Innovation is the next frontier for CIOs

The business environment today is very dynamic with IT expected to keep pace with the demands of customers and users. By looking at technology as the solution and not a problem, CIOs can handle business demands in a way that creates a great user experience in a manageable, secure and cost-effective manner. CIOs must articulate the current business challenges; understand the company, its competition and the industry.  

On the changing role of CIOs from being only an Chief Information Officer to an Innovator, a Change Leader,  Shantanu Ghosh, Vice-President & MD, India Product Operations, India & SAARC, Symantec, says that the evolving role of the CIO today demands that CIOs should not only act as technology experts, but also take strategic business decisions in line with technical advancements.

By bringing the element of innovation, CIOs as technology leaders can drive and understand what their peers in the C-Suite are aiming to achieve and focus on an IT infrastructure that complements their vision. Johan Rydell, CTO, Nevales Networks, expresses his views. According to him, “An IT head is an innovator in the first place. In fact, he is a collaborative innovator who values teamwork; understands the internal processes and thinks differently to create a competitive edge via teamwork and collaboration. On the other hand, he is expected to understand the customer’s pain points and ease the pain points accordingly and meet their requirements. The bottom line is to ensure that technology or processes should bring in the right RoI.”

As a fast-growing organization, Honda Motorcycle and Scooter Pvt. Ltd are coping with the speed and demand of business for expansion and growth in India. Adoption of newer technologies like Cloud and mobile technology are definitely proving fruitful for the business in long-term planning. Big Data needs some more time for adoption in manufacturing organizations. “The game changer is the re-innovation on the front of Business Analytics for forecasting and predictive analytics,” opines Parna Ghosh, Operating Head – Strategic Information System, Honda Motorcycle and Scooter Pvt. Ltd. 

Shantanu Ghosh
Vice President & MD, India Product Operations, India & SAARC, Symantec 

Johan Rydell
CTO
Nevales Networks  

 

"The bottom line is to ensure that technology or processes should bring in the right ROI"

 

 

Robert Healey
Marketing Evangelist, APAC and Japan, Riverbed 

"The CIO cannot boost business without indispensable expertise of IT professionals."

Diwakar Dhayani
CEO & CTO
CIPL 

"At CIPL, they try to do proper R&D before preparing a long term strategy."

Parna Ghosh
Operating Head - Strategic Information System at Honda Motorcycle and Scooter Pvt. Ltd 

"The game changer is the re-innovation on the front of Business Analytics for forecasting and predictive analytics"

Changing business demands Vs Long-Term Business Strategy 

With the role of IT in businesses changing rapidly, it is critical for the CIO to carefully and tactically align technology and business requisites. Rather than being just elbows-deep in motherboards and memory, IT professionals are moving from a tactical role to a more strategic role that requires a combination of hands-on work that makes sense for the enterprise. 

Robert Healey, Marketing Evangelist, APAC and Japan, Riverbed, comments, “The CIO cannot boost business without indispensable expertise of IT professionals, to create a business case that takes into account the paradigm shift in the role of technology in driving business.”

From the days when CIO had limited system storage and controlled information generation, to a time where all business processes are using some sort of Information System, the challenge has grown stronger – the reason being the increasing volume of information that is now being generated and processed within a company from external entities like suppliers, partners, customers, etc.

The good and bad thing about business dynamics is that it keeps evolving constantly. However, the internet and now the mobile revolution have made this evolution much faster than can be kept pace with using traditional approaches and tools.  Putting some more light on this, Diwakar Dhayani, CEO & CTO, CIPL, says that everyday is a struggle and every new customer is a challenge. At CIPL, they try to do proper R&D before preparing a long-term strategy.

Biggest Challenge for CIOs: Balancing IT Budgets with Changing Requirements 

In the wake of today’s tough economic conditions and constantly fluctuating revenues, Indian CIOs across industries are bracing up with novel challenges. On one hand where digitization and globalization are making technology more critical than ever, on the other hand intervention of disruptive technologies including Mobility, BYOD and Big Data, etc are making businesses complex. This puts CIOs in a situation where sufficient results have to be delivered while maintaining a tight IT budget.

Mukesh Kumar, CIO, TPG Wholesale Pvt. Ltd, says, “Despite the fact that there has been economic recession and the company being under pressure, he has never seen decrease in budget. While there could be a situation if there is recession that your affordability or the money you want to spend on IT would not increase as much as you expected. A ny cost cutting that people talk about in IT is CIO’s regular job. CIOs actually have to produce the best results out of best cost.” 

