Today's organizations are largely global in nature with the workforce being mobile and virtual. In the present environment, it is important for employees to stay connected and collaborate, says Chandru K., Business Manager (Converged Communications Services) at IBM India.
In an interview with Manu Sharma of CIOL Bureau, he spoke on the challenges faced by enterprises and the steps a CIO needs to ensure success of converged communication systems.
CIOL: Role of IBM in Converged Communications?
Chandru K: IBM offers a suite of assessment, design, deployment, integration and managed services to deliver converged communications solutions. IBM offers a uniquely flexible and broad portfolio of services, software and financing capabilities that can be easily customized to address specific needs required to support communications for a diverse and global workforce.
These capabilities are backed by the experience and technical know-how required to provide smooth, successful unified communications and collaboration deployments. Working with a broad network of partners and suppliers (device manufacturers, network equipment vendors, telecommunication service providers and independent software vendors), IBM can offer an extensive range of skills and solutions to meet the client's immediate and long-term business needs for converged communication solutions.
CIOL: What are the present challenges in communication that the enterprises are facing and what does Converged Communications help address/solve?
CK: Organizations are largely global in nature with workforce being mobile and virtual. The focus for organizations is to improve their bottom line that means they are focused on employee productivity. It is important for employees to stay connected and collaborate.
Typical challenges are:
* Communication-caused delay and disruption is a pervasive business problem.
* Communications complexity affects long-term productivity, business process reform, and financial performance.
* Decision support outcomes suffer from the inability to access and collaborate effectively with primary players.
* Resources are improperly used or misallocated because of the complexity of communication.
Converged Communications helps address these challenges and streamline communications.
CIOL: What do you accomplish by deploying Converged Communications, in the short and long terms?
CK: Converged Communications with its emerging class of applications and services helps improve communications. It helps businesses in simplifying communications for their mobile and distributed workforce to improve communication flows, access primary decision makers quickly, enhance collaboration, and improve productivity to positively affect their business. They speed access and improve communication, integrate different device modes and communication applications, and dramatically improve collaboration, allowing organizations to streamline business processes, reach the right resource the first time, and enhance profitability.
CIOL: What are the steps a CIO needs to prioritize to ensure success of Converged Communication systems?
CK: Firstly take a step back and do an assessment of the opportunities What do I spend on tools today? What are my opportunities for savings? And then do a business evaluation. Given those opportunities I uncover, how will I leverage those against my business processes?
Then, a very, very important step and that is to do a network assessment. Is my network ready? And if not, take the step, which is to get the network ready for voice deployments. And when we say network-readiness, we're talking about things such as what sort of network latency do I see in my data network? What are the jitter characteristics of my network? How much bandwidth do I have? And very, very importantly, have I implemented quality of service?
Beyond those steps, customers need to begin to prepare themselves to develop the skills necessary and really to begin to bring together skills between their traditional telephony groups and their data networking groups. And, of course, once you've gotten to that point, then it's time to move into the design and implementation phases.
CIOL: What are the differences between Unified Communications and Unified Messaging?
CK: Unified Communications enables people to find peers or decision makers using a single telephone number or Internet address. It integrates e-mail, instant messaging, and calendaring applications with communications devices and applications—telephony—wired and wireless; voice messaging; and audio, video, and Web conferencing.
Unified Communications applications support advanced presence-sensitivity and find-me capability, and media independence. They are easy to use, with a familiar intuitive interface linked to powerful functions. Finally, they provide voice access to applications and data.
While, Unified Messaging is a subset or one of the Unified Communications applications, Unified Messaging is the integration of different messaging (voice, email and fax) into a single or Unified Message store. They can access this through a variety of devices. Since these are integrated it makes it easier for users to access their message store. For e.g., they can access their voice, fax and email messages through a single touch point, their emails.
CIOL: What are the benefits of using IBM UC2?
CK: IBM offers the essential software, services, strategic alliances and hardware elements that companies need to help people stay connected to applications, data and one another anytime, anywhere. So, users can find an expert, reach out within and beyond business boundaries and collaborate more easily. And, as a result, help organizations improve productivity, speed responsiveness and lower operational costs, while creating a better, more attractive work environment that's easier to manage, extend and enrich.
Unified Communications requires an integrated communications strategy and architecture—enabling the secure combination of voice, video, data, and mobility applications within a robust, intelligent network. IBM, with its industry-leading breadth of solutions, its world-class partnerships, and its understanding of how to map technology to address business challenges, is uniquely able to fulfill the promise of Converged Communications.
CIOL: Why do I need technology from Avaya, AVST or Cisco?
CK: Global Technology Services within IBM focuses on providing infrastructure solution for customers. We work with customers to understand their business problems and check on the best technology to fit this. Working with a broad network of partners and suppliers (device manufacturers, network equipment vendors, telecom service providers and independent software vendors), IBM can offer an extensive range of skills and solutions to meet the client's needs.
CIOL: What is IBM's predictions for Unified Communications?
CK: The Virtual Workplace will become the rule! There will be no need to leave the office. Just bring it [Unified Communications] along. Desk phones and desktop computers will gradually disappear, replaced by mobile devices, including laptops that take on traditional office capabilities. Social networking tools and virtual world meeting experiences will simulate the feeling on being there in-person. Work models will be changed by expanded globalization, and green business initiatives that reduce travel and encourage work at home.
