IT NEXT July 2010

IT NEXT

JULY 2010 / RS. 100 VOLUME 01 / ISSUE 07

INSIGHT: Manage your vendors like partners

Satish Mahajan, Raymonds

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INTERVIEW: Mark Beaumont on the viability of cloud services

Shiva Shankar, Reliance Communications

53 THE BIGÂ Q

IT STRAT: Traits and strategies to become an effective leader

Chandresh Dedhia, Fermenta Biotech

Anil Shankar, Shoppers Stop

How to migrate to Open Source? Pg 57

Nandkishore Jaiswal, Holiday Inn

CATALYSING CHANGE

CATALYSING

VOLUME 01 | ISSUE 07

Change How Best Practices can change the way you manage business and growth Pg.16

SaaS

Can cloud computing ensure business continuity?

Pg. 44

Review

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 put through the paces Pg. 48

A 9.9 Media Publication

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EDITORIAL

Don’t Reinvent Wheels While everyone understands the value of using sound technology practices to

ensure smooth and efficient implementation and operation systems in an organisation, seldom does a single person (or a team) possess all skills and knowledge required to integrate technology and business needs. Veteran IT managers would plug away at challenges, and eventually

get it right through a combination of trial-and-error methods and vendor support. Detailed planning for fallbacks and failures was routine—and IT managers worried about big projects and rollouts for months on end. The entire process was inefficient and stressful for everyone.

The good news is that things have changed. Today, IT managers understand that there are very few problems that are unique, and that it is smart to learn from the mistakes of others. The ability to capitalise on prior learnings and lessons is viewed as a big plus by senior managers, because it helps increase reliability, improve efficiency and get things done faster.

That is one reason why this month’s issue focuses on best practices in IT. But, how can you institutionalise the adoption of IT best practices within the organisation? One way is to design and develop a portfolio of services, with appropriate service levels and costs. This can allow you to manage the service portfolio efficiently, in line with the business priorities of the organisation.

A review of your IT environment in the context of the service portfolio will enable you objectively evaluate the benefit of deploying new technologies like virtualisation and clustering, and to rationalise and standardise the platforms that are being used within the organisation. This evaluation can also result in lower costs, reduced risks and greater flexibility for the organisation through the automating many routine IT tasks like service provisioning, software patching, desktop support, and manual monitoring of resources to ensure performance and availability.

On the operational front, adopting best practices enables the IT team to remain agile—and well positioned to cope with business exigencies. It also allows the IT team members to participate effectively in cross-functional teams that can quickly come together to solve a problem, then disband.

These are but few reasons for adopting best practices. I am sure you have many personal experiences and practices that you would like to share with the IT manager community. Do write in and let us know.

“Develop a portfolio of services, with appropriate service levels and costs” R GIRIDHAR

Blogs To Watch!

Business Intelligence: Best Practices http://www.qbitsystems.com/ blog/?p=137 Technology and Development: A report on best practices http://athleticsfrontier.com/ archives/1546 Your views and opinion matter to us. Send your feedback on stories and the magazine at r.giridhar@9dot9.in or SMS us at 567678 (type ITNEXT<space>your feedback)

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Change CATALYSING

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How Best Practices can change the way you manage business and growth.

INSIGHTS

BOSS TALK

INTERVIEW

30 Continuity in the Cloud You must address critical issues including the accessibility of your data and applications before moving to the cloud

34 Delighting with a difference Building automation is not just about energy conservation, it’s about making hospitality smarter

44 IT power untapped !

48 New management capabilities Microsoft’s SQL Server 2008 R2 offers core platform enhancements to support self-service business intelligence scenarios

05| Build with beyond-IT blocks | SS Soni, Executive

Director (IS), Indian Oil Corporation

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40 | CaaS is about enablement, not perks | Mark Beaumont, Director, Verizon Business

C OV ER DES IGN: ANIL T

The promise of better connectivity and reuse of IT assets is propelling a significant adoption of SOA in enterprises

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ITNEXT.IN

MANAGEMENT Managing Director: Dr Pramath Raj Sinha Printer & Publisher: Vikas Gupta

EDITORIAL

Page

38

Group Editor: R Giridhar Associate Editor: Shashwat DC Sr Correspondent: Jatinder Singh

LOOK FOR A PARTNER VENDOR | Willingness to work on alternatives that benefit both organisations is the key to building lasting relationships

OPINION 10 Tech Talk: Recipe for a sixpack ERP | by Subhashish Saha,

CTO, Apeejay Surrendra Group 14 Money Wise: Look beyond immediate ROI |by Rajesh

Magow , Co-founder and CFO, MakeMyTrip India

15-MINUTE MANAGER 51 Give and grow | Practice peer coaching to improve emotional quotient and influence 52 Healthy Living | Sleep well to start your day better 53 Be a 360°manager |

Transform yourself into a leader who doesn’t shy away from challenges

DESIGN Sr Creative Director: Jayan K Narayanan Art Director: Binesh Sreedharan Associate Art Director: Anil VK Manager Design: Chander Shekhar Sr Visualisers: Anoop PC, Santosh Kushwaha Sr Graphic Designer: Suresh Kumar Sr Designers: Prasanth TR & Anil T Designer: Sristi Maurya Chief Photographer: Subhojit Paul

54 Football trivia A bluffer’s guide to World Cup Soccer 56 Training Calendar | A list of career boosting courses

THE BIG Q 57 How to migrate to open source? | Be meticulous and organised when you decide to migrate

SALES & MARKETING VP Sales & Marketing: Naveen Chand Singh (09971794688) Brand Manager: Siddhant Raizada (09990388390) National Manager-Events & Special Projects: Mahantesh Godi (09880436623) GM South: Vinodh Kaliappan(09740714817) GM North: Pranav Saran(09312685289) GM West: Sachin N Mhashilkar(09920348755) Assistant Brand Manager: Arpita Ganguli Ad co-ordination/Scheduling: Kishan Singh

CUBE CHAT 62 A Karmayogi | “Criticism

is an opportunity for me to plug any gaps in my work,” says Bhavin Patel, Head IT, Fortis Emergency Services

OFF THE SHELF

PRODUCTION & LOGISTICS Sr. GM Operations: Shivshankar M Hiremath Production Executive: Vilas Mhatre Logistics: MP Singh, Mohamed Ansari, Shashi Shekhar Singh

64 Business Octane intros MAX series | The solution em-

powers enterprises to accelerate business collaboration

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INBOX

JUNE 2010

IT NEXT THANKS ITS READERS FOR THE WARM RESPONSE

IT NEXT VALUES YOUR FEEDBACK

We want to know what you think about the magazine, and how we can make it a better read. Your comments will go a long way in making IT NEXT the preferred publication for the community. Send your comments, compliments, complaints or questions about the magazine to editor@itnext.in.

IT NEXT is perhaps one of the best IT magazines I’ve seen in the recent times. Not only the content but even the design standard gives the International feel. Being a recruiter, it also helps me to understand the latest trends and behavioral patterns of professionals. The management sections like 15 minute manager and Boss Talk are extremely good. However, I am really disappointed with the less emphasis being given towards analytical news.

www.linkedin.com/ groups?gid= 2261770&trk= myg_ugrp_ovr 396 members

READ THIS ISSUE ONLINE http://www.itnext. in/resources/ magazine

TANU KAUR HR professional at GEAR

The article (Fatal Fifty) is excellent and covers the HR, Legal aspects of the security. This article will also help in “ not to make IT department responsible” whenever data theft happens. HR, Legal and Top management will be able to sense they role in security through this this. The article conveys a lot of messages indirectly SATISH N KULKARNI Information Risk Management & Advisory (IRMA) Practice, TCS

The June issue of IT NEXT was very interesting. I specially liked the article Tech Talk, written by Preetham Venky of Catalyst Labs. I am absolutely agreed with the fact that social media sites can be a big boon

ITNEXT<space> <your feedback> and send it to

567678 *Special rates apply

for enterprises, if used wisely and the companies should not put undue restrictions on its use unnecessarily. The key aspect in using social media is to keep the conversation alive, kicking and relevant. We as human beings are community driven and can collectively achieve goals faster and more efficiently. Then why not tuned in to social media to converse fast and better?

SHEELA GUSAIN Associate Software Engineer, Impetus

I’ve found the green issue really informative. The cover story on 6 Practical ways to go green provides in-depth analysis on how to green the enterprise in an effective way.

With the enterprise mobility is pervasive amongst the organisations, the IT managers’ should work towards identifying new means to reduce carbon footprints and addressing sustainability issues.

VINEET BUDKI Managing Director, Aajkideals.com

The insight story on 3G was a good read. I believe that apart from giving boost to new enterprise applications, the technology will also assist users to reduce stress of traveling places for say medical assistance and help them get better facilities and consultation irrespective of any geographical constraint. There will be many new applications like real time video conferencing, videos on demand, tele-medicine and location based services which will create an all new ecosystem to make things convenient for organisations.

ANURAG DHAR Manager, Standard Chartered Bank

INDIA’s FUTURE CIOs

“SURELY MY CURRENT AND PAST MANAGERS WILL PARTICIPATE...”

ARUN GOYAL Director-IT, Quest Diagnostics 4

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2010

Are you one of India’s future CIOs? Find out at www.itnext.in/next100

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BOSS TALK | SS SONI

PEOPLE MANAGEMENT

Build with beyond-IT blocks

PHOTO GRAPHY: S UBHOJI T PAUL

T

he IT manager community in India is very vibrant today and its members include some of the brightest IT minds, globally. IT managers have played a major role within and outside India and contributed to the success of the country on the global map.

However, IT managers cannot be satisfied with being technically competent only and not paying enough attention to development of skills like management, HR, business and finance.

Development of these additional skills is equally important for progressing their careers. The role of a CIO is that of a business leader too, so to be considered a prospective for such a role, these skills are a prerequisite.

What kinds of skills are required? Let me draw from my organisation.

Our company is the largest corporation of India, where the IT department has the task of controlling IT operations and SAP (ERP) operations in a total of 798 locations. We have successfully accomplished mega business projects. All this has been possible because of some of the important traits adopted by our IT team. Let me touch upon some vital traits that will help IT managers to get transformed into future CIOs and business leaders: IT must align with the vision and mission of the business, so IT managers should not only have comprehensive business knowledge but also a proactive business focus.

Collaborative technologies will become highly important, requiring collaboration and integration with customers, vendors and channel partners IT-enabled strategies for continuous growth and development of decision support systems for competitive edge will be critical.

All IT projects require good human resources for successful accomplishment.

“For a complex overseas SAP project, we had project managers with sound HR abilities, and that led to huge success”

The book talks about why managers need to imbibe creativity not just within themselves but also in their teams.

Therefore, besides project management skills, HR skills are very important. I have seen many projects getting over-delayed or even failing, due to poor team spirit. Therefore, to succeed as project managers, IT managers must be effective team players too. This can be well illustrated by an example. Our company was awarded a prestigious and highly complex overseas project of SAP implementation at three companies. The project was to go on for 18 months and fairly large teams were to be deployed – going up to 60 at one stage. We selected project leaders with higher weightage for HR, management and administrative skills. As per our expectations, they were able to lead not only our teams but hundreds of employees in the client companies.

The project was highly successful.

For IT managers to be successful, they must acquire business knowledge and HR skills.

These skills will not only be helpful in project execution, but also pave the way for their progress towards becoming an IT or business leader.

WRITER: BART SAYLE & SURINDER KUMAR PUBLISHER: PENGUIN BOOKS INDIA PRICE: INR 325

The author is Executive Director (IS), Indian Oil Corporation Ltd.

SUGGESTION BOX

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Apple unveils new iphone

The company has also added the search engine Bing in addition to already Google and Yahoo.

EXCLUSIVE | Apple has unveiled its fourth series of iphone – iphone4,

in a recently held world developer conference at San Francisco. The ipad-like model is priced at $199 for a 16GB and $299 for 32 GB version. The phone will be initially available in the United States, with a two-year contract with AT&T and will come in either black or white colour.

The much talked about new model of the mobile phone comes with an upgraded operating system and 9.3mm body, with glass on

Top players in the Server Shipment in the first quarter 0f 2010 (ALL NUMBERS IN %)

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30 25

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12.9 Dell

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15 10

Other Vendors

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35

IBM

Gartner says Asia Pacific Server shipments up 27.3% in first quarter of 2010

HP

R SERVE NT SHIPME

1.5

TRENDS DEALS PRODUCTS SERVICES PEOPLE

both sides, a steel band that surrounds the unit and works as an antenna.

The iPhone 4, according to the company, is 24% thinner than the iPhone 3GS and also has a front-facing camera, HD video capture (720p) and a screen with Apple’s higher-density “retina display.” The phone has an improved battery life and has been made capable to support multitasking.

The new iphone also has the feature of video chat that will be available between iphone owners only through wi-fi.

Video calling will only work between owners of the iPhone 4, and not for those who have previous iPhones. The camera on the back of the new phone is 5 megapixels, with a 5X digital zoom, and has an LED flash. It also has a micro-SIM tray. .

The iPhone 3GS has a screen resolution of 480-by-320 with 163 pixels per inch.

AT&T has announced that it will allow any current iPhone customers whose contracts are set to expire at some point in 2010 to upgrade to the iPhone 4 early at no additional cost.

Apple has claimed to sold 6 million iPhones so far and expected to cross 10 mn mark by the end of the year. Over the next several months, Apple will roll out official sales in 70 countries, up from six.

Also, the new iphone, according to the company, will support Apple’s iBook format as well as the iBookstore. iPhone users can buy books through the iBookstore as well as iTunes and the App store.

I LLUSTRATIO N: S URES H KUMAR

UPDATE I N D U S T R Y

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MEMORY MODULES

LET YOUR FINGERS PLAY

COOL YOUR DATACENTRE

Kingston has launched HyperX memory modules for overclockers and gamers. The product is available in DDR 3, 1600- and 13333 MHz4and 2GB kits

Inspan has introduced the genius Luxemate 300 Multimedia keyboard that provides unique key structure for greater finger tactile.

The SmartAisle enterprise cooling system from Emerson Network Powe claims to deliver 30% energy savings, 25% improvement in capacity and provides focused cool air at the right temperature to the IT infrastructure equipment.

WiMAX Forum publishes Femtocell standard TECH TRENDS | The WiMAX Forum and the Femto Forum has announced the publication of the WiMAX femtocell standard that will allow vendors to start developing standardised femtocells and associated network equipment based on the IEEE 802.16e radio interface and profiles.

According to the official statement issued by the WiMAX Forum, it is expected to start certifying compatible products in early 2011 to guarantee efficient and effective interoperability between different vendors’ access points and core network equipment.

The new standard will help vendors to start creating compatible equipment

WiMAX femtocells costeffectively enhance coverage and capacity inside buildings and in small outdoor areas as well as supporting advanced new services. The WiMAX Forum

AROUND THE WORLD

has been working with the Femto Forum since June 2009 to ensure that the entire femtocell and WiMAX ecosystems cooperate to enable the most effective possible standard and release the full potential of both technologies.

The specifications incorporate a security framework that allows WiMAX networks to support a large number of access points via standard commercial IPSec based security gateways.

This phase of specifications also contains simple Self Organizing Network (SON) capabilities to allow automatic configuration of large numbers of femtocells.

Future revisions will further enhance the SON capabilities to standardize automatic interference management between femtocells and macro base stations.

QUICK BYTE

Worldwide cloud services revenue to reach $68.3 billion by 2010 According to a recent report from Gartner, the worldwide cloud services revenue is expected to reach $68.3 billion in 2010, a 16.6 percent increase from 2009 revenue of $58.6 billion. The experts say that the industry is poised for strong growth through 2014, by when the revenue from cloud services is estimated to cross $140 bn mark, globally.

MICROSOFT CEO STEVE BALLMER, DEFENDING THE PC AGAINST THE GROWING POPULARITY OF IPADS

“THE REAL QUESTION IS, WHAT’S A PC? NOTHING THAT PEOPLE DO ON A PC TODAY IS GOING TO GET LESS RELEVANT TOMORROW...

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UPDATE

Capgemini acquires Strategic Systems Solutions TECH TIDINGS | UK based

INTERVIEW SANDEEP MUSHRAN Director, Lemon Mobiles

The acquisition will strengthen Capgemini’s presence in the Capital market sector

will fully integrate SSS with its existing capital markets unit in the Financial Services Global Business Unit.

“Being part of Capgemini enhances our market position, as we’ll now be able to leverage Capgemini’s strength and brand recognition,” said Owen Weeks, CEO of SSS.

Verizon Cloud Storage introduced TECH TIDINGS | Verizon Business has

introduced a new cloud-based offering, Verizon Cloud Storage, and a complementary suite of data-retention IT consulting services.

Verizon Cloud Storage delivers a flexible solution for managing and retrieving data over the Internet.

This pay-as-you-go service scales on demand to meet changing business requirements and can either augment traditional storage options, such as storage area networking and networkattached storage, or be used as a standalone solution.

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Verizon Cloud Storage, which is presently available in the U.S. and 16 countries around the globe starting in July, offers an enterprise-class experience.

Key features include strong physical and logical security such as secure multitenant file system and encrypted data transfers. The new service supports multiple methods for accessing stored data, including software, application programming interfaces and third-party applications, and offers enterprises the option to select where data is stored.

IT NEXT: How challenging is the concept of offering quality handsets at a competitive price?

In an ultra competitive market, quality, and dependability with a solid after sales network are hygiene factors for mobile handset manufacturers. Based on our research findings and our understanding of the Indian market, we have focused on these key features to develop low cost and high value offerings. Our mantra has been to optimize our supply-chain and pass the benefits to our customers.

Which are the key handsets being launched by Lemon for enterprise users this year?

We have recently launched iQ 707 and iT 717 for enterprise users. Besides having functionalities like email, instant messaging, 3.2 Mega pixel camera, Java and Opera Mini web browser, the phones are also equipped with EDGE and have security features like caller blacklist, password protection for files, call logs and messages.

How are you planning to leverage 3G as a technology to expand your enterprise business?

For this, we are working with the enterprises to understand their mobility needs. With the advent of 3G and faster data connections, mobile phones are able to support powerful server connected applications.

We are working closely with our application partners to develop customised applications in order to meet the requirements.