“If you have a clear roadmap of the technology implementation, and the top management sees that yes these technologies are adding value to the business, budget can never become a constraint for its implementation. Depending upon the budget availability or depending upon the company priority, you can make some changes to it,” tells Virendra Kumar Bansal, CIO, Luminous Power Technologies Pvt. Ltd. 

Mukesh Kumar
CIO
TPG Wholesale Pvt. Ltd. 

"I have never seen decrease in budget."

Virendra Kumar Bansal
CIO
Luminous Power Technologies Pvt. Ltd. 

"If you have a clear roadmap of the technology implementation, budget can never become a constraint."

Arvind Mohan Mittal
Administrator - IT Services at Ansal University 

"They have plans to implement Digital Classroom with facilities like Class-attendance through Face-recognition."

Vijender Yadav
Director and CTO 
Propalms 

"Based on each category of users, we implemented hypervisor based VDI as well as terminal services based VDI."

Prakash Pradhan
Head IT & CIO, Jagsonpal Pharmaceuticals Ltd. 

"The biggest challenge with the IT implementation which I face in my organization is ‘People to adopt the system"

Laws governing Information Security

With the emergence of numerous innovative devices, services and consumerization of IT, Data Security has become even more vital. Usage of portable devices including storage devices, thumb drives, tablets, smartphones and social media create lots of openings for information leaks. Database security requires multiple layers of defence that include a combination of preventive, detective and administrative data security controls. So, proper modus operandi and algorithm for checking the information security are must. A single loophole in Data Security can devastate everything.   

So, it is mandatory for organizations to comply with the guidelines laid down by the industry regulator as well as the laws of the land where they are doing business. To ensure the security of data, there are some general ISO standards (like ISO 27001 and ISO 27002) or standard of good practice (by ISF) that should be considered by every IT. Honda Motorcycle and Scooter Pvt. Ltd is governed by the IT Act, 2000 and amendment 2008 is an intermediary. They have obtained certification on ISO 27001 in 2010 to ensure better governance and security internally. Also, they are governed by the US Laws as a SOX-compliant company.

Successful implementation of IT 

Intending to gain more revenues and excel in performance, different CIOs and IT heads have implemented IT in their own ways. Propalm had implemented BYOD using their own products last year. Their employees can bring their own laptops and tablets to work and use the same to do their daily office work. They categorize users as per their access needs and implemented the appropriate VDI strategy.  Throwing more light on this, Vijender Yadav, Director and CTO, Propalms, informed, “Based on each category of users, we implemented hypervisor-based VDI as well as terminal services-based VDI. We had to make sure the access to data and applications are available all the time. So, OneGate acted as the remote access platform.”

During the past 20 years, there have been tremendous innovations in the IT sector, shadowing every bits and bytes of our life. Besides other sectors like telecom, banking, automobiles, IT has also revolutionized the education sector. One of the major changes in education is the instant access and delivery of data. If we see, the generation today is pre-equipped with the “natural” knowledge to make use of IT. Apart from this, nowadays students can understand a lecture much easier with digital medium. Keeping these factors into consideration, Arvind Mohan Mittal, Administrator – IT Services, Ansal University, has helped and guided the university in successful deployment of IT infrastructure. They have state-of-the-art computer Labs with internet on fiber @ 24mbps and an in-house developed UMS (University Management System) to manage student records, upload assignments, etc. Currently, Remote Access and Mobile Access modules are being developed. Besides these initiatives, they have plans to implement Digital Classroom with facilities like Class-attendance through Face-recognition. 

As far as the challenges are concerned with the implementation of technology, Prakash Pradhan, Head IT & CIO, Jagsonpal Pharmaceuticals Ltd, shares his views, “The biggest challenge with IT implementation which I face in my organization is “People to adopt the system”. Everyday if you bring something new to the people, they will try to hesitate. Besides this, you must require training sort of thing for this. In our organization, people’s acceptability is the main concern.” 

Finally…

It is absolutely true to say that CIO is the true integrator between business and technology. So, CIOs must continue to innovate to bring in flexibility and scalability into the systems so that adaptability to changing business process can be taken care of. Also, CIOs have to align their IT goals with the business goals of a CEO, CMO and a CFO to ensure growth of business through the use of secured and latest Information Technology.  

satinder@varindia.com