All Go Rhythm

IT for productivity enhancement or IT for a management

processes implementation system? Ask the CEO of Ittiam and he would vouch for

both. The twin towers of expectations, he says, are necessary for a company's

rhythm, engaged as it is in embedded system design that involves software

development, chip and system level design.

Srini Rajam, CEO, Ittiam

So Srini Rajam, the ex-boss of Texas Instrument's India

center, would like his CIO's thought process to be in sync with this kind of a

development environment. He would want him to create an environment, which is

both highly efficient as well as cost effective-invest a lot and be able to

access the latest and the greatest, but also balance as an end company, the cost

benefit.

That's one challenge this CIO must live up to. One aspect

of productivity he must believe in is embedded in the company's IT strategy,

which Rajam says is a highly efficient embedded design and development

environment in terms of tools and network; in terms of how each engineer could

access those at the same time, and yet, not very extravagantly.

That is the system Ittiam has tried to create. They have made

things as much PC-based as possible because, it has a much better control on

costs. At the same time, they have servers that can provide the higher level of

computing need on demand basis. "All those things have resulted in that

balance in terms of access and cost, providing us about 2x as far as

productivity goes," the CEO says.

The second expectation of management process facilitation has

several important facets. One is in terms of business prospect tracking, ie, all

the way from a very simple product query coming into Ittiam to the time the

company realizes that the discussion with the prospective customer is heading no

where, or till the time the whole technology is delivered to the customer.

"We would like the whole process to be tracked on a weekly, monthly,

quarterly, and yearly basis; the whole knowledge-base should be available for

decision making from time to time. This is something we have been going in

for," says Rajam.

At the end of this process, an engagement starts in terms of

delivering the technology or helping customers build their product. The CEO

would now like to have an excellent project management and tracking system in

place that tracks delivery time, the customer's satisfaction and eventually

the customer's feed back. These are few of the highly critical management

processes; in addition to the internal people oriented development processes,

where he wants IT to play a key role.

The holistic view of IT as not "just being an

add-on", but integral to whole system stemmed from the company's

beginnings, even though no technology blueprint by an expert was spelt out

initially. The determination came through its own product development leaders as

they gradually realized the kind of environment Ittiam needed. 'Integral'

also meant that the CEO's involvement with IT went beyond his traditional role

of exploring avenues for company growth. This was close on the heels of a

world-wide trend that had just begun; CXOs swam into IT waters as the right

technology aid became a growth driver. "This is a trend that will

continue," opines Rajam. "We see this at a peer to peer level all the

time. There is a marketing to marketing discussion taking place with your

customer or a partner. You see the kind of tools they bring into place. And you

know that in order to be just competitive, you have to be at that level,"

he reasons. The example of a CMO is cited. Initiating a new product development

is a major decision for a company like Ittiam and it has to based on a lot of

market research, intelligence, and analysis. "You see the kind of extensive

investments your peer companies are making in that area-they could be partners

or competitors-that tells you have to go along those lines. We want the

management to make highly informed decisions and it will be enabled by IT,"

he reconfirms.

His anticipation from the CIO would then be to think exactly

like a business manager but implement like an IT expert. "This is tough,

but that is the basic expectation. Our CIO, therefore, doubles up as a business

development director. He has the pulse of the business. He has all the

impatience, lack of time, and lack of resources that typically a business

manager has and he understands that. But, finally, as an expert in IT, he

implements what is needed," Rajam tells.

His front-end team, which includes sales and associate

marketing people, are therefore heavy users of IT. They are more laptop oriented

than PDA oriented and this allows them to be always connected to the Ittiam

network. So when a discussion is on with a customer, they are essentially able

to access the company's status in providing a solution to his requirement.

They are also able to engage the customer in meaningful initial level of

discussion and provide a feedback. Of course, the final commitment of when he

can deliver is always made with a back-end discussion.

The information base of the company allows them to converse

in a much more effective way, but it is interesting to note that Ittiam does not

have knowledge repositories like many other companies. It is not using any

formal knowledge management tool. "At the end of any product engagement

with the customer, we are able to log in the key lessons learnt though. For any

major wins, we are able to document what we achieved and how we did that,"

Rajam says.

That's a clever way out for a company that has so far been

most lucky: when it began operations four years back, it initially wanted to

bring in a team of 20 technologists. It received 10,000 applications, had

multiple funding offers, and lots of encouragement.

Goutam Das in

Bangalore