Enterprise Connect Awards: The CIO Empowered

The night was tense and the air crackled with excitement as the 250-strongÂ

audience awaited the announcement of the winners. The EnterpriseConnect

Awards, a CyberMedia India Online Limited (CIOL) and Dataquest initiative to

recognize excellence among CIOs was started in the year 1994. A huge success

even then, the participation increased to over 250 this year. However, only

eleven companies and their CIOs had the privilege to take home the trophy.

The awards were divided into two categories based on the organization's

turnover: over Rs 1,000 crore and under Rs 1,000 crore.

Automobile major Tata Motors' general manager, IT, Probir Mitra, bagged the

Champion CIO award, while Ashishkumar Chauhan, president & CIO, Reliance

Industries and Subrato Das, CIO, CESC won the Gold and Silver awards,

respectively in the above Rs 1,000 crore category.

In the under Rs 1,000 crore category the Champion CIO award went to Subhash S

Patil, CIO, Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation, while Mankikar Ravikiran, DGM-IT,

Shamarao Vithal Co-operative and KT Rajan, director, Operations IS &

Projects, Allergan India, bagged the Gold and Silver awards respectively.

The EnterpriseConnect Awards also emphasize some of the key qualities that

CIOs must possess, judging them on the categories of:Â

Pioneer, Innovator, Advocate, Extended Manager, and Process.

M Thyagaraj, CIO of ONGC bagged the Pioneer award, Venkata S Srinivas of WeP

Peripherals got the Innovator award, Syed Shahabuddin, CGM (IT), State Bank of

India won the Advocate trophy, JB Bhaskar, head, IT, Bajaj Allianz Life

Insurance won the Extended Manager award and the Process CIO award went to

Arindam Sinha, GM (IT) of Rajasthan Spinning & Weaving Mills.

The winners were selected by a six-member jury comprising Anand Sudarshan,

group president, Manipal Universal Learning as the Jury Chairman; Sudin Apte of

Forrester Research; Pravir Vohra, GM, IT, ICICI Bank (Champion CIO awardee of

EnterpriseConnect Awards '05 in the over Rs 1000 Cr category); Ravi Kumar,

CIO, Gati (Champion CIO awardee of EnterpriseConnect Awards '05 in the below

Rs 1000 Cr category); Shyam Malhotra, editor-in-chief, CyberMedia Publications;

and  Abraham Mathew, president,

CIOL.

The Jury
Abraham Mathew, president, CIOL	Â	Shyam Malhotra editor-in-chief CyberMedia
Anand Sudarshan, group president, Manipal Universal Learning	      Â	Pravir K Vohra CIO, ICICI Bank
GS Ravi Kumar CIO, Gati	Â	Sudin Apte, Forrester Research

 

Winners at Enterprise Connect Awards 2006
Category	CIO	Companies
Large Enterprise Category (>Rs 1000 crore)
Champion CIO	Probir Mitra	Tata Motors Limited
Gold CIO	Ashishkumar Chauhan	Reliance Industries
Silver CIO	Subrato Das	CESC Limited
Mid-sized Enterprise Category (
Champion CIO	Subhash S Patil	Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation
Gold CIO	Mankikar Ravikiran	Shamrao Vithal Co-operative Bank
Silver CIO	K T Rajan	Allergan India
Individual Category Awards
Pioneer	M Thyagaraj	ONGC
Innovator	Venkata Ramanan P	Wipro e Peripherals Limited
Advocate	Syed Shahabuddin	State Bank of India
Extended Manager	J B Bhaskar	Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance
Process	Arindam Sinha	Rajasthan Spinning & Weaving Mills

Six nominees were finalized under each category based on their responses to a

comprehensive questionnaire detailing their recent IT projects and the business

benefits derived from each of them. The winners were picked based on the

following parameters: leadership, vision & mission (including risk taking

ability), strategic deployment of IT, business benefits and value, pioneering

use of technology, innovative use of technology, process improvements, internal

and external customer orientation (understanding business needs) and people

orientation.

The awards were announced at a gala function at Mumbai in the presence of an

impressive gathering of CIOs of the country's leading enterprises.

The welcome note was presented by R Anil Kumar, vice president, CIOL , who

gave details of the elaborate selection process:Â

“We spent over 500 man hours short listing and selecting the winners.

The chief criteria included the pioneering, and leadership qualities of the

CIO”.

Awards Methodology

The participants were divided into two categories-Large enterprises with a turnover of over Rs 1,000 crore, and Mid-sized enterprises with a turnover of under Rs 1,000 crore. The jury selected three companies from the shortlisted contestants in both the categories-one as Champion CIO and two runners-up for Gold and Silver Awards. In the Individual Awards category, those scoring highest in each of the individual categories in the second part of the questionnaire, were selected to participate in the Individual Awards category comprising Pioneer CIO, Innovator CIO, Advocate CIO, Extended Manager CIO and Process CIO. As per the norm, two awards are not conferred on a single company. The Jury was presented with the final shortlist of candidates in the two main categories and the individual categories, without revealing the internal scores assigned by the research team. The Jury assigned scores individually based on fixed parameters, which were then tallied, to arrive at the winners.