By Jatinder Singh

PHOTO GRAPHY: JAYAN K NARAYANAN

Capgemini has announced the acquisition of Strategic Systems Solutions (SSS), a global IT services and Business Process Outsourcing firm (BPO) focused on the financial services industry. According to the company release, the acquisition will improve Capgemini’s capabilities and presence in the capital markets sector, while expanding its client base to comprise some well recognized financial institutions. This acquisition will provide Capgemini added strength in the Asia-Pacific region with IT and BPO platforms in China and the Philippines and will reinforce its presence in Singapore.

Prior to this acquisition, Capgemini owned 49 percent of SSS, and now Capgemini

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UPDATE

IBM bags QuippoWTTIL deal

TECH TRENDS

IBM to provide managed services to Quippo-WTTIL offices across the country

M&A | IBM has bagged a five year managed services deal from QuippoWTTIL, the world’s largest independent telecom infrastructure company.

Under the aggrement, IBM will provide technical support to overhaul Quippo-WTTIL IT infrastructure system which will include managing the hardware, mailing and infrastructure management software applications.

The release further adds that IBM will deploy server and storage support, networking and security services at QUIPPO-WTTIL’s hosted data centre in Gurgaon. It will also host and manage Quippo-WTTIL’s Lotus Notes and provide managed services for all offices across the country.

According to the official release,

NEWS @ BLOG

the technology services provided by IBM will synchronize the company’s business processes enabling maximum operational efficiency.

IBM will deploy server and storage support, networking and security services at QUIPPO-WTTIL’s hosted data centre in Gurgaon.

“Mobile telephony is growing tremendously all over the world especially in growth markets such as India, and communication service providers are choosing IBM to help deliver next generation services to keep pace with market shift and customer demand,” said Neeraj Sharma, Director - Integrated Technology Services, IBM India/South Asia.

Mobile Payment users to cross 100 mn in 2010 Tech Trends| The number of mobile payment users worldwide will exceed 108.6 million in 2010, a 54.5 percent increase from 2009, when there were 70.2 million users,says a recent research from Gartner. According to report, the Mobile payment users will represent 2.1 percent of all mobile users in 2010.

“We continue to see strong growth in developing markets in Asia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa for mobile payment, while adoption in North America and Western Europe lags behind due to the plentiful choices of payment instruments that consumers have,” said Sandy Shen, Research Director at Gartner.

In Asia/Pacific, mobile payment users will surpass 62.8 million in 2010, and represent 2.6 percent of all mobile users. In Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), mobile payment users will total 27.1 million and represent 2.1 percent of all mobile users in the region. In North America, mobile payment users will number 3.5 million and represent 1.1 percent of all mobile users in the region.

AMAZON’S CTO SAYS THE CLOUD HAS ARRIVED “WE WENT FROM TALK TO ACTION: in 2009 and before, many companies were considering implementing cloud services…we are no longer discussing it, we are doing it,” | Werner Vogels, Amazon’s chief technology officer at a conference | Mathew Ingram in http://gigaom.com/

The blog quotes Vogels as saying that he’s been in many meetings with corporate IT managers, and they’re directing their organisations to start implementing cloud services and systems now because the benefits are too great. IT departments realize that they’re at a disadvantage if they are not getting on board right now.

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OPINION

TECH TALK SUBHASHISH SAHA CTO, Apeejay Surrendra Group

Recipe for a six-pack ERP

E

RP implementation is more often a bed of nails than that of roses for many.

According to a survey, only 5% of ERP projects taste success, 90% of organisations are unhappy with their ERP implementations, and only 28% of the implementations meet project deadlines and costs.

These statistics are not surprising, given the challenges and pitfalls often faced by ERP implementations.

So let’s begin by looking at the potential challenges, which can be classofied as strategic and operational.

The following examples would broadly represent the key strategic challenges: n The ownership challenge: who leads it--business or IT? n Involvement and support from top management as well key business users or process owners. n Identification of the right solutions and implementation partners within approved budgets, i.e., a functionality versus cost challenge. n Implementation strategy on project management, solution testing and training. n Balancing between short-term versus long-term gains.

Likewise, representative examples for the key operational challenges would be: n Project management failure in ensuring quality, time and cost. n Inadequate detailing of scope. n Less importance accorded to the necessary testing processes and tools.

10

“The robustness of an implementation comes from bolstering the key six components with the right safeguards” n Inadequate or inappropriate training n Incorrect rollout methodology

o what can be the safeguards?

S Well, let’s first look at a full life-cycle implementation and what it entails.

An ERP implementation cycle will have six clearly defined components or stages. Each of these six stages has its own role and importance in the overall implementation process, and to ensure the success of the project, certain thumb rules must be followed: Most of the time, we start with a half-baked articulation of business

requirement which eventually results into a scope creep and a fullfledged blame game involving the IT department, the consultant and the business. To avoid that, one needs to define the scope clearly beforehand.

Budgeting is another aspect where we falter, not only because of insufficient allocation but also because of the process followed in arriving at the estimates. Many a time, it’s a business decision to spend a certain amount without any context or relevance to the cost of the solution and its implementation.

While evaluating the solution, one needs to identify the solution based not only on the prima facie requirements but also on various other aspects like the overall business growth plan, geographical diversity and nature of business.

Project management is one of the most crucial components of the implementation process and much of the implementation delay happens because of gaps in it. Due to the various activities involved here, one must use a project management office to ensure both quality and schedule for designing, coding and testing.

It is important to decide on the right rollout strategy (phased or big-bang), depending on the number of locations and geographical spread and the complexity of the solution. A mock pilot immediately before the actual rollout for every location proves beneficial.

Training is another key activity at this stage, which needs special attention.

Often, we tend to forget that the proof of the pudding is in eating it.

Unless we are able to establish a proper post-implementation support and an ongoing training mechanism, all efforts invested in the previous five stages will go waste.

To summarize, a successful ERP implementation is to be driven by top management, to be designed, developed and implemented by IT and process owners, and of course, to be savoured by users.

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MONEY WISE RAJESH MAGOW Co-founder and CFO, MakeMyTrip India

Look beyond immediate ROI

T

he role of information technology has evolved significantly over the period of time. Far from being a disconnected silo that captured information, like a black box, the IT department is today an entity that has transparent channels of communication running into all functional departments.

IT is also well aligned to business goals of organisations and is being successfully used to deliver increased efficiencies and reduced costs.

Yet, despite the hyperbole of IT being of strategic value to businesses, the view of IT has remained largely operational. It is seen more as an effective tool to reduce costs, and less as an implementation to drive business growth.

A close analysis of technology investments across industries will make this clearer. If you look around, you will find that functional areas like supply chain, customer service, order management and operations, finance and accounting, and sales force support, have a much higher concentration of IT investments.

On the other hand, areas such as product and solutions development, consumer intelligence, supplier development and marketing, still

“More IT investments should go in building strategic solutions that can drive business growth” account for significantly less IT investments.

Now, the former set of areas can be appropriately put in the “operational” bucket, while the second set will be better suited in the “strategic” bucket.

This is because the top drivers of IT investments arise from the need to increase efficiency and boost

productivity to achieve cost reduction.

The growth-oriented initiatives such as market creation, market share growth, and building competitive edge and consumer brands still fall behind in the list of technology-investment drivers.

The skew, of course, varies from industry to industry. In industries where the revenue model is not totally dependent on IT, say in the IT and ITeS industry, IT investment is generally not considered as a means to increase sales.

One of the main reasons behind this is related to the scales by which we measure the success of IT projects.

It’s a pity that very often key IT strategic projects get dropped because of perceived lack of measurement for success or because they don’t produce immediate returns.

There is an immediate need to change this perception; else we might be missing out on huge opportunities.

We need to view returns on strategic IT projects with the same lenses with which we view and measure returns for other growth driving strategies like geographical expansion, development of new product line, or acquisition of new business.

We need to start taking long-term views of such IT projects.

There is also a need to make a paradigm shift in the thought process and start putting IT in the ‘core-tobusiness’ bucket as opposed to seeing it as a necessary business expense to optimise costs. Leveraging technology for cost optimisation should become a “routine” business activity and the focus should be on strategically building innovative IT solutions to drive growth.

This shift will take place only when in our minds, we accept IT an effective partner in business growth!

PHOTOGRAPHY: SUBH OJIT PAUL

OPINION

INDIA’s FUTURE CIOs

“I HAVE SUGGESTED TO SOME OF MY BRIGHT COLLEAGUES TO PARTICIPATE IN NEXT100…”

RAJEEV SHIRODKAR Future Generali India Life Insurance Co. Ltd 14

2010

Are you one of India’s future CIOs? Find out at www.itnext.in/next100

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4

Edu Tech December 2009

Chang

CATALYSI

How Best Practices can change the way you mange business and prepare for growth

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BEST PRACTICES | COVER STORY

nge

SING

Looking for conformity is a typical human traits.

Thus, we struggle to find underlying unity in everything and club it in a group. Enterprise IT practices have been strait-jacketed like this as well. Ever since the days of the EDP and MIS, the IT department within the organisation has been wrapped in an enigmatic shroud. The function of the IT guys (and the gals of course) had been a source of contemplation for many; what do they do? How do they do? Is it the same across? These are among the many such queries that keep floating around.

To aid the understanding of the IT operations, the philosophy of ‘Best Practices’ was utilised. Briefly, best practices are sets of actions and guidelines that are most appropriate in a given situation. Thus, you have the Best Practices for ERP implementation, CRM roll out, Wi-Max installation, etc. These best practices were supposed to help an enterprise become more productive and profitable. After all, what is sauce for the gander is sauce for the geese, right?

Wrong! Very soon, people realised that while it as easy to monogamise best practices in other functions like HR, Finance and others, IT was a different beast all together. Indeed, it was discovered that just like there is little common between two companies, there can be no common or standard IT best practices for all organisations. The IT functions and practices sometimes differs vastly from industry to industry.

Even so, there was a case of vertical commonality, in the sense, the practices of a specific bank will not be very different from that of another, similarly for a telecom company.

So, arrived the idea of verticalised best practices.

Many vendors and software companies touted the efficacy of the same. We at IT Next decided to test the validity. We invited 5 senior IT professionals from different high-growth verticals like telecom, retail, pharma, textile, hospitality, to share their views on what are the best practices in their domain. Through the views of these senior practitioners, we wished to examine the infallibility of best practices.

Not surprisingly, almost all agreed that while there were certain set of practices common across IT functions, verticalised best practices did make much sense. In the following pages you will find their views. Their ringing support for verticalised best practices does settle the debate on the validity or viability of the same. There was a single caveat though, in today’s dynamic IT and business environments, it is important that best practices are given a relook, periodically. What is a best practice today, may not remain tomorrow. So, even when you find conformity, don’t bank on it.

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TEXTILE

QUICK AND

HEALTHY Effective IT is about managing infrastructure, vendors and users on macro aspectsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and staying geared for micro tweaks too

BY SAT I S H B. M A H A JA N Head - Infrastructure, Raymonds

IT INVESTMENT IN MANUFACTURING (APEJ REGION) (Figures in US$ billion)

9.9%

(CAGR

31.4 21.6

2009

18

2013

The current-generation users want speed. Earlier, users were happy even if they got something tomorrow. Today, they want it as of yesterday. The availability of the IT facility therefore has to be made 24x7 so that users can get the required information with speed.

The pace of technological development is very high today. A new series or version is always on the card every six months. That makes it important to decide how quickly one has to go for a refresh.

It is also pertinent to cover the entire hardware infrastructure under maximum possible warranty so that maintenance issues will be handled by the vendor or service provider with proper SLAs. One has to spend some reasonable time on planning

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BEST PRACTICES | COVER STORY for infrastructure and understanding the latest technology suitable for implementation, so that refresh cycles can be improved more than prescribed.

The most challenging part about both the technology and the infrastructure is to show return on investment. The most important thing here is that any hardware should be procured only if required. And after being procured, it should be used for the project at the earliest, else one stands to lose precious warranty on the costly equipment.

When it comes to selecting the applications, one needs to have carefully select solutions to suit business needs.

For example, consider that the corporate office, sales offices and factories are in multiple locations, which include not just class-A cities but also class B and C cities. The complete solution has to take into consideration the location and its specific requirements and one needs to work with the vendors who will be flexible enough to adapt to the local conditions.

Moreover, the complete process has to evolve with time. For example, in our case, we shifted from a heterogeneous environment to a centralized one. This has helped us to do standardisation of practices and services across the group companies. Even if the need is different by delta, the solution can be provided. The most important thing for the management is that there will be significant savings in terms of costs.

How is that achieved? We can negotiate with vendors on volumes and can get better rates on products and services. As the key applications and common services are run through the central location, the TCO at individual locations will be very less. There will be very high level of trust and security,

as complete manageability will be from the central location and data will also be centrally located.

We are in a world where there is a huge scarcity of power and space. We may get good space, but power may be a constraint, and if power is not an issue then space will be very costly.

Consolidation will help to save costs n power, cooling and space.

This also leads to some other the major advantages. For example, a DR plan for major applications becomes cost effective. Also, the concept of private cloud help us to make our own work site independent and any changes in the location or local setup will not affect the service across the location.

The applications are always business-specific, but the infrastructure has to support all the businesses. So when the infrastructure for various verticals is defined we need to look for highest level of availability of services, along with a redundancy plan. So some of the key mantras when handling a large infrastructure are: n Consolidation of common services across the group to get real benefits of services and cost. n Work on group polices to get standard services across the organisation. n Making sure that the system is policy-based rather than people-based.

The standardisation always works across the organisation, but we need to make delta changes in the policies to handle the needs of diverse sets of users.

This leads to selection of products for the infrastructure. Today desktops and laptops are available at very competitive prices and the configuration is not a major challenge.

The key challenge is to manage and

FOR MAXIMUM RETURN ON INVESTMENT, EQUIPMENT MUST BE USED SOON AFTER BEING PROCURED, ELSE PRECIOUS WARRANTY WILL BE LOST

implement proper security and control policies across the organisation. One way of handling this is by making every user aware about the policies and practices of the organization through policy document. It is also important to make users aware that somebody is monitoring the activity of users across the organization.

One of the major challenges will be to manage users as they keep demanding for new thing and keep coming up with new ideas. We need to learn to sensitise users about their needs through proper processes and documentation so that they can take ownership of their IT service usage.

Standard support services and regular awareness and training programs will help users to handle common issues quickly rather than waiting to get support from the IT department. The biggest benefit for the IT department will be that there will be less number of level 0 calls.

Some of the practices effective in this regard will be: n Conduct regular awareness session and training programs to make users aware of IT polices and practices. n Keep processes that are policybased rather than being people-based. n Understand the needs of sets of users and work out the solutions. n Do not provide a technical solution to the user; instead offer them a business solution.

Technology changes very quickly and whenever you meet a new vendor he talks about some new concepts and technologies. So, I always see vendors as gurus, who help one learn the practical aspect of a technology. I always like to treat vendors as partners rather than seeing them merely as product or service providers.

So these are some of the standard approaches or best practices to be followed in any areas of development and management of infrastructure, user and vendors. Also, one has to customise these standards to suit one’s organisation’s environment. The needs will also vary from department to department.

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TELECOM

GO FOR A HEAVYDUTY ENABLING ENGINE The infrastructure must be resilient enough meet the service provisioning demands on highgrowth industries

BY SHI VA S H A N K A R VP & Head—IT Infrastructure, Security & Engineering, Reliance Communications

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There is often much discussion around the need to align IT to business needs. This leaves the impression that it’s probably a very difficult task to accomplish. However, a slight broadening of the perspective can make all the difference.

Once the focus is on the organisation and not on a function, aligning IT with business goals becomes simpler.

The value of IT to the organisation lies in working as a partner with the business. IT in isolation will not add any value, excepting when the requirements are coupled with the technology layer. This applies to all industries and is particularly true of the telecom sector.

Every aspect of IT, right from vendor management to people management, has to be seen with a business perspective. When finalising a vendor, it is very important to see that service contracts are firmed up in a way that uninterrupted business support is ensured, especially for critical requirements. Tricky clauses in service contracts provide vendor multiple ways to escape, so it’s important to watch out for such clauses.

From an infrastructure and technology perspective, it is important to address the following challenges which are common to all businesses: Practically ver y little maintenance window: Periodic maintenance, OS-patch upgrade, firmware upgrade, and database upgrade are required to keep any server in a healthy state. Given the business requirement of 24x7 service availability to end customers, it is very difficult to get downtime for maintenance. Also due to constraints, many industries follow standalone systems in place of having high availability for many critical systems.

High uptime requirement without proper maintenance: Businesses demand high uptime

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PROCUREMENT CHALLENGES High cost of premium products, mismatch in cost-to-revenue ratio

Challenge in getting budgetary approvals as infrastructure is often seen as a dead investment

on most of the systems, which leads to a lack of system maintenance.

This compromise directly impacts the system’s health, which in turn sometimes leads to an unplanned downtime.

Exponential transaction growth: The customer base growth is substantial these days and hence transaction growth is exponential, whereas the upgrade process is lengthy. So, one has to live with the existing hardware till the time new hardware is received.

This also impacts the storage space requirements of databases which grow substantially over time.

Backend bulk data upload: Even though systems are designed for a particular level of headroom and spikes, bulk data uploads can make the system to crack, resulting in outages.

Ad hoc unplanned system rollouts: Due to increased competition, new services and products are launched with existing hardware without clear business projections. This may sometimes lead to over utilisation, until the additional hardware is procured and deployed. These undersized systems then remain in production, causing performance bottlenecks.

Non equivalent or unavailability of test environments: For very obvious reasons, every industry has this bug.

There are no production equivalent systems that stand up as a test bed.

Getting the right product that meets the complete requirement

Retaining talent in the competitive industry landscape

Hence, full fledge testing is not possible and then system malfunction with actual production load. Such upgrades fail few times causing hue and cry.

High data retention and restoration requirements: For legal compliance purposes, high data retention may be expected. If there is no immediate provision for data archival, history data may sometimes be maintained on the same system.

Lack of proper coding: This can result into database locks, which impacts performance degradation.

Ad hoc queries running on critical databases: Sometimes ad hoc queries are required to be run on critical databases during peak hours, which will lead to a degradation of performance.

Application’s incompatibility: A legacy application may sometimes be incompatible with the latest version of database or operating system.

