We are into clinical diagnostics. In the last two years we have been expanding into multiple locations and into other areas of business. Also, since Fortis Healthcare is a sister concern, wherever Fortis starts operations we need to be present.

The main concern involving our IT infrastructure is to consolidate and centralize operations, so managing the IT infrastructure and putting in place automation and monitoring tools are the main challenge.

A second challenge is automating and streamlining the IT infrastructure wherever it is possible. For example, database activities need to be streamlined. Currently, we have 22 locations and we may add 10 to 15 more in a couple of years.

We will look at database monitoring and network management tools. We are already in the process of evaluating a couple of solutions in these areas. We have an in-house data center located in Mumbai running 24x7, hence it is critical to have automation in place. We already have some BI solutions. Once we consolidate and centralize the operations, data would be scattered in bits and pieces. At present we have centralized the operations of 16 locations, so we have the data from these locations at one place. The remaining will come on board by the end of this financial year. Using this centralized data for information is the priority for us. This data will be useful for both scientific as well as commercial purposes.

We are also facing a talent crunch in terms of getting the right resources for the right job.
We plan to have specialized skill sets at the centralized location to overcome issues of finding talent in areas where we are unable to find skill-sets for a specified task. We are also in the process of acquiring new labs, so we are planning to implement process standardization across locations.

--------------------------------------------------------- As told to Ashwani Mishra