Who's Who

A Pioneer: Adopts cutting edge/emerging technologies ahead of time

An Innovator:  Innovates on a existing technology/application for use originally not intended for

An Advocate: Contributes towards acceptance of IT within the organization-top management and end users

An Extended Manager: Creates value for the business by connecting strategic external stakeholders

A Processer CIO: Positively impacts business processes through successful use of IT

Ibrahim Ahmad, group editor, Dataquest and VOICE&DATA, shared a few

statistics on the important role played by CIOs in setting the course for future

growth. For instance, according to Dataquest figures for the year 2005-06,

Indian enterprises purchased hardware ranging from PCs to notebooks to

mainframes, worth Rs 17,600 crore. They also purchased peripherals worth Rs

5,200 crore in addition to purchasing packaged software worth Rs 6,000 crore.

Altogether, the large, medium and emerging enterprises in India, were

responsible for an IT spend of around Rs 52,000 crore on products, equipment and

software.

Anirudh P, chief operating officer, 3i Infotech, was of the view that today

organizations are trying to foster innovation as a measurable business value:

“The CIO has become more attuned to business needs. The emphasis has shifted

from doing more to doing much better”.

Chairman of the Jury and the Chief Guest for the evening, Anand Sudarshan,

group president, Manipal Universal Learning, touched upon the need for closer

connection between technology and business and the emergence of

'contextualized IT'. “Change is not as rapid and unpredictable as many

pronounce. There is an overall standardization in the way things are done. The

CIO of today needs to do things not only differently but also more efficiently

and in an innovative manner,” he said.

     Probir Mitra



GM, IT, Tata Motors CHAMPION CIO AWARD



Large Enterprise Category "This award is for team

achievement of the entire IT team of Tata Motors and Tata Technologies to

whom our IT services are outsourced. We feel proud to have our efforts

recognized by the IT industry. This recognition will make us aware of the

higher expectations from us and motivate us to strive for new

heights." Being one of India's

largest and oldest business houses has not stopped this automotive giant

to automate most of its critical business processes. Tata Motors has

pioneered the implementation of digital manufacturing in India by using

Delmia to integrate CAD and ERP systems. The company has also reaped the

benefits of Knowledge Based Engineering (KBE). Tata Motors has integrated

some of the critical business processes with TATA Daewoo and has also

implemented a B2B/B2C Internet based system. Having operations worldwide

and the backing of top management, the IT department has brought business

value to help achieve the global aspirations of the company.

Ashish kumar Chauhan



President & CIO, Reliance Industries

GOLD AWARD



Large Enterprise Category "I am happy to receive

this award on behalf of the 75,000 employees of the Reliance Group. It is

an honor and a privilege to be recognized by your peers" Reliance

Industries Limited (RIL) has automated all key processes of its business

resulting in optimal resource utilization. The company introduced mobile

wireless point of sale (PoS) in petrol and retail outlets to effectively

reduce billing time. The B2B e-commerce portal addresses key concerns of

customers while the introduction of the GIS-based truck tracking system

has reduced delays and pilferages. Recently, the Reliance Group-wide

Knowledge Management Portal was launched to provide state-of-the-art

internal communications and knowledge management framework. Subrato Das



CIO, CESC SILVER AWARD



Large Enterprise Category "Receiving the

prestigious 'CIOL-Dataquest' award, recognized by all the top

corporate participants of India Inc, brings glory to our

organization/group. We get further motivated to continue extending more

customer-intimate offerings to our valued customers with a single

touch-point for a pleasant experience" ESC Limited

(Calcutta Electric Supply), an RPG Group company, is a hundred-year-old

company engaged in generating and distributing electricity in and around

Kolkata. The company has introduced IT-enabled services such as

supervisory control and data acquisition, GIS and computerized billing to

improve its profitability. CESC has undertaken data mining for knowledge

discovery to identify target segments and has reduced losses by 16%, a

benchmark for the Indian utility services. IT has enabled the organization

to reduce Transmission & Distribution losses, the cost on personnel,

and to enhance operational efficiency.

Subhash S Patil



CIO, Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation CHAMPION AWARD



Mid-sized Enterprise Category "This award shall serve

as a great motivation to the IT team at KDMC in its continuous effort to

enhance the corporation functioning by effective use of ICT" This local,

self-government body has implemented some key e-Governance initiatives

such as automating registrations and certificates of births/deaths, water

connections, business licenses and building permission-streamlining an

otherwise cumbersome process. By doing so, it has brought about

transparency, accountability and reduced corruption at various levels. The

citizen-centric projects have resulted in effective file management and

transparent tender processing of the city's development projects, in

turn increasing its tax revenue. The corporation has kept a step ahead of

many privately-owned companies by implementing a disaster recovery server.

Ravikiran Mankikar



CIO, Shamrao Vithal Co-operative Bank GOLD AWARD



Mid-sized Enterprise Category "It is gratifying that

our IT implementation was considered and acknowledged to be on par with

the best in the industry. It also supports our philosophy that one need

not have big budgets and big implementations to be recognized."

