbps to 2.5 Mbps

Company: Videocon Industries

Has enabled the firm to handle larger call volumes — from 6,000 to 20,000 customer calls per day

to handle larger call volumes —from 6,000 to 20,000 plus customer calls per day. Today, despite of high call volumes, call centers at various zones are handling customer calls with ease. It has also helped the team to reduce bandwidth consumption from 6 Mbps to 2.5 Mbps. At present, over 1,000 users at more than 800 locations have access to the system. Prompt acknowledgement of service requests and resolution within

Project: Customer Service solution Project Head: Ashok Jade, Head IT - Videocon Consumer Electronics Division

the stipulated time has increased customer satisfaction. Today, calls are allocated to engineers on mobile, which help them to respond faster to the customers. Forecasting and auto procurement has helped branches and franchises to keep minimum stock availability. SMS alerts are sent to customers on call registration with engineer details and confirmation for call closer and cancellation.

Cashless solution makes banking convenient

oing to a bank to pay college fees or even a library fine isn’t top on the agenda for students, unless it’s the last day. The time spent standing in long queues at cash tellers could be better utilized for research at the college library. Banks offered more convenience by setting up a branch on the campus. And now Vijaya Bank is going a step further by leveraging mobile technology to offer cashless banking on campuses such as DSI

(Dayanand Sagar Institutions) in Bengaluru. There is a lot of back office work for processing customer transactions, leading to a delay in crediting or debiting accounts. A cashless campus solution obliterates the back office work at the campus, as well as at the sponsoring bank. It also simplifies the mode of fee payment/collections. Since the whole procedure is automated, the volume of business handled by

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Institutions can monitor and segregate transactions

Company: Vijaya Bank

New SMS codes for fees/charges can be generated immediately

Project Head: K Chandra - GM, Department of Information Technology

Security is offered through SMS one time password (OTP)

Project: Cash Less campus

each staff can be drastically increased, thereby boosting staff productivity. The educational institution also benefits from cashless banking as all the transactions are seamless. These transactions can also be monitored through transaction reports available on the portal. Vijaya Bank claims that cashless banking is secure since only predefined accounts are credited. It is perceived that cashless banking will make a revolutionary change in the campus atmosphere, as it will help in avoiding direct cash payment and long queues at the cash counter. What’s more, banking processes are highly simplified and accessible through mobile phone interfaces. A transaction initiated through a mobile device, is validated from the CBS and then gets effected.

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Sumul Dairy ups revenue with AMCS

umul Dairy distributes over 8 lakh liter milk per day through more than 2,250 retailing agents. The dairy is required to collect money on day-today basis from these retailers. Since the dairy relied on a manual process for tracking orders, dispatch and cash collection, it was facing many challenges related to duplication of data and delays in processing. With a vision to reduce inventory cost, ensure transparency in the system and improve quality, Sumul Dairy deployed Automatic Milk Collection System (AMCS) software at more than 400 village co-operative societies. As a part of the initiative, the dairy integrated Geographical Information System (GIS) with the central database to keep a track of animal population, animal diseases, milk route transport management, cattle feed utilization, milk procurement and other veterinary

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The dairy recorded 10 percent increase in total revenue

Company: Sumul Dairy

Around 3 percent reduction in expenses after the implementation

services. With the deployment of the enterprise-wide digitization covering AMCS at village level, the dairy has automated various processes, including milk procurement, marketing, sales distribution, cattle feed management, materials management and maintenance management. It is estimated that more than half million records are created each day in the computerized systems

Project: Automatic Milk Collection System Project Head: Satyen Naik – Manager - IT

at different places. Today, Sumul Dairy pays higher rate in India to milk producer, boosting rural economy and minimizing rural unemployment. The online inventory modules have enabled significant reduction in inventory cost, resulting in direct cost savings for the dairy. Apart from this, the dairy has achieved higher market share by resolving customer complaints in a faster manner and ensuring timely dispatch.

PCMC improves healthcare service delivery

impri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) was looking for an end-to-end service delivery mechanism to improve the healthcare services provided to its citizens. As the process was manual, users had to wait for respective documents to be collected, and this was a timeconsuming process. It was also difficult to take decisions since information was scattered around in various registers and in different formats in the record

books of the hospital and primary health offices. Also, private dispensaries, health centers, nursing homes and diagnosis centers send statistical reports to the PCMC, which in turn forwards these to the state and central governments. Earlier, the mass disease controller team and primary health workers were posting the same records pertaining to a person, as different plans, due to the unavailability of a citizen’s health record

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Deduplicates patient entries

Company: Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation

Checks misuse in sonography centres Obliterating human error in the verification of records

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Project: Health Program Management System Project Head: Nilkanth Poman

and calculations. To counter all these challenges, PCMC set up a Health Program Management System comprising two different applications for sonography record tracking and the other for health program tracking. The health program applications are fed information from multiple sources. This allows citizens who use PCMC’s health services to add all the information and generate reports at different levels. Post deployment, all processes are streamlined to improve the delivery of services. Since services are webbased, there is a continuous feedback mechanism for citizens. The system has also introduced efficient utilization of manpower. Since the web-based system allows citizens to apply for public services, and it responds to queries automatically, it has greatly reduced human intervention.

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HDFC Bank initiates e-learning and m-learning

DFC Bank has implemented two innovative solutions namely the e-process communication system e-learning portal for online training & communication) and the m-learning solution. The e-process communication system is used by credit card teams to conduct trainings for new joinees, as well as to disseminate the latest process changes and to revive the knowledge level for existing employees. Using the m-learning technology, m-learning schedule and audio files are hosted on the portal. These audio nuggets are on topics like credit awareness, current economics, and ops risk management. Before deployment of the e-process Communication portal, knowledge sharing was done through dissemination of information through e-mails/printed materials, trainers were conducting classroom/on-call training

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Automated the process of training, scheduling tests and obtaining feedback

Company: HDFC Bank

Increased the number of trainings, thereby increasing the knowledge level

and tests through paper, and there was no solution to conduct online tests. Conducting tests for larger user base was difficult. Post deployment, the process of training, scheduling tests, obtaining feedback from trainer and evaluation has been automated. It has increased the number of trainings, thereby increasing the knowledge level. The solution has been used across India at 1,000 plus locations by more than

Project: e-learning and m-learning solution Project Head: Anil Jaggia, CIO

3,000 users. The m-learning solution has resulted in wider reach of employees and has proved to be economical with cost of ` 100-120 per employee for 20 minutes session. This can be self timed by the employee any time on the specified date. It resulted in saving travel costs and time and tracking listening history. Till date, more than 3,000 users from different business verticals have used the solution.

Mahindra Navistar undertakes green IT initiatives

ahindra Navistar Automotives designed a series of green IT initiatives to provide a single-window platform for all dealer applications. The objectives were to develop a tool to assess and improve the knowledge levels of the dealer mechanics located across India; offer customers authorized service locations for availing service anytime; enable them to place spare parts order from the vehicle breakdown site; and track customer visits

made by the sales executive for improving sales. One of the applications the company has developed is a singlewindow web interface for various applications of dealers. The firm has also developed a couple of mobility solutions. One of them is a special SMS-based facility, wherein a standard SMS sent from any mobile with city name or national highway number can trigger a response SMS with the

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Ordering parts through SMS from break-down sites increased dealer satisfaction

Company: Mahindra Navistar Automotives

Ability to assess the knowledge levels of dealer mechanics

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Project: Green IT initiatives Project Head: Jayant Magar, General Manager - IT

details of the authorized service centers located around the city or along the national highway. The contact number of the dealer personnel is also sent as a response so that the customer can get the necessary support from the service locations. This is a SMS-based solution on Java platform. The other mobility solution, Vor Assistant, helps service personnel working on a vehicle breakdown site to place a spare order from his mobile through an SMS and register the order in Mahindra Navistar system. This process reduces the time lag in placing order for non-stock spares. Special action is taken on such type of orders to minimize the breakdown time of vehicle. The third one is customer visit, tracker that helps in tracking the status of the visits, which leads to improvement in conversion and sales.

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m-governance improves citizen services in Rajkot

ajkot Municipal Corporation (RMC) identified a challenge in collecting property tax and water charges. Earlier, citizens would stand in a long queue for an hour or two to get their tax details. Then they had to stand in another queue for payment of property tax. Naturally, paying municipal dues was not a priority for citizens, resulting in low recovery of property tax. To counter these challenges, RMC initiated an e-governance project. Accordingly, all information related to property tax, water charges, profession tax and birth and death registration was put on its website. But it was found that despite offering all this information on the RMC website, just 10 percent of the city population was accessing it online. So the RMC decided to use mobile technology (m-governance ) to reach out to the remaining 90 percent. RMC has now implemented

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m-governance has improved collections of taxes and charges for RMC

Company: Rajkot Municipal Corporation

Information is just an SMS away for citizens

m-Governance for providing effective services. The m-commerce project has drastically improved citizen services and boosted collections. Today, citizens can obtain information on a mobile phone with just one SMS. Moreover, SMS alerts are sent to parents/relatives for birth or death registration. Other transaction alerts relating to property tax/water charges and professional tax are also sent to citizens via SMS. If a cheque is

Project: m-Governance for improving citizen services Project Head: Mahesh Gohel

returned or if a transaction is cancelled, an SMS alert is immediately sent to the concerned citizen. Complaint centers have been consolidated and there is just one helpline number for the call center, compared to the earlier 15 different complaint centers. With monitoring being done on a weekly basis, details are available on the intranet. Hence, 90 percent complaints are resolved within 72 hours.

