Vijay Prasad,
CIO,
Satyam Computer Services Ltd.
“We look at optimizing any technology that we use for a period of three years in order to gain our RoI”
Stopping over in Mumbai, Vijay Prasad, CIO, Satyam Computer Services spoke to Jamsheed Gandhi on why, with over 25 years of technical, analytical and management experience, he loves his job, on the people issues that he deals with on a daily basis, and his effort to use knowledge management to ensure that the intellectual property of the company gets captured.
Q: How difficult is it to be the CIO of the technology company where the average employee is quite savvy with technology?
A: It is exciting and difficult at the same time. I quite enjoy my role as a CIO of a technology company as I am part of the Leadership Council that is responsible to give direction to the company. We use a “Here and Now and Tomorrow” philosophy where we look at technology with the viewpoint of what is in use currently within the company and how we could go about optimizing it, as well as keep a watch on new trends that are emerging, that we could incorporate. It’s being in the present and having to look to the future as well. Dealing with a highly motivated and technologically sound workforce is quite challenging as sometimes our employees are ahead of the curve in understanding and deploying emerging technology.
Q: What is your approach to technology and the different models that exist?
A: We look at various technologies in waves. We have a model that essentially binds us to a specific technology or model for a period of three years. That’s the time we allocate to amortization of the investment we make in either, hardware, software or even a service. Once we have identified a trend or model, we lock it in for three years without revisiting it. This essentially keeps us from trying to “optimize” what already exists.
Q: What kind of a team supports the company’s computing infrastructure?
A: Currently, we have over 50,000 employees and are looking at adding 20,000 more this year. We think we will be able to hire the same number in the coming years as well. This is a big infrastructure challenge and I have broken down my core team into five units, who will be each responsible for Process Automation, TQM, Virtualization, Networks & Systems, and Knowledge Management. Totally we would be about 20 to 30 people managing these five functions. The IT department is a cost center and while we have a core team, from time to time, we borrow people for their specific skill sets from other projects or departments to fulfill a particular function.
Q: Share with us the infrastructure that you manage and any practices that you follow?
A: We have our Data Centers in the United States, Singapore and locally in India, we have three sites in Mumbai, Pune, and Delhi. While our Singapore site is dedicated as a Disaster Recovery center, the local sites in the country act as backups for each other. We are also not averse to renting as opposed to buying hardware equipment as well as software applications and solutions. We have a fair mix of both. We also have our NOC in Hyderabad, which monitors our global infrastructure. We change our servers every two years and monitor their utilization on a daily basis.
We were one of the early users to have embraced virtualization. It’s simple, why change hardware when you can move the processes? We have also incorporated Green IT practices and Wi-Fi.
Q: What is the one most important task that you have to manage?
A: People. Our employees are our most important resource and managing them is top most on my list. As with all departments we too have a budget, and I have to justify it’s spending. We have a cut every year in the budget allocated to us and it is up to me to justify to the company the need to spend money on new technology.
Q: What needs to be on every CIO’s radar as far as technology is concerned?
A: I think Virtualization, Wireless technology and Collaborative Computing are the three areas that need to be actively tracked and implemented. I look at three P’s, namely People, Process and Performance to help the company remain agile in delivering growth.
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