Overview of Summit on CIO Strategies

Silicon India hosted the CIO (Chief Information Officer) strategies summit in New Delhi at the Hotel Surya, on 11 August 2011. The program had a wide representation of attendees from CIOs and IT heads from about 50 companies all over the National Capital Region (Delhi, Noida, Gurgaon). The discussion focused on effective strategies for CIOs in the 21^st century.

What CEOs and the Board Expect from CIOs and IT
Vijay Sethi, VP – IS and CIO, Hero Honda, who started the first panel discussion on this topic said, “the first priority of CIOs all over the world would be aligning IT to the business needs of the company. If investment in new technology aligns with business needs, ROI increases, otherwise it can fall drastically.”

Others concurred on the point that many CIOs need to consult their CFOs on important decisions, which hampers the adoption of new technology.

“The business heads need to consider what the IT department is trying to tell them and then take decisions. Business participates in suggesting value additions and process improvisations” said Mukesh Kumar, CIO, Vishal MegaMart, an e-commerce service.

“Process Optimization helps align IT to business. This helps save expenses on labor, time, and hardware. This usually happens after a scramble to meet a delivery or a crisis”, remarked RD Malav, VP-IT, Jindal Group.

A calculation of returns on a longer period shows a substantial ROI. Malav recounted his experience in buying new servers for his company. ROI calculated over one year showed a loss, while ROI over three years, showed the new servers to be much more economical than the existing ones. Simplicity and cost effectiveness are two KRAs (Key Result Areas) with which to evaluate new technology.

Regarding the legal side of cloud services, the panel agreed that it was ‘cloudy’: there was no legal framework now. Because of this, cloud service providers hesitate to accept customers from companies facing closure.

Business drivers, Strategy and Solution for next-generation Enterprise IT
Sethu Madhavan S, Director of Marketing and Strategy, Huawei, spoke on this subject. Broadband is a grossly underexploited area in India with only 1% penetration in 1.2 billion people. This presents vast opportunities for telecom service providers, enhanced further by cloud services through a deluge of applications, social networking, high-speed videos, and gaming. Providers can exploit these vistas that are just catching up here. These fields require good uploading speeds.

Huawei has several offerings for providers to take advantage of the situation. It offers Internet Data Centers (IDCs) for providing Cloud computing services to providers on a revenue sharing basis. Against traditional data centers, IDCs have zero investment costs, lower utilization costs, and 24x7 operational capability.

Reducing IT costs, promoting Green IT, increasing security, and investing in efficient platforms and technologies are the strategic goals of today’s IT.

The Competitive CIO: Driving Business Forward
Gone are the days when CIOs confined themselves to supervising just their departments. The mercurial developments in technology and market demands necessitate a more dynamic role for them.

“CIOs now need to wear the thinking hats of the business department and the customers. They need to propose solutions and improvisation methods”, said Manoj Shrivastava, Director - Integrated Technology, MTS India.

According to Ashok Cherian, CIO, JK Cements,”CIOs are not in the back end anymore. They are in the forefront, actively taking business forward. The new mantras for CIOs are: Business focused, technology driven”.

The audience received this with cheers.

Emerging Technologies and Trends: The Game Changer?
Sridhar Pai, CEO, Tonse Telecom moderated the third panel discussion on the pros and cons of emerging technologies.

“Emerging Technologies enable executives to make use of every minute. With the time available on commute, they can listen to a lecture available on an e-University portal" said JS Sodhi, Head - IT & CIO, Amity Group.

“90% of attacks on networks happen on computers that have not updated security software, in spite of patches being available. Automatic patch updating on networks as adopted by Amity can prevent this”.

Sodhi also foresaw a fast emerging field of IT and Telecom convergence.

“Emerging technologies are vital to survive in today’s fast-paced market. For example, companies cannot afford to ignore the Social media where Customers record their experiences on the fly. This feedback can help improve company services”, said Ashok Cherian, CIO, JK Cements.

Companies suffer huge losses through employees spending time on irrelevant sites. Authentication of each user, monitoring of user activities, and other remedial measures help manage potential problems like security and wastage of employee time on irrelevant sites.

Summit Summary: 
IT heads need to take initiative to analyze market trends and suggest suitable methods and technology to other departments. Cloud Computing Services and other emerging technologies can accelerate business growth; however, the concerns of security, productivity, and where relevant, legality have to be addressed. A new breed of technology of converging IT and Telecom sectors is fast emerging.

Huawei and Regus jointly sponsored the event.