* Instant Messaging and other real-time collaboration tools will become the norm, bypassing e-mail. Just as e-mail became a business necessity, a new generation of workers has a new expectation for Instant Messaging (IM) as the preferred method of business interaction. This will fuel more rapid adoption of Unified Communications as traditional IM becomes the core extension point for multi-modal communications.
* Beyond Phone Calls to Collaborative Business Processes. Companies will go beyond the initial capabilities of IM, like click-to-call and online presence, to deep integration with business processes and line-of-business applications, where they can realize the greatest benefit.
* Interoperability and Open Standards will tear down proprietary walls across business and public domains. Corporate demand for interoperability and maturing of industry standards will force unified communications providers to embrace interoperability. Converged, aggregated, and rich presence will allow businesses and individuals to better find and reach the appropriate resources, removing inefficiencies from business processes and daily lives.
* New meeting models will emerge. Hang up on routine, calendared conference calls. The definition of "meetings" will radically transform and become increasingly adhoc and instantaneous based on context and need. 3-D virtual world and gaming technologies will significantly influence online corporate meeting experiences to deliver more life-like experiences demanded by the next generation workers who will operate more efficiently in this familiar environment.
CIOL: Why is IBM holding this roundtable and what will be the focus? What issues will IBM address at the meet?
CK: IBM in association with CIOL is bringing a live session on Converged Communication. The rountable will focus on the subject, "Enhancing effective business communication". IBM will address issues such as how to communicate and collaborate effectively in today's disparate work environment and how to reduce reliance on external voice, video, date service providers.
The forum will provide an opportunity to discuss the communication challenges organization are facing today and understand how Converged Communication solutions help address these. Customers will have an opportunity to talk to experts and also network with industry peers. IBM will also showcase the actual working of Converged Communication solutions at our customer solution center at Delhi.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Business does not stop due to non-availability of IT
The seriousness of IT in the real estate industry is still at a nascent stage in India Despite the seriousness of IT in the real estate industry being at a nascent stage, the Mumbai-based Lavasa Corporation Limited, a leading property deveoper undertaking large-scale lifestyle development in India has deveoped a new urbanism principle towards IT. In a discussion with Manu Sharma of CIOL Bureau, Vinod Vyas, Head – Information Systems of Lavasa Corporation Limited spoke about the new communications sytems implemented and also on what are the challenges he forsees in the future.
CIOL: What are the major challenges faced by you in your organization?
Vinod Vyas: The seriousness towards IT in Real Estate industry is still less because of simple reason that business does not stop due to non-availability of IT. However, certain organizational necessities cannot be avoided such as office automation, finance & accounts, sales and MIS. Thus major challenge is to aware users to use IT for automation where traditionally they are completely manual such as construction, projects, land department etc.
CIOL: Does your organization link IT budget with the company's performance/growth? If yes please elobrate?
Vinod Vyas: No. Our management has a strong conviction that IT is critical to the business of Lavasa and hence IT is viewed as a critical investment.
CIOL: Can you cite any specific areas where IT has come up as an accomplishment in your stint?
Vinod Vyas: Introducing integration of conventional communication methodologies with new IP based communication systems such as IPPBX, VoIP etc.
CIOL: Going forward, what are the challenges that you foresee?
Vinod Vyas: Change Management (User's acceptance to automation and revised business processes.)
CIOL: How far have you come as regards to adopting 'Green IT technologies'? Vinod Vyas: We are concerned about the global warming. The initiatives are at planning stage.
CIOL: What will be the IT budget for the new fiscal year? What is the growth rate over last year?
Vinod Vyas: The budget is significantly more than the previous year.
CIOL: Name the top 5 items that you expect to spent during the fiscal year?
Vinod Vyas: Some of the major IT items that we invested during the last fiscal include: Infrastructure & Telecom and also in ERP.
CIOL: Do you feel the amount allocated for IT is sufficient if yes why? If not why not? How much should you be spending?
Vinod Vyas: The amount is decided by Head – IT and COO together and its sufficient as per business need.
CIOL: Has the prices of the IT products (hardware/software) been on the decline due to the current stronger rupee against the US dollar in 2007?
Vinod Vyas: Not much
CIOL: Since the rupee is growing stronger against the dollar in 2007, don't you thing it is the right time to purchase IT products both hardware/software?
Vinod Vyas: It effects when the purchases are huge in quantity.
CIOL: How big is the IT staff in your organization?
Vinod Vyas: The strength in our organization is presently ten.
CIOL: What are the major challenges faced by you in your organization?
Vinod Vyas: The seriousness towards IT in Real Estate industry is still less because of simple reason that business does not stop due to non-availability of IT. However, certain organizational necessities cannot be avoided such as office automation, finance & accounts, sales and MIS. Thus major challenge is to aware users to use IT for automation where traditionally they are completely manual such as construction, projects, land department etc.
CIOL: Does your organization link IT budget with the company's performance/growth? If yes please elobrate?
Vinod Vyas: No. Our management has a strong conviction that IT is critical to the business of Lavasa and hence IT is viewed as a critical investment.
CIOL: Can you cite any specific areas where IT has come up as an accomplishment in your stint?
