IT Next May 2012 by Manan Mushtaq

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May 2012 / ` 100 Volume 03 / Issue 04

sTRATEGY: NEXT100 winners are winning in their careers

interview: Unisysâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Bob on how cloud is transforming workplace

boss Talk: Managing time tactfully

H i t t h e Ta r g e t

Use innovative methods and smart management to meet project goals Pg 12

bIG Q

Obsessed with green IT Pg 65

volume 03 | Issue 04

Editorial

Imbibing Best Theories One has, of late, found IT managers becoming more focussed towards their professional growth. I find in them a renewed interest to acquire new skills and qualifications. Surprisingly, the driest topics, such as project management is drawing their interest, despite being the most disliked subject amongst the community. The reason for their newfound zeal for project management is that they have discovered it is imperative to understand the intricacies of project management processes and methodologies, if they intend to take up larger roles in their career. The interesting thing about project management is that it teaches the art of juggling between critical factors, such as time management, budgeting and quality. And believe me, this is the most crucial aspect of a business that every IT manager must know. There is a strong reason why IT managers loath project management and associated responsibilities. Firstly, it falls out of the purview of their core competencies and the IT manager feels s/he will be held responsible for any discrepancy that creeps into the project, which would harm their progress. But now nothing is a challenge for IT managers who are open to imbibe new learning. They only need to pick up tricks of the trade and understand the nuances. Project Management Institute of India along with FICCI in one of its studies on Project Management quotes Machiavelli (1446-1507), Italian statesman and philosopher, “It must be considered that there is nothing more difficult to carry out nor more doubtful of success nor more dangerous to handle than to initiate a new order of things.” IT Next cover feature in the current edition, ‘Hit the Target’ gives the intrinsic value of understanding project management methods and suggests certain best practices and theories to achieve this. Learning these innovative practices, be it with regard to preparing a concept, retaining a project, defining the scope, addressing operational bottlenecks, etc, would help in opening up better growth opportunities.

“IT managers only need to pick up tricks of the trade and understand the nuances of project management” Geetha Nandikotkur

Blogs To Watch! Project management salaries show earnings growth, career potential http://www.way2pm.com/ blog/?p=1832 Top 9 IT Skills In Demand for 2012 http://www.itcareerfinder.com/ brain-food/blog/entry/top-9-itskills-in-demand-for-2012.html Project management courses likely to be included in curriculum http://www.minglebox. com/article/cbse/projectmanagement-courses-likely-tobe-included-in-curriculum Top 10 project management trends for 2012 http://www.computerweekly. com/opinion/-Top-10-ProjectManagement-Trends-for-2012 Project Management Links http://project-management. alltop.com/

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Cover Story

boss talk

interview

12 K eep it Simple and Clear | Keeping the concept simple and clear using WBS framework

16 D on’t Let the Project Slip Away | Comprehensive project evaluation mechanism

18 S cope Triangle: 3 Pillars of Project Management | The pillars can make or break a project, if not handled meticulously

21 B usiness and Operational Bottlenecks | The top management’s concerns are around effective utilisation of resources and funds allocated

26 R easons for Project Failure | Reactions from future technology leaders

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may 2012 / ` 100 voLume 03 / Issue 04

Strategy: NEXT100 winners are winning in their careers

h I t t h e ta r g e t Volume 03 | Issue 04

interview: Unisys’s Bob on how cloud is transforming workplace

boSS taLk: Managing time tactfully

use innovative methods and smart management to meet project goals Pg 12

big Q

Obsessed with green IT Pg 65

cover Illustration: Manav Sachdev Design: Anil VK

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05 Do More with Less Tactfully | Dr PH Rao, FellowIIMB, CEO of Stem on tactful time management

56 Bob Supnik | VP&GM, Engineering and SCM, CTO, Unisys on how cloud is transforming the work environment

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I am working as Head-IT for world’s largest NGO. I am a PhD scholar in information security. I have 17 years of IT experience in various industries and have implemented several projects. I regularly read IT Next, so to say, am addicted to it. I am impressed with all the articles and features that are carried every month. I especially like the editorial page which provides great information for IT managers. I always recommend IT Next to my peers and have made so many people subscribe to it. To be honest, the magazine is 100 per cent worth for IT people, starting from administrators to CTO/CIO and head-IT level. I am keen to participate in the Next100 awards this year and would like to build up the necessary expertise. Being part of an NGO, we have implemented state-of-the-art technologies to enhance our employees’ strength and enable them to use IT effectively. Akshaya Patra, as we are known, feeds 1.3 million children across India every day. As the IT support, we enable faster and effective communication between headquarters and our 24 branches. We have virtualised almost all of our servers. Having said that, I would love to contribute to IT Next.

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First of all let me congratulate the entire IT Next team for bringing out such a wonderful and informative magazine for future IT leaders. I have been reading the magazine regularly since its launch. The articles published are exhaustive and interesting as they portray views of experienced professionals including CIOs and senior IT managers. The details covered of challenges faced by them during implementing of technologies and the solutions that they have sought are definitely insightful. I would appreciate if IT Next could cover stories of actual IT implementations at organisations and benefits they have derived and serialise it as a monthly case study. Topics on DR, storage, project management, vendor management their SLA monitoring which are directly linked to IT services can be covered elaborately. Technologies and topics related to business intelligence (BI), cloud computing, virtualisation, big data, mobility, open source technologies, social networking and project management interest me and I wish to contribute articles on these subjects to the magazine. Once again let me thank and congratulate the entire team. Ranganathan N, Manager-IT, Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services Ltd

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Boss talk | DR PH RAO

T i m e M a n ag e m e n t

Do More with Less Tactfully

Photograph y: s radhakri sh na

ll of us, Bill Gates, Narayana Murthy, you and me, have 24 hours in a day. Not a second less or a second more. Why can’t we all achieve what they have achieved in the available 24 hours? Time management is more about managing ourselves to make use of the time available and less about managing time. Acquiring such skills can lead to personal as well as professional success. IT professionals are paid comparatively better than most of professionals from other sectors. This also means that they generate more revenue (per day/month) compared to others. Collaborating with partners located in diverse geographical areas and constant deadline often calls for changes in lifestyle like sleeping and eating at odd times and sitting in front of a computer terminal/laptop for long hours. This gives raise to a variety of health problems. Recent evidence indicates that burnout rate is high among IT professionals. It is also observed that an IT professional in India spends longer hours compared to those in countries like the USA, for similar kinds of assignments.

“An IT professional in India spends longer hours compared to those in countries like the USA on similar kinds of assignments” Good Scheduling is Key

Suggestion BOX

Fifteen minutes of planning can produce an extra hour of time for utilisation. Schedule the most important but not urgent at the beginning of the day. Keep the lesser important and lesser urgent towards the end of the day. The ubiquitous ‘outlook’ on our computer can be gainfully used to schedule your activities for each day, with reminders. Once you schedule your activities for the day stick to them. Focus on the end results rather than on being busy. This also involves ability to ward off distractions and manage interruptions.

Avoid MUDA

Virtually Connected

Fundamental principle of improving quality of time utilisation is to identify and avoid MUDA, a Japanese term for waste. Pareto Principle which means that 20 per cent of the activities we carryout produce 80 per cent of the output/results can be usefully applied here. The remaining 80 per cent of the activities account for about 20 per cent of the outputs or results. This is where MUDA lies. Prune them ruthlessly. Using an important-urgent matrix plan to move to high productivity and proactive tasks (important, not urgent quadrant) from (urgent–important, not important–urgent quadrants) and eliminate not urgent–not important tasks.

All said and done we are taking on too much. Is there no limit to what a person can achieve within a stipulated time? The key to come out of such situations is to learn how to say ‘yes’ to a person but ‘no’ to work tactfully. With the advent of IT, the physical and geographical barriers are broken down. Delegation of work is key. This could also facilitate teamwork. Askyour self these three questions: What do I want to do? When do I want to do? How well do I want to do?

“For such a conceptually oriented book, it made simple and enjoyable reading” title: Seven Habits of Highly Effective People WRITER: Stephen Kovey

The author is a Fellow (IIM-B) and CEO of Centre for Symbiosis of Technology, Environment & Management (STEM)

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Opinion

Money Wise Ajay Sharma, Director Users Data & Analytics, Yahoo R&D India

Data Integration

Analytics:Business Differentiator

usiness insights deduced from data can act as a catalyst to business growth, and be a proven trend. Deriving wisdom based on history, events and actions can tell you a story of business evolution and help in setting the tone for the future. If you get answers to all your questions that tell you the reason behind a particular outcome, you can use that learning to take corrective actions, avoid pitfalls and pursue proven ones.

Inherent Challenges With increased use of new media platforms, the volume and the speed at which data is generated has thrown up several challenges. This compels the IT managers and business groups to give a serious thought to innovative and affordable approaches to deal with data deluge. Before jumping into analytics, an organisation has to consider ways to manage the data volume, time and the cost component.

Analytics is Creating Waves Why do we need to reiterate this? It is nothing but business analytics that is drawing organisational attention and becoming a key business differentiator for growth. In my opinion, analytics can be applied to every aspect of the business right from marketing analytics, customer analysis, operations optimisation, performance measurement to business forecast. Data patterns are difficult to determine if both structured and unstructured, unless there is a well-proven statistical tool. In such a case, business analytics tool will use algorithmic and statistical techniques to classify the useful and accessible and non-accessible data. In today’s world, use of analytics to assist data driven decisions is essential for success of any business.

Creating the Framework How can analytics help the IT managers? Analytics makes extensive use of data, statistical techniques and prediction models to provide insights into

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Due to increased digitisation, more and more data is compiled every day. There is a need to make sense of this data and derive appropriate information for companies to sell their products and services. As companies move up the value scale of data they start reaping bigger benefits. The so called, big data, while posing challenges also throws up opportunities for IT managers to capture value and outweigh competition.

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Keep it

Simple and Clear Maturity to understand the project nuances and the ability to break down project activities in simpler tasks using work breakdown structure (WBS) framework is mandatory

n every project, be it business or technology, the ground work that goes into preparing a framework or a concept is most critical. The success or failure of the project would entirely depend on the concept and the individual or individuals who conceive the project. IT managers, who often willingly or unwillingly, become the core team of project management, face several hiccups at the concept stage itself. While challenges are central to any project, getting the concept right at the nascent stage itself is imperative and definitely drives benefits.

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project management | cover story

Concept Tricks

Challenges for IT Managers For most IT managers, lack of senior management buy-in, commitment and support, difficulties in demonstrating value and benefits, identifying stakeholders and role players, etc, constitute the challenges. “The main challenge that I see for IT managers,” says Srinivas Kishan Anapu, CEO, Spandana Infotech “is the fact that often the project estimate is lower than actual, in order to get approval for the project.”

Getting the Concept Right

Strong performance management to ensure a cohesive and integrated approach to achieve project milestones Competent and motivated project team is a must 60 per cent organisations are able to complete about 50 per cent projects with good scope Adequate accountability for results is key Evolve a training module for building team competency Cost of working out a good change management plan and process

Prepare a checklist from IT perspective with time deadlines and backup arrangement Concept is the art of organising the components of a project Preparing concept will have five components such as definition, planning, execution, control and closure A single overarching framework serves as a consistent and integrated source of guidance in a non-technical, technology-agnostic common language

to BLV Rao, Global VP-IT, Infotech Ltd, is that the project definition document should be clear and crisp. He says, “There is a tendency amongst IT managers to shorten an IT project’s planning process, as they are anxious to jump right into it and begin the work. This is a big mistake.” “The time spent in proper planning and documentation of the project will result in reduced cost and duration and increase the quality of project lifecycle,” adds Rao. Elaborating with an example he — BLV Rao says, “For instance, for Global VP-IT, Infotech Ltd an ERP deployment to plan an exchange migration, it is critical to lay out the objective behind the deployment and the business drivers and benefits the project needs to capture. Understanding the features of ERP that will meet the business objective, understanding user community, estimated risks and mitigation plan and analysing what events are being taken for granted; whether the infrastructure, applications, right set of development, testing and production platforms are in place and if there is sufficient data protection, etc, needs attention.” “Stakeholder buy-in and sign-off with commitment is mandatory and hence you must ask the sponsor and key stakeholders to approve this document, signifying that they agree with what is planned,” reiterates Rao

To reap the benefits of the project it is vital to have the user community and stakeholder benefits in mind. Manoj K Gupta, President and CEO, PMI North India Chapter insists on looking at TCO of the project across the period for which the product or project services will be used.“Buildversus-buy analysis for the project with regard to various factors like time, cost, etc, needs to be taken into account,”Gupta adds. The NO. 1 rule according

“The time spent in proper planning and documentation of the project will result in reduced cost and duration and will increase the quality of project lifecycle”

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cover story | project management

Don’t Let the

Project Slip Away

Comprehensive project evaluation mechanism along with appropriate governance, budgetary monitoring tools linked to KPI will help in project retention

ost often, companies find projects are falling off half way through. The toughest part of any project management is to have a sound strategy in place which will help in the retention of a project with continued interest from all the stakeholders. The expectation from the IT teams, and in particular, from the senior IT managers, is huge. The level of commitment of IT managers will determine the success or failure of the project. As per Project Management Institute’s findings, only 60 per cent organisations are able to complete about 80 per cent of the projects in time. It means that 40 per cent of the companies who have initiated projects have gone back on their commitment for whatever reasons resulting in a huge financial loss.

Expectation from IT Heads While the challenges for IT heads have been plenty, the business groups have certain expectations from the project managers too. The business heads opine that it is essential for a project manager to understand his team and their attitude is critical for a project’s success.

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project management | cover story AM Amit Madan, Chairman and Managing Director, OnDot Couriers and Cargo Ltd, says, “Allocation of tasks to the team and accomplishing them is important. But good communications skills are mandatory, with it half of the battle is won.” He further adds, “If the project manager is certified then most of the time you get the standard progress report, but if you have some specific requirements, then do share them as that costs extra time and money. Other than this, if you have a certified manager then it also helps in maintaining industry compliances.”

