CIOs need better solutions

Being one of the oldest pharmaceutical entities in the country, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) India has time and again demonstrated its capabilities to compete with the best in the business.

GSK employs about 3500 people in the country and registers a turnover of Rs 1,500 crore. IT spends on software support are going up.

"We want vendors to provide better solution rather than pushing technology," says MK Vasanth Kumar, vice president, IT and supply chain, GSK.

Speaking to Prasad Ramasubramanian from Cybermedia News he dwells on the IT initiatives undertaken by the company.

How much budget does your enterprise allocate for IT expenditure each year? What is the expected change with respect to the previous year?

While it's difficult to estimate accurately, given the fact that both local and International offices spend on IT, on an average it's about one per cent of the sales per year. This year's budget will be flat compared to last year.

Name the top five IT items that you spent on last year?

Distributors network, infrastructure tech refresh, IT continuity plans, network security and data communication.

Name the top five items that you expect to spend on this coming fiscal year?

Field force HRMS, Wireless MIS, data communication, distributors network and warehouse management.

Do you feel that enterprises spend more on hardware than software?

Not necessarily. It depends on the project / solution. In many cases, initial spends on hardware (especially Capex) may be more, but hardware and software support cost will increase as time goes by.

Has the cost of the IT hardware/software been constant or has it been growing?

Excluding Capex, IT spends on hardware services have been constant or going down marginally and IT spends on software support are going up

Has the prices of the IT products (hardware/software) been on the decline due to the current stronger rupee against the US dollar?

Yes, hardware prices have gone down but not services, whether it is hardware or software specific. Further, our purchases are business specific and are not linked to currency fluctuations.

What are the major implementations made over the years?

ERP, Sales Force Automation (SFA), Stockist Connect, eProcurement and IT Continuity Plans. Perhaps, GSK is the only company, which has implemented two ERP packages (JDE and BPCS) to support the end-to-end business processes.

Mention the critical usage of any three of your major IT implementations over the last fiscal and define their benefits?

SFA - Benefit to the field force by providing faster, accurate and timely information when on the move.

Stockist Connect - This fully integrated SCM solution permits our customers to place their orders electronically and get serviced faster.

IT Continuity Plans - provides alternative options in case of a disaster thereby ensuring business continuity is maintained.

How big is the IT staff in your organization?

It is the combination of international and local resources. Over years, since merger, it has been reduced by 50 per cent. We could able to achieve this by outsourcing several services and also by consolidation and standardization of IT assets.

Has the nature and pattern of IT adoption become more sophisticated? If yes, to what extent?

Yes, users now adapt to IT change easily. Everyone talks about TCO. In fact all our IT projects are sponsored and championed by business users.

What would the CIOs like to hear from vendors during the next fiscal?

I want to see the vendors providing effective solution rather than pushing technology. I expect them to provide reliable and quality service at an affordable cost.