Vinod Vyas: Introducing integration of conventional communication methodologies with new IP based communication systems such as IPPBX, VoIP etc.
CIOL: Going forward, what are the challenges that you foresee?
Vinod Vyas: Change Management (User's acceptance to automation and revised business processes.)
CIOL: How far have you come as regards to adopting 'Green IT technologies'? Vinod Vyas: We are concerned about the global warming. The initiatives are at planning stage.
CIOL: What will be the IT budget for the new fiscal year? What is the growth rate over last year?
Vinod Vyas: The budget is significantly more than the previous year.
CIOL: Name the top 5 items that you expect to spent during the fiscal year?
Vinod Vyas: Some of the major IT items that we invested during the last fiscal include: Infrastructure & Telecom and also in ERP.
CIOL: Do you feel the amount allocated for IT is sufficient if yes why? If not why not? How much should you be spending?
Vinod Vyas: The amount is decided by Head – IT and COO together and its sufficient as per business need.
CIOL: Has the prices of the IT products (hardware/software) been on the decline due to the current stronger rupee against the US dollar in 2007?
Vinod Vyas: Not much
CIOL: Since the rupee is growing stronger against the dollar in 2007, don't you thing it is the right time to purchase IT products both hardware/software?
Vinod Vyas: It effects when the purchases are huge in quantity.
CIOL: How big is the IT staff in your organization?
Vinod Vyas: The strength in our organization is presently ten.
KPO fastest growing vertical for Syntel Inc
With a growth rate of 51 percent annually, Knowledge Processing Outsourcing (KPO) is emerging as one of the fastest growing business opportunities for specialized players. India's leading global Information Technology provider -- Syntel Inc -- with global development centers in India and US has leveraged on its domain knowledge in financial services and forayed into KPO space.
In a discussion with Manu Sharma, Associate Editor of CIOL, Keshav R. Murugesh, president & chief operating officer of Syntel India speaks on Syntel's service portfolio of consulting, IT and business process outsourcing and also how Syntel emerged as one of the largest diverse 3rd party services provider across the investment operations spectrum.
CIOL: Why and when did Syntel foray into KPO space?
KM: KPO with a growth rate of 51 percent annually, is one of the fastest growing business opportunities for specialized players like us. Today, KPO as a whole generates $3.05 billion revenue annually and directly employs around 25,000 people in India. The worldwide KPO market is expected to grow to $16.7 billion in revenues by 2010-2011. From this, India would account for $12 billion.
Syntel had a rich 23 years heritage of providing IT services to Fortune 500 financial services firms across banking and capital markets. In 2003, we completed the entire build-out of a complex performance attribution system for the investor services division of one of the top 3 global custodians. It made logical sense for Syntel to leverage its extensive domain knowledge in financial services and provide an end-to-end service portfolio to existing and new clients. We forayed into KPO in late 2003 providing middle office investment operations services to one of the top 3 global custodians.
CIOL: What are the other businesses Syntel is presently into in India?
KM: In early 2000, Syntel's revenue was divided into staffing services and IT outsourcing services. We have remodeled our portfolio based on emerging trends and changing customer requirements. Today, we service clients across verticals via a three-pronged integrated service portfolio of consulting, IT and business process outsourcing. Our consulting services range from technology to process engineering across verticals. In KPO, Syntel is arguably the largest diverse 3rd party services provider across the investment operations spectrum. For e.g. Syntel KPO services one of the top 3 custodians across North America, UK, Europe and Asia Pacific for the entire middle and back office investment operations spectrum. We manage the entire post originations functions for a large retail brokerage firm. Similarly, we have an almost 1000 FTE KPO operation across the life insurance vertical.
Syntel provides customized IT, BPO and KPO solutions to verticals such as automotive, education, retail, finance, insurance, healthcare and life sciences. The BFSI industry overall outsources more than 20 percent (amounting to $400 billion) of its cost base to offshore services. Syntel offers value to its customers by offering services such as cash management, settlement, underwriting, claims, reinsurance etc.
CIOL: How much of business does KPO contribute to Syntel?
KM: The KPO business is the fastest growing vertical across Syntel businesses. KPO is a key revenue driver for Syntel, exiting the year 2007 at 19 percent of total revenue and posting 155 percent year-over-year growth.
CIOL: Is KPO emerging big in India like the BPO sector? If yes in what areas do you see the growth?
KM: Yes, the evolution and maturity of BPO services has given way to more knowledge intensive outsourcing services in India. The KPO industry is growing at a fast pace and the high talent base of chartered accountants, doctors, MBAs, lawyers and research analysts in India is certainly going to capture a big pie of the global KPO business. The knowledge process outsourcing industry (KPO) is likely to grow 45 percent in size by 2010 whereas the BPO industry, only 26 percent. Global KPO pie in 2010 will be around $17 billion of which $12 billion (70 percent) will be outsourced to India. Thus, India is fast emerging as a global KPO hub.
We see the fastest growth across banking and financial services, data management and legal services. Similarly HRO and pharmaceutical outsourcing shows promising growth by 2011.
CIOL: Syntel has been in the list of Global Services 100 list? How important is this achievement to the company?
