'BHEL deployed e-procurement system'

BANGALORE, INDIA: At a time when government as well as private enterprises go live with cutting-edge technology solutions to improve productivity and accelerate growth, India's premier integrated power plant equipment manufacturer, Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), cannot sit idle.

Being one of India's topmost PSUs, BHEL has invested heavily in various IT solutions, including MPLS WAN connectivity to connect all its units and customer sites across India.

In an interview with CIOL, BHEL's chief technical officer, M Thangaraj, talks about various IT deployments in the company.

CIOL: What are the major technology investments at your enterprise?

Thangaraj: a) We have invested heavily in many areas. BHEL has implemented video conferencing solutions and MPLS WAN connectivity to connect all its units and customer sites across India.

We have also deployed SAP Version ECC 6.0 and a web-based e-procurement system. The IBM web sphere application server 7.0 and the deployment of e-mail spam filter appliance (Cisco Iron Port C160) were also a big step forward. We have also implemented Symantec endpoint protection 12.0 for desktop anti-virus solutions.

CIOL: Any overhauls of significant scale or value?

Thangaraj: We have restructured our data centre room and replaced the gen sets and UPS units in our unit.

CIOL: What is your strategy for future?

Thangaraj: We are planning to deploy server virtualisation, Microsoft SCCM (System centre configuration manager) solution for centralised patch and asset management, Microsoft share point portal for document management and knowledge management system, and also IP switch whats up gold premium (Network management solution).

CIOL: Areas of interest from recent tech breakthroughs?

Thangaraj: Cloud computing (private) is one of the areas where we are looking forward to investing in. Storage virtualisation and mobile computing are also in our mind.

CIOL: Advice to peers in terms of lessons, mistakes or challenges you experienced?

Thangaraj: While migrating your business applications, kindly ensure the presence of technical and core functional persons for 100 per cent error-free design. Also, you need to ensure managed service from your ISP while establishing point-to-point connectivities.

You also need to store the copy of your back up in an offsite location. While establishing critical applications, kindly plan for redundancy for HA to avoid single point of failure.

CIOL: IT as a competitive differentiator/innovator/business value centre at your organization - How?

Thangaraj: From our experience, what we realised is that IT deployments help you support in faster invoicing. Also, the deployments of knowledge management systems will help you keep a track of product proto-types so that faster budgetary offers can be given to the customers.

IT also helps in supporting faster designing and simulation of products.

CIOL: Anything else you feel worth sharing?

Thangaraj: You must devise new plans for DR and backup strategies to ensure 100 per cent availability of data and services in case of any interruption (natural calamities).