All is well?

What is the first task that you do on stepping into your office? Run
for a quick cup of tea? No, priorities over a period of time have
changed to checking your mail box first and other activities later.
When a day at work goes well, one never realises the importance of the
many IT hands that make the functioning a success. It is only when your
work is hampered by maybe software issues, hardware issues, electricity
problems, etc, do you look for these people. To discuss these issues in
detail, CIOs got together at the href="http://dqindia.ciol.com/content/event/2009/109082402.asp">
DQ CIO Summit organized by
Dataquest in association with IBM in Pune.



IT hassles at a work-place usually remain of secondary importance,
until and unless a serious matter arises that affects the business of
the company. Affirming this view, Umang Agnihotri, Partner Technology
Manager, Microsoft India says, "A company management is least bothered
about the functionality aspect of IT but there will least level of
tolerance for a single minute of downtime. This is because it affects
their business and it will not be tolerated. So, it is best to first
understand IT problems and tackle them so that they may not become
grave issues in the future."  

 

In order to prevent IT problems, it is first important to find out what
ails the IT of a company. Madhu Nair, Knowledge and Technology
Architect, The Alchemists Arc Ltd, "Our problems started when we
decided scale up our staff. Things were not easy as it seemed. The
first and important issue was to get the management to approve our
budgetory requirements for the same. Increasing staff is easy but it is
equally important to provide them with a properly functional
workstation." Agreeing with Nair, Vivek Ashturkar, CEO, Prominent
System Solutions, elaborates that though budget is an issue, there are
other factors like the wide array of options offered by multiple
vendors, increased electricity consumption or power cuts, and location
of offices at various places among some of the other problems
faced.   

 

While discussing the issue further with Surender Khunekari, Sr. EDP -
IT, Kumar Builders, it came to the limelight that being in the realty
area adds to the specific needs of the company also. Explains
Khunekari, "During the peak days like sales or promotional events, it
becomes equally important and tedious for us to take a back-up of all
activities. In such a scenario an automatic back-up comes handy. And
the bigger concern now is the need to go green by all companies that
requires even the IT department to follow good green practices."

 

Gaurav Sawant, Business Manager, IBM, Highlighted the need to optimise
IT solutions through the use of a single solution. With suitable
solutions in sight, it can aptly be said that all is well that ends
well.