Trends fly, Scale matters

JAIPUR, INDIA: Ravi Kant is Deputy General Manager (C&IT) at Steel Authority of India Ltd. With his lineage and legacy of organization, he is at a unique cusp in absorbing all hot trends with the right mix of curiosity and a practical lens. More on some hot waves.

How's the last year been like?

We did an ERP implementation with SAP. It was a journey we started with and continue today. We are approaching it phase-wise. There are still seven to eight stages to go.

Why this recipe instead of a big-bang treatment?

We have to approach IT in a unit by unit fashion and sometimes investments need a different discretion and time window to make them successful as per an organisation's unique context.

Is there any hot trend that catches your eye?

There are so many - like Cloud or BYOD that we keep hearing about. But for a large organization like ours, things have to be conceived and implemented differently. Right now we are concentrating on basic IT and we would like to wait and watch before experimenting headlong.

Do early adopters have an advantage or a disadvantage?

Scale can be a constraint. We are a large scale entity and specially with the shop floor infrastructure and readiness of talent pool, we have to keep a lot of factors in mind. There are literacy levels, acceptance of new IT, transition issues that have to be taken care of. It's hard to jump into something new, more so when it comes to critical applications.

So trends come with gaps?

It all depends on relevance. For big PSUs, money may not be a problem but ownership of information, control needs; data security etc are some equally important consideration points.