KT Rajan
Allergan India

It looks like we have just boarded the negative Spiral . Liquidity Crunch is being felt as the main problem today . However as days go by Credit card defaults may turn out to be the next and even bigger monster ! Currently, the effects are being felt largely in the Western world and the East is only getting a few nudges . Courtesy the Asian Meltdown in 1997 , Central banks here have been prudent in their lending patterns and hence Eastern economies seem to be ready to tide over the liquidity crunch . However when there is a drop in Consumption its effects are going to be significantly felt in the upcoming Quarters.
In this scenario , Speed to market , Expanding market coverage , ensuring customer Delight , Innovative offerings , quicker inventory turnaround , faster Collection cycles would be some of the Key Business drivers . CIOs would be expected to actively contribute in these Business performance enhancers and deliver More at Lower costs
At these turbulent times , Security is going to be a key area of focus Not just at individual device level but it would be across the board ... Desktop , Server . Network , Application etc . Virtualisation , again across the spectrum will soon become a necessity . Greener Operations , both from the Cost-effectiveness perspective and of course from a Planet friendly perspective will demand immediate attention. CIOs will be compelled to explore paradigms of keeping the Core competence in-house and working with Partners on most other business processes. With hostile environment around Compliance to standards would be a Vital element in all business operations . Hence ensuring 'Compliance processes' across the organization will be in focus.
In spite of the Gloom around , I feel now is the time for the CIOs to demonstrate their Value-add ! Since they have an in-depth view across every facet of the Organisation , they can achieve some Quick wins and build on them to deliver more sustainable , technology-led , Cost effective Operations. Resources are not going to come by easily . Hence the CIos would need to creatively garner support for their initiatives and carve a niche for themselves as Business Enhancers !!

Ketan Shah
Angel Broking

Looking at the growth figures of online frauds, I feel security will be top of mind activity for every CIO. Further recent layoffs may lead to more internal security threats for the organization. Also dynamic technology like web 2.0 will add to this pain & will demand more attention of CIOs as perimeter level security & traditional anti-virus solutions will not be able to identify complex & mature attacks of recent times.
Second priority is resource optimization. Since businesses are right now on a slow path, it gives an opportunity to relook at all the processes & ensure the same is fine tuned. Re-negotiations with vendors, automation etc, can definitely give good mileage in the process of optimization.
Thirdly, need to build a very effective MIS & BI system as most of the business decisions are based on these systems. Success of your business depends on the accuracy & efficiency of such systems.

Radhakrishnan G Menon
Biocon

ERP, CRM and Unified Communication collaborative tool is our high priority. Adopting new technologies, complying with regulatory norms and training people are some of the key challenges that we face. Hence, we are looking for solutions that have faster adaptability and involve less amount of training.
There are various regulatory compliances that we need to follow when deploying a new software or application. It’s a challenge but we meet them by following regulatory guidelines and making appropriate documentation and by making necessary changes in the software itself.
Our company deals with a lot of IP data, which needs to be highly protected and it’s a challenge. There is a lot of confidentiality involved. For example, clinical trial management data needs to be secured with confidentiality and they cant take risk of outsourcing it to the third party. Hence we prefer to go for in-house kind of approach than outsourcing.
We have identified four top IT projects for 2009 and they are ERP, CRM and Unified Communication collaborative tool over MS Sharepoint platform and Business Intelligence.
The company has already begun the ERP project. Identifying the requirements, development and user training is been done and now the project is in the testing phase. We plan to go live with the project in April 2009. Nearly all modules have been deployed such as accounts, production, taxation, scheduling, procurement, investment, marketing, HR payroll, etc.
Prior to this, the company had been using in-house developed ERP solution for the past eight years. The need to have a new ERP solution came as the organization thought of expanding its business. With old ERP the support was a big challenge. As our business grew, we wanted to be in pace with the trends and opportunities. Hence, going for an ERP became essential.
CRM and sales force automation is the second in our priority list for 2009. We have a lot of sales force in the market indulged in direct selling. In our business, selling is a crucial part and there is a long term association between the sales guy and the doctor. It’s not just one day selling. Hence, CRM plays a critical role in such scenario to enhance our selling and reporting capabilities. The project will go live in April 2009.
Unified communication tool is another key project lined up at Biocon. The first phase of the project is completed, where migration from Lotus notes to MS Exchange 2007 is been done. Now, the company is exploring office communicator’s capabilities like chatting, live meeting, conferencing, etc. The second phase of the project will include integration of office communicator with VoIP.
The company is already reaping the benefits of the new solution. When the migration from Lotus Notes to MS Exchange 2007 was done, the administration cost and cost of ownership came down significantly. Also, the integration of various applications becomes easier. Most importantly, our people are more familiar and comfortable with Microsoft.
We also plan to implement Business Intelligence tool. We are still in the process of evaluation. The main objective of implementing BI is to give a kick start to ERP.