Security vulnerabilities: These are constantly increasing and are a constant threat to the systems.

Business continuity issues: Availability and recoverability of data during a disaster is a challenge. The right replication methodologies to have data redundancy and availability at the least interval are required.

Network bandwidth issues: Clear throughput with no collisions or packet losses is key for Infrastructure to be stable and operational

A WELL DESIGNED BACKUP SOLUTION PAVES THE WAY FOR A CLEAN RECOVERY—ORGANISATIONS OFTEN FAIL TO RECOVER BACKED-UP DATA

Constant shifts in the technology domain on both product and service fronts

The following best practices can be adopted to avoid the problems and address IT challenges: Information Te c h n o l o g y Infrastructure Library (ITIL): ITIL practices cover change mgmt, incident management, problem management, service level management, and availability management, among other things.

Standard operating procedures (SOP): SOPs are to be defined and followed for regular tasks.

Change management: A stringent change management policy of reviewing every planned event and discussing the worse to hit production because of a change is needed. These brainstorming exercises will lead to better planning and avoid any mishaps.

Platform standardisation and security compliance: The standard OS, database versions are to be maintained across with latest patches and firmware.

Centralised monitoring tools implementation: This depends on what you are monitoring as the end infra could be a database, server, SAN/NAS or backup.

Well defined backup plan: A well designed backup solution is absolutely important. This paves the way for a clean recovery. Often, organisations fail to recover data even though it has been backed up.

Availability planning: There should be a high availability planning at every layer of infrastructure for at least the mission critical applications.

Automatic Storage Management (ASM): This is useful in avoiding high input-output contention.

Security: There has to be a right security solution at every layer of the infrastructure.

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PHARMA

SCALE IT UP MORE

Given the relatively low uptake of IT in the sector, the focus can be on increasing its adoption

BY C H A D R ES H D E D H I A Sr. Manager - IT, Fermenta Biotech

Technology is ever evolving and the best way to optimise the ROI and TCO is to look for products and services that have a clear roadmap of the product lifecycle for the next few years. Most of the products release an upgrade in a span of 12 - 24 months and it is very vital to test these upgrades before applying on to the production systems.

Sure, there are challenges in terms of procurement of services or products.

The initial challenge is to decide on the platform and the productâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;open source versus closed source. The second challenge is to complete a proof of concept to ensure that product or service we are looking at to integrate with our technology culture is actually suited to it. This is by far the most time and resource consuming job as lot of research, benchmarking and documentation is required to calculate the ROI and TCO and select the best product or solution.

Indian pharmaceutical companies are still conservative when it comes to IT, but lately there have been more investments in technology.

While the markets see ups and downs, manpower shortage can lead to a very cumbersome process of interviewing, short-listing and training the right candidates which could take anything from two months to six months, depending on the market conditions.

Very superior man management skills are required to deal with internal IT teams and also an assessment of their role and responsibilities needs to be

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India health care sector is estimated to reach

78.6

$

billion by 2016

GAP ANALYSIS n Product and Process Optimisation n Companies looking at increasing productivity and reducing costs would have to analyse the gaps in their current products and processes. Companies should strive to look for opportunities within their products to enable better performance n Life Cycle Management (LCM) n Companies must realise the importance of LCM activities and allocate enough budgets, as these measures can maximise their returns on their drugs and enhance their market position. n Supply Chain Management n An efficient supply chain is crucial for product launches, meeting demands and eventually creating value. n Sales Force Effectiveness n An immediate response to cost-cutting measures is to reduce sales forces

relooked every six to nine months to ensure that a growth path is defined.

Vendor management is very critical and is one of the key factors of success for product or service implementation.

One of the best ways to get the full potential and support from the vendor is to make him a partner-in-the-process while doing a product or service implementation.

While this is done, an SLA agreement with penalty clause due to failure or delay and a bonus for on-time completion will ensure that the vendor is fully responsible and committed. If and when AMC is being renewed, a quarterly payment is the best way to ensure that cash flow is maintained and also the commitment and quality support from the vendor is continued.

In the wake of the current growth trajectory of the pharmaceutical sector, enterprise resource planning software is fast becoming a key component to be integrated in their entire business processes. To survive in highly competitive business environments, pharma companies have to continuously change their business processes to stay ahead of their competitors.

Therefore business process reengineering has often been employed, and IT tools have been used to improve business processes.

Modern information technology focuses on business processes and communications between persons using these processes.

Enterprise resource planning systems integrate and automate the key functionality of an organisation, thereby facilitating the flow of information among different functions of an enterprise while also permitting information sharing across organisational units across geographical locations.

Pharmaceutical businesses require the right ERP support for streamlined procurement of raw materials, reduced procurement and delivery cycle times, tracking of receivable and payments to suppliers for managing credit facilities, a decision support tool for management analysis and a collaborative portal for

supply chain management.

By optimum utilisation of these resources, the result can be a higher efficiency and better performance.

Enterprise software helps companies to best utilise their resources and manpower for improved productivity.

It acts as a connecting link between all departments of the company.

Another interesting tool which could be of vital importance is business analytics.

These tools help companies in improving the product development chart, enhancing go-to-market strategies, increase operational performance, optimising supply chains and driving revenue and market share.

With intense pressure to accelerate products to market while keeping costs down, pharmaceutical companies must monitor and effectively manage the clinical data process.

Business Intelligence and Analytical capabilities enable companies to track the large amounts of information from clinical trials, identify the most efficient practices, and optimise resource allocation. By integrating data from multiple sources, BI also helps companies identify trends and anomalies and analyse risk during product development and launch.

What’s more, these tools also help an organisation in analysing the possible behavioural patterns or a possible response to a new over-the-counter product by way of a thorough analysis of previous such launches.

Virtualisation and cloud computing are likely to be the next ‘big’ game changers. A lot has been talked and discussed by virtually all IT honchos across the globe. But for those who haven’t experienced virtualisation, they can begin with ‘free’ virtualisation hypervisors. IT managers can start migrating non-critical servers and analyse the benefit of this technology.

Cloud computing has changed the way IT and software companies offer their products and services. For example, emails can be cleaned inside the cloud and relayed to your internal email server.

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RETAIL

IN RETAIL,

GO IN DETAIL

Each stock keeping unit is important and should be closely monitored for inventorying and shelf positioning

BY A N I L S H A N KAR GM-Tech Infrastructure, Shoppers Stop

Retail businesses are multifaceted and given the sheer complexity involved in the operations, they demand very precision information management, something that is difficult to ensure in the absence of right technology solutions.

It is a constant challenge for large retailers to maintain huge inventories, manage seasonal product cycles, ensure availability on shelves, control pilferage, and improve inventory turn in supply chain. Technology is a constant, indispensable business ally in addressing these issues and in accelerating business growth.

The technology landscape within a retail organisation usually is a good indicator of its ability to create the differentiation and drive success. At the same time, simplifying and optimising internal business processes is equally critical for achieving effective automation and competitive edge in a dynamic environment.

What makes it more challenging is the presence of multiple retail formats, with each format having their unique business processes and varying needs of information management. In such environment a single flavour of solution cannot meet the needs of all business formats and can result in serious compromises. The IT organisation has to adopt controlled standardisation to maintain similarity of the technology solutions which are deployed across retail formats, while allowing customisation within each solution to address the unique business needs of respective formats.

For example, Shopperâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Stop manages three separate instances of the

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RETAILERS INTEGRATING WORK FORCE MANAGEMENT TECHNOLOGIES TOGETHER 13%

25% 56%

Best in Class Average Laggard Source: Aberdeen Group

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BEST PRACTICES | COVER STORY JDA ERP, a demand and supply chain management solution for retail, which allows customisation as per the specific business process and core practices within each of the retail formats. The solution allows flow of information of product, pricing, discounts and promotions between the central office (where most decisions of buying and merchandise planning take place) and all the stores and warehouses.

Availability of merchandise at stores and displaying the right product in front of the right buyer is an extremely important aspect of retail and it gets even critical when the number of stock keeping units (SKUs) is very high and the merchandise range changes by season. Merchandise distribution demands that key consumer insights are transformed into the right mix of products at the stores.

Such intricate and complex processes are managed with help of advanced planning and replenishment tools as decision support systems, which otherwise are humanly impossible to manage.

Success in the retail segment can be derived by moving beyond just the selling of products to creating customer experience, i.e. moving from mere transactions to establishing longer relationships and building brand loyalty amongst customers.

The retail organisation has to always attempt at creating a differentiation by means of offering a rich and improved shopping experience for its customers. Systems should be set in place to capture customersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; complaints, suggestions, feedbacks and compliments. There should be initiatives to convert customer transaction data into decision support aids for the business by means of data mining and predictive analysis, thus allowing technology to play a strategic role.

The connect among employees is very essential in a highly distributed work environment for the success of any organisation. This is easier said than done since in an environment the majority of workforce are associates on the store floors attending to customersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; needs and not having continuous access to a PC. It is imperative that the IT solutions are conceptualised and deployed considering easier access of information for associates.

Retail also sees the higher staff turnover compared to other industries, which implies

new associates joining at regular intervals.

The situation is further compounded by increase in number of store openings, threby needing fresher workforce.

Collaboration with vendors and suppliers is another important aspect in retail business. Having an effective B2B system has helped continuous and automated flow of information of sales, stocks, new order and payment status to vendors for their respective product portfolio. This enhances transparency with the vendors and improves supply-chain efficiency by reducing the order processing and material despatch time at the supplierâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s side.

The multi-format business set-up, coupled with high growth has high dependency on IT and demands a highly flexible environment. The company effectively implemented consolidation and virtualisation technologies to allow quick provisioning of infrastructure and applications. This ensures that IT is able to meet the expansion and growth of our business, besides being able to create required resiliency to meet the uptime needs of a 24x7 operation. This has significantly reduced the data centre footprint and operational costs.

As an underlying ground rule for IT architecture in a retail organisation is that all possible technology solutions are centrally deployed and managed. This is to ensure that stores have a smaller and less complex technology footprint and thus have lesser management overheads, thus allowing the stores to concentrate on managing services for the customer. Besides, IT support services too are managed centrally with remote support techniques and some amount of onsite technical resources, to provide uniformed and responsive IT service required by the frontend.

Any new initiative in the technology space is a process of understanding business challenges and mapping them against newer technology solutions. Any technology solution before being put for serious consideration for deployment should be evaluated for meeting pressing needs of the business as a whole, adding significant value to customers or employees.

Last of all, reliability and commitment on post-sales product support is a decisive factor for selecting any large solution.

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COVER STORY | BEST PRACTICES There was a time when hospitality revolved around three ‘B’s—bed, bath and breakfast. Of late, there has been a fourth ‘B’ in the form of broadband.

In the hospitality industry, the clientele is not only from the consumer segment but from the business segment as well. In order to attract guests to visit a hotel and stay there, bundled packages are often offered. Free internet usage with good speed is a new package that has been added to the list.

Also, many guests are carrying their own laptops and would be mobile within the hotel premise—visiting the cafeteria or sitting in the garden. To engage them better with the ambience and the surroundings, hotels have also started offering data cards and USB modems.

Providing support for broadband and mobility is one aspect where IT has a role to play. However, by adopting best practices, methodologies and making use of future-proof technologies one can deliver solutions cost-effectively and in a timely manner. Some of the guiding principles when catering to the IT needs of the hospitality industry are: n Keep focus mainly on guest facing and revenue generating technologies. n Define and maintain a technology roadmap for the enterprise. n Make intelligent investments in and use of information technology. n Practice excellence in technology operation and deployment. n IT infrastructure comprises the network, security and user support.

Make the infrastructure function responsible for defining technology standards and negotiating with third-party application suppliers.

This function also has to work with development, design, engineering and operations teams to support the selection and deployment of solutions in the hotel. n Engage with business functions such as sales and marketing, HR, legal and finance to develop technology solutions such as workflow, portals and knowledge management. The objective should be to improve work processes, promote collaboration and productivity.

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HOSPITALITY

ALL ROADS SHOULD LEAD TO THE GUEST n Implement regular quarterly business-IT forums to foster strategic alignment. Assist in the development of business case for IT investment. n Support enterprise-wide initiatives on business intelligence to provide accurate information reporting for forward-looking analysis and business forecasting. n Lead knowledge management initiatives that will promote contribution and reuse n Engage and leverage reuse of global solutions by providing inputs on regional unique requirements. Drive implementation and rollout of global systems in the hospitality environment. n Lead innovative R&D that will position your organisation as a leader in the hospitality industry. n Lead design and review of projects, and maintain consistent and elegant architecture through use of

standards. Have a holistic, integrated view. n Deliver such solutions that knowledge can be transferred to customer support team for first-line and possibly second-line issues resolution, through high-quality technical, user and operational documentation. n Develop close strategic partners that can provide software development services on an outsourced, in-sourced or offshore basis but retain control of project management and solution architecture. n Rein in shadow IT and systems currently outsourced or hosted by external vendors. n Engage with the business functions of development, sales and marketing, design and engineering to sell the value of technology to the management. n Provide consultation to hotel

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BEST PRACTICES | COVER STORY

Good hospitality is all about providing great user experience; IT solutions can be no different

BY NANDKISO R E JAISWA L Manager-IT, Holiday Inn Mumbai International Airport

4.1

Million Tourists

visited India last year and at the current rate, arrivals will soar to

10 million by 2010

management on IT system specifications and IT project budgets. n Circulate brands-to-technology standards for white papers and position statements or recommendations on adoption of technology by hotels. Lead innovative R&D that will position you as a thought leader in the hospitality industry. n Compile and maintain an up-to-date inventory of systems and versions installed on-premise. n Control and influence third-party vendors to ensure compliance to policies and standards through rigorous implementation of methods and processes on quality assurance, certifying installers, project management and rollout commissioning.

Leverage your purchasing position with thirdparty party vendors. n Drive innovation. Create proprietary solutions that can strengthen competitive advantage for your organisation in the hospitality industry.

One can also watch out for intelligent installing systems like radio frequency identification (RFID) system, which authenticates the access of various exclusive services like spa, gym, business centre and more to selected guests in an easiest possible way. It also entails convenience to the staff by providing them a simpler way to get an entry to the office premises by just waiving their ID cards.

Having said that, it is imperative to note that hotels should take utmost care that each installed system should be intelligent enough to communicate internally during a period of crisis.

These systems should be capable of sharing and utilising the key information at the same level of speed, irrespective of the internal placement and location.

One such example could be a Center Operations Manager, for instance, that enables constant systems monitoring, from core systems to handheld devices.

By utilising this, the IT team can be immediately alerted, if a system shows a particular problem.

This will significantly reduce disruption by cutting downtime for crucial systems.

In the swiftly growing competitive business environment, every service industry and department aims to boost brand loyalty by making processes simpler and quicker, prioritising the convenience of a customer. And technology is one such enabler.

No doubt, considering the growing demands on network bandwidth, the entire process of implementation would be having some challenges for IT teams. However, by analysing and utilising the latest technology in a meaningful way, one can see dramatic improvement in the overall value chain of any hotel.

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INTERVIEW

“WE ARE SOLVING A LOT OF BUSINESS PROBLEMS WITH THE USE OF IT” As a solutions provider, IBM is much renowned for its expertise that incorporate a lot of global best practices within the same. In a tetea-tete with Shashwat DC, Pradeep Nair, Director (Software Group), IBM India, spoke at length abouts how the role of the IT function have changed and how can IT managers prepare themselves for the change that is taking place around them.

What is the smart planet initiative from IBM? The world that we live in today is getting exceedingly digitised.

Look around you, right from the mobile phone in your hand to the car that you drive, there are scores and scores of transistors, sending out data. And all these devices or transistors are increasingly getting interconnected on the web. So, now your fridge can directly place order on the web, or your car can manage the garage door on its own and so on. We at IBM have been working closely to ensure that these digitisations can be deployed to make life easier for the individual and for the enterprise. Smart

28

Planet initiative is in the same regards, whereby our aim is to build systems and infrastructure that is not only automated and robust but also helps cut down costs and is even good for the environment.

Can enterprises be smart, as well?

Of course, they can be and we have many examples of such companies that have truly leveraged the power of IT to become productive and profitable. And the best thing is that unlike in the past, when we had to look to the West for innovation and inspiration, there is a lot of the same happening right here in the country. Take for instance a

project we are working on with the government sector, wherein we are building an entity analytics engine to help spot money laundering of any sort. This is a really path breaking project, wherein we have employed different technologies to fashion this engine. This is an illustration of how through the use of software and technology organisations can harness the power of technology for their benefit and thus become smart.

The challenges faced by each organisation is often fairly unique in the vertical that it operates, have the solutions from the IBM stable incorporated these best practices in their offering?

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BEST PRACTICES | COVER STORY Indeed, every companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s challenges and work culture is not only unique in the vertical, but also at an overall level. We have worked closely to incorporate such nuances and best practices into our solution. Hence, we work with a bank our software and services are aligned to the business they operate in. In fact, our solutions are designed to be highly customisable to adopt to the needs and requirements of the enterprise. Not only that, we have now reached a stage where we are solving a lot of business problems with the use of IT.

Business problems, how are they related to IT? They very much are inter-related. The role of IT within an organisation has undergone much changes over the past decade or so. The best illustration of the same is to look at the role played by the CIO. Today's CIO is as much as a business leader within the company as much as he is a technology leader.

Similarly, the senior IT manager these days is engrossed in a wide range of projects that bring about business efficiency within the enterprise. Thus, a lot of the business issues can be resolved with the use of optimum technology. For instance, when Tata Sky DTH service was launched some time back, little did anyone know that it would be lapped up by the consumers. In fact, the company has the fastest record of selling a million connections in the shortest possible time. And this quick transformation from zero to a million was aided by the robust systems that were deployed by Tata Sky in association with us.

How can an IT manager be made aware of all such solutions that are available from IBM? It is very easy. They should just drop us a line on what is the problem that they are looking to resolve and what is the manner in which they wish us to contact them. Alternatively, they can also reach out to the market executives, and we will arrange a lab briefing at one of our sites in Pune and Bangalore that will give them the complete perspective.

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INSIGHT | CLOUD COMPUTING

Cloud CONTINUITY IN THE

If you’re planning to use the cloud as your business continuity solution, there are several critical issues you must address, including the accessibility of your data and applications.