Avoiding Project Slippage Involve the customer and/or the end users early in the project. Thorough analyses and compilation of tools during the initial stages of the project Introduce a Change Control Board team that would evaluate the risk of implementing the changes Make sure to involve critical stakeholders throughout the project phases (especially during the planning phase) Gain the ability to refuse changes in requirements with proper reasons and support

Comprehensive escalation mechanism to handle exceptions and delays In extreme cases, stop the project so that new additional requirements can be properly scoped and integrated rather than tagged on Closed downward and upward communication of timelines, project deliverables, milestones and resource utilisation is necessary Sequencing the milestones of activities is a thrust area, besides crosschecks around assumptions and constraints are vital

Big Question: How to Retain the Project

which are linked to project KPI of the project leaders The obvious rule that helps in retaining a project with- and stakeholders. While business leadership of the projects out letting it fizzle out would be to have regular review reports that are generated and shared with steering with high user involvement, business committee and key stakeholders to have better control leaning of the IT projects, weekly steering committee meetings, over the project. Manoj K Gupta, President and CEO, PMI North quality assurance, quality criteria India Chapter, says, “For an organisation doing large and project documentation are and many projects, a well-defined PMO should be in critical, Krishan reiterates, place to keep a tab on the ongoing projects. According “Closed downward and upward to him, a comprehensive escalation mechanism to communication, of project timelines, deliverables, milestones handle exceptions and delays along with detailed communication plan to report and manage these and resource utilisation are must.” exceptions should be developed. Gupta is of the view that reward and penalty system through SLAs need to be in place for outsourced projects and appropriate competency management and performance management system are required for internally delivered projects, which will help in long-term retention. Sunder Krishnan, Member, ISACA India Task Force, dwells upon the technical aspects that help in project retention—strong project governance with regard to budgets, RoI, delivery schedule, PERTA— UC Dubey, Executive Director-IT, Iffco CPM, monitoring Tokio General Insurance Company Ltd mechanism, explanation for all standard deviations, root cause analysis of variants,

“The project manager must keep a close watch on external dependencies, ensure resources are mapped well, estimation and allocations meet the requirements for better delivery and control”

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cover story | project management Another way of retaining UC Dubey, Executive the project according to BLV Director-IT, Iffco Tokio General Rao, Global VP-IT, Infotech Insurance Company Ltd, Ltd, would be to define and recommends sequencing the monitor quality, costs and milestones of activities as a schedule with five-seven high thrust area, besides crosschecks level parameters. around assumptions and Rao says that the best constraints as vital. organisations are able practice is about managing “The project manager has to to complete about 80% risks. Risks are any events keep a close watch on external of the projects in time which can adversely affect the dependencies, ensure resources - PMI successful outcome of a project. are mapped well, estimation Risks would relate to staff and allocations meet the requirements and modularisation of work for better lacking technical skills to perform the work properly, hardware not being delivered on time, control room delivery and control,” says Dubey. Dubey strongly recommends that the issues need to being at the risk of flooding in a major thunderstorm be escalated and not procrastinated lest they aggravate and many others. Risks will vary from project to project but it is important to identify the main risks in affecting the project status itself. Srinivas Kishan Anapu, CEO, Spandana Infotech a project as soon as possible and to have a contigency emphasises phase containment that will let you know plan ready to preempt it, or, if the risk cannot be avoided, to at least mitigate it in order to lessen its the percentage slippage at each step of the SDLC. “From my experience, I found that despite having impact. Dharmaraj Ramakrishnan, Head-Core Banking, a clearly defined project scope, one has to beware of scope creep, and this phenomenon tends to occur ITCD, ING Vysya Bank finds strategic planning framework, project guidelines, list of factors when new features are added to product design, without providing equivalent increases in budget, ensuring sustainability, stakeholders analysis, strategy analysis and scoping to be key imperatives time or resources,” says Anapu. The key reasons for scope creep would be poor which can help in project retention. Also, it’s requirements analysis, not involving the users early, important not to encourage any scope change in the middle of the project lifecycle. This may have direct underestimating the complexity of the project, lack of change control and gold plating where value is impact on the cost and the timelines of the project. At added to the project presuming it increases customer times, the scope change may lead to complete design satisfaction. “Of course we cannot discount the fact change (in case of any application development that having a weak project manager or executive project). Hence, identification, analysis and design stages are important. “If the project scope is finalised sponsor will result in scope creep,” says Anapu. and design document is signed off, then this indicates that 40 per cent of the project has been completed,” says Ramakrishnan. Ravish Jhala, Systems Manager, Trident Group, who is working Inaccurate Inability to out a project management assessment of synchronise project project risk plan and execution strategy states that scoping is the separation between what is included and what is excluded; the problem occurs when the line Difficulty to Lack of involve multiple is disturbed usually outwards. capability to and diverse manage project stakeholders Some ways to avoid projcomplexity ect slipping according to Jhala would be to introduce change Ineffective utilisation of best control board team that would practices and benchmarks evaluate the risk. IT managers should gain the ability to refuse Inability to correctly estimate and monitor incorporating any changes withSource: FICCI & PMI of India out proper reason or support.

60%

Challenging Factors in Project Retention

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project management | cover story

Scope Triangle:

3 Pillars

of Project Management Time, cost and quality, the three pillars of project management can make or break a project, if not handled meticulously

n IT managerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s effort has always been to implement a project successfully within budget and time, working out modalities for reducing cost while maintaining quality. Under such circumstances, scope triangle is most crucial and according to the Project Management Institute most of the Indian projects are well within the initial budget as compared to initial scope and schedule targets. According to Manoj K Gupta, President and CEO of Project Managment Institute (PMI), North India Chapter, about 50 per cent of the projects are on initial schedule and in initial scope.

Criticality of Scope Triangle While time, cost and quality form the important components of this triangle, they need to lead to client satisfaction in terms of benefits expected by the client from the project.

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cover story | project management

Defining the Project Scope

Source: FICCI & PMI of India

that project governance will work out the comparisons between actual versus standard, budgeted versus actual and planned versus implementation practices and rule out any business frustration with regard to failed initiatives or rising cost. Krishnan says that most of the time the hidden rogue is IT spending which is not classified as IT in the accounts, which creates an overall biased view of IT costs. HR too becomes an important component of the scope triangle when it comes to quality of the people and related skills. “These pain points could be related to problems with business-IT alignment, definition of business requirements, lack of a benefit realisation process, or suboptimal implementation and project and program management processes,” says Krishnan Complex IT operating models for instance, decentralised or federated IT organisations that often have different structures, practices and policies require a strong focus on GEIT to ensure optimal IT decision-making and effective and efficient operations. “This pain point often becomes more significant with globalisation because each territory or region may have specific and potentially unique internal and external and monitor very closely at a granular environmental factors to be level addressed,” he says. Check the dependency on third party The time spent per project vendors for server or any licence or phase will differ greatly resource availability for integration depending on the specific between two applications enterprise environment, its Ensure that SLAs are vetted by wellmaturity, and the scope of the manned, competent outsourced legal implementation or improvement team before the signing; utilisation is initiative. necessary

According to Gupta, SLAs play a key role in adhering to the commitment from cost, time and quality perspectives, keeping the best interest of the client in mind. “With projects getting more and more complex, multilocational, with varying time-zones as project teams and client offices are spread across different cities, countries and continents, it is pertinent that all contracts and SLAs are vetted by well-manned, competent outsourced legal team before signing,” says Gupta. Sunder Krishnan, Member, ISACA India Task Force, finds scope triangle pivotal to a project. “To have better control over the scope, certain governance standards prescribed by various bodies need to be followed,” says Krishnan and adds, “As part of quality criteria, project dashboards should be well laid down with the involvement of the business users and periodical meetings on dashboards are the key.” With regard to time and cost, Krishnan observes

For Better Results: Add time-delay the project to give you more time to add functionality Add cost-recruit, hire or acquire more people to do the extra work Cut quality-trade off some nonessential requirements for the new requirements Diamond Model-Novelty, Technology, Complexity and Pace Have a stage gate review of project

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project management | cover story “However, the overall time spent on each iteration Ramakrishnan, Head, Core Banking, ITCD, of the full lifecycle ideally should not exceed six ING Vysya Bank Ltd, suggested is to review the current procedure and study the gap to define the months, with improvements applied progressively; otherwise, there is a risk of losing momentum, focus scope of the project. Once, the scope is defined, it’s important to run it past the stakeholders and get and buy-in from stakeholders,” says Krishnan. The goal is to get into a rhythm of regular their inputs and finalise it. “Post finalisation of the scope, the cost can be arrived at through RFPs and improvements. Larger-scale initiatives should be the vendor identified and walkstructured as multiple iterations of through or POC done before the lifecycle. Over time, the engaging with the vendor lifecycle will be followed for development,” says iteratively while building Ramakrishnan. a sustainable approach. Most of us will This becomes a normal argue that majority of business practice the project will have when the phases ‘schedule slippage’ as in the lifecycle are normal rather than as an everyday activities anomaly. The challenge and continual for many managers is to improvement occurs. — Dharmaraj Ramakrishnan, Head, Core Banking, ING Vysya Bank Ltd find an alternate approach The process to tasks and schedules in that Dharmaraj order to complete the project on time or get approval for delays. But, most projects eventually miss initial timelines due to poor analysis in the initial stage of the project. For example, in a typical application implementation project, there may be dependency on third party vendors for server or any licence or resource availability for integration between two applications. But, if these dependencies are not well factored at the beginning of the project, the project deadlines will automatically slip. Also, there could be scenarios, where the cost is not factored in for some items on the initial stage of the project. This scenario also could lead to a delay in the project; as to complete this particular task, the cost has to be approved before even commencing it. At times, the cost approval gets delayed which will have a direct impact on the project deliverables and the delivery schedule. “The solution is to manage the stress of ‘the immovable rock and irresistible force, ie, the project deadline and challenges,” says Ramakrishnan. The keys are creative planning, alternative analysis and communication of reality to the project board, the project sponsor and the stakeholders. It’s also important to determine what deadlines are tied to higher level objectives, or have critical links to other key projects in the organisation, besides having a CBA (Cost Benefit Analysis) in place and the same must be reviewed in line with the project portfolio. Ravish Jhala, Systems Manager, Trident opines that time, cost and quality are the “Scope Triangle” or the “Quality Triangle” that show the trade-offs inherent in any project.

“The solution is to manage the stress of the immovable rock and irresistible force, ie, the project deadline and the project challenges”

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cover story | project management

Business and

Operational

Bottlenecks The top management’s concerns are around effective utilisation of resources and funds allocated, IT managers’ concerns are to keep the costs within prescribed limit

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ere’s taking a micro level look at some of the challenges IT managers face in project management from the business and operations perspectives. Project management is the art of organising the components of a project—whether related to the development of a new product, launch of a new service, a marketing campaign, or even a gathering. So, project management will continue to reveal itself as part art and science, with a logical and scientific approach, throwing up situational and temperamental challenges. As such, it is the IT managers who face hiccups and need skills to address the business and operation issues.

project management | cover story Operational and Business Demand Some of the issues that crop up regard the business group’s frustrations around a project delay and unrealistic demands. Unsupportive attitude of the user groups and inappropriate recruitment of candidates who turn out be disappointing and so on. Srinivas Kishan Anapu, CEO , Spandana Infotech Ltd opines that the biggest challenge is getting skilled team members at the right time. “While operations groups (recruitment group) continuously strive to get the right people, business groups try to grab the resources if there is a higher billing in a different project, which might impact the project quality,” says Anapu But Manoj Gupta, President and CEO of PMI North India Chapter has a different understanding to offer. He says one common challenge is either very little or too much ownership of the project by business groups. In case of little ownership, project team keep trying hard to deliver the project but it never gets completed or delivered vis-à-vis contractual obligations and timelines, leading to loss and frustrations with vendor and their teams. “If there is too much ownership by business, the IT function is hit in a big way owing to severe interference in the day-to-day operations,” says Gupta. Likewise, Sunder Krishnan, Member of ISACA India Task Force argues, “Inadequate involvement of users from business and operations could be a major challenge. Operations and business personnel may not cooperate. Resources may

Overcoming Bottlenecks Team management skills Coordination with respective stakeholders Relevant certification Project manager should appreciate whole team either through video conferencing, audio conferencing, email or SMS that gives every project associate an impression

of direct management involvement Sharing the organisational vision and setting goals based on this Get the CEO to be part of every strategy meeting Maintain transparency throughout the project with regard to cost, quality, time and people

not be granted. In the absence of multifunctional participation, a project could land in serious crisis.” Another challenge could be resource allocation not being adequate. He feels that projects are sometimes not given adequate priority as they are treated as “business as usual”. This paves the way for part time teams to work on a project and affects the quality of the project as there is less commitment from the participants. This could be a drag on the project and the deadlines. AM Madan, CMD of Ondot Couriers & Cargo Ltd, feels time constraint as a major challenge. Madan says, “It is always difficult to estimate the time required to complete a project. Business and operations do not understand the technical challenges of the software developer, service provider and other working groups which might delay a project, and forget to factor these into the plan.” “In order to avoid any hiccups, management should ask for a checklist from IT teams for every activity involved in the project along with time deadlines and backup arrangements,” says Madan. This detailed view helps in identifying unseen situations which could abruptly stall a project midway, he adds. “For many IT professionals, 2011 was a challenging year; the bad news is AM Madan, CMD, Ondot Couriers that 2012 isn’t going to be any easier,” feels Ravish Jhala, Systems Manager at Trident Group. “The pressure from the top management to deliver more with less along with the ambitious growth expectations, have put the IT services delivery teams under constant scrutiny,” says Jhala.

“It is always difficult to estimate the time required to complete a project as business and operations do not understand the technical challenges of other working groups”

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cover story | project management

Reasons for

Project

Future Leaders

Failures

“Tendency to accept scope changes at project level without involving steering committee can result in delay or failure of the project” — Sreekanth Elkuri, Project Manager, Mindtree Consulting

“The overall time spent on every iteration of the full project lifecycle should not exceed six months, with improvements applied progressively; otherwise, there is a risk of failure”

— Ravish Jhala, Systems Manager, Trident.

—Sunder Krishnan, Member, ISACA India Task Force

— Dharmaraj Ramakrishnan, Head-Core Banking, ING Vysya Bank Ltd

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—Pertisth Mankotia, CIO, SheelaFoam Pvt Ltd

“Failure to perform careful analysis of the critical new requirement discovered midway and the inability to accurately assess the political climate will result in failure”

“Poor scoping and design at the initial stage of the project, resulting in changes brought midway may lead to cost escalation”

“Project taken up for namesake and each member associated with it not being deeply interested in the top line and bottom-line growth can result in a failure”

“Using state-of-theart technology can cause unanticipated problems besides, using a poor technical design that does not allow for modification will result in failure” —Srinivas Kishan Anapu, CEO, Spandana Infotech

Leaders

Anil Saini CIO, Ricoh India Ltd Keyur Desai AVP, AEGIS-IT Infrastructure Project Group

Vijay Choudhary DGM-IT, HRH Group of Hotels Prakash Kumar Director-IT, Delta India Electronics Pvt Ltd

Manish Sinha Head-IT, Ondot Couriers & Cargo Ltd Archie Jackson GM-IT, Steria India Ltd

Dhananjay C Rokde Global Head-IS, Coxs & Kings Group

NEXT100 Winners are Winning in their Careers too Next100 winners seem to be much more motivated with the growth and positive changes they have witnessed in their professional life post the awards

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Awardee 2011

riefly, Next100 winners see themselves as evolved, motivated, confident, ambitious and intellectual professionals. These attributes were captured in an honest feedback that the winners shared with IT Next in a recent survey. The survey was carried out in April with the objective to get insights into the career changes that the winners have been through and the experiences that they had in their journey to reach their professional goals. The idea behind embarking on such a survey was to share these insights with their peer groups at large, who are in the process of moving up the value chain, and thus motivate them to do the right things and plan their strategies ahead. The IT Next survey intended to dive into the growth moves that the Next100 winners observed post the awards. Particularly, gaining insights into the specific tasks that helped in their career growth, accounting for the specific difference that winning the award had made to their professional life and how it had contributed to their personality evolution. It was also intended to discover the new skills that they had ntly acquired in the process Receoted as to grow professionally. prom IO C The percentage indicated in the form of graphical representation does not perfectly round of to 100 per cent, as the participants were asked to tick multiple options.