R K Upadhyay
BSNL

Consolidation of silos and ERP are in the pipeline of BSNL’s key IT initiatives. Consolidation of silos system is the biggest project BSNL is currently working on. It’s a Rs 1,200 crore project, which will be implemented across four zones. The project is named as CDR (Call data record). The objective is to integrate all our systems that are running in isolation. Earlier the billing was done on basis of meter recordings. Then the data from meter use to get registered in the exchange server and then every 15 days the data was taken on tape manually to back it up. This was a cumbersome process, lacking flexibility and efficiency. With consolidation of systems, the billing would be done automatically. Most importantly the billing will be on record basis and not meter basis.
The benefits we foresee are that there will be no manual intervention. It’s totally online and the user can get a single window view on a click of a button.
The second project we are looking at is the ERP implementation. The tenders are open and now we are in the process of evaluation. Our business processes are very old and outdated. We plan to modernize them through ERP. A lot of re-engineering work will be done in our business processes by a consultant. Earlier, we had implemented SAP ERP at our Gujarat office. It was a huge success and so we thought of implementing ERP across all regions.
Meeting business needs in short time in the ever-changing business scenario is the biggest challenge. Managing silos and training manpower is another big challenge. Youngsters are more attracted towards private job as they get good money there. Manpower in BSNL is very old and retaining them is a challenge. We have to motivate them on regular basis.

Subbarao Hegde
GMR Group

Knowledge management and collaborative portal is our prime focus. Our core focus area for technology at GMR is around enhanced strategic control, enhanced collaboration, transformation to process driven organization, creating a learning organization and developing our people as our assets.
One of the key projects we are aggressively looking at for the next year is Knowledge Management and collaboration portal. Knowledge Management and collaboration portal implementation covers features/modules like My Department, My Project, My Task, Quiz etc. These processes will be built into the solution using the workflow features of the MS 2007 system.
The aim is to have the workflow processes of the collaboration portal that provides a central place to access, manage, share, and interact with relevant information, documents, applications, and people. The second focus area for GMR is to enhance connectivity and build strong security framework and to create and experience collaborative work environment.
GMR is a project driven company. We promote mobility in our organization so that people can work anywhere anytime through a secured MPLS network. The company does a lot of web and video conferencing activity, hence stabilized and secured hybrid Wide Area Networking is our prime focus in coming years. We have already put MPLS based network, which is resulting into bandwidth optimization and cost effectiveness.
We are also looking at optimizing and introducing online/ remote support like call center services. Document management towards digital office is also in our priority list.
Change management is the biggest challenge in today’s world. We must e-overhaul everything we did yesterday to compete tomorrow. The way we work has to be changed. Old technology has to be replaced with new technologies.
Security is another challenge. The first and the best solution is to bring awareness amongst internal users about protecting data. Skillset improvement is another critical aspect. We pay special attention on user training, which is mostly outsourced to a third party.
In long term, we plan to become a true virtual office. GMR’s IT roadmap in long run also include consolidation of services (local and common data center), create GMR virtual university and to make IT & S as a profit centre.