Material tracking powers Reliance Infrastructure

eliance Infrastructure, a part of Reliance Group, is India’s largest infrastructure company. The company was facing a challenge with tracking construction and erection materials as it imports erection material from China and it takes around 30-45 days to receive the dispatched material. This directly affected the planning of construction activity. To overcome the challenges, the company’s EPC, IT Division developed

a fully automated material tracking solution for the process automation. The division developed a power plant construction material tracking system that utilizes bar code, GSM and GPS technology in mix to solve the issue. The solution makes use of 2-D bar coding on material and packages shipped from the factory in China. The GSM-based bar code scanner is not only used for the loading/unloading of materail, segregating different

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Increased employee productivity due to improved planning of construction activity

Company: Reliance Infrastructure

Streamlined logistic billing, logistic clearance and material reconciliation processes

Project: Material Tracking System Project Head: Devpal Sisodia

project material and dispatching the material from different points, but also provides the location and condition information of material. Apart from bar code scanners, the material tracking solution uses GPS instrument on every truck dispatched from India to access system generated location and estimated arrival time. With the deployment of the solution, the company can now easily track material location, which in turns helps in planning construction activity. The solution has also streamlined activity planning, logistic billing, logistic clearance, material reconciliation and erection billing processes. Post deployment the company has registered cost savings in re-ordering and logistic handling. In addition, the solution has simplified the insurance claim process and increased employee productivity.

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Nanavati Hospital shows the power of telemedicine

he telemedicine center of Nanavati Hospital is the largest telemedicine service provider in western India.This center provides teleconsultation and tele-education through its network of 34 peripheral rural centers in India and 45 African countries. Till date, the center has provided over 4,000 teleconsultations and 100 CME (Continuing Medical Education)

snapshot Company: Nanavati Hospital Project: Telemedicine Project Head: Dr Pavan Kumar, Consultant Cardiovascular Surgeon and Head - Department of Telemedicine

program to doctors and paramedics in rural India and Africa. Through these consultations, more than 500 tribals and below poverty line villagers have been treated successfully at Nanavati Hospital by specialists. These treatments include heart surgeries, neuro-surgeries, orthopedics etc. The hospital uses a variety of IT tools through which it delivers telecardiology solutions, tele-ECG, ECG on mobile smartphones and e-ICU. The ECG on mobile is a first in India. Nanavati Hospital is a pioneer in this field, as it has successfully created a rural health care model through telemedicine. Till date, over 4,000 teleconsultations and 500 treatments have saved time, money and effort for patients.

PCMC effectively handles solid waste with waste management system

or the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC), managing waste was proving to be a huge challenge. The existing system was totally manual. Hence, when a user needed information he/she needed to wait till all relevant documents were collected.This process was proving to be time consuming, which delayed decision making.

snapshot Company: Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation Project: Solid Waste Management (SWM) system Project Head: Nilkant Poman

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To address this issue, PCMC deployed a Solid Waste Management system (SWM). The SWM system helps ward officers to monitor the vehicle and personnel attendance and view reports on demand. The system captures the daily waste collection data and hence eliminates the manual maintenance of the data. The information generated from the system can be utilized to establish solid waste management goals for the planning period, to determine resource requirements and to make decisions on investments for collection, processing, and disposal services. Information on current and future population, commercial and industrial development and quantity of solid waste generated is also provided by the system.

Truck Management delivers efficiencies for Ravi Jaipuria

art of the Ravi Jaipuria Group, Varun Beverages Limited (VBL) owns nearly thousand trucks for delivery of finished goods. Typically, maintenance of these vehicles is done through various agencies. All the expenditures related to operation and maintenance of these vehicles is accounted on the heads based on the bills received. The company did not have an accurate vehicle-wise operational cost data and system to monitor fuel expense. To address this issue, the firm creatively used the Plant Maintenance module of SAP. Today, all the trucks are created as machines in the Plant Maintenance module along with other maintainable parts like tyre, engine etc. In order to measure the running kilometer, the trucks are fitted with a GPS-based tracking meter. SAP was integrated with the server of GPS device provider and all the data is today available in SAP. For getting the operation cost of trucks, the transportation module of SAP was used. Post implementation, the firm has achieved better utilization of fleet, with reduced delays in delivering material. This has helped the firm in achieving better market share in rural areas. Today, it can also monitor equipment failure more proactively, which has led to the reduction in maintenance costs. This is expected to be 15 percent less than 2010 in exit 2011.

snapshot Company: Ravi Jaipuria Group Project: Truck Management System Project Head: Kamal Karnatak, Senior Vice President and Group CIO

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Karur Vysya increases ATM uptime

arur Vysya Bank wanted to ensure better uptime of its 500 ATMs across the country. The bank was experiencing more downtime of their ATMs because of poor quality of currency notes. Further, RBI came out with a clean note policy, according to which every bank has to ensure fake notes are captured and reported to RBI. With this in mind, the bank identified cash supplying branches in each city and identified 100 such

snapshot Company: Karur Vysya Bank Project: Introduction of currency sorter for better uptime Project Head: S Sekar

locations across the country. The company designated a small team of two to three persons in each of these branches, which was responsible to collect the excess cash (over and above the limit permitted to each branch for their business holding) and pool it in their branches. For this, the bank procured ` 100 currency sorting machines, which can sort ATM-fit currencies out of the currency collected by their cash supply branches and separate the good quality notes, fake notes and soiled (unusable) notes. The quality notes picked out of the above process were supplied to the ATMs. As a result, the ATM uptime shot up to 99.7 percent and the revenue increased from ` 3 crore a quarter to ` 9 crore. The bank recovered its investment within nine months and recorded a yearly income of ` 36 crore.

Life Advisor portal boosts productivity

o empower its agents with more knowledge, Kotak Life Insurance decided to build a life advisor portal. The objective was to make available information to the advisor within just three clicks. Today, with comprehensive information available in the system, the life advisors are better equipped to service customers. The portal also has language support for both English and Hindi. Additionally, discussion boards, productivity and commission

snapshot Company: Kotak Mahindra Old Mutual Life Insurance Project: Life Advisor Portal Project Head: Dhiresh Rustogi, CTO

dashboards, new business and renewal sales opportunities provide life advisors with critical information for boosting their sales efficiency. Prior to the deployment of the portal, more than 800 calls per month used to go out from life advisors to the service center on an average. Today, the number of service complaints has reduced by 60 percent. The firmâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s business has grown considerably, in line with the usage by the life advisors. For example, the average business of a life advisor who logs in 2-5 times is 1.2 policies, whereas for life advisor logging in greater than 11 times is 3.64 policies. The sales management now has better insight into the activities of productive life advisors by monitoring their web analytics as seen on the portal. Life advisors are now able to service their customers better as they get a 360 degree view of their customers.

University automates exam process

t Nagaland University, manual examination management system was used for entire life cycle of all university examinations. This process was time consuming and prone to errors. Also, the mark sheets and certificates were not tamper proof. To address these challenges, the university implemented an Examination Management Solution (EMS) called intelliExams, from the vendor Mindlogicx. As a part of the implementation, Mindlogicx set up a Network Operating Centre (NOC) in the university campus and the same was connected to all examination delivery centers across colleges where examinations are conducted. Today, question paper is delivered just few minutes before the commencement of the examinations using 128-bit encryption technology, which can be accessed by the authorized personnel with a code. The university also has the option of generating effective reports to know the details related to examination center, fee, candidates, cost and budget. Automation has reduced time for question paper printing and delivery. It has also slashed time required in the evaluation of answer scripts and the printing of mark sheets and certificates. The duration of exam life cycle has reduced to almost 2 months from earlier 4-5 months.

snapshot Company: Nagaland University Project: Automation of examination management system System Integrator: Mindlogicx Project Head: Prof Krishnamoorthy Kannan

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TRS to monitor fertilizer plants

FFCO Aonla Unit manufactures urea, which is primarily based on natural gas as raw material. Monitoring the consumption of various raw material for the production of fertilizer (urea in this case) and calculations of specific energy consumption per MT production, on a daily basis was a herculean task. Thus, a Technical Reporting System (TRS) was developed by IFFCO, Aonla Unit. This system

snapshot Company: IFFCO, Aonla Unit Project: Technical Reporting System (TRS) Project Head: Seema Gaur, Dy. GM (Systems)

incorporates the complete cycle of raw data capture from various plants to computation of specific energy consumption for urea and other intermittent products. Also, generation of online cost of production and analytical reports is incorporated in the system. Various statutory reports to Government of India (GOI) and Ministry of Fertilizers for payment of subsidy are generated using this system, without any manual intervention. In the absence of the TRS system, carrying out the above job was a herculean task and there was always a time lag in the transmission of information. The TRS has helped IFFCO (Aonla Unit) in effective plant performance and cost of production monitoring across all fertilizer plants â&#x20AC;&#x201D; particularly for nitrogenous fertilizer plants.

Customers get life insurance cover in three minutes

ndiaFirst Life Insurance Companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Ask Apply Get (AAG) is an innovative and customer friendly process to buy life insurance quickly. Through this initiative, customers get life insurance cover almost instantly in three minutes, without the hassles of long waiting period, follow-ups, heavy documentation and medical checkups. AAG provides instantaneous delivery of voice call recording and

snapshot Company: IndiaFirst Life Insurance Company Project: Ask Apply Get (AAG) Project Head: Vinayak Khadye

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policy document in the electronic form over e-mail and mobile phone and multiple options of data entry. There is an integration of web-based AAG system, workflow system, call center system, e-mail and SMS gateway. The solution has helped the insurance company to eliminate the issue of receipt of incomplete applications and need to have resources to manage such requirements. It has brought transparency to insurance business where customers can provide policy terms and conditions before the sale. AAG is and will be an ongoing process and the company expects to increase the revenue from current level of 30 percent of new business premium income to level of 50 percent in the financial year 2011-12.