Positive Move Interestingly, the survey revealed that about 78 per cent of the Next100 winners (both 2010 and 2011) saw a positive change in their careers post the award, and 14 per cent of

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“Post the jury interaction, I have got more involved in the business management of the company such as driving new alliances, processes, etc” —Anil Saini, CIO, Ricoh India Ltd

Awardee 2010

“I consciously developed listening ability, implementation skills, team management and an urge to fight until the goal is achieved” —Manish Sinha, Head-IT, Ondot Couriers & Cargo Ltd

the respondents mentioned that they were promoted to the rank of CIO. About 25 per cent stated that they were expecting to become the CIO in the next one year and about 35 per cent felt certain of being elevated to the CIO’s post in the next three years. Dhananjay C Rokde, who saw a positive change in his career, moving up the chain to become the Group

14% winners have become CIOs already

Head-IS, Cox & Kings, from his earlier role as Manager, Information and Infrastructure Security at Integreon Managed Solutions, says, “I received substantial industry recognition as the winner of Next100 award in 2010, and became a part of several elite industry forums, which exposed me to a much larger segment of the technology environment. “Meeting new industry

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Awardee 2011

leaders definitely inspired me to innovate and design my own career path for the future,” adds Rokde. Manish Sinha, Head-IT, Ondot Couriers & Cargo Ltd, though he did not see any change in his designation, found himself being associated with business decisions and was given the responsibility of improving recovery cycle of the company by analysing operations and automating them, which he successfully achieved. Archie Jackson, recently promoted as GM-IT, Steria India Ltd, from being a senior manager, believes that Next100 has helped him in his growth. “My visibility within and outside the company has increased and I have garnered a lot of respect from my subordinates, peers and higher management,” says Jackson. Prakash Kumar of Delta India Electronics Pvt Ltd, who was promoted as Director-IT from the

60% of the winners are certain to become CIOs in next three years

“After receiving the award, I started thinking of new initiatives to understand business issues and leverage technology to business advantage” —Vijay Choudhary, DGM-IT, HRH Group of Hotels

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post of senior manager, opines that winning the Next100 award has boosted his confidence and paved the way for better acceptance in the professional circle. For Anil Saini, who was promoted as CIO, Ricoh India Ltd from head-IT, the Next100 award has helped in cementing the company’s faith in him and it was a big influencing factor on the top management’s decision to promote him. Keyur Desai promoted as Associate Vice President at AEGIS-IT, Infrastructure Project Group, emphasises that the award has got him great recognition amongst his peers, senior management, partners and

OEMs, while building his confidence to aim for bigger things.

Factors that Fuelled the Change With better confidence, IT managers performed some tasks which brought them more accolades. IT Next survey discovered that 89.3 per cent of the

respondents were involved in IT planning, strategy and decisionmaking and developed effective team management capabilities post the award, which paid off rich dividends. About 78.6 per cent of the IT managers focussed on developing project management capabilities and spent time on understanding business needs.

About 75 per cent of the respondents helped the organisation to garner better RoI in IT implementations, which worked in their favour. For Keyur Desai, his never say die spirit, ability to multitask, desire to learn new concepts and technologies, decision-making abilities and good team management and communication

Awardee 2011

ntly Receoted as prom or-IT

ct Dire

“Next100 has boosted my confidence and paved the way for better acceptance in the professional circle” —Prakash Kumar, Director-IT, Delta India Electronics Pvt Ltd

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Awardee 2010

78%

of the winners have witnessed a positive impact on their career post the award

“I received substantial industry recognition as the winner and became a part of several elite industry forums and got new exposure” —Dhananjay C Rokde, Global Head-IS, Coxs & Kings Group

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skills helped him to bring in positive changes and growth. Encouraged by professionals and top management, Anil Saini was able to focus on areas such as innovative business solutions, which gave him an opportunity to be the chief information technology advisor to the company. “In this capacity, I guided the company’s interest towards aggressive growth path,” says Saini. Delta’s Kumar attributes his success to his performance and ability to build a team, which contributed to his success, and above all being a Next100 award winner was the biggest plus factor. The winning factors ntly Receoted as for Jackson included his prom bal annual performance Glo -IS combined with the d Hea business expansion and revenue addition and industrialisation of current IT structure, which was possible with the confidence he developed with winning of the award. Interestingly, Manish Sinha says, “I consciously developed listening ability, implementation skills, team management and an urge to fight until the goal is achieved which led to my success in personal and professional life.” Dhananjay Rokde “decided to consciously stop micro-management of technical matters and focussed energies on business empowerment and acceleration.” Rokde took major interest in understanding organisational structure, culture and even took succession planning very seriously, while moving the IT vertical from dependency to an independent entity.

The positive change that Vijay Choudhary, DGM-IT, HRH Group of Hotels, witnessed was an ability to think differently. “After receiving the Next100 award, I started thinking that I can take more initiatives to understand business issues and leverage technology to business advantage, to add value to the

brand and company’s growth,” says Choudhary.

Motivated to Acquire Skills Most IT managers who participated in the survey maintained that earlier, they were just not motivated to try newer things within the given territory; but

were prompted to acquire new skills and expertise in certain domains which helped them in moving up the value chain after winning the award. Majority agreed that the award helped them make their presence felt in the organisation as they drew senior management’s attention and were thought dependable. About 71.4

Awardee 2011

ntly Receoted as prom VP

The never say die spirit, ability to multitask, desire to learn new concepts and decision-making abilities helped me to bring in positive changes” —Keyur Desai, AVP, AEGIS-IT Infrastructure Project Group

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“My visibility within and outside the company has increased and I have garnered a lot of respect from my subordinates, peers and higher groups” —Archie Jackson, GM-IT, Steria India Ltd

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per cent of the respondents were of the opinion that the senior management Awardee knew them better after the recognition 2011 they got as the winner of the award. The most critical aspect was that the awardees realised that new skills were essential to scale up to take up larger roles. Interestingly, 67.9 per cent took up initiatives to improve their negotiation skills, while 60.7 per cent of the IT managers made special efforts to build team management capabilities. About 64.3 per cent initiated efforts to grab project management techniques, while 46.4 per cent acquired knowledge and skills around finance management. For instance, Rokde says, “I needed to hone a select skill set, to acquire a position of influence. While privacy and cybercrime was my forte, I began to concentrate on strategic and organisational planning, people management and most importantly, learnt the art of inspiring my team to think out-of-the-box rather than just problem solving.” For Archie Jackson, the Next100 award jury of 48 eminent CIOs motivated him acquire suitable skills to reach the level of a y l t n CIO. “I have added the agile Receoted as methodology skills along prom -IT M with cloud computing G infrastructure architecture skills to the existing domain expertise I have,” says Jackson. Anil Saini got inspired during the jury interaction as he felt that one needed to think beyond technology management and asset management. “Post that I have got more involved in the business management of the company, be it in driving new alliances, in acquisition integration process, strategy development and so on,” reiterates Saini. Keyur Desai opines that advanced communication and presentation skills, technology adaptability skills, self-confidence, risk taking factor, hard and smart working skills, besides better team management skills are critical for growth and are the necessary ingredients for all to move up the value chain.

insight | technology

Innovative Tech for Content Rich

Website

Effective CMS, clustered SQL and high-end servers would streamline data storage and improve reliability for website By R O B E RT K I YO SA K I

rom my book, Rich Dad Poor Dad, The Rich Dad Co (TRDC) has expanded into a comprehensive financial education and coaching business with a global audience of more than three million. We would not have achieved this success without implementing new technology developments in social media, live streaming of events and interactive games. To compete in any industry, you need the latest technological advances and you must challenge the status quo. With that in mind, I assembled a team of top-notch developers and designers and let them go to work. My internal team of seven, headed up by Shane Caniglia, Director of Technology, and Robert LeCount, Manager of Web Development and Data, coordinates a larger pool of outside talent. Their first project was to create a new and content-rich website. LeCount describes the technology: â&#x20AC;&#x153;We used Kentico CMS (farmed and load-balanced) .Net based as the content management system, the Microsoft SQL database (clustered) to store data and ensure constant availability, and HP servers for reliability. Completed in six months, the site included a newsletter-registration process that we custom-developed, interactive forms

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technology | insight

Ingredients for a fascinating website Introduction of new technologies related to social media, live streaming of events and interactive games Use of Kentico CMS (farmed and load-balanced), the Microsoft SQL database for data storage and availability and HP servers for reliability Building Cashflow Financial Calculator app that makes playing the traditional Cashflow board game very easy

image: ph otos. co m

Autodesk SketchBook Pro painting and drawing software

tied directly to our email marketing system, PDF digital workbooks and an online community forum provided as part of Kentico CMS.” In addition, we assigned two team members to manage social media channels, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and logs. Greg Arthur and Shannon Crist, our social media specialists, reviewed my posts and monitored social media activities throughout the day. Realising the potential for sharing our financial education processes online, my team used technology to publish

Rich Dad’s Conspiracy of the Rich: The 8 new rules of money was the first book written completely online. Caniglia details how I “posted draft chapters and then invited feedback, commentary and questions from readers worldwide via website forums and blogs using Kentico CMS. This feedback was then incorporated into the book as it was released, chapter by chapter, free on the internet.” We began looking at electronic publishing differently. In June 2011, we presented the first live Kindle e-booksigning of Unfair Advantage: The Power of Financial Education. And in October 2011, we provided live e-book signatures of Midas Touch, the book I wrote with Donald Trump. Caniglia explains how it worked: “During the Facebook live-streamed event, we captured signatures using Autodesk SketchBook Pro painting and drawing software. Instead of waiting for weeks to receive their exclusive signed books online, buyers could purchase them in the iBookstore within 48 hours.”

Using Technology to Succeed From these technology activities, our site traffic has doubled, and our social media audience has increased by more than 3,000 per cent. We have also obtained significant publicity, which has increased book sales and mentions on the top-seller lists. Through our live-streaming technology, we’ve delivered content to more than 110 countries around the world. Participants can see and hear us in real time and interact with our team on a personal level. Enhanced e-books, articles and archived videos are now part of our online library. We’ve surpassed a milestone of one million Cashflow games played online, reaching beyond the physical board game on a global scale. By listening to feedback, we’re able to provide our customers with the products and information they want, in the way they want it. For example, we used technology to take our Cashflow board game online.

“Success in streamlining content would not have been possible without implementing new technologies in social media, live events and games” Caniglia describes the process: “We built the Cashflow Financial Calculator app to make it easier to play our traditional Cashflow board game. This included improved retinadisplay graphics, icons, stability and performance enhancements, and support for iOS up to 5.0 and updated language translations.” We created the online version of the Cashflow game. Complete with cartoon characters, music, video tutorials and automatic calculations, the online version makes it fun and easy for people of all ages to learn about finances at any time and play with anyone in the world. “The technical work is intensive, but it’s been a fascinating challenge taking The Rich Dad Company to a new level of technology to reach a loyal global following,” Caniglia says. These technology initiatives allow us to change and communicate quickly to meet the needs of our worldwide audience, exceed our sales goals and, most importantly, help more people get a financial education. After all, knowledge is the new money, and the way it’s delivered makes all the difference. Robert Kiyosaki is the creator of the Cashflow board game, founder of the financial educationbased The Rich Dad Co and author of the personal finance book Rich Dad Poor Dad.

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insight | Cloud Computing

Pros & Cons

The cloud computing service models have their own issues with regard to systems integration among the various on-premise and cloud systems that are deployed By Alex ande r Pas i k

ccording to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), cloud computing is a model for enabling on-demand access to a pool of computing resources that can be provisioned and released with minimal effort. Furthermore, NIST categorises cloud computing into three service models: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS). Each has distinct advantages and disadvantages that impact the information technology (IT) efforts of an enterprise as well as its business practices and finances. As the CIO’s role evolves from pure IT service provider toward full partner in defining and executing enterprise strategies, you’ll find yourself navigating those pros and cons of cloud computing.

The Service Models The spectrum of cloud computing service models ranges from IaaS to PaaS to SaaS, with subtle variations in between. These models can be understood according to the increasing levels of IT services that each provides, along with the concomitant increasing

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levels of control that the enterprise must relinquish to the cloud provider. IaaS providers deliver virtual server environments to the enterprise, upon which the IT department deploys all of the software layers it chooses. PaaS providers deliver similar virtual server environments, but preloaded with specific operating systems, database systems, and development environments, thus decreasing the amount of effort needed by the IT department in setting up and maintaining those layers, but restricting the environments’ use to development and deployment upon those layers. SaaS providers deliver fully functional applications that are accessed by end users via thin clients like web browsers; they do not expose the underlying layers to the customers. The spectrum of cloud computing service models offers an increasing collection of managed IT services with concomitant decreasing control and flexibility. The three cloud computing service models all provide varying levels of economies of scale, impose varying degrees of vendor lock-in, and have their own issues with regard to

systems integration among the various on-premise and cloud systems that are deployed. Furthermore, the suitability of cloud computing varies with regard to IT and business maturity. The value proposition for IT has always been economies of scale. IT enabled the growth of businesses by allowing for massive transaction speeds and volumes. In computing’s early years, the expense associated with data centres resulted in timesharing. Microprocessors and storage in the 1980s resulted in a backlash against centralised data centres; since hardware was so cheap, why not localise IT and ignore any savings from reuse? However, by the 1990s it was clear that despite low-cost processing and storage, IT costs escalated dramatically due to the management and maintenance associated with highly distributed, unshared, and under-leveraged resources. Cloud computing represents a return to time-sharing, but leveraging the advances of the last 30 years. All of the service models enable some economies of scale. In IaaS, the data centre (real estate, power, cooling), the processing and storage hardware, and the firewalls and networks, are all shared among the cloud

Cloud Computing | insight provider’s clients. Fixed costs are distributed, resulting in savings that can be shared among the provider and clients. At the opposite end of the spectrum, SaaS providers run complete software applications designed for multitenancy—adding a client to Google Apps does not require Google to roll out new servers, databases, and software specifically for that client. The economies of scale for such multitenant SaaS solutions can be enormous, often in excess of tenfold savings. As the spectrum of these economic benefits is large, it is important that CIOs considering cloud solutions realise that those economic benefits will be less (and perhaps non-existent) for IaaS. That is, whereas there are compelling noneconomic arguments for IaaS, economies of scale are best realised via SaaS. As economies of scale improve, vendor lock-in issues are increasingly cumbersome. In IaaS environments, since the client maintains complete control of the software layers deployed on the provider’s servers, it should be a straightforward exercise to migrate those virtual environments. However, the migration of an enterprise’s financial systems running in a SaaS environment presents a substantial challenge. Nevertheless, it is important to note that this disadvantage of SaaS stickiness is no more onerous than the stickiness of equivalent on-premise solutions. Therefore, the vendor-lock-in spectrum should not be considered either an advantage for IaaS or disadvantage for SaaS based on their cloud nature.

