What makes her slightly different from most of her peers is the technical
expertise Ritu Madbhavi brought to the enterprise. She started her career in the
software industry at TCS, worked for four years, took a break for three years to
move with her husband, a software professional, to Switzerland and then came
back to India in 1996 to join Datamatics in Pune. The move to FCB Ulka happened
a year later. Says Madbhavi, “I wanted to continue in a technical role, but
did not want to stay in software as the dynamics of the industry did not suit me
at that point in time.” She had the responsibility of her small son and could
not stay away from home on projects as software professionals are often required
to do.
FCB Ulka was a blessing in disguise and worked out to be the perfect
transition for Madbhavi. Says the lady who moved into the advertising agency as
a systems manager nine years back, “Advertising is less protocol and hierarchy
driven unlike most traditional enterprises and there is no resistance to
technology.” It was after she joined that software development started
in-house at the agency.
|
|
Ritu |
GM, IT, FCB Ulka |
In the last nine years, Madbhavi has not just spearheaded key technology
implementations at Ulka but has pioneered deployments like 'digital
archival' in the industry. Before digital archival happened, there was major
chaos at the creative end. Creative used to work with huge file sizes and it was
not possible to use these files as part of the standard backup system. Even the
hard disc was a lot more expensive nine years back. So the IT team developed
software to archive every single layout and artwork. Today, every artwork is
available with the user segment on a 24x7 basis.
In 1999, the mail solution was changed from MS Exchange to Linux-based
Sendmail. In 2004, administration difficulties such as the tedious process of
adding and deleting new users, lack of simple interface for basic functions
necessitated a change. Says Madbhavi, “The move to transfer our mail server on
Linux was taken after a lot of evaluation and cost-benefit analysis, and we paid
peanuts.”
Today IT has been transformed from a cost center to a profit center at Ulka.
Madbhavi personally heads Interface Interactive, an arm of Interactive
Communications that integrates traditional direct marketing and the Internet to
provide clients with a seamless, single minded solution across the two media.
The team today comprises of database specialists, web technology people, account
planners, and dedicated creative and servicing people.
Madbhavi has seen herself evolve from a technologist to a strategic business
leader in the enterprise. “The key question I'm trying to answer all the
time today is how I can leverage technology to improve business efficiency and
improve the core business,” says Madbhavi who has struck this perfect balance
of keeping some of the key development activities in-house and outsourcing
operations like facilities management. FCB Ulka is part of her system today. And
the only time she is not handling technology is when she's cooking
non-traditional food-which she loves to do.