Energizing NDPL

North Delhi Power Limited (NDPL), a joint venture between Tata Power and the
Government of Delhi that distributes electricity in the north and northwest
areas of Delhi, is one of the few success stories of privatization in the
country. Information Technology empowerment has been a key factor enabling the
company to successfully see through this process of bringing about a paradigm
shift in power distribution as well as shedding off the legacy of being a
government set-up. Akhil Pandey, head, IT at NDPL has been there through the
entire IT evolution process in the company.

A mechanical engineer, Pandey joined NDPL seven months after it was set up in
the year 2002, after the privatization of power distribution in Delhi. A very
demanding time for him to get initiated into the company, building up virtually
the entire IT infrastructure from scratch, while also fighting the legacy of the
inherited mindset about government establishments. But, facing up to the
challenges, he has successfully turned IT into one of the key enablers for
reforms in power distribution. In his own words, he thrives on challenges:
"I constantly need new challenges and some times get bored with routine
work." Despite this he has steered clear of the job-hopping scene, so
prevalent in the IT industry. His longest stint till date lasted 26 years, with
Tata Steel.

The Tata Experience

Pandey's stint with IT began at a time when it was not at the forefront of
action and all the frantic activity, which today surrounds this segment. He
reminisces about his early days with Tisco (the erstwhile avatar of Tata Steel)
in the steel plant operations. However, one-and-a-half years down the line, he
was shifted to the computer department, or the data processing department, as it
was then called. According to Pandey, he was a little disappointed, initially,
considering that he had joined the company as an engineering graduate groomed to
be a steel operations man and foreseeing himself as a Plant Superintendent over
the next few years.

Akhil Pandey, head IT, NDPL

"At that time IT appeared to be a small thing in comparison. The only
solace was that it was a job in a glass house and more comfortable compared to
steel operations," says Pandey. From a systems analyst to heading the IT
setup of Tata Steel, he was instrumental in putting in place some of the most
mission-critical applications, which today support the entire Tata Steel
business. At Tata Steel, Pandey formulated the enterprise wide IT strategies for
the company including all its divisions like raw materials, steel plant,
operations and marketing headquarters, regional office and branch offices. The
company was quite ahead of its time in the uptake of IT as well as in
recognizing the role of IT as a great business enabler.

Other Assignments

Pandey has effectively applied his learnings from building and managing the IT
operations for a conglomerate as huge as Tata Steel to deliver in his future
assignments. His assignments ranged from being on the vendor as well as the user
side of business. This helped him gather a better understanding and a holistic
approach towards technology implementation.

The rigors of various assignments helped in preparing him adequately to take
on the unique challenges of his present assignment. Going down the memory lane
two years, when he joined NDPL, Pandey thinks of the NDPL assignment as very
interesting, the challenge seeker that he is. "IT in power distribution is
a new ball game altogether. What makes it critical is the fact that IT
enablement in this sector has the potential to impact the end consumer
directly," he explains. Considering that NDPL is covering a population of
4.5 mn and has a consumer base of 8,35,000, the impact of the IT enablement
efforts are far-reaching and, therefore, significant in designing the IT
strategy.

Going back to the early days of setting up the company's IT infrastructure,
Pandey talks about how the company inherited just 2 PCs, in terms of IT
infrastructure, with the privatization that led to the formation of NDPL. Manual
and cumbersome processes, inadequate controls, lack of reliable information,
inefficient operations coupled with substantial revenue leakages, poor customer
orientation, island of automation and non-integrated applications were some of
the pain points that he had to deal with as he began his stint with NDPL.

According to Pandey, fundamental changes were required to realize the vision
of reliable, affordable and quality power. The loss of revenue in the
distribution of power across the country is estimated to be at around Rs 40,000
crore per annum, he syas. In effect, IT was recognized as an enabler of
transformation and reforms. This, however, was not an easy task. He explains
that the initial hesitation was overcome by getting the users first hooked on to
an email messaging culture, which was relatively convenient for them, to get
them initiated into the IT culture.

Today, NDPL boasts of over 2,000 PCs, over 50 servers, mission-critical
applications, and a robust IT infrastructure that includes networking all the
zonal offices, grid stations and collection centers. Including this and some
more offices, the total number of points that have been networked is around 120.
NDPL is also in the process of setting up two data centers, primary and
secondary. The large scale of NDPL's operations spans across distributing
power to 550 sq km of Delhi with an annual load growth of 7-10%. Its
infrastructure today is robust enough to effectively handle operations at this
scale. Pandey believes his ongoing IT implementation efforts in NDPL would
improve operating structures, commercial orientation, enhance revenue, and
enhance quality of networks.

Pandey refuses to take full credit for being the change agent and admits that
the key factor behind the successful transformation is the aggressiveness and
enthusiasm with which IT is being driven by the CEO himself as well as the
company's young and dynamic team of people.

While looking forward to taking retirement from his work, to give more time
to his interests such as photography, traveling and growing organic food, Pandey
is happy for the time being cherishing the challenges that his job throws at
him.

Shipra Arora

Personal Diary

Previous Assignments

Aug '00 TCG Software: Responsible for total center creation, sourcing,
raising and getting the projects executed as center Head for Delhi, Mumbai and
Hyderabad

May '98—July '00 RS Software: As COO, facilitated in planning
the strategic direction of the company. Planned and implemented the expansion,
acquiring professionals, training them and placing them on customer projects.

He also planned and implemented the total initiative of quality beyond ISO
9000 and now RS Software has been assessed SEI-CMM Level 4 certification by KPMG.
Also initiated the transformation process to prepare RS Software in line with
People Capability Maturity Model of SEI Carnegie Melon

Sept '96—Apr '98 TCS: As vice president, TCS eastern zone,
India, responsible for total profit center management for the eastern zone, with
Kolkata as the center. The Kolkata branch was upgraded to 'A' Class status
during his tenure

Apr '94-Aug '98 Essar group: As group CIO planned and implemented,
successfully, the concept of total outsourcing of IT services for all major
business units including the corporate office at Bombay. This was the first
outsourcing deal with IBM. Conceptualised and implemented Office Automation for
paper-less office

Jan '70-Apr '94 Tata Steel: As head of IT developed the
Information Systems plan and IT architecture for the company, directed the
planning and implementation of an integrated applications architecture; and
managed installation of the LAN and the WAN.

He also conceptualised and interfaced with the architects to build
development centers to house new computers and professionals. Managed a
development team of over 500 software professionals with the entire
responsibility of acquiring, training and managing large integrated projects

Education

• Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management from XLRI,
  Jamshedpur

• Post Graduate Diploma in Mechanical, Electrical and
  Metallurgy from Technical Institute, Jamshedpur

• Bachelor of Engineering, Mechanical, from RIT, Jamshedpur

Mantras for NDPL

• Enable the core business operations with Information Systems
  for sustainable reforms

• World-class practices and controls at the operations level
  for sustainable improvements

• Information Technology to become the key enabler of the
  initiatives under the reform process

• Use IT as a strategy to improve commercial and operational
  performance in distribution

Ongoing Implementations at NDPL

• Operating Structures

• Commercial Orientation

• Overall Customer Orientation

• Transparency in Operation

• Enhancing Revenue

• Reducing Losses

• Enhance Quality of Networks

Family: Two daughters

Hobbies: Photography, music, playing golf, trekking.