Cloud Computing’s SystemsIntegration Challenges Systems integration has always been a challenge for IT organisations. A proper implementation of a cloud solution should neither ease nor exacerbate this challenge. For IaaS, the burden on IT is to implement a hybrid cloud. That is, by implementing virtual environments on-premise similar to

the cloud provider’s, the integration of Cloud Computing’s Security systems should be handled similarly to Questions traditional integration tasks. Finally, no conversation about the For enterprises prepared to commit pitfalls of cloud computing is complete to a single development platform, PaaS without discussing security. “How can solutions offer streamlined integration you expect me to house my precious within the offered platform; however, data in the cloud? It can’t be as secure integrating those systems with others as in my data centre under my control!” involves not only traditional integration The argument is powerful, despite challenges, but also new ones involving its core flaw: an effective cloud the transformations between the provider, whose business is managing a on-premise and cloud environments. multitenant data centre, invests far more With SaaS solutions, the cloud in security that an enterprise whose provider wholly controls each system. business is not data centre management. In some cases, they cannot be integrated Indeed, it is akin to your money being with others at all. But, increasingly, safer in a bank than in your mattress. SaaS providers are But, the psychological offering application barrier still exists in programmer interfaces the illusion of security to enable integration. within an enterprise’s At a minimum, CIOs walls. Perhaps that servers should insist on identity fear can be mitigated integration capability so in Asia Pacific are with cloud insurance in that SaaS and on-premise which insurance against virtualised systems can share singlesecurity breaches is Survey sign-on features. available at discounted Overall, cloud-to-premise integration rates over similar insurance for presents a growing challenge for on-premise data security. Such hybrid environments and an emerging discounted rates should be available requirement for mature tools. There based on the level of investment in are some existing vendor offerings security technologies that the cloud available, but the costs of these tools provider maintains. However, even if must be factored into the decisions. these barriers are overcome, satisfying An enterprise’s size and maturity, or security concerns, a remaining issue enterprise inertia, has a profound effect on is the lag between reality and law. its ability to exploit cloud computing. As Eventually, laws should reflect reality, enterprise inertia increases from infancy but it will take time. (start up) to mature (large enterprise with well developed IT exploiting Cloud Computing’s Future virtualisation), the ability to leverage the The economic benefits of cloud benefits of cloud computing starts high, computing will overwhelm the then decreases, and then increases again. obstacles, demanding solutions that On the other end of the inertia overcome them. There are pitfalls spectrum, mature enterprises having and caveats that CIOs and CEOs alike implemented a private cloud can must beware of in adopting cloud easily extend into the public cloud for computing, but the biggest mistake of managing load requirements, data all is to be left behind as competitors centre expansion, or specific SaaS take advantage of this inevitable future offerings. The most difficult situation of the IT industry. is encountered with adolescent enterprises invested in on-premise non—Alexander Pasik, PhD is CIO of the IEEE and virtualised data centres with custom Adjunct Associate Professor of Computer Scienterprise systems. These CIOs face the ence at Columbia University in New York City. —This opinion was first published in CIO challenges with cloud solutions due to Insight. For more stories please visit www. cioinsight.com. systems integration issues.

66%

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special coverage | Verizon View

“Because we own and operate many of our data centres, we can take responsibility for end-to-end performance and availability” John Samuel, India President, Verizon, talks about the benefits that enterprises can reap from cloud computing—and the value propositions that make Verizon's solutions truly compelling Q: What solutions in cloud computing does Verizon offer its customers? A: Terremark, a Verizon Company, is a leader in transforming and securing enterprise-class IT on a global scale. In addition to best-of-breed IT and cloud services, the Terremark portfolio includes Verizon’s managed security, risk and compliance, and identity and access management services, as well as application management services and IT and security professional services, all of which are critical enablers to the delivery of enterpriseclass cloud services. This combination of Verizon and Terremark’s enterprise IT capabilities will now be delivered through nearly 50 leadingedge data centres (NAP of Amsterdam

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Verizon View | special coverage

being the newest), enabling an expansive array of IT solutions that meet the stringent security, performance and regulatory requirements of enterprises around the globe. At the centre of Terremark’s capabilities is its enterprise-class IT platform, which combines advanced IT infrastructure with world-class provisioning and automation capabilities. Terremark’s standards-based approach fully aligns with today’s enterprise business requirements driven by agility, productivity and competitive advantage. In August 2011, Verizon Communications Inc acquired CloudSwitch, an innovative provider of cloud software technology. CloudSwitch brings Verizon breakthrough software that enables enterprises to more easily and securely move applications, or workloads, between company data centres and the cloud without changing the application or the infrastructure layer— eliminating a key barrier to widespread cloud adoption. With CloudSwitch’s technology, enterprises gain new flexibility and greater control in moving to and from the cloud, while extending security over applications and data. In addition, enterprise applications remain tightly integrated and can be managed as if they are running locally. When combined with Terremark’s advanced IT and security capabilities, this technology further enables total enterprise-class cloud solutions (private-to-public, publicto-public and hybrid) across the globe. Q: How is Verizon positioned in terms of pricing vis-a-vis competitors? What features differentiate Verizon from other cloud providers? A: Verizon has never competed on cost. The value of the combined cloud, security and network proposition is extremely compelling. The key differentiators of the true enterprise cloud include features such as physical servers available on demand as well as our unique ‘enterprise cloud dynamic capacity management’ (which allows to automatically deal with sudden spikes in usage by enabling ‘burst

mode’ access to a pool of additional resources available on a metered basis). Secondly, the data centres are run on Verizon’s global network (both public and private). Thirdly, the fact that we own and operate many of our own data centres means that we can take responsibility for end-to-end performance/availability (up to 100% service level agreement). Lastly, we take security extremely seriously. Our focus on the enterprise and government space means that we see very few competitors that are able to offer such a comprehensive solution, espe-

“With CloudSwitch’s technology, enterprises gain new flexibility and greater control in moving to and from the cloud, while extending security over applications and data” cially when you take into account the value of the combined cloud, security and network proposition. Q: Many enterprises are apprehensive about the security of cloud deployments. What steps or measures does Verizon take to address security issues associated with the cloud? A: Security is one of the most important factors which should be taken into consideration before moving onto the cloud platform. This concern must be adequately addressed. Industry standards and regulations such as HIPAA, the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS), the Gramm-LeachBiley Act (GLBA), and the Statement on Auditing Standards 70 (SAS-70) have

very defined and measurable security requirements. For cloud computing to be viable, providers must adhere to the same standards and controls that an organisation would impose in-house. Verizon Business also has a professional services and security practice which can assist customers in their governance and regulatory compliance pursuits, as well as help customers with any of their other specific needs in moving towards and maximising the benefits of a CaaS environment. In addition, Terremark has received certification that six of its cloud-enabled data centres are compliant with PCI-DSS version 2.0. Terremark’s commercial and government customers that process credit card transactions can manage and house their business-critical applications knowing the supporting infrastructure is protected at the industry-recognised standard for payment-card security. In terms of physical security, Terremark’s physical security standards for data centre facilities feature a centrallylocated Command Centre manned by security personnel 24x7x365. Security personnel monitor all security cameras, guard building entrance and exit access points, and control keycard access to elevators, floors and roof areas. In addition, environmental sensors notify tenants and mobilise rescue in case of emergency. Q: For which industry segments or applications are cloud solutions best suited? A: With the convergence of smart mobile devices and powerful cloud-computing services, businesses across sectors now have the tools to harness expanding collective business intelligence, driven by a connected, attuned, and aware workforce. We have been dealing with customers that span different sectors, including healthcare, BFSI, gaming, automotive, insurance, hospitality, entertainment and even some start-ups. Q: Please describe some of your key cloud deployments and the benefits derived by customers.

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special coverage | Verizon View

A: One interesting customer example is Mossi & Ghisolfi, a global chemical engineering company headquartered in Italy. The company needed an IT infrastructure that would drive agility and innovation across its expanding global communications network, which links manufacturing and R&D facilities in Europe, and North and South America. M&G chose an enterprise cloud solution, delivered by Deloitte and Verizon, as the foundation for its new business IT environment. The robust and secure platform can be scaled on demand according to M&G’s immediate business needs and enables easy access to business-critical applications all around the globe as well as the addition of new websites. The solution,

of age and deliver substantial benefits – dramatically reducing capital expenditures and creating business efficiencies and better economics. Cloud services will give companies powerful new options to move workloads easily between the corporate data centre and the cloud of a company’s choice. Whether a public, private or hybrid cloud model, the enterprise cloud will play an essential role in mobilising enterprise apps that enable both workforce mobility and new business paradigms. In addition, personalisation will continue to be an inspiration for innovation, driving companies to reengineer their processes and business models. Increasingly, businesses will look for new opportunities and channels to meet customers on their terms. Multifunction kiosks located out-

benefits. A multi-generational workforce will employ technology to truly embrace a borderless work style—where work is an activity, not a location. With each new smart device or software application added to a network, all endpoints and devices will become inherently smarter—each benefiting exponentially from additional connections. Whether the connections are people-to-people, machine-to-people or machine-to-machine, new opportunities will be created to solve societal challenges such as employing IT to address the rising cost of health care or deliver smart energy solutions. Because of the network’s importance, any interruption of service will have a profound impact. As a result, there will be an even greater

“Whether a public, private or hybrid cloud model, the enterprise cloud will play an essential role in mobilising enterprise apps that enable both workforce mobility and new business paradigms” — John Samuel, India President, Verizon

delivered through Verizon’s Terremark subsidiary, also helps drive cost and management efficiencies, including power consumption, linking to M&G’s green goals. A strategic group of partners, led by Verizon and Deloitte, manages the network, enabling M&G’s own IT organisation to focus its attention on strategic business programmes. Verizon’s enterprise-class cloud platform now supports the delivery of key business applications, including SAP business intelligence, enterprise resource planning and enterprise application integration, to 550 key users around the globe. Q: What are the future trends in cloud computing that Verizon foresees? How is Verizon positioned to meet the future demands in cloud computing? A: The enterprise cloud will finally come

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side of traditional retail venues, contact centre routing and “click to chat” windows will help companies better serve customers. The enterprise cloud will enable more application intelligence and the ability to integrate applications and physical environments, helping businesses personalise the customer service experience and enhance customer satisfaction. The already Web-centric enterprise will become even more social, and the ability to tap intelligence at all levels of the organization will become the new norm. With the right tools—such as high-definition video for richer collaboration and intelligent 'crowdsourcing' (large-scale collaboration)—enterprises can produce, find and convey information with much less effort and greater velocity and efficacy than ever before. This will foster innovation and enhance productivity with exponential

demand for carefully designed and wellmanaged services at the core of the global IP backbone and high-speed wireless networks. Big data—large data sets that can now be managed with the right tools—will drive innovation, helping to evolve the role of Chief Information Officer to Chief Innovation Officer. These new 'thinkers' will be responsible for determining the quality of data and strategic applications used to create new business opportunities while empowering evidence-based decision making for greater success. Predictive Analytics, based on vast amounts of synthesised data, will become an increasingly important tool for the enterprise. Companies that harness the intelligence inherent in their data, secure it and act on it accordingly can expect to gain a significant competitive edge.

iGate patni case study | advertorial

Jayant Varadarajan, Divisional Manager, iGATE Patni.

Chella Namasivayam, CIO, iGATE Patni

Mukund Rao, Group Manager, iGATE Patni.

Collaborative

Success

Using video conferencing technology and tools from Cisco, iGATE Patni has achieved operational efficiency and enhanced user experience while reducing costs

oing more with less has been the common expectation of business heads from IT teams across organisations and iGATE Patni is no exception. A multi-location global organisation with a talent pool of over 27,000 people, iGATE consistently delivers effective IT outsourcing solutions to over 360 Fortune 1,000 clients. To serve its clients, the company has developed a unique business model, called iTOPS (integrated technology and operations),

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advertorial | iGate patni case study

which facilitates a single-point analysis of the multidimensional business matrix encompassing business goals, IT, operations, processes, human resources and related costs. Given that iGATE Patni’s offices are spread across multiple locations, its executives are often required to travel widely, for days and even weeks on end. With the growth in its business and the spread of its operations, travel was becoming an increasingly expensive proposition for the company. In addition, there was a dire need to enhance operational efficiency, reduce cost of operations and improve the quality of communication and collaboration amongst teams at a quicker pace. All these challenges compelled the company’s IT team to deploy video conferencing solutions to meet its needs cost-effectively.

photo graphy: s radhakri shna

The Challenges The challenge and objective of the IT team was to aid its internal teams in quick decision-making and improve workflow efficiencies, whilst reducing carbon footprint. Travel overheads were getting too high, given that iGATE Patni had its locations spread across Bangalore, with three offices in Hyderabad, two in Chennai, three in Pune, four offices in Mumbai, two in Gandhinagar, two in Delhi and an overseas branch in Fremont. Besides the ever-increasing costs of travel, concerns about efficiency, and the need for employees to juggle many tasks compelled the top management of iGATE Patni to seek solutions that would reduce the cost drastically and simultaneously improve productivity of various groups. Realising these needs, the CEO as well as the CFO called for immediate technological upgrade of the communication infrastructure. This put humongous pressure on iGATE’s CIO M Chella Namasivayam and his team members, Jayant Varadarajan, Divisional Manager and Mukund Rao, Group Manager. It prompted them to consider an appropriate technology that could meet the productivity needs while addressing the cost factor. The trio decided to go in for a state-ofthe-art video conferencing solution. As a

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“The Cisco video solution deployed at iGATE Patni is an excellent illustration of how video -conferencing services have been transformed into becoming a critical business function” — Daisy Chittilapilly, VP- Sales, Cisco India & SAARC

legacy, iGATE had been using standarddefinition equipment from Tandberg, Polycom and LifeSize that primarily used ISDN connections for communication. However, issues like disconnections, slow speed, and poor quality of video were common complaints. iGATE’s CIO C Namasivayam observes, “There was a need to go in for a complete overhaul of the infrastructure and deploy high-definition systems to meet the business objectives.”

The Solution In August 2010, the IT team came up with a proper plan with details and costs of the

iGate Patni Country: India Industry: IT Services Company: iGATE Patni Bangalore, India www.igatepatni.com Employees: 27,000 Team CIO: M Chella Namasivayam Divisional Manager: Jayant Varadarajan Group Manager: Mukund Rao Business Need Enhance operational efficiency and reduction in total cost of ownership Improve the quality of communication and collaboration amongst teams at a quicker pace Faster dissemination of information within groups

required video conferencing equipment. After evaluating different video communication products available in the market, including LifeSize, Polycom, and Cisco, among others, iGATE opted to deploy Cisco Tandberg video conferencing solutions across its offices in Bangalore (2), Chennai (1), and Noida (1). Besides, two Cisco TelePresence facilities were set up in Fremont (USA) and Bangalore. While the peer references influenced the team to choose Cisco Tandberg solutions, the vital aspect was Tandberg’s impressive management suite that tilted the decision in its favour. “We evaluated the cost component and the technical advantages as well and found the single-console framework of the Tandberg product suite to be easy to manage,” says Mukund Rao, Group Manager, iGATE Patni. On Cisco’s recommendation, the team decided to go with Dimension Data as its integration and implementation partner. The immediate need was to get the designated rooms modified to suit telepresence and video conferencing needs. According to Jayant Varadarajan, Divisional Manager, iGATE Patni the primary task was to look at high definition end point, create a telepresence bridge and establish an ISDN bridge at Fremont. Rao says, “After a detailed evaluation the team decided to opt for multiple highdefinition Tandberg Codec C-40 systems and Cisco Telepresence equipment. The amount earmarked for the VC revamp and new equipment was $800,000.” For room modification, which accounted for additional cost, one mixer, one microphone input to codec, and special 52-inch screens were used. From a product speci-

iGate patni case study | advertorial

Key Highlights

Video Conferencing Framework

Reduction in travel costs meeting times Present usage is about 20 video calls every day and is used extensively by the sales, production, finance, IT, HR and also administration teams Top management uses the telepresence rooms to discuss and have review meetings across the globe on a regular basis A smooth communication flow without any technical problems Number of video rooms expanded from 18-20 in 2010 to 60 video rooms in 2012.

fication standpoint, Cisco TelePresence MSE 8000 Series, a high-capacity voice and video conferencing media services engine, was deployed. The solution has different modules, including an all-in-one multipoint conference unit (MCU) IP / ISDN

gateway. Thus, facilitating all IP based end-points to place calls to ISDN based video conference units across the globe. This solution supports, 10 simultaneous calls/15 video screens Cisco TelePresence System Codec C40

“There was a need to go in for a complete overhaul of the infrastructure and deploy high-definition systems to meet the business objectives” — Chella Namasivayam, CIO, iGATE Patni

“UCDM is a practical and strategic tool that assessed the organisation’s competence and capability in the area of UC against a set of operational criteria” — Sanjay Gupta, Country Sales Director, Dimension Data India Ltd

was considered ideal for iGATE Patni’s requirement. It can provide the power required to transform the workspace into an HD video collaboration room, whether it is a conference room, team meeting room, or executive office. In the phase one of the project, about 30 video rooms were created across 10 locations. iGate deployed Cisco Call Manager and used Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), an open protocol to integrate its video conferencing system. The team did not have to invest much on leased lines as the company had dedicated bandwidth of 45 mbps running its WAN. “We pulled in 2.5 mbps dedicated bandwidth for high definition, 786 kbps for standard definition and 14 mbps towards telepresence,” says Rao.