BY WAY N E R AS H

At first glance, using the cloud-based storage you’ve already got as your business continuity solution makes perfect sense. Your corporate data is already going somewhere offsite for storage, the people at your cloud provider automatically back up files, and you can get to your data when you need it. What’s not to like?

Actually, there could be plenty not to like, depending on what’s stored with your cloud provider, what you need at your existing location to conduct business and how prepared you are to move from one location to the other.

Putting your data in the cloud means

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just that. Your company’s data is out there, safe (we hope) in another data centre located somewhere that you’re not. But using that data is another problem entirely.

How accessible will your data be if you can’t recover it from your existing data centre, you can’t use it with your existing applications, and you can’t use the rest of your infrastructure as a place in which to conduct business? After all, your business is more than just data: It’s also what you do with that data.

“Business continuity, even with the cloud, isn’t simple,” said Zeus Kerravala, Senior Vice President of research for the

Yankee Group. “There’s a lot more to it than merely copying data to the cloud.”

He recommends asking these important questions: “What’s a cost-effective way?

How do you keep [data] in sync? How do you point your applications to it? There are a lot of other things that have to be considered.

“The biggest part is the process side,” Kerravala added. “Assuming that it works, how do you use the data once it’s in the cloud?” He warned that a lot of backup and recovery companies may be doing this for the first time and may not be able to provide a proven solution.

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CLOUD COMPUTING | INSIGHT

Considering Continuity Needs Lauren Whitehouse, Senior Analyst for the Enterprise Strategy Group, noted that just because you’re already storing information in the cloud doesn’t mean you’re doing it in a way that will help with business continuity. She said it’s important that your provider be able to handle the requirements of bringing your business back—and being able to do it in a timely manner. That, she said, depends on how long your business can stand being offline.

“Some businesses can’t stand any interruption,” Whitehouse said, “so they need a system that can immediately take over,” She added. She further noted that such a business continuity solution needs to be in a location that is geographically dispersed from where the company’s data centre is located, so that the same disaster doesn’t affect both locations.

You also need to determine whether you can restore your business using the tools at hand. “Can you recover your business from your daily backups?”

Whitehouse asked. “Considering the fire drill that results [after a disaster], businesses should put something else in place.”

The first step to using the cloud for business continuity, according to Whitehouse, is to determine what applications must be available immediately for your business to keep running. Critical applications can also be saved to the cloud and set up so that they can be run remotely using data that’s also in the cloud.

For most companies, this will mean finding a cloud provider that can handle both your data and your applications.

It must also be able to support access

‘THE ASSUMPTION THAT YOU CAN SEND PEOPLE HOME TO WORK ISN’T ALWAYS TRUE.’ —Paul Sullivan, Agility Recovery

‘SOME BUSINESSES ...

NEED A SYSTEM THAT CAN IMMEDIATELY TAKE OVER.’ —Lauren Whitehouse, Enterprise Strategy

to those applications while they are running in the virtual environment at the provider’s location.

The way this would work depends on your needs and on the capabilities of your cloud provider. In some cases, you might want to install your applications with a co-location service and point those applications to your data in the

cloud. In other situations, you might want to use something like Amazon’s EC2 elastic cloud computing service and its S3 storage service.

This isn’t necessarily a case of simply copying everything to the cloud and then using it, Whitehouse pointed out.

First of all, when you’re trying to bring your business back online, you can’t

INDIA’s FUTURE CIOs

“I HAVE ALREADY ASKED MANAGERS IN MY TEAM TO PARTICIPATE IN NEXT100.”

SACHIN JAIN CIO, Evalueserve

2010

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INSIGHT | CLOUD COMPUTING bring up everything at once in most cases. Instead, you need to have already decided which applications are the most critical for your business and have made plans to get them online first. “It’s a triage process,” Whitehouse noted.

The triage begins when you start deciding which applications are the most important to get online first.

You will need to determine what

the necessary bandwidth to do the planning and implementation. In addition, there may be critical functions that can’t simply be copied to the cloud, such as the phone system. For this reason, companies such as Agility Recovery Solutions provide complete business continuity systems, including everything from preconfigured computers, a replacement phone system and even a temporary

THE NEXT STEP IS TO MAKE SURE YOUR EMPLOYEES KNOW WHAT TO EXPECT IF YOU EVER NEED TO USE THE BUSINESS CONTINUITY SOLUTION. applications are vital to your business immediately, and start there. For many companies, this may be e-mail; for others, it may be the customer service or sales applications.

The next step is to make sure your employees know what to expect if you ever need to use the business continuity solution. Depending on the company, this may mean keeping it live and having some employees use it on a regular basis from a remote location. For others, it may mean simulating a real recovery effort, complete with evacuating to a remote office. Just as is the case with fire drills, it’s important to have practiced your emergency response before the emergency happens.

Dealing with Challenges The problem, of course, is that all of this can require an enormous amount of work, and many businesses don’t have

workspace so that a company can get back in business immediately.

According to Paul Sullivan, Agility vice president and general manager, the replacement facility can be located anywhere from the company parking lot (in case the disaster was only within the building, such as a fire) to another city (for an area-wide problem such as a hurricane or earthquake).

Sullivan noted that one typical response to business continuity— having people work from home—isn’t always feasible. “The assumption that you can send people home to work isn’t always true because some people may not be able to work from home,” he pointed out. “Less than 30 percent of people have high-speed Internet access at home.”

Using the cloud for business continuity also means you may have to set up your production infrastructure

so that all your data is replicated to the cloud in real time, so you don’t lose anything if a disaster happens.

The way to accomplish this, according to Justin Giardina, CTO of iland Internet Solutions, depends on the infrastructure you have.

“It’s easier for customers using virtualization,” Giardina said, adding that virtualisation makes it “easier to do a disaster recovery plan and backups to the cloud.” He noted that moving data to the cloud is also fairly straightforward in a SAN (storage area network) environment by doing SANto-SAN replication.

Private cloud storage ensures that companies have access to their data and applications when they need them, according to Giardina. Virtualised desktops enable employees to use any computer, including kiosks, to access company data and do their work, he added.

Giardina and Agility’s Sullivan agree that one critical issue for ensuring success with cloud-based business continuity is to make sure that there’s enough bandwidth available to perform large replications of data. Giardina noted that a slow connection could take hours or days to synchronize data.

It’s impossible to know when an event will bring about the need for business continuity recovery, so it’s critical to be prepared to manage that recovery remotely and to be able to conduct work from a remote site or from diverse locations.

Contributing analyst Wayne Rash is a veteran technology writer and reviewer. ©eWeek

Find similar stories online on the website www.itnext.in/Insight

INDIA’s FUTURE CIOs

“I WOULD DEFINITELY ENSURE THAT MY IT MANAGERS PARTICIPATE IN THE NEXT 100” SHAILESH JOSHI Head – IT, Godrej Properties Ltd

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2010

Are you one of India’s future CIOs? Find out at www.itnext.in/next100

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4

Edu Tech December 2009

INSIGHT | GREEN IT

WITH A

ELIGHTING

IFFERENCE Building automation is not just about energy conservation, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s about making hospitality smarter

I LLUSTRATIO N: S RISTI MAURYA

BY R AV I S H J H A L A

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GREEN IT | INSIGHT

A building automation system (BAS), is an automated, computer-controlled method of managing energy usage in a building to reduce and optimise energy expenses. At the same time, it helps maintain a comfortable environment.

Today’s organisations are more conscious about the ill-effects of rising energy costs and the effects of green house gas emissions on the environment.

Building automation system is an effective way to reduce both the energy and environmental costs of a building. Because of this, most systems start by automating the heating, cooling, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems’ operations.

Automating the interior and exterior lighting systems usually provides the next-biggest gain in energy efficiency, but there are other potential benefits as well.

Modern building automation systems provide remote monitoring and alerting capabilities that can warn operators of a failure or abnormal condition in a building.

Benefits overview The cost of a BAS is not significant compared to the savings and benefits a BAS brings to the business. Moreover, BAS is not only looked from savings point of view but there are other factors too: n It’s more expandable and easier to manage n It’s extremely flexible n It can easily be integrated with future building automation technologies such as XML and IP n It saves power / energy n It leads to less manpower usage n It offers better security n It provides connectivity to any point any time, from anywhere n It supports interoperability Research studies performed over the past decade have shown a wide range of

energy savings for BASs. The average energy savings are estimated to be between 5% and 15% of the building’s overall energy consumption. The savings can be greater for older or poorly maintained buildings.

Guest delight At a minimum, guests need to feel safe and comfortable. An automatic welcome light, an in-room privacy button, and precise, reliable temperature control can achieve a basic sense of security and comfort at low-cost.

Recent analysis from Frost & Sullivan of the North American hospitality BAS market found that when building and hotel owners become aware of the availability of open and interoperable solutions, they are no longer apprehensive about investing in rapidly evolving building automation technologies. The most critical part of a hotel manager’s job is to ensure maximum guest experience and retention while minimising energy consumption.

Analysts said integrating controls saves costs as operators are better able to view equipment performance and be more proactively involved in preventative maintenance.

Through this converged network, hotel staff gain further value from the BAS to exceed guest expectations by determining and resolving problems before guests are affected. With the ability to reduce energy consumption, analysts said BAS is a huge asset in positioning a hotel as a green building. An advanced BAS enables hotel operators to view systems in real time, analysts said, allowing them to maintain equipment with greater ease. Similarly, wireless sensor networks in BAS can help end-users achieve unprecedented levels of functionality.

The guest room automation system enables hotel guests to experience

QUICK GAINS COME FROM AUTOMATING THE HEATING, COOLING, VENTILATION AND AC (HVAC) OPERATIONS AND LIGHTING SYSTEMS

10

%

is the average energy savings on the building’s overall energy consumption through BAS

INDIA’s FUTURE CIOs

“I HAVE ASKED MY IT MANAGERS TO GO THROUGH THE NOMINATION PROCESS” SHANTANU SINGH CHAUHAN Director, ValueFirst

2010

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INSIGHT | GREEN IT

INCORPORATING BAS A BAS interfaced with following systems will provide much better control and save time. Most of the following have been implemented in the hospitality industry.

EXTERIOR SYSTEMS: It can be used to automate parking systems. Parking lot access gates, outdoor surveillance cameras and security, outside lighting, and landscape systems, can be coordinated for maximum safety, efficiency and visual effect.

BUILDING ACCESS/SURVEILLANCE/ LIFE SAFETY: It can provide time tracking and attendance, credential enrolment, and visitors and control room access. It can also manage fire/life safety systems and resolve alarms from any authorised web browser, anywhere.

HVAC/MECHANICAL: It offers monitoring of multi-system performance, identification and resolution of issues, and enables changing of operational parameters in real time to respond to shifting climate, occupant, and business dynamics.

ELEVATORS: It interfaces with elevator systems for real-time maintenance and monitoring and provisions for overriding control in case of emergencies.

INTERIOR LIGHTING: A BAS optimises interior lighting for energy conservation and comfort. It can schedule holiday and afterhour lighting, and provide tenant overrides to reduce utility costs. Features include maximised daylight harvesting, creating

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perfect lighting for card access, life safety and aesthetic appeal based on time of day.

UTILITY MONITORING: A BAS manages usage, analyses rates, and reduces costs. It can proactively manage your energy budgets, benchmark facilities, and analyse rates for electricity, water, gas and other utilities.

It can also forecast consumption based on historical usage trends, weather patterns and cyclical occupant needs.

IP CONNECTIVITY: All facility systems can be accessed on an IP network so you can remotely manage and monitor your facilities from any duly authorised IP-connected device.

INTELLIGENT RESTROOMS: It can be used to monitor the flush values and water consumption during occupied and unoccupied periods, track re-supply of consumables, and monitor maintenance alerts to ensure that every restroom is operating properly.

DIGITAL SIGNAGE: It can support digital signage to broadcast real-time life safety and emergency communications throughout the facility. It can also distribute other information such as meeting room schedules, energy/green building awareness, general emergency preparedness, and company/tenant announcements.

enhanced comfort through microprocessor-based smart bedside consoles, which allow them to operate all the systems in their room such as lights, airconditioner, TV, music system etc., from the comfort of their bed with a touch.

The integration of the guest rooms with the hotel property management system enables hotel staff to monitor and control HVAC based on occupancy to reduce energy costs, attend to guest’s requests instantly for improved services, provide fast cool room air-conditioning for comfort when the guest checks-in, and monitor guest’s departure for cleaning services.

Using of open standards Today’s facility managers are faced with many challenges emanating from different sources, from rising costs of resources (fuel, electricity, manpower) to tighter facility management budgets. Building automation advancements in the past few decades have solved many problems, but have often been frag-

SMALLER HOTELS HAVE ALSO STARTED ADAPTING BAS IN AREAS SUCH AS CENTRALISED AC CONTROLS AND BOILER PLANT OPTIMISATIONS

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GREEN IT | INSIGHT

CHALLENGES IN IMPLEMENTING BAS

Following are the challenges one foresees in implementing BAS in existing buildings:

8 4

2 1 Use of open standards like TCP and IP

Systems design and evaluation of products and testing them as per the site’s conditions

3 Infrastructure to support additional wiring

mented into specialty systems that require much specialised hardware, software and training to manage the resources.

More of these systems have recently migrated to a common physical layer (IP technology) and some have extended their openness to the protocol layer.

Proper planning for a new building or for an existing building upgrade can save money on both upfront and ongoing costs.

Suited for smaller chains too Many smaller and budget hotel chains have also started adapting BAS to leverage the benedits. Such small and medium groups may not be implementing the high-technology solutions and would be more into centralised AC controls, printing and stationeries automation and controlling the cost of tonner and paper, and chiller and boiler plant optimisations.

The challenges in smaller hotels are the cost of implementation versus RoI. There are many factors influencing the decision making for any technology in small hotels like change in process, cost, training, space, infrastructure,

Device integration like interfacing with PMS, third party software, monitoring and alert tools

5 System redundancy and scaling as per business needs

7

6 Training costs

management agreement, business criticality and demand.

There are many vendors in market today and those well known in the hospitality industry are Honeywell, Incomm, Siemens and Schneiderelectric, among others.

These vendors are doing proofs of concept with hotels to showcase them functions of the technologies available today and how it can be integrated with future technologies.

Most of the solutions are based on the following parameters and some of them are applicable to smaller hotels too: n Energy saving n Cost reduction n Compliance with environmental regulations n Guest delight and service differentiation n Safety and security

Outlook Energy usage within commercial buildings has been growing, accounting for up to 20% of national energy consumption in some developed countries. This makes it a prime target for energy efficiency and environmental measures.

The market for building automation

Return on investment

Telecommunications infrastructure, allowing alternative paths to support data, voice and video communications

systems will reportedly grow 3% globally from 2009 to 2015, when the total market will reach a value of more than $36 billion as per ABI technology research.

BAS will be needed in future to save cost and the hospitality industry will be looking at BAS as a technology very seriously both from operations and guest point of views.

We will see more solar panels and technologies that charge the battery in the day time and use the same at night to run the boilers.

BAS will automate turning off the TV sets until guests check in. Elevator lights will be sensor operated and will glow when the elevators open on the floor.

Technology vendors may even offer BAS on cloud, or software as service for smaller properties too. Cloud computing has the potential for BAS to seamlessly integrate with other business services to provide a user friendly, cost effective and in-depth solution to clients, without them bothering about the underlining technology.

The author is Systems Manager, Trident, Mumbai

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INSIGHT | VENDOR MANAGEMENT

LOOK PARTNER VENDOR FOR A

Willingness to work on alternatives that benefit both organisations is the key to building lasting relationships

BY D E E PA K M A DA N

A good SLA must address the following issues

Enterprise success stories are no longer made by products and services alone. The ecosystem around the organisation plays an increasingly important role in that.

One of the biggest upsets in the history of ICT industry happened recently when Apple surpassed Microsoft in market valuation. It is

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noteworthy that Apple was able to make a gigantic turnaround after being on the brink of its very existence more than a decade ago.

No doubt the bulk of the credit goes to a series of product and design innovations done by the company, supported by a well-crafted marketing strategy. At the same time, Appleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

1

What is required and what is being committed?

2

How the vendor will deliver on the commitments?

3

How will the delivery be measured?

4

What if the vendor fails to deliver as committed?

5

How dynamic is the SLA?

coordinated play with its vendors made no less important a contribution in making this happen.

The vendor ecosystem is today as important as any other aspect of the business.

Regardless of what business we are in, vendors play a key role in the success of the organisation. We can achieve

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VENDOR MANAGEMENT | INSIGHT enhanced efficiencies, reduced costs and higher customer and employee satisfaction by establishing proper communication channels with them.

And vendor management is the art-as also the science--that helps achieve this. Vendor management is more than just getting a lower price or better service. It is the process of mutually working on alternatives which benefit both companies. A strong vendor relationship can act as one of the key differentiators for the business in the prevailing competitive environment.

Managing vendors effectively is crucial to successfully run critical IT processes. A poor vendor relationship will result in poor quality of service achieved. It will also lead to poor regulatory compliances by the vendor.

Strategy for vendor management The vendor management process starts with the selection of the right vendor.

The prospective vendor shall be identified based on several criteria such as: Reputation of the vendor in market: It is important to first check the vendor’s market share and client list. Thereafter, one needs to carry out reference checks and take note of any negative feedback during the process.

Vendor’s capability to deliver: An assessment of this can be done by

very important to continually grow relationship to higher levels. This can be achieved by following some simple things: n Maintain regular contact n Always maintain ‘partner in business’ attitude n Have flexibility for mutual adjustments – relationship is more important than SLA n Demand service in time and never forget to pay on time Expectation management: An SLA is just a document. Have realistic expectations with room for flexibility. A reasonable amount of patience should be built into expectations. However, clearly state your expectations to the vendor and reprimand them in case of a default by putting them on probation or by delivering warnings at times. Do not let them take you for granted.

Reviewing: It is essential that you review performance of your vendors at regular intervals. Be very open about the quality of product/services delivered, SLAs achieved and bounced and customer feedbacks. Develop some performance criterion and a scorecard to monitor regularly. If you have more than one vendor providing the same products/services, do a comparison based on such a scorecard. This can help in deciding about any vendor consolidation in future.