Indore Traffic Police opts for e-challaning

o bring in more efficiency to the overall process of monitoring traffic violations, the Indore Police has partnered with Veltronics India. As a part of the project, the Indore traffic police will be provided with devices capable of reading data from the license and registration cards. The device enables the traffic police to connect to the centralized server containing all the details of the driving licenses and vehicle registrations issued by the RTO. The application can query past violations for a vehicle by entering the registration number. Today, the traffic police can report traffic violations, along with picture of violator or the number plate. The police can even query past violations from the server using the vehicle registration number. The traffic police can also submit all fine collection data to the server in real-time using a cellphone. Today, the team has increased the number of challans issued using the same man power. The online processing of data and information on traffic violators ensures that there is immediate delivery of challans and collection of fines. In the long run, this will lead to improved traffic conditions as now the offence is pre-recorded and posted on a server. Traffic inspectors are also equipped with additional intelligence as they have in-depth information on stolen vehicles and number of previous offences.

snapshot Company: Indore Traffic Police System Integrator / Vendor: Veltronics India Project: e-Challan Project Head: Pawan Shrivastav, DIG & SSP Indore Police

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ICICI Securities automates agent payout system

or ICICI Securities, sourcing of product application forms is mainly done through thousands of agents recruited by channel sales teams across the country. These agents bring new business for ICICI Securities by offering forms of the firm’s products on behalf of customers. In return, the agents are paid a commission. Commission is paid on the basis of various schemes combined with the product that is sourced. Computation of commission paid to these agents was earlier maintained manually using spreadsheets. Data from online systems was extracted and several complex formulae were applied to compute commission payable. The process was extremely cumbersome for the end-user at the operational level and was prone to errors in payouts. A single error in computation could result in wrong

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Processes that would take more than six days and 15 man days of effort now reduced to less than two hours per monthly cycle

Company: ICICI Securities

amounts being paid to these agents, which involved making corrections when errors were highlighted by the agents. The importance of payout and dependence on manual work required ICICI Securities to develop a system that would integrate with its existing agent management, form tracking and data warehouse application to compute payouts for its agents. Post deployment, payouts are

Project: Agent payout system Project Head: Joydeep Dutta, CTO

today done using an automated process. As a result, the time taken for issuing payments has been reduced considerably. The process that used to take days to execute, now takes less than a couple of hours. As the entire process is automated, there are no errors, which in turn has led to a substantial reduction in agent queries. This has improved the morale of the agents, hence encouraging them to source more business for the firm.

Godrej consolidates its infrastructure

t Godrej industries, processes and solutions were managed independently by each of the group’s companies. This led to a huge gap between best practices followed by the different companies and negatively impacted the bargaining power of Godrej Group with service providers and software license providers. To improve operational effectiveness, consolidation at all

levels of the IT pyramid was the need of the hour. The Godrej team analyzed areas of improvement and created plans, timelines and stages of group consolidation. The broad objectives included: establishing a single data center for all the group’s companies, establishing a common MPLS center by consolidating over 100 locations, entering into a single consolidated agreement with software vendors for all group

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40 percent on a recurring basis on bandwidth costs

Company: Godrej Industries

Consolidated licensing agreement resulted in 30-40 percent savings for Godrej

Project Head: Shailesh Joshi, AVP–IT

Project: infrastructure Consolidation

companies, and setting up a common disaster network using cloud and virtualization technologies. Post infrastructure consolidation, Godrej Industries has achieved reduction in capital and IT support costs due to sharing of infrastructure. Best practices can now be shared across all the group’s companies. A common MPLS platform significantly increased the bandwidth, which has helped in saving 40 percent on a recurring basis. Consolidated licensing agreement for the group resulted in 30-40 percent saving for Godrej annually. Reduction in capital and IT support costs due to sharing of infrastructure has positively impacted the bottomline. Having a common IT department has also has helped in improving data backup, recovery and security processes.

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VDI reduces 40 percent of hardware costs

ybage Software has a small but diverse customer/technical support and back office processing group of about 250 people with varied hours of operation. Considering the diversity of support hours, it was not easy to optimize the usage of infrastructure. The need of the hour was to optimize space and machine usage, allowing one machine per cubicle for users working on different shifts. Accordingly, Cybage undertook a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) project that aimed at optimizing infrastructure and hardware and power utilization. This initiative helped Cybage virtualize the development environment using a custom-made thin client solution that reduced cost by optimizing desktop setups. The VDI model helped the firm to convert a single thick client into multiple thin clients. Today, a single

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The deployment of the VDI solution helped increase revenues for the given number of cubicles by 8-10 percent

Company: Cybage Software Project: Virtual Desktop Project Head: Jagat Pal Singh

Cost reduction of 35-40 percent in terms of hardware costs

CPU is shared by four to eight users. Each user has a monitor, keyboard, and a mouse. All IO devices and peripherals are connected to the CPU using USB hubs. Processing happens on a server, which is a machine capable of complex computation. Post deployment, Cybage has gained significantly in the optimum usage of machines and cubicles, and the ensuing increase in revenue. The deployment of the VDI solution helped

increase the revenue for the given number of cubicles by 8-10 percent. As the computing resources are shared among users, software licensing costs have significantly reduced. A thin client uses approximately 20 percent of the processing power of CPU. As all the processing is done on the server side, the overall power for running and cooling the hardware is minimized, which has helped in reducing the carbon footprint.

Zero client solution simplifies desktop management

t Fermenta Biotech, the IT department always used to struggle to optimally manage the huge number of desktops deployed across the enterprise. Licensing and end-point security were other major concerns. To overcome this issue, the firm deployed a zero client solution. This ensured that minimal time was spent on maintaining, patching and updating software. The zero client model expands a desktop PC environment

from a single physical machine to a multi-client/server computing model. This means, a user’s desktop is hosted remotely and accessed via a zero client device over the network. A user no longer has a physical PC on their desk. The zero client access devices do not use PC-based processors or chipsets and do not run a local operating system. All the primary functionality is integrated into a single chip that has an optimal set of resources for working

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Cost saving for up to ` 14 lakh

Company: Fermenta Biotech

No downtime, updated systems all the time and standardization

Project: Desktop PC management

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Project Head: Chandresh Dedhia

with the zero client virtualization software and extension protocol. The zero client access device, costs less than half the price of entry-level PCs and the ongoing savings are even higher. As a result, Fermenta Biotech has saved more than ` 14 lakh. Employee productivity has also increased as any user can sit on any workstation and access their desktop. With no moving parts or local storage system, repairs are very rare and the maintenance costs are kept in check because only one has to maintain and upgrade the shared PCs or Virtual PC. The firm has also saved on cooling and power-related costs as the zero client access device is as small as the size of a small handbook, which generates negligible amount of heat and consumes less than 5 Watt of power.

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Virtualization saves energy, costs at Firstsource

irstsource wanted to expand its operations to the Tier II/III locations to capitalize on the talent pools available in these locations. However, as many smaller towns do not have the required infrastructure, the firm was facing a challenge in providing the best technology with high availability and enhanced data security. The traditional way would have been to invest on high-end servers, infrastructure and team. This option was ruled out as it was expensive. After detailed deliberation, the company created a central data center in which 400 plus virtual servers and 1,200 virtual desktops were hosted. Centralization and virtualization has resulted in a more resilient and secure network that is easier to manage. In addition, it allowed better mobility to a traveling workforce and provided better resource utilization. This has led to an

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Server virtualization led to savings of ` 97.18 million in onetime CAPEX related costs

Company: Firstsource Solutions

CPU utilization has increased from 5 percent to 55 percent

enhanced business continuity plan and reduced costs of operations setup. Through this initiative, the firm has been able to save ` 97.18 million in one-time CAPEX related costs and ` 24.30 million per annum in operational costs. The company has reduced 350 physical servers and 1,000 plus desktops by virtualization. CPU utilization has increased from 5 percent to 55 percent in the virtualized environment. Today, high

Project: Centralization and virtualization Project Head: Prashanth MJ

available solutions like clustering and dynamic resourcing pooling have been implemented with 80 percent lesser expenditure as compared to the traditional implementation. The provisioning speed of the systems has been reduced from 4-5 weeks to minutes/hours. The firm has also observed a 60–70 percent of reduction in incidents. Power consumption too has come down by a factor of 40 percent.

Desktop virtualization improves IT efficiency

leader in PLM, Geometric was grappling with issues pertaining to conventional desktop deployment. Individual personalization done on PCs prevented standardization, demanded increased support requirements and led to softwarerelated errors. To address this issue, Geometric chose Cisco to deploy Virtual Experience Infrastructure (VXI), which is a service-optimized desktop virtualization platform that can deliver

any application to any device in any workplace environment, and provide IT with additional security and control. The solution enables Geometric’s employees to access their virtual desktop from anywhere, and from a range of end-user devices, without affecting security or performance. After the initial deployment of the solution for 250 desktops, the company obtained significant benefits in TCO. The company anticipates a cost reduction of

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Cost reduction of ` 12 lakh in power costs of 600 desktops

Company: Geometric

Fault resolution time for software issues and OS crashes has come down by 54 percent

Project Head: Prashanta Ghoshal, Director, ITES

Project: Desktop Virtualization

around ` 12 lakh in power costs of 600 desktops in a year. The VXI solution resulted in improved staff productivity — reduction in IT efforts by 62 percent, which led to 76 percent improvement in IT fulfillment time. It opened more avenues for secure remote working, telecommuting and use of consumer computing devices. Additionally, fault resolution time for software issues and operating system crashes has come down by 54 percent. The implementation of the solution has helped Geometric to reduce the number of networking components and their complexity. Apart from this, the company has noted 60 percent reduction in Ethernet cabling, the elimination of FC cabling and switching and consolidation of storage and network cabling.

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Virtualization drive helps Infosys save USD 10 million

he IT landscape of Infosys comprises of a complex suite of 300 plus applications on a wide range of technological platforms from SAP, .NET and J2EE to clusters across data centers on blade centers, application farms, caching and load balancing appliances. To improve its efficiency, Infosys undertook an infrastructure consolidation and virtualization exercise across server, storage, file share and presentation stacks across various technologies. This was done in the complex landscape of 700 plus servers, 300 plus terabytes of storage, 300 plus applications and 20 TB of data backup with significant cost reduction through innovation with technologies like P2V, storage VMotion and thin provisioning. In 2010, Infosys further adopted technologies including Microsoft’s HyperV, VMware Vsphere, Netbackup Puredisk, Hitachi’s High Performance

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Net realized tangible savings of USD 10 million

Company: Infosys

Green IT benefits of 2,000 carbon credits

Project Head: Ganesh Gopalakrishnan, VP and Group Head,Information Systems

NAS Metro Cluster and Hitachi’s Virtual Storage Platform. This not only made the company’s landscape ready for the launch of private cloud, but also added on to the capabilities of scalability, high availability, disaster recovery and reduced RPO. Infrastructure consolidation and virtualization has yielded phenomenal benefits to the organization. Some of the benefits include energy savings of over 85 percent, productivity savings of

Project: Virtualization initiative

70,000 plus man hours, 30-80 percent improvement in application response time and 30 percent savings on storage. The company has registered 30 percent more provisioning capabilities with reduction in time by over 700 percent and data center space savings of around 85 percent. It has also noted reduction in administration overhead by 92 percent, network bandwidth by 20 percent and power and cooling requirements by 60 percent.