KM: We are honoured that Global Services and neoIT chose Syntel as one of the world's top technology providers. Syntel is dedicated to delivering flexible solutions and innovative uses of technology to its clients that help them remain at the forefront of their industries and operate in their businesses more efficiently. It's encouraging to know that Syntel's business model has gained broad acceptance as an effective and well-proven method of providing innovation to businesses. This ranking is a testament to the great value Syntel delivers to our clients.
CIOL: Where do you see Syntel emerging by 2012?
KM: We continue to invest into the five-year plan strategy. The plan calls for Syntel to be positioned as a business partner as opposed to as a vendor. We like to position ourselves with our clients as Nimble, Flexible and Right sized as opposed to a giant unresponsive firm. Forrester recently said of us; "Small enough to listen, big enough to deliver."
Physical Infrastructure: We are developing our own campuses in Pune and Chennai. This is about 110 acres of SEZ facility. We are investing in the best-of-class technology and infrastructure. The campus strategy allows us to cater to our rapid sequential growth and meet the specific needs of our clients.
People Infrastructure: We have invested heavily in consolidating and deep rooting of all our talent initiatives, providing coverage across the entire talent life-cycle. These include a focused effort in ingraining our "growth from within" philosophy, with targeted programs to address the needs of specific talent levels in the organization. These investments continue to provide pay-offs in the form of lower than industry average employee attrition and increased client wallet-share and contract renewals.
Geographical expansion: Syntel continues to invest into the expansion of its sales infrastructure in North America and in Continental Europe. This is through front-end staff expansion and expansion in office bases. We are also looking at the EMEA (Middle East & Asia) region and the APAC region to finalize our entry strategy in these regions.
Innovation Labs: In line with our mission, Syntel has invested in Client-Focused, Collaborative Innovation Strategies and establish the R&D division, a Strategic Business Unit, to provide best-of-breed services to our customers to address their needs. Our R&D division initially plans to focus on few broad technology categories e.g. Proprietary technologies, Devices/ Embedded systems, Tools and Products, Open source and Methodologies/ Frameworks. Our R&D division will work closely with different verticals and support organizations within Syntel to foster better talent management, reduce time-to market of new offerings and services as well as support business development.
We continue to position ourselves to achieve a greater percentage of our revenues and growth through outsourcing, including BPO. We work with clients to develop and deliver business process innovations that transform their businesses or deliver higher performance levels at lower costs. Each of our BPO businesses provides function-specific or industry-specific business services to multiple clients on an outsourced basis through standard operating models. Some of our BPO businesses offer services to clients across many industries, while others offer services only to clients in a specific industry.
We have aggressive growth plans at our Indian Delivery Centre and believe this will be sufficient to cater to potential increases in the number of staff over time. Syntel currently has over 3,500 BPO employees working in different areas of capital market operations. The majority of these have been recruited specifically to service individual clients, as that is the business model we adopt for each BPO contract. We typically do not maintain a pool of unassigned generalist resources, because we find they do not meet clients' process-specific needs.
Our current plans anticipate growing our BPO capacity in India to between 10,000 and 15,000 seats within the next three to five years. This will be achieved through a multi-centre strategy, which envisages centers across at least two cities in India and more than one centre in each city, thus providing centre level and city level redundancy.
CIOL: What about your expansion plans in India?
KM: India is an important supply center for Syntel and will also be a good market for us as we introduce some of our key offerings here. Syntel Inc plans to invest $50-60 million (Rs 200-240 crore) in capacity expansion alone in India this year. This will enable the company to add around 6,000 seats. The bulk of our hiring will be in India and .we are very excited about the prospects of the country.
CIOL: Do you have plans to foray into the other sectors of KPO like legal, Medical etc?
KM: Syntel has a flexible business model that is constantly evolving. We are always looking for new avenues to invest in. The legal offshoring segment is increasingly gaining momentum.
Syntel is definitely looking to diversify its KPO portfolio and leverage its extensive experience for managing critical operations across verticals and explore emerging areas of KPO and pharma outsourcing.
The Healthcare Practice in Syntel contributes 17 percent of overall revenues and is one of the focus areas to aid our growth. Syntel's Healthcare & Life Sciences Practice team includes doctors, medical professionals, HL7 experts and DICOM specialists which help provide a comprehensive, integrated suite of IT and KPO services that help payers, providers, and pharmaceutical firms realize sustainable competitive advantages by focusing on continuous innovation and knowledge management. We continue to leverage our IT expertise in servicing huge healthcare companies to provide back office and analytical support as a full service model.
Syntel was included on the Healthcare Informatics 100, a list of the 100 leading global health care IT providers for four years in a row (2003-2006) and is already is one of the largest healthcare IT providers in the world. Syntel derives 14.5 percent of its annual revenue from healthcare projects.
CIOL: Where does Syntel stand among the KPO companies in India?
KM: As mentioned earlier, Syntel perhaps is the only 3rd party service provider to have current experience and capabilities of servicing clients across the entire investment operations spectrum. Similarly, we have the unique experience of helping a large industrial house break into a new service line of brokerage operations.
Today, we manage the entire post origination operations for the client. In the capital markets space, we have a team of almost 4000+ professionals servicing clients across low-end processes like reconciliation to the highly critical functions like performance measurement and attribution. We consider ourselves to be a highly experienced player across the securities processing and capital markets arena and capable of deploying our expertise in transaction processing, data analytics to leverage it across other domains.