PHOTO GRAPHY: PHOTOS .CO M

CLEARLYSTATEYOUR EXPECTATIONS TO THE VENDORS AND THOROUGHLY REVIEW THEIR PERFORMANCES AT REGULAR INTERVALS visiting their office or factory.

Willingness to go long way: In the course of discussions, one needs to see if they have the approach of working as a ‘partner in the business.’

Transparency in proposal: If they don’t seem to be transparent in what they say it is better not to trust them.

Relationship management: It is

SLA management: The ability of vendors to deliver according to predefined agreements has increasingly become a competitive requirement.

Apart from being able to deliver highly available, reliably performing systems, just being able to deliver your promise is the key to success. This is why an effective and efficient service

level management (SLM) system is important.

An SLA should be measureable and reports should be reviewed with vendors at regular intervals and a plan should be in place to fill in the gaps.

Role of the IT leader As an IT leader, it is in your best interest to provide detailed specifications of products/services desired and ensure that the vendor conforms to them.

Also, ensure that the vendor delivers consistently every time so that you are receiving ‘value for money’ and the price that you are paying for the product or the service is justified.

Keeping the communication channels open is very important, so ensure that proper communication from the vendor keeps flowing on aspects like how, when and what of the service.

Setting up a collaboration portal where vendors and your organisation can share information such as RFPs, quotes, proposals and white papers is a good idea.

Consider establishing key performance indicators such as lead time, cost savings, on-time delivery to commitment, quality and contract compliance.

Challenges: At times IT leaders are unable to enhance vendor management savings. These savings can be established by way of: n Identifying which vendors are delivering and by eliminating nonperforming vendors n Getting refunds and credits in case of non-performance of the committed service levels n Employing better negotiation techniques A lack of understanding between the IT function and the purchase function in an organisation may lead to poor negotiation with vendors, so that needs to be taken care of. Relationship with vendors is critical to the IT function and may be compromised if managed outside of IT. The author is Head – IT, DT Projects Ltd (DLF Group)

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INTERVIEW | MARK BEAUMONT

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7/2/2010 8:30:55 PM

MARK BEAUMONT | INTERVIEW

“CAAS IS ABOUT E N A B L E M E N T, SAVING IS A PERK”

PHOTO GRAPHY: JI TE N GANDHI

While there has been much progress in deploying and using cloud services, users still have questions and concerns. Mark Beaumont, Director, Global Product Development – IT Solutions, Verizon Business in conversation with Shashwat DC clears some of the haze. Excerpts:

What exactly is your CaaS offering? Is it a new terminology, an old wine in a new bottle?

There’s quite a lot in the phrase.

Firstly, at Verizon, we actually took the name from “Computing as a Service,” because it’s computing and it’s a service. We came up with the name CaaS, about two years ago. Much before any media hype happened or anything else came out, we were actually developing this platform for two years before it’s full-fledged launch. We invested huge amount of money into it.

We were thinking of names and we always called it CaaS-computing as a service. When we came to actually naming it, we couldn’t think of anything better.

It’s not just about computing, it’s not about storage, not about platform, not about infrastructure, it’s about everything as a service

and that is particularly relevant in the Indian services market which is an IT and services market.

When you use the term “everything as a service”, there is a big debate on what can go on to that platform. It is considered that whatever is core, keep it close, and give out the non-core. But, when you talk about service, it implies that it’s something that a company cannot do well at their end, and they ship it off to someone else who is better at it or can manage it better and more cost effectively. Is it so?

It’s a very good question, but we’re saying that everything is moving onto the cloud in one form or the other. You have to see what’s going on with the next generation kids; they are in a serviceorientated culture. These kids

take a photograph and they don’t download it on their hard drives or laptops, they just upload it onto Facebook.And it is instantly shareable. It’s just that there is no real concept of where is my data, how secure is it? It’s completely gone. All they care about is receiving the service.

But, you’re absolutely right, with the cloud, there is a lot that companies can hold near and dear to them, which is for very specific reasons. Whether it is for regulatory reasons or some compliance requirement, the way things are at the moment, they are not going to go.

So, the private cloud or the infrastructure service is the way that you go about it and get that sort of environment. But that doesn’t necessarily mean to say that everything has to fit into that category. In a majority of organisations, the level of

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INTERVIEW | MARK BEAUMONT information they need to retain and hold close is actually quite small and it’s either financial data or personal data or something of that nature. When you look at the grand scheme of what organisations are using almost everywhere, to be more cost effective to deliver effectively, it is more appropriate to go for a service type of environment. That doesn’t mean that somebody is more able than somebody else, it’s about the investment some of these platforms require in order to put together. It’s more a case where we’re making that investment because we want to sell it out or we want to make services available to our customers. Our customers are getting the benefits of the investment that we’re putting in to have a utility type of infrastructure.

Do you think that in the coming years, the whole debate about core and noncore will not be an issue? It’s like what was core earlier is not core anymore.

Yes, it could be something like that. You take virtualisation.

Three to five years ago, would you have used the virtual service when it was in the testing, staging and development phase? Now, everybody runs the production environment on a virtual server in some form or another, in order to try that utilisation and drive down costs and so on and so forth. However, there’s one thing that we can’t change and that’s legislation. If a company’s content has to reside in a country, there’s nothing we can do about that.

You take a country like Switzerland and it has numerous norms outlining data and about who can access data. Will that change?

Probably not, because the reason why people use banking in Switzerland is that it’s separate and that’s a good thing. Who knows,

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it would be good if things were relaxed... again, it comes down to that next generation thing (where all you care about is the service).

But to really get the benefit of everything that telcos and other providers are coming up with, relaxing things will be a lot better for businesses and hopefully for the economy.

How would you suggest IT managers deal with migrating to the cloud?

Should it be one piece at a time?

I would say, get the comfort factor.

A classical example is an automotive company where we went in and showed them CaaS. They said ‘Ok, looks good. We like it but not sure where we got our use for it.’ Anyway, within 10 days, they rang up and said ‘We’ve found the use’ and it was because they urgently needed to bring up a crashed website for racing. And

“IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT COMPUTING, IT’S NOT ABOUT STORAGE, PLATFORM OR INFRASTRUCTURE, IT’S ABOUT EVERYTHING AS A SERVICE”

Find other interviews online on the website www.itnext. in/resources/ interviews

then it was what we call ‘The Friday at 5 call.’ Basically, it was like ‘Panic Panic, can you help us?

Can we get this going?’ And on Monday-Tuesday morning, they got everything up, they loaded their content and they were serving the content and it was up and running.

Ordinarily, if we look at something like that, it would take weeks and depending on the complexity, it could be months.

They realised that they were doing quite well and couple of weeks later, they had something else happening and then it was like ‘rather than doing this or doing that, we’ll just stick it on CaaS. It’s

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7/2/2010 8:31:02 PM

MARK BEAUMONT | INTERVIEW

“CUSTOMERS START OFF SMALL ON THE CLOUD, WANTING TO MOVE AROUND A LITTLE BIT. AND THEN IT GROWS, INFECTIOUSLY” a lot easier and we can just go do it.’ And I think, they have got six to eight websites running from the platform now but the job had started with one.

Everybody is using CaaS in different ways whether it is for gaming companies, or for downloads and updates. We’ve got a couple of gaming companies using it now. They have got the enterprise and the infrastructure and they can scale it based on business demand. When you have got a new game into a marketplace, traditionally you make plans on the basis of number of concurrent users and an infrastructure that is going to be of a corresponding scale.

But if the game is popular and the demand suddenly goes up, you are limited by the infrastructure. CaaS enables you to grow the infrastructure in line with the customer base, so that you can align the costs. It makes a far better proposition for business plans and companies at the end of the day. We’ve got customers trying it for ticketing systems, companies looking at it for ERP-like systems, general applications and websites. They start off small, with the fact that they have got something new, something that they want to move around a little bit. And then it kind of grows. It’s quite infectious.

One of the biggest concerns is security. Many IT managers believe that while data security at Verizon’s end and at their own would be robust, it is the place

in between that they are worried about. Is that a an issue?

We got it covered at the CaaS end, so anything that’s coming in from outside, we can block it off and fix that particular issue. We have some new functionalities also coming within CaaS this year, in terms of more click-provisioned services and security services.

There is lot of development happening on that front. We can get into the public cloud and we can directly get into the customers’ private IP networks and tie the two things together and switch off the public cloud completely, so we can have CaaS serving content to the organisation internally. So it is not going outside the customers IP network. In that sense we can offer a great deal of more security as there is nothing going outside and there are no external influences.

You spoke about the internal threat in an organisation. Would you say that a cloud would provide better security because it would have the controls preset and rights to each individual would be predefined? And it would have certain best practices built in...

In some respects, we’ve got a lot of best practices built into the environment.

There are things that you can do and there are changes that you can make within the environment, but then again, it’s all based on best practices.

I would say that every organisation is different and has different occupancies and capabilities.

Can you enumerate the kind of savings that can be generated by being on CaaS? Yes, cost always is a factor, but CaaS is about enablement. It’s about the time to market, it’s about speed. It’s about being able to fire up the service within hours.

Enablement has made a huge difference to a whole lot of organisations and that automatically reduces cost because you take out a lot of the complexity.

You use the term flexibility. Are there different pricing models or prices per user?

When it comes to flexibility, you scale it up or scale it down and you can have different levels of commitment. You have to pay a subscription fee, which is very minimal and you can fire up the services as and when required. You pay for what you use and when you don’t want it anymore, you can shut it off. There is no contract, it is just a subscription. When you don’t want the service anymore, you can cancel your subscription just like a magazine. So, customers have to prepare a commitment on a yearly basis and the more number of years they commit for ,the cheaper it gets. So, if there are different tiers, then the higher the tier, the better the price is.

The whole idea of dynamic provisioning is to scale up and scale down. How easy is it?

You can pick up the resources you want, drag and drop and answer a couple of questions on menu systems and you’re off and done. For instance, a virtual server will give an SLA of an hour. And a physical server will take two hours. In reality, the virtual server takes 35-40 minutes while the physical server takes about 60 minutes. There are two flavours today and there is an extra one coming up soon enough.

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INSIGHT | SOA

IT POWER untapped !

The promise of better connectivity and reuse of IT assets is propelling a significant adoption of SOA in enterprises

BY D E E PA K K U M A R

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PHOTOGRAPHY: PHOTOS.COM

SOA | INSIGHT A question that is increasingly being asked in IT circles is: with cloud computing on the horizon, is a SOA (service oriented architecture) investment still relevant?

No doubt the answer is a clear yes.

The question remains, why?

The relevance of SOA has not gone down; it’s just that the role of SOA has changed. Two-three years ago, IT managers were looking at SOA as a way for IT to scale quickly in view of accelerating organisational growths.

Little did anyone know then that the acceleration was leading to a bubble formation, which burst soon enough, to a dismaying shock to all.

And what happened to all those SOA investments? Did they get blown away too? Or are they still buried under the debris of a collapse?

Well, it now appears that neither of that happened. In fact, SOA implementations seem to have helped the early adopters recover better from the after-effects of the economic crisis.

“The major business challenges for Indian enterprises are managing growth and business process, reducing cost and increasing profitability. This contrasts with 2007, when business challenges and SOA drivers were mostly related to managing organisational growth and the need to manage customer expectations by providing new services.

The need to streamline cost has emerged as a new enterprise challenge this year,” notes Kalpana Margabandhu, Director - Websphere Development - India Software Labs - IBM. In fact, the recent phase has seen new developments in the area of SOA appliances, which help organisations reduce their time to a SOA implementation.

“These appliances are purpose-

built, easy-to-deploy network devices to simplify, help secure, and accelerate your XML, and Web services deployments. The newer breed of appliances focus on delivering exceptional performance and hardened security at the caching tier of an enterprise application infrastructure,” Margabandhu explains.

The benefits It’s been six or seven years since SOA started making the headlines and subsequently started seeing significant adoptions in enterprises, though the concept has been around for an even longer time.

The major benefits of SOA are woven around connectivity and reuse concepts.

Connectivity is essentially about establishing links between various applications, platforms and services, while reuse focuses on leveraging and optimising existing IT assets.

Together, connectivity and reuse help transform IT silos into orchestrated and vibrant components that speak well to each other toward achieving organisational goals.

This is achieved by implementing protocols and message formats that can be commonly used by diverse systems.

As Asheesh Raina, Principal Research Analyst – SOA, at Gartner Asia-Pacific puts it, “SOA is the way to bring agility into the organisation, while protecting the existing IT investments.”

“The enterprise service bus (ESB) is the vital piece that helps bring in the desired level of SOA effectiveness. It works at the middleware level and is a very effective tool in making SOA work seamlessly,” Raina points out.

The enterprise service bus provisions a secure connectivity infrastructure into an existing IT set-up and thereby brings

63

$

million

India ESB market to be in 2014 SOA Governance to clock

8.8

$

million Source: Gartner

“TECHNOLOGY THAT IS RATIONAL, COMPONENT-WISE AND COST EFFECTIVE IS THE NEED OF THE HOUR AND ALL THESE ARE IN SOA” -- Jacob Livingstone, Manager – IT at Bhilai Engineering Corp

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INSIGHT | SOA in interoperability between the silos.

The interoperability not only optimises and leverages the existing IT assets but also sets the basis for scalability.

The end result is a flexible IT infrastructure that improves performance and business agility of the organisation. The ESB also performs service mediation on the fly, while acting as a service registry and repository for increased effectiveness.

Essentially, there are three components of SOA that help achieve the desired objective—the ESB, SOA governance and construction tools.

According to Gartner, the ESB market in India was USD 25.6 million in CY 2009 while the SOA governance market stood at USD 3.3 million.

However, the ESB market is expected to grow with a CAGR of 17.9% over the next five-year period. By comparison, the SOA governance market will likely witness a higher CAGR of 22.9%, given its relatively lower base.

SOA and cloud “With the emergence of other paradigms, SOA is adapting and imbibing fresh perspectives to remain relevant and assess its alignment to different scenarios. Sometimes, as in the case of Web oriented architecture (WOA) and event driven architecture (EDA), we see a convergence of paradigms. In other cases, like cloud computing software, information is provided to computers and other devices on demand as shared resources.

In a cloud scenario, SOA services form the vehicle for information and computational logic as reusable resources,” Rajan Lohar, AVP and Head of SOA Center of Excellence at Cognizant.

“SOA is an architectural approach that creates services that can be shared and reused. It converts current vertical applications into a number of components called services that can be reused across multiple applications, thus providing savings and improved agility to make changes faster and more cost effectively,” says Margabandhu.

“On the other hand, cloud computing is about providing ease of access to and usage of services. Cloud computing

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“TECHNOLOGY THAT IS RATIONAL, COMPONENT-WISE AND COST EFFECTIVE IS THE NEED O F THE HOUR AND ALL THESE ARE IN SOA” Jacob Livingstone, Manager – IT at Bhilai Engineering Corp

“A SOA IMPLEMENTATION SHOULD BE PRECEDED BY FORMING GUIDELINES TOWARDS BETTER SECURITY AND SLAS” Rajesh Aggarwal, Manager - IT, Jindal Pipes

employs repeatability and standardised easy access to shared hardware and software at low cost. Together, SOA and cloud can provide a complete servicesbased solution,” she explains.

“Emerging paradigms often tend to overshadow the existing paradigms.

The importance of SOA as an architectural style has not diminished.

In fact, the cloud paradigm is better realised through the standardised architecture and services model provided by SOA. The services paradigm and the governance model around service life-cycle management of SOA also lend themselves to support asset reuse and provisioning aspects of the cloud computing model,” Lohar of Cognizant points out.

Protecting legacy investments Critical business processes of large enterprises are often realised using legacy applications. These applica-

tions contain enterprise core business logic that has evolved over the years.

However, these legacy applications are most often monolithic in nature, tightly coupled with functional redundancies and have a high cost of ownership.

SOA does not advocate elimination or replacement of these existing legacy applications, Lohar notes.

“It opts to modularise the existing monolithic legacy applications to introduce clear separation of concerns and expose the core reusable functionalities as services. These services are then integrated and composed to realise business services and capabilities. Modernisation of legacy applications using SOA usually involves componentisation of existing applications, separation of presentation, business and data aspects, realisation of presentation aspects using modern technologies like portal, and finally, wrapping up of business logic and exposing them as reusable services,” he

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“SOA CREATES SERVICES THAT CAN BE SHARED AND REUSED ACROSS MULTIPLE APPLICATIONS” Kalpana Margabandhu, Director - Websphere Development - India Software Labs – IBM

“SOA IS TO BE SEEN IN A BROADER ARCHITECTURAL CONTEXT TO ENABLE THE BUSINESS TO LEVERAGE MULTIPLE TECHNOLOGIES”

Outlook

-- Gaurav Kohli, Consultant, Xebia Architects.

details the SOA advantages.

This allows enterprises to deploy latest technologies while leveraging their existing IT investments.

Aspects to consider “Technology that is rational, component-wise definable, autonomous and cost effective is the need of the hour and all these are the constituents of SOA. SOA is developed and implemented by seamless effort of IT and ever changing business needs. Business functionality is rationalised and as it supports diverse platforms and technologies, which emphasises its relevance,” Jacob

Livingstone, Manager – IT at Bhilai Engineering Corp. opines.

Yet, SOA adoption in India has not reached any critical mass. Why? “The reasons for less people going for SOA are namely, no clear path on ROI, no clear path of the implementation pattern; scarcity of in-depth knowledge,” he says.

“At the initial level, implementing SOA can be a very challenging task for any organisation. You need to understand the fundamentals of SOA before doing any long-term planning. There are many factors that an organisation needs to evaluate.

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These would include organisational governance, like instituting a self constituted SOA guiding committee and forming guidelines towards better security and SLAs. We have so far not deployed SOA as we do not feel the need for the same” says Rajesh Aggarwal, Manager - IT, Jindal Pipes.

“The adoption of service-oriented architecture continues to gain traction among enterprises. From an IT manager’s perspective, what might be important to understand is a business approach to SOA, which could help it evolve incrementally. SOA is to be seen in a broader architectural context to enable the business to leverage multiple technologies in an ordered and integrated way,” says Gaurav Kohli, Consultant, Xebia Architects.

Given its far-reaching benefits, it will only be a matter of time that SOA adoption will grow at a good pace. “In recent times, different SOA product stacks have attained significant maturity.