Integrated solution drives huge efficiencies

ipro had started its virtualization journey in 2007. The firm now wanted to improve its efficiencies from virtualization. Since virtual infrastructure is built with various IT components like compute, storage, network, and hypervisor; the firm realized that stitching and building all these components in an integrated solution could lead to greater efficiencies. As different entities were involved

in network, storage and computing operations, it was difficult to establish end-to-end vendor’s accountability in the virtualized infrastructure domain. To address this issue, Wipro wanted this process to have a single integrated ownership. The team decided to evaluate the Vblock solution (an integrated infrastructure solution combining VMware, Cisco, and EMC packages with integrated computing, network, storage, and management

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Power energy savings over the next five years estimated to be ` 313 million

Company: Wipro Technologies

Implementation timelines cut from 45 days to five days

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Project: Implementation of VBlock Project Head: R Srinivasan, Head, IT

capabilities). Post deployment, the solution has helped Wipro in gearing up to take heavy workloads. Earlier, any performance issues had to be routed through all three principal vendors (compute, storage and hypervisor): With this new solution, Wipro now has a single support number and single vendor supporting end-to-end infrastructure-related issues. Today, Wipro’s customers are in a position to host the critical infrastructure in a virtualized environment. Implementation timelines have been cut down from 45 days to three days. Heavy application workloads like SharePoint, MS-SQL can be tested and guaranteed for performance. Replacing a physical hardware and configuring back to the cluster is seamless as these blades are configured with service profiles.

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Virtualization helps K Raheja Corp slash energy costs

huge conglomerate, K Raheja Corp, faced issues with respect to server sprawls, utilization and manageability. The server room was cluttered, and the firm was hosting more than 40 servers using a small part of its server resources. A majority of these servers were based on old technologies. It was extremely difficult to maintain these servers as support to these servers had ceased from the principal company. To address these challenges, the firm decided to go for a server consolidation initiative, with the help of Orient Technologies as system integrators. After a thorough evaluation, the organization decided to go ahead with VMware Vsphere 4.0 Enterprise for virtualization and IBM for servers and storage. The project was executed quickly, with the entire implementation being completed in just three months. This achievement is significant

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43 servers consolidated to 13 servers; implementation done in just three months

Company: K Raheja Corp

Expected cost savings to the tune of ` 82 lakh over a period of 3 years

as several projects were running simultaneously on the applications side. The organization also had to ensure that the existing systems did not suffer any downtime and the new systems were made up and running within a stipulated time, so that the progress and timelines on the application projects were not hampered. While many organizations have done server consolidation and virtualization, the firm is among a list

Project: Server consolidation and virtualization Project head: Rahul Mahajan, AVP – IT

of few organizations that run SAP in a virtualized environment. This initiative has helped the organization in reducing the total number of physical servers from 43 to just 13 servers. Today, as a result of the server consolidation initiative, the performance of the IT systems has improved significantly. A TCO calculation done by the firm estimates cost savings of close to ` 82 lakh over a period of three years.

Virtualization improves application performance

COM has taken advantage of server consolidation by getting rid of physical servers and creating significantly fewer virtual host systems. The company has migrated hundreds of physical servers to just a handful of physical host servers. This has helped the organization save costs related to hardware maintenance contracts, electrical power and physical server rackspace. These initiatives have helped

in automating the processes and enforcing best practices for incident, change, and service lifecycle management. It has also helped the organization in reducing unanticipated errors and service delivery time by automating tasks across vendors and organizations. Today, the IT administrator at the firm has the ability to centrally manage host servers and guest sessions, regardless of whether the systems are

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Application performance improvement by 130 percent

Company: Reliance Communications

Capacity expansion by 30 percent

Project Head: Alpna Doshi – CIO

Project: Virtualization of servers

Microsoft Hyper-V or VMware ESX hosts from a single console. RCOM can also manage guest sessions with standard builds, allocate the proper amount of memory and processing capacity, and balance the workload of guest sessions. The firm can also migrate physical systems to virtual guest sessions, as well as migrate other virtualized guest sessions (running on Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 or on VMware) to the latest Hyper-V host environments. In this virtualized environment, IT administrators can identify problems that need to be fixed before the problems create downtime. Besides savings in energyrelated costs, RCOM has boosted the performance of its applications by a significant factor of 130 percent, and capacity expansion by a factor of 30 percent, without a subsequent increase in IT infrastructure.

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Syntel reduces server provisioning time

yntel’s business demanded a highly optimized platform for server delivery to internal business customers. Syntel studied the various virtualization technologies and a VMware solution was implemented with complex configuration. Virtualization helped Syntel reduce data center costs. In terms of hardware procurement, the company almost halved the server procurement. By eliminating the need of 175 servers

snapshot Company: Syntel Project: Virtualization Project Head: Muralidharan Ramachandran

in the data center, savings have been achieved in power and cooling costs. Prior to virtualization, it would usually take 6-8 weeks in commissioning a server from the day it was requested. Post virtualization, Syntel has managed to reduce the turnaround time for new server delivery to a few hours. The virtualization platform has helped Syntel form the base for building its own private cloud — a new revenue opportunity that Syntel will be taking to the market. Virtualization has helped it in eliminating the need to procure sixty servers in the last one year to take care of additional requirements of the business users. Bottom-line savings are around 40 percent by implementing virtualization in Syntel.

VFS Global Services goes virtual

FS Global hosts its servers across two data centers, which act as DR sites to each other. With the evergrowing business, provisioning of infrastructure to cater to business needs was becoming a challenge. Also, with the ever-growing inventory, subsequent increase in hosting and administration/maintenance charges was also a concern. In the pre-deployment scenario, VFS Global hosted its business applications on 43 physical servers

snapshot Company: VFS Global Services Project: Virtualization Project Head: Dhiren Savla, CIO / Raghavendra Joshi, Head-IT

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across two data centers. Postdeployment, the physical server count has reduced to 28 physical servers. The solution helped in significant reduction in the number of physical servers, thus leading to reduction in energy consumption, space consumption, increased utilization of resources and reduced management. Today, all VMs boot from the common SAN Storage. Further, snapshots of the VMs taken using VMware’s in-built snapshot tool have reduced the time taken to build a server in case of any outage or downtime. The other benefits include faster provisioning of servers. This has tremendously reduced the turnaround time for project delivery, reduced mean time to bring up passive VMs in DR situation. This has also helped in reducing the RTO, which in turn has resulted in improved customer service for its clients.

Virtual desktops reduce IT costs for AMG India

ocial service organization, AMG India International, wanted to provide computer access to schools located in remote locations with very low budgets and unreliable access to power using “green” computer networks, which produce less e-waste and use less energy. For achieving this, it deployed desktop virtualization using NComputing and vSpace virtualization software. This solution consists of virtualization software that enables a single PC to be shared by many users. Each user’s monitor, keyboard, and mouse are connected to a small NComputing access device, which is then connected to the shared PC. NComputing access device and software can allow as many as 11 users to access the capability of one PC, thus bringing down the cost of infrastructure, installation, and maintenance. This new computer lab solution delivers the same rich PC experience and access to applications but at the fraction of the initial purchase price. As virtual desktops use just 1 to 5 Watt of electricity, they give AMG a considerable advantage. AMG can now operate comfortably in areas where electricity is unreliable. Post deployment of the solution, the firm has slashed hardware and support costs by 75 percent, and energy consumption by 90 percent.

snapshot Company: AMG India International Project: Thin client and virtualization Project Head: Danam, Head- IT SI partner: Cluster Infotech, KV Rao

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Improved uptime at Jubilant Life

ubilant Life Sciences had some servers running end of life and some with low-fault tolerance. In order to mitigate the risk, the company has virtualized 30 physical servers using VMware. Server virtualization has improved the uptime of the application by which business can penetrate in new market areas, get competitive differentiation and increase market share. Also, the cost of maintaining

snapshot Company: Jubilant Life Sciences Project: Server virtualization Project Head: Umesh Mehta

the old hardware was high. Server virtualization has helped to save costs related to power and cooling. With the virtualization initiative, the company has experienced several benefits including less downtime, reduced server recovery time and improved application performance. Today, the company has more choices of products and services. Apart from this, the company has registered increase in the speed of transactions. Post implementation the applications are running faster, which in turn improves the response to the users by employees. It has also resulted in improved collaboration among employees, partners and customers. Better uptime, performance and optimal use of resources has helped in increasing the efficiency and effectiveness.

VDI improves energy efficiency

o save costs on hardware, software and maintenance, Mahindra Financial Services went for a virtual desktop solution. This has helped the firm slash costs and simplify computing by sharing the excess capacity with multiple users. This has helped the firm reduce the PC procurement cost by 70 percent. Each branch today requires only two PCs for 10 users. It has also managed to reduce the power consumption by 90 percent.

snapshot Company: Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services Project: Virtual Desktops Project Head: Suresh A Shanmugham Vendor / System Integrator: Saavy Computex

The cost of AMC for PCs has reduced by a significant factor of 80 percent, and today it is easier for the firm to install antivirus patches and perform data backups. Asset inventory tracking is now much more efficient and easy to manage. For a firm such as Mahindra Financial Services that predominantly operates in the rural area, the virtual desktop solution is a welcome boon, as power conditions are not at par with industry standards. Today, users are less dependent on power conditions as the UPS is sufficient to run the branch for approximately five hours. This gives the firm an advantage in the rural market. Downtime at the branches has also reduced by a huge margin. Employees too are not dependent on any specific seat or place at the branch; they can access data from any of the workstations.