CIOL: How big is the KPO industry in India today and what is the forecast for the future?
KM: India is fast emerging as a global KPO hub as globally businesses require specialized solutions, and India's engineering and technical institutes are increasingly providing highly qualified professional to address these manpower demands. The global KPO industry stands at close to $5 billion today.
A NASSCOM report estimates that with an annual growth rate of 39 percent KPO industry is expected to reach $17 billion by 2010, of which $12 billion would be outsourced to India. Also, the number of Indian KPO professionals is set to leap from 25,000 to 350,000 by 2010. Overall BPO revenues are slated to touch 40 billion by 2010.
Leading service provider completes energy audits of data centres
As part of the Green IT project, Adventity BPO India Pvt Ltd, a leading provider of fully integrated strategic KPO and BPO services to a diverse global business community has completed energy audits of all its data centers and also made changes to reduce the carbon footprint. In a interview with Manu Sharma, Associate Editor at CIOL, Rajendra Sawant, CIO of Adventity talks about switching off any servers when it is not required and also on how hard it is to get the right IT manpower in an organization.
CIOL: What are the major challenges faced by you in your organization?
Rajendra Sawant: Some of the major challenges we face in our organization include:
* Getting the right manpower
* Unrealistic expectations from IT
* To convince top level management about importance of IT
CIOL: Does your organization link IT budget with the company's performance or growth? If yes please elaborate?
RS: No, our organization does not link IT budget with the company's performance or growth
CIOL: Can you cite any specific areas where IT has come up as an accomplishment in your stint? RS: One of our major accomplishments has been that we converted most of the IT Infrastructure projects from Capex into Opex. The other include major cost reduction on almost all aspects of IT Infrastructure and also creating a Wi-Fi and Mobile savvy IT climate.
CIOL: Going forward, what are the challenges that you foresee?
RS: Going forward the challenges we forsee include:
* Retaining good talent pool
* Protect IT investments
* To delivery more for less cost
CIOL: How far have you come as regards to adopting 'Green IT technologies'?
RS: We have done an energy audit of all our data centers and made changes to reduce carbon footprint. We also switch off any servers when it is not required.
CIOL: What has been the hike in the IT budget for the new fiscal year? What has been the growth rate over last year?
RS: IT budget has increased by almost 100 percent and same has happened over last year.
CIOL: Name the top 5 items that you expect to spent on this fiscal year?
RS: * Storage solution
* Server virtualization
* MPLS
* Voice solution upgrade
CIOL: Do you feel the amount allocated for IT is sufficient if yes why? If not why not? How much should you be spending?
RS: We have sufficient allocation for IT. Currently IT being integral part of our service offerings, IT budget allocation gets priority.
CIOL: How big is the IT staff in your organization?
RS: The current strength of IT in our organization is over 150 employees.
CIOL: What are the major challenges faced by you in your organization?
Rajendra Sawant: Some of the major challenges we face in our organization include:
* Getting the right manpower
* Unrealistic expectations from IT
* To convince top level management about importance of IT
CIOL: Does your organization link IT budget with the company's performance or growth? If yes please elaborate?
RS: No, our organization does not link IT budget with the company's performance or growth
CIOL: Can you cite any specific areas where IT has come up as an accomplishment in your stint? RS: One of our major accomplishments has been that we converted most of the IT Infrastructure projects from Capex into Opex. The other include major cost reduction on almost all aspects of IT Infrastructure and also creating a Wi-Fi and Mobile savvy IT climate.
CIOL: Going forward, what are the challenges that you foresee?
RS: Going forward the challenges we forsee include:
* Retaining good talent pool
* Protect IT investments
* To delivery more for less cost
CIOL: How far have you come as regards to adopting 'Green IT technologies'?
RS: We have done an energy audit of all our data centers and made changes to reduce carbon footprint. We also switch off any servers when it is not required.
CIOL: What has been the hike in the IT budget for the new fiscal year? What has been the growth rate over last year?
RS: IT budget has increased by almost 100 percent and same has happened over last year.
CIOL: Name the top 5 items that you expect to spent on this fiscal year?
RS: * Storage solution
* Server virtualization
* MPLS
* Voice solution upgrade
CIOL: Do you feel the amount allocated for IT is sufficient if yes why? If not why not? How much should you be spending?
RS: We have sufficient allocation for IT. Currently IT being integral part of our service offerings, IT budget allocation gets priority.
CIOL: How big is the IT staff in your organization?
RS: The current strength of IT in our organization is over 150 employees.
ERP SAP implemented to dispose off deadly chemicals
Gujarat Industries Power Company Ltd (GIPC), a leading company engaged in business of generation of electrical power has implemented ERP SAP that has helped in disposing off dead inventory of hazardous Neptha Chemical worth of Rs 0.5 crore in one month complying fully with all regulations. In an interview with Lt. Col. Shankar Gurkha, Chief Manager – IT of GIPC talked to Manu Sharma of CIOL Bureau about his achievements as a CIO and what he foresee as the major challenges in the coming years.
CIOL: What are the major challenges faced by a CIO?
Shankar Gurkha: Some of the major challenges faced by a CIO include:
* Aligning IT with business
* Business process improvements
* Create robust integrated IT platform enabling business
CIOL: Does your organization link IT budget with the company's performance/growth? If yes please elaborate?
