Titus Eapen, chief manager (Information System-In-Charge), Kochi Refinery, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd, tells Pratima Harigunani of CyberMedia News about the challenges of managing IT in a PSU, about connectivity, about how legacy systems are taking an edge over big ERP suites and why people are not roadblocks to IT at Kochi Refinery.

As a CIO, what are your biggest headaches today?

Right now, I am concerned about how to immediately add to IT as per business changes, which is not easy in an organizational set-up like ours. While the users want fast implementations as per fluctuating business needs, it's not easy to do it as time requirements and processes have to be followed, and proper vigilance and statutory audits have to be met with.

Anything from the technology side that keeps you worried?

Connectivity is the biggest issue. Since we are an pan-India organization, it is difficult to handle downtime on mail and Internet, more so in a 24/7 set-up. But as service providers say, the last mile is a broader issue.

How difficult, if so, is driving IT in a traditional PSU set-up?

There is a lot of room to be covered in terms of freedom. Budget allocations and investments are still handled in a long procedural way. Approvals take time. Budgets have to be heavily justified. For instance, I proposed a phase-out of old monitors where the cost differential is about Rs10,000 in comparison to LCDs. But the same is struck on a calculation that is looking at the costs that will come out replacing 3000 PCs all over India and not the long-term benefits.

Have the traditional ways posed any transition issues, specially with legacy systems?

On the contrary, some of our legacy systems are even better than today's solutions. Suites like SAP are completely generalized. Their SIM module is weak in the sense that it doesn't satisfy on generating all reports required or all reconciliation needs. There are a lot of intricacies on taxation, duties as per movement of goods, which it cannot handle. For such needs, we have our traditional workflows and legacy tools that are working well and have even been integrated with ERP.

In the light of this issue raised by CIOs quite often that big ERPs do not cater to minute and specific needs, how much chance does open source have?

OSS is still at the operating system level and still hasn't moved in a big way in terms of applications inside an enterprise.

Do any of the new technology candidates excite you today?

I guess SOA is one thing that's exciting and we are in the process of implementing it. Formerly, big software players were only thrusting down their offerings and not ready to understand that one might be better with smaller offerings. The scene is changing now though as everyone is realizing that SOA is not a product but an architecture and approach.

Have you tried outsourcing your IT needs?

Yes we have used that model and have found that it's a lot cheaper and the agents more responsible. There is increased satisfaction as well from the user's angle.

Any issues from the people dimension in IT?

Not many. In fact, our people started using computers long time back with workflow applications that they used to apply in kiosks in absence of enough PCs in the organization. People will raise their voice only in case of a business problem, they are not averse to technology as long as it's working with their needs.

(pratimah@cybermedia.co.in)