IFFCO improves IT efficiency using thin clients

t the IFFCO Kandla Unit, the IT team faced a huge challenge in maintaining software and hardware for a user base of more than 350 PCs. With changing versions of software, IFFCO was also forced to upgrade PCs. As the firm used more than 15 different types of software, upgrading software on each of the 350 PCs was a tedious task. To address this issue, the organization decided that all business applications would be run and managed from a central server and accessed using thin clients, instead of desktop PCs. Today, instead of 350 PCs, just three servers are employed at the rate of one server per 115-120 PCs. All the three servers are configured in clusters, thereby sharing the total load, so that in case of failure of any server, its load is shared by the remaining two servers. As a result of thin clients, there is reduced power consumption at the user level and data center level, with reduced maintenance efforts. Maintaining OS, PC software and applications is limited to three centralized servers only and not on hundreds of distributed 350 PCs. The average life of the IT equipment has also increased from four to six years. The organization has total control over viruses, as users can not install any software on their PCs. Printer management is also centralized â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the printer driver software resides on three central servers.

snapshot Company: IFFCO (Kandla Unit) Project: Thin client deployment Project Head: CO Parmar, Deputy General Manager (Systems)

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EXL on a journey to the private cloud

XL Service, a leading provider of transformation and outsourcing services, began its enterprise server virtualization under green IT and cloud computing adoption initiatives to enable dynamic resource management and improve utilization. EXL deployed VCE’s Vblock integrated IT infrastructure that combines virtualization from VMware, networking from Cisco, and storage from EMC. Post deployment, EXL has been able to create a multitenancy environment for customers with minimum additional hardware. Additionally, server provisioning time has drastically come down from 4-6 weeks to a few hours. The firm has also arrested the growth of physical server sprawl, which helped it save power, cooling and real estate costs. Compute and storage resource utilization has gone up to 70

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Server provisioning down from 4-6 weeks to a few hours

Company: EXL Service

Compute and storage resource utilization up to 70 percent visà-vis 15-20 percent in a physical environment

Project Head: Baljinder Singh

percent vis-à-vis 15-20 percent in a physical environment. Today, EXL can provide enhanced and automated IT services from its various data centers. As workloads are de-coupled from physical bindings, EXL has enhanced its service delivery. The solution has enabled EXL to respond quickly and provide on-demand infrastructure services, thereby enhancing business agility, flexibility and scalability. The firm has achieved enhanced availability and

Project: Private Cloud

business continuity for IT services. Predictable performance and operational characteristics have helped EXL to avoid any unplanned disruptions in delivering IT services. This has helped the company in optimizing the productivity of employees across geographies. The project is highly relevant to EXL as maintaining physical infrastructure for each and every business is getting tougher with each passing year.

Cloud slashes infrastructure costs at L&T Infotech

s one of the fastest growing IT services companies, L&T Infotech,found itself staring at one big challenge — on one hand, the need for servers was increasing every day, while on the other hand, the average server utilization was low. The L&T Infotech team recognized this as a classic server sprawl and decided to build a private cloud christened CloudX, by leveraging the dedicated Cloud CoE at the firm.

L&T Infotech firm started the journey towards the private cloud by taking steps to consolidate and virtualize the servers. Post deployment, the private cloud has transformed the heterogeneous physical infrastructure into an infrastructure, which is optimized for performance and cost. The private cloud gives users the ability to provision and de-provision IT assets. Business units also have the ability to

highlights

snapshot

The average provisioning time has been reduced from 5 days to less than 20 minutes

Company: L&T Infotech

The average infrastructure capacity utilization has increased by 75 percent

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Project: Private Cloud Project Head: Bharati Lele, Head – Innovation Labs

administer fixed amount of computing units, in addition to the capability to monitor the usage of provisioned units and use of licenses. The private cloud implementation has helped L&T Infotech in maximizing ROI and protecting its current IT investments. Post deployment, the firm has witnessed significant reduction in costs related to infrastructure support. L&T Infotech has also streamlined resource management and improved its capacity planning due to better understanding of usage. Process automation has helped in reducing operating expenses. The private cloud has helped in slashing the average provisioning time from 5 days to less than 20 minutes. More significantly, its average infrastructure capacity has increased by 75 percent. It has also achieved 35 percent reduction in labor costs.

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redBus accelerates on cloud highway

edBus is the largest bus ticketing company that specializes in travel throughout India. The company started its business using traditional data centers for over a year, but they quickly ran into IT infrastructure related issues. To address these issues, the firm decided to try a cloudbased platform. redBus developed a bus ticketing services application called BOSS directly on Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) cloud platform. BOSS is designed and built to be a horizontally scalable SaaS platform for bus operators. The solution is being widely adapted by more than 200 bus operators. The product is designed to take advantage of the AWS cloud platform to achieve scalability and performance. Before hopping onto the cloud, redBus had fixed number of servers with limited capability. The company also

highlights

snapshot

Handles over 10,000 bus routes covering more than 700 inter-city bus operators across India

Company: redBus

30 to 40 percent cost savings over traditional model

didn’t have much option in choosing computing resources, configuration and the types of operating systems they want. Moreover, procuring a new server or upgrading an existing server took more than two weeks. Today, the cloud has eliminated all the hassles of IT management like server evaluation and procurement, vendor evaluation and management, operation work like hardware refresh and maintenance, database backups,

Project: Cloud Computing Project Head: Charan Padmaraju, Co-founder and CTO SI/vendor: Amazon Web Services

restoration and fault tolerance. redBus estimates 30-40 percent cost savings, as compared to a traditional model. redBus has also gained from the ability to instantly replicate IT setups on demand for testing by creating and destroying instances on demand for experimentation, thereby reducing the time to market. Less time to market translates to increased profitability and success.

e-training tool improves compliance

utual Funds in India are regulated by SEBI, which also releases guidelines specifying the compliance requirements for being a SEBI registered market intermediary. One such requirement is ‘Securities Dealing Policy,’ which is subject to audit. Religare Asset Management Company (RAMC), which had operations across the country was facing a challenge in effectively complying with this regulation. Despite periodical e-mails

being sent to all employees on the policy, the company was finding it difficult to ensure that each and every employee had read the policy and understood the same. Therefore, it was necessary to put in place a structured mechanism, whereby employees were forced to read the policy and their understanding of the policy could be tested. To address this requirement, the company tweaked and integrated a

highlights

snapshot

Enables the compliance team to identify employees who have not understood the policy

Company: Religare Asset Management Company

Mitigates reputation risk arising from warning from SEBI

Project: SaaS Online Survey Project Head: Deepak Shivathaya, EVP & Head – IT

SaaS-based online survey software and questionnaire tool with Excel and Outlook, which also served as a costeffective Learning Management System (LMS). The solution provides e-training, online test, scoring and results modules at a cost of just ` 4,990. With this implementation, the compliance team is now able to monitor employees’ understanding of the policy. The tool also has a provision of online testing, wherein 65 percent is considered as fail and the employee is asked to re-appear for the test till he clears it. The compliance team can now proactively identify employees who have not gone through the test or understood the policy. Moreover, it saves a lot of management time in explaining the provisions of the policy and further resolving the queries of the auditor/ SEBI inspector.

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Cloud improves customer service for Royal Orchid

nformation updates and communication between team members of the Royal Orchid Group of Hotels was typically done using Excel spreadsheets and e-mail. However, with the increase in the number of locations, the group found it increasingly difficult to keep a track of information. The firm decided that it needed to enhance its customer service by building a guest loyalty database to keep a track of guest information. With the huge number of geographically spread locations, the group decided that taking the cloud route was the best option. Accordingly, after evaluating several options, it decided to go in for Salesforce CRM. With no up front systems to worry about, Royal Orchid Hotels went live on the cloud in just two months with the added capability of adding hotel locations and new applications at will, and free from the shackles of software

highlights

snapshot

Reduced e-mail communication by a factor of 80 percent

Company: Royal Orchid

Ability to prioritize urgent enquiries and answer them quickly, typically within an hour

Project Head: Dhiraj Trivedi, Corporate Director, Revenue Management and E-Distribution

maintenance. Today, Salesforce is set up as a central data repository for the entire business so that Royal Orchid’s hotels operate as a single entity instead of separate islands. The Property Management System and central reservations systems sync with Saleforce so that the hotel group can analyze customer data (preferences, booking history) and personalize the service. Using Salesforce Chatter has helped in establishing faster response

Project: Salesforce

to customer queries due to real-time interaction between individuals irrespective of their location. Understanding the critical importance of social media, the Royal Orchid Hotel Group of Hotels is using every possible opportunity that it gets to better understand customer behavior. For example, it can invite guests to its Facebook page and other social networks to interact with them directly online.

Cloud helps Sterlite save ` 25 lakh per annum

terlite used a mix of different mailing systems in different business verticals. The server-based mailing system had problems of non-sharing of global address books between business entities; duplication of efforts at multiple places in management, administration and backup; functionality limited only to mailing; and high cost of acquisition in case of new licenses. To solve this business problem,

Sterlite decided to go for a cloud-based collaboration system from Google. Sterlite’s business is such that people are working on projects in remote areas, and need to be connected all the time. With the current solution, it has the option of conducting video chats. Today, Sterlite has a common enterprise directory, which shows the status of each and every employee. The feature of real-time collaborative

highlights

snapshot

Collaborative document editing has proved to be extremely useful in multi-functional discussions such as pricing discussions

Company: Sterlite Technologies

Product pricing process cut down from 4 days to less than 2 days

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Project: Cloud-based collaboration system Project Head: Jawed Ahmed, Head of IT, Power Business

document editing, in which multiple employees can discuss and review the document has proved to be extremely useful. This feature is useful in multifunctional discussions such as pricing discussions in which the marketing and production departments need to discuss and review. The company is also using the calendaring application to book common resources such as meeting rooms. On the security front, the entire system is protected from viruses, trojans and other malicious payload and the communication takes place on a secure SSL layer. Sterlite is able to save close to ` 25 lakh per annum on costs related to infrastructure and personnel. By using the virtual office and the document sharing feature of the cloud system, it has been able to cut down the product pricing process from 4-8 days to less than 2 days.