More mature internal mechanics that underpin SOA have gained traction. All these, along with early successes, have provided the necessary assurance for enterprises and the industry to embrace the SOA paradigm for fulfilling strategic business objectives in varied areas,” says Lohar of Cognizant.

“Some distinct patterns of SOA adoption by various enterprises have emerged. Many such patterns, like application and data Integration, are either leading or are expected to lead towards fuller and wider SOA adoption.

Many of the business process modelling projects are also predicted to become the entry points to wider SOA adoption in the future,” he concludes on an optimistic note.

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INSIGHT | SQL SERVER

SQL SERVER 2008 R2

OFFERS NEW

MANAGEMENT CAPABILITIES W REVIE

Microsoft’s SQL Server 2008 R2 offers core platform enhancements and features that enable self-service business intelligence scenarios.

BY JAS O N B R O O KS

27,495

$

per processor is the cost of Enterprise Edition 48

With the late April release of its SQL Server, 2008 R2, Microsoft has extended its popular database server product with core platform enhancements, new management capabilities and a raft of features focused on enabling selfservice business intelligence scenarios.

On the self-service BI front, SQL Server 2008 R2 relies heavily on integration with Office 2010 and Share-Point Server 2010. As a result, the new release should pay the biggest dividends to organisations that have deployed all three products.

On its own, the new SQL Server release still packs some worthwhile improvements, particularly at sites running the database on large machines that can take advantage of the new version’s support for 256 logical processors. Organisations running SQL Server on Microsoft’s Hyper-V virtualisation platform should appreciate the product’s new support for live migration between Hyper-V hosts.

I was also impressed by the product’s new facilities for managing groups of SQL Server instances from a central point. However, I’d like to see the feature expand to cover a broader range of SQL Server versions. SQL Server 2008 R2 is available on a per-processor or per-server and

CAL (client access license) basis, and a CAL can be either a user or a device. All told, Microsoft offers eight versions of the database, ranging from the free Express and Compact to the Enterprise Edition.

Integration options One of the most compelling new features in both Excel 2010 and SQL Server 2008 R2 is PowerPivot, a tool that enables spreadsheet-savvy workers to take on larger amounts of data from within a spreadsheet-style interface. I’ve tested PowerPivot’s Share-Point integration options for sharing the workbooks, along with the options that administrators have for managing those worker-initiated PowerPivot resources that come to be viewed as mission-critical for their organisations. As with other Office documents, I could save a PowerPivot workbook to a SharePoint server through the regular Excel file dialog. Once the file had made its way onto my test server, I could view the PowerPivot worksheet in a gallery on the server.

The gallery module taps Silverlight to display the gallery in a handful of different rich layouts, such as one reminiscent of Apple’s CoverFlow views of record albums. I wasn’t able to locate

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SQL SERVER | INSIGHT

PowerPivot enables knowledge workers to tap data from SQL Server 2008 R2 and other sources from within Excel 2010.

any plain old PowerPivot worksheet view, however, which meant that my test workbooks weren’t viewable from the Firefox on Linux combination that I tried out.

As with my tests of SharePoint’s Silverlight enhancements to the Office Web Apps, the Linux-friendly Moonlight plug-in from Novell didn’t work for me. Version 2.2 of the plug-in

SQL Server’s Report Builder picks up the same striking data visualisation features that now grace Excel 2010.

left me with a blank window where the gallery should have stood, and the preview of version 3.0 crashed my copy of Firefox.

But I was able to make it past the broken-onLinux gallery by copying the link straight to the PowerPivot workbook from Internet Explorer on Windows into Firefox on Linux. There, my test sheet—complete with all its PivotChart and Data Slicer functionality—rendered quite well.

By combining PowerPivot with SharePoint in this way, workers can share the analysis tools they prepare with others in their organisation, including those without Office installed on their machines. What’s more, in the case of the flawed but workable Linux and Firefox combination I tested, members of an organisation can share PowerPivot workbooks with co-workers whose machines can’t run Office at all.

Beyond these information-sharing gains, one of the benefits of pulling self-service data analysis tasks out of discrete spreadsheets and into PowerPivot and SharePoint is the way that the duo can keep information up to date.

Back at the Power-Pivot gallery view, I was able to configure a data refresh schedule for my workbook. Then, once I’d set the schedule, I could consult a refresh history to confirm that the worksheet had been pulling data down from my SQL Server data source as expected. The creation, sharing and refresh configuration of Power-Pivot workbooks can all be handled on a self-service basis, but if an organisation’s IT administrators wish to step in to manage these resources—to adjust the scheduled refresh time to off-hours, for instance—they can do so through a PowerPivot dashboard hosted from SharePoint.

From this dashboard, I could monitor the performance and use of the PowerPivot workbook hosted on SharePoint and of their associated queries. The dashboard sports a handful of charts for laying out this information, including a handy Workbook Activity chart that displays the users and number of queries for each hosted workbook, with a time slider

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INSIGHT | SQL SERVER

Manage and monitor

beneath the chart for tracking the popularity and load associated with these resources.

If a significant number of workers within an organisation began using a PowerPivot workbook created by one of their colleagues without the assistance of the IT department, this chart could help alert IT to the growing importance of the workbook, enabling the administrators to bring it under management.

A Silverlight requirement made it difficult to locate the PowerPivot workbook I’d uploaded to SharePoint, but once I managed to reach the page, I could manipulate the resource from Firefox running on Linux.

Building reports The ReportBuilder 3.0 application that ships with SQL Server 2008 R2 bears a striking resemblance to the components of Microsoft’s recently released Office 2010 suite, with an increasingly familiar “Ribbon” interface and several of the same new data visualization goodies that grace Excel 2010. For instance, I was able to outfit a test report with sparklines: single-cell charts with a knack for presenting data in a small space.

I was also able to display data in my test reports as data bars and indicator graphics. In the case of the indicator graphics, I could select from several sets of images and assign numericor percentage-based values to highlight the significance of the data.

Find similar stories online on the website www.itnext.in/ Insight

Among the new features included in SQL Server 2008 R2’s Management Studio application is the SQL Server Utility, which enables administrators to manage and monitor multiple database applications and server instances from a central interface called a Utility Control Point (UCP). I used the SQL Server Utility to group a pair of Server 2008 R2 instances together and track utilization and policy information for the instances from the Management Studio’s Utility Explorer interface. I wasn’t able to add a SQL Azure instance to my control point, and Microsoft confirmed that the product does not yet support managing SQL Azure instances alongside regular SQL Server databases. I found a similar lack of support for managing SQL Server 2005 instances. Ideally, the UCP feature would support both older SQL Server versions and the newer, cloud-based SQL Azure instances, but I hope to at least see SQL Azure support in future versions.

For CPU and storage utilisation measures, I could consult usage charts with day, week, month and year time-span radio buttons for monitoring the performance of each instance.

I could also consult a dashboard view of the instances enrolled in my UCP, with over- and underutilisation data based on the quotas I’d set in global and individual instance policies for the control point. I was also able to break out performance characteristics for particular applications hosted from my test instances and organised into Data-tier applications.

A developer can create a database application in Visual Studio and package it into a DAC package for deployment on a production system.

I added a sample Data-tier application to my UCP, where I was able to monitor and set policies around it, as with the database instances in the control point.

Jason Brooks is editor-in-chief at eWEEK Labs. © eWeek

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15MINUTE MANAGER

TRAINING EDUCATION WORKPLACE COMPENSATION WORKFORCE TRENDS SKILLS DEVELOPMENT PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

SLEEPING BEAUTY PAGE 52

Leadership Give and grow THIS PAGE IT Strat Be a 360 Manager PAGE 53 Football Trivia Bluffer’s guide to World Cup Soccer PAGE 5 4 Training Calendar Career booster courses PAGE 56

BY A N A N D K U M A R PA D M A N A BA N

I MAGING : S URESH KUMAR

A

s work pressures mount in organisations, individuals are often faced with challenges on professional as well as emotional fronts and at times are in the need of some good unbiased advice. The person who can help them best may be someone they already know well – you.

Some organisations are considering this as a situation where they can help the larger workforce deal with the problems being faced by lending a helping hand using the power of coaching. In one of the organisations I used to work for earlier, there was a clear cut approach towards developing coaches and individuals who demonstrated a high level of emotional quotient (EQ) and social quotient.

They were asked to take up informal coaching roles. In a sense it was a winwin situation as both the individual and the organisation benefited out of it.

It’s peer coaching Coaching by peers is a model where colleagues offer each other advice

LEADERSHIP

GIVE AND GROW Aspiring IT leaders can practice peer coaching to improve their emotional quotient and sphere of influence J U LY 2 0 1 0 | IT NEXT

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15-MINUTE MANAGER

Peer coaching differs from typical people management in the sense that it is a peer-based model, all are equals and the perspective is candid and trustworthy. It is not like executive coaching where external individuals work on a time- and outcome-based model. In peer coaching, the only criterion for the coaches is that they can help their colleagues to be successful.

This is really not a new or creative model but one that has the potential to build a collaborative and cohesive workplace.

Use a very simple approach towards

52

SLEEPING BEAUTY NUMBER OF HOURS OF SLEEP REQUIRED: Infants

16 hours

Toddlers

14 hours

Children

10-12 hours

Teenager

9 hours

Adults

7-8 hours

Older Adults

8-9 hours

Sloth are thought to be one of the most somnolent animals, sleeping from 15 to 18 hours each day.

Early to bed and early to rise, was the road to good health according to old adage.

Unfortunately, more and more people find it necessary to cut back on their sleep. The consequences for their health and quality of life can be devastating. Here are 5 reasons why you should pay attention to your sleep: Memory & learning: Sleep helps the brain commit new information to memory through a process called memory consolidation. In studies, people whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d slept after learning a task did better on tests later.

Metabolism and weight: Chronic sleep deprivation may cause weight gain by affecting the way our bodies process and store carbohydrates, and by altering levels of hormones that affect our appetite.

Cardiovascular health: Serious sleep disorders have been linked to hypertension, increased stress hormone levels, and irregular heartbeat.

Disease: Sleep deprivation alters immune function, including the activity of the bodyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s killer cells. Keeping up with sleep may also help fight cancer.

Safety: Sleep debt contributes to a greater tendency to fall asleep during the daytime.

These lapses may cause falls and mistakes such as medical errors, air traffic mishaps, and road accidents.

For information visit: http://science. education.nih.gov/supplements/ nih3/sleep/guide/info-sleep.htm

Mood: Sleep loss may result in irritability, impatience, inability to concentrate, and moodiness. Too little sleep can also leave you too tired to do the things you like to do.

PHOTO GRAPHY: PHOTOS .CO M

Become a trusted resource

HEALTHY LIVING

PHOTO GRAPHY: JAYAN K NARAYANAN

about issues that everyone is facing in the workplace. These could be issues around teaming or dealing with performance problems or individual challenges.

There are no real ground rules for peer coaching and the methods may vary, but they largely revolve around a few pointers (not the C++ kind): n The coaches can be individuals who are trustworthy but are level headed in terms of the perspective they bring and are normally colleagues. n The coaching or mentoring advice given is straightforward, clear and candid. n The coach offers holistic advice that benefits the larger organisation and does not take sides, that is, the advice is around doing what is best for the team rather than the individual. n Coaches act on good faith and believe in doing the right thing and can be extremely candid.

So how does this all relate to you as a future IT leader?

Peer coaching is a great opportunity for individuals to increase their sphere of influence and to be able to start to demonstrate their capabilities around EQ and people management. The winning aspect around this is the ability to influence your colleagues and to build your profile around demonstrating leadership traits which you possess.

What do you need to do to become a trusted coach?

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FUNDAMENTALS

THE KEY IS TO SINCERELY AVOID CRITICISM AND JUDGMENT. IT IS VERY EASY TO PASS THE BLAME helping your colleague out. Always keep in mind that your duty is to keep it simple and see how you can help the individual. Make sure that your colleague feels safe and secure and also does not feel threatened.

Simplicity is the name of the game. Do not try to bite off more than you can chew, so make sure you can handle what you are getting into. Ensure that the coaching session does not become a griping session or a free-for-all complaining session.

Peer coaching may not be an option for all of us, but it is certainly a way to ensure on-the-job training for individuals who aspire for senior leadership roles within their company.

OF PEER COACHING

p Let go of past baggage and do not

deliberate much on what happened or could have happened. p Sincerely avoid criticism and

You get experience giving advice, but more importantly you get into the habit of absorbing advice and deciding the pros and cons of implementing it.

Making hard choices distinguishes good leaders from the pack and this is an aspect where aspiring IT leaders can get practical experience.

And finally, have a great time doing it, since this experience will give you much insight into dealing with colleagues at the workplace and will be an invaluable opportunity in developing your emotional and social quotients.

judgment. It is very easy to pass the blame or analyse in retrospect. p Ensure that one moves on and that things are redressed holistically.

There is no point in doing over-analysis. So look for a way out and work on it diligently during the coaching process. p Focus on the positives while know-

ing that it is easy to focus on the negatives. Help each other look at the gains from the coaching process. p Balance the conversation for

providing good and constructive feedback

The author is CEO of SurgeForth Technologies and specialises in HR analytics

IT STRAT

BE A 360° MANAGER Transform yourself into a leader who doesn’t shy away from challenges and who is not afraid of learning and experimenting

BY S P A RYA

O

pportunities are the foundation of success.

Notwithstanding the size, each opportunity, if you have right capabilities to identify the potential of it, provides you a base to perform. You can accept each opportunity as a challenge and learn to excel. In IT, smaller companies may have larger issues than bigger companies.

Though at this juncture, some of you might not agree but since I have been with both small and large companies I feel that I have learned equally from smaller companies.

Here are some of the pointers from my experiences in IT industry:

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15-MINUTE MANAGER FOOTBALL TRIVIA

BLUFFER'S GUIDE TO WORLD CUP SOCCER

Almost everyone knows that India pulled out from the 1950 World Cup because its players were not allowed to play without shoes. Here are a few facts that not everyone know:

Your accent does matter: Avoid technical jargon during your conversation with people in other functions. An effective communication with non-IT people in simple terms will help them understand IT better.

Enjoy a good long discussion with other function heads on business/ functional issues, for example, strategy, corporate goals business development plans production, costing, finance and sales. Regular meetings and discussions with as many non-IT senior professionals, without discussing much of the technology will nourish your skills to success.

Be customer centric:

The The Soccer winners: Brazil. They have won the FIFA World Cup five times. Uruguay won the first FIFA World Cup in 1930. They beat Argentina 4-2 in the final in Montevideo, the capital city of Uruguay. The outfield of soccer is 100 to 130 yards long and 50 to 100 yards wide. A single soccer player runs about 7 miles during an entire game.

1

Top goal scorer: The overall top goalscorer in World Cups is Brazil's Ronaldo, scorer of 15 goals in three tournaments. West Germany's Gerd MĂźller is second, with 14 goals in two tournaments. The third placed goalscorer, France's Just Fontaine, holds the record for the most goals scored in a single World Cup. All his 13 goals were scored in the 1958 tournament.

2

Money power: The total prize money on offer for the tournament was confirmed by FIFA as $420 million (including payments of $40m to domestic clubs), a 60% increase on the 2006 tournament. Before the tournament, all 32 entrants receive $1 million for preparation costs. Once at the tournament, the 16 teams exiting after the group stage receive $8 million.

The final winner will get $30 million and the runner up will get $24 million.

3

Zakumi, the leopard: The official mascot for the 2010 World Cup is Zakumi, an anthropomorphised leopard with green hair, presented on 22 September 2008. His name comes from "ZA" (the international abbreviation for South Africa) and the term kumi, which means "ten" in various African languages. The mascot's colours reflect those of the host nation's playing strip â&#x20AC;&#x201C; yellow and green.

PHOTO GRAPHY: PHOTO S.C OM

4

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Kicking the Jabulani: The match ball for the 2010 World Cup, manufactured by Adidas, is named the Jabulani, which means "bringing joy to everyone" in Zulu. It features eleven colours, representing each player of a team on the pitch and the eleven official languages of South Africa. A special match ball with gold panels, called the Jo'bulani, will be used at the final. to be held in Johannesburg.

5

My firm belief is that every user in your company, regardless of the level, is your customer and is to be treated accordingly. Treat every user in the organisation as if he had the ability to contribute to your development. Believing in this attitude works wonder and that is the most important step in shaping yourself as a prospective senior executive, simply because this is scarcely available in IT professionals.

Be service oriented: Not only you must have this attitude but you must also demand the same from your subordinates, with near zero-tolerance principle for bad customer service. Recognise good service instantly through appreciation and rewards. Your involvement with your internal customer brings their involvement, thus leading to a high-value based culture. Please remember you are there not only to manage IT but also to create ethics and values which ultimately form the foundation for you to blossom as a good manager among the managers. Being different and extra prompt in service is the key for your transformation into a strategic team member.

Know weak links in your team: A single unwarranted attitude from your team mates may play havoc with your reputation. Having good counselling habits and moulding them to

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work for customers works in the best of your as well as your organisation’s interests. Also, respect for your subordinates will help reduce turnover and show senior management that you are a leader (another rarity among IT people).

Use your anger wisely to handle difficult people, if the need be. Converting a weak link into a strong one is the ideal approach. You should take the extreme approach of firing someone as a last option only.

Follow-up is the key: I read the book ‘Execution’ and have become a strong supporter of this mantra. Follow-up is more important than all the technical qualifications in the world. Many of my very talented subordinates worked for me, and I allowed many of them go because they could not get learn this core principle.

Almost half the jobs are not done just because of this single reason. Remember, others are as serious as you are about the problem.

Avoid gossip mongers around:

Know your business facts and its goals:

Are you interested in your job or politics? If job is your priority, then never be a part of petty infighting in your company. There may be circumstances when you are tempted to be drawn in, but play smart to keep yourself away.

Be honest to yourself and your job and use your innovations for progress of the organisation instead.