Implementation Challenge Allocation of bandwidth was a challenge to a certain extent, particularly when it involved communication between overseas teams. There was a challenge with regard to deploying the video-conferencing tools at the Fremont office as there were certain logistic issues in terms of product delivery. But later, it was resolved and everything fell in place. The three-member Dimension Data team evolved an effective unified

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ucdm’S BENEFITS

Dimension Data Adds Value As the implementation partner for iGATE Patni, Dimension Data India Ltd, delivered a successful project by providing a completely integrated and scalable solutions by having an in-depth understanding of the former’s business issues. Dimension Data developed a Unified Communications Development Model (UCDM) to implement the solutions. According to Sanjay Gupta,Country Sales Director, Dimension Data India Ltd, UCDM is a practical and pragmatic strategic tool that assessed the organisation’s competence and capability in the area of unified communications against a set of operational and strategic criteria. The tool helps in having better understanding of the client’s current state of development,

communication development framework to do the integration process and avoid the technical hitches.

Paybacks The mandate for the IT team from iGATE’s CEO was that whatever the solutions and whatever the process, the end result must facilitate effective communications between globally distributed design centers, varied departments and teams, partners and customers. Namasivayam believes that the objective to increase operational efficiency while reducing costs and improve employee and customer experience have been realised. By deploying Cisco TelePresence and Tandberg Codec C-40 HD solutions, the team was able to reduce travel costs and cut typical meeting times. “The present usage is about 20 video calls every day and the solution is used extensively by the sales, production, finance, IT, HR and also administration teams. In fact, the older SD equipment located at several offices in Mexico, Canada, Cambridge (Boston), and

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stablishes focus and priority E for UC development in the organisation Ascertains how to optimise the communications tools to decrease costs (ie by reducing office space, cutting down on travelling or telephone costs Enables employees to collaborate Reduce the latency of business process that poor communications introduce and allows work flexibility Ensures a single vision in the organisation with regard to UC Assists in optimising existing UC initiatives Serves as an educational process to explain the various technologies to business users Assists the IT department to justify the expenditure of the UC project Provides a common language to start discussing the future benefits of UC

performance, operational practices and strategic execution and enables to develop future roadmap. However, the main challenge faced by the team according to Gopalakrishnan was in designing the solution that had the ability to seamlessly integrate the Cisco Telepresence solution into the existing Microsoft, Avaya and Polycom infrastructure. “Since there was no earlier reference to such an implementation, our team had to work long hours in tandem with the Cisco Product team in building the complete solution,” says Sanjay Gupta. With their dedication to the project, the team of Dimension Data could complete the work within the stringent project timelines and the budget.

other locations, are also being incorporated into the Tandberg Management Suite.” Mainly, the top management uses the telepresence rooms to discuss and have review meetings across the globe on a regular basis. In addition, iGATE’s crucial quarterly board meetings are also held using telepresence solutions. After the merger of iGATE and Patni, the combined entity that initially had 18-20 video rooms across the country has now expanded it to 60 video rooms in 2012. These are spread across 19 India offices and 12 overseas offices as well. “The end result today is that we have

zero technical problems and the only issues that we face are more administrative in nature. In fact, iGATE Patni has deployed four engineers exclusively for video conferencing out of the Bangalore office,” says Namasivayam.

Next Step Going forward, the team intends to deploy a full-fledged unified communication solution to integrate voice and video with other applications. “This is the target set for the second quarter this year to integrate various platforms to the UC tools for better collaboration between teams and divi-

15minute manager

training Education workplace compensation workforce trends skills development personal development

BALANCing PROFESSIONAL AND PERSONAL LIVES Pag e 50

Strategy: BYOD is a reality this page Review: Review Android page 52 Trends: Finance Management page 53 Training Calendar: IT and Telecom page 5 4

BY Ba l a Va r i ya m

truly believe that Dilbert can see the future; and if there is anyone who can articulate the present, the distant future of the corporate, and the technology world better than any analyst, it is he. One could see in his comic strips on many occasions that he had imagined about the BYOD phenomenon almost four years back, when the first generation iPhone was barely a year old and iPad was still a shiny toy being moulded in Mr Jobs’ imagination.

I Rest My Case Enterprise Mobility

BYOD is a reality BYOD is real and well blended with corporate IT trend. IT managers must be prepared to deal with it

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i llustratio n : Shigi l n

Leaving the humour aside, BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) is not a choice that today’s corporate IT can make, but a reality that they should be prepared to deal with! BYOD fundamentally means employees bringing their own devices to accomplish work for their employers. With the consumerisation of IT, almost everyone has access to cuttingedge technologies and gadgets much before they become available through the ‘corporate IT channels’, which usually take a ‘wait and watch’ approach to new technology and are much slower in letting new devices into the network. Smaller organisations and start-ups

15-MINUTE MANAGER who are constrained on spending, tend to avoid huge capital investments in servers and networks and are relying more and more on cloud based infrastructures for their computing needs. In such scenarios, BYOD becomes a natural strategy!

photos : photo s. com

See the BYOD Paybacks

There are several benefits to an initiative like BYOD, which the IT Manager should take into account. The most obvious one is that the employee buys the device resulting in the reduction in cost to the company. Considering that, these devices are not cheap by any means, which is one of the reasons why enterprises wait for them to be ‘tried and tested’. Once the technology becomes mainstream (which in today’s world could take anywhere from 12-18 months), the devices become generally cheaper. With a BYOD approach cost is not a concern anymore for corporate IT. Employees are willing to spend their own money because they fundamentally love the technology underneath and want to reap the benefits these devices bring. Today’s devices let the employees be connected to not just their work and corporate environment but also to their friends and family social circles. This indirectly brings in the softer benefits such as employee satisfaction and productivity. Since the employees have spent their own money to buy the devices, they will use them and get the work done in a way they would love rather than be forced to use outdated technologies. Productivity tends to go up whenever there is a friendly BYOD policy in place. Allowing employees to use their own devices gives them a sense of freedom in an environment that is known to be restrictive. This in turn increases employee satisfaction and reflects on the company as being employee friendly. By allowing employees to bring their own devices, companies are also ushering in the latest technologies into the network. This necessitates internal systems, processes and services to be upgraded or re-engineered to enable seamless access to data from

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HEALTHY TIPS FOR WORK/LIFE

BALANCing PROFESSIONAL AND PERSONAL LIVES tips for work-life balance 1. Don’t overbook. This may seem unusual to people who try to crowbar as much as possible into every workday. 2. Prioritise ruthlessly. Know what’s important and what can wait. 3. Learn how to say no. For effective time management you don’t have to agree to everything. 4. It is about scheduling.

Married to your work? Consider the cost It can be tempting to rack up hours at work, especially if you’re trying to earn a promotion or manage an ever-increasing workload. Consider the consequences of poor work-life balance: * Fatigue. * Lost time with friends and loved ones. * Increased expectations * Track your time Take advantage of your options * Learn to say no * Leave work at work. * Manage your time * Bolster your support system * Nurture yourself When your work life and personal life are out of balance, your stress level is likely to soar. Use these practical strategies to restore harmony.

Live it! There’s more to life than work.

Some Good Pieces Of Advice Articles and books have been written on work/life balance. It’s something that most global citizens strive to achieve. Think about it: Have you ever been able to string together more than a week or two of perfect balance between your job and family? This shift in perspective will have a huge impact on your decisions, priorities and stress levels.

15-MINUTE MANAGER

“I would recommend that organisations allow users to bring their own tablets rather than procuring it for them” Vinay Hinge, CEO, Kandor Solutions P Ltd

“Organisations are using BYOD devices and applications for a competitive advantage” Ashish Khanna, Corporate Manager, IT Infrastructure, The Oberoi Group

these devices. Due to the fast churn of technologies and constant marketing hype, devices are upgraded ever so quickly and employees are always using bleeding edge technologies. Hence, this ultimately fosters an environment of innovation from a process and technology standpoint.

Intrinsic Issues Like any new trend, BYOD has its own challenges and unless these are addressed from the word go; implementation can quickly get out of hand. The biggest concern that the IT department has over BYOD is the fear of losing control of the devices in the network and

“Employees spend their own money because they love the technology and want to reap the benefits these devices bring” —Bala Variyam, VP, Collabera Labs

The Business Benefits of BYOD The transition to BYOD is as much about processes than about technology. When you put the right systems in place to support BYOD, you will reduce your risks and achieve the following benefits: Cost reductions: Gartner reported that organisations can see a 9 to 44 per cent reduction in capital expenditures when they adopt BYOD. This is because BYOD is similar to giving employees car allowances—both allow you to provide employees with the tools they need while you save money. Increased employee satisfaction and productivity: When you allow your employees to use their favourite mobile devices, they can accomplish more and respond to requests faster, whether they’re working in the office or remotely. Source: www.matrix42.com

in turn losing control over information security. With multiple networking technologies, these devices need not even be in the corporate network in order to access corporate services and data. Clearly defined policies around how, when and where these devices can be used go a long way in streamlining a BYOD implementation. It is very important to define a consistent authentication and authorisation policy to ensure information security. Most of the enterprise collaboration tools such as emails and calendaring tools have matured over the years and their security standards easily adapt to managing and catering any device. Therefore, BYOD will not typically bring in challenges in those areas. However, other enterprise data and applications such as HR and Finance need to be looked at carefully to ensure that implementing BYOD will not cause any security violations. Defining clear policies around data storage

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15-MINUTE MANAGER review

Top Reasons To Prefer Android Over iPhone

and control is essential for a smooth implementation. Having predefined architecture and design patterns for data access, data storage and security of enterprise applications is an essential prerequisite for implementing BYOD. Some of the BYOD policies will also be governed by regulatory compliance. Special information security related policies are required for companies that follow standards such as PCI and HIPAA. These standards will bring in additional restrictions and regulations when it comes to information storage and access, regardless of who owns the device.

BYOD to MTD

When it comes to mobile phones, the iPhone seems to stand strong like a lone warrior against a seemingly endless horde of smartphones. But is it really worth the hype? Of late, there has been an army of formidable Android phones, which can do everything that the iPhone can do, and at times do it even better. Availability: Android phones are almost universally available, unlike the iPhone, which is available only at Apple Stores or select outlets. Also, nearly all Android phones are available almost instantly in India when they are launched worldwide, but the iPhone is available usually after a year, when it is already too old. Network lock: iPhone has been notorious for usually being sold with a network lock. Android phones do not have such restrictions and the users are free to use any network of their choice. Price: Whenever a new iPhone is launched, it is priced exorbitantly. Android phones, are a mixed bag as far as price is concerned, as there are so many of them that almost every price segment is covered. Widgets: Unlike the screen of the iPhone that is littered with icons, Android phones gives you information at the flick of a finger. No need for software applications: iPhone requires you to install iTunes on your computer and sync it. Androids do not need any such application—simply plug the phone into any computer and exercise complete control.

imaging: pri nce antony

Convenience: You can instantly switch on or off Bluetooth, WiFi, Mobile Network or GPS on the Android phone by simply clicking. This goes a long way in conserving battery life. In the iPhone, you have to dig deep into the settings to be able to enable or disable these features.

Better web browser: The web browser on the Android phone is simply amazing. It is faster than Safari, and supports Flash. Being an operating system developed by Google, as expected Google is integrated deep into the heart of Android.

It is time to talk about ‘Manage Their Devices’ rather than BYOD because whether companies like it or not, employees are going to bring their devices to work and use them. According to a recent survey done by Cisco, 48 per cent of the respondents said that they may not authorise external devices, while 57 per cent agreed that employees use them anyway. The survey found that as many as 64 per cent of the employees bring their own devices without consent and almost everyone agrees that this number is on the rise. Gartner analysts expect enterprises to allow tablets as part of their buy your own device (BYOD) programme. More of these tablets will be owned by consumers who use them at work. Gartner also predicts that enterprise sales of media tablets will account for about 35 per cent of total tablets sold in 2015. With better, faster and newer technologies that come out almost every day and Apple continuing to churn out those ‘magical devices’, the smarter thing to do for corporate IT would be to quickly define policies and processes around ‘Managing Their Devices’ rather than fight the battle that Mordac wages in Dilbert’s world!

Source: Techtree

Bala Variyam, Vice President – Collabera Labs

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15-MINUTE MANAGER

Finance Management

financial insights Having insights into finance and its operations while being accountable, is critical for IT managers’ growth By Berj es E r i c S h r o f f

i llustratio n : prince antony

hen Rob e r t Frost wrote this poem: “Never Ask of Money Spent/Where the spender thinks it went/Nobody was ever meant/To remember or Invent/What he did with every cent” —little did he realise that the world of finance is not just the responsibility of the accountants but also closely linked with other groups. The world of business as we all know today has changed the rules for everyone. Suffice to say that knowledge of finance and accountability to the

same is the responsibility of every manager in an organisation and the IT manager is no exception to this rule. The irony of the education system is that it does not incorporate the knowledge of finance in its technical courses. Like Frost, most assume that the world of finance is best left to the accountants and finance professionals. However, the reality seems different as every manager in an organisation, including the IT manager, is expected to have knowledge of finance. Most organisations, even today, view IT investments as a ‘black hole’, in which investments are made, but

nothing seems to come out of it. Since investments in IT today, are considerably higher than many other areas of business and this further strengthens the case for IT manager to have better knowledge of finance.