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UCP Direct enhances customer service

CP Direct, a loyalty marketing firm, was hired by a large Indian manufacturer of tractors to help it build brand loyalty and initiate customer relationships — especially in the largely untapped rural markets. UCP needed to collect data on a million customers, issue insurance, operate a service hotline and support mobile service vans bringing aftersales service to remote locations. To address these challenges, UCP chose a cloud-based system to manage the entire CRM process by bringing together the Sales Cloud, the Force. com platform and the apps available on the AppExchange marketplace. Additionally, Force.com offered a single platform for the firm to develop its applications for handling insurance policies, call case management and mobile service vans. Further, Salesforce’s AppExchange store meant

highlights

snapshot

UCP has logged more than 70,000 customers into its central database

Company: UCP Direct

Issuing a policy now takes 30 days compared to the earlier time period of 60–90 days

that SaaSForce (UCP’s development partner) could buy and implement a major feature cheaply without building afresh. The Sales Cloud could generate the reports needed by UCP Direct and was able to import the flood of new customer data arriving from the client, as well as information about forthcoming mobile service visits. The use of Force.com development platform ensured that different applications for

Project: Cloud-based CRM Project Head: Ruchita Chawla, Head Operations SI Partner: SaaSForce Consulting

handling insurance policies, call case management and mobile service vans used the same data and could talk to one another. As a result of this system, UCP has now issued more than 80,000 insurance policies for its client. Operators use Sales Cloud to handle the entire process from contacting the customer, validating the policy, issuing documents, confirming responses and handling feedback.

Cloud helps Greytip build scale and efficiency

s a payroll service provider, Greytip was facing uneven demands as the load tended to peak towards the end of the month and at the beginning of the month. Sizing servers for peak load meant that there was a lot of wasted capacity during off-peak times, which in turn led to higher operating costs. To address this issue, Greytip decided to move to Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) cloud platform. AWS has allowed Greytip to scale on

demand during peak loads without wasting capacity. Today, instead of taking three months in the procurement cycle for servers or storage, Greytip now takes only a few minutes to procure servers/ storage on demand using the AWS cloud. The firm can scale up and down capacity anytime and pay for actual usage. The firm estimates that it has saved 44 percent in operating costs as it no longer has to maintain its own on-

highlights

snapshot

Savings of 44 percent in operating costs

Company: Greytip Software

Provisioning time reduced from four weeks to less than one hour

Project: Moving to cloud based platform Project Head: Sayeed Anjum, CTO

premise data center. Moving to AWS has also helped Greytip to drastically reduce its cycle time. For example, as a proof of concept (POC), Greytip’s clients normally want demo instance of their on-premise application. This process easily takes about five man days (40 hours). Now with AWS, Greytip has a ready custom AMI instance of the application. Whenever required, it just launches the AMI instance, assigns an IP, and then hands over the credentials to the client. Total time taken in running the application now takes just one hour. It no longer needs to buy or provision additional hardware at the client’s end for this activity. Provisioning the software now takes less time too. This has helped Greytip crunch the lead time from four weeks to less than one hour.

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cloud computing

Online portal on private cloud slashes costs for mutual fund

anaging assets of over 8.5 billion USD, DSP BlackRock (DSPBR) Mutual Fund, relies heavily on its IT infrastructure to service its customer base of over 2 million customers. To provide better service to its customers, DSPBR decided to implement an online transaction portal on a private cloud at its registrar and transfer agent, CAMS. As CAMS is a registrar and transfer agent,

snapshot Company: BSP BlackRock (DSPBR) Mutual Fund Project: Online transaction portal on private cloud Project Head: Srinibash Sahoo. Senior VP & Head - Technology

it holds the investor database, and the transaction portal helps DSPBR to access the data from CAMSâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; database, where data integrity is intact. The usage of private cloud has helped the firm in setting up a web portal within the timelines defined by the business. This has proved to be a cost-effective model as the firm can pay per use, and services can be scaled up and down as per business demands. The shift from a CAPEX to revenue model has improved the P&L significantly. The use of cloud services has helped in bringing down the cost by 55 percent per annum. A 24/7 NOC and SOC-based monitoring coupled with business continuity planning helps in ensuring high availability and maximum uptime of services.

Globus uses cloud to deploy e-commerce solution

lobus, a well-known retail brand, wanted to quickly deploy an e-commerce solution with minimum overheads. After evaluating options, the firm decided to go for a cloudbased option for deploying its e-commerce solution. As there is no purchase of hardware and software, the entire e-commerce solution was rolled out in just three months time. This was done with complete

snapshot Company: Globus Stores Project: Cloud-based e-commerce solution Project Head: Meheriar Patel, CIO

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integration to a payment gateway, courier system, merchandizing back-end interface and back office management software. The cloud-based solution has given the firm speed and huge cost efficiencies. The technology deployed has helped the firm to improve its access to customers and enhance customer satisfaction. As there is no purchase of hardware or software licenses, the firm has saved with respect to cost of deploying IT infrastructure. Globus has saved 80 percent of cost value, when compared to a regular model for deploying an e-commerce solution. Globus has also saved on manpower-related costs. Due to the cloud-based solution, Globus has been able to run a complete portal with just one executive.

Cloud-based e-mail solution reduces costs

financial asset management company, Principal Pnb Asset Management Company, was facing business challenges with legacy e-mail system, IT infrastructure management, higher energy utilization and software licensing management. The company was looking for a cloud-based e-mail and collaboration solution as a replacement to its on-premise e-mail infrastructure. Accordingly, the company approached Mindlance for the deployment of Microsoft Online BPOS Solutions. The solution is web-based and is implemented locally in places like Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Gurgaon, Lucknow, Jammu, Patna, Hyderabad and Indore. The adoption of the solution enables the company to have full-proof business continuity and disaster recovery management. Post deployment of the solution, the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s employees now have a state-of-the-art large e-mail solution with up to 40 GB storage and additional features like instant messaging, audio/video and instant messaging for conferencing and collaboration. The solution helps in the reduction of carbon footprints and energy utilization. The solution also allows better control on end-user software utilization and manageability. In addition to this, the deployment of the solution has led to significant cost savings on hardware, software, maintenance and operational costs.

snapshot Company: Principal Pnb Asset Management Company Project: Microsoft Online BPOS deployment Project Head: Harish Balakrishna, CTO

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mobility

Lowe Lintas uses BlackBerry for tracking time

n the advertising industry, where human assets are the biggest ticket item on cost-sheets, Lowe Lintas wanted to use IT effectively to boost the effective utilization of its human assets. This was crucial as professionals managed their time across various customers and brands. With over 600 employees managing hundreds of clients in many industries, Lowe Lintas wanted to accurately measure the time spent by its employees. To do this, the firm has innovatively used the BlackBerry device. It has automated the time sheet filling through an application on BlackBerry. What is unique in Lowe Lintas’ case is the fact that while penetration of smartphones is perhaps common across the industry, its usage is limited to e-mail and voice. By using BlackBerry to file time sheet reports, Lowe Lintas has addressed an important business case. Typically, at Lowe Lintas, employees

highlights

snapshot

Annual cost savings of ` 10 lakh for the time sheet application

Company: Lowe Lintas

Reporting dashboard helps the senior management to keep a tab on employee activities

are often out of office premises, for example in cases when they are travelling for business, working from a partner or internal branch office or working from home. Lowe Lintas has over 600 employees, from which close to 22 percent of senior and functional teams have access to BlackBerry. Since BlackBerry is a device that employees can carry everywhere, it makes it easier for them to fill the time sheet when they are in the lift, waiting

Project: Time sheet application on BlackBerry Project Head: Pravin Savant, CTO

for a meeting at the client office or on in a taxi. Previously, employees needed to file their reports from office premises at the end of every day. The reporting dashboard helps the senior management to keep a tab of employee activities, which in turn improves customer response. Lowe Lintas is also one of the first customers to try out a SharePoint client for BlackBerry. Using this solution, the employees can access the corporate portal and the team site.

TVS Motor saves 16 hours per day with EMA

t TVS Motor, the company’s dealers used to get their dealership performance reports from their own work stations. In the absence of a system, the dealers were not able to readily access information. To address this issue, the firm deployed an enterprise mobility application (EMA). This ensured that the information was readily available on the mobile, which makes information available on hand.

The project improved the productivity of the dealers. Today, the application provides updated business information (on sales, service and spares) through a mobile device using a customized application. This has resolved the manual dependency. Business information and data can be accessed without any time bound restrictions. The earlier practice of depending

highlights

snapshot

Saving of 16 hrs per day

Company: TVS Motor Company

Deployment saving of ` 7,000 per device

Project: Mobility application for dealers

Per development workspace saving of ` 20, 000

Project Head: TG Dhandapani, CIO

on individuals for information support from their dealership has been totally replaced by using this system. The solution has helped to save a huge amount of man hours. Today, it takes a maximum of 10 minutes for a dealer to download data from the system. On an average, 100 dealers access this information on a daily basis. This translates into savings of 16 hours per day. As the company’s performance depends on the performance of the dealers, any improvement in the dealers’ performance improves the performance of the company. Today, this application has improved the confidence of the dealers as they have ready access to business information with respect to sales, services and spares.

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mobility

Mobile audit tool boosts transparency

new trend of window displays in retail outlets (point-of-sale) has grabbed the attention of many FMCG players. This has resulted in window display space commanding a premium, as well as becoming scarce. One of Mudra’s clients wanted to ensure effective management of this space. The client wanted to protect their window display space by strengthening the weak areas. This necessitated a real-time audit across their retail outlets. Based on the audit results, the client could decide on display allowances (rent for window space) given to retailers; thus ensuring higher ROI. To achieve this objective, the IT team at Mudra developed SnapIT, a mobile application framework that integrates with the back-end business application, populates selection criteria, captures images, uploads the same to the application database and makes the

highlights

snapshot

Frequency of audit increased from 1 per year to 4 times

Company: Mudra Communications

Retail visibility index has gone up from 3.96 in the first phase to 7.83 in the third phase

Project Head: Sebastian Joseph, Head-IT

results available through an intuitive web-based dashboard. Today, auditors are provided with camera-enabled mobile handsets, which are loaded with the retail audit applications. The application prompts the correct questions based on the store format selected. This eliminates chances of errors. The relevant images are captured and linked to the respective parameters. The audit scores thus assigned can be corroborated at the

Project: Mobile Audit tool

back-end with the help of the images. This ensures that the data gathering process is completely automatic and online, and the results are now available in real-time as opposed to month’s delays in the previous process. This helps in doing course corrections, wherever required. Earlier, the client could undertake only one audit per year. With this solution in place the frequency of audits have now increased to four times per year.