This is the key to bring in you the skills of making your way to the strategic team at the top. Your company is for profits and not for charity. Understanding company’s goals and financials statistics will bring forth a whole different face of your personality. Once you understand the dynamics of your business ably, you may contribute proac-

IN A SERVICE FUNCTION, EVERY USER IS IMPORTANT, BUT VIP USERS ARE DIFFERENT FROM IMPORTANT USERS

PHOTO GRAPHY: PHOTO S.C OM

Over-expectations may kill: As a technocrat one tends to create hype about the IT solutions, which may generate over expectations from end users, function heads and top management. Be genuine to generate high expectations rather than over expectations, which otherwise leads you to be a victim to the classic IT pitfall of over committing and under delivering. Learn to say ‘no’ skilfully when required, as almost all of us really like the adrenaline rush of solving impossible problems. A word of caution: when you under deliver, you not only ensure a frustrating customer experience, but you send a feeler that you are a panic planner. If necessary, explaining the facts well might help you to overcome anxiety at the other end.

INDIA’s FUTURE CIOs

“I FEEL NEXT100 IS A GREAT INITIATIVE… HAPPY TO SUPPORT IT” RAJEEV SEONI CIO, Ernst & Young Pvt. Ltd.

2010

Are you one of India’s future CIOs? Find out at www.itnext.in/next100

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15-MINUTE MANAGER

TRAINING CALENDAR Career booster courses for you

tively by extending analytics in all areas of the business, be it sales or finance or materials. Go extra miles to understand all business jargons. You should know how to read financial statements such as a P&L statement, a balance sheet and fact finding factors like ROCE, EBIDTA, ROE, EPS and EPE. It works magic once you learn what the numbers are saying.

Nothing impresses other CXOs more than witnessing a CIO intelligently participating in a financial discussion and talking their business terms.

Be a risk taker: Program

Venue

Dates

Managerial effectiveness

IIM Ahmedabad

Jun 27 - Jul 24, 2010

Management of Creativity and Innovation

Human Capital Management

Strategic Leadership Programme Creativity for Competitive Advantage

Six Sigma Green Belt Training Integrating Marketing and Communication Strategic Sourcing and Supply Chain Management

IIM Calcutta

July 5 - 9, 2010

IIM Bangalore

July 19 – 21, 2010

IIM Calcutta

August 1 - 2, 2010

IIM Kozhikode

August 09-11, 2010

IIM Bangalore

August 23- 25, 2010

ISB

August 24-27, 2010

IIM Bangalore

August 30-Sep 3, 2010

IIM Kozhikode

September 8 -10, 2010

IIM Bangalore

Sep 13-16, 2010

Evaluating Financial Performance through Financial Statement Analysis Competing Through Manufacturing

There are times when nothing works.

Learn to adopt new strategies quickly and take calculated risks. Have firm plans to avert the risks expected to come your way. Accept failures as part of your life but only to learn and succeed next time.

Learn to delegate and share the success: The success you achieve must be shared with your colleagues, right from top to the bottom of the technology and functional team. Humility in giving credit of your success to the team involved gives a facelift to your attitude towards people. Empowering them with knowledge and delegation makes your team more motivated and work towards organisational goals.

Networking keeps you high on knowledge: One of my seniors in my early days put this in my mind, “It’s not what you know but who you know.” Establish and sustain the relationship with former colleagues, bosses and even vendor representatives. Join and be active in professional associations, attend good technical/skill enhancement events and workshops which are opportunities to build a great circle of contacts and contribute towards your transformation into a CIO. So, cheers and have a great journey to becoming a successful and transformational CIO with a difference.

The author is VP-IT, Amtek Group

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THE BIG

OPEN SOURCE

HOW TO GO OPEN? EXPERT PANEL

SK GOEL VICE PRESIDENT, OM LOGISTICS LTD

THE SITUATION...

CUT IT FROM HERE

“Going Open is one of the biggest challenges I have ever faced in my professional life, and I don’t think I am up to it,” rued Aparup Ghosh. In a rare admission of defeat, Aparup confessed his misgivings about the latest project on hand with his friend and colleague, Madhu Gupta who was the HR manager at DNC Media company. As an IT manager at DNC, Aparup was responsible for the smooth functioning of the technology infrastructure at the media firm that published over a dozen magazines and many portals.

In between sips of coffee, Aparup laid bare his issues in front of Madhu. “My biggest issue, you see, is not a technological one but more of a behavioural one. Employees across the board are not keen to shift from their familiar cocoon of proprietary systems, and the top management wants to cut down on the licensing costs,” he said.

Indeed, with almost 80% of the organisation using proprietary software, except for a few servers Your responses count. Log on to www.itnext.in/bigQ to submit your replies. The best entry will be published in the next print edition.

PERTISTH MANKOTIA HEAD IT, SHEEL A FOAM

DEEPAK PORIA IT CONSULTANT, DWS ADVANCE BUSI NESS SOLUTIONS

in the data centre, it was difficult proposition. With the software licences for the proprietary software ending in the next month, there was not much time in Aparup’s hand either.

The biggest resistance to the shift, was coming from the least expected quarter. It was the journalists and the editors, that majorly were using low intensity software, namely, MS Word and Outlook, were up in arms against the shift. Many even threatened to use their own personal softwareloaded machines instead of ones provided by the IT team. This coupled with the tight deadline looming over his head was tearing Aparup apart.

“Relax pal. You need not and should not get worked up like that. Considering that it is more of perception issue than a technical one, you need to think out the way you rollout new change, paying attention to people’s perception than anything else,” consoled Madhu.

Aparup got thinking about Madhu’s suggestion and decided to give it a shot by starting with a clean slate. Many managers have successfully gone open and so can I, he told consoled himself.

NEXT

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THE BIG Q

THE BIG QUESTIONS...

WHAT STRATEGY SHOULD APARUP SHOULD EMPLOY TO ROLL OUT THE OPEN

? ?

SOURCE INITIATIVE AT DNC MEDIA?

HOW SHOULD HE CONVINCE EMPLOYEES ABOUT THE NEED TO MIGRATE TO OPEN SOURCE? AND HOW SHOULD HE ENSURE THAT THE TOP MANAGEMENT IS INVOLVED IN THE PROCESS?

HERE ARE THE ANSWERS...

‘LIST DOWN EVERYTHING’ FIRST ANSWER

SK GOEL Vice President, Om Logistics Ltd About me: Is an industry veteran with over 2 decades of experience in the IT domain. He has also led one of the biggest roll out of open source in the logistics vertical in India.

Prior to Om logistics, he has been associated with Sobhag Texttiles and AKG Software

The migration from a proprietary framework to an open one can be fairly disconcerting if not done properly. Hence, Aparup needs to be very meticulous and organised when he undertakes the project. First of all , before setting out to undertake the migration it is very important to understand and evaluate the scope of it. Hence, an extensive study of existing system infrastructure is very much required. To start of, he should make a list of all the applications that are currently being used at his company, the list should also include general applications used by partners and vendors as they too would be impacted by the migration. Similarly, he should also be making a list of all the hardware that is currently deployed. The document should also mention whether the hardware supports open source or does not.

Once the listing is done, Aparup can then chalk out the migration plan. In doing the same, he should take care of the following aspects:. n Should make a document of used applications, and commonly used application across the enterprise n Create a list of e-mail and office applications (like Word, Excel, Power Point) users within the organisation n He should also make a note of all the applications that can be migrated to an open source environment or not n Besides that he should also make a note of the enterprise applications that are deployed, namely, CRM, SFA, ERP, etc. Again, the same should mention whether the same can be migrated readily or not. • Finally, he should also create a definitive plan for migration with specific datelines. It is very imperative to have a goal set before the open source migration is undertaken, else it can cause a lot of heart burn

SECOND ANSWER Indeed, convincing the employees is a tough and hence a big challenge. Aparup should try and win over the confidence of the employees by proper educating the staff. To begin he should organise a workshop on a widely used application like Open Office. Next, those that are ready to adopt the new platform need to be awarded /promoted, which give boost to other employees to adopt new challenges /technologies. In this scenario proper training play an important role. Aparup needs to assuage the worries of the users and convince them that there will be no disruption on a day-to-day basis.

To get the top management to agree, Aparup must make them aware of the business and other benefits like security, robustness, licensing and compliance issue that open source provides. In today’s scenario where internet security is major threat to every organisation , open source is much much better and robust than any other proprietary OS. This can also be a good rallying point for him to get the management buy-in.

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THE BIG Q ‘SELL THE BUSINESS PROPOSITION ’ FIRST ANSWER Aparup should first analyse and work out the major strengths and weaknesses of both systems i.e. of proprietary product and open source. He should then get self-convinced about the benefits that open source will provide. These benefits should be feature driven and not cost driven. Once he is convinced then he should identify few users, who are very positive and ready to migrate from proprietary product to open source.

These users should be exposed to the open source and should be told the about the strengths / benefits / features of open source. They should be assisted in using the open source and there queries should be handled with utmost care so that they become quite comfortable with the open source. Once this pilot is completed then the benefit should be shared among other users through the pilot team and then migrate the balance users.

Aparup needs to think like a marketing guy who is selling an open source idea to his organisation, he needs all his convincing powers to be able to do so.

SECOND ANSWER To convince others, first he has to convince himself that migrating to open source will increase the productivity beside cost and here he has to also do good homework and get ready for all quarries which may come during implementation. As mentioned above he has to form a team of good positive users, who are innovative and ready for experiments.

Once these set of users are convinced then these users should be used to promote the open source products to other employees.

Typically, users are most concerned about the disruption of their daily routine, they need the project to be completed within a certain time frame and without an extra effort..

Users are ready to adopt open source if convinced about the ease and benefits else they will retaliate.

Generally the users do not go well with changes if directly brought by IT team, however they feel at ease and their comfort level is far more if other users tell their own experience to them. Aparup and the team of users should only talk about the features / benefits / strength of open source. Migrating from proprietary product to open source due to licensing cost should not at all be discussed with the employees and especially when you want to convince them.

TING OPERA

S SYSTEM

PERTISTH MANKOTIA Head IT, Sheela Foam About me: A multifaceted, business cum IT executive and recipient of many awards. He recently led the enterprise roll out of open source at Sheela Foam with amazing results. He has been associated with the company for over a decade in different roles

NEXT

Linux Adoption Growth Rates The Asia Pacific region’s Linux adoption

growth rate has accelerated over the last one year and now represents 5.1% of the total server market

4.7%

1 0

Emea

2

Asia Pacific

3

4.6%

4.2% North America

5.1%

4

South America

5

Among the findings, SMBs server Linux market share was almost 25% greater in Asia Pacific than in the United

S OURCE: GA RTNE R, 2010

6

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THE BIG Q

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;FIND OPEN SOURCE EVANGELISTSâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; FIRST ANSWER

DEEPAK PORIA IT Consultant, DWS Advance Business Solutions About me: A young dynamic IT professional based in Melbourne, Australia. He was associated with Accenture Technology Solutions prior to his current job

Prior to working out a migration plan to open source, Aparup needs to decide and deliberate upon the reasons why DNC needs to migrate to open source. If the shift is compelled by economic factors than he should be concentrating the lower-level fruits, which he can easily pluck and show results. But if the shift is a well-thought out holistic one, than his approach must be different. Usually, most companies adopt a bottoms-up approach, whereas in terms of open source, it has been found that a top-down approach works best. So, if the top boss becomes a user and evangelises open source, automatically lot of users will not be loathe to shift to the same. Hence, Aparup must find a few such power users in each function and turn them into evangelists within their own function, this will ensure a much smoother roll out.

SECOND ANSWER Even though, open source has come a long way from being a completely technical to being user friendly, there are still a lot of issues that still remain.

The reason why most people are comfortable and keen to use Windows over Ubuntu, is because of the ubiquity and the user friendly nature of the solution. And that is the primary reason why many people are loathe to migrate to open source is because of the fear of the unfamiliar. Aparup must address this fear, he should make people aware and involved into the migration process. Also, there must be flexibility involved in the way the roll out is done, people must be given time to get accustomed and migrate and finally, as said above, the power user from the top management should lead the way.

NOTES NOTES

MORE RESOURCES

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Open Source: Friend or Foe: http://blog.trialpay.com/2010/07/open-source-friend-or-foe/ Open Source: What is the TCO? http://www.activestate.com/white-papers/open-source-cost-ownership

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4

Edu Tech December 2009

CUBE CHAT | BHAVIN PATEL

A KARMA

YOGI

“Criticism is an opportunity for me to plug any gaps in my work,” says Bhavin Patel, Head IT, Fortis Emergency Services

BY JATIN D E R S I N G H

T MY SUCESS

MANTRA There is always some happiness hidden beneath every sorrow.

So, have faith and keep doing your work in an honest manner

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he Bhagvada Gita’s teaching that suggests individuals to do their jobs with complete commitment, without expecting any profit in return, has played an important role in the life of Bhavin Patel, Head - IT at Fortis Emergency Services.

Patel had a keen interest in art and culture and wanted to become an architect. “To become an architect was my dream. And I tried my level best to get enrolled in to some of the best institutions available at that time. But I missed the bus by a few points at the entrance examinations,” he recollects.

However, his love for IT today is undivided.

“What might have started as an arranged marriage has now become a lifelong love affair,” he smilingly states.

Considering A.P.J. Abdul Kalam as his role model for his hard work and simplicity, Patel trusts hard work and positive outlook as the key traits which helps in achieving long-term success in life.

“There is always light at the end of a tunnel.

There is always some happiness hidden beneath every sorrow. So, have faith and keep doing your work in an honest manner,” he says with a strong belief.

But how does he handle criticism? “It usually never irritates me, as I see it as an opportunity to plug any gaps in my work and performance.

And if harsh words are spoken just for the sake of it, my golden rule is to ignore and move ahead,” he says.

As a professional, Patel is committed to his work and believes in motivating people by

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CUBE CHAT

FACT FILE NAME BHAVIN PATEL CURRENT DESIGN AT I O N HEAD IT, FORTIS EMERGENCY SERV I C ES , FORTIS HEALTHC A R E CURRENT ROLE HEADING THE EMERGENCY SERV I C ES DEPARTMENT EXPERTISE DESIGNING, PL A N N I N G, EXECUTION OF NET WORKING AN D SYSTEMS, TEAM MANAGEMENT, VE N D O R MANAGEMENT, PU R C H AS E NEGOTIATIONS, SYST E M INTEGRATION

PHOTO GRAPHY: S UBHOJI T PAUL

“ATTRIBUTES SUCH AS COMMITMENT AND DISCIPLINE PLAY A CORE ROLE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF A GOOD IT MANAGER” showing how things can be done. He loves challenges and is a stickler for rules and processes.

According to him, attributes such as commitment and discipline play a core role in the development of a good IT manager. There are other attributes that Patel considers important for an IT manager—having the zeal to innovate, sound analytical skills and qualities of managing a team.

He is currently working on the “Techno Excellent Emergency Response Call Center” project which is will help his organisation in coordinating the emergency medical services across NCT of Delhi.

“The service will help people to access mobile medical aid, instantly by just

dialling a number, will start from the Commonwealth Games 2010,” he says, clearly excited about the project.

Patel spends a great deal of his time in reading books and considers “The Prophet”

by Khalil Gibran as his favourite book.

Besides being an avid reader, he reckons travelling and listening to music as his other interests and hobbies. “I can’t start my week unless I go for a long drive during the weekend. It’s something that pumps me up for the entire week,” he shares.

While admitting that he will be happy to become a CIO eventually, he adds that it is not his goal. “I do not have such specific targets but as I said earlier, I will continue to do my karma and god is there to take care of the outcome.”

WORK EXPERIENC E OCTOBER 2009 – PRESENT HEAD IT, FORTIS EMER G E N CY SERVICES OCTOBER 2007 – SEPTEMBER 2009 HEAD – IT IS (GUJARAT), EMER G E N CY MANAGEMENT AN D RESEARCH INSTI T U T E UNE 2003 – OCTO B E R 2 0 0 7 SR. CUSTOMER SU P P O RT ENGINEER, WIPT EC H PERIPHARALS (W I P R O INFOTECH. SUPP O RT PARTNERS) EDUCATION 2001-2003 B.SC(INSTRUMEN TAT I O N ) , SAURASHTRA UNIVERSIT Y CERTIFICATIONS MICROSOFT CERT I F I E D PROFESSIONAL DELL CERTIFIED SYST E M EXPERT – ESF

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UPDATE

OFF THE SHELF

A sneak preview of enterprise products, solutions and services

Business Octane intros MAX series The solution empowers enterprises to accelerate collaboration in an effec tive way

REVIEW

Cooler Master Note Pal U1 The cooler master u1 fan edition is somewhat smaller laptop cooler that can be used for netbooks as well.

The cooler is made of an aluminum perforated metal. There is a fan at the back of the cooler with a protected grill which ensures you don’t touch the fan. There are the rubber pads at the base of the cooler which stops the cooler sliding around the cooler. One of the key features is the movable fan at the bottom of the pad. This is useful in cooling down hotspots at the bottom of the laptop more effectively.

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There are a few shortcomings with the cooler master U1. The price of cooler is Rs. 1400. The product is recommended for people who are using their laptops only on desk.

PRODUCT FEATURES Inclination adjusting feature Protected grill which ensures you don’t touch the fan.

Useful in cooling down hotspots PRICE: RS 1,400 STAR VALUE:

PHOTO GRAPHY: JAYAN K NARAYANAN

Business Octane has launched its FEATURES * Available in three seating MAX series of Collaboration Suites for capacities: 2/4, 4/8 and 6/6 enterprises. The solution, according to * High teleporting capacity the company offers twin telepresence * Capacity for local meetings and media-rich experience that creates a faceaudio teleconferences to-face meeting experience for participants across distances, to empower enterprises accelerates the business collaboration.

The solution is designed to provide high definition studio quality video and high definition stereo spatial audio, together with near actual physical sizing and natural eye contact to create a telepresence experience. It helps participants to meet from any location and share their content: desktops, documents and whiteboard, at anytime, during the meeting. Its touch panel control, according to the company, allows users to control all the functionalities in a one click simple way.

Users can, in a single call, also establish a multiple location simultaneous collaboration with up to 80 Business Octane’s Suites.

This cooler should ideally be placed on the table. The design doesn’t l lend itself to placing it on your lap with folded legs for example. There are quite a few things missing as well.

There is no fan controller or USB connector that is used to power the fan has an extender to connect an additional USB device. The cooler does a descent job at cooling the laptop.

