www.ewit.co.in

2 2009

Message from President

We have come a long way since the inception of eWIT in 2006 under the stewardship of our cherished founder member Ms Rajalakshmi who conceptualized and established this organization for empowering women in the IT/ITES industries.

On behalf of eWIT, I would like to take this opportunity to convey my sincere gratitude to member companies, individual members, sponsors and well wishers for their immense contribution over the past three years to eWIT’s growth and success so far.

eWIT’s core committee consists of women who have made a mark for themselves in the industry and are driven by the desire to be a part of a forum