SG: Yes. However the formal system is now being put in place.
CIOL: Can you cite any specific areas where IT has come up as an accomplishment in your stint as a CIO?
SG: The main accomplishment during my stint as a CIO include the ERP SAP implementations that has helped us in disposing off dead inventory of hazardous Neptha Chemical worth of Rs 0.5 crore in one month complying fully all regulations.
CIOL: Going forward, what are the challenges that you foresee?
SG: Deployment of cost effective IT solutions enabling business, Optimum utilization of existing IT assets.
CIOL: How far have you come as regards adopting 'Green IT technologies'?
SG: We are at an initial stage but are taking few steps in the next financial year.
CIOL: What will be the IT budget for the new fiscal year/ What is the growth rate over last year?
SG: Our budget for the next financial year will be about Rs 2.5 to 3 crore. That will be a 200 percent growth compared to the previous year.
CIOL: Name the top 5 items that you expect to spend on this fiscal year?
SC: Some of the top items we expect to spend our budget include:
* Upgrade and enhancement of ERP SAP,
* Enterprise Document Management Sys,
* Unified Communications,
* DR Plan
* Green IT.
CIOL: Do you feel the amount allocated for IT is sufficient if yes why? If not why not? How much should you be spending?
SG: The amount allocated for IT is sufficient for projects as planned.
CIOL: Has the prices of the IT products (hardware/software) been on the decline due to the current stronger rupee against the US dollar (2007)?
SG: Yes, It has somewhat declined due to the current stronger rupee against the US dollar.
CIOL: Since the rupee is growing stronger against the dollar (In 2007), don't you thing it is the right time to purchase IT products both hardware/software?
SG: Yes, If found useful for the organization.
CIOL: How big is the IT staff in your organization?
SG: We presently have a team of 20 in our organization.
BA Systems eyes 10pc of Indian networking solutions market
BA Systems, the Bangalore-based router manufacturing company, headquartered in San Jose, California, has entered the router market and is aiming at a market share of 10 percent in the networking solutions space in India by 2009-10.
The company has launched 'Enterprise' category of routers with a contract manufacturer in India. Its USP is its price, which it claims is about 30-50 percent cheaper than competitors. B. Jagadish, director marketing, BA Systems, speaks about the company's entry into the Asian market and the growing market for Enterprise routers, in an interview with CIOL's Manu Sharma. Excerpts:
CIOL: Being a US company what made you roll out your products in India?
B. Jagadish: BA Systems is headquartered in San Jose and has presence in Bangalore, Singapore, Hong Kong and China. We are targeting the Asia-Pacific market since it is growing by many folds in the Enterprise segment of routers. India, in particular, has a big market and the router market is growing at 15-18 percent. In comparison, it is growing by only 5 percent in the developed countries. Therefore, we have launched our products here and plan to expand overseas through our OEM network. In fact, we have already sent our first shipments to China and Bangladesh.
CIOL: Describe the Enterprise router market and what is its estimated growth in India?
BJ: The Enterprise routers industry segment is presently estimated at $4 billion and is likely to grow at a CAGR of 30 percent to touch $10-billion by 2010. According to an IDC report, while Edge, PC based, wireless, ADSL, broadband, XDSL and core routers make up most of this industry, Enterprise is in lesser numbers, but is catching up.
CIOL: What are the routers that you have launched and what applications do those support?
BJ: The BA Systems' EN3500, and EN2400 integrated routers uniquely address key customer requirements such as reduction in CAPEX and OPEX, and the power to implement IP networking services with minimal disruption and maximum remote control from a central location. This is achieved by combining the high performance and carrier-grade reliability of the BA Systems Operating System (BOS) with a central management application -- a BA Systems Element and Services Management Supervisor (BESS).
The modular, multi-threaded design of BOS, in combination with the EN series high-performance hardware, provides for the best-in-class performance, both raw and with multiple services loaded.
CIOL: Who are your competitors in this segment?
BJ: Cisco Systems has a market share of over 90 percent, while Juniper Networks, Nortel, Tasman, Huawei and 3Com are the other major players in this segment. BA Systems has just made an entry into the market and hopes to capture a 10 percent market share by 2010.
CIOL: How do you plan to tackle your competitors?
BJ: The BA Systems' EN series represents the next generation of integrated routing platforms. The EN series is the first routing platform that leverages the combination of optimized hardware with tested, interoperable, and modular high-performance operating system –(BOS), thereby affording significant CAPEX savings.
BA Systems' products are deployed in mission-critical networks at high profile customers, including a leading national telco, banks, stockbrokers, MSPs and BPOs. BA Systems strategically partners with channels, including systems integrators and service providers to go-to-market. The company provides partners with level-3 technical support, training and feature customization for partners/customers.
CIOL: What kind of marketing and sales support does the company provide?
BJ: Our support base for the customers will be out of India. We have already started a toll-fee line that will be attended by us starting next January. Presently, we provide technical support to our customers that make it unique unlike others and have no plans to outsource the aftersales support. We provide technical support to our customers to handle them faster and understand their needs better. Presently, it is offered 12x5, and once the volumes build up, it will be 24x7. The company also has marketing offices in Bangalore, Chennai and Delhi. Besides, we will have full-fledged offices in Mumbai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad by October 2007.