Ajay Bakshi
HTMT Global Solutions

One of our key IT initiatives include implementation of Online Appraisal System. Being in IT/ITES segment, which is relatively new and has a lot of young crowd, the adoption of IT practices are comparatively easier. But there remain some challenges around simultaneously rolling the IT initiatives and handling large numbers of employees. But we have handled these challenges very well because of high level of user co-ordination at conceptual and design and implementation level all geographies.
Since the industry is based on services and customer experience model, the need to build a process of constant innovation and improvement is another challenge.
Another challenge remains with large volume of content and data points, which gets generated every day. Each transaction in BPO/KPO is a source of information in several ways and is utilized by different user groups in different ways. Slicing and dicing this information in practical way for a long period can be a challenge as huge storage and quick accessibility can really be an issue. But we have managed it by suitably designing the application into modules and managing the re-usable application components have helped in big way.
At HTMT Global Solutions, a lot of IT related projects are taking good shape. One of the key initiatives is the implementation of the online Appraisal System for all our 14000 odd employees. On this scale, it will be first of its kind in BPO/KPO across the world with functionalities which have only been dreamt so far in this industry segment.
Another key project is the integration and implementation of Employee Life cycle, Attendance and Payroll systems of our Manila and US entities with our India’s home grown HR ERP system. In addition, we are extending the scope of existing Risk Management Application to cover indirect activities and transaction that have impact on risk profile of organization.
After 18 months of rigorous and planned IT initiatives we are now practically processing a lot of critical data points across operational and shared services processes, employee behavior and their performance trends. We have started generating reports on a certain level but this year the focus will be to spread into analytics and strengthening on predictive model.
In addition, we have been doing a lot of value added activities for our clients. Now we are very well positioned to start offering these high value services to our new clients in a much more packaged way. We are seeing lot of traction in this space and clients are appreciating it.
Within India, home based working has not yet caught up but I can sense that the time has ripe to start looking towards this in India. With maturity in delivery models across industry and with skill shortage issue getting sorted out in India, demands on technology to enable the execution of work from home will see a rise.

Rajesh Uppal
Maruti Suzuki India

As global financial crisis welcome us into the New Year, IT at every company feels the heat of the moment with tightening budgets and cost cutting drives. Although it is natural for management to look inwards at these troubled times as an immediate measure, the challenge lies in looking forward to mange growth and development and sustain in times of cost reduction.
The need of the hour for CIOs is to deliberate on the cost control strategies and ways to improve cost efficiencies. Its time for them to set priorities and to point out must haves from nice to haves. Other strategies include deferment of certain activities and optimization of resources. But one must need to understand that these savings should not cost performance of the IT.
In current scenario IT has become the integral part of the business strategy. With this development comes the need for infusing flexibility and agility in IT to adapt to various needs of the business while giving continuously improved performance. This performance not necessarily mean giving an uptime of more than 99 % but also encompass IT efforts to align its activities with business goals so as to give real and visible business benefits.
Apart from supporting business at all times, CIOs also need to keep on exploring opportunities to implement solutions and aid business. These opportunities lie in finding new and innovative ways to provide solutions as well as using new tools and technologies to make IT enabled business areas more efficient and user friendly.
In this exciting time of dynamism in the market, the traditional idea of information being wealth holds real value. CIOs need to understand the importance of information as well as the importance of time of delivering this information to the user. Thus focus should also be on providing business intelligence to users keeping in mind that it reaches at the right moment of time. With internal users CIOs also need perform marketing role and take care of customer needs.
With advent of internet and advancement of other means of communication, customers have become more informed and thus more demanding. CIOs should understand these growing customer expectations and provide solutions to manage customer demands. A CIO should play a key role in defining customer relationship processes and help their companies meet customer demands effectively.
Innovation holds the key to success in this turbulent time. IT in an organization has the clear visibility to the processes in the organization. They can be catalyst in encouraging innovation and act as change agents to bring about efficiency and reduce risk. It all depends on the way in which a CIO confronts the need to change and adapts to it.