Uncanny Challenge It is but true that most IT managers dealing with the CFO or the finance department are faced with certain weird experiences. Certain finance related jargon that the CFO spells out, for instance—revenue and capital budgets, RoI, depreciation, etc, may sound like Greek and Latin to IT managers. IT manager may question, “Isn’t it a finance guy’s job?” However, it is crucial for every manager to understand the finance language to do his job better, particularly, given that IT revolves around huge cost and expenses. In most organisations, IT managers not only work in very close proximity with the CFO, but most often report to the CFO. Hence, it becomes crucial for IT managers to speak the CFO’s lingo. If this fails, then the relationship is like

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15-MINUTE MANAGER

event calendar Major global events in IT and Telecom during May 2012

a marriage gone sour, since the IT head thinks the CFO fails to understand the strategic importance of technology and the CFO thinks that the IT manager does not manage the budgets effectively and always wants more money. In the interest of the organisation, the IT manager takes the high road and learns the language and basics of finance.

Budgeting Brains

event

Venue

Dates

The 7th FTTH Council Asia Pacific Annual Conference & Exhibition

Shanghai, China

May 09 - 10, 2012

Global Mobility & International Assignments 2012

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

May 14 - 15, 2012

Mobile VAS Africa 2012

Sandton Johannesburg

May 14-15, 2012

Broadband World Forum Asia

Kuala Lumpar, Malaysia

May 15 - 16, 2012

Signalling and Telecommunication: Asia

Bangkok, Thailand

May 16 - 18, 2012

Social Media in the Utilities Sector

Copthorne Tara Hotel, London

May 21-22, 2012

TM Forum Management World Dublin, Ireland 2nd Annual Cloud Computing and Virtualisation CEE, CIS and Russia

Budapest, Hungary

May 21-22, 2012

SatCom Africa Conference and Exhibition

Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg

May 21-24, 2012

3rd Greater Mekong Mobile Pay- Ho Chi Minh City, ments & Banking Summit 2012 Vietnam

May 30 - 31, 2012

4th Annual Cloud Slam 2012 Cloud Computing Conference

May 30- June 1, 2012

Source: http://www.biztradeshows.com/

May 21 - 24, 2012

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San Francisco, California

Let us address examples of two very basic concepts of finance that an IT manager should be familiar with. Of course, there are many other concepts that are not only helpful, but absolutely essential for IT manager to be aware of, and that knowledge can be gained from doing a relevant course or additional reading. Towards the end of every financial year, the IT manager, in consultation with the CFO, commences work on the next financial yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s budget. The basic budgeting concept needs to be understood well to make necessary budget decisions and in convincing the finance department about the required IT investments. Knowledge about finance will help in orienting the finance department about various categories of IT expenses related to hardware, software licences and so on. It is essential for IT managers to be aware of the accounting treatment adopted by the finance department for certain items, but also to review past performances of the department and future expectations from the rest of the organisation, as a guide to drafting a revenue budget. Personally, I perform monthly, quarterly and semi-annual analysis of the revenue budget against the actual performance. This helps me in my planning and proper allocation of resources. Any noticeable deviation from the budget needs to be addressed by the IT manager in consultation with the CFO. The CFO and finance department are there to help you and the IT manager must leverage this. Any new technology deployment made to address a business issue,

15-MINUTE MANAGER calls for the IT manager to justify the investment in terms of the benefits it can accrue in consultation with the CFO or other senior management. Particularly, the Return on Investment (RoI) language is much appreciated, which is calculated by dividing investment by the cost of the investment and the result is expressed as a percentage or a ratio. If an investment does not have a positive RoI, or if there are other opportunities with a higher RoI, then the investment, according to a finance or management personnel, should be not be undertaken. Although personally, a few years back, I did not conform to this concept for IT. Many a times, the rule of RoI has become my solace for obtaining approvals for larger projects. This is a useful tool, albeit complex at times. In my view, this idea in IT-related projects is somewhat tricky, since in many of them, the actual gain from an investment may be difficult to prove. But understanding of this concept as an IT manager will definitely help you in securing support and funds for the projects. The moment the IT manager starts to speak the language of finance with the CFO, half the battle for harnessing the CFO’s support for the project is won.

“Most firms even today view IT investments as a ‘black hole’, in which investments are made for nothing” —Berjes Eric Shroff, Senior Manager-IT, Tata Services Ltd IT manager’s job is not as easy, since in most organisations today, small or large, IT-related project financing is based on RoI.

Necessity is the Mother of Invention Over the years, I have come to realise, that the best way to harness the support for IT investments from both the CFO and other senior management, is to first ensure that all stakeholders are involved and agree upon the project. This is also good IT Governance practice. The IT manager needs to understand the business (and not just technology), and the strategic business goals of the organi-

Understanding finance * Knowledge of finance and accountability to the same is the responsibility of every manager in an organisation and the IT manager is no exception to this rule. * Irony of the education system is that it does not incorporate the knowledge of finance into its technical courses. * Investments in IT today, are considerably higher than many other areas of business and this further strengthens the case for IT manager to have better knowledge of finance. * Certain finance related jargon that the CFO spells out, for instance—revenue and capital budgets, RoI, depreciation, etc, may sound like Greek and Latin to IT managers. * IT managers not only work in very close proximity with the CFO, but most often report to the CFO. * IT & Finance relationship is like a marriage gone sour, since the IT head thinks the CFO fails to understand the strategic importance of technology and the CFO thinks that the IT manager does not manage the budgets effectively and always wants more money.

sation. Without this understanding, the IT manager will never be able to garner the support of the CFO or other senior management, resulting in failures of funding for most IT projects. The IT solutions and investments in technology that are recommended by the IT manager need to align with the businesses’ strategic goals. Most IT managers in large organisations today will realise that the role of the CIO, which is the dream destination of every IT manager, is gradually changing to be more of a bridge between business and IT. From my personal experience and interaction, I vouch that the CIOs speak more in terms of finance and business, than technology. This would make a perfect blend of finance and technology resulting in a happy marriage between these two business arenas.

Finance Expectations * In turbulent times, IT is expected to do more with less which is decent and reasonable * Finance controllers do find certain learnings to be critical for IT managers if they have to drive business results * On the prima facie that finance department expect the IT teams to evolve simplicity in reporting and data flow having relevance to financial jargons, with clear dashboards. Berjes Eric Shroff, Senior Manager-IT, Tata Services Ltd

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itnext | m a y 2 0 1 2

Bob Supnik | interview

Cloud is the Change Bob Supnik, Vice President and General Manager, Engineering & Supply Chain Operations, CTO, TCIS, Unisys, in conversation with Manu Sharma, discusses how cloud is transforming the work environment and creating an opportune moment for IT managers to show their skills

How important is product and technology innovation in today’s world? Elaborate on the kind of innovations Unisys is focussing on. In today’s complex IT environment, technology offerings need to be accompanied with services, which are a major value add. Product innovations need to evolve certain standardisation and compatibility with existing platforms, which enable the service providers to work out a good service model. Unisys is going after select markets with our service offerings around cloud computing. Our focus is on mid-markets and multinationals, where there are problems of security and plenty of regulations. Unisys focusses on financial services, healthcare and transportation sectors which have several new complexities and where other service providers do not want to step in. Within Unisys, product

development is taking place in three main areas—mission critical services; cloud computing and security solutions. In the mission critical services, we offer a family of large to small systems called the Clear Path. In the cloud computing space, we offer this technology based on private and hybrid clouds while on the security side, we offer stealth technology for the US armed forces and enterprises. Unisys Stealth renders users, data, and infrastructure invisible to cyber criminals. Built for the US Department of Defense to secure sensitive information, Unisys Stealth achieved the National Security Agency’s National Information Assurance Partnership Common Criteria EAL-4+ certification, protecting data-in-motion across any network, regardless whether it is private or public. Some of the Stealth’s benefits include: making your data centre invisible to the outside world; securely protecting the user, network, and

data centre and unprecedented security without an expensive reconfiguring of the network.

hat are the differentiating factors that you have brought into the cloud platform? How do you intend to tackle cloud related challenges? Unisys has recently announced the launch of Secure Private Cloud Solution for organisations to realise the operational and economic benefits of cloud computing in their internal data centres. This solution provides a highly flexible computing service to the clients, which enables them to move volumes of their business workload to the cloud. We have found that some organisations prefer a private cloud solution for mission-critical applications which use sensitive data so as to retain greater control over their own and their customers’ information. We try to meet that requirement with the secure

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interview | Bob Supnik private cloud solution, which is embedded with required features and tools. Unisys research has consistently shown that security concerns are the leading cause of enterprises and individuals hesitancy in adopting cloud computing.

Is cloud changing the way of doing business right now? Yes absolutely! Cloud computing is changing the way everyone works and transforming the workplace. In Unisys Corporation, online polls conducted recently indicate that investing in cloud computing, primarily private clouds, is a top priority for IT organisations not just in the USA but also in Asia, particularly in India. Cloud computing is revolutionising the way enterprises are obtaining IT and business services because of a number of converging factors. For instance, the economy has forced enterprises to rethink their traditional cost models and minimise their capital expenditures in favour of payas-you-go models, the need for anywhere, anytime IT, since data sets continue to see exponential growth. There is a shift in the way IT works with, for example, virtualisation and automation, which enable cloud computing. We think of two sets of cloud services. One is for our internal use and one for the external customers. Cloud computing is changing the way we operate quite dramatically. Our engineering resource lab which is our private cloud is based at Bangalore and the USA. These two labs supply all our cloud server resources to the cloud. No physical server has been deployed and no manual approval is being done since cloud was brought in. Recently, our India team pioneered the extension of this service capability to the service

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group in India. Now cloud will provide service not just to the engineering but also to the TCIS group as well.

How is cloud landscape changing in the Indian environment? I have witnessed changes in the cloud landscape in India owing to several factors. We see a huge potential in terms of workforce emerging from engineering colleges in India and we saw it at the Cloud 20/20 event held in Bangalore. The SME sector has started deployment of its applications on the cloud and is realising the full cloud potential. The adoption level is increasing aggressively in India around the private and public clouds.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The economy has forced enterprises to rethink their traditional cost models and minimise capital expenditures in favour of pay-asyou-go modelsâ&#x20AC;? The adoption rate is also set to grow. The ratio for public to private cloud is 1:4 right now in India, which is equivalent to the ratio prevailing in the rest of the world. This is not likely to change, but we see changes in the cloud performance capabilities.

What are the technologies related to disruptive trends in India for 2012? Does cyber

Bob Supnik | interview and work out specific plans tailored for each domain. The challenge is far broader than simply addressing one issue such as securing mobile devices or securing cloud-computing environments. Organisations can use cyber security strategy and logical framework to address all of these inter-related trends and business leaders can be confident of a comprehensive approach.

security play an important trend in Unisys? We see four disruptive trends in India and these includeâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; mobility, cloud, social networking and data analytics. I would add one more which is security that is equally important. Therefore, the disruptive IT trends include cloud computing, cyber security, IT appliances, consumerisation of IT/mobility, social and smart computing. Cyber security plays a vital role owing to the sensitivity of the businesses and its information which has a threat perception. By developing a logical framework for understanding cyber security, and the major domains it represents, enterprises can implement their cyber strategies

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

Can you comment on the impact that cloud would have on IT managers? What are the inherent challenges that they face with regard to cloud now? Cloud computing is going to have both positive and negative impact on IT managers. Going with the cloud, I would suggest that they should be spending much less time and effort on the already automated IT operations. It is going to change the IT operations to be deployed in a strategic way. IT managers job is not just keeping the data centre running but also deploying the resources in a meticulous fashion. Unisys believes that cloud computing should be a strategic area of focus for CIOs and IT managers, for the overwhelming agility and economic advantages that it brings. A common framework, however, is essential for all IT service delivery models, including cloud, which addresses governance, security, integration, processes, policies, applications, and architecture within the context of three core areas: applications, data centres, and management. The biggest challenges for CIOs today are managing and securing the data and information is growing at a geometrical progression. In such a scenario, a secure cloud, whether private or public, will enable them to both support the business and provide

centralised access to multiple data centres across the globe. We believe that cloud computing will also change the kind of paybacks that they receive from their IT investments. In a severely constrained global economy, the prospect of de-capitalising enterprise IT, deferring and avoiding operational costs, fixing the IT bottleneck and more effectively mapping the availability of IT resources to fluctuating business demands provide powerful incentives with cloud adoption. Cloud computing, which is a multi-tenant model has the capability to process the needs of multiple users with shared resources, both dynamically and transparently. It is scalable as resources can be expanded and contracted when needed and users need to pay only for what they use. Through cloud computing software, platform and hardware can be provided as a service.

Does working on the cloud throw up opportunities for IT managers to scale up? IT managers are used to working in silos related to their skills spreading across networking, storage, data centre, etc. Now that is breaking down into a set of operations. IT managers also do programming in various languages to automate the processes. Getting the processes in place is a big challenge. Therefore, as IT managers move up higher roles, they need to learn about different technologies and also programs and automate them to function efficiently. Cloud plays a major role in throwing up sufficient application integration opportunities for them. Exposure to different sets of cloud services will help them expand their horizon and scale up.

M a y 2 0 1 2 | itnext

cube chat | Archie Jackson

Hard Work All Along “Two women influenced me greatly and with their support I could move up the value chain in career and recently got promoted as GM -IT,” says Archie Jackson, GM-IT, Steria India Ltd By Manu sha r ma

My sucess

mantra “There is always more to achieve”

itnext | m a y 2 0 1 2

ith two women playing a vital role in his life, this Archie could well be mistaken for the main character in Archie Comics. The only difference is that in this Archie’s life, the two women are his mother and wife who motivated and supported him unlike Betty and Veronica in the comics. Life had never been easy for Archie (nicknamed AJ). It’s been hard work all along. The initial hurdles in the profession neither demotivated this IT manager, nor deterred him from trying to grow. He scaled up fast and is all set to become a CIO in the next 12-24 months. AJ says, “I have been recently promoted as GM (IT) and my present experience gels with that of a CIO and so most likely I will wear a CIO’s hat in the next 12-24 months, thanks to the two women who stood by me.”

Technology always fascinated AJ, even during his school days, which sowed the seed in him and set the aspiration—to become an engineer. Despite scoring high in school, he failed to clear various entrance tests like IIT, Roorkee, DCE, etc in the first attempt. He was forced to take up Physics (Hons) at St Stephen’s College, Delhi University. His ambition to become an engineer did not end here though and he dropped off after a year and finally got selected for a degree in BE Electronics from Shivaji University. “I am grateful to my mother who advised me to pursue my dream and the result was that topped in the university that year!” he says. Establishing a career has never been a cakewalk for AJ, who faced the initial struggles of finding a job. “I just could not find the right job and tried various stints in sales, operations, marketing, credit cards, banking and even

cube chat

Fact File NAME ARCHIE JACKSON C URRENT D ESIG NATION GM- I T C URRENT ROLE SERVICE DELI VERY MANAGEM ENT EXPERTISE IT SERV ICE MA NAG EM EN T, PROJ ECT MANAGEMEN T, SERVICE DELI VERY MANAGE MENT, C LIENT MANAGEM ENT, OPER ATIONS MA NAGEMENT, BUSINESS DEVELOPM ENT, SOLUT IONIN G, ACCO UNT MANAGEMENT and RESOURCE MANAGEM ENT WORK EXPEREINCE 11+ YEARS

“Initially I just could not find the right job and took up all kinds of works like sales, marketing and even door-to-door selling” door-to-door selling,” he remarks. However, AJ began his real IT career march in 2001, when he joined ITP InfoTech, a manufacturer of harness for electronic devices. “I used to handle maintenance, sales, operations and even collection of payments along with customer interactions—all this helped in my later career.” Later, he joined HP as a Technical Support Engineer, providing technical support to customers, remotely. He used to handle customers based in the USA, UK and AsiaPacific for over two-and-a-half years. The experience helped AJ and worked well for him during his stint at CSC Ltd as supervisor of a small team of 20 that grew to 400 in a span of just five years. “We

started with three clients in the UK and by the end of five years we were handling 44 global customers. ” he says. His present role as GM-IT at Steria includes managing NHS IT service delivery teams, over 170 clients of NHS, shared business services and driving cost-effective measures to enhance service delivery through ITIL and Six Sigma. His experience of handling operations, service and support, were put to use recently when he completed a migration project involving migration to Oracle R12 from R11 series, for 26 clients successfully. “All these and more have led to my recent promotion as GM (IT),” he remarks. AJ admires celebrities like Warren Buffet for their philanthropic activities.