CIOL: What sort of pricing models are you following for you products?
BJ: Our USP is our cost that is incomparable to any competitors even Cisco. Our solution comes at a cost that is at least 30 percent lower than close competitors Cisco, and can even be as less as 50 percent less if it is an end–to-end solution. Our hardware contributes a lot, while our software has own patent rights. We are the only router company with a local manufacturer. Neither Cisco, Juniper or anyone else has such a facility. Most of them source their products from either China or Taiwan.
CIOL: Who are your present customers and whom are you targeting?
BJ: Our products are affordable, off-the-shelf components. We started production in May 2006 and have already installed the products at the Taj Group, ITC, STPIs and co-operative banks. We also have corporate clients like Fortune Financials, Bosco Steel, BNA BPO and Divya Systems. The company will also be tapping into the railways, airlines, telecom and defence sectors in 2008 as they are all based on tenders.
CIOL: How is the feedback from your existing customers?
BJ: The feedback has been phenomenally good. It is because of our modular operating system, inherent features, rollback graceful restart, route tracking, SLA monitoring tool, etc. All of these are the major empowerments that our customers have experienced. We offer end-to-end solutions, including real-time WAN management. In fact, we have moved away from offering a product to a total solution.
The company has launched 'Enterprise' category of routers with a contract manufacturer in India. Its USP is its price, which it claims is about 30-50 percent cheaper than competitors. B. Jagadish, director marketing, BA Systems, speaks about the company's entry into the Asian market and the growing market for Enterprise routers, in an interview with CIOL's Manu Sharma. Excerpts:
CIOL: Being a US company what made you roll out your products in India?
B. Jagadish: BA Systems is headquartered in San Jose and has presence in Bangalore, Singapore, Hong Kong and China. We are targeting the Asia-Pacific market since it is growing by many folds in the Enterprise segment of routers. India, in particular, has a big market and the router market is growing at 15-18 percent. In comparison, it is growing by only 5 percent in the developed countries. Therefore, we have launched our products here and plan to expand overseas through our OEM network. In fact, we have already sent our first shipments to China and Bangladesh.
CIOL: Describe the Enterprise router market and what is its estimated growth in India?
BJ: The Enterprise routers industry segment is presently estimated at $4 billion and is likely to grow at a CAGR of 30 percent to touch $10-billion by 2010. According to an IDC report, while Edge, PC based, wireless, ADSL, broadband, XDSL and core routers make up most of this industry, Enterprise is in lesser numbers, but is catching up.
CIOL: What are the routers that you have launched and what applications do those support?
BJ: The BA Systems' EN3500, and EN2400 integrated routers uniquely address key customer requirements such as reduction in CAPEX and OPEX, and the power to implement IP networking services with minimal disruption and maximum remote control from a central location. This is achieved by combining the high performance and carrier-grade reliability of the BA Systems Operating System (BOS) with a central management application -- a BA Systems Element and Services Management Supervisor (BESS).
The modular, multi-threaded design of BOS, in combination with the EN series high-performance hardware, provides for the best-in-class performance, both raw and with multiple services loaded.
CIOL: Who are your competitors in this segment?
BJ: Cisco Systems has a market share of over 90 percent, while Juniper Networks, Nortel, Tasman, Huawei and 3Com are the other major players in this segment. BA Systems has just made an entry into the market and hopes to capture a 10 percent market share by 2010.
CIOL: How do you plan to tackle your competitors?
BJ: The BA Systems' EN series represents the next generation of integrated routing platforms. The EN series is the first routing platform that leverages the combination of optimized hardware with tested, interoperable, and modular high-performance operating system –(BOS), thereby affording significant CAPEX savings.
BA Systems' products are deployed in mission-critical networks at high profile customers, including a leading national telco, banks, stockbrokers, MSPs and BPOs. BA Systems strategically partners with channels, including systems integrators and service providers to go-to-market. The company provides partners with level-3 technical support, training and feature customization for partners/customers.
CIOL: What kind of marketing and sales support does the company provide?
BJ: Our support base for the customers will be out of India. We have already started a toll-fee line that will be attended by us starting next January. Presently, we provide technical support to our customers that make it unique unlike others and have no plans to outsource the aftersales support. We provide technical support to our customers to handle them faster and understand their needs better. Presently, it is offered 12x5, and once the volumes build up, it will be 24x7. The company also has marketing offices in Bangalore, Chennai and Delhi. Besides, we will have full-fledged offices in Mumbai, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad by October 2007.
CIOL: What sort of pricing models are you following for you products?
BJ: Our USP is our cost that is incomparable to any competitors even Cisco. Our solution comes at a cost that is at least 30 percent lower than close competitors Cisco, and can even be as less as 50 percent less if it is an end–to-end solution. Our hardware contributes a lot, while our software has own patent rights. We are the only router company with a local manufacturer. Neither Cisco, Juniper or anyone else has such a facility. Most of them source their products from either China or Taiwan.
CIOL: Who are your present customers and whom are you targeting?
BJ: Our products are affordable, off-the-shelf components. We started production in May 2006 and have already installed the products at the Taj Group, ITC, STPIs and co-operative banks. We also have corporate clients like Fortune Financials, Bosco Steel, BNA BPO and Divya Systems. The company will also be tapping into the railways, airlines, telecom and defence sectors in 2008 as they are all based on tenders.
