"Don’t blindly follow the path set by others"

Nataraj N, VP & CIO, Aztecsoft 
 

Career in IT: Ten years ago, I was on the other side of the table working with large System Integrators (SIs) and solution providers. The hands-on IT implementation experience gained during that period left me with deep insights into various implementation challenges. When I moved to the enterprise IT side, I used this business perspective to work closely with solutions providers and system integrators to address business technology challenges of my organization. I could correlate the best from both sides and synergize them so that my organization got the best of both worlds.

My perspective of running IT would be different from those who started out in enterprise IT because they may not be able to grasp quickly the business side of IT implementation.

Measuring IT effectiveness: At Aztecsoft, we follow ‘Balanced Score Card’ where measures most critical to the organization’s success are identified and monitored. Customer satisfaction, both internal and external, is a parameter we monitor closely on a quarterly basis. I can confidently state that on a scale of five, customer satisfaction is usually between at 4.2 to 4.5.

Another parameter is operational efficiency. Earlier  you would have called it quality; however, today it is optimization obtained byimplementing quality. Aztecsoft is amongst the top 20 IT companies to have been conferred the ISO 27001 certification for information security. We didn’t do it for the sake of certification. We follow the OCTAVE methodology - by assessing risk and critical information assets, we chart out what it takes us to run our business rather than following standard templates and acquire certification. Hence, we traversed the lengthy route of meetings with people at all levels, right from senior management to staff, to understand what our people think about the business and critical information assets. The first audit of the certification was 20 days which is the norm set by the certification body. We didn’t have single case of non-conformation case during that period.
Operational efficiency and customer satisfaction is good, but you also need to make sure that what you do suits the top line and the bottom line. Technology is good to implement, but today CIOs are also expected to think in terms of how technology will help business to grow. They are expected to possess business acumen. When we were building our Knowledge Management portal, we evaluated several KM platforms available to find out what suits us and our industry the best but doesn’t require very heavy spend. In the case of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), we are implementing Microsoft Dynamics because we had expertise in Microsoft technologies and products. Moreover, Dynamics integrated well with our existing applications. The lesson that emerges is best practices or good ideas are tailor made and you shouldn’t blindly go with the flow where IT implementation and optimization is concerned.     
We have also put our New Initiatives on the Balanced Score Card to ensure that we meet the milestones or programs on the delivery side that we commit to our external/internal customers. We monitor that on quarter to quarter basis so that we don’t skip on deliverables.

How CIOs can be part of the strategic management team?: In large enterprises, CIOs are being taken into confidence while discussing future business; they are being involved in business decisions. However, the majority continue to be tied down by IT implementation issues. If you discount the 20-30 per cent who think about aligning business to the technology, the remaining are stuck thinking about technology and implementing complex projects sidestepping business reality. For example, if the business reality in software exports industry is rupee appreciation, then CIOs should think innovatively and find ways to reduce implementation costs; instead of looking for complex technologies, they could look at simple technologies that can drive efficiency and contribute to bottom line. 
CIOs shouldn’t be too caught up with the nitty-gritty of technology implementation which can always be outsourced. Of course, they should have a broader knowledge of technology. But what is more important is that they should have business skills. CIOs should be aware of parameters like bottom line, top line, gross profit margins.  While talking of business tasks, they cannot sound different from the CEO or the CFO. CIOs should remember that when they are presenting their case or budgets before a CEO or CFO, they are not convincing an individual; rather, they are convincing the business.
The analytical skills also help while negotiating with vendors and calculating the value of technology implementation on the profit side or assessing its overall value to the organization.

People retention and training: Retaining people is always a challenge. However, for the past 2-4 years, we haven’t faced major attrition in Aztecsoft’s IT organization. What we have done is to outsource all non-core IT activities like desk top, server management, cable maintenance, etc.  However, anything that pertains to network design or any consultancy that has to be provided internally and externally while defining RFPs, etc is done directly by us. But if you were ask me the ratio of direct employee to outsourced employee, then the latter is more. Outsourcing is useful because we don’t need to do career progression for people performing routine, non-core activities. I don’t want a desk top engineer with over three years of experience in that area to continue in the same line because his professional growth will get stalled. When you outsource activities like desk top maintenance, the moment you cross the threshold, you can ask your vendor to substitute that person with less experienced one.  Such an approach also helps to keep costs under control.

Big thing for my industry: How to run IT in an optimized way is a top priority for CIOs in my industry.  The way we did IT five years ago no longer holds good today. We need to think more innovatively and align with the business reality. That could be today's biggest challenge - ensure that technology implementation and optimization shake hands with the current reality.  Also, CIOs have to run IT more efficiently than ever. For example, in the software industry, 50 to 70 per cent utilization was acceptable some years ago. Today, nothing less than 80 per cent will do. Organizations are talking about how the IT can be utilized in a better manner so that business profitability grows and cost of operations comes down.
A CIO can definitely make a difference because he understands technology and with a little effort, he can also understand business scenario. In my industry, the CIO is the biggest money spender in the organization. If he tweaks and saves on spending, it straight away goes to the bottom line.

Management Mantras for Budding CIOs: I will re-iterate what I said earlier that – don’t blindly follow the path set by others as there is no one silver bullet that can cure your problems.  CIOs should think innovatively and understand what their business reality is, what they should implement and optimize.  They need to emphasize more on optimization by spending more or by curtailing costs.

Top Initiative for 2008: In the last six months I have started Infrastructure Management Services (IMS) profit center within IT.  The demand came from existing customers. They were saying - you are doing a good job managing your own IT; so why don’t you help us managing ours. That also reflects favorably on the processes and methodology we follow within our IT organization. If that satisfies our customer, then why not get into the revenue generating mode? We will use the strong process and technology focus we have developed over these years to create a revenue stream for the organization. IMS will also help me set other parameters like career progression for my IT Team.  Of course, IT optimization will also be on top of my agenda.

Education: BE (Electronics), MBA-Finance (ongoing)

Recent Reading: Edward De Bono's books on Lateral Thinking. CIOs should go through the book to think
differently and solve their old problems

 
If I weren't a CIO I would be: In Marketing, perhaps....

 
Size of IT Team: Approximately 100 including IMS, MIS, Security and IT

                    ......................By Anoop K Menon