MUMBAI, INDIA: Putting your neck out, betting and embracing the right technologies to create a differentiator is one of the major challenges that R. Muralidharan, Chief Information Officer (CIO) of Syntel India is facing. In a interview with Manu Sharma of CIOL Bureau, he shares his views of his achievements as a CIO and also on what he wishes to hear from vendors during the next fiscal. Excerpts:

CIOL: What are the major challenges faced by a CIO?
R. Muralidharan: The major challenges faced by the CIO today revolves around
* Reduction in total cost of ownership of running IT
* Ensuring that IT is always driving business value and consistently being perceived as a business enabler.
* Putting his neck out, betting and embracing the right technologies to create a differentiator.

CIOL: Does your organization link IT budget with the company's performance/growth? If yes please elaborate?
RM: Yes. Syntel does link IT budget with the company’s performance /growth. The total IT spend is typically pegged as a percentage of revenue.
 
CIOL: Can you cite any specific areas where IT has come up as an accomplishment in your stint as a CIO?
RM: There have been quite a few major areas of focus for IT over the last two years in my stint as the CIO of Syntel. There have been significant achievements across not just implementation of technologies but the entire aspect of effective deployment of people, process and technology all aimed towards the goal of being valued as a true business enabler. The areas of significant achievements cuts across all areas of infrastructure such as network, storage, systems/servers, security, telecom  all supporting critical internal business applications and connectivity needed for providing services to its global customers. Apart from focus on investments in technologies, there has been a significant focus on processes and people competency development all aligned to delivering value to customers.
 
CIOL: Going forward, what are the challenges which you foresee?
RM: The challenges of the future envisaged revolves around more and more Green IT initiatives thus enabling significant environmental benefits apart from providing a lower cost of ownership for running IT in the organization. The other challenge revolves around betting on the right technologies for the future which will deliver the maximum benefit to the organization
 
CIOL: How far have you come as regards adopting 'Green IT technologies'?
RM: Green IT initiative is a moving target and Syntel is investing significantly on ensuring the all the campuses being built to support the growth is enabled using Green It technologies. On a parallel front, there is a large effort on driving investments in terms of time and processes to ensure that Green IT initiatives are inculcated across the organization thus focusing on reducing carbon foot print.
 
CIOL: What will be the IT budget for the new fiscal year/ What is the growth rate over last year?
RM: Syntel has been consistently growing at around 25-30 percent and hence the IT budget has also been growing to meet these needs of the growth. Apart from the growth of the operating budget, there is also significant amount of investment being done in investing on cutting edge technologies in its campuses.

CIOL: Name the top 5 items that you expect to spent on this fiscal year?
RM: The top five areas of spend is expected to be in the areas of:
* Build out of campuses to support growth
* Business productivity applications
* Security and Compliance
* Network Optimization
* Virtualization