CIOL: How is the feedback from your existing customers?
BJ: The feedback has been phenomenally good. It is because of our modular operating system, inherent features, rollback graceful restart, route tracking, SLA monitoring tool, etc. All of these are the major empowerments that our customers have experienced. We offer end-to-end solutions, including real-time WAN management. In fact, we have moved away from offering a product to a total solution.
Wipro among top three in desktops segment by 2008
Computer major Wipro Infotech, a division of the $3.47-billion Wipro Limited, having rolled-out its new range of environment-friendly desktops in the Indian market, is now eyeing to be among the top three in the Enterprise and SMB desktop segment by 2008. Ashutosh Vaidya, vice-president – Personal Computing Division, Wipro Infotech in an interview with Manu Sharma, spoke on wide range of issues ranging from their foray into eco-friendly computers to future plans.
CIOL: What is Greenware range of desktops and laptops? What prompted Wipro to launch these products?
Ashutosh Vaidya: Wipro has been addressing the issue of increasing e-waste and in this connection launched eco-friendly range of products as part of its responsibility towards cleaner environment. This provides a compelling proposition to our customers to adopt eco-friendly, high performance and feature-rich computing products in their enterprise.
CIOL: Where does Wipro stand in the computer market and how does it plan to grow?
AV: After having registered sales of 150,000 units in 2006 (IDC report), Wipro is now looking to achieve a target of 225,000 units in 2007. In the Enterprise/SMB segment, the company occupied number five slot with sales of 70,000 last year and is now eyeing to reach 70,000 units in 2007, thus move up among the top three. HP leads this segment followed by HCL, Dell, Lenovo and Acer. We are targeting at state banks, government agencies to reach our target.
CIOL: What are RoHS compliance products and mention its importance?
AV: RoHS or (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) is a directive from the European Union to reduce substantial e-waste in the environment. A lot of e-waste such as Brominated Flame Retardants (BFR), PVCs and heavy metals like lead, cadmium and mercury are used by computer manufacturers. Now Wipro has set up its e-waste management process called Wipro Green Computing, which spans across its product lifecycle – from designing, manufacturing right up to the final disposal.
CIOL: How does Wipro plan to reduce e-waste in India?
AV: Wipro is among the first computer manufacturing companies to launch these products in India. We will also not procure non-RoHS components from our global vendors. Besides we will roll out only RoHS compliant products by the end of this fiscal. Presently, we have eight products including four desktops and three notebooks that are 100 per cent RoHS compliant. We also have 16 centers across the country where customers can come and surrender their old computers and we will handle the disposal.
CIOL: In what way is Greenpeace involved in this project?
AV: Greenpeace, a global NGO has been at the forefront of the campaign for clean production and safe recycling. Greenpeace wants the electronics industry to design products that are free from hazardous substances, easy to recycle, and do not expose workers to health risks during production or recycling. Greenpeace is convincing individual producer responsibility (IPR) for full take-back of their products at their end of life, and go beyond the EU RoHS directive in eliminating all hazardous chemicals.
CIOL: What is Greenware range of desktops and laptops? What prompted Wipro to launch these products?
Ashutosh Vaidya: Wipro has been addressing the issue of increasing e-waste and in this connection launched eco-friendly range of products as part of its responsibility towards cleaner environment. This provides a compelling proposition to our customers to adopt eco-friendly, high performance and feature-rich computing products in their enterprise.
CIOL: Where does Wipro stand in the computer market and how does it plan to grow?
AV: After having registered sales of 150,000 units in 2006 (IDC report), Wipro is now looking to achieve a target of 225,000 units in 2007. In the Enterprise/SMB segment, the company occupied number five slot with sales of 70,000 last year and is now eyeing to reach 70,000 units in 2007, thus move up among the top three. HP leads this segment followed by HCL, Dell, Lenovo and Acer. We are targeting at state banks, government agencies to reach our target.
CIOL: What are RoHS compliance products and mention its importance?
AV: RoHS or (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) is a directive from the European Union to reduce substantial e-waste in the environment. A lot of e-waste such as Brominated Flame Retardants (BFR), PVCs and heavy metals like lead, cadmium and mercury are used by computer manufacturers. Now Wipro has set up its e-waste management process called Wipro Green Computing, which spans across its product lifecycle – from designing, manufacturing right up to the final disposal.
CIOL: How does Wipro plan to reduce e-waste in India?
AV: Wipro is among the first computer manufacturing companies to launch these products in India. We will also not procure non-RoHS components from our global vendors. Besides we will roll out only RoHS compliant products by the end of this fiscal. Presently, we have eight products including four desktops and three notebooks that are 100 per cent RoHS compliant. We also have 16 centers across the country where customers can come and surrender their old computers and we will handle the disposal.
CIOL: In what way is Greenpeace involved in this project?
AV: Greenpeace, a global NGO has been at the forefront of the campaign for clean production and safe recycling. Greenpeace wants the electronics industry to design products that are free from hazardous substances, easy to recycle, and do not expose workers to health risks during production or recycling. Greenpeace is convincing individual producer responsibility (IPR) for full take-back of their products at their end of life, and go beyond the EU RoHS directive in eliminating all hazardous chemicals.
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