Havells spends `14 crore on deploying IT

Havells is one of the leading manufacturing organizations which has witnessed a significant growth in its operations in India and abroad. IT has always been central to its working. But the company has continuously updated its infrastructure by deploying and implementing the latest tools and platforms in order to keep pace with the world and stay ahead of its competitors. Onkar Sharma from Dataquest spoke to Vivek Khanna, Vice President, IT and Finance, Havells India to understand the pulse of its operations. Excerpts

What are Havells India's day-to-day business challenges?

Havells is a leading manufacturing organization having a turnover of `5,000 crore from 16 product lines coming from equal number of manufacturing units distributed through some 28 warehouses supported by 40 branch offices in India. The company offers a wide spectrum of products ranging from industrial & domestic circuit protection devices, cables & wires, motors, fans, modular switches, home appliances, electric water heaters, power capacitors, CFL lamps, and luminaires for domestic, commercial, and industrial applications.

However, in the current scheme of things, digital technologies impact operational aspects of our business starting from supply chain planning to sourcing, manufacturing including management at shop floor, inventory/warehouse management, accounting, analytics, communication, etc, information technology support is required everywhere and automation has taken precedence. Our business processes are in sync with the changing needs including marketing function which is looking to IT in managing the ever increasing expectations of customers and destructive technologies of social media.

Where and what kind of solutions have you deployed to address key challenges?

We have implemented SAP ERP for all back office functions across the locations with supporting advanced and add-on tools viz. advance planning optimization for complete supply chain, business intelligence and business object for analytics, master data optimization for item master management. We have also developed an in-house portal-control manager for monitoring various statutory compliance for risk management team.

In addition, various latest engineering softwares are implemented such as Pro-E, Autocad, Adobe Photoshop, Autodesk, SAP DMS, etc, for product design, presentation, training, and storage of drawings for our CRI (Center for Research and Innovation) department.

To achieve transparency with our stakeholders, we have a dynamic portal with all the relevant information enabling a clear flow of desired data coupled with SMS and mobile applications tools including creating touch points in social media.

All our sales personnel are equipped with smartphones along with mobility application for Sale MIS, etc, to take faster decisions, provide best service to dealers and customers, and establish an effective service department in the industry. We also have an in-house developed CRM application with a platform of around 56,000 electricians and 23,000 retailers continuously giving information of last mile sales.

Last but not the least, we are closely working with our marketing team for their requirements of digitization including creation of a common robust platform for their website for all countries in the world duly equipped with analytics, SEO/SEM, and latest technologies.

What's the IT spend which the company makes annually?

Havells is spending close to Rs 14 crore for the implementation of IT.

Have you invested in the cloud? For what functions do you use the cloud?

Yes, we have invested in private cloud by creating a common server and data center for our ERP roll out across Asia. We are now planning to extend it for our Europe units also. Our Sales force automation tool is on public cloud provided by Oracle. As of now, we are exploring the possibilities of moving our messaging application Lotus Notes to public cloud.

What are your thoughts on Software defined networks (SDN)? How is it applicable in your business?

This is helpful especially in a cloud computing multi-tenant architecture because it allows the administrator to manage traffic loads in a flexible and more efficient manner. Essentially, this allows the administrator to use less expensive, commodity switches and have more control over network traffic flow than ever before.

What are the IT investments planned for next one year? And on what technologies?

Next year, the company is planning to invest majorly on marketing digitization and ERP upgradation at Sylvania, Europe office.

How do you see the role of a CIO evolving from what it used to be in the past?

In the last three decades, CIO's role has continuously evolved from a technology manager to an enabler and now to a visionary. In the year 2000, when most software were delivered on premise packages, CIOs used to require less knowledge of software development but more of its installation and availability. However, CIOs-with the knowledge of business process-have become more effective as they are able to proactively identify the business requirement with the solution backed by appropriate technology making them as ‘Enabler'. Later, outsourcing of data center and network management further reduced the requirement of technical knowledge and a good number of CIOs came from line functions especially finance and accounts.

Today IT is more important than ever before, thanks to digital economy where digital technologies are having impact in every aspect of business, new domains which have profoundly changed the profile of successful CIO's.CIO now needs to intimate the idea of how current technology can increase the company's sale and not just reduce costs or improve clerical productivity. In response, the role of CIO is evolving in all directions. To be really effective and successful, he needs to know every aspect of business better than even CEO in general and equal to domain leaders in specific to the said domain.