CIO faces problem of plenty - CIOL News Reports

CIO faces problem of plenty

R V Ashok, general manager, Information Systems, Sundaram-Clayton Limited, shares some insights on how he is implementing IT at this engineering component manufacturing major

Pratima Harigunani

Saturday, February 23, 2008

What role has IT played in keeping your company revved up?

Last three years were invested in consolidating IT departments across the group so we have handled all silos with de-fragmentation successfully. All legacy systems have come out. Reports and transactions are now standardized with common dashboards. Next we step into BI (Business Intelligence) and would be going for SAP Netweaver besides strengthening the IT security. Server replacement and storage refreshments would also be done in a month. The next level clearly is driving usage, penetration and BI.

How much does software consume vis-à-vis hardware?

Our total investments have been around Rs. 2.5 crore that includes implementation. But the resources are shared and we have a common server and a common IT team across all group companies. Data storage is in place and there's not much on hardware front, apart from one application server that we have put up for redundancy and a disaster recovery server planned next year.

Your top worries as a CIO?

Uptime, growth of data and security. In fact driving security is a challenge because it needs a mindset change on behalf of people. Security is not just for the IT department but it's all across the company.

Are there enough solutions in place for your needs in the market?

Yes, solutions are there. In fact, it's a problem of plenty.

Do the so-called IT breakthroughs make enough impact on the ground?

Definitely, the impact is happening otherwise the kind of expansions companies have undergone wouldn't have happened. Look at the way companies are acquiring and going into take-overs, IT is a great enabler. We have grown from four to 16 plants without any additional hardware or resources. In fact we are doing an audit on IT effectiveness and usage.

(pratimah@cybermedia.co.in)

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