VC Bank has added on

various modules such as online data mining, cache token and other

process-oriented enhancements to its core banking System. Apart from

streamlining processes such as clearing operations, financial accounting

and tax planning, the enhancements have helped the bank in making faster

business decisions and rolling out new products quickly. Its innovative

Cache Token module, which facilitated retail cash payments across ATMs has

been effectively used to encourage senior citizens to use ATMs. It has

also implemented a data replication solution for business continuity.

The enhancements not only improved

customer service and experience, but also resulted in the bank achieving a

business growth of Rs 830 crore, the highest in the Bank's 100-year

history.

KT Rajan



CIO, Allergan India SILVER AWARD



Mid-sized Enterprise Category "From time to time we

receive accolades from various stake-holders, but I consider it a

tremendous honor to be recognized by fellow professionals and the

Industry"

This Rs 200-crore

specialty pharmaceutical company spends Rs 2 crore on IT implementation. A

market leader in the Indian Ophthalmology business, the company has a

real-time supply chain management system in place with the help of a

PDA/Internet-based sales force automation solution. Computerization of

some of the critical areas has helped the company adhere to compliance and

regulatory policies. By quick adaptation of new technology, the company

looks to improving the efficiency of its employees and reducing their

unproductive time.

 

M Thyagaraj, CIO, ONGC

Pioneer AWARD Mr Srinivas of SAP presents

the Pioneer Award trophy to Mr M Thyagaraj, CIO, Oil and Natural Gas

Corporation (ONGC) With an IT spend

of Rs 200 crore, the Rs 48,000-crore Oil and Natural Gas Corporation has

deployed a 3-D model visualization to help reduce the cost of drilling.

The virtual reality center helps the teams to collaborate from different

locations. Some of the IT solution implemented by the corporation helps to

bring synergy among the teams. ONGC has been pioneering a lot of IT

initiatives and is constantly engaged in standardization of processes

across the company.       Â

JB Bhaskar, Bajaj Allianz

Life Insurance Company

Extended Manager Award Mr Shyam Malhotra, Director

& Chief Editor, CyberMedia hands over the Extended Award trophy to Mr

Sam Ghosh, CEO, and Mr JB Bhaskar, CIO, Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance In order to meet

the challenge of providing standardized training to over 120,000 agents

spread across the country, the Rs 3,250 crore Life & General Insurance

company deployed a learning management portal called Project Bimal Jyoti.

The project has enabled all its agents to get certified through the

Internet at their own convenience. The IT implementation has helped the

company introduce new products and achieve operational excellence.

Venkata Ramanan P



Deputy CIO, WeP Peripherals

Innovator Award Mr P Anirudh of 3i Infotech

hands over the Innovator Award trophy in the individual category awards to

Mr Thomas Suresh Anand, Chief Strategy Officer, WeP Peripherals WeP Peripherals is

one of the largest employee owned company in the country, providing IT

peripherals products, solutions and printing services. The company

integrated with a large private bank to reduce the payments cycle time for

its tier-2 partners. BizTalk is one of the major initiatives taken up by

the company covering dealer operations, authorized service partners,

vendors, and employees on multiple portals, and was the backbone for data

integration.

Syed Shahabuddin



CGM (IT), State Bank of India

Advocate AWARD Mr P Anirudh of 3i Infotech

hands over the Advocate Award trophy in the individual category awards to

Mr Ravi Kaul, General Manager, State Bank of India SBI has used

technology to catch up with its nimble multinational counterparts and

brought about process efficiency, enhanced customer service and rolled out

new products. With a Core Banking Solution in place, it has networked

8,000 branches, and rolled out 5,571 ATMs. Considering its vast employee

base, the transition to automation required a lot of evangelizing as the

staff had to adjust to new work processes, adopt new skills and bear with

teething troubles of transitioning from a branch database to a centralized

one. One of the largest deployments of CBS in the country, it has resulted

in customer accounts increasing to over 85 mn, with peak transaction load

of over one mn a day in SBI alone.       Â

Arindam

Sinha, GM (IT),

Rajasthan Spinning & Weaving Mills

Process AWARD













It is among the

few companies that have implemented an extensive ERP in the textile
industry segment. The company has integrated its manufacturing, business

planning and management information system by using SOA. A satellite-

based communication system reaching remote areas has reduced cost on voice

communication by 30%. It has also implemented an e-procurement solution

and achieved cost reduction of 20%. RSWM has replicated its ERP in two

acquired plants in a process-oriented manner, having undergone a change

management exercise to overcome stiff resistance from the users. This has

enhanced its productivity from 89% to 96%.

The evening also served as an occasion for CyberMedia India Online Limited

(CIOL), to celebrate its tenth anniversary. CyberMedia's Shyam Malhotra traced

the history of CIOL and elaborated on how the technology portal continued to

break new grounds. “CIOL is one of the very few Internet ventures to have

survived the boom and the bust that followed. We spanned the whole spectrum from

irrational exuberance to irrational pessimism,” he said.

CIOL Bureau



maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in