Thriving On Challenges

Maintaining a balancing act is like walking the tightrope. Amrita Gangotra,

the lady at the helm of the IT affairs at Bharti's mobility business line-Airtel-has

been a success at it, whether it be striking the balance between work and

family, or getting the right balance between the company's outsourcing vendors

and the needs of the internal customers. But, there's more to her personality

than meeting the challenges thrown at her. She's the one who's gone out of

her way to actively seek out challenges and take them head on. That's what,

perhaps, has brought her to a position where very few women have managed to, or

even aspired to, reach. Breaking the glass ceiling, she is amongst the handful

of women CIOs in the country today, at the helm of IT affairs of one of the

country's largest mobile operators with an ever-growing base of subscribers.

Amrita Gangotra CIO-Mobility, Bharti Tele-Venture

Gangotra confesses that making it big in an industry dominated by men

required her to make a lot of extra effort. And this meant that she kept

bettering herself, keeping ahead of most of her male peers-whether it was

being a gold medallist student or an award-winning CIO. At Bharti she was faced

with the daunting task to get the billing system, which was not implemented

correctly at the time, working. Considering that billing is at the heart of any

telecom operator's operations, this was a real test to prove her mettle-from

day one. Not only did she prove it and win several accolades for that, but as

the chief information officer—Mobility, Bharti Cellular Limited, Gangotra also

spearheaded some of the key IT projects within the organization.

A graduate in Mathematics and post-graduate in Operations Research from Delhi

University, Gangotra started her career with Allen Bradley as a research officer

for developing/automating heuristic and statistical models on market surveys.

Her job profile provided her with exposure to computers as well as market

surveys and statistics. It was around this time that the IT space was just

starting to open up, and foreseeing the opportunities therein she decided to

take up a career in this emerging industry. This led her to HCL (then HCL Ltd)

in 1989, after having spent just a few months at Allen Bradley.

Though Gangotra was involved with computers at Bradley as well, her first

real stint with IT came at HCL, wherein she was involved in the in-house

development and implementation of software. This was a very basic form of ERP,

an application connecting and interlinking the various departments and functions

within the organization. According to Gangotra this was a very nascent stage of

the ERP applications. "There was hardly any concept of package software at

the time and so the in-house systems were developed, linking the outputs from

one department to another," she explains.

From module leader, she moved up as the project leader and then as the

project manager in the company.

Within a span of about 16 years her career has evolved from software

development to being the CIO of a telecom major, responsible for overseeing

solution engagement, program management, development, deployment and operations

of IT and call center solutions. This has indeed been a long journey in terms of

moving up the career ladder within a short time span. In between, Gangotra has

had wide ranging experience with both IT and non-IT companies, including stints

with Nestle and HCL Comnet, before finally moving to Bharti. What made her shift

from one vertical to the other instead of remaining in the IT industry, and move

up there itself for a lucrative career? She promptly replies that instead of

being satisfied with the status quo she has always tried to seek out more

dynamic opportunities that enable her to enhance her knowledge and skills.

"It is important to know and have in-depth knowledge of your area, and the

various business processes. And in IT, once you have acquired the basic

technical skills, what changes is the domain/industry. All this wide experience

gave me the opportunity to gain a variety of domain/industry knowledge,"

says Gangotra.

One of the key learnings of her career, that she acquired during her stint

with Nestle, was involving the user community and making them take up ownership

for various IT projects. This, believes Gangotra, is helping her in good stead

in terms of efficiently carrying out the role of a CIO, and ensuring successful

uptake of IT within the organization. On why the same software application is

successful in one organization and a disaster in the other, she says: "What

you do with that application is what is more important, not just the application

itself". Today, Gangotra is taking this learning forward to implement some

of the key projects at Bharti. In fact, she has been instrumental in aligning IT

to business and transforming the IT function from being an enabler to being a

business driver.

One of Gangotra's biggest credentials at Bharti has been getting the

billing system into shape. When she stepped in, the company was undergoing major

problems in terms of its billing system. She managed to get it up and running

within a year's time frame. She has spearheaded other projects-Business

Intelligence, call center, etc. Before she joined, IT in the company primarily

involved billing and CRM application, which was not properly implemented and

integrated with billing. Gangotra was instrumental in re-implementation of the

CRM package in all the circles, and its integration with the billing system. She

is also responsible for the company's robust call center infrastructure, which

rivals any of the top BPOs in the country today in terms of size and operations.

On an average, the call center handles around 3 to 5 calls per user, per month,

and with around 12 mn customers this adds up to a huge number.

As Airtel expands its operations, and with the fast growing base of its

subscribers, there's plenty to satisfy her craving for newer challenges.

Gangotra says that with the company outsourcing more and more of its IT systems

and processes, the onus of responsibility on the CIO in fact increases instead

of going away. One of the biggest being to ensure that there is the right

balance between what the vendors are giving and what the business/users are

demanding, and all this while ensuring that the systems run smoothly.

According to Gangotra, some of her key challenges going forward will be

ensuring the availability of cutting-edge technology that will enable the

company to introduce and deploy innovative services. Also on her agenda is

ensuring that the growth challenges are met and supported through the ability to

scale up. She adds that the telecom scenario in India is highly competitive with

cut-throat competition and it is imperative for IT to ensure that the company is

able to maintain the leading edge in the market. In fact, IT has been

responsible for the introduction of some of the innovative schemes like the

"Kahin Bhi Kabhi Bhi" service as well as the flexible tariff plans.

So, what keeps her going and thriving in this highly competitive scenario,

where technology, and hence, the CIOs cannot afford to let their guard down for

even a moment: "While you are at your job you have to be willing to take up

the challenges along with the excitement of change, new learning, and growth

opportunities".

Shipra Arora

Enterprise Personality

Education:

• Bachelors in Mathematics from Delhi University
• Post-graduate in Operations Research from Delhi University with a Gold
  
  medal

Career

• 1988-1989 (for about 8 months) Allen Bradley: Joined as a research
  
  officer for developing/automating heuristic and statistical models on market
  
  surveys.
• 1989-1991 HCL Ltd: Worked as module leader, project leader and
  
  project manager. Involved in development and implementation of an enterprise
  
  application linking the various departments with the company.
• 1991-2000 Nestle India: Implemented a comprehensive ERP application
  
  across business groups in India that was a standard across Nestle Asia
  
  Pacific zone. Led international projects for the development and deployment
  
  of applications across core business processes that were deployed across
  
  multiple countries across the world and the company wide Y2K project.
• Mid 2000-02 HCL Comnet: CIO and general manager—IT Service
  
  Management. Besides being responsible for the IT infrastructure and
  
  applications that were used within the company, and for delivering remote
  
  services to the clients, provided consultation to large enterprises based in
  
  the US, UK and South East Asia for effective management of technology
  
  infrastructure (networks LAN & WAN), systems, databases, storage and IT
  
  security and industry best practices like ITIL and ISO-9002.
• 2002 onwards Bharti: CIO—Mobility, Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd.
  
  Responsible for overseeing solution engagement, program management,
  
  development, deployment and operations of IT and call center solutions.
  
  While being responsible for the traditional IT systems like billing, CRM,
  
  data warehousing, call center technology, etc, she is also one of the
  
  leading members of the team that is spearheading the innovative product
  
  solutions that will provide Bharti with a differentiator edge.

Family: Husband and a 12-year-old daughter



Interests: Travelling