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Prasad Dhumal,
Head-IT,
DHL Express (India) Pvt. Ltd.
Role of IT head:
The role of an IT head has evolved considerably over the past couple of years. When I joined in January 2004 the core focus of my function was primarily on IT infrastructure and ensuring that IT is up and running at all times. Today, the focus has shifted towards business and how IT can be utilized to increase business and reduce operating costs.
Some key concerns:
We have some legacy applications. Being a global organization we don’t have a country specific application. For example our sales and marketing application in India is the same that is used across 200 countries where we are present.
Ninety percent of the requirement for the developed countries can be met by such specific applications but for developing countries there is a gap in terms of the usage of core applications.
To implement any change in these global systems is complex and time consuming as it has to be replicated across countries and this increase costs. The global consolidation would take three to five years.
In the mean time, we want to focus on what the business requires locally. This means that we need to develop local solutions and ensure that they don’t interfere with our global solutions. This is a challenge.
Striking a balance between the cost and delivery of the right solution at the right time is important as the business opportunity can come from anywhere.
Also we are looking at areas like VoIP and WAN integration. We want to know if we could use WAN integration with two different WAN service providers along with local service providers like BSNL and MTNL. What are the integration challenges with them and what are the policies for the same.
Technology focus in 2008:
Mobile technology is high on our agenda. We want to enable consumers to book, track and interact with us without speaking to any one. We have already started services in this area and will further refine some of the features like picking up a parcel from a location and such areas.
Focus this year is going to be delivering solutions from a business standpoint and not technology. We will work with our business units and decide what would give us an additional business from our customers depending on their needs.
It is time to look at business focused applications.
Key accomplishments at DHL:
My major contribution has been the creation of a call center in Chennai that has doubled up as a disaster recovery site to serve all-India DHL operations.
Also the migration of migrated our WAN from point to point leased line network to a MPLS network from VSNL was carried out under my supervision. The transition took three months that included 40 plus sites and around 150 links.
Top five management tips:
- Improve customer touch points
- Ensure business continuity at all times
- Put innovative technology to use
- Build cost-effective technology architecture
- Be flexible and adaptable in any given situation
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