PRESENT EMPLOYER STERIA INDI A PV T LTD SINCE MAY 2010 PREV IOU S EMPLOYER PATNI COMPUTERS INDIA LTD (D EC 2009 to MAY 2010) QUALI FIC ATIONS BE(ELECTRONICS ) SHI VAJ I UNIV ERSIT Y ACAD EM IC ACHIEVEM ENTS * PRESI D ENT OF STUD ENTS CO UNCI L IN HIG HER SECONDA RY * SEC U RED RANK 1 IN FIRST BE EXAM INATION * PRESI D EN T OF STUD ENTS COU NCI L DU RING BE EL ECTRONICS Aspir ation CxO LEV EL PROFIL ES FAVOURI TE BOOK WHO MOVED MY CHESSE & 7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE FAVOU RITE GADGET iPad

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the web f r o m

www.itnext.in Read IT Next stories published online. The links of these stories can also be accessed through your mobiles/smartphones using QR code.

CELEBRATIONS

SAP Celebrates 40 Years of Innovation

HOT NEWS

Over 12 Million PCs to be Sold in India in 2012 Gartner’s preliminary results put the total number of PC shipments at 89 million units while APAC performed below expectation. This represents an increase of 17 per cent over 2011 and is boosted by Tamil Nadu government deal as it aims to give away laptops to students of state-aided colleges and high schools--a pre-election pledge made by the chief minister. It will be a major contributor for an estimated double-digit growth. The PC market is expected to grow by 8.4 per cent in 2012. http://www.itnext.in/content/over-12-million-pcsbe-sold-india-2012.html

NEW TABLETS NEWS

Micromax Enters into Tablet PC with FunBook FunBook, priced at just Rs 6,499 is positioned as an edutainment device and is aimed at younger generation. http://www.itnext.in/content/micromax-enterstablet-pc-funbook.html

itnext | m a y 2 0 1 2

SAP, now the market leader in enterprise application software, was founded 40 years ago. What began as a five-man operation is now one of the world’s largest independent software providers, an employer of more than 55,000 people in over 50 countries, serving more than 183,000 customers worldwide. Today, three quarters of Forbes 500 companies run SAP software. SAP software powers 80 per cent of the companies on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index and 85 per cent of the 100 top most valued brands in the world. http://www.itnext.in/content/sapcelebrates-40-years-innovation.html

Interview

Cloud Makes Communication Easy Casey King, CTO, LifeSize, a video and audio telecom company, finds cloudbased video collaboration platform catching up in a big way and explains how enterprises have leveraged the cloud-based delivery trend for UC. http://www.itnext.in/content/casey-kingcloud-makes-communication-easy.html

CLOUD NEWS

Five Challenges Associated with Cloud The story talks about the key concerns that IT managers need to address before moving to cloud. Industry has witnessed cloud computing phenomenon becoming all pervasive owing to its capabilities, flexibility and economic benefits. IT heads and IT managers who are part of the cloud invasion say cloud is imperative because of the savings it drives and the way it helps organisations move from capex to opex. However, enterprises are still evaluating the cloud as there are several concerns which need to be addressed. IT managers talk about the addressing five key concerns that are critical before arriving at a decision. Read on to find out the five concerns that you must tackle before migrating to the cloud. Shiju George, Sr Manager (Infrastructure), Shoppers Stop Ltd says, “The first step before moving on cloud would be to ask why one wants to move to cloud...” http://www.itnext.in/ content/5-challengesassociated-cloud.html

from the web TELECOM NEWS

63% of Asia’s Telecom Carriers Adopting LTE for 4G In 2002, Asia-Pacific mobile operators lagged behind their North American and European counterparts in terms of service development. Fast forward to the present and the situation is very different. Out of 110 networks, 10 operators (9%) have commercial 4G LTE networks up and running. Another 58 (53%) either have specific plans to roll out LTE or are conducting trials. ABI Research estimates 58 of the 110 networks in APAC plan to roll out 4G services on the Long Term Evolution standard. “We estimate total Asia-Pacific mobile capital expenditure to reach US$53.3 billion by the end of 2012,” says Jake Saunders, Vice President of forecasting, ABI Research. http://www.itnext.in/content/63-asia%E2%80%99s-telecom-carriersadopting-lte-4g.html

VENDOR NEWS

AICTE is Microsoft’s Biggest Cloud Customer Microsoft Corp and All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) have announced that AICTE is deploying Microsoft Live@edu over the next three months to more than 10,000 technical colleges and institutes throughout India. The cloud

PC NEWS

Worldwide PC Shipments Grow 1.9% in Q1 2012 According to preliminary results by Gartner, worldwide PC shipments totalled 89 million units in the first quarter of 2012, a 1.9 per cent increase from the first quarter of 2011, when shipments reached 87.3 million units. These results exceed Gartner’s earlier projections of a 1.2 per cent decline for the quarter. “The results were mixed depending on the region, as we saw the EMEA region perform better than expected, while Asia Pacific performed below expectations, in part because of low growth in India and China,” said Mikako Kitagawa, Principal analyst at Gartner.

STORAGE NEWS

Now a highly flexible and open storage solution SGI has introduced SGI NAS, an enterprise-class open storage solution that delivers maximum flexibility to IT managers who continue to cope with the challenges of inexorable data growth. SGI’s NAS solution claims to offer IT managers the maximum flexibility in tackling challenges of data growth.

deployment will expand students’ access to high-quality technical education and collaboration. Live@edu is a hosted communication and collaboration service that offers email, Microsoft Office Web Apps, instant messaging, etc, to AICTE’s more than seven million students and nearly 500,000 faculty members, for a total reach of 7.5 million users.

http://www.itnext.in/content/ now-highly-flexible-and-openstorage-solution.html

http://www.itnext.in/ content/worldwidepc-shipments-grow19-q1-2012.html

http://www. itnext.in/content/ indian-govt-bodymicrosofts-biggestcloud-customer.html

SERVER NEWS

HP rolls out HP ProLiant Gen8 Servers

Redefines data centre economics with total automation The company rolled out industry’s most self-sufficient line of servers–the HP ProLiant Generation 8 (Gen8). HP has unveiled its ProLiant Generation 8 (Gen8) line of servers as a result of a $300 million, two-year programme called Programme Voyager http://www.itnext.in/content/hp-rolls-out-hp-proliant-gen8-servers.html

m a y 2 0 1 2 | itnext

update

indulge

NEW

The hottest, the coolest and the funkiest next generation gadgets and devices for you

Here is a preview of the latest tech toys on the block to add to your arsenal. Take your pick and then go splurging!

McIntosh MC275 50th Anniversary Edition Mcintosh has rolled out a special edition amp that sports a solid gold chassis, special LED lighting and deluxe book. Price: 3,32,000

Porsche Design BlackBerry Pâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;9981 This mobile has an interesting angular design that stands out from others, a faster processor, slimmer profile and is powered by BlackBerry OS. Price: ` 1,00,000.

HOT Arcade 80s Trunk Arcade 80s is a powerhouse on wheels featuring a 1080p screen, an integrated HD sound system with iPhone/iPod dock, and sixty titles.

Microstang You get, when you combine Microsoft and allAmerican auto muscle. Dubbed Project Detroit, this 2012 Ford Mustang has a touchscreenbased dashboard HUD. Price: ` Not Avail able.

Price: ` 8,90,000

Like something? Want to share your objects of desire? Send us your wish-list or feedback to editor@itnext.in

itnext | may 2 0 1 2

the big q

the big

Green IT

GREEN IS AN OBSESSION EXPERT PANEL

Sharat Aira ni, Chief-IT (Systems & Secur it y), For bes Ma rshall

The Situation...

Cut it from here

How will Prateek Sinha ensure that his organisation supports him in making green an all pervasive habit? It is obvious that CIOs and data centre managers have found it tough to balance organisational pressures with limited budgets while maintaining the same efficiency and output. Sinha, senior IT manager of a large manufacturing company, is faced with a similar challenge. He has to increase efficiency to optimise gains from power and cooling while understanding their criticality and availability for IT operations, as most often outages are triggered either by electrical or thermal issues. Sinha finds that the initial cost of setting up a data centre is only five per cent of the total cost over its entire life span of 15-20 years and energy costs make up most of it. Sinhaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s challenges aggravate as energy consumption is a critical concern of IT. According to BEE, design and advance solutions can reduce power requirement by over 30 per cent. But it is not a complete solution, as most organisaYour responses count. Log on to www.itnext.in/bigQ to submit your replies. The best entry will be published in the next print edition.

Senthil Sundar amurthy, Director, Bloo medha Info Solutions Ltd

Sanjeev Kum ar, Grp CIO & Presid ent, Bu siness Excellence, Ad hunik g roup of Indu str ies

tions are not willing to make changes. The major constraints for Sinha stem from the fact that he plans to implement the new technology at a very premature stage and gaining the acceptance of the middle management is also a challenge. Gaining micro level details is also difficult as the data centre environment is very complex, enveloped in legacy systems and applications which consume more than 50 per cent of the energy. Another key challenge Sinha faces is meeting business goals and demands. These call for sustainability-based sources to derive competitive advantage and integration of environmental aspects into the corporate strategy. Sinha intends seeking certain insights into the smart practices that he can adopt to drive data centre efficiency without disrupting the existing technological deployments. Besides, he plans to make green all pervasive across the company and evolve a model to justify it. Against this backdrop, there are two questions that Sinha searches answers to:

m a y 2 0 1 2 | itnext

the big q

the big questions...

? ?

What technologies does Prateek Sinha need to adopt to optimise data centre efficiency? What smart practices does he need to adopt to make green all pervasive? justify the costs and savings thereof.

Here are the answers... hands-on testing is Mandatory FIRST ANSWER

Sharat Airani Chief-IT (Systems & Security), Forbes Marshall About me: Handle IT set-up and my core competencies are infrastructure, communication and IT security, technology evaluation and selection, data centre management, server management and administration, etc

itnext | m a y 2 0 1 2

Global energy crisis is everywhere. There is a huge demand for energy and in the absence of immediate solutions, it is necessary to use energy generated from existing sources more judiciously. In this context, Prateek Sinha must try out new and mature technologies. Internally, he must conduct a thorough, hands-on testing to gain the acceptance of the middle management. The whole process may take him some time, but he will finally succeed. The immediate solution that he can implement is bringing in virtualisation solutions to address his need. Along with this proven technology, Thin Clients are the best option. This will indirectly help him protect the IP. It is an injustice to start working on RoI from day one. Just consider the long-term usage and then calculate the benefits on that basis. Virtualisation and consolidation play an important role as technology has proved beneficial at this stage. Over all, consider the entire IT equipment from a green perspective and not just the data centre. The reason being, there is so much that Sinha can save outside of the data centre, which is critical to ensure green IT.

Second Answer It is important to build a strong team of IT footsloggers to execute the project. Boosting the teamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s confidence is critical. Knowledge sharing and building the teamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s imagination on the success of this project is crucial as well. Set up a test lab to bring in a balance between the actual users and the IT team. Walk a thin line between walking ahead of and with users, to convince them to go virtual and to accept a new theory. IT is projected to be driving green; and there is big buzz around green IT because of its purported ability to reduce consumption with intelligent technologies that streamline and conserve environment. Hence, the top driver for success is an information architecture strategy. Approach to power management is derived from four factorsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;discover, measure, analyse and save. Sinha can adopt a dashboard to demonstrate real-time status, events, power consumption, peak load and savings. Detailed reporting will enable him to track and manage energy consumption at an organisational level. With integrated performance and energy measurements, he can manage IT utilisation, energy usage, capacity and demand efficiently. There are also utilities which allow defining power policies centrally and these can be applied to desktops/servers remotely. Overall, what he can hope to see are reduced operational costs, low carbon footprints, strong corporate position and community commitment and improved operational efficiency. Green IT initiatives emerging out of the data centre will include power management, reduction in gas emissions and efficient recycling of equipment.

the big q

Identify Energy Efficiency Areas FIRST ANSWER As a first step towards data centre energy optimisation, Sinha should look at data centre profiling tools and system assessment tools to identify and evaluate areas where energy efficiency measures can be introduced within the data centre. Usually utility bill information and system details like IT, HVAC etc, form the input to the profiling tools. The output would be an overall picture of energy utilisation efficiency rate and identification of potential areas where energy efficiency improvements can be done. Some of the techniques that would be of interest to Sinha include: 1) As the servers and the related storage systems account for about 50 per cent of the power usage in a typical data centre, these are the logical areas to look for power saving opportunities. Introduce virtualisation techniques for IT system consolidation. 2) Reducing the storage footprint during storage virtualisation is critical. Any widely used operating systems will contain millions of duplicate data objects that are distributed, backed-up and archived. Thus, duplication of data can be avoided. The energy required to power the storage resources will be reduced proportionally. Snapshot, FlexVol and RAID-DP are some of the well-known tools that can do the job. 3) Using variable frequency drives on air handlers can save energy.

Senthil Sundaramurthy Director, Bloomedha Info Solutions Ltd About me: Specialise in providing software solutions to pharmaceutical and life sciences domain. Prior to this, headed T-Mobile, UK, Partner Integration Team, implementing payment platforms for European countries

Second Answer Some of the best practices that Sinha might consider adopting as part of green initiatives are as follows: a) IT systems can be purchased from vendors who meet the EPA’s Energy Star guidelines b) Systems can be set to hibernate mode when not in use c) CRT monitors can be replaced with high efficiency LCD monitors d) Create an infrastructure to encourage work from home to reduce power consumption With the ever-increasing power cost and availability of power, the RoI in implementing green IT over the next five to eight years will be justified.

Green Office Progress Chart for 2012

Source: Weste rn E ngi neeri ng Dean’ s O ffice

n IT Gree

The chart is a summary of the areas that organisations are pursuing in each category as a part of the ‘Green Office Pilot Programme’ 60 Remaining points

Current p rogress

40 30

16 30

25 24

10 12 0 Energy& Climate

5 Food& Dining

Publi cation & Dining

31 13

P urchasing

5 Tranportation

Events& Waste management Meetings

10 I nitiatives

m a y 2 0 1 2 | itnext

the big q

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle FIRST ANSWER Some of the major challenges that IT managers face include new technologies, security threats and compliance requirements. Prateek Sinha needs to explore the cloud seriously and start moving some applications to it in order to reduce the captive data centre to minimum. If the data centre is running out of space, thermal footprint or energy usage in the data centre is increasing, Sinha should look at consolidation first. So, he should introduce virtualisation techniques for IT system consolidation. Fewer servers also translate into reduced cost for data centre space, and less for power and cooling.

