Can IT be a white good?

GURGAON, INDIA: The trick, intriguingly enough, often works in case of IT pieces. If IT is visible, it is not good IT, as most grey-haired IT geriatrics can be caught saying. When it works, it's subtly, silently doing everything - from ironing out exceptional kinks to washing routine laundry. Loud flashlights fizzle out once an exciting pilot or a celebrity IT project is over.

That's when the backstage candles do their job. Spotlights become sidelined as every spot matters when one utters the words- stable IT environment.

The feeling echoes while talking to Subodh Dubey, Group CIO, Usha International. In this interview, he spells out all the supporting cast that matters in making the scripts like virtualization or in-memory analytics really durable enough. Let's see how he rewired application availability, skills, capex-opex trade-off, workload balancing and more as he plugged in SAP and Dell into his enterprise. Not loudly, but durably.

What was the ‘different' part because of the very size and stage of your company as you decided to deploy new IT pieces?

We are a consumer durable major that is moving at a 30 to 35 YoY growth rate. The business is expanding, and so was the scale and complexity of supply chains. Many business forecasting challenges were also emerging. The expectations from a business perspective played the right trigger. We started looking for an apt solution and hence found SAP supply chain module befitting our needs. We also had some 30 isolated servers so we thought of consolidating infrastructures. We wanted to improve the SAP ERP to improve overall supply chain areas without increasing data centre footprint. We had discussions with a slew of vendors and considered companies like HP, IBM etc and then picked Dell Consulting to deliver 80 per cent server consolidation and 70 per cent reduction in energy consumption. We have deployed their blade servers and tape library; the implementation of virtualization has been smooth and we are happy.

No hiccups or sneezes?

From a technology view, none. If we look at some business challenges, change management is always a phase to put people and vendors into discipline. It matters to ensure that every thing is done in a friendly and systematic manner. Since we have a lot of SKUs for instance, we have special needs and customization of the solution was vital. But all is running well now. With about 70 per cent degree of forecast-side improvements and 30 per cent on inventory reduction, all is on the right track.

Why Dell? Why SAP?

We were already having the IBM platform for SAP. SAP was already there running some layers effectively at our end. We had a working experience with Dell for our laptops and desktops' needs for three years already. When we started looking for options, we thought of specific criteria like server consolidation, energy reduction, and cost rationalization. Plus, with the kind of flexibility of infrastructure that Dell brings to the table, we leaned on to Dell as the desired solution.

Was it tough being an early bird with HANA?

 

In 2008, we had got a BI solution in place. Till 2010-11, we did not see any adoption need. But gradually as we dig down into industry changes, we realized that being a sales organization, every minute matters with reporting. Sometimes the system would just not work to the level required and people would resort to Excel sheets and print-outs. The delay in response time for BI side could not be ignored. BI infrastructure was anyway due for upgrade so we took the opportunity to try something faster and with a real good analytic capability. Now supply chain planning has improved through 60 per cent faster report generation also.

Opinions vary when one talks of the real benefits of virtualization and its cost aspects. Initial capex should be compared with long-term operational licensing or support costs, as some would advise. What's your view so far?

Whenever a new technology or license is acquired, some issues are bound to pop up. Be it HANA or virtualization, the first set of challenges have to be taken into stride. One can not afford a crash for sure and the need to support the core piece can not be shrugged away. Things only succeed on a lasting note when proper support is ensured. We are seeing our ROI in three years' window and we have created a matrix that takes into account administration, energy-saving, hardware and other metrics.

How has the solution fared with service availability, downtime or hypervisor related issues etc?

Dell is a complete solution with a good consulting backbone. It brings in the advantage of flexibility and is a real fast, cost effective solution. Other vendors also have some positives but Dell has the highest levels of them, in my experience. As to hypervisor parts, we used virtual machines and there have been no issues.

Would you stake it for mission-critical apps next?

Yes, we are going to touch those areas with this year's plans. We also have intentions of redefining other areas like CRM, sales incentive management system, trade related areas etc.

How strongly have these new pieces affected the team, skills parts till now?

We have got additional skills built in for HANA and supply chain solutions. Now we have a full-fledged IT team. Initial operational or change management issues need to be handled properly. There were data input and planning issues too. One has to convince the users, like sales people, about the way the system will change their part of work. Like false-demand scenarios have been sorted out with some training sessions. It's a welcome change from the earlier paper-based forecast system.