Less dependent on IT?

How does IT fit in the strategy jigsaw in a business like yours? How are priorities changing this year?

The downturn has impacted everyone. For us, it has been a positive one nevertheless. Once the economic scenario changes, it calls for a lot of flexibility in planning again. Both the sides need elasticity. Back into the growth phase, now we want to go for systems that support higher scalability. We are also looking at cloud computing and virtualization, both on the server side and storage side. Desktop virtualization, and Business Rules Management systems (BRM) is also on the cards. We also want to do more with the data riding with us. So focus would extend to business intelligence, predictive analytics, more with mobile technologies etc.

A major revamp it means?

We are trying to re-look at our enterprise architecture and break it up into different components so that our architecture is not dependent on specific applications. If you take a core application for example, most of the systems have gone into the rules part of applications, but business rules are very dynamic and that needs to change. We are trying to break up whole application fabric into multiple layers and that should work according to business uses.

How similar or different is it from SOA?

SOA is more of a technology component. We basically want to empower business users for taking out the business components out of technology’s stack and let them configure them as per their requirements. Business rules should be according to business owners, and it could mean ‘what-if’ analysis, or impact on profitability or anything. This would reduce their dependency on IT teams, though they would be helping them initially.

Business not dependent on IT? Sounds a major leap? Won’t it overlap with IT?

May be technology managers feel that their area gets intruded but in my opinion business users are savvier with tools than we imagine, provided the tools fit them. I guess if I am able to give the right tools to business it would be a right step. The time-to-market would improve drastically and proactive factor would go up too. IT’s role would be to give the right environment and tools.

So IT aligns with business goals here?

Our business line has a distinct methodology in market. Any NBFC is good as another one unless there is a strong differentiator. How’s my mortgage product different from anyone else’s? The secret is who comes with a great scheme first and that’s why T2M (Time-to-market) is a big driver, a winning factor. Plus, technology enables to have cross-selling or up-selling advantages.

Retaining a customer is also a key area. Business needs technology hence and can not afford to be old-fashioned in today’s market now. And that also means that most of technology teams should be aware of what’s happening in the market and so should vendors. It’s all about being proactive.