C-Change: Looking for a Seachange

Change is inevitable and with rising competition in global marketplace, technological advances, changing demographics, and the speed of information transfer, CIOs today are dealing with a number of problems.

To take on the challenges, it is important to evolve at every phase and navigate with the fast-changing technology. The 10th edition of C-Change, which was organized by CIOL in Bangalore recently, was all about transformation and evolution.

At the event, some of India's leading personalities addressed issues that CIOs face on a day-to-day basis. We tried to streamline their views. Excerpts

To Survive, be a Catalyst in Change Adoption

A CIO's role is slowly but gradually diminishing in enterprises as other business heads in enterprises are taking over IT roles too. In this scenario, CIOs have a challenging task to stay ahead and remain game changers, VS Parthasarathy, group CIO, EVP, group M&A, Mahindra & Mahindra said while speaking on the topic ‘Change or Perish'.

"In the present scenario, a CIO is in charge of innovation, communication, external collaboration, internal collaboration, and enterprise agility too. However his role and responsibilities are changing as finance heads, manufacturing heads and even marketing heads are getting separate IT departments under them. With advancement in technology, the transition is already happening. Data managers and business process managers are turning into value creators," he said.

Parthasaraty had 4 tips for CIOs before wrapping up-aspire to be on the board, become business integration expert, be a catalyst in change adoption, and drive transformation.

 

No Need for an IT Background

Anuradha Roy, GM, ERP, Steel Authority of India, was the only woman who represented the CIO community at C-Change 2013. Apart from standing out in terms of gender, she comes not from an IT background, but from the business side.

"It is a constant learning experience and every day is a challenge. That's what keeps me going," she quipped.

She admitted that she had her doubts earlier but is now convinced that a person does not require an IT background to understand the business value it brings to the company. The key is to be an enthusiastic learner and offer perspective from a business angle.

"Essentially the business was MIS oriented and CIOs used to analyze data and update the management. Their roles have evolved over the years and now they are more involved in business transactions. They understand that they are shouldering a huge responsibility. Certainly, in future, the management will truly understand the value of CIO's contribution to the business and make them more involved in line function," Roy added.

Big Data should Add Value to Customers

No matter how many times we hear the words, the opportunity is yet bigger in big data. In a panel discussion on ‘What is a CIO's obsession', Sam George, head, IT, Gitanjali Gems stated that his focus this year is on big data.

"We are aware that utilizing data can increase your revenue. We want to ensure that whatever data comes in, we have to make value out of it for the customer. Moreover, the world is moving to a decentralized system in the form of BYOD. It is crucial to carefully decide how much information can be shared on these devices after considering the security point of view," he added.

 

Focus on Business, not Technology

BS Nagarajan, technology director, VMware said that a CIO's obsession has been shifting considerably.

CIOs today are increasingly looking at results and the emphasis on the latest technology is losing importance. The focus instead lies on getting business value out of any investment.

"We emphasize on benefiting from the economies of public cloud on a private cloud. The oldest benefit of virtualization is cost, but it's not the only reason why people opt for it. It is also a reliable method to increase efficiency," he said.

Balance BYOD with Security

Bask Iyer, SVP and CIO, Juniper Networks found a way to balance BYOD and security within the enterprise. Juniper gives its employees a ‘Choose Your Own Permitted Device' option, which allows employees to bring a device that Juniper permits.

Juniper tells them that there would be some standards like encryptions, password protections and remote wipe that they would enforce.

These are standard precautions because the data still belongs to the company. He added that there are so many Android phones that they cannot possibly test the application on all these platforms.

"Every BYOD strategy needs to be optimized on 3 vectors: end-user satisfaction, cost, and security. I respect the concept of personal choices but there is a work protocol to follow as it is a matter of data security," he said.