Mobile App increases sales productivity

ithout real-time access to business application data, the sales force team at Usha International faced many difficulties. The difficulties include delays in information flow and dissatisfaction among sales person due to loss of precious sales time in follow-ups. Hence providing real-time access to the field force was important to serve the customer on an immediate basis for addressing queries. This solution

was required for the field staff, which spent more than half a month on the field. Hence, the solution needed to be capable of delivering information on the move. To address this issue, the firm deployed a mobile-based system, which has provided many tangible and nontangible benefits to the organization. Some of the benefits include up-to-date information to sales representatives. For both sales and back-office

highlights

snapshot

15 percent reduction in call minutes

Company: Usha International

Over 55 percent of orders are punched using the mobile application

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Project: Real-time information to sales force Project Head: Subodh Dubey

staff, the level of frustration has clearly decreased, improving employee satisfaction. The system receives nearly 400 wireless queries and about 300 wireless orders each day, saving time otherwise spent in phone calls between sales and back-office staff. Today, sales staff can provide up-to-date information to dealers and distributors. The average user saves close to 50 minutes a day. Additionally, the solution has helped to increase the average service engineer’s call attending ratio by 15 percent. Overall, the solution has helped in achieving minimum 15 percent reduction in call minutes. The system has brought in much needed transparency in the system and empowered the field staff to carry business transactions from anywhere. Today, 55 percent of orders are punched using the mobile application.

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BlackBerry devices help in pushing sales

FMCG giant, Perfetti Van Melle (PVM) India, has more than 3.2 million retailers across India, who in turn are served by 3,936 direct distributors, 328 super stockists and 6765 sub stockists. The firm also has a strong sales force team of more than 300 people, who visit the market on a daily basis, and fill a DMR (Daily Market Report) on the basis of stock availability and sales report. This information is subsequently used by branches for the purpose of forecasting future sales and tracking the market visit of the sales force. The whole process of visiting market and sending information used to take one month as the information was filled on a piece of paper before being sent to branches through courier. Branches in turn used to consolidate and enter this data in an Excel sheet for further analysis. Due to this process, there was a time lag of approximately 1.5 months.

highlights

snapshot

Reduction in courier and paper cost by 0.6 million

Company: Perfetti Van Melle (PVM) India

Timely transmission of market visit report on a real-time basis has improved the response time by one month to customer needs

Project: BlackBerry for sales force

This process of reporting sales was not quick enough to respond to a dynamic market. PVM decided to improve this process through automation by providing BlackBerry devices to the sales force. Post usage of BlackBerry devices, the turnaround time for the market report has come down from one month to one day, thus reducing the reporting turnaround time significantly. The firm has also innovatively used the GPS

Project head: Basant Kumar Chaturvedi, Head IT

facility of the BlackBerry to track the market visits of the sales force. Since all the information is captured on time, paper work time and consolidation time has reduced drastically. This has enabled more productive time and allowed the sales force to make additional sales calls by 25 percent. The top management can now access reports on a web-based portal for analysis, and thus can respond better to the competition.

Mobile application improves food safety

s a leading exporter of agriculture-based products, Mahindra Shubhlabh Services Ltd. (MSSL), the agri-business company of the Mahindra Group, wanted to ensure compliance with the food standards, as applicable in the global markets. This required close monitoring of the usage of agrochemicals on various farms. The firm wanted to check this data to assess food safety risk arising from

agrochemical usage, and in turn, maintaining the required safety levels for fruitful consumption. Typically, field officers collected data from the field over an 8-10 days cycle, and reported this to a central authority. This delay often proved detrimental to the overall yield estimates. MSSL wanted to cut down the cycle time, and understand problems at an early stage to enable faster resolution of issues, if any. The

highlights

snapshot

Time for on field estimation cut down from 15 days to just three days

Company: Mahindra Shubhlabh Services Ltd

40 percent improvement in productivity of field staff

Project: Mobile food safety app Project Head: Vijay Mahajan, Senior GM, IT

firm also wanted to maintain the specified limit usage of chemicals as per European Union norms, to enable achievement of higher export volumes. To enable this, the firm embarked on an initiative that used a mobile application for food safety risk assessment. The mobile application facilitates immediate data collection and analysis. Better data analysis has led to improved marketing campaigns and better planned sales calls. As a result, the business has reported 20 percent increase in customer base since the inception of this tool. Prior to usage of the mobile application, on field estimation took 15 days. This has now been cut down to just three days. The mobile application has also helped in improving the productivity of the field staff by a factor of 40 percent.

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BI/Analytics

Mahindra Finance gains comprehensive insights using BI

ith business growth and higher number of transactions happening, Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services required an MIS reporting and data analysis solution, which could help generate and schedule reports to the management to track the performance and better monitor collections and businesses. The BI tool requirement came when the report consumption increased at operational and tactical levels, as the business expanded. Reporting for operation team went up due to emphasis on improving productivity. The business users used to depend on the IT team for creating a report based on various combinations. The IT team gave them the required information in the form of an Excel sheet. If the same reports were required, a new Excel sheet had to be prepared. To address these issues, the

highlights

snapshot

BI has helped the firm in improving the market share from 10 percent to 20 percent

Company: Mahindra and Mahindra Financial Services

Project Head: Suresh A Shanmugam

Employee productivity has gone up by 25 percent after implementation of the BI project

firm selected a BI solution from MAIA Intelligence. This BI tool was a perfect fit for people who consumed operational reports and provided reports to management. Hence the time taken to work upon these operational reports was actually released by using this tool, as it already gave summarized reports along with charting options. The BI solution also gave operational managers the ability to monitor productivity on a real-time

Project: BI implementation

basis and make tactical decisions on resource allocation. The interactive dashboards helped the firm to unlock information hidden within the data, discover trends and identify performing and nonperforming products. The BI solution has also helped the firm to gain fast and accurate insights to solve complex business problems and react quickly to changing market trends.

BI makes for accurate budgeting at Marico

s an FMCG company, Marico believes in doing a rolling forecast every month. The rolling forecast is pertinent as the business required answers on some questions, which could require course correction in the immediate future. These key questions are about achieving targets, course correction, and cost impacts on PBT, profits etc. The answers are business drivers that require extensive data management for the users. Users were

unsure about the accuracy of the answers. The annual budgeting cycle at Marico for the next financial year typically takes three months with four versions; almost a similar exercise was required to carry out on a monthly basis for the rolling forecasts. The challenge was to complete this rolling forecast (budgeting) exercise within first 10 days of the next month of reporting period.

highlights

snapshot

TCO of 1.5 years as opposed to three years for other projects

Company: Marico

Company spent 8 percent less than estimated in 2009–2010, in comparison to budget overrun of 3 percent in the previous year

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Project: Innovative Business Analytics Project Head: Girish Rao, CIO

Marico used a Cognos TM1 solution that offered a perfect solution to top issues and challenges. The profit plan for each monthly reporting was created as a separate reporting subset for all the reporting business segments. These reporting subsets were standardized and used across reporting segments till the consolidation at a group level. Apart from the operational efficiencies, the solution also made a major impact on cost component of cost of goods sold (COGS); against COGS component the Marico Group spent 8 percent less than that estimated in 2009-2010, in comparison to a budget overrun of 3 percent in the previous year. The benefits after implementation were tremendous cost savings (see ‘Highlights’), improved employee productivity and enhanced levels of customer service.

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BIAL boosts performance standards

o improve efficiency, serve specific needs of airport operational requirements and enhance passenger experience, Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIAL) was looking at a mid-tier, cost-effective solution. Thus, the airport decided to deploy a Corporate Performance Management (CPM) application, which enables near real-time capture of all operational performance metrics. CPM captures data points on an hourly basis, from

snapshot Company: Bangalore International Airport Project: Deployment of Corporate Performance Management Project Head: S Francis Rajan, VPInformation Technology

multiple operating systems and provides end-user Business Intelligence (BI) through dashboards capturing the key performance indicator and key risk indicator, which enables quick reviewing of the operational performance standards achieved. The solution captures hourly data related to on-time performance, passenger and cargo loads and the utilization of resources like allocation of counters, gates, belts, stands etc. In addition, it allows the end-user to apply filters to slice and dice the data to get a multi-dimensional view for the same set of clients. The solution has improved employee productivity and efficiency, as it has completely eliminated the need for maintaining Excel sheets, as the managers can track variance in actual and agreed key performance indicators.

Dashboard for sustainability

s part of the organizationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s drive for monitoring and measuring its sustainability initiatives in a better way, the IT team at Mahindra & Mahindra developed a solution to meet the group wide need of reporting on a variety of environmental performance criteria. This solution enables to capture data on various sustainability parameters at all the locations across various business units in the group. In addition, it helps the organizations

snapshot Company: Mahindra and Mahindra Project: Sustainability Dashboard Project Head: V S Parthasarathy, Group CIO, EVP â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Finance and M&A, Member of Group Executive Board

that are a part of the Mahindra Group to manage, analyze and report on their carbon footprints. It helps in measuring energy consumption and calculating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to meet growing demand from governments, global financial markets and consumers for full disclosure of their environmental footprint. Today, the required data is being entered by sustainability champions across 90 plus group wide locations. The visibility of this data all across the group has ensured the discipline of timely data entry. The sustainability dashboard provides a group wide, business unit wise and location wise comparative analysis to the entire senior management. This has resulted in increased awareness about the various sustainability parameters and also led to sharing of best practices among group companies.