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UPDATE

KINGMAX intros External hard drives KEY ADVANTAGES

Price Rs 4250 for 500 GB

* Ultra slim and light design – only 170 g * Plug & Play device * Blue LED light * Up to 53% performance enhanced * Backup Function * Security Function (256bits AES encryption)

KINGMAX has announced its entry in the external hard drive market with the launch of KE-91. According to the company, the hard drive weighs 170gram and has an USB interface, password-protected data encryption, file backup and enhancement software to maximize users’ convenience. The 256 bit AES encryption technology ensures the safety of personal data, the file backup software protects important data and the built-in software enhances its writing/reading performance up to 53% making KE-91 a highly efficient storage product.

The product is available in Elegant Black, Chic Gray and Brilliant Red with either 320GB or 500 GB capacity to choose from. Consumers can mix and match to create a portable hard drive that is most suitable to their needs.

Oracle Unveils new clustered Systems Oracle has announced the launch of next-generation Sun Fire x86 Clustered Systems, including rackmount servers, blades and a 10 GbE cluster fabric. the company offers the most complete, open and tightly integrated x86 clustered systems engineered across Oracle’s business software and hardware systems portfolio to deliver high performing application-to-disk solutions that can be managed and supported as a single system.The company announced that the Sun Fire x86 Clustered Systems are designed for customers that run a mix of demanding Oracle and non-Oracle enterprise workloads across a grouping of systems.

The solution helps enterprises to reduce management complexity, deliver record-breaking performance and boost operational efficiencies.

CISCO WEBEx launches Web Confrencing on Smartphone Cisco WebEx has announced web conferencing service on smartphones. Through this service, users will be able to join cisco WebEx Meeting Centre web and audio conferences on smartphones including the blackberry bold, blackberry curve 8900, and Blackberry storm from RIM, the nokia E71, Nokia E75, Nokia N97, and other nokia E series and Nseries, and Samsung blackjack II. They will be able to participate n audio and web conferencing via #G or Wi-Fi, attend scheduled meetings and view presentations, applications and desktops with live annotations. In addition, users will be able to view presentations, applications with live annotations.

KEY ADVANTAGES * Certified with other x86 operating systems * Helps enterprises to reduce management complexity, * boost operational efficiencies

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UPDATE

OPEN DEBATE

BOOK FOR YOU A platform to air your views on the latest developments and issues that impact you

How will 3G impact the enterprise IT space?

YOGESH KUMAR SHARMA HEAD-ERP, JINDAL PIPES Technology like 3G has its own distinctive advantages. While it might excite the consumers, it will certainly drive enterprises to embrace mobility in a big way.

There will be several new applications which will be beneficial for both business users and commongoers. Services like LBS (location based services) and 3G video conferencing may turn out to be the most popular amongst enterprise users. However, for correct evaluation, IT managers will have to analyse and understand the existing data securiity policies and password mechanisms.

R VENKATESWARAN HEAD, TELECOM BUSINESS UNIT, PERSISTENT SYSTEMS

TIM DANIELS PRODUCT MANAGER, TELESOFT TECHNOLOGIES INDIA .

With everything moving onto the cloud and with the development of the third party applications on the rise, 3G might be a great asset to collaborate and share. It will help companies reduce their travel expenses on the larger scale.

3G will foster an era of cloud based computing that would allow IT departments to reduce costly internal infrastructure and rely on secure external third party resources for CRM and several other enterprise applications.

The key to user adoption is to ensure the applications are well debugged and easy to use. The best applications on the iPhone, for instance, are very often free. Surely in the days to come, there will be a vibrant marketplace for such enterprise applications, from which the IT manager can pick and chose from.

However, I must say that the success of the technology is largerly dependent upon the innovative applications and initiatives from service provider. If service providers fail to match the quality standards required for the technology, it might not create any ripples in the enterprise domain.

Your views and opinion matter to us. Send us your feedback on stories and the magazine to the Editor at editor@itnext.in

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Aligning Ferret How organisations can meet extraordinary challenges PUBLISHER : POSTSCRIPT IMPRESSIONS PRICE : RS 345

This business novel by A Swapna Kishore and Rajesh Naik takes you through the transformation journey of a Banglore-based software firm—Ferret—that has been taken over by its largest client PTI. And while Ferret is working towards aligning its business and processes with that of its parent company, the new PTI boss threatens to shut Ferret operation if things does not improve soon.

Not to be undone, Ferret is CEO along with a senior project manager Sunny Chinnappa and some external consultants drive in the change, and the experience of this ‘struggle to change’ is actually what makes this book stand apart from other ‘How To’ books.

As Sunny and colleagues orient themselves to meet the challenges, readers get drawn into practical and conceptual aspects of aligning an organisation to a strategy with concepts such as strategic planning, balance scorecard, People CMM, and even standardisation of admin processes. Not to miss the fact that, all this has to be achieved while the business is running as usual.

IT NEXT VERDICT A simple, easy to read book that does not advice but shows you various options to deals with varied business problems, particularly when it comes to organisation restructuring. A must read for mid and senior level managers.

STAR VALUE:

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MY LOG

SHASHIKANT JOSHI Author and blogger, Practicalsanskrit.blogspot.com

Cleveland wisdom?

SU

RE

SH

KU

MAR

Happiness, and not money, should drive a career decision if it has to be a fulfilling one

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My Log.indd 68

RA

TI

ON

:

3 ESSENTIAL

READS

INSIGHT | GREEN IT

GREEN IT | INSIGHT

ELIGHTING

A building automation system (BAS), is an automated, computer-controlled method of managing energy usage in a building to reduce and optimise energy expenses. At the same time, it helps maintain a comfortable environment.

Today’s organisations are more conscious about the ill-effects of rising energy costs and the effects of green house gas emissions on the environment.

Building automation system is an effective way to reduce both the energy and environmental costs of a building. Because of this, most systems start by automating the heating, cooling, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems’ operations.

Automating the interior and exterior lighting systems usually provides the next-biggest gain in energy efficiency, but there are other potential benefits as well.

Modern building automation systems provide remote monitoring and alerting capabilities that can warn operators of a failure or abnormal condition in a building.

IFFERENCE Building automation is not just about energy conservation, it’s about making hospitality smarter

BY RAVISH JHAL A

Benefits overview

I L LU ST R AT I O N : S R I ST I M AU RYA

The cost of a BAS is not significant compared to the savings and benefits a BAS brings to the business. Moreover, BAS is not only looked from savings point of view but there are other factors too:  It’s more expandable and easier to manage  It’s extremely flexible  It can easily be integrated with future building automation technologies such as XML and IP  It saves power / energy  It leads to less manpower usage  It offers better security  It provides connectivity to any point any time, from anywhere  It supports interoperability Research studies performed over the past decade have shown a wide range of

energy savings for BASs. The average energy savings are estimated to be between 5% and 15% of the building’s overall energy consumption. The savings can be greater for older or poorly maintained buildings.

Guest delight At a minimum, guests need to feel safe and comfortable. An automatic welcome light, an in-room privacy button, and precise, reliable temperature control can achieve a basic sense of security and comfort at low-cost.

Recent analysis from Frost & Sullivan of the North American hospitality BAS market found that when building and hotel owners become aware of the availability of open and interoperable solutions, they are no longer apprehensive about investing in rapidly evolving building automation technologies. The most critical part of a hotel manager’s job is to ensure maximum guest experience and retention while minimising energy consumption.

Analysts said integrating controls saves costs as operators are better able to view equipment performance and be more proactively involved in preventative maintenance.

Through this converged network, hotel staff gain further value from the BAS to exceed guest expectations by determining and resolving problems before guests are affected. With the ability to reduce energy consumption, analysts said BAS is a huge asset in positioning a hotel as a green building. An advanced BAS enables hotel operators to view systems in real time, analysts said, allowing them to maintain equipment with greater ease. Similarly, wireless sensor networks in BAS can help end-users achieve unprecedented levels of functionality.

The guest room automation system enables hotel guests to experience

QUICK GAINS COME FROM AUTOMATING THE HEATING, COOLING, VENTILATION AND AC (HVAC) OPERATIONS AND LIGHTING SYSTEMS

10 INDIA’s FUTURE CIOs

2010

SHANTANU SINGH CHAUHAN Director, ValueFirst 34

%

is the average energy savings on the building’s overall energy consumption through BAS

“I HAVE ASKED MY IT MANAGERS TO GO THROUGH THE NOMINATION PROCESS”

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Building automation system conserves energy and saves much money in the bargain Pg 34 INSIGHT | CLOUD COMPUTING

CLOUD COMPUTING | INSIGHT

Considering Continuity Needs Lauren Whitehouse, Senior Analyst for the Enterprise Strategy Group, noted that just because you’re already storing information in the cloud doesn’t mean you’re doing it in a way that will help with business continuity. She said it’s important that your provider be able to handle the requirements of bringing your business back—and being able to do it in a timely manner. That, she said, depends on how long your business can stand being offline.

“Some businesses can’t stand any interruption,” Whitehouse said, “so they need a system that can immediately take over,” She added. She further noted that such a business continuity solution needs to be in a location that is geographically dispersed from where the company’s data centre is located, so that the same disaster doesn’t affect both locations.

You also need to determine whether you can restore your business using the tools at hand. “Can you recover your business from your daily backups?”

Whitehouse asked. “Considering the fire drill that results [after a disaster], businesses should put something else in place.”

The first step to using the cloud for business continuity, according to Whitehouse, is to determine what applications must be available immediately for your business to keep running. Critical applications can also be saved to the cloud and set up so that they can be run remotely using data that’s also in the cloud.

For most companies, this will mean finding a cloud provider that can handle both your data and your applications.

It must also be able to support access

Cloud CONTINUITY IN THE

If you’re planning to use the cloud as your business continuity solution, there are several critical issues you must address, including the accessibility of your data and applications.

BY WAYNE RASH

At first glance, using the cloud-based storage you’ve already got as your business continuity solution makes perfect sense. Your corporate data is already going somewhere offsite for storage, the people at your cloud provider automatically back up files, and you can get to your data when you need it. What’s not to like?

Actually, there could be plenty not to like, depending on what’s stored with your cloud provider, what you need at your existing location to conduct business and how prepared you are to move from one location to the other.

Putting your data in the cloud means

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just that. Your company’s data is out there, safe (we hope) in another data centre located somewhere that you’re not. But using that data is another problem entirely.

How accessible will your data be if you can’t recover it from your existing data centre, you can’t use it with your existing applications, and you can’t use the rest of your infrastructure as a place in which to conduct business? After all, your business is more than just data: It’s also what you do with that data.

“Business continuity, even with the cloud, isn’t simple,” said Zeus Kerravala, Senior Vice President of research for the

Yankee Group. “There’s a lot more to it than merely copying data to the cloud.”

He recommends asking these important questions: “What’s a cost-effective way?

How do you keep [data] in sync? How do you point your applications to it? There are a lot of other things that have to be considered.

“The biggest part is the process side,” Kerravala added. “Assuming that it works, how do you use the data once it’s in the cloud?” He warned that a lot of backup and recovery companies may be doing this for the first time and may not be able to provide a proven solution.

‘THE ASSUMPTION THAT YOU CAN SEND PEOPLE HOME TO WORK ISN’T ALWAYS TRUE.’ —Paul Sullivan, Agility Recovery

‘SOME BUSINESSES ...

NEED A SYSTEM THAT CAN IMMEDIATELY TAKE OVER.’ —Lauren Whitehouse, Enterprise Strategy

to those applications while they are running in the virtual environment at the provider’s location.

The way this would work depends on your needs and on the capabilities of your cloud provider. In some cases, you might want to install your applications with a co-location service and point those applications to your data in the

cloud. In other situations, you might want to use something like Amazon’s EC2 elastic cloud computing service and its S3 storage service.

This isn’t necessarily a case of simply copying everything to the cloud and then using it, Whitehouse pointed out.

First of all, when you’re trying to bring your business back online, you can’t

INDIA’s FUTURE CIOs

“I HAVE ALREADY ASKED MANAGERS IN MY TEAM TO PARTICIPATE IN NEXT100.”

2010

SACHIN JAIN CIO, Evalueserve

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SOA and Cloud can complement each other to help enterprises increase productivity Pg 30

15MINUTE

15-MINUTE MANAGER

PAG E 5 2

Leadership Give and grow T H I S PAG E IT Strat Be a 360 Manager PAG E 5 3 Football Trivia Bluffer’s guide to World Cup Soccer PAG E 5 4 Training Calendar Career booster courses PAG E 5 6

BY ANAND KUMAR PADMANABAN

A

s work pressures mount in organisations, individuals are often faced with challenges on professional as well as emotional fronts and at times are in the need of some good unbiased advice. The person who can help them best may be someone they already know well – you.

Some organisations are considering this as a situation where they can help the larger workforce deal with the problems being faced by lending a helping hand using the power of coaching. In one of the organisations I used to work for earlier, there was a clear cut approach towards developing coaches and individuals who demonstrated a high level of emotional quotient (EQ) and social quotient.

They were asked to take up informal coaching roles. In a sense it was a winwin situation as both the individual and the organisation benefited out of it.

It’s peer coaching Coaching by peers is a model where colleagues offer each other advice

Become a trusted resource Peer coaching differs from typical people management in the sense that it is a peer-based model, all are equals and the perspective is candid and trustworthy. It is not like executive coaching where external individuals work on a time- and outcome-based model. In peer coaching, the only criterion for the coaches is that they can help their colleagues to be successful.

This is really not a new or creative model but one that has the potential to build a collaborative and cohesive workplace.

Use a very simple approach towards

LEADERSHIP

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HEALTHY LIVING

SLEEPING BEAUTY NUMBER OF HOURS OF SLEEP REQUIRED: Infants

16 hours

Toddlers

14 hours

Children Teenager

10-12 hours 9 hours

Adults

7-8 hours

Older Adults

8-9 hours

Early to bed and early to rise, was the road to good health according to old adage.

Unfortunately, more and more people find it necessary to cut back on their sleep. The consequences for their health and quality of life can be devastating. Here are 5 reasons why you should pay attention to your sleep: Memory & learning: Sleep helps the brain commit new information to memory through a process called memory consolidation. In studies, people who’d slept after learning a task did better on tests later.

Metabolism and weight: Chronic sleep deprivation may cause weight gain by affecting the way our bodies process and store carbohydrates, and by altering levels of hormones that affect our appetite.

Sloth are thought to be one of the most somnolent animals, sleeping from 15 to 18 hours each day.

Cardiovascular health: Serious sleep disorders have been linked to hypertension, increased stress hormone levels, and irregular heartbeat.

Disease: Sleep deprivation alters immune function, including the activity of the body’s killer cells. Keeping up with sleep may also help fight cancer.

Safety: Sleep debt contributes to a greater tendency to fall asleep during the daytime.

These lapses may cause falls and mistakes such as medical errors, air traffic mishaps, and road accidents.

For information visit: http://science. education.nih.gov/supplements/ nih3/sleep/guide/info-sleep.htm

Mood: Sleep loss may result in irritability, impatience, inability to concentrate, and moodiness. Too little sleep can also leave you too tired to do the things you like to do.

PH OTO GR A PH Y: JAYA N K N A R AYA N A N

SLEEPING BEAUTY

PH OTO GR A PH Y: PH OTO S. CO M

about issues that everyone is facing in the workplace. These could be issues around teaming or dealing with performance problems or individual challenges.

There are no real ground rules for peer coaching and the methods may vary, but they largely revolve around a few pointers (not the C++ kind):  The coaches can be individuals who are trustworthy but are level headed in terms of the perspective they bring and are normally colleagues.  The coaching or mentoring advice given is straightforward, clear and candid.  The coach offers holistic advice that benefits the larger organisation and does not take sides, that is, the advice is around doing what is best for the team rather than the individual.  Coaches act on good faith and believe in doing the right thing and can be extremely candid.

So how does this all relate to you as a future IT leader?

Peer coaching is a great opportunity for individuals to increase their sphere of influence and to be able to start to demonstrate their capabilities around EQ and people management. The winning aspect around this is the ability to influence your colleagues and to build your profile around demonstrating leadership traits which you possess.

What do you need to do to become a trusted coach?

MANAGER

TRAINING EDUCATION WORKPLACE COMPENSATION WORKFORCE TRENDS SKILLS DEVELOPMENT PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

I MAGI N G: SU R ESH KU MA R

housewives why daal prices were going up; the small talk with the customers – the kind I myself do with the store owner when I go shopping, once a week. It would have been the same small talk over and over again, maybe 50 times a day; tied to the counter, with very little freedom to take a vacation, or days off, at least in the first few years.

I stopped being worried about, or jealous of, people making more money in business, for it is not just a ‘Can you do it?’ thing but also ‘Will you enjoy it?’

We all have our strengths; we surely have our weaknesses, too. To say it more positively, we are made for certain things and not for others, as per our inherent personality, over which we do not have control. The sooner we realise this, the quicker we can set ourselves on a productive road to personal happiness, rather than a potential misery. You cannot lie to your own nature for long.

In Mahabharata, the wise minister Vidur calls this ‘ātmajñāna’—aatma-gyaana or self-knowledge, as one of the many essential characteristics of a wise person.

The closest I came to an Indian store was to get a paid advertisement for the monthly Indian cultural magazine, Mr. Singh was more suited for running the business and I was for my secure job with enough vacation.

WITH A

The year of 2002 was not the best of times. I was in Cleveland then. The internet bubble had burst, and the economy was shaking. The Indian community in Greater Cleveland had not reached the critical mass to make a Devon Street or an Edison. The few Indian grocery stores there had never heard of illegality of DVD piracy or of quality control, and expiry dates were hidden by store stickers with useless information.

Talking about opening a good Indian store was a favourite past-time among a few of us IT friends. We would do a great job, with almost captive buyers. We could make a lot of money in this monopolistic market – four stores for 700 square miles!

One day an Indian IT guy quit his job and started an Indian store. We were all miffed! It was our idea, and we were going to do it. There still was our suburb, without a store, and we were driving 15 miles out for our needs. We still had a chance. And, while we talked, another store did open in our suburb as well, by the ubiquitous Mr. Singh.

For many years to come, I could not forgive myself for this. Later on, however, I was glad that I didn’t do it. I would have been successful but miserable. Taking inventory, keeping the store arranged and clean; sitting idle in the afternoon when customers were less; explaining to

ILLUST

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