"I don’t have to pitch it to my CFO"

William W Blausey Jr, SVP and Chief Information Officer of Eaton Corporation was in India recently. The IT Commander-in-Chief guiding the 1600 people strong IT army of this global diversified power management company (having operations in all continents and customers in 150 countries), took some time out of his chockablock itinerary to share the view of the IT terrain as he sees it perched atop. Bill, as he is fondly addressed everywhere, deciphers some torrid developments around the IT landscape and spells out his mantra of being wise amidst and about any IT hype.

Would you like to share something about your captive IT engine in India first and how well is it juxtaposed to all the global action at Eaton?

Eaton had established a robust IT infrastructure arm to address the requirements for all its businesses and operations. Eaton’s Information Technology Center (ITC) provides services for our business sectors - Electrical & Industrial - as well as services to corporate functions. This  ITC located in Pune is one of the largest and primarily works as part of the global teams to provide increased IT services in the region based on the "Follow The Sun" concept. It supports all regions globally in the key technology areas, and gives the best possible support in these key areas. The IITC supports Eaton’s global enterprise as well as the India businesses (Truck, Automotive, Hydraulics and Electrical).

Yes, IITC works hand in hand with the global IT teams to ensure that the IT issues are resolved with minimal business impact across the organization. It is because of the seamless support extended by the IT teams in the enterprise that we connect to our networks and emails without any hassles everyday. IT is also a beta at Eaton to showcase our offerings like power control, electrical equipment or monitoring tools etc. We leverage our power management expertise here.

And what brings you to India?

We are looking at refreshing leadership here and there a lot more exciting things happening on the IT front also. There are new recruitment additions in progress. We are continuously hawking for good talent and are looking for leaders who understand business and IT.

As of today how do IT investments stand at Eaton and how can we see it spin out ahead?

We are looking at how IT drives top line and bottom line. We are measuring our key IT projects and working on significant IT operations improvements. There are significant investments in ERP, BI areas too with lot of interest in analytics environments. There are investments in engineering systems to go along.

Has your orientation for IT been impacted in the last two years?

Continuous improvement in operations and standardization of our infrastructure are in serious focus now.

The IT landscape keeps pulsating with new technology debuts and new models all the time. How do you make sure that you don’t fall in for the hype (for example, around Clouds) but at the same time are not late in jumping on to the right bandwagon?

We keep strategic direction in mind for any technology. We will look at every prospective technology but not ready to jump on it right away. This is because our environment goes through significant amount of change which may not work well with something new, for instance, cloud. We consider it on a trial basis but not taking a big leap. Our email is built around internal IT environment but some elements are on Cloud.

How do you decode the sudden seismic effects that the new technology curve and industry drift is bringing about? I mean IT consumerism, commoditization, heterogeneity etc. Is all this making things easier or more complex?

It’s quite an interesting point. There is clearly a dichotomy between more simple or more complex. The amount of change happening allows one to make things more exciting than ever but it also makes the scenario more challenging. Balance, interest and security, IP protection (with product information available across many continents) is part and parcel of all this too. So we try to strike a balance between what is reasonable and what is not. Talking of heterogeneity, well there is an evil in everything. Ensuring reliability and consistency for 70,000 employees is a top concern for me. But we do have a balance and we allow selective steps on this track too.

If you report directly to a CFO, doesn’t it make your job a little tough? Many CIOs have to wear the albatross of convincing other CXOs for any idea or initiative they want to take up.

The benefit that I have is that I don’t have to make any sales pitch to my CEO or CFO. They have a good view of IT, as well as a good sense and appreciation. CFO has in-depth understanding. The enjoyable part is running IT for business operations and watching how IT can impact consumers and how customers react it IT’s efforts. To answer your question again, no, we don’t face the problem of selling IT inside.