Mindset of people hindrance in tech adoption

NEW DELHI, INDIA: IT industry experts at Enterprise Next event organised by CIOL commonly agreed that it is not confusion raised by fast changing technologies that is checking an organization from adopting new technologies but it is the mindset of people that poses bigger challenge in embracing new technologies and modern practices.

“At the end of the day organizations are in a business. They are in the market with big or small competition. Therefore people should always take the lead in adoption of technologies irrespective of its size. Adoption can start from anyone,” said Prasad Palli, senior manager, Enterprise Architecture Consulting, Wipro Technologies.

He further mentioned that it is often seen that people wait for big companies to adopt new technologies and based on their experience other organization take stand on the same.

“It is the mindset of people that needs to change,” added Palli.

Agreeing with Palli, Vishwajeet Singh, national manager for IT, FCM Travel Solutions pointed out that there is no need to follow leaders but any organization can take lead in embracing modern technologies.

“Till date in Indian IT scenario, new projects are highly dependent on cost factor. In most of the developed economies, organizations forget cost. They work for mass market and identify things that are going to take them to these markets, irrespective of the cost of technology. We see organizations develop confidence based on other’s experience. This 'other' turns out to be leader, said Singh.

Often development of new technologies checks organizations from holding their decision that whether the organization should go for new technology or continue with their investment.

Addressing this concern raised by a chief information officer that understanding the process to adopt new technology and ensuring that it sustains is a challenge, Aneesh Malhotra, director, sales engineering, salesforce.com pointed out that adoption of never technologies is never a waste.

“Any new technology or decision to adapt new technology is never a waste but evaluation of the decision and technology with respect to business goal is must. Any organization should compare return from new technology and their existing infrastructure. Based on this evaluation they should take decision,” said Malhotra.

Adding to the point made by Malhotra, Sunil Mehta, country manager, Quint Wellington Redwood India highlighted that along with change there is need to manage change.

“People need to realize that they have to do better. First an organization should assess their existing infrastructure and business. Then they should compare it with the existing best practices. This will act as an eye opener exercise for them. Organizations should assess the incremental improvement they need. If they are able to manage it, then they should find the right person to manage it or else outsource it. Even this outsourcing should be managed by proper monitoring,” said Mehta.

Salil Agrawal, part of Performance Improvement team at PriceWaterCoopers mentioned that the change in mindset and return on technologies will take time and organizations' vision should play vital role in making decision.

“Everything and all expectation of organizations cannot be met overnight. It will take some time but the time is precious. Organization should dream and create a vision. They should analyze their goals 5 to 10 years down the line and then break it into plans. Strategies come from translating vision into plan. Then evaluate technologies that should be dumped. Evaluate loss and gain from changing a process and then make decision that can give organizations maximum returns. There will always be space for correction,” said Agrawal.

When Indian organizations at the event were compared to organizations in the developed economy in adoption of new technology, Ramesh Wahi, chief information officer, House of Pearls Fashions, pointed out that Indian organizations do not have legacy system and hence they can do more compared to organizations in the developed economies.

“Organizations in developed economies started using IT 40 years before us. There is maturity in the market in terms of adopting new technologies. India too is slowly but steadily becoming a mature market in IT adoption. But our strength is that we do not face problem of legacy systems and in many respects we are ahead in companies of developed economies in terms of IT infrastructure,” said Wahi.