BANGALORE, INDIA: The global financial crisis has cast its spell on every industry. The downturn has made many companies sit up and take note of the situation more seriously. Reduction in expenditure, cost cutting, saying 'NO' to new projects are some of the measures commonly heard in the industry circles.

No doubt, IT has been a business enabler for enterprises across sizes. But the present situation has called for reducing on IT spending as well. Vishwajeet Singh, national manager (IT), FCm Travel Solutions (India) Pvt. Ltd, tells us about how his company has geared up to fight the present economic crisis. 

FCm Travel Solutions is a corporate travel management specialist that guarantees a different approach to service. Excerpts:

CIOL: Has the present economic crisis cast its spell on your company? If yes, how has it affected, and what strategies have you adopted to fight the same?

Vishwajeet Singh: We are a corporate travel management company, and our business works on volumes. With a sudden fall across the globe, all the companies have frozen their travel plans to reduce the expenses and it is directly hitting our business. But, yes, it is not seen here as much as with any other travel company. We work like a travel consultant to a corporate - it is our USP.

In in order to fight the current scenario, we decided on the following:
* No new recruitments
* Look into existing contracts to renegotiate on the recurring expenses (it is actually good to negotiate).
* Make people responsible and to take care of extra portfolio.
* Check on traveling (to some extent) and majorly on communication costs etc.

CIOL: Any plans on cutting down the IT budget in the coming year? If yes, what percentage of cut down do your foresee?

VS: We have not yet decided on this, but we are not making any big purchase this year either. Unfortunately, I had to postpone a few of my plans which is for the time being. Otherwise, we don’t see IT from an expense point of view.
 
CIOL: Have you put on hold any projects?

VS: Yes, as I mentioned earlier, we have put on hold some projects for the time being. We always do our assessment before any new plans and the same thing has helped us in not being so unrealistic while putting up any new request.

CIOL: In times of recession, do you plan to outsource any of your IT functions?

VS: Not exactly. We always believed in in-house support structure and will continue with the same.

CIOL: What are the challenges before you as the IT head in the present situation?

VS: We are not driven by these situations and we never had any luxury time. I have always been there to bring value for the company. As a team we are just trying our best to make the management feel more confident and happy.
 
CIOL: In general, what are the other cost cutting measures you are adopting to keep the going smooth?

VS: According to me, this is the time of consolidation and one should look into this very deeply. Our focus is to reduce the overheads by consolidating projects and not by sacking people. We just need to make our people more responsible and efficient. This will not only bring value but will also create an amazing confidence level among them.