Sandrasekaran Shanmugam
Medley Pharmaceuticals

Looking at the current market trend & business needs, the key areas the CIO should look are:

• Enhancing Security needs for smooth running of business
• Virtualization
• Stronger Lease line connectivity for accessing data and reducing downtime.
• Re-locating of DR Sities to Data centers and manage outsourcing, where required, after proper analysis.
• Looking at business needs and company growth, integrating all business process on a common platform, reducing inventory & ROI.
• Analyze training needs & develop second line as backup incase of attritions & reduce dependency.
  
• More focus on using email, video conferencing, IM for communications where required, rather then telephone, mobile & personal interactions.
  
• Proper planning & budgeting for new projects. Reviewing the plans regularly to cut down the cost without compromising on quality.
  
• Adhering to Regulatory Compliances for global business growth.
  
• Timely coordinating, understanding & brainstorming employees onthe vision, policies, timely appreciation & reward.

Ajay K Dhir
JSL Limited

In my opinion, the year 2009 will be an year of challenges, as well as opportunities for the CIOs. The challenges will be – global meltdown and its effects, shrinking budgets, talent acquisition and retention, and yet the expectation will be – “to deliver best in class services”
The opportunities will be – the capability to prove the worth of the CIO in helping the organization to use technology efficiently and in a cost effective manner, leadership traits by managing his people and the users who need efficient services, and the classical “do more with less”.
Management – IT Enabled process improvement, Controlling IT Costs, Improving internal users satisfaction, Aligning IT with business goals and GRC (Governance, Risk and Compliance).
Technology – Ensuring data security and integrity, Datacenter optimization, Virtualization, Business Intelligence.

David Briskman
Ranbaxy

In 2009, CIOs will need to continue and enable growth, while also containing costs. While there should be some purchasing leverage with key solution / technology providers as the global crisis cuts into sales forecasts, CIOs will need to be smarter about the inevitable increase in fixed costs associated with high AMCs. In my opinion, 2009 will also see a great maturity in cloud computing and Saas and viable options for many solutions. Security concerns will continue to grow from both internal and external attacks. Finally, I see 2009 as the time for CIOs to continue to get much more business savvy in providing better business practices, not just IT.

Atul Bansal
Stewart & Mackertich Wealth Management

During this troubling period of global economic meltdown very few fortunate CIOs will be there who will be having luxury of same resources at their disposal as last year was, forget the increased IT budget allocation. CIOs must balance the need for growth with managing expenses.
First and foremost is the innovative use of IT using the existing available resources & aligning IT with the business processes. Focus should be on increased employee’s efficiency and organisation’s growth & competitiveness.
Check on opex and make conscious efforts to reduce it so that saving on that can be used in new technology and initiatives for growth. Reduce power consumption and on cooling expenses at data center and also at desktop level.
Optimum use of available processing capacity, investing in virtualization of IT resources where processor utilization is within 10-20% ranging from server consolidation to network virtualization, desktop virtualization and finally application virtualization in phased and selective manner. If possible not to shelve long term projects already in progress and new project/initiative should be of short term in nature, where ROI is quick and visible.

N Kailasanathan
Titan Industries

We are looking at technologies like BI, Mobile computing and SOA.
For the balance six months of the current financial year it is necessary to prioritize IT spending. On the expense side, all unnecessary expenses in travelling, meetings at various locations and other overheads will be avoided. Of course, there is not much scope here since bulk of the expenses goes towards running the function.
On the capital expenses, a fresh review of all pending capex will be carried out and priority will be given to those that give direct business benefit or business impact. Those expenses that can be deferred will be pushed to the next year. On the people front, the principle will be "do more with less". Improve productivity and efficiency.
On the technology front, we have the base infrastructure up and running for sometime now. The need is to augment them with projects that would help in areas such as data management tools like business intelligence. We will also look at mobile computing particularly to help in MIS and sales force. Another important project would be data archival as we have built our database for the past several years and it is time to archive it. We are also piloting an SOA application this year and we would see some key applications using SOA next year.
Current year projects like knowledge portal, IS retail implementation and point of sale systems have gone live and will stabilize by next year.
2009 will also focus on other projects that would directly help our business in areas such as network expansion and new product introduction. We did look at feasibility of RFID in supply chain and retailing but have now deferred them. May be they will be taking shape at around 2009 - 2010.