Second Answer

Sanjeev Kumar Group CIO & Group President, Business Excellence, Adhunik group of Industries About me: An IT strategist, innovator, evangelist, contributing to companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s growth

The mantra today is reduce, reuse and recycle, and at Adhunik, we have done this mainly by moving to the cloud. The cloud platform helps your business reduce the IT expenditure. Besides this, optimise and improve power and management strategies across the data centre and other areas within IT. This helps organisations consume less energy and align with a green strategy internally. Sinha should look at intelligent power consumption as roughly 60 per cent of all power consumed in traditional offices is associated with IT and computing. He can design a data centre that has the best technologies from an uptime perspective, which also reduces carbon footprints. He should also look at recycling of waste like desktops, old servers and other electronic items to reduce carbon footprint. In addition, alternative energy technologies such as photovoltaic, heat pumps, and passive cooling can all lead to a green environment and saves costs.

Notes NOTEs

More Resources 68

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Virtual Storage Platform anniversary: http://blogs.hds.com/hu/2011/09/happy-birthday-vsp.html How to avoid information overload: http://marksblog.emc.com/2011/09/episode-108-.html

update

open Debate

book For you A platform to air your views on latest developments and issues that impact you

How do you deal with social media sites?

Archie Jackson GM (IT), Steria Ltd If 2010 was the year in which companies started to believe in the power of social media, then 2011 will be the year of structural implementation of social media within the organisation. It is understood that social media is more than just a new marketing channel and pivotal to progress in an organisation. As a plan, one must consider the following factors: • Trademark infringement • Copyright • Privacy • Misleading and deceptive conduct • Reputation risk • Defamation • Negligent mis-statements on websites, etc.

Kanaka Durga Bhavani Prasad S Sr IT Manager, Fifth Avenue Sourcing Pvt Ltd

Dinesh Singh Technology Head, SJM Technologies Ltd

Social networking is big and also a big threat to enterprises. Sexually explicit content was the reigning king in the list of websites to be banned at workplaces. Recently, another category can be added to the list—social networking sites. It is said that over 25 per cent of employees’ productive time goes waste on these sites. The threats are identity theft, employee misdeeds, legal problems and internet threats. Enterprises should only allow using the company’s page and block the rest. Employee education is necessary if any department needs access.

Social media sites are now part and parcel of most of our lives. Many of us are spending approximately 20 per cent of our time on these sites. Many organisations find it difficult to stop employees from spending time on social media sites during office hours. There are however, some benefits of social media as well: a) They can be used as a marketing platform for products and services b) They can be used to create groups of people with similar interest to share content and information. c) Information dissipation is very fast on these sites.

Lead by the Soul TITLE: THE SOUL OF LEADERSHIP AUTHOR: DEEPAK CHOPRA PUBLISHER: RANDOM HOUSE PAGES: 220 PRICE: Rs 399 REVIEWED BY: SANJAY GUPTA

“In eight areas of your life you have the power to be guided by your soul,” says Deepak Chopra in this slim but significant book: “Thoughts, emotions, perception, personal relationships, social role, environment, speech and the body.” The bottom line is that in all of them our behaviour affects the people we lead. If we evolve, so will they, he avers. And that’s the basic premise on which Chopra builds his concept of leadership that is soul-driven rather than one that exploits people or their insecurities. Chopra clarifies what he means by soul early on in the book: “The soul is an expression of an underlying universal field of consciousness.” In keeping with this description, the book often dips into the realm of spirituality or philosophy of the Paulo Coelho kind. But more importantly, it details the principles of leading from the soul and provides useful tips to any leader willing to look beyond personal aggrandisement or material gains. IT NEXT VERDICT A truly ‘soulful’ book that builds further on the concept of Maslow’s hierarchy, arguing that leaders must respond effectively to people’s higher-level needs.

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

Star Value:

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update

off the shelf

A sneak preview of enterprise products, solutions and services

Zebronics Unveils 5 New 5.1 SS Speakers Be prepared to rock the house with a wireless remote for easy adjustment of the speaker controls from a distance

Dell XPS 13 UltraBook in India Intel Smart Connect technology keeps content updated; has lightning-fast boot time and always-on connectivity Dell’s highly anticipated, award-winning XPS 13 Ultrabook inspired by Intel, widely acclaimed for its superb craftsmanship, thoughtful design and durability is now available for customers in India. After creating ripples across the globe, the XPS 13 is all set to make a mark in the country with its matchless design and superior performance and mobility.

speakers | Top Notch Infotronix, India’s

key features

* Clear dialogue and ambient sound supplier of products and accessories for com* Accurate tonal balance puters, consumer electronics and communica* In-built memory card reader tion under the brand ‘ZEBRONICS’ expanded * FM tuner and FM radio its range of surround sound speaker systems, with the introduction of five new 5.1 channel multimedia speakers. The new line of ‘Sound Monster’ in five models is designed to blend well with modern computers and complement any decor. The robust, full-range speakers,front-firing sub-woofers draw listeners attention. The cabinets are beautifully crafted to help resonate full bass for a true surround-sound performance; a full-function wireless remote control adjusts bass, volume levels, mute and more, from anywhere in the room. Priced between Rs 4500 to Rs 6,500. According to Pradeep Doshi, Director-Sales, Top Notch Infotronix, “Whether you’re listening to rock, pop or jazz music, watching your favourite movie, or playing your favourite video game, the experience is always richer when you get engrossed in the audio.” With this launch, Zebronics continues to advance the peripherals category with innovative and relevant solutions for today’s lifestyle.

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Weighing less than 1.4 kg the XPS 13 is one of the smallest products in its class, featuring an edge-to-edge glass, near frameless display, all-day battery life, and the latest innovative technology for a superb overall user experience. With its stunning razor-thin bezel, the XPS 13 maintains a footprint similar to a 28 cm product and features bonded Corning Gorilla Glass for exceptional durability; a unique, cool-to-the-touch carbon fibre base; and full-size, backlit keyboard for utmost productivity. A nice addition is this backlit keys, which means you can work late nights without keeping anyone up. Whether or not, it offers better value than the current Ultrabooks in the market will be known soon. KEY FEATURES * Light weight at 1.36 kg * Edge-to-edge hardened Gorilla glass * Aluminium with a carbon fibre base * Intel Rapid Start Technology * Glass integrated button touchpad

update

Envent Unveils Ergonomic USB Mouse

MS Keyboard Gets a Makeover

PRODUCT FEATURES * High precision optical sensor * 1000 dpi accuracy and comfort * Does not contain any hazardous substances * Works on any surface except glass

USB Mouse | Envent Worldwide Pvt Ltd, a consumer electronics brand has announced the launch of its latest USB mouse—ET M020. The ergonomically designed new offering allows placing of one’s hand in the optimum position for working in comfort. With high precision optical sensor of 1000 dpi, accuracy and comfort is guaranteed. High on style quotient, ET-M020 is a new generation comfy mouse. The easy to install and easy to use mouse comes in the traditional-but-always-in-fashion black design, which fits well with PCs. “With our new range of mouse we are trying to create a good balance of style and comfort. Its ergonomic design makes it a good choice for the consumer, especially those who are looking for a great looking mouse with a comfortable design for long working hours. More importantly, quality is of prime concern to us, so all our products are RoHS certified apart from CE and FCC certifications,” commented Sandeep Ramani, COO, Envent. It does not require a mouse pad and cleaning is not necessary. It works on any surface except glass. Price: Rs 449

Experience the Galaxy AcePlus MOBILE | A smartphone device provider, Samsung Electronics Co, has announced the launch of its next generation Galaxy Ace Plus (GT-S7500). As an enhanced version of the widely popular Galaxy Ace, the Galaxy Ace Plus is the smartphone for the young and trendy professional. “The Galaxy Ace Plus features the Android Gingerbread platform and Samsung services that provide an enhanced mobile experience to its users,” said Ranjit Yadav, Country Head, Samsung Mobile & IT. “In 2012, we will continue to expand our incredibly popular Galaxy smartphone range.” The Galaxy Ace Plus is a stylishly designed smartphone with a modern minimalist casing with rounded edges and features an affordably-sized 3.65’’ HVGA display.

Bluetooth Mobile Keyboard 5000 is looking for the perfect companion for the tablet or PC? The wait is over! Microsoft has introduced this product for the Indian market. Priced at Rs 3350, it has the full functionality of a keyboard, is compatible with both tablets and PCs. Less than three-quarters of an inch thick, buying this keyboard also means getting rid of pesky wires, docks or trans-receivers.The product works equally well with Microsoft Windows, iPad, iPad2, and many Android devices—making it one of the first multi-platform Bluetooth keyboards to be launched in India. Slim, stylish and cool, the keyboard is very easy on the hands. It has an ergonomically designed with curve which promotes a more natural wrist posture whether the user is typing from the office, couch or a café.

FEATURES * Android Gingerbread * HVGA display * Offers ThinkFree for editing * Connected through ChatON services

The product is backed by 1GHz processor and HSDPA 7.2 Mbps connectivity, providing seamless browsing and multitasking, suitable for today’s professionals. The Samsung Galaxy Ace Plus is priced at Rs 18,150. To offer the consumers an enhanced experience, there is a limited period offer of a Free Samsung Bluetooth Headset (model BHM1000) priced at Rs 1,299.

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my log

Sanjay Gupta Consulting Editor, IT Next (Online)

As Safe As Possible Security is not a destination but a constantly moving target. And the trick for the players is to move faster than the 'enemy' With due apologies to the uber brands of the automobile world, there are only two types of mass-market cars (considered from a certain standpoint): one that have some security products installed and the other with just plain vanilla, factory-fitted locks. Then, even among the ‘secured’ ones, there’s an entire cornucopia of fitments— gear locks, ‘hockey sticks’, central locking... that works. Nevertheless, both types of cars get stolen. But if I were to ask you, which cars get stolen more often and in greater numbers? You would promptly answer the question without consulting the stolen-vehicle investigation department. Just as we try and secure our assets in the physical world (but often end up losing them), so it is in the more subtle realm of information flow. Companies can use the best antivirus on the market, set up advanced firewalls or configure multiple layers of authentication, but they may still not attain foolproof security. Having said that, organisations have no option but try as many ways to protect critical information—their lifeblood in today’s competitive world—as possible. And keep at it relentlessly, because security is not a destination but a constantly moving target. The growing band of thieves, hackers and anonymous groups lurking in the darkest corners of cyberspace are always ready to raise the

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bar for security vendors and solution providers by launching more and more sophisticated attacks (sometimes with alarming success). Consider the enormity and reach of some recent security attacks. Around a year back, as many as 77 million Sony PlayStation Network accounts were hacked, resulting in the loss of millions of dollars to the company as its site went down for a month. Even the top purveyors of security like RSA and VeriSign were not immune: RSA's parent company EMC is said to have spent over $60 million on 'remediation' when a series of 'spear-phishing attacks' were launched against its employees. In the future, the problem is only going to get compounded, what with the wider adoption of social media, and trends such as Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and enterprise mobility. Put this together with the increasing sophistication of APTs and organised crime syndicates—and you have a recipe for disastrous breaches. There are some in the industry who think that adopting measures such as retina scans, fingerprinting and other biometrics will stem the tide of attacks. But there are experts who dismiss such claims. I think we are going to have more security but never 'enough' of it. The only thing to be sure is that, in the fast-moving cavalcade of security, there will be no time for applying brakes.

r at

ion: shigi

3 Essential

Reads

BOB SupnIK | INTERVIEW

CLOUD iS tHe CHAnGe Bob Supnik, Vice president and General Manager, Engineering & Supply Chain Operations, CtO, tCIS, unisys, in conversation with manu Sharma, discusses how cloud is transforming the work environment and creating an opportune moment for It managers to show their skills

How important is product and technology innovation in today’s world? elaborate on the kind of innovations Unisys is focussing on. In today’s complex IT environment, technology offerings need to be accompanied with services, which are a major value add. Product innovations need to evolve certain standardisation and compatibility with existing platforms, which enable the service providers to work out a good service model. Unisys is going after select markets with our service offerings around cloud computing. Our focus is on mid-markets and multinationals, where there are problems of security and plenty of regulations. Unisys focusses on financial services, healthcare and transportation sectors which have several new complexities and where other service providers do not want to step in. Within Unisys, product

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data centre and unprecedented security without an expensive reconfiguring of the network.

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Unisys's Bob Supnik on how cloud is transforming the work environment Pg 56 NEXT 100 | LEADERSHIP Anil Saini CIO, Ricoh India Ltd

Awardee 2011

Keyur Desai AVP, AEGIS-IT Infrastructure Project Group

riefly, Next100 winners see themselves as evolved, motivated, confident, ambitious and intellectual professionals. These attributes were captured in an honest feedback that the winners shared with IT Next in a recent survey. The survey was carried out in April with the objective to get insights into the career changes that the winners have been through and the experiences that they had in their journey to reach their professional goals. The idea behind embarking on such a survey was to share these insights with their peer groups at large, who are in the process of moving up the value chain, and thus motivate them to do the right things and plan their strategies ahead. The IT Next survey intended to dive into the growth moves that the Next100 winners observed post the awards. Particularly, gaining insights into the specific tasks that helped in their career growth, accounting for the specific difference that winning the award had made to their professional life and how it had contributed to their personality evolution. It was also intended to discover the new skills that they had ntly acquired in the process Receoted as to grow professionally. prom CIO The percentage indicated in the form of graphical representation does not perfectly round of to 100 per cent, as the participants were asked to tick multiple options.

Vijay Choudhary DGM-IT, HRH Group of Hotels Prakash Kumar Director-IT, Delta India Electronics Pvt Ltd

Manish Sinha Head-IT, Ondot Couriers & Cargo Ltd Archie Jackson GM-IT, Steria India Ltd

Dhananjay C Rokde Global Head-IS, Coxs & Kings Group

NEXT100 Winners are Winning in their Careers too

Positive Move

Next100 winners seem to be much more motivated with the growth and positive changes they have witnessed in their professional life post the awards

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Interestingly, the survey revealed that about 78 per cent of the Next100 winners (both 2010 and 2011) saw a positive change in their careers post the award, and 14 per cent of

“Post the jury interaction, I have got more involved in the business management of the company such as driving new alliances, processes, etc” —Anil Saini, CIO, Ricoh India Ltd

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Next100 Winners on a winning spree in their career Pg 27

CUBE CHAT | arChIE jaCKSOn

CUBE CHAT

FAC T F I l E

Hard Work All Along “two women influenced me greatly and with their support i could move up the value chain in career and recently got promoted as GM -it,” says Archie Jackson, Gm-IT, Steria India Ltd BY MANU SHARMA

MY SUCESS

MANTRA “There is always more to achieve”

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It's been hard work all along which gave Archie Jackson the will power to grow Pg 60

YOU MAY HAVE A

GREAT I.T. TEAM BUT IS IT

THE BEST ? IT IS TIME TO

FIND OUT

SMART STRATEGIES

WINNING TEAMS | 2012

DELHI 26-27 MAY 2012 | MUMBAI 2-3 JUNE 2012 | BANGALORE 16-17 JUNE 2012

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FLIES TO LAS VEGAS

RUNNERS UP WIN

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