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Follow UsWhen you think of consolidation of business processes, how does it fit from a timing point of view and also from the perspective of propelling expansion and making strategic sense?
We decided to go ahead with this project last year. We started five months back and the project went through the normal cycle of blue-printing, evaluation etc. Somewhere around July we launched it properly. As to the ‘why’ part of it, we are nascent with Greenfield operations. Earlier financial transactions etc operated in small packages but we expand along a horizon as big as 224 circles, we decided to go for SAP. SAP software will help support that growth momentum at MTS in standardizing and accelerating the company’s back office finance, accounting and human resource processes requirements and helping improve customer service of all the 22 regional zones (known locally as “circles”) it operates in the country.
How does it sync-in with your overall IT ensemble?
Overall, IT needs a clear strategic alignment with business. We try to design it around business requirements while making a good technology selection too. So, while technology is important, it’s not just about technology. We follow people, processes and technology together. That’s why we go for proven solutions rather than trying to figure out something new. Innovation is good and we use it but when it makes sense.
Why SAP?
The merits here were that it was a proven product in CDMA industry. The entire organization now is in scope of automation; there are specific modules for specific areas; the integration aspect is great and plus, there is no need to re-invent the wheel. With a Telco experience to boot, SAP also helped whenever and wherever any bit of tweaking was required for MTS in particular.
In the press announcement, we could see a strong endorsement from the CFO too. How does that alignment help you as a CIO?
Ownership is very significant in making a project successful. It’s a conscious decision that business has to own the project. IT can just deliver the project. Finance becomes an important stakeholder and that drives it forward.
On a broader level, what do you make of the new IT flavors like Managed services, BSM, RIM etc gaining ground?
Well, I have always been a strong proponent of outsourcing. Yes, there are checks and balances to be taken care of. Same way, although Cloud has not reached the maturity level for big enterprises, it will grow. There is the debate of control for sure, but then you have to see if it’s non-rudimentary, if it helps do things better and doe sit accelerate the implementation parts? Because you are not letting it go, but giving it over to an expert from the market. If you get the right skills, expertise that relives you of the time to spend that you can invest in more critical areas, why not? There are higher spends though, but TCO makes up for it. At the same time, there are risk management issues in an outsourcing environment. Then selective outsourcing is a good option. It’s all about if it helps make things faster, better and more efficient.
If you were to pick the biggest challenge for CIOs in current times, what would it be?
There is the continuous challenge of lowering operational costs, giving more to business while keeping an eye on your wallet. Then with Web 2.0, Cloud etc there are factors like awareness, policy, security etc to be managed.
For an industry like Telco, is there a pressure to leverage IT not just on the cost side but also on the revenue side?
Yes, apart from fire-fighting and ‘keeping the lights on’ this is another role IT takes on here. In normal organizations, IT is just at the back-end but not for us. It can make or loose a lot in areas like getting revenue out of a call made, managing distribution chains, customer service parts, bill provisioning and the overall revenue assurance.