Wockhardt gains comprehensive insights using BI

ockhardt, a global pharmaceutical major from India wanted to give its top management more powerful and simple tools using IT to improve their decision making capabilities. The top management needed a decision support system with vivid dashboards, dials and trends presenting the information in a graphical and interactive format to provide intuitive insights into business. Since Wockhardt was already using SAP, it decided to leverage this platform along with Business Warehouse functionality. More than 70 KPIs from various business areas across the globe were identified as a direct representation of top management strategic goals. With this implementation, the top management has access to KPI of their business functions with a click of a button. Various analytical information like income statement, working capital, product costing, yield variance, sales variance, expense analysis and profitability trend is available centrally and accessible throughout the organization. Today, a what-if analysis can be used to analyze effect on net profit by changing various parameters. By making all the information available centrally, time spent on gathering information has been reduced. The management now has the ability to make well-informed decisions with a single version of information.

snapshot Company: Wockhardt Project: Business Dashboard Project Head: Suresh R Shenoy, CIO

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storage/bcp/dr

Orbis embarks on data deduplication

iscovering the enormous features, advantages and benefits of virtualization, Orbis built its entire IT infrastructure based on virtualization. While virtualization brought many benefits, it also introduced data and backup challenges. The proliferation of virtual servers and desktop images caused explosive data growth, and virtual machine “sprawl” increased storage requirements. In addition, the DR initiative’s aggressive recovery point objectives (RPOs) and high availability requirements increased the storage requirements and complicated the technology team’s data management and administration processes. After implementing a storage infrastructure strategy integrating virtualization and tiered storage, the technology team at Orbis decided to implement data deduplication with the sole purpose of

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Immediate savings of ` 30 lakh

Company: Orbis Financial Corporation

Saved 30-40 percent of primary storage space Reduced the duplication in user data by nearly 80 percent by using deduplication in backup

addressing major concerns related to storage requirements and data increase. Data deduplication has dramatically improved the company’s IT economics. This has minimized storage footprint requirements. Data deduplication has also provided a green, efficient, effective, and economically optimized IT storage infrastructure. Deduplication has helped Orbis achieve storage and media optimization, improve IT resource

Project: Data deduplication Project Head: Ramkumar Mohan, Head – IT & CISO

usage effectiveness, maximize ROI, and reduce TCO. In addition, deduplication has reduced disaster recovery costs by leveraging remote data replication. This has helped Orbis in meeting its SLAs. For Orbis, deduplication has reduced acquisition costs, power, space and cooling requirements. Using deduplication within a virtual environment has given Orbis the ability to deduplicate the files needed for deployment of virtual environments.

Storage consolidation helps BIAL adapt

t Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL), the modular storage systems had limitations in terms of scalability to address growing business requirements. To address this issue, the IT team at BIAL architected a new solution to integrate an enterprise storage solution. The solution is geared to scale up as new business requirements emerge. BIAL deployed the Enterprise Class storage system USP-VM from Hitachi

Data Systems (HDS) along with the foundation suite. This has enabled it to address the storage requirements through SAN and NAS platform. This solution architecture enables a multi-product and multi-protocol environment, which allows multivendor systems interface with each other. The new deployed solution has enabled BIA to better the RPO time from12 hours to one hour by

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Reduced RPO time from 12 hours to 1 hour

Company: Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL)

Ability to offer storage as a service to group companies

Project: Storage consolidation Project Head: S Francis Rajan, VP- Information & Communication Technology

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implementing solution like diskbased point in time backup strategy. The new storage system will allow BIAL IT to rapidly adjust to meet changing business requirements. BIAL can also dynamically migrate data between storage tiers according to the requirements of the business applications. Further, consolidation and distribution of external storage substantially has helped in reducing infrastructure requirements and lowering data center needs. The implemented solution has features like snapshot and clone functionality through the virtualization layer. The platform is ready to be used as a true site disaster recovery site for any group enterprise. As a service provider, BIAL can also provide ‘Storage as a Service’ to clients within the airport campus.

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WNS prevents revenue losses with BCP/DR plans

NS has multiple delivery locations worldwide and caters to more than 200 global clients via multiple data centers. Since the company is a custodian of its clients’ data, it is imperative that its Business Continuity Planning (BCP) and Disaster Recovery (DR) plans are top-notch, especially when it comes to data storage. With the present BCP/DR plan, the company was able to resume delivery between 48 to 72 hours for companies that had opted for customized plans. However, for clients who had not opted for customized plans, the resuming service would take as many as 15-20 days before data connectivity could be established again at DR sites. This meant revenue losses for WNS. To overcome these challenges, WNS embarked on IT Single Point of Failure Analysis (ITSPOF) initiative, to ensure near real-time data availability in case of

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The solution helped reduce TCO by 50 percent

Company: WNS Global Services

Ability to ensure 100 percent uptime for all global clients during any natural or man-made disasters

disaster, ensuring business continuity at all times. ITSPOF Elimination program involved data synchronization between multiple data centers with the help of snap mirroring functionality of storage system. The company synchronized business-critical data of clients and made it available in a remote data center for business continuity. The company’s ITSPOF uses block level data sync and snap mirror network compression, which helps in saving up

Project: IT Single Point of Failure Analysis (ITSPOF) Project Head: Sanjay Jain – Head, Global Transformation Practice & CIO

to 60 percent network bandwith costs, as opposed to any other DR solution. With the solution, the company is able to ensure 100 percent uptime for all its global clients during any natural or man-made disasters. The deployment of the solution has helped the company in bringing down its TCO by 50 percent. The company has instilled confidence in its customers by ensuring data availability at all times across all locations.

Just Dial reduces backup time by a factor of 10

ust Dial was facing challenges related to backup in remote locations, and in locations with no Disaster Recovery (DR) capabilities support. The traditional method of tape-based backup and backing up redundant data on a daily basis was increasing tape consumption. The company decided to implement a backup strategy involving local and remote branches. This was complemented by a data deduplication strategy for improving IT resource

utilization. To do this, the firm used a software solution from EMC called Avamar. The solution solves traditional data protection challenges by enabling fast, reliable backup and recovery across the entire enterprise including remote offices, data center LANs and VMware environments. It utilizes global data deduplication and single instance storage technology to reduce the size of backup data at the source before it is transferred across

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Assured data recovery

Company: Just Dial

Multi-site management from single location

Project: Data deduplication Project Head: Madhusudan Pillai, Manager NOC Operations SI/Vendor: EMC Corporation

the network. By identifying redundant sub-file data segments at the source and across sites and servers, the solution reduces the amount of backup data moved and stored to disk by up to 300 times on a daily basis. As a result, Just Dial can perform fast and efficient full backups daily across existing LAN/WAN bandwidth to reliably protect the data worldwide. The solution also reduces management overhead associated with traditional tape backup systems. This solution has also helped Just Dial to get rid of tapes by giving it a single vendor managed approach than the multiple vendor approach. Today, Just Dial has reduced backup by a factor of 10, disk storage by a factor of 10 times with assured data recovery capabilities.

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open source

Open source IM at Sierra Atlantic

ierra Atlantic had a business requirement to enable its employees to communicate with each other in realtime from anywhere to save time and support the customers instantly. The company identified Openfire, an open source tool by Ignite, as the best option. After having evaluated multiple IM clients, Spark was identified as the best suited open source client for the requirement. To avoid creating separate user IDs

snapshot Company: Sierra Atlantic Project: Open source IM tools Project Head: Sesanka Pemmaraju, IS Director & CISO

for employees, it configured Openfire to pick up the user IDs from the company’s AD. Single sign-on support is done through the Spark IM client to avoid multiple logins. The Openfire and Spark is configured to use as the IM Gateway to cater to various project requirements to enable publicly available IMs in a controlled environment. File transfer services were disabled to ensure data protection across all IMs at the gateway itself and multi-language support was provided. Sierra Atlantic made investments only towards the hardware, with all the software being open source. The deployment of this solution helped the firm increase employee productivity by helping them connect with colleagues in real-time and resolve business and customer-related issues swiftly.

Open source Intranet powers SPML

o meet its business needs and have a collaborative environment within the organization, SPML Infra implemented an open source (Liferay) intranet portal solution. As the portal ‘Sconnect’ is based on open source technologies, the firm has saved massively on license costs. As a result, the solution has saved about 90 percent of costs as compared to other proprietary intranet portal solutions. The company undertook the

snapshot Company: SPML Infra Project: Enterprise intranet portal Project Head: Satya Sai Baba V

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Sconnect project to provide an integrated platform of applications, services and communication to help individuals to perform their daily business in an effective manner. As a part of the IT strategic initiative, mobile technology has been integrated with the SConnect solution. SPML uses SAP for core business operations; which is integrated with Sconnect for leave, payslip or other business operations. The system is efficient and cost effective, and helps the organization in keeping costs under check. Additionally, the system helps to increase productivity by ensuring coordination between HO, sites, interdepartments and business units. By providing a central point of access with the use of single sign-on, the firm has eliminated the need for multiple logons to access various applications and services.

Linux reduces 66 percent of hardware costs

imes Business Solutions Limited (TBSL) - the life interactive arm of the Times group, provides interactive media to global Internet users. For all its online offerings, the firm was utilizing proprietary hardware, OS, applications, databases and software infrastructure. The infrastructure platform needed to be scalable, manageable and configurable to handle constant growth in the customer base. To address these requirements, TBSL’s IT team decided to migrate to an open source Linux platform and accordingly, chose Red Hat’s solutions to standardize its entire infrastructure. With Enterprise Linux, the hardware costs were reduced by approximately 66 percent when compared with its proprietary counterpart. The firm also saved on ISP rackspace costs. While the overall cost savings were significant, the JBoss and Red Hat combination gave about 40 percent improvement in the performance. With JBoss, the downtime required while adding the hardware has reduced from about three hours to just 20 minutes. The infrastructure has enabled the firm to gain substantial market share in its respective domain. The solution has also helped TBSL grow its business at a rapid pace, thereby imparting increased business agility.

snapshot Company: Times Business Solutions Project: Open source Linux platform Project Head: Gautam Sinha, CTO