IT NEXT
OCTOBER 2012 / ` 100 VOLUME 03 / ISSUE 09
STRATEGY: Next100 Winners’ Achievements
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BOSS TALK: Visualising Risks
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INTERVIEW: Oracle’s Hansen on HCM’s importance
40 BIG Q
Intelligence aligned with Business Pg 55
UNLOCKING WOMEN’S POTENTIAL VOLUME 03 | ISSUE 09
n elp wome h n a c t a d ities th opportun ir full potential an d n a s ie teg the Best stra nagers to unlock ip ramp Pg 15 a IT m leadersh walk the
Editorial
Create More Women Aspirants in IT The IT sector, particularly the software development front, is burgeoning in woman ratio. Contrary to this, the women in IT roles seem to represent a small ratio and those aspiring to reach up to the role of a CIO are still minimal. The shortage does pose a concern, given the fact that senior IT managers and IT managers need to help the organisation in business growth and work out better relationships with business teams. Having women IT managers works well as they are considered good at building greater relationships between business and IT and more articulate in expression and thought process. While the positives of having women IT managers as part of the IT team are plenty, the reality appears different. The common challenges that CIOs, both male and female, face is to do with finding qualified female applicants for the roles they need to fill: only one per cent constitutes CVs from women. A CIO remarked, “It is such a tough job to spot the right talent from that one per cent.” The reason for this is not that there is no talent in the industry. According to me, it is a perception game, more than anything else. IT Next’s cover feature on women IT managers in this edition attempted to reach out to many women IT managers to understand their challenges and also find out why they were poorly represented in the industry. To my utter surprise, these were highly enthusiastic and ambitious women who were actually evangelising the post and roles. However, the takeaway has been that organisations and the top management need to create opportunities, design friendly policies, have mentoring programmes in place, besides clearly mapping out a career plan which would encourage women to take up leadership roles in IT.
“Women in IT roles seem to represent a small ratio and those aspiring to reach up to the role of a CIO are still minimal” Geetha Nandikotkur
Blogs To Watch! Empowering Women in IT ITES Industry http://www.ewit.co.in/ Women as Project Manager http://blog.doolphy. com/2012/03/08/women-asproject-manager/ Blog for Women in Management http://www.coaching-fornew-women-managers.com/ management-blog.html Seven women execs and managers at EMC honored http://www.bizjournals. com/boston/blog/bottom_ line/2012/07/women-execs-andmanagers-at-emc.html This List of Top 10 Blogs by Women Might Change Your Life http://www.confabulicious.com/ this-list-of-top-10-blogs-bywomen-might-change-your-life/
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Page
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COVER STORY
BOSS TALK
INTERVIEW
17 S tumbling Blocks in Career Progression | Fighting for their rightful place and right opportunities for growth, women IT managers face multiple challenges in the so-called male bastion
20 G imme More‌‌ Opportunities | Creating growth opportunities by top management is critical
23 15 Best Practices | That can help women tackle challenges and move up the value chain
24 M aking the Right Choice for Women in IT | Women IT managers can evolve by exploring their areas 25 C areer Map for Women IT Managers |
Certain changes in policies would interest more women into IT COVER Illustration & Design: Anil T
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05 Try to Visualise Risks | Bryan Sartin, Director, Verizon says having the right attributes can help to visualise risks.
40 Collaborate and Co-exist | John Hansen, Senior Director, Oracle Corp is upbeat about HCM becoming all pervasive
ITNEXT.IN
MANAGEMENT Managing Director: Dr Pramath Raj Sinha Printer & Publisher: Vikas Gupta
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Page What winning means to
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Next100 winners
The winners who have moved up the value chain have cherished moments as they acquire new skills
INSIGHT
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THE BIG Q
26 Getting Intelligent
Insights into Networks | Mylaraiah JN, TE Enterprise says IT managers need to transform the physical network.
OPINION
55 Intelligence Aligned with Business | Experts view that
the solution must have a clear picture for corporate strategy
CUBE CHAT 60 Life is a Challenge! |
06 Online Shopping is Shaping Up | Deepankar Biswas,
Founder & CEO, OfferGrid talks about the dotcom burst in 2000 and the easy with technology
15-MINUTE MANAGER 47 From CRM To CEM | Raj Mruthyunjayappa, Sr VP & MD, Talisma says the word Experience invades the marketplace 51 Keep Big Data Open | Boris C Bialek, Director Technology Ecosystem, IBM talks on how Hadoop, open source can be used to manage and analyse data
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COVER STORY | CXOS’ BENCHMARK
CXOS’ BENCHMARK| COVER STORY
SEPTEMBER 2012 / ` 100 VOLUME 03 / ISSUE 08
STRATEGY: Next100 Winners’ Dreams
51
BOSS TALK: Security deficit in government
06
44 BIG Q
INTERVIEW: SAP Labs’ Neumann on customers’ innovation
Private Cloud breakthroughs Pg 71
GET, SET, CIO!
Girish Rao Head-IT Marico Industries
Rostow Ravanan CFO, MindTree
All Chiefs —
VOLUME 03 | ISSUE 08
ONE
K Vaitheeswaran CEO, India Plaza
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It managers become the target as enterprise chiefs chalk out key expectations from them as future CIOs I M AG I N G : SH I G I L N | D ES I G N : SU N EESH K P H OTO G RA P H Y: J I T EN GA N D H I & SR I VATSA SH A N D I LYA
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CXOs chalk out what they expect from IT managers as future CIOs Pg 16
september 2012
TARGET
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GET, SET, CIO!
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IT NEXT values your feedback
We want to know what you think about the magazine, and how we can make it a better read. Your comments will go a long way in making IT NEXT the preferred publication for the community. Send your comments, compliments, complaints or questions about the magazine to editor@itnext.in.
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Case studies and best practices, please Dear Editor, The positioning of IT Next magazine is fantastic -- for upward looking IT managers aspiring to become future CIOs. The look of the magazine is quite vibrant and the content is focused on the broad vision of the magazine, covering the latest technological trends with market analyst reports to empower IT managers take the right decisions. I would like to see more and more implemented case studies, highlighting best practices around certain technologies. Ashish Khanna Corporate Manager IT Infrastructure, EIH Limited (Oberoi Hotels)
Big data needs better coverage Been a regular reader of IT Next for some time and got deeper into reading it after I bagged the Next100 award. IT Next, which targets middle-level IT managers who aim to adorn the CIO role, is indeed perfectly positioned and very niche. I observed that the content coverage is very good. It captures the latest trends and is very informative. I’d welcome more features around big data, similar to the wave you created around cloud computing. Some content around applications and how industries can benefit, the latest trends and some interesting case studies are solicited.
read this issue online http://www.itnext. in/resources/ magazine
Ajit Awasare, DGM-IT, Larson & Toubro Ltd.
Publish articles relevant to auto industry The Pocket CIO program from IT Next is a innovative program; M&M is taking part in this event which is very relevant to IT managers. I feel the magazine is already shaping up well, but as an IT manager from a leading automobile manufacturer, I’d like stories focused on the automobile vertical. The reason is that almost 60 percent of most fourwheelers have electronics and IT software embedded in them, which makes it all the more relevant for IT managers. We at M&M believe that four technologies are going to shape the future of IT -- Mobility and how it is being incorporated into BYOD; Cloud computing that you have covered well earlier; In memory -- SAP HANA that is reshaping the ERP of the future; and Big data which doesn’t just help in churning out data, but highlights strategy to spot unstructured data as well and bring it out meaningfully to business users. Girsh Hadkar Manager Corporate IT, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd.
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IT Next – a step ahead I have been reading IT Next magazine for the past two years--it is shaping up very well with each new issue and new content. I wait to read it every month. The best part is the quality of content and design; each page is of value. The design communicates the content well even before you actually read it. I’d like to especially comment on the cover page of August, 2012, “The fine-tuners,” which communicated instantly as to what to expect within. The editorial is always a message worth following, and small sections like ‘open debate’ and ‘book for you’ are very interesting. The section,15 Minute Manager, is a must-read and first-read. IT Next has always been innovative, which was reflected in ‘TPL,’ and now ‘The pocket CIO programme’ is creating waves. I think your team is really a step ahead of ‘innovation’ in bringing value to the Senior IT Managers’ community, I conclude with a wish that IT Next will always be a leader innovating and offering great value to its readers/followers. Vijay Choudhary, Deputy General Manager-IT, HRH Group of Hotels. (Note: Letters have been edited minimally, for brevity and clarity)
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Boss talk | Bryan Sartin
B u s i n ess M a n ag eme n t
Try to Visualise Risks
T
he biggest challenge that enterprises face today is to manage security breaches, prevent threats and maintain the highest level of security. The ‘2012 Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR),’ a study conducted by Verizon Risk team, along with Federal Police and US based crime units, indicates that 96 per cent of data breaches or data leakage are realised after seven to eight months after the theft has taken place. The reason for this, purely, is not visualising the risks much before the data is located in a particular device; if done so, managing the data becomes very easy.
“Understanding the right assets, having the right attributes and right agents of security can help IT managers to visualise risks” Suggestion BOX
Visualising Risks Thea most critical aspect of any enterprise and important role of any IT manager should be to visualise risks of assets, data, information and so on. Primarily, it is the right model of security that they need to get into, understanding the right assets, have the right attributes, have the right agents of security which can help them in visualising risks and deploy both entry point and operational security frameworks.
Emerging Security Risks Our DBIR research identified emerging security risks which impact all nations and India as well, as companies are going virtual. The online world and so called social platforms have increased security threats, taking the form of activism, pranks and hacktivism (the trend of hacking and malware penetration). Across geographies, hacking made up 81 per cent of data breaches and 99 percent of data loss. Malware also played a large part in data breaches at 69 per cent and 95 per cent of compromised records. Besides corporates, government departments have become major targets for hackers. Hactivism encompassed more than data breaches, the theft of
“What this book provides is a complete, comprehensive roadmap to implementing an information security programme, including risk analysis and evaluation methods.” title: Information Securit y: Design, Implementation, Measurement, and Compliance Author: Timothy P. L ay ton Publisher: Auerbach Publications [Taylor & Franci s Group]PRICE: $104.95
corporate and personal information was certainly a core tactic. Personally identifiable information (PII) has become a jackpot for criminals. In 2011, 95 per cent of records lost included personal information, compared with only 1 percent in 2010. Findings show that target selection is based more on opportunity than on choice. The interesting question about how breaches occur and various forms of breaches would indicate that 81 per cent of the breaches are due to some form of hacking, 69 per cent occur due to incorporated malware, 10 per cent are owing to physical attacks, 7 per cent due to employed social tactics and 5 per cent result from privilege misuse.
Risk Mitigation Efforts You would notice that Indian enterprises, both large and small are becoming victims of data breaches. Besides visualising the data and its agents, these enterprises have to prescribe security rules. DBIR reports suggested that smaller organisations need to implement a firewall or ACL on remote access services, change default credentials of POS systems and other internet-facing devices and if a third party vendor is handling the two items above, make sure they have actually done them. The author is Bryan Sartin, Director, Investigative Response, Verizon
O c t o b e r 2 0 1 2 | itnext
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Opinion
money wise Deepankar Biswas, Founder & CEO, OfferGrid.
Online Shopping is Shaping Up
D
espite certain shortcomings, the ability to shop at the click of a button and enjoying the experience of anticipating and receiving the item at your doorstep is certainly driving the confidence levels of consumers. So, prospective consumers now leverage the online tool or e-commerce platform to shop.
Entrepreneurs are Charged Up
A glance into the past A quick recap takes us through the dotcom bust in 2000 which left many players high and dry. While it was the same concept perceived by tech leaders, and a genuine and valid attempt, it turned out to be a fiasco. The very few online consumers were ‘wandering’ with bulging wallets and little trust. The logistics wasn’t figured out well; the inventory or a no-inventory model was more debated about than executed. Technology was just picking up; Social, Android and iOS did not exist and open source had just started spreading. A few stalwarts on the web like Indiaplaza (erstwhile Fabmall) sustained themselves, but a majority had to walk off the ramp.
It’s a Come Back History repeats itself. The same thing happened with the online phenomenon, now invading the industry after nearly 10 years, to play its second innings. With an anticipated market size of over Rs 40,000 crores, the e-commerce industry is toning up, paving the way to the online consumerism trend, indeed a welcome change. Consumers are now omnipresent and channels like Web, Smart Phone Apps, Facebook, Twitter,
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platforms to drive the sales and making meaningful conversions. Flexible business models, ease of use, access to grid Brain intelligence of OfferGrid, the nondependence on IT teams, and insightful analytics with actionable data-points give merchants a compelling proposition to use OfferGrid and reach out to all relevant channels with a single interface. I think the sheer ability of any merchant to clone himself to multiple channels and sell with the same vigour is something every seller loves to have at an optimised cost.
“With an anticipated market size of over Rs 40,000 crores, e-commerce industry is toning up, paving the way towards the online consumerism trend” 3G Tablets etc, are contributing significantly to this evolution.
Online Shopping Made Easy with Technology The initiative has been in line with bringing in cost-effective innovation which allows consumers to shop from anywhere. Consumers need to just connect to an intelligent cloud platform, and start navigating through the various steps and reach merchandising
I expect more technology entrepreneurs to join the space and structure the business to suit the domestic market, making it user friendly. The blue ocean spaces would be experiential shopping in nature; this has the ability to personalise the shopping experience right up to shipment and delivery, 100 per cent success rate on payment gateway transactions, mobile wallets / touch and pay and trusted customer support. There are challenges: last mile delivery, cost of refund, abandoned shopping carts, and broken transactions on the payment gateways--but Indian e-commerce entrepreneurs are prepared and indomitable this time. They will make it happen, and make it a poster boy story for other developing nations to follow.
What’s in Store for IT Managers Today’s IT managers, business unit heads, have a lot to leverage from this blazing fast and rapidly evolving industry. They can actually identify data points and be proactive--measure and fix something before it breaks. For example, you need not invest in a mammoth click and social program, rather drip the investment down slowly, and increase it as the results come in. IT managers build robust platform to help the business in investing to get real sales, and not ‘anticipated sales,’
update
Update I n d u s t r y
Security Infrastructure Market Will Grow 8.4% TECH TRENDS | While the global economic slowdown has put pres-
sure on IT budgets, security is expected to remain a priority through 2016, according to Gartner, Inc. Worldwide spending on security is expected to rise to $60 billion in 2012, up 8.4 per cent from $55 billion in 2011. Gartner expects this trajectory to continue, reaching $86 billion in 2016. The security infrastructure market consists of the software, services and network security appliances used to secure enterprise and consumer IT equipment.
Gartner says global security is expected to rise to $60 billion in 2012, up 8.4% from $55 billion in 2011
Top Obstacles to reaching next-gen data centre vision DATA CENTRE Application servers, storage, switches, routers and network security are going to be virtualised
Based on the survey findings, it is no surprise that application servers are expected to have the highest percentage of virtualisation, with storage, the second highest. S ource: Rethinknet works
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Top Obstacles to Reaching NGDC Vision 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
Network Security
Network
Storage
Servers
trends deals products services people
IT outsourcing (managed security services), secure Web gateway (appliance), and security information and event management (SIEM) are the fastest-growing security segments. Demand for cloudbased security is also impacting a number of key security markets, and above-average growth is expected for this new delivery model. “The security infrastructure market is expected to experience positive growth over the forecast period, despite risks of further economic turbulence,” said Lawrence Pingree, research director at Gartner. “Results from the 2012 annual Gartner CIO survey show increased prioritisation for security compared with 2011 and results from Gartner budgeting surveys published in June 2012 underline that organisations globally are prioritising on security budgets.” Overall, 45 per cent of survey respondents expected a security budget increase, 50 per cent expected their budget to remain the same and only 5 per cent expected their budget to decrease in 2012. This pattern varied little across regions, although some countries in emerging regions demonstrated a much-higher expectation of an increase. “Although security remains fairly resilient in tough times, the prolonged financial crises seen in the U.S. and Europe have had some impact on IT security spending globally but to a lesser extent for emerging countries, such as India,” said Ruggero Contu, director at Gartner.
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IBM Analytics to support Jet Airways’ Green initiatives TECH TIDINGS | IBM has announced it has enabled Jet Airways, India’s premier international airline, to more accurately calculate, track and report aircraft emissions. Realising this significant milestone as a part of the Strategic Outsourcing construct allows Jet Airways to use advanced analytics to map the carrier’s carbon emissions, optimising its fuel usage by detailed analysis of each flight. In 2010, Jet Airways signed a strategic 10-year business transformation agreement with IBM to streamline and consolidate its IT operations. This association has helped
Mapping carbon footprint of its aircraft fleet helps the airline save $6M per year
Jet Airways to focus on its core business and improve operational efficiencies, as well as deliver a seamless customer experience. IBMs Integrated Emission
Around The World
Management System gives Jet Airways a process to analyse and calculate individual aircraft emissions, which is a complex process involving comparison of flight records and fuel usage data contained in multiple systems ranging from internal aircraft systems to regional navigation data and flight records. The solution ensures that all flight emissions are properly calculated, and reporting is accurate and timely. With IBM’s solution, Jet Airways will be able to evaluate the carbon footprint not only at the fleet level but also at the aircraft level. It will help us optimise the fuel usage and thereby create a positive impact on the environment” said Sudheer Raghavan, Chief Commercial Officer, Jet Airways.
quick byte
Exchange old mobile phone for cash at ATM soon Coming soon! A recycling ATM which can take in an old mobile phone and pay an agreed price on the spot. Most of us have an old mobile phone floating around in a drawer somewhere. Now, inventors are hoping to get people recycling their old phones by rolling out an ‘ATM’ which can take an old mobile and pay out the agreed price. The machine is sophisticated enough so that it can even see if a screen is cracked. The kiosks also evaluates unwanted goods for resale and recycling green.
N Chandrasekaran, CEO and MD, TCS
“The decision to open a new TCS facility in the Minneapolis in USA is part of our company’s on-going commitment to grow our presence in each and every market we serve.”
o c t o b e r 2 0 1 2 | itnext
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update
SpringPeople Announces Soft Skills Training Courses
TECH MOBILE
Asian Paints Empowers with SAP The paint company has achieved new found business capabilities with mobile solutions
Soft Skills programs are designed by industry experts to make learning quick and engaging TRAINING| SpringPeople Software Pvt. Ltd., a Master Certified Training Delivery Partner of Spring Source has announced the expansion of its portfolio by including Soft Skill training solutions that will focus on growth and success of individuals and organizations. The company’s Soft Skill development solutions are designed to help professionals, managers, senior executives and leaders to enhance the skills they need to drive business performance. SpringPeople’s Soft Skills programs are designed by industry experts to make learning quick and engaging, that integrates into their busy work schedules seamlessly. These skills enable people to work effectively
News @ blog
and efficiently, improve communication, motivate people to increase their productivity and promote positive interaction among employees. “We promise to deliver high quality training with rich course content that will create a dynamic, interactive environment and will impact the success of employees personal and professional growth,” said Ravi Kaklasaria, Director, SpringPeople Software Pvt Ltd. The Soft Skill Training will include courses on: Leadership, Communication, Decision Making and Problem Solving, Innovation and Creativity and Team Building, Negotiation, Presentation, Coping and Self-Management of Anger, Time and Stress etc.
SAP AG has announced that Asian Paints, India’s paint company, has achieved newfound business capabilities with the successful implementation of mobile solutions from SAP. Using the SAP mobile platform and the SAP Afaria mobile device management solution, Asian Paints is the first SAP customer to extend the capabilities of SAP software onto the Android mobile platform to gain real-time visibility and empower its sales force with the best-fit technology. “Building a powerful brand is imperative for success,” said Chris McClain, Executive VP, Global Mobile Sales and Solutions, SAP “With SAP’s mobile platform, companies like Asian Paints can establish a platform for sales personnel to connect, manage and analyse customer requirements in real time.” With a turnover of Rs 96.32 billion, Asian Paints operates in 17 countries, has 24 manufacturing facilities. It has a strong legacy of implementing mobile solutions for improving efficiencies.
Can Elop turn around SICK Nokia? Nokia’s Elop has only months to turn around the troubled company’s fortunes
Stephen Elop has only a few months to show he can turn Nokia around if he is to survive but the new smartphone is unlikely to woo customers back from Apple and Samsung. Investors and analysts say the chief executive has until early 2013 to prove he made the right choice by partnering with Microsoft Windows or his future. Source: Agencies
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update
update
Ellucian Expands its Facility in Bangalore TECH EXPANSION | Ellucian inaugurated a state-of-the-art
facility in Bangalore that will enable the company to work closely with local institutions to develop IT solutions and provide enhanced implementation and product support. The new office brings together the functions of marketing, sales, engineering, services, and support. By co-locating all the departments, the company expects to accelerate the rate of delivery of new products and provide better and broader support to its growing customer base in India. Ellucian also plans to invite higher education thought leaders to the facility to engage with its customers, and identify more partnering opportunities to expand the company’s portfolio of solutions. Currently, about 250 employees staff the operations hub. Ellucian has been operating in India since 1993 through its global solutions and business development centres. The new facility in Bangalore will function as a knowledge and operation hub, combining deep domain expertise and product knowledge with specialised technical capabilities that help to cost-effectively serve Ellucian’s vast portfolio of solutions and customers in India and worldwide. S. Raghunath, Dean, Administration, IIM Bangalore, who inaugurated the facility said, “Adoption of ICT will help institutions improve learning and benchmark their successes against the best global institutions.”
Dell Partners with Ramco Systems ERP TECH PARTNERING | The company will deliver ERP solution
on Cloud to help businesses achieve operational efficiencies and generate greater revenue. Dell has announced its strategic alliance with Ramco Systems to deliver Ramco’s ERPas-a-service on Cloud to help midmarket businesses execute cost and operational efficiencies and accelerate revenue growth. The new offering strengthens Dell’s growing portfolio of Software-as-acloud based Service (Saas) solutions that help organmobile in 2011, isations manage and grow their business. projected Ramco’s ERP on Cloud supports to reach $9.5 billion by 2014 businesses with wide functionalities across various industry segments. The Ramco ERP-as-a-service on Cloud solution allows midmarket enterprises ease of adopting evergreen, feature rich business applications.
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ASK THE EXPERT Checklist to Choose the Right Cloud Service Provider
Key considerations include understanding securitypolicies andframework,
due diligence to customer references and checks, and cloud service provider’s ability to scale up to the business expectations What professional skills do IT managers need to look at in the cloud service provider before signing up? The obvious skills, with regard to time lines, man-hours spent on the task, services extended etc., that IT managers expect from the cloud service providers are well articulated in the SLAs and contracts. However, the new aspects that need most consideration are related to cloud service providers’ security framework and policies, information about where the data is stored and secured, and what kind of auditing is carried out periodically by the partner and so on. Besides, evaluating the pricing policies and various consumption models available as part of the cloud based service delivery model are vital. Since there are no proven models in the cloud framework or available cases, it is compelling for IT managers to evaluate risk components more stringently.
What kind of background checks do IT managers need to do while selecting a cloud service provider?
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dossier
David Blumanis Vice President, Data Center Solutions & Key Account Management, Asia Pacific and Japan, Cautions IT managers to take cognizance of various risk elements and evaluate security audit patterns of the cloud service provider, related to data security
Several new players have arrived in the cloud market and that doesn’t necessarily mean they have a mature operation, robust infrastructure and the ability to scale with your organisation. Check if they have a strategy around data backup management, high density capabilities, disaster recovery in the line of business continuity planning, etc. How will you evaluate the services spread out with companies that have overseas operations with distributed facilities? Of course, some CIOs just sign a tough contract with strict SLAs and penalty clauses. However, pertinent questions to ask as part of outsourcing contracts are--What is your 3 to 5 year technology refresh plan to replace aging hardware? Who pays for it, the customer or the cloud service provider? Another key aspect is about capacity planning to allow dynamic provisioning for future needs. Also, while it is all right for service providers to include panelty clauses in case of systematic failures or crashes, IT managers should weigh the real cost of damage resulting from a dent in company’s reputation due to nonavailability of services.
ask the expert CUSTOM PUBLISHING
“Since there are no proven models in the cloud framework or available cases, it is compelling for IT managers to evaluate risk components more stringently” Can you elaborate on effective SLAs and its components that are critical? Outsourcing contracts have been around for many years, and signing up with a cloud service provider is just another outsourcing contract for the customer. So components of the SLAs are also the same, such as quality of service, how is change management being handled, etc. What we observe are the new questions or demands being added to these contracts; for instance, how can you ensure the data does not end up in another country; or what is the process of having a check on this? With the cloud, there is a possibility to get a “no lock in” period with some services. IT managers should think: if I want to move my assets to a different provider, can I do it at a short notice without any penalty and how can I retrieve my data from the existing location?
Is there a mechanism to understand if the service provider is quoting the right price? This is more about moving from a capex model to an opex business model. A customer will have a fair idea how much it costs him or her to run an existing service/application and can compare it to what a vendor quotes. A new service / application is more difficult to determine, with no benchmarks available. There are several cloud based pricing models (such as IaaS, PaaS and SaaS), and all these have hundreds of permutations and combinations when it comes to pricing. The vendors themselves are trying out ways to maximise returns. Cloud vendors are emulating Telco mobile plan models and working out pricing models based on consumer usage and business behaviour patterns. While the numbers do look attractive, the concerns are around security and risk assessment.
What kind of vital capabilities does the cloud service provider need to possess? The cloud service provider needs to prove the following: a) Track record of delivery and performance. A new provider will struggle with corporate customers, especially with getting any mission critical applications b) References from existing happy customers with the same business model and scale as yours. Most providers are new players and are looking for their big sales breakthrough, to fund and develop their cloud service. c) No lock in period or no penalties for moving away from a cloud provider. Once you stop using the service,
47 %
The compounded annual growth of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) over the next five years Source: The Business Landscape of Cloud Computing, Gartner Inc.
you should be able to retrieve your data. d) Transition implementation and management capabilities and the ability to test the service/QOS before a full-blown rollout with the end users involved in the pilot. e) Show financial risk management profile to support any losses or penalties and provide details on the location of the data (city, state, country).
How do IT managers measure the maturity and experience of the cloud service provider? Experience in handling cloud based outsourcing projects and sharing certain insights from the projects handled and its business models are imperative. IT managers should get insights into cloud service providers’ existing operations in action with due diligence. It is critical to check if the service provider runs a professional and efficient shop, has a mechanism to crossreference, understands BCP capabilities, deliverables, usage pattern of ITIL service management tools, etc.
What kind of processes do IT managers need to expect from a cloud service provider? Some important processes that IT managers should expect from the outsourcing partner are: a) Monthly SLA reporting b) Periodic account management reviews c) Monthly financial statements/models on consumption pattern changes and trends d) Capacity reports is something important to look for if it is hardware as a service (HaaS)
What kind of role does the cloud service provider play in bringing about change management? Sharing what changes cloud can bring to a business, how to implement the change in the business, and thirdly, display the changes that will be needed in the future are key. Some benefits you can expect would be in terms of QOS, cost reductions, etc. As most cloud players reside in a co-location facility, IT managers should seek a technology vendor’s help in evaluating these facilities to determine the quality and risk profile of the physical infrastructure. BROUGHT to YOU BY
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WOMEN IN IT | cover story
at can h t s e i t i n ull portu f p r i o e d h n t a k s nloc tegie Best stra IT managers to u ership ramp en ad help wom l and walk the le potentia eetha By n g Anil T pj on by erson i by pet g n i imag sh k | Sunee r at i llust
D es i g
n by
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hile the women-to-men employment ratio across various sectors and geographies is seeing a positive upward curve, women in IT (not from the software development angle) are still poorly represented, with a few exceptions. The reality is that only a small percentage of women aspire to become CIOs. The ratio of women IT managers who are in the pipeline to adorn the CIO role is small. Based on the feedback given by most IT managers and CIOs, I would estimate that on an average, women IT managers could be less than 7 per cent. The reason could be varied. It could be about IT having a macho culture,
represented. “My company has a good womento-men ratio and I have always felt that I was an integral part of IT and involved in all major decision making processes,” says Nayar. But as always, there are certain exceptions to the rule. A majority of CIOs from manufacturing and other non-IT sectors in India echo the fact that women who apply to IT jobs are in just a single digit ratio, which gives them less choice to get the right talent. Globally too, the ratio is just reaching a lower double digit. Vijay Sethi, VP-IT, Hero MotoCorp admits, “I think a key reason not many women employees are willing to join manufacturing sector in IT is because one does not get some of the facilities like flexi working hours and work-from -home.”
Reality Check IT Next reached out to the Next100 awardees, who are future CIOs, women IT managers across certain verticals, and male and female CIOs, to get insights into the challenges faced by women IT professionals. While women IT managers came up with genuine challenges, most were of the opinion that organisational culture needed to change. The organisational framework should have a mechanism to unlock the full potential of women IT managers. Most CIOs acknowledge the fact that the organisation policy should be structured in a fashion
“My company has a good women-to-men ratio and I have always felt that I was an integral part of IT and involved in all major decision making processes” —Beena Nayar
Manager-IT, Forbes Marshall
demanding time elements, lack of mentors, the burden of the family responsibilities and the like.
Changing Scenario While we cannot overrule the fact that the women IT managers ratio is far below expected, we cannot dismiss the fact that those who are already in IT are making headway in taking up the reins as CIO. For instance, Been Nayar, Manager-IT, Forbes Marshall, does not think women are poorly
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which can encourage more women IT managers to opt for positions in IT. It is heartening to find that many organisational heads, particularly CIOs, are taking measures to put in place an effective policy. Suresh Shanmugam, Head-Business Information Technology Solutions (BITS), Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services Ltd Group, points out, “While the feedback from the men is that women are not able to work under pressure, experience says that women are mature enough to handle pressures better than male IT managers.” Organisations are initiating mentorship programmes to encourage women IT managers and build their self confidence.
WOMEN IN IT | cover story
Fighting for their rightful place and right opportunities for growth, women IT managers face multiple challenges in the so- called male bastion
Photo graph y: Madishett y Man saa
W
omen IT managers, those of who have taken up responsible positions, also find major job-related challenges owing to their gender. The concerns have been about not just safety and security, or demanding time lines, or odd working hours, or balancing family and work, but also about their career growth and opportunity. It is also about lack of recognition for women’s capabilities as individuals and their contribution to the growth of the organisation. Most IT managers echoed the fact that they needed to invest additional energies into dealing with the egos of male colleagues and go that extra mile to get the job done or meet organisational goals,
“Women in the IT profession still need recognition as being professional in their individual capacity and contributing to the growth of the organisation and their own growth” — Bhavita Saxena, DGM of ISBS at RFCL Ltd.
cover story | WOMEN IN IT companies, which according to Saluja, has increased the challenges of women: they are expected to work round the clock, besides handling home. Balancing professional and family life poses a vital challenge to most women, says Seema Bhatia, Senior IT Manager, Bajaj Capital Insurance Broking Ltd. She believes that the nature of the job in IT impacts the mind more than the body, which often results in stress and tension.
Multiple Obstacles Bhavita Saxena, DGM of ISBS at RFCL Ltd., broods over the perception that bosses carry about women. She feels that if a female employee does not stay late (due to family responsibilities, security reasons etc), she is termed as not being responsible enough.
“The biggest challenge I encounter as a woman in the IT industry is that of growth” — Upasna Saluja, Operational Resiliency Manager-Product & Infrastructure Risk Management,
Photogr aphy: s. ra dhakrishna
Thomson Reuters
18
which indeed are stumbling blocks in moving up the value chain. Upasna Saluja, Operational Resiliency ManagerProduct & Infrastructure Risk Management, Thomson Reuters, ( associated with technical governance ensuring resiliency of the company’s product portfolio serving the BFSI industry), agrees, “The biggest challenge I encounter as a woman in the IT industry is that of growth.” Saluja reiterates that regardless of everything, it is hard for women to grow professionally in this very male dominated society since the environment doesn’t allow for an equal pace of growth for both male and female professionals. The evolution of the corporate world has led Indian enterprises to have alliances with foreign
itnext | o c t o b e r 2 0 1 2
“Women in the IT profession still need recognition as being professional in their individual capacity and contributing to the growth of the organisation and their own growth,” says Saxena. Less flexibility is another hindrance owing to demanding work hours as they handle global projects, besides equally demanding family responsibilities. Having a second innings at work is a challenge for a woman after a few years of break following her maternity, as her contribution is not taken seriously and she is forced to relegate her career to the background. Most agree that gender bias comes in when the role requires working late hours or travelling (without even checking if that’s a challenge for a woman or not). Saxena believes the bias is observed when it comes to defining a growth curve for women – assuming
WOMEN IN IT | cover story
99%
of CVs received for IT posts are from men and 1% are from women—Godrej
Bosses who hire women echo the fact that a right proportion of women IT managers in the team will bring about the necessary discipline The key concern that most bosses or CIOs point out is about poor representation of women in the IT space, which mostly revolves around the perception they carry or their male counter parts do. They point out that women IT managers need to be convinced that they can be leaders in a male bastion.
they do not have the potential or zeal to move ahead, are not ready to put in 150 per cent effort, or willing to stay back late or work on weekends. What bothers many women is that they still face the bias and yet prefer to remain silent. Swarnali Ghosh, Manager - Business Applications, Eveready, finds that tackling male ego calls for additional energy and strength to handle issues tactfully, to ensure work does not get stalled. “During any meeting, a woman has to be tactical and forceful in order to be heard or get equal importance as her male counterparts,” remarks Ghosh.
or infrastructure jobs demand stretched and odd working hours which normally become a challenge for women with family responsibilities. “Women in the IT domain need to be very careful as male colleagues do not like to accept over aggressive action from female colleagues,” cautions Oommen.
Jijy Oommen
Group Head-IT, Bajaj Capital Ltd.
Shailesh Joshi, VP & Head-IT, Godrej Industries Ltd., laments the poor representation of women in IT across the industry and that the ratio of women is less than 10 per cent in the Godrej Group. “It is all about the perception held by male counterparts who think women are less knowledgeable, which may not be the case,” says Joshi. The key challenge for Joshi is to choose the right candidate. “Out of the total CVs that we receive for IT posts, 99 per cent are from men and one per cent from women aspirants.” Jijy Oommen, Group Head-IT, Bajaj Capital Ltd., believes that certain server
Dr Rebecca Parsons, CTO, a catalyst of technology innovation and growth for ThoughtWorks, points out a strange concern: that people perceive a strong woman in an unflattering light. “Even women tend to dislike women who exhibit strength in the workplace and the stereotypes about nurturing women can be seen to hurt a woman’s effectiveness,” says Parsons. Vijay Sethi, VP-IT, Hero MotoCorp Ltd., who doesn’t see specific challenges from women employees today, believes that they are more concerned about ensuring that timelines and project objectives are met than their male counterparts.
Dr Rebecca Parsons
CTO, a catalyst of technology innovation
Suresh Shanmugam, Head-Business Information Technology Solutions, M&M Financial Services Ltd Group, avers that employees from both genders should be perfect, excellent, honest and dedicated, whether the task was small or big.
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cover story | WOMEN IN IT
Creating growth opportunities by the organisation’s top management is critical as CIOs prepare the next layer of women IT managers as future CIOs
Opportunities galore What women IT managers mean when they say organisations need to create opportunities is that
“In my opinion, men put in more working hours with lesser output whereas women may give less working hours but are more productive” — Seema Bhatia, Senior IT Manager, Bajaj Capital Insurance Broking Ltd
Photogr aphy: Subhojit Paul
I
t would not be an exaggeration to say that women IT managers who have taken up larger roles and responsibilities have been taking challenges in their stride. However, most of them believe that the top management of the organisation needs to pull up its socks to encourage more women employees to handle IT roles and devise women friendly policies. The shortage of women in IT does matter in the long run. It is not true that women demand special consideration. The concerns really are about making the environment friendlier with a well defined growth path that can encourage women to take to IT. Annie Mathew, CIO, Mother Dairy, supports the thought when she says, “I see women are demanding special consideration as a right, which dilutes the entire concept of equality.”
enterprises should drive home the message that the technological evolution is opening up newer career paths and goals for women unlike before. Jijy Oommen, Group Head-IT, Bajaj Capital, agrees with the fact that new trends like outsourcing, cloud computing, etc., have opened up opportunities for women and scaling up is not so difficult for women IT managers. However, at the top, knowledge, leadership and management skills score higher over hands-on technical skills. “Having the right organisational culture is most important, and the female work-force needs more flexibility in terms of working from home on a needs basis, etc,” says Oommen. Sarita Kaza, Senior IT Manager, Vijay Electricals, enjoys cross functional responsibilities along with IT, and believes that it is not just about position or money, but about the highest level of satisfaction from the job. “While I am on the right path, I expect enterprises to facilitate flexible work arrangements, relevant training sessions and mentorship programmes to draw more women to IT,” she says. The core need for HR according to Upasana Saluja, Operational Resiliency Manager-Product & Infrastructure Risk Management, Thomson Reuters, is to fix the proportion of specific scales and levels to encourage diversity at each level and not only at the company level while focusing on equal distribution of work load. Seema Bhatia, Senior IT Manager, Bajaj Capital Insurance Broking Ltd, who has taken on larger responsibilities at work, advocates that organisations should aim at ensuring that the work is done smoothly and completed on time rather than counting the number of hours spent at the workplace. “In my opinion, men put in more working hours with lesser output whereas women may give less working hours but are more productive,” says Bhatia. Since happy minds work better, organisations should aim at keeping their employees happy. An interesting point that Dr Rebecca Parsons, CTO, ThoughtWorks makes is about many studies showing that women are over-mentored and undersponsored. According to her, active advocates are crucial for women advancing in IT. Another critical issue is ensuring that women are included in the pools for promotions and critical opportunities. “Finally, I think actively addressing issues that marginalise women, such as inappropriate comments, or events and messages targeted at men, is essential to addressing the discomfort women feel in IT,” points out Parsons. Parsons observes that women are often over-looked for positions because they are not
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WOMEN IN IT | cover story
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as vocal about their accomplishments. Sourcing strategies often overlook venues where women are prevalent. Positions are often created with a model in mind, with that model often being based on someone known to the organisation, often a man. Expected or historic — Suresh A Shanmugam, Head- ways of working in IT BITS, Mahindra & Mahindra Financial model the habits of men, Services Limited Group since men have been dominant in the industry for the past few decades, although this wasn’t always the case. “Enterprises need to address some of the more insidious sources of inequality, while continuing to be vigilant in stamping out the overt manifestations of discrimination,” says Parsons.
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Photogr aphy: Jiten Gandhi
“The diversity agenda within our group is being pushed with more commitment; gender diversity is a key area for us and it is a challenge to get suitable women candidates”
One of the examples that Bhavita Saxena, DGM of ISBS at RFCL who is just one step away from being a CIO, cites: “While I was given equal opportunity in handling technology, team management, vendor or customer management, I did face lot of apprehensions and disagreement from the leaders around me, when it came to a leadership role.” In her 27 years of work experience, Beena Nayar, Manager-IT, Forbes Marshall and certified PMP, who manages development and implementation of business applications in IT, says that the number of women joining the IT fraternity is substantial. “However while going up the ladder, the percentage drops due to personal reasons or gender discrimination,” says Nayar. According to her, organisations can encourage women through longer maternity leave, ensuring that gender discrimination does not exist and work-from-home facility, which is a great enabling feature these days and which must be exploited to the hilt. Further, successful women can come together to play role models in guiding/ encouraging other women to climb up the ladder. Vijay Sethi, VP-IT, Hero MotoCorp says people have preconceived notions – sometimes, women employees may think that they did not get a promotion or their annual appraisal rating was less because they were women; because they took leave to take care of family matters; because they do not stay late or because they do not come to office on holidays etc. “ I do not think their managers even remotely think about this while deciding promotion or ratings – it’s based on the performance and potential of each team member. Agreeing to the fact that the number who are scaling up to leading CIO roles are very few, Sethi states, “Apart from encouraging women employees to attend training, we at Hero MotoCorp take a number of actions like: a)Holding workshops on balancing personal and professional lives for women employees b)Off site training and sessions only for women employees; at these annual three day sessions, all the women employees spend time together at an offsite location and there are various leadership and personality development sessions Suresh A Shanmugam, Head-Business Information Technology Solutions (BITS), Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services Limited Group, says that a majority of the outsourcing companies operating in India have stepped up their efforts to hire more women at all levels and some of them are incentivising search firms by paying up to 10 per cent extra commission for a suitable woman candidate.
WOMEN IN IT | cover story
That can help women tackle challenges and move up the value chain and define a growth path 1 Effective communication with the bosses (who can understand problems from multiple perspectives)
Charge the problems with self confidence 2
3 Think and mean business and address business problems 4 Reach out to the heads of business to discuss problems 5 Make your presence felt in the organisation to change perception 6 Be a catalyst between vendors and CIO or CFO
Demonstrate the right attitude and flexibility 7
8 Create a great support system both at home and at the work place even at the cost of small sacrifices
Update on technology trends to be competitive 9
“Conflict resolution and team dynamics are two areas that are also increasingly important as people scale up in organisations” — Dr Rebecca Parsons CTO, Thought Works
“Women-friendly policies are important as happier families lead to more productive employees” — Suresh A Shanmugam Head-Business Information Technology Solutions (BITS), M&M Financial Services Limited Group
“To succeed, you need a burning desire to make a difference, irrespective of gender”
10 Change your perspective to have a positive outlook, while accepting situations that you cannot change
Treat yourself as equals to male counterparts to change IT rules 11
Move away from traditional thinking and search for opportunities for scaling up 12
13 Invest some time in building your network with women in leadership roles. Discuss your challenges with them 14 Keep emotions under check and learn to detach yourself from them. If crying, sulking, shouting, helps to unclog your mind, do it, but when alone
Invest in having a mentor. Identify a person who can mentor you, give dispassionate advice, and act as a sounding board. This is the best gift for you 15
Annie Mathew, CIO, Mother Dairy
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cover story | WOMEN IN IT
Women IT managers can evolve their own career map by exploring their areas of strength
W
hile most bosses and colleagues perceive women to be more suitable for certain kinds of IT jobs or just to keep the lights on, there are certain fields within IT where they outsmart their male counterparts. It is important for them only to identify their strengths and expertise and draw their own career road map. Most CIOs agree that having more women in the tech team would help
build stronger relationships between business and IT as they are effective communicators. Shailesh Joshi, VP & Head-IT, Godrej Industries Ltd., strongly believes that women are very good at handling applications implementation and consulting related jobs and outsmart their male counterparts, while it is a challenge handling infrastructure related activities. Daya Prakash, Head-IT, LG Electronics, observes women having expertise in handling collaboration and the application side of technology. From her own experience, Dr Rebecca Parsons, CTO, Thoughtworks, says, “The individual contributor path requires additional focus on technical skills, while the managerial track requires greater focus on understanding the breadth of the organisation and communication skills.” Suresh Shanmugam, Head-Business Information Technology Solutions (BITS), Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services Limited Group, says women are excellent problem solvers who can attack the main problem that a lot of companies face with the cloud. Swarnali Ghosh, Manager - Business Applications, Eveready, sees a chain of activities evolving as women are good at team management and good communicators, which lead to better performance, and proving better leadership.
“Women are expert at handling applications, both deployment and implementation and consulting related jobs and can easily outsmart their male counterparts” — Shailesh Joshi, VP & Head-IT, Godrej Industries Ltd.
WOMEN IN IT | cover story
I
Certain changes in policies or rules along with a clear blue print of the career path with roles and responsibilities would interest more women into IT
t is obvious that most CIOs want to hire more women for the IT department to have a judicious mix, but struggle to find qualified female applicants. While one way is to create appropriate job profiles which can help create a better career path for women IT managers, many corporate houses have changed their rules to encourage more women. Says Daya Prakash, Head-IT, LG Electronics, “We are consciously encouraging women in IT to play a strategic role and equipping them with necessary skills,” says Prakash. “We do not encourage women to work after 8.00 pm without special permission and devise specific strategies to involve them in critical roles such as supply chain management.” With regard to the career road map for women IT managers, Dr Rebecca Parsons, CTO, Thoughtworks, reiterates that they can choose between pursuing more of an individual contributor path, culminating in Chief Scientist, Principal Engineer or Chief Technology Officer, and a managerial path, culminating in positions such as VP of Application Development or Technology. Suresh Shanmugam, Head-Business Information Technology Solutions (BITS), Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services Limited Group, feels that the key requisites for women to be part of the leadership profile would be that women administrators get involved with business peers in non-IT projects. Upasna Saluja, Operational Resiliency ManagerProduct & Infrastructure Risk Management, Thomson Reuters, says the industry is gradually recognising woman power and realising the efficiency of women and their expertise in multitasking. According to Shailesh Joshi, VP & Head-IT, Godrej Industries Ltd., his company has consciously evolved a different policy for the women IT-force, with their career growth in mind. “While creating
working policies for them, we are enabling them to build a good team around themselves, and a strong hierarchy which would represent them during emergency like travel, or handle their responsibility without the work getting disrupted,” says Joshi.
“We are consciously encouraging women in IT to play a strategic role and equipping them with necessary skills” — Daya Prakash Head-IT, LG Electronics
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insight | IT Asset Management
Getting Intelligent Insights into Networks imagi ng by sunees h k
IT managers need to transform the physical network layer into a strategic asset with the managed connectivity approach By M y l ar ai a h j n
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hy managed connectivity? M o s t vendors and IT managers are clued into the changing business and its need to have a robust network infrastructure. Every organisation’s business group demands a high level of network availability, reduced response time to the rapidly changing business needs, while expecting network professionals or administrators to be agile and efficient. The business expansion, increase in the volumes of data and the need to use financial and IT resources efficiently has compelled IT heads and their teams to take a managed connectivity approach, which is indeed the next significant step in the evolution of intelligent infrastructure management systems. The managed connectivity approach, which is the conglomeration of intelligent infrastructure management systems and software, would help in providing the same level of visibility of the network physical layer, similar to the ones available for office networks, data centres and co-location environments in a virtualised environment. Sometimes known as physical layer management or “intelligent patching”, these legacy systems are grounded in the need for automated documentation of physical patching adds, moves and changes. Increasingly complex networks and the need to make it available and agile to users need certain pre-requisites, which include: Efficient management of a virtualised infrastructure through investment in virtualisation management software. Excellent IT process control through implementation of best practice frameworks such as ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library). A highly integrated approach to all aspects of network management to enable users to get the most out of their data-centre infrastructure management (DCIM) and network management (NMS) software. One way to look at
IT Asset Management | insight
The Hardware Approach Two alternative hardware approaches have been developed to provide the physical layer information needed for the managed connectivity solution. The solution utilises a ‘9th wire’ to communicate connection data from the patching field via a hardware analyser to the ICM database. A large range of fibre and copper connectivity hardware is available, and includes solution ready options to enable an easy upgrade path to full AMPTRAC functionality as the demands on a network increase. An alternative approach, known as Quareo, uses advanced semiconductor devices known as connection point ID (CPID) chipsets that are embedded into the actual connectors. When a Quareo plug is inserted into a
this is to invest in virtualisation from the data centre to the desktop and enhancement of in-house capabilities with cloud-based services that can increase flexibility and efficiency, but at the cost of a more fluid and less tangible operational environment. However, this environment requires a high level of process control and clear visibility of network assets and their workload, to give IT professionals the control essential to run an efficient enterprise network or data centre. While the above methods are used to manage the network, one element that lags behind in terms of process automation and network visibility in the physical layer. Often consisting of many thousands of individual cables, connectors and connections, this physical layer can remain a “blind spot”. But gaining visibility into this physical layer through managed connectivity approach would help in: 1. Higher availability through increased automation, improved diagnostics and reduced downtime
Quareo connector, the data from the chip, along with port and panel data, is passed to a controller, and is then sent to the ICM database. Key Take Aways * The latest managed connectivity solutions enable higher network availability, while lowering network costs, by integrating full visibility of the physical layer into existing network management applications -- all the way from the data centre to the desktop * Managed Connectivity approach is the conglomeration of intelligent infrastructure management systems and software which will help in providing the same level of visibility of the network physical layer * Investing in virtualisation from the data centre to the desktop enhancement of in-house capabilities with cloud-based services that can increase flexibility and efficiency
2. Reduced OPEX (operational expenditure) through more efficient change management, asset provisioning and utilisation 3. Improved ITIL process efficiency through 100 per cent accurate realtime physical location information that can prove invaluable to security and compliance
Higher availability at lower cost Many of the features of a managed connectivity solution that raise availability also play a key role in reducing operating costs by improving the efficiency of moves, adds and changes and ensuring that downtime is minimised. As the physical layer can often be the cause of network downtime, by making rapid physical fault location and diagnosis an essential part of a comprehensive network uptime strategy, a managed connectivity system will automatically maintain a database of 100 per cent accurate
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insight | IT Asset Management connection information, and can also provide crucial information on the data-carrying capacity of the links between those connections. If a network asset fails, an accurate database of the physical connections can help to locate the “real world” physical location of that asset in a virtualised environment, speeding up the recovery work.
Flexibility in office networks The approach would help in delivering real-time physical layer data to an organisation’s network management software to enable high levels of port utilisation to the desktop, while maintain data on physical asset location. It also optimises the use of facility space by linking location and connectivity usage data, while ensuring efficient office moves and changes. The trend for delivering this kind of workplace flexibility is a move towards a virtualised desktop or even a virtualised workspace environment. As the level of virtualisation increases, more change management is handled above the physical layer. This in turn can “cloud” the visibility of the real-time location of physical assets,
“A managed connectivity system will automatically maintain a database of 100 % accurate connection info” Mylaraiah JN, Country Manager-Technical, TE Enterprise Networks
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and so can raise issues of how best to track which user is connected to which device in which location and to deliver a seamless and secure application environment. By integrating a managed connectivity solution into this virtualised environment, improved asset tracking, improved security and better monitoring of workload in specific locations become possible.
Data centre optimisation By delivering physical layer data to data centre infrastructure management (DCIM) software, a managed connectivity solution helps to speed up the provisioning of data centre equipment, while improving rack density and making more efficient use of “white” space. A managed connectivity system can free up expensive floor space for further expansion, delaying the need for additional facility investment For co-location data-centre owners and providers of cloud-based datacentre services, one of the biggest concerns that their customers have is the security and location of their critical data. By integrating managed connectivity into the data-centre
physical structure, they now have “real time” physical data on the connections between servers that can be mapped to their physical location.
Seamless Integration MadePossible A state-of-the-art managed connectivity system will integrate with network management and data centre infrastructure management software via open application interfaces and software development systems. It adds physical connection and location information to existing logical information, and improves the utilisation of existing management software investment and networking assets. This approach opens up the possibility of applications being developed that can help to improve: The speed of commissioning of equipment by linking real-time knowledge of physical connections to active equipment port information Space utilisation by linking physical connection data to site location information Security by linking facility security system information with IT connection data.
Open Architecture software To get the full benefits from a managed connectivity solution, it is important that the software at the heart of the system has an open architecture-allowing it to complement, rather than compete with, a user’s prior investment in network management software. For example, new software known as the Infrastructure Configuration Manager (ICM) links connectivity information generated by the supporting hardware technologies to third-party network management applications. The user experience is via a “drag & drop” graphical user interface, and the real-time connectivity data is stored in the ICM database. ICM also contains the management agents necessary to collect the data from a choice of hardware technologies and to communicate control instructions to the hardware.
What Winning Means to Next100 Winners
LEADERSHIP | NEXT 100
Next100 winners who have moved up the value chain have cherished moments as they acquire new skills and meet new goals
Naresh Pathak
Keyur Desai
Prakash Kumar
Sharat Airani
Ranganathan N
IT NEXT’S constant endeavour to gain insights into the career progression of the Next100 winners provided some interesting insights. It was rather heartening to find that several had scaled up the value chain post the award. While many had been promoted within their organisation and given larger responsibilities, some had changed jobs and moved into different organisations and assumed larger roles or headed the IT group. Winning has made a tremendous impact on their professional skills, thought process, personal attributes and overall outlook. ITNext captured insights about what winning meant to the Next100 winners in real life, the new skills they acquired that helped them scale up in a short span, their most cherished moments as they did so, and the qualities that they imbibed which helped them make a difference to the world.
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NEXT 100 | LEADERSHIP
NARESH PATHAK HEAD-IT, PROMED GROUP
“Post Next100 award, I have been more innovative, a visionary and a good team manager”
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rofessional Achievements The biggest achievement post Next100 awards was recognition within the organisation and in the industry; besides, it also helped me bag a promotion as Head-IT. Prior to the award, I connected with seniors within the organisation. But now, I am connected with peer groups and CIOs in the industry. This gives me even better insights into business technology and services.
Making A Difference with the Right Skills Strategic thinking and aligning IT strategy with business strategy Winner 2011 Evolved thought process around creating Team Management--Leading different Moved to a new teams with different skills and capabilities in business value for each of the technologies job with a bigger the area of infrastructure, security and business deployed profile application, besides being a mentor and Developed competency to manage and enabling the team to develop necessary skills. The Next100 influence stakeholders from business into embracing and award has instilled the necessary self-confidence to manage. aligning towards a common vision and purpose Ability to develop key partnerships--both within our own Systems and Process Management--While I have been able to develop and match both management and leadership organisation as well as third parties skills after the Next100 award, systems and processes Ability to act as a relationship manager and effective (management) are critical to my success. communicator, and motivate people into action Ability to drive complex and challenging change efforts, Personal Skills — Next100 personality test and skills helped me to a great extent to develop the skills of and convince people to step out of their comfort zones, supercharging logic, data, and analysis with the will to win. take risks, and do things that require courage
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Proud Moments
Strategies for Scaling Up
Imbibing Leadership—I have been able to achieve these skills in the past one year and post Next100 award, I have been able to be a visionary, developed influencing power, been innovative, a good team manager and key decision maker. I will take up MDP (Management Development Programme) from one of the IIMs very soon.
Understood the basics of finance such as Opex and Capex and budgeting skills; and embedded a few KPIs showing IT’s impact on finance and its value addition to the monthly MIS for the top management. I have ensured that IT played a decisive role in sustaining the advantage of my leadership skills.
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LEADERSHIP | NEXT 100
KEYUR DESAI | AVP-IT INFRASTRUCTURE & PROJECTS GROUP, AEGIS LIMITED
“The award helped in the promotion process and sparked new aspirations”
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rofessional Achievement Next100 Award has brought significant changes through various achievements in my professional life. External recognition provided the extra throttle that boosted my spirits to reach greater heights. The award helped in the promotion process, enabled me to take up additional responsibilities, sparked new aspirations and fetched many laurels in the form of other technology awards.
Professional Skills The Next100 award boosted my selfconfidence, helped me perform with more zeal and energy and made me have a holistic view of various aspects and act accordingly. The strategic vision and external recognition I gained through the award contributed significantly in scaling up to new heights in my career.
Proud Moments There have been many aspects that have collectively helped me in my career growth path. The top five are: Positive attitude towards life—My ability to take failures as something to learn from has always helped me stay alert and aligned with my goals in life. My positive attitude has helped me avoid distractions and encouraged me to strive to improve my personal and professional life. Communication Skills—Good communication skills both verbal and written, and a good vocabulary, have worked wonders for me. Good Team Management—I strongly believe that an empowered and charged army (team) wins the toughest of battles. Good team management helps organisational growth. Leadership skills—Leadership is influence. I have always believed in leading by example and have had the courage to face the consequences of any of my decisions.
Winner 2011 Promoted to AVP Making a Difference While I have always focused on organisational goals, I have been working on creating leaders within my team. The performance of each team member towards larger goals has helped towards excellence in each field. Next100 has been very special, since the recognition that I received from the external media has helped me to network in larger forums. The entire experience of the award ceremony and recognition in IT Next have been sentimental moments for me and my family. My achievements have charged me up to take hold of new assignments with more confidence.
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NEXT 100 | LEADERSHIP
PRAKASH KUMAR | DIRECTOR-IT, DELTA POWER SOLUTION (INDIA) PVT. LTD
“The change I observed as the Next100 winner was that the business group identified me as a partner rather than just a service provider”
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rofessional Achievements Post the Next 100 award, I was formally Winner 2011 designated as Director IT and given independent authority to run the IT function and align IT strategy with business strategy. Although I headed the function independently, the role Evolving a long term strategic intent has also been one of the exciting moments. transformed me from being operational and tactical to Other situations which gave me the utmost satisfaction being strategic in approach. The award has boosted my confidence and paved the way for better acceptance in the were strategy in picking new business relevant technology. professional circle. Understanding business processes thoroughly and the key factors that govern the business added to my business acumen skills. Right Strategies and Skills Acquired Art of balancing stakeholders Laying emphasis on business benefits rather than looking Making a Difference at technology in isolation The biggest difference I see post the Next100 award is enabling IT as a function which is more business centric; Strengthening knowledge around finance, particularly and believing in proactive delivery of tasks, which is indeed relating to financial ratios, accounting principles and a great achievement. calculating TCO and IRR I developed the ability to build a team with enhanced performance which made a difference. Proud Moments The change I observed as the Next100 winner was that the The most cherished moments have been when I displayed business group identified me as a partner rather than just a my leadership skills, especially the ability to take everyone service provider. along towards achieving goals
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LEADERSHIP | NEXT 100
SHARAT AIRANI | CHIEF-IT (SYSTEMS & SECURITY), FORBES MARSHALL GROUP
“As the recipient of the Next100 award, the first tactic I adopted was to speak about business”
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rofessional Achievements “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” Ralph Waldo Emerson. I have adopted the same philosophy through three key words-Conceive, Believe and Achieve (without comparison). I strongly believe that professional accomplishments distinguish you from equally competent individuals. My professional achievement occurred during the re-implementing of ERP, which called for new technological insights. After working out various strategies around this and implementing appropriate solutions, I ensured that it went live and addressed the required business challenges. Winner 2011 When the solution was presented to the management, it was accepted skills, my greatest strength. The proud without debate. This is the trust and value that moment would be when I achieve results this position has brought about. The biggest achievement beyond the expectations of my supervisor. has been to make IT an enabler to drive the company’s bottomline, streamlining procedures, handling special Making a Difference projects and reducing costs. First and foremost, I keep myself abreast of technological changes. I take much interest in attending conferences, I never assume that a customer is satisfied until the user Right Skills Acquired has told me so directly. I take a very personal approach As the recipient of the Next100 award, the first tactic I in following up with every customer. I believe in effective adopted was to speak less about technology, but more about communication and very precisely convey the required business and how technology can drive benefits. message, and am a good listener too. I always try to get the evaluation done, ask for feedback, ask my superiors for Proud Moments advice. If required, I try my best to improve the situation. Firstly, I enjoy what I do and get involved in it completely. Most importantly, I report my accomplishments sincerely I believe in delegation, team management and thought and admit my mistakes, if any. leadership. I feel happy about my strong internal personal
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NEXT 100 | LEADERSHIP
RANGANATHAN N | HEAD-IT, BITS, MAHINDRA & MAHINDRA FINANCIAL SERVICES LTD
“Post the Next100 award, I have conceptualised and led some projects which have given the organisation a competitive edge”
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rofessional Achievements Post Next 100 awards, I was recognised internally in the organisation, promoted to the next level and given additional responsibilities to handle complex projects. I have matured as an individual. I have also been actively involved in various review meetings where strategic decisions are taken.
Right Skills Acquired I have acquired skills related to project management, people management, vendor management, business IT integration and role balancing, and worked on them in all earnest. This exercise has helped me use these skills, which has in turn benefitted the company to a large extent.
Winner 2011 Promoted as Head-IT of BITS Division
who is fascinated by how IT works for business. And I love technology and now want to master the art of leadership.
I believe in these: Proud Moments All through my career, I have laid emphasis on building on innovative aspects and improving business. I always look at a balance between utility and innovation components of IT. I make sure to keep the lights on and business running; I also believe in close interaction and dialogue with business leaders that I support. I think of the IT function as being more of a broker between the business and the market. Nothing is impossible in this world. Even the word ‘impossible’ says ‘I’m possible’. Have faith in your potential and give whatever role you play the best shot. As I have been a part of the IT team myself, I believe in having a great team. I want to introduce myself as a business leader and focus on business results. I am a systems thinker
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Be respectful to others Be direct and clear in communication; be an approachable person Challenge convention. Use wisdom in thought. Question proactively and focus on redundancy and recovery aspects Acting with purpose and well defined execution strategy Be efficient Keep to your commitments and stick to your goals.
Making a Difference I have conceptualised and led some projects which have given the organisation a competitive edge over others in the market.
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Resource Planning is Critical
http://bit.ly/NP2GLN
Most IT heads that IT Next interacted with echoed the need to look at a change management strategy to address the unusual business trends that the cloud brings in. V C Gopalratnam, VP–IT and CIO–Cisco India & Globalisation, who has built a cloud strategy says that it is critical to bring in architectural changes before jumping into the cloud as opposed to delivering point products. “The important aspect of cloud planning is that the IT resources should not be restricted to only keeping the lights on; they must be clued in to understand the business growth plans, the changing business needs and take account of how much is spent on running the business, including maintaining the head counts and so on,” says Gopalratnam. Gopalratnam and his team have put together an enterprise architecture framework to make the environment cloud friendly. “We created a concept called BOST (Business Operations, System and Technology) which works closely with business and operations to understand their requirements,” says Gopalratnam. According to him, it is the reference architecture and the integrated work culture that allows the IT team to be clued in to various business verticals and work out a strategy around the business models which allows for better scalability, besides helping build an effective service management framework and gain insight into customers’ core applications, and evolve a standardised framework. To read the full article and get more insights from IT decision makers, visit http://bit.ly/S1UKFl
Interview
Ramnath Ramchandran
Are You Ready for the Cloud? With effective planning and best practices in cloud computing, IT teams can indeed bring more fluidity to businesses. However, they must use the best-of-breed technology infrastructure and architect their systems in ways that are conducive to cloud
Most organisations, big or small, who intend to adopt cloud computing services, face many obstacles, the biggest of which remains security. Understandably, all IT heads are sensitive about customer information, business data, legal documents, or trade secrets residing outside of the premises.
Most cloud adopters and service providers argue that the potential benefits of the cloud, in terms of reducing capital and operational expenses, are hard to ignore. Prashant Gupta, Head of Solutions, India, Verizon Business justifies the promise of the cloud, “Cloud computing represents a shift in IT thinking, similar to the justin-time phenomenon that exists in most organisations, where the IT head can stop tying up capital expenses (CAPEX) in IT systems that are under-utilised.” Anurag Shah, COO and Head of Global Operations, Omnitech Solutions, a cloud service provider, argues that the cloud strategy of any company is defined by the infrastructure that is put on the cloud with a single window strategy, which could address the concern of the top management to stay connected.
The Deputy VP of IT at HDFC Bank shares his views on the need for more agility in banking, how virtualisation is key to rolling out quicker solutions, and doing more with less http://bit.ly/MYMTpe
Expert View Rethinking Authentication
The challenge in authentication is to have a secure yet user-friendly and affordable solution that can replace passwords, opines ArrayShield CTO Rakesh Thatha http://bit.ly/RzTBUn
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INSIGHT | BIG DATA
IT managers should take a holistic approach to exploit big data opportunities by managing the data, analysing it and creating intelligence to make it functional BY S H A I LE N D RA RAV I
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With so much of a buzz around big data in the industry, it’s imperative for IT managers to understand the forces that drive the big data revolution, the key facts about identifying big data and using appropriate tools to leverage the inherent opportunities so as to create business advantage.
ILLUSTRATI ON: PETE RS ON PJ
There are five major “disruptive scale” changes happening simultaneously, which are increasing the complexity of IT tremendously and throwing up numerous challenges and opportunities. Delivery platforms are shifting (mobility, cloud, social); communication and collaboration channels are being reinvented (Web, mobile, social); consumer technology is driving innovation; data is opening up and exploding from proliferating apps, devices and sensors that organisations are deploying or connecting to. A few insights: IDC says organisations will need to manage 50x more information by 2020. Facebook’s 800 million users post 250 million photos each day. Twitter’s users send about a billion Tweets in a week. In 2011, smartphone sales exceeded PC sales by 30 per cent. These five current trends are critical for any organisation’s strategic road map as they update and modernise, as well as out-innovate their competitors. All of these result in the outburst of what we call big data.
THE JOURNEY TO BIG DATA Traditionally, enterprises used ‘structured data’ resulting from online transaction processing technologies to derive insights; they then evolved to Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) technologyused extracts of the structured data to answer multidimensional analytical queries used for relational
BIG DATA | INSIGHT
reporting and data mining. However, “Big Data” encompasses more than structured and transactionbased data. It also includes ‘unstructured data’ such as videos, RFID logs, social networking conversations, sensor networks, search indexes, environmental conditions, and medical scans etc. Forrester Research estimates that enterprises effectively utilise less than 5 per cent of their available data, because the rest is simply too expensive and too time-consuming to work with. Big data technologies and techniques make it efficient and affordable for organisations to tap into this remaining unused 95 per cent. Moreover, with the biggest drivers of big data such as increased consumerisation with blending of business and personal personas, expanse of content (especially unstructured data) and a cultural shift from the art to the science of making decisions, organisations will soon realise the depth of insights and begin formalising plans to harness them.What will then be needed is a fundamental shift in the thought process of organisations. Traditionally, businesses defined the problem and IT developed a solution for it. In the new approach, discovering new insights from the data is at the forefront. The user is free to manipulate data to gain insights; and organisations will be able to innovate, compete, and capture value from deep and such up-to-real-time information.
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INSIGHT | BIG DATA INVESTMENTS TO SUPPORT BIG DATA Successfully leveraging big data insights fundamentally requires real investment in talent, technology and data. New breed of skills required: To make sense out of the structured and unstructured data, organisations need “Data Scientists” whose key skills are the ability to understand data deeply to explore and discover patterns within; to deploy statistical algorithms to derive answers from data; connect strategically within the organisation to understand business challenges and leverage that to design data experiments; and to establish an organisationwide strategy on data management. In future, data scientists with both technical acumen and business insight will drive big data projects. Technology transformation: Big data is ‘massive’ and ‘messy’ because data is being generated in huge volumes, variety and velocity. And technology is critical to manage the quantity, quality and control of this data. Cloud computing comes into play to address the massive side of the big data opportunity-storing and accessing large volumes of data. Only a re-structure of the organisation’s computer network,
storage and apps environment will economically and efficiently harness big data and turn it into a potent source of business advantage. Information deluge: Erik Brynjolfsson, an economist and director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center for Digital Business, once aptly said, “We’re rapidly entering a world where everything can be monitored and measured. But the big problem is going to be the ability of humans to use, analyse and make sense of the data.” Digital data is now everywhere—in every sector, economy, enterprise and user of digital technology. The fact that data is now stored in digital form and not in silos, and is available in real time, acts as a catalyst for enabling analytics. This helps in decision making and also understand consumer behaviour and building next generation products. With such humungous amounts of digital data being created every day, it will be imperative for companies to first identify relevant data to analyse, and then develop a strategy to manage it.
LOOK BEYOND BI Analytics means different things to different organisations. Business Intelligence (BI) traditionally performs structured analysis and provides post facto view into business performance, while big data analytics provides a forward-looking view, enabling organisations to anticipate and execute on opportunities of the future. In essence, big data analytics complement BI tools to unlock value from enterprise information. However, there are types of analyses that BI can’t handle. This is particularly when data sets become increasingly diverse, more granular, real-time and iterative, requiring organisations to capture in-depth information from a specific moment in time before conditions change rapidly. These types of unstructured, high volume, fast-changing data— Big Data—break the relational database model.
“Exploiting the vast potential of big data calls for a thoughtful, holistic approach to data management, analysis and information intelligence and execution of which could be iterative and in phases” — Shailendra Ravi, Senior Director-India Center of Excellence, EMC Corporation.
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Such data requires a new class of technologies and analytic methods to extract value. Hence, Big Data approaches are essential, for example, when organisations want to engage in predictive analysis, natural language processing, image analysis or advanced statistical techniques and mathematical optimization, or even if they want to mash up unstructured content and analyse it with their BI mix. Understanding consumerbehaviour, or performing sentiment analysis, fall outside traditional BI.
HOW REAL IS BIG DATA OPPORTUNITY? Opportunities with big data vary from sector to sector and organisations need to analyse this from a functional standpoint. For example: Marketing: Big data allows organisations to create highly specific segmentations and to tailor products and services precisely to meet those needs. Marketing-related big data levers typically are granular customer segmentation, deeper consumer behaviour understanding, creating programmes for loyalty, retention and reducing churn. Risk: From stolen credit card purchases, insurance claims, cellular usage, tax returns, online tracking, account fraud, and money laundering, fraud is increasing costs for businesses and consumers alike. Banks can use predictive models to identify purchases that are possibly made with a stolen credit card. For example, if the card is used to purchase expensive jewelry or electronic items or firearms, which are not typical of the customer’s purchase patterns, the bank can freeze the card until the cardholder verifies the purchase. Human Resources: The single greatest cost for many businesses is employee compensation. The goal is to have the right person, in the right place, at the right time, with the right skills, for the right price, and big data analysis can help organisations come closer to this “perfect formula”. Business Performance Management: Traditionally, most companies analyse business performance based on a few key metrics. With big data analytics, they can analyse data with greater granularity and frequency across variables like profitability, customers, offering, geography, etc. Big data can help predict trends in areas like social support, pricing regulations, inflation, GDP and IIP numbers, and provide governments with ‘data armour’ like never before. Having said that, there are certain niche areas like medical research, smart grids and oil and gas explorations wherein value creation is seen through predictive analytics. For example, in medical research, biotech, and genomics, regression and
Big Data” encompasses more than structured and transaction-based data Big data is ‘massive’ and ‘messy’ because data is being generated in huge volumes, variety and velocity Biggest drivers of big data--consumerisation with blending of business and personal personas, expanse of content and cultural shift from the art to the science of making decisions Organisations need data scientists to make sense out of the structured and unstructured data Marketing-related big data levers typically are granular customer segmentation, deeper consumer behaviour understanding, creating programmes for loyalty, retention and reducing churn
neural network models are used to predict the occurrence of disease and mortality rates from diabetes, heart failure, cancer, and more. There are several other similar examples where big data can create greater value and insight.
BIG DATA ADVANTAGES Once companies start leveraging big data for insights, the resulting actions they take have the potential to revamp businesses as they are known today. Nimble new companies that understand the value of big data will not only challenge competitors, but may also re-define the way business is done. Customer relationships will undergo transformation as companies strive to quickly understand concepts that previously couldn’t be captured more accurately, such as sentiment, brand perception and new buying behaviours. Exploiting the vast potential of big data calls for a thoughtful, holistic approach to data management, analysis and information intelligence and execution of which could be iterative and in phases. Organisations that get ahead of big data will create new operational efficiencies, new revenue streams, differentiated competitive advantage and entirely new business models. It is hence important that business leaders think strategically about preparing their organisations for big data and the big opportunities it presents.
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John Hansen | interview
Collaborate and Co-exist using HCM John Hansen, Senior Director, HCM (Human Capital Management) Applications Development and Product Management, JAPAC, Oracle Corporation, is upbeat about HCM becoming all pervasive in the coming years. In an interview with IT Next, Hansen talks about how customers are finding it compelling to deploy HCM suite What are the factors driving the HCM business and its relevance to IT managers at this point of time? This year, we have got a combination of things going on. In this calendar year, we have Taleo as part of our portfolio, which has created more capabilities. Having the Fusion application suite--enterprise edition and business edition, along with the cloud story, we carry the most comprehensive HCM solutions which are the need of the hour. We have also followed up on the existing e-business and PeopleSoft product launch; we have two major releases coming out: 9.2 for PeopleSoft and 12.2 for e-business suite, which are the major offerings. Since we have made an investment in their products, weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d continue to update them, support them to bring in new functionality; in the meantime, we are also going to continue development of next
generation suites like Fusion with the acquisition of Taleo; both will co-exist and evolve a cloud model. We differentiate ourselves from the competition with the range of options we offer. The relevance to senior IT managers comes from the composition around cloud. The value-add to these customers is to do with how we have woven these applications into their IT architecture and infrastructure and created an interface with other cloud based models. From the HCM (Human Capital Management) stand point, they are going to see the biggest impact on the cloud strategy with security well integrated into the system along with ensuring high availability of services. So, now we have lots of cloud solutions or software-as-a-service type propositions made available for IT to integrate with on-premise or hosted deployment options; and will still be able to provide the enterprise with all the reporting,
all the data inside, and all the security and the data they had asked for along the way.
What are the top five reasons for customers to go in for HCM? And what challenges do they face? I would see three key business challenges for IT heads: Alignment with regard to the entire workforce which is key to achieving a companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s objectives and goals Managing talent and creating a pipeline of talent to meet business goals Leadership, where there is lack of an appropriate mechanism to identify leaders within the organisation and creating a pipeline. First of all, I would say it has the leading edge best in class functionality between our Fusion suite and Taleo applications. There are so many ways customers can adopt HCM applications. If they have HCM applications today, they can
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interview | John Hansen co-exist, they can take in a very modular fashion, use some in the cloud and on premise, they can deploy in different ways, on premise, hosting in the cloud: options that no other vendor is really able to provide. The fact is that we just haven’t built the lightest best in class HCM applications, it’s part of the fusion application suite of our entire Oracle public cloud offering; so it’s never a binary activity for a company that we are talking about. It’s not that we are just talking about HCM and ignoring everything else. Of course we need to talk about CRM and about our financial systems and we need to get some sense that if all of these applications will work together, we can manage the IT environment, integrate, report and get inside our business. So, we have built an entire suite of applications that has taken us many years. We are releasing brand new financials customer relationship HCM, supply chain, project portfolio management, which no one else has done so far. Another reason is our approach to technology as well. Our approach is very much about using open standards that has a couple of outcomes. One is when people are trying to support these apps inside their organisations. So, it’s an open standards approach, you can get graduates out of university who already know HTML, Java, which are open industry standards, they are not proprietary, so we’re moving away from any such proprietary applications. Now the way we use our technology web services is by allowing using at an enterprise level, exposing our web services, and using them across the company.
Which are the models that are more popularly deployed at this point of time? Well, the HCM suite’s
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performance is very popular and that’s because we have some new functionality in that part of the suite that is not new to Oracle product lines but doesn’t exist in the market place for any other competitor’s suite. When we think about what our co existent customers do, performance is generally what they are most interested in. That’s the need as they take a quantum leap in their capability. The co-existent approach, by far, is the most popular. This is because they won’t be talking about migrating suites inside an enterprise, which is a major transformation from an IT perspective. And there’s not much appetite to do that anymore. There’s a much bigger
“From the HCM stand point, users are going to see the biggest impact on the cloud strategy with security well integrated into the system along with ensuring high services’ availability” appetite to consume in much more mutual fashion and get rapid ROIs, very rapid value to the business. So, customers are largely taking advantage of that flexibility we provided. The talent management suite which envelops recruitment, resourcing, performance, management, learning, development and compensation is being adopted aggressively. To give that fusion advantage,
John Hansen | interview the momentum has been without fusion HCM in the marketplace. What’s different today, of course, is for the generally available comprehensive suite which is cloud enabled, and has a huge market appetite; in fact, our customer base and new customers’ momentum to absorb these is growing rapidly. It is a very different playing field today.
Which sectors are primarily the early adopters of HCM? For the lightest generation, we have professional services and person intensive industries. Others like banking and financial services, education and telcos are showing interest in HCM solutions. As for adoption of cloud-based solutions along with the new suite of products, manufacturing companies are not generally early adopters. They generally have systems that do exactly what they need them to do. They could be heavily customised in a lot of respects. We don’t see them in defence. They may be interested in some of the technologies and they do that in piecemeal fashion. But ultimately, the professional services type are very much early adopters and very in tune in taking whatever lightest leading edge capabilities are, and deploying them quickly.
we actually migrate a lot of data with fusion environment, synchronise it between the existing systems and new solutions as part of our co-existence strategy.
Globally, I find Workday, SuccessFactors gaining momentum as against Taleo or Oracle’s Fusion. What is your take on this? It is really about Workday, SuccessFactors, being in the marketplace well before Oracle Fusion Applications made its presence and Taleo acquisition. Now, we have not made any major announcements about the general availability of Fusion applications during the last calendar year. To a large extent,
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What innovations (both technological and business) are taking place in the HCM space? There are some key technological and business trends observed. The whole area of collaboration, also termed as social, is particularly prevalent in HCM. We know that innovation comes from collaboration, knowledge sharing, a very rapid sort of ability for people to use formal and informal network. The
ability to interact, collaborate in a social environment is very well incorporated in the HCM suite. We have a module that is just about calling ‘Network at work’, which is all about employees within the organisations collaborating in that fashion, sharing information, being in formal and informal networks. Mobile is a key thing in HCM. You can look at this from a couple of directions -- of how technology is evolving, the pervasive nature of smart phones and tabloids. Now, everyone quite in tune with interacting with applications in that fashion; hence the social environment is mostly prevalent as customers are tuned into it. So there is really a transformation of mind set which is leading to the BYOD trend. HCM will be able to determine how this trend is being put into practice by employees and how these devices are becoming the centre state for communication, collaboration and network within enterprises. We have a good story around mobile application capability. In fact, the technology that is used to run our Fusion applications and on our development framework is what we deploy on our mobile applications to drive that compatibility.
What do customers need to do to make their environment HCM ready? There are a couple of dimensions; if they are already using Oracle suites, they need to go in for a co-existence approach and go in for an on premise or a cloud model, using the interfaces that we have created. If they do not have a comprehensive HCM suite, they have to establish a contemporary approach to talent management and deploy it as standalone solutions.
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New Appointment News
Emerson Network Power appoints Sunil Khanna as President & MD in India Khanna will be based in the company’s India headquarters in Mumbai and will report to APAC President Stephen Liang. Sunil takes over the reins of the business from Sandeep Nair who has been elevated to President of Fusite, an Emerson business headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. Sunil will be responsible for directing and leading the organisation to drive growth and profitability http://www.itnext.in/content/emersonnetwork-power-appoints-sunil-khannapresident-%2526-md-india.html
Security News
Security Challenges in Government Virtualising a business environment without implementing adequate security may be counter-productive, as per Frost & Sullivan. In the wake of rising cost pressures, enterprises in the Asia Pacific are rapidly adopting virtualisation in their IT infrastructure setup to address dynamic business requirements or as part of a cloud initiative. As virtualisation spawns new and complex security threats, virtualisation security solutions will evolve to protect virtual infrastructure. http://www.itnext.in/content/ virtualization-securitymarket-apac-reach-549million-2017.html
Interview
Frank Huang: Handling Data Growth is the Toughest
IT Service News
Challenges involved in managing an efficient data centre according to Frank Huang, Data Centre Professional Technologist, Raritan Inc., is to bring all components under a single framework.
Citrix acquires cloud solution provider Beetil This enables the company to expand its GoToAssist product line with an integrated IT service desk solution. http://www.itnext.in/ content/citrix-acquirescloud-solution-providerbeetil.html
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Top Tech News
43 Technologies that will impact Indian cos in next 10 years: Gartner Gartner’s 2012 Hype Cycle for ICT in India evaluates technologies and services such as virtualisation, cloud and SaaS. Transformational technologies such as virtualisation, cloud computing and data deduplication will enable new ways of doing business across industries, according to the Hype Cycle for information and communication technology (ICT) by Gartner, Inc. The Hype Cycle report identifies 43 key technologies and describes the ways in which they will impact business performance during the next 10 years. “Among the 43 technologies listed, 24 will mature within the next five years, and 20 of them will have a transformational or high impact on businesses,” said Sanish KB, research analyst at Gartner.
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7/31/2012 4:03:06 PM
http://www.itnext.in/content/frank-huanghandling-data-growth-toughest.html
http://www.itnext.in/ content/43-technologieswill-impact-indian-cosnext-10-years.html
from the web Acquisition News
CA Technologies acquires Paragon Global Tech The buyout adds predictive analytics, critical-path monitoring, and centralised management to CAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s workload automation range. CA Technologies has announced it has acquired privately-held Paragon Global Technology, Inc. (PGTI), a provider of software products that help clients improve service delivery by visualising data from CA Workload Automation AE (formerly CA AutoSys). Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. The acquisition brings predictive analytics, critical-path monitoring, service-level agreement (SLA) management, historical reporting, and a centralised management platform to CA Technologies workload automation product portfolio.
VENDOR NEWS
GoAir to deploy aviation solution from Ramco The software will help the airline meet regulatory requirements, monitor fleet, and better control inventory. Ramco Systems has announced an order win from Wadia Group-owned Go Airlines (GoAir) for its Maintenance
http://www.itnext.in/content/ca-technologies-acquires-paragon-global-tech.html
Cloud News
Global cloud services market to cross $109 billion in 2012 Business Process as a Service (BPaaS) is the largest market segment; IaaS, the fastestgrowing as per Gartner. The public cloud services market is forecast to grow 19.6 per cent in 2012 to total $109 billion worldwide, according to Gartner, Inc. Business process services (also known as business process as a service, or BPaaS) represent the largest segment, accounting for about 77 per cent of the total market, while infrastructure as a service (IaaS) is the fastest-growing segment of the public cloud services market and is expected to grow 45.4 per cent in 2012. http://www.itnext.in/ content/global-cloudservices-market-cross109-billion-2012.html
Research News
China to overtake US in smartphones this year: IDC According to the research firm International Data Corporation (IDC), China will account for 26.5% of all smartphone shipments, compared to 17.8% for the US. Strong end-user demand and an appetite for lower-priced smartphones will make China (PRC) the largest market for smartphones this year. http://www.itnext.in/ content/china-overtake-ussmartphones-year-idc.html
& Engineering (M&E) suite of software. Under the agreement, Ramco will deliver its web-based Series 5 M&E system and Ramco ePublications, including Engineering and Configuration, Maintenance Program and Planning, Line Maintenance, Technical Records and Complete Materials modules, among others. Giorgio De Roni, Chief Executive Officer, GoAir, said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;We are happy to associate with Ramco Systems, a reputed provider of Aviation M&E / MRO software around the world. http://www.itnext. in/content/goairdeploy-aviationsolution-ramco.html
Outsourcing News
Data Centre Outsourcing Becomes Critical for IT Managers IT managers are debating over the issue of data centre outsourcing and concerned over migrating critical applications.While data centre is the heart of enterprise IT infrastructure, the increased complexities in terms of escalating cost of maintenance, expansion in the data centre components, increased manpower cost, the need for outsourcing the data centre maintenance to a third-party vendor is felt strongly. http://www.itnext.in/content/data-centre-outsourcing-becomes-critical-it-managers.html
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15minute manager
training Education workplace compensation workforce trends skills development personal development
Page 48
Strategy: From CRM to CEM this page Review: Samsung Galaxy Note 800 Tablet page 50 Trends: Keep big data open page 51 Training Calendar: IT & Telecom page 52
BY Raj Mruthyunjayappa
il lustratio n: Ma nav Sachde v
W
e are half way down 2012 and so far we have seen the emergence of new economic realities that are changing the way CIOs view their tools, processes and strategies. The word ‘experience’ is getting very popular and is, in fact, an industry trend in itself. So much so, the Chief Experience Officer (CXO) is much sought after across all geographies. Interestingly, this has a cascading effect on various application tools and its impact on the customers. The best example is with CRM changing to CEM, a change of a letter from ‘R’ to ‘E’ and its implications. Thus, according to a survey carried out by an analyst firm, for the first time, Customer Experience Management (CEM) has emerged in the top 10 technology priorities for CIOs. But is CEM just a fad? Or can it bring about a completely new and lasting change to your organisation and its relationship management strategies?
Impact of ‘E’ Somewhere out there, right now, your customer is realising an experience with the brand. This realisation will turn into an opinion soon enough and if you have
CRM
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15-MINUTE MANAGER done your homework, you will be able to lock in that discerning customer for a few more transactions. In a world where customer choices are increasing by the second, customer loyalty is increasingly turning into a wishful customer experience management (CEM), which drives customer profitability. In present times, the relationship between a product and its consumer has become intense, as industries aim at engaging and retaining their customers, thereby creating customer centric strategies that ensure good experience to the customer. This new standpoint is called CEM or Customer Experience Management, a platform that encompasses a plethora of marketing prospects and concepts. The trick with customer relationships is that a business needs to look at how it wants to meet the needs of the customer, whether it must look at things internally or externally. The paradigm of looking within the company is the basis upon which CRM stands and this approach essentially involves managing internal marketing, sales, and customer functions; whereas CEM hopes to influence customer behaviour by being more active in its customer interactions, thus focusing more on the external rather than the internal.
illustratio n: ph otos. co m
CEM Making a Difference
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Now an age-old archetype, CRM is being replaced by CEM across the market. One of the main causes is due to an overcrowded marketplace and various choices available for customers. Thus the concept of consumer loyalty comes into play as consumers decide which option of the product they wish to purchase. The one thing that differs is the experience of the customer with the brand and with the product or service. The propagation of the internet, mobile services, social webs etc., has created a need for a multidimensional approach to communication thus displacing the previous one-way approach. Due to this, the focus then shifts from ‘management’ to ‘engagement’ through these various conduits. Now the question boils down to which is better, CRM or CEM., and the answer depends on how you perceive it.
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TIPS TO GOOD HEALTH
Drink water to stay active
Ten reasons to drink more water: Get healthy skin Flush toxins Reduce your risk of heart attack Cushion and lube your joints and muscles Get energised and be alert Stay regular Reduce your risk of disease and infection Regulate your body temperature
The functions of water in the human body Transports nutrients and oxygen to cells Moisturises the air in lungs Helps with metabolism Protects our vital organs Helps our organs to absorb nutrients better Regulates body temperature Detoxifies Protects and moisturises our joints Every cell in your body needs water, from the head to the toe. Take this for example: the brain consists of 90 per cent of water. Hence, the next time you feel fatigue and a headache coming on, it may be a sign of dehydration.
Harmful Effects and Symptoms of Dehydration Tiredness Migraine Constipation Muscle cramps Irregular blood pressure Kidney problems
Have more water to be energetic and active.
Dry skin 20 per cent dehydrated – risk of deathSource: http://pcos.about.com/od/nutrition/f/water. htm
15-MINUTE MANAGER
“CEM is the new pattern of business that looks at the shared view of all the customers” Raj Mruthyunjayappa, Senior VP & MD, APAC & Europe, Talisma Corporation Pvt. Ltd
“CRM solutions should be judged on its deliverables meeting the business objectives and values” Pertisth Mankotia, Head-IT, Sheelafoam India Pvt. Ltd.
On one hand, CRM is more fitting for the brand because it is unidirectional and simple. On the other hand, CEM is a lot more complex; it requires a lot of adaptability in terms of the brand as it requires the brand to be more open and flexible and have a multidimensional approach.
CRM versus CEM We can distinguish these two stratagems by looking at what they do, when they do it, how they monitor it and who uses the information. CEM distributes and captures how customers view the company whereas CRM does this after there is a record of customer
“An important advantage of CEM is its ability to manage multichannel interactions through internet and mobile” —R Mruthyunjayappa, Sr VP & MD, APAC & Europe,Talisma Corp
Social CRM: New Avatar of CRM * Social CRM is the business strategy of engaging customers through social media with the goal of building trust and brand loyalty. * Social CRM is for business connect * Need an organised approach and social CRM connects business units to the customers, given them the opportunity to respond in a real-time basis in a co-ordinated fashion * Social CRM channelises advertising and marketing efforts to reach the target customers * Social crm besides creating a strong brand push also builds corporate value in driving good conversations * Social CRm will lead to data mining which can be leveraged for business advantage * Look at various data mining and open source tools to structure the data
interaction. The information is also monitored differently in both cases. CEM monitors via surveys, targeted studies, observational studies, and “voice of customer” research, while CRM monitors through point-ofsales data, market research, and website click-through and automated tracking of sales. The ones who use this information in terms of CEM are business or functional leaders so that they can create achievable expectations and better experiences with products and services. In terms of CRM, the people who utilise the information are customer-facing groups such as sales, marketing, field service, and customer service in order to increase efficiency and execute effectively. The basic idea of CRM is that during customer interaction, the company must learn something about the customer; it is the opposite when it comes to CEM as the customer learns something about the company during customer interactions. CEM therefore uses this premise and depending on
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15-MINUTE MANAGER REVIEW
Samsung Galaxy Note 800 Tablet
The Samsung Galaxy Note 800 is probably the best Android tablet we have seen till date, surpassing even the Asus Transformer Prime in raw performance. The tablet has everything going for it - fantastic power under the hood, a great display and good battery life. The only thing it has against it is an underwhelming build that can be overlooked considering the overall package. If you are in the market to pick up a premium Android device, go ahead and pick this one up. Your only alternative is the 32GB iPad (Wi-Fi + 4G), at Rs. 44,900. Today, we have with us Samsung Galaxy Note 800. Globally the device is called the Galaxy Note 10.1 N8000. The tablet brings with it some impressive specifications and nifty features, too. It also brings with it the S Pen,which we first saw in the Samsung Galaxy Note smartphone-tablet hybrid.
Design and Build Unbox the device and it is quite pretty. It has a white body with a silver border. Straight up, the face of the device has the 10.1-inch display, front facing camera, ambient light sensor, and two speakers on either side of the screen. In terms of connectivity, the Galaxy Note 800 has the Samsung proprietary dock at the bottom. This dock connector is very reminiscent of the Apple 30pin dock connector. We wish Samsung had stuck with micro USB as it is more universal and easily accessible. On the top of the tablet, you have all the controls neatly laid out. You have the power/sleep/wake button, volume rocker, micro SD card slot, an IR beam (which lets you use the device as a remote), headphones jack and a SIM card slot. The slot can be used not only to access 3G data but make calls as well. There is no earpiece on the Note 800 but you can use the on-board speakers and if you want privacy, the bundled headphones. The bottom right of the Note 800 also houses the S Pen. It is a lot bigger when compared to the Galaxy Note, but its build is quite nice. Overall, the connectivity options on Note 800 are what youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d expect from a tablet.
information that is gathered during each experience, it uses it to try to alter customer behaviour in order to improve individual profitability. Through management of these experiences, the company attempts to build profitable relationships with the customer. The aim of CEM is to move customers from satisfied to loyal, then loyal to advocate. An important advantage of CEM is its ability to manage multi-channel interactions through internet, mobile devices, etc. They are able to make their conversations with their customers better, more meaningful and relevant across different channels, thus focusing on the needs of the customer. CEM revolves around various factorsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;such as the message that the company is giving out and its uniformity among different touch points, customer desires and interaction, how social media perceives the brand, and whether the brand communication fulfils the need of the customers in a punctual, engaging and relevant manner via the right channels. There is a tendency to overdo CEM as companies can be tempted to oversell or cross sell or give excessive or desperate discounts. CEM is not direct selling; rather it just focuses on the experience and uses that to reel in customers and increase sales. CEM is the new pattern of business that looks at the shared view of all the customers, and based on that, it attempts to create and deliver solutions to serve them better. Through its multichannel reach, CEM attempts to be more visible to its customers. Visibility in this case is defined by the ability to see customers in real time and this is possible now with the advent of the internet and similar media, therefore filling in the gap that exists. After capturing all of the data, the trick is to gain insights in the form of a qualitative analysis. The last step is to take action taking all the relevant information and providing answers and solutions, thereby increasing customer retention, engagement, satisfaction.
Source:Thinkdigit
The Author is VP& MD, APAC & Europe, Talisma
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15-MINUTE MANAGER
Big Data
Keep big data open How Hadoop, open source can be used to manage and analyse data with almost 2.5 qn bytes of data By Manu Sha rma
il lustrati on: manav sachd ev
A
fter cloud, it is big data that has become the industry buzz word. In fact, it is becoming all pervasive amongst large enterprises and SMBs equally. Cloud and big data are very much interlinked. There have been many discussions around cloud platforms and its various forms. It is made up of a variety of layered elements, starting at the most basic physical layer of storage and server infrastructure, and working its way up through the application and network layers. The cloud can be further
divided into different implementation models based on whether it is created internally, outsourced or a combination of the two. The three cloud layers are-Infrastructure cloud: which abstracts applications from servers and servers from storage; Content cloud: which abstracts data from applications; and Information cloud: which abstracts access from clients to data? Again, the three cloud implementation models are: Private cloud, Hybrid cloud and Public cloud. I believe cloud computing is a new technology that is enabling new things to happen in different forms.
Yes. Big data is the new phenomenon which is migrating to the cloud model. One of IBMâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s recent demos showcased how data can move to the cloud, which could be big data. Large corporations can rent their space for big data and do their computing and analytics.
Defining Big Data Every day, we create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data--so much that 90 per cent of the data in the world today has been created in the last two years alone. This data comes from everywhere: sensors used to gather climate information; posts to social media sites; digital pictures and videos; purchase transaction records and cell phone GPS signals, to name a few. This is what big data is all about. We see many clients who use several petabytes of space use Hadoop to manage the data and for analysis. One of the sources for generating big data is social media platforms (which are in an unstructured form).
Relevance to IT managers IT managers find it painful to store all this data--this is where cloud
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15-MINUTE MANAGER
event calendar Major global events in IT and Telecom
during October 2012
storage comes in. They must manage such large environments; and cloud, seriously, is the answer. For CIOs and CTOs, big data is very critical, especially handling unstructured data. It needs to be computed and the mechanism to shrink the data and present it in the right format for computing is indeed a tough challenge. So collect the data first, and then worry about how you will use it later. I feel the maximum consumers are telcos since they have to manage huge data every day. Healthcare, retail, media, manufacturing, transport, and logistics - all of them face the problem of huge data, which needs to be structured in a presentable format for use.
Big Data Challenges event
Venue
Dates
Apps World 2012
Earls Court 2, London, UK
Oct 2-3, 2012
Ovum Cloud Forum:
London, UK
Oct 3-4, 2012
3rd Annual Self Organising Networks
London, UK
Oct 3-4, 2012
IP&TV Forum EurAsia Eastern Europe
Istanbul, Turkey, Europe
Oct 9-10, 2012
Broadband World Forum
Amsterdam, The Oct 16-18, 2012 Netherlands, Europe
ITU Telecom World 2012
Dubai
MVNOs Industry Summit Asia 2012 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Asia
Oct 16-17, 2012
Myanmar Telecoms Reform Update
Park Royal, Yangon
Oct 16, 2012
5th Annual FTTx MEGNA Summit
Dubai, UAE
Oct 29-30, 2012
LTE India 2012 - Mumbai Edition
Taj Land’s End, Mumbai
Oct 31, 2012
Source: Agencies
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Oct 14-18, 2012
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One thing that is obvious is the integration of structured and unstructured data, which has always been a major challenge for IT heads. The challenges around cracking down big data into smaller data for use are huge. For instance, downsizing one terabyte of data into smaller units to be able to use it appropriately is a challenge. It has to be reduced so it can be used as structured data and saved in the data warehouse. We do power point engineering to tackle this. You can’t have an archive of 1 petabyte of space. In other words, you can squeeze the juice out of a lemon tree and store it; but if someone asked you to store the tree, you can’t, it is awkward. Therefore, what you need to do is squeeze the juice and throw out the lemons. This is what we do with big data. We store the data in the warehouse and analyse it as per requirements. Dealing with structured data is simple but document storing, archiving, is complex. “My suggestion to IT heads is that they use cloud for storage and think what to do with the data that comes out of it”, says Boris C Bialek, Director Technology Ecosystem, Information Management, IBM. “They should ask themselves how they could archive the data from cloud or big data - you have so much data but you don’t know what it means”, adds Bialek.
15-MINUTE MANAGER
“Big data is more than simply a matter of size; it is an opportunity to find insights in new and emerging data types”
Business Requirement in Big Data It is for anybody who wants to harness big data. Let’s take an example which has nothing to do with Facebook or social media: a wind turbine which has sensors to generate huge amounts of industrial data per hour. However, you can’t possibly store 1 petabyte of data every hour. What you can do is to store the data on the cloud environment and use the matrix and identify critical points. This data can be analysed to show information shortfalls .
C Bialek, Director-Technology Ecosystem, Information Management, IBM
BI & Big Data Differences
Business intelligence or BI simplifies information discovery and analysis, making it possible for decisionmakers at all levels of an organisation to easily access, understand, analyse, collaborate, and act on information, anytime and anywhere. Big data is more than simply a matter of size; it is an opportunity to find insights in new and emerging types of data and content, to make your business more agile, and to answer questions that were previously considered beyond your
reach. Until now, there was no practical way to harvest this opportunity. Today, IBM’s platform for big data uses state of the art technologies including patented advanced analytics to open the door to a world of possibilities.
Big Data Innovations We see a lot of innovation in the open source space. Hadoop is an open source software technology available in the big data space. It is not easily accessible. All companies are trying to transform the
Points to remember about big data Cloud and big data are very much interlinked ayers of cloud: Infrastructure layer of cloud, content cloud and informaL tion cloud Big data as a phenomenon is migrating to the cloud model arge corporations can rent their space for big data and do their computing L and analytics loud is a preferred option for big data storage and most relevant for both C large enterprises and SMBs 2.5 quintillion bytes of data--so much that 90 per cent of the data in the world today has been created in the last two years alone Many customers who use several petabytes of space use Hadoop to manage data and for analysis IT managers should ensure that the data is computed and the mechanism to shrink the data and present it in the right format is evolved Challenges to crack down the data into smaller data for use are huge
high geek environment into a business user-friendly scenario. IBM’s big data has two productions in this space. One is Big Influx point; the second, IBM Streams. IBM has developed an enterprise class big data platform that allows you to address the full spectrum of big data business challenges. The platform blends traditional technologies that are well suited for structured, repeatable tasks together with complementary new technologies that address speed and flexibility and are ideal for ad hoc data exploration, discovery and unstructured analysis. IBM’s integrated big data platform has four core capabilities: Hadoopbased analytics, stream computing, data warehousing, and information integration and governance. “We have recently announced a definitive agreement to acquire Vivisimo, a provider of federated discovery and navigation software that helps organisations access and analyse big data across the enterprise,” says Bialek. The software is said to be capable of automating the discovery of data and in helping employees navigate it with a single view across the enterprise. This will help accelerate IBM’s big data analytics initiatives with advanced federated capabilities allowing organisations to access, navigate, and analyse the full variety, velocity and volume of structured and unstructured data without having to move it. As told by Boris C Bialek, Director Technology Ecosystem, Information Management, IBM
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Business Intelligence
the big
Intelligence Aligned with Business EXPERT PANEL
K N Swaminathan, Dr Mu thuku mara n, S ha nk ar IT Pr ofessional & Krishnamoorthy, GM-IT, T VS Consu ltant Co-founder & CTO, Motors Aspire Systems India (P) Ltd.
The Situation...
Cu t it from here
Should Vijay Parekh consider BI a white elephant or a gift horse for the organisation? While the discussion around BI appears simple, Vijay Parekh, Senior IT Manager of a large manufacturing company finds it a huge challenge to prepare an appropriate business case for a business function and make effective calculations to justify business needs. Parekh’s key challenge is to address expanding business needs and also take cognisance of the vast data needs of the large group. Parekh has to handle large amounts of data emerging out of the huge customer transactions involving over 10,00,000 customers. Besides, the top management’s expectations from the IT teams are huge. After serious consultations with peers, Parekh decided to review a comprehensive Business Intelligence (BI) solution that helped to analyse business, improve data collection and performance and meet future targets. Another critical challenge was that most functions don’t have waiting Your responses count. Log on to www.itnext.in/bigQ to submit your replies. The best entry will be published in the next print edition.
time or the budget to support an enterprisewide BI. Parekh is responsible for presenting the initial assessment and business case to the management. The solution must project a clear picture in defining the corporate strategy and driving profitability. There are several needs Parekh must take account of; they include: * Regulatory and Compliance adherence * As a Greenfield project, the business users as well as development team did not have an idea of what the end product would look like * Reduction in the financial write-offs--better data quality and data integration linking multiple systems will help audit and report on end-to-end transaction flow from a single reference point * Providing enough intelligence to help marketing teams to cross-sell and upsell * Increased business processes and productivity * Choosing the right vendor * Establishing a clear link between the business imperatives and the proposed initiative Parekh is in a dilemma about the right approach. He seeks answers from experts.
NEXT
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the big q
the big questions...
? ?
What immediate steps must Parekh take in the adoption of BI; what solutions should he look for and how can he choose the right tool?
What innovations or benefits and RoI must he expect for using BI tools?
Here are the answers... Use a bottom-up approach FIRST ANSWER
Shankar Krishnamoorthy Co-founder & CTO, Aspire Systems India (P) Ltd About me: Responsible for bringing in technology initiatives, best practices on product engineering, business systems development and implementation, etc
Considering that there are more than a million customers and huge transactions, I’d assume this manufacturing company has a few core systems (ERP, CRM, Accounting, Sales, HR, etc) and some basic integration between them. The company would need to make sense of the data, analyse trends, etc. So, there is a need for BI or the benefits of BI. But the main question is how does Parekh go about it? He must look at what BI provides in tangible terms so that he can define its tangible benefits? He should align with the business rather than get into technology nuances about which BI to use, how it can integrate with different systems, ensure data quality and the like. Some tangible problems Vijay needs to conceptualise could be: What are the top 10 complaints from his customers? Do they see any support trend/ concerns related to support; how volatile are these concerns? What is the relationship between customer type, revenue, purchased items, customer complaints and profit? How good/ bad is the quality of forecasting between different geographies; how is it impacting the business? What are the top 10 dashboard items that his management needs for running/governing the business? Parekh must start interacting with his peers in other functions and his management to identify/define high priority items. Once that’s done, the rest automatically falls in place. A bottom-up approach works well – addressing the most important pain point of one or two areas (or departments) first, rather than taking an enterprise-wide bigbang approach. This will prove the BI approach, and buy in other departments into using BI, etc.
Second Answer Suggested course of action: Define the kind of insights and reports required Define how the insights would be used (eg. If there are frequent items in the customer purchase behaviour, how will you use this information -- does it reflect in the manufacturing schedule/ in sales recommendations for cross selling, etc.?) Map the BI model for the enterprise (but be clear about the priorities) so that he can visualise a framework Build a datamart / small scale BI for the top priority item and roll it out as quickly as possible; check the usage, how it impactsbusiness, adoption, etc. Since this is the first project for BI, he should try some open source/low cost BI tool. This will reduce the time required to investigate multiple tools or need of high budget justification. Even if the tool selection goes wrong in the first project, it is perfectly alright. Parekh’s team will learn the nuances of building a BI solution. It will also pave the way for defining investment.
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the big q
BI identifies unknown opportunities FIRST ANSWER BI is certainly a gift horse and not a white elephant. The implementation of BI is a gargantuan task. The stakes are also high. However, thankfully, it is not a show stopper like an ERP implementation. Parekh need not select only one BI solution as the needs in the company may vary. It’s ideal to start with sales, manufacturing and procurement as all these deal in numbers. Most of the source data for these functions are available in the transaction systems. ROI would also be easier to calculate, as there would be direct co-relation between the solution deployed and the benefits reaped. Parekh can collect various spreadsheets used by these functions and prepare a list of requirements. He can also check with the functional heads what crucial information they now miss and how it will add value to their business. He must consider other systems that must be integrated to the BI solution. The solution must have the necessary adaptors to push and pull data from the source / target systems. It should also support rapid deployment. Since the transactions are huge, Parekh must use a solution which supports in-memory computing. Since mainly persons at the senior level use BI solutions, it must be easy to operate and look user friendly. He must then prepare a master template listing all these requirements under the various categories such as inter-operability, look and feel, functionality required, etc. He can then rate each BI solution’s capability against each requirement in the master template. The solution that meets critical requirements is what he must select. Cost is also an important criterion.
KN Swaminathan GM-IT, TVS Motors About me: Responsible for IT policy creation and execution at TVS Motors. Specialised in finance and costing module of SAP and implemented a robust costing system including activity based costing in SAP.
Second Answer BI tools have excellent visualisation capabilities that can throw patterns on underlying information not known to us. This is BI’s greatest benefit. It identifies unknown opportunities, which can bring in business benefits. When collecting requirements from respective functions, Parekh can establish base metrics on current performance levels. He can also identify areas of losses or waste which he can reduce using the BI tool. The ROI is the performance improvement / reduction in waste and losses.
Business Intelligence Tools
Vendor Repolution
Scailability
Performance
Maintainability
Ease of Integration
0
Functionality
25
Ease of Use
50
Cost of Ownership
Key Buying Criteria 75
Rating
BI
NEXT
Sou rce : E valu base Research
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the big q
Define BI strategy first FIRST ANSWER
Dr
The speed at which business moves today, combined with the sheer volume of data created by the digitised world, requires new approaches to derive value from data, where value is the ratio between benefits gained compared to effort required. This is where BI comes in. A good starting point is to define a BI strategy compliant with the overall business strategy and requirements. Parekh should then map the strategy for instant analysis requirements and passive analysis of his user base. While BI tools provide a rear-view mirror into business performance, the emergence of big data analytics provides a forward-looking view, so organisations can anticipate and execute on opportunities of the future. IN-Memory technology helps BI tools deliver quick reports. The alternative big data landscape allows for data analysis on large distributed datasets.
Muthukumaran IT Professional & Consultant About me: Research oriented professional with deep knowledge in IT; has authored many books on high performance networks and IT management
Second Answer Parekh must understand that justifying the value of BI solutions is uniquely difficult, due to lack of straight forward, immediate ROI equations. It is imperative to understand and simplify them to map the value creation process and evaluate the ROI. An investment in BI tools creates an asset that can generate incremental after-tax cash flow. Usually, BI tools are used to improve customer segmentation, customer acquisition, and customer retention to start with. Such segmentations are mapped to bring down customer acquisition costs, leading to increased revenue, better customer lifetime value etc.
Notes NOTEs
More Resources 58
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Virtual Storage Platform anniversary: http://blogs.hds.com/hu/2011/09/happy-birthday-vsp.html How to avoid information overload: http://marksblog.emc.com/2011/09/episode-108-.html
UPDATE
OPEN DEBATE
BOOK FOR YOU A platform to air your views on latest developments and issues that impact you
What is the next big trend you see in BI?
VIJAY CHOUDHARY DGM-IT, HRH GROUP OF HOTELS In this information age, we live in an ever expanding ocean of data and its informatics. To navigate it, we use analytics in the form of BI. The next big trend is taking advantage of big data and converting it into structured information to take business decisions possible, at the speed of light, perhaps. A step further in BI is predictive analysis which alerts the industry to focus on future direction with customised utilisation of entire resources, and gaining business advantage. The next big trend will be innovative use of BI to keep pace with market dynamics.
SRINIVAS ANAPU CEO, SPANDAN INFOTECH The increase in maturity and adoption of mobile technology has created a workforce reliant on instant access to information. I personally bet on mobile BI to be the next big wave in Business Intelligence (BI). It means that staff, management and C-Level executives are never disconnected from the tools that help them make better business decisions. Coupled with the Mobile BI, the next phase would be analytics. A management report I read recently said that organisations using analytics are more than twice as likely to substantially outperform their competitive peers.
DHARMARAJ RAMAKRISHNAN MANAGER - IT, ING VYSYA BANK LIMITED To remain competitive, IT managers require analytically oriented systems that can revolutionise a company’s ability to rediscover and utilise information the company owns. Before implementing BI, it’s important to examine the data quality and integrity. You may find the criteria useful for the selection of a BI & reporting platform for your own company or customers. The key big trends in BI are: Business revolving around analytics and information. Data quality, increasing storage requirements and expansion in business etc., demand BI.
Whoops!
TITLE: WHOOPS! AUTHOR: JOHN LANCHESTER PUBLISHER: PENGUIN PAGES: 240 PRICE: RS 350 REVIEWED BY: SANJAY GUPTA
The title, emblazoned in a visual of champagne froth on the cover, is intriguing enough to pick it up, but what convinced me to grab it was the blurb by Janice Turner of The Times: “Explains the crisis in a way that actually sticks... to my amazement I finally grasp it.” As a financially-challenged guy (in terms of knowledge and worth), I couldn’t agree more after reading it. So here, folks, is a book written by someone who unravels the mysteries of the greatest financial meltdown in global history like a master chef would peel the layers off an onion. John Lanchester has done an amazing job of making laypersons understand the complex and (often) murky world of global banking, securitisation of debt, futures and options and the wheelersdealers who had a field day during the prime of sub-prime mortgages. Be it the history of collateralised debt obligations or the bailout of Too Big To Fail AIG, Lanchester’s tales never fail to impress. IT NEXT VERDICT For IT leaders, who increasingly need to be savvy about financial matters, this is a simple and engrossing read about the global credit crisis.
Your views and opinion matter to us. Send us your feedback on stories and the magazine to the Editor at editor@itnext.in
STAR VALUE:
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cube chat | Sreekanth E
Life is a
Challenge! “Besides academic excellence, my education helped me in imbibing ideals and respecting human values,” says Sreekanth E, Project Manager, MindTree Consulting Ltd By Manu s ha r ma
S
My sucess
mantra “Be humble and give your best”
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reekanth had the opportunity to be groomed right from high school at the Sri Satya Sai Institute of Higher Learning at Prashanti Nilayam, and later during his MBA in Finance at Bangalore University. After college, he started as trainee at Xansa India, an IT & BPO service company, where he got hands-on experience in all departments. This was a time of major self-discovery for Sreekanth as he realised his skills revolved around finance, while fields of IT like Java, C++, Unix, OracleDB, SAP ABAP felt alien. “I was keen to move into SAP functional consulting but Xansa did not provide the opportunity,” he says. However, the quest to seek an opportunity in IT prompted him to enquire about SAP course in Financials, popular then,but unaffordable. His passion paid off when his father supported
him with Rs 1 lakh; the balance of Rs 1.5 lakh was taken as a bank loan. “With the support of my family and friends and the loan, I got the courage to quit my job and take up SAP training in FICO module,” says Sreekanth. “Thankfully, I passed out with a good score that helped me get three offers--from Accenture, Satyam and Bristlecone. In 2006, I joined Satyam Computers Services Ltd., as a SAP Consultant in Hyderabad,” he adds. At Satyam, Sreekanth handled the SAP ERP CO Module implementation for a large enterprise. “The organisation had also planned on financial accounting consolidation for its 100-odd group companies. Satyam sponsored me for the SAP SEM BCS course. I handled the implementation all by myself with minimum support despite being a fresher.” This was back
cube chat
Fact Fi l e NA ME S reekanth E C URRENT DES IG NAT ION Pr oj ect M anag er , Mi ndTree Ltd C URRENT ROLE Consulti ng role fo r global co nverge n ce pr oj ect fo r FM C G client Ex pertis e Proj ect M anag em ent, ERP, BI and Enterp ris e Perfo rmanc e manag ement solu tions
“My childhood and nurturing at Prashanti Nilayam has toughened me to encounter challenges, be humble and sensitive to society” in 2007, there were not many with this niche skill set. Sreekanth moved to MindTree in 2010 as a Senior Consultant handling UK-based multinational client. Here, he handled the SAP-financial consolidation project for 600-odd companies of a leading MNC across the globe. Today, after successful innings at Satyam, Sapient and MindTree, Sreekanth feels confident of taking up bigger challenges. He has published blogs on SAP Community portals. “This was when I participated in the IT Next 100 award and won in 2011,” he brags. Sreekanth attributes his success mainly to the discipline that he imbibed from his parents and teachers; above all, his revered Founder Chancellor of Sri Satya Sai
Institute of Higher Learning—the late Sri Satya Sai Baba. “People call it luck, I call it “God’s grace;” it helped me face challenges, risks and made me capable of taking tough decisions.” A lover of adventure sports, he participates in para gliding, martial arts and gymnastics on the bike. Sreekanth admires Dr Abdul Kalam for his knowledge and his simplicity. The most fascinating aspect that he finds about Dr Kalam is his thoughts around how to blend science and spirituality and at the same time articulating his vision about developed India and his inspiring speeches. He also admires Ratan Tata for his leadership, strong values and character and his ability to understand and address social needs.
WO RK EXPEREINC E 9 Y EARS FAVOU RITE QUOTE “L ife is a chall eng e, meet it! Li fe is a dream, realise i t! L if e is a game, pl ay i t ” Favourite Destination Na inital Favou r ite Gadg et Nikon D S LR Ex perience Organization Du ratio n : * MindTree Co nsult in g Lt d - 02/2010 – till date. * Sapi ent I ndia Ltd 02/2008 – 01/2010. * Sat yam Computer S ervices Ltd 03 /2006 – 01/2008 . * L& T Finance Ltd 11/2004 – 11/2005. * X ansa India Ltd 09/2003 – 10/2004.
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update
off the shelf
A sneak preview of enterprise products, solutions and services
New 3-in-1 Device From ASUS The company has launched PadFone, the Android ICS smartphone with tablet dock combination
Capture with Crystal Clear Images from BenQ BenQ has announced the launch of its first high zoom bridge type digital camera series – the GH600 & GH700. Providing the convenience of point-andshoots and delivering innovative imaging effects, these models give the users a sophisticated photography experience with added creativity. Featuring a 21x optical zoom with 16-megapixel image quality and 25mm wide-angle view, combining O.I.S. support, 1cm Super Macro Mode and a large 3” 460k LCD screen, the GH600/ 700 are set to expand and share your view of the world with ultra-clarity.
Smart phone | ASUS has announced the
key SPECIFICATIONS
* 3” Super AMOLED, qHD LCD launch of its eagerly anticipated PadFone. * Wwith capacitive touch/multiThis device is expertly designed to offer a touch CPU completely new mobile experience. Alone, * 8-megapixel digital camera the PadFone is a fully featured Android Ice Cream Sandwich smartphone with a 4.3” screen, but when connected to the PadFone Station, it transforms into a 10.1” Android ICS tablet with up to 63 hours of talk time. That’s not all; the Padfone and the Padfone Station, when docked on the bundled Padfone Station Dock, virtually offer the user computing experience like a Netbook with extended battery life upto 104 hours and access to multiple ports like Card Reader & USBs. The key to the ASUS PadFone’s supreme versatility is the unique DynamicDisplay technology which allows a seamless transition between standalone and docked modes, where the majority of applications are automatically enhanced with their display layouts adjusted to suit the screen. “Today’s introduction of PadFone will be an utmost expansion of our users’ world. We are assertive that PadFone will touch customers’ heart in terms of incredible product, incredible design, incredible quality and incredible service,” affirms Alex Huang, Managing Director, System Business Group, Asus India. MRP Rs 64,999.
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The versatile GH600 shoots brilliantly crisp HD 720p videos at 30 frames per second with zoom for fluid movement in fast-action scenes from afar or close, and an interdependent recording button provides quick access to start recording instantaneously so that no precious moment is missed. The GH700 camera features a high performance optical zoom lens, BSI CMOS sensor and a high-speed digital signal processor (DSP). The back illuminated BSI CMOS sensor is designed to increase sensitivity and minimise the noise level by up to 50%. The BenQ GH600 is available in black and white colours at Rs. 10,999; and GH700 is available in black colour at Rs.15,999.
update
Zebronics launches Modern Multimedia Headphones
Milagrow rolls out TabTop PC
PRODUCT FEATURES * Standard 3.5mm stereo audio jack * Hands-free calls * Noise isolation * 1 year warranty
head phone | Top Notch Infotronix, a supplier of products and accessories for Computers, Consumer Electronics and Communication under the brand ‘Zebronics’, has introduced the Zebronics Brio, a super bass multimedia headphone with inbuilt microphone. Zebronics offers its customers a distinctive sound experience with the new headphone. The 2.2 meter long cable has an attached remote control (volume control) for even more relaxed use. The Brio features padded soft contact surfaces for optimum usage comfort. Designed to appeal to style-conscious users and match individual usages, the Zebronics Brio has a sleek matt-black headband coupled with the earmuffs in four attractive colour options. The Brio’s built-in microphone allows users hands-free calls in while on the move. A key feature is noise isolation, which not only helps to preserve hearing in the long run but also enables the set to be used conveniently in noisy areas without fiddling with the volume key. Brio‘s advanced canal type earmuffs provide comfort and good sound quality. The Zebronics Brio is available in the market for Rs 475 across the country. The products are backed by a 1 year warranty country wide.
Samsung
Strengthens its Dual SIM Smartphone Portfolio MOBILE | Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd has announced
the expansion of its Dual SIM smartphone portfolio with the launch of the Galaxy S -Duos (GT-S7562) and Galaxy Y -Duos Lite (GT-S5302). These stylish and powerful devices are designed to deliver Smart life to its users with the unique ‘Smart Dual SIM’ feature that allows users to never miss a call even if they are already talking on one SIM or surfing the web using the other. “At Samsung, we seek to fuel the growth of the Dual SIM market in India by launching our innovative, DUAL SIM Smartphones. With the launch of
It’s the first TabTop to pack a Digital Ink Pen, Finger print scanner and a 128GB inbuilt SSD storage Milagrow has announced its entry in Window’s operating system based tablet PCs. The tablet has been launched co-branded with KUPA, a Germany based Windows tablet PC maker of high repute. The X11 is primarily for the professional sector and characterised by the presence of the Microsoft Windows OS. To be productive ‘on the go’ is crucial; Google Android platform and Apple iOS operating systems are unsuitable for this purpose, both for the lack of processing power available, compared to x86 solutions, and also because many enterprise programs used routinely on Windows do not exist in Google Android or Apple iOS. Price Rs 54,990 for 64GB and Rs 66,990 for 128GB.
PRODUCT FEATURES * 1GHz CPU processor speed * Android Ice Cream Sandwich OS * Smart Dual SIM access * Pre loaded with ChatOn messenger
the Samsung Galaxy S Duos and Galaxy Y Duos Lite, we are seeking to democratise the Smartphone market in India,” states Asim Warsi, VP, Samsung Mobile. The Dual-SIM segment today contributes more than 50% of the total Mobile Volume sales in the country. The Samsung Galaxy S Duos is priced at Rs 17,900.
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my log
Sanjay Gupta Consulting Editor—IT Next (Online)
Patently Troublesome Regardless of who wins in the Apple-Samsung tussle, patent fights are here to stay illustration: prameesh purushothaman
The trigger for this article is the recent jury decision awarding $1 billion in fine to Apple against Samsung for design patent infringements. I’m no clairvoyant, but I can say almost certainly that the duel will go on much longer. For one, granting of patents, their exercise by companies and what they imply for consumers are very complex issues. For another, they involve huge sums of money. Even though patents have increasingly come to rule the roost, growing awareness, lawsuits and the notions of justice associated with patenting (or not patenting) are splitting society right down its ideological spine. Proponents say that if we did not have patents, people would lose the incentive to innovate - patents allow them to make money. Without greenbacks, not many will venture to create something new or think differently (Will Apple sue me for this?). Opponents say patents line the pockets of a few and harm the masses by making products more expensive. Also, by hoarding/buying patents, monopolies are often created, benefiting only the monopolists. The word patent is said to have been derived from the Latin “litterae patentes,” meaning “open letters.” In medieval times, monarchs issued such grant letters to their favoured merchants or inventors: in
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1449, King Henry VI of England granted a Flemish called John a patent for a 20-year monopoly to make stained glass. Such exclusive rights were perhaps all right in times of absolute rule. But patents acquired equality and fair practice as the power of democracy and freedom of choice grew. So the granting of patents was democratised by setting up patent offices and modification of patent laws that purported to level the playing field. Despite the bold changes, problems with patenting have persisted. At the onset of the industrial age, when inventions were small in number, it was easy to recognise genuine innovation from superficial alteration. As the juggernaut of innovations rolled on, keeping track of who can really be credited with which (really new) invention became a challenge.The problem arises from the willingness of individuals and companies to apply for patents even for the most trifling and, often, obvious of things—compounded by the granting of such piddling patents. In fact, the US Patent Office, the most powerful and prolific in the world, has a backlog of over 600,000 patents. Globally, according to World Intellectual Property Organisation, around 2 million patents are applied for each year! No wonder companies are pulling each other’s hair over “rounded corners” and “pinch to zoom!” And the hurt is not going to stop anytime soon.
3 Essential
Reads
John hansen | INTERVIEW
COLLABORAte AnD CO-exiSt USinG HCM John Hansen, senior Director, hCm (human Capital management) applications Development and product management, JapaC, oracle Corporation, is upbeat about hCm becoming all pervasive in the coming years. in an interview with IT Next, hansen talks about how customers are finding it compelling to deploy hCm suite What are the factors driving the HCM business and its relevance to it managers at this point of time? This year, we have got a combination of things going on. In this calendar year, we have Taleo as part of our portfolio, which has created more capabilities. Having the Fusion application suite--enterprise edition and business edition, along with the cloud story, we carry the most comprehensive HCM solutions which are the need of the hour. We have also followed up on the existing e-business and PeopleSoft product launch; we have two major releases coming out: 9.2 for PeopleSoft and 12.2 for e-business suite, which are the major offerings. Since we have made an investment in their products, we’d continue to update them, support them to bring in new functionality; in the meantime, we are also going to continue development of next
40
generation suites like Fusion with the acquisition of Taleo; both will co-exist and evolve a cloud model. We differentiate ourselves from the competition with the range of options we offer. The relevance to senior IT managers comes from the composition around cloud. The value-add to these customers is to do with how we have woven these applications into their IT architecture and infrastructure and created an interface with other cloud based models. From the HCM (Human Capital Management) stand point, they are going to see the biggest impact on the cloud strategy with security well integrated into the system along with ensuring high availability of services. So, now we have lots of cloud solutions or software-as-a-service type propositions made available for IT to integrate with on-premise or hosted deployment options; and will still be able to provide the enterprise with all the reporting,
all the data inside, and all the security and the data they had asked for along the way.
What are the top five reasons for customers to go in for HCM? And what challenges do they face? I would see three key business challenges for IT heads: Alignment with regard to the entire workforce which is key to achieving a company’s objectives and goals Managing talent and creating a pipeline of talent to meet business goals Leadership, where there is lack of an appropriate mechanism to identify leaders within the organisation and creating a pipeline. First of all, I would say it has the leading edge best in class functionality between our Fusion suite and Taleo applications. There are so many ways customers can adopt HCM applications. If they have HCM applications today, they can
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John Hansen, Sr Director, HCM, JAPAC, Oracle on collaboration and co-existence strategy Pg 40 NEXT 100 | LEADERSHIP
LEADERSHIP | NEXT 100
KEYUR DESAI | AVP-IT INFRASTRUCTURE & PROJECTS GROUP, AEGIS LIMITED
“The award helped in the promotion process and sparked new aspirations”
NARESH PATHAK HEAD-IT, CROMPED GROUP
“Post Next100 award, I have been more innovative, a visionary and a good team manager”
P
rofessional Achievement Next100 Award has brought significant changes through various achievements in my professional life. External recognition provided the extra throttle that boosted my spirits to reach greater heights. The award helped in the promotion process, enabled me to take up additional responsibilities, sparked new aspirations and fetched many laurels in the form of other technology awards.
P
rofessional Achievements The biggest achievement post Next100 awards was recognition within the organisation and in the industry; besides, it also helped me bag a promotion as Head-IT. Prior to the award, I connected with seniors within the organisation. But now, I am connected with peer groups and CIOs in the industry. This gives me even better insights into business technology and services.
Professional Skills
Making A Difference with the Right Skills Strategic thinking and aligning IT strategy with business strategy Winner 2011 Evolved thought process around creating Team Management--Leading different Moved to a new business value for each of the technologies teams with different skills and capabilities in job with a bigger the area of infrastructure, security and business deployed profile application, besides being a mentor and Developed competency to manage and enabling the team to develop necessary skills. The Next100 influence stakeholders from business into embracing and award has instilled the necessary self-confidence to manage. aligning towards a common vision and purpose Ability to develop key partnerships--both within our own Systems and Process Management--While I have been organisation as well as third parties able to develop and match both management and leadership skills after the Next100 award, systems and processes Ability to act as a relationship manager and effective (management) are critical to my success. communicator, and motivate people into action Ability to drive complex and challenging change efforts, Personal Skills — Next100 personality test and and convince people to step out of their comfort zones, skills helped me to a great extent to develop the skills of take risks, and do things that require courage supercharging logic, data, and analysis with the will to win.
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Proud Moments
Strategies for Scaling Up
Imbibing Leadership—I have been able to achieve these skills in the past one year and post Next100 award, I have been able to be a visionary, developed influencing power, been innovative, a good team manager and key decision maker. I will take up MDP (Management Development Programme) from one of the IIMs very soon.
Understood the basics of finance such as Opex and Capex and budgeting skills; and embedded a few KPIs showing IT’s impact on finance and its value addition to the monthly MIS for the top management. I have ensured that IT played a decisive role in sustaining the advantage of my leadership skills.
The Next100 award boosted my selfconfidence, helped me perform with more zeal and energy and made me have a holistic view of various aspects and act accordingly. The strategic vision and external recognition I gained through the award contributed significantly in scaling up to new heights in my career.
Proud Moments There have been many aspects that have collectively helped me in my career growth path. The top five are: Positive attitude towards life—My ability to take failures as something to learn from has always helped me stay alert and aligned with my goals in life. My positive attitude has helped me avoid distractions and encouraged me to strive to improve my personal and professional life. Communication Skills—Good communication skills both verbal and written, and a good vocabulary, have worked wonders for me. Good Team Management—I strongly believe that an empowered and charged army (team) wins the toughest of battles. Good team management helps organisational growth. Leadership skills—Leadership is influence. I have always believed in leading by example and have had the courage to face the consequences of any of my decisions.
Winner 2011 Promoted to AVP Making a Difference While I have always focused on organisational goals, I have been working on creating leaders within my team. The performance of each team member towards larger goals has helped towards excellence in each field. Next100 has been very special, since the recognition that I received from the external media has helped me to network in larger forums. The entire experience of the award ceremony and recognition in IT Next have been sentimental moments for me and my family. My achievements have charged me up to take hold of new assignments with more confidence.
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What winning means to Next100 Winners and what they inculcate and imbibe Pg 29 CUBE CHAT | sreeKanth e
CUBE CHAT
FACT FIL E na me s r e e K a nt h e
Life is a
Cur r e nt D es i Gnat i on pr oJ eCt ma naGe r , mi nDt r e e lt D
Challenge! “Besides academic excellence, my education helped me in imbibing ideals and respecting human values,” says Sreekanth E, Project Manager, Mindtree consulting Ltd BY MANU SHARMA
S
MY SUCESS
MANTRA “be humble and give your best”
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itnext | o c t o b e r 2 0 1 2
reekanth had the opportunity to be groomed right from high school at the Sri Satya Sai Institute of Higher Learning at Prashanti Nilayam, and later during his MBA in Finance at Bangalore University. After college, he started as trainee at Xansa India, an IT & BPO service company, where he got hands-on experience in all departments. This was a time of major self-discovery for Sreekanth as he realised his skills revolved around finance, while fields of IT like Java, C++, Unix, OracleDB, SAP ABAP felt alien. “I was keen to move into SAP functional consulting but Xansa did not provide the opportunity,” he says. However, the quest to seek an opportunity in IT prompted him to enquire about SAP course in Financials, popular then,but unaffordable. His passion paid off when his father supported
him with Rs 1 lakh; the balance of Rs 1.5 lakh was taken as a bank loan. “With the support of my family and friends and the loan, I got the courage to quit my job and take up SAP training in FICO module,” says Sreekanth. “Thankfully, I passed out with a good score that helped me get three offers--from Accenture, Satyam and Bristlecone. In 2006, I joined Satyam Computers Services Ltd., as a SAP Consultant in Hyderabad,” he adds. At Satyam, Sreekanth handled the SAP ERP CO Module implementation for a large enterprise. “The organisation had also planned on financial accounting consolidation for its 100-odd group companies. Satyam sponsored me for the SAP SEM BCS course. I handled the implementation all by myself with minimum support despite being a fresher.” This was back
Cur r e nt r ole Cons ult i nG r ole For GloBa l ConV e r Ge nCe pr oJ eCt For F mCG Cli e nt eX pe rt i s e pr oJ eCt ma naGe me nt, e r p, B i a nD e nt e r pr i s e pe r For ma nCe ma naGe me nt s olut i ons
“My childhood and nurturing at Prashanti Nilayam has toughened me to encounter challenges, be humble and sensitive to society” in 2007, there were not many with this niche skill set. Sreekanth moved to MindTree in 2010 as a Senior Consultant handling UK-based multinational client. Here, he handled the SAP-financial consolidation project for 600-odd companies of a leading MNC across the globe. Today, after successful innings at Satyam, Sapient and MindTree, Sreekanth feels confident of taking up bigger challenges. He has published blogs on SAP Community portals. “This was when I participated in the IT Next 100 award and won in 2011,” he brags. Sreekanth attributes his success mainly to the discipline that he imbibed from his parents and teachers; above all, his revered Founder Chancellor of Sri Satya Sai
Institute of Higher Learning—the late Sri Satya Sai Baba. “People call it luck, I call it “God’s grace;” it helped me face challenges, risks and made me capable of taking tough decisions.” A lover of adventure sports, he participates in para gliding, martial arts and gymnastics on the bike. Sreekanth admires Dr Abdul Kalam for his knowledge and his simplicity. The most fascinating aspect that he finds about Dr Kalam is his thoughts around how to blend science and spirituality and at the same time articulating his vision about developed India and his inspiring speeches. He also admires Ratan Tata for his leadership, strong values and character and his ability to understand and address social needs.
Wor K eX pe r e i nCe 9 Years FaVour i t e Quot e “ li F e i s a Ch a lle nGe , me e t i t ! li F e i s a D r e a m, r e a li s e i t ! li F e i s a Ga me , pl aY i t ” FaVourite Destination na i ni ta l FaVour i t e Ga D Ge t ni Kon D s lr eX pe r i e nCe or Ga ni Z at i on D ur at i on : * mi nDt r e e Cons ult i nG lt D - 0 2 / 2 0 1 0 – t i ll Dat e . * sa pi e nt i nD i a lt D 02/2008 – 01/2010. * sat Ya m Comput e r s e r V i Ces lt D 03/2006 – 01/2008. * l& t F i na nCe lt D 11/2004 – 11/2005. * X a nsa i nD i a lt D 0 9 / 2 0 0 3 – 1 0 / 2 0 0 4.
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Sreekanth E, Project Manager, Mindtree gets some life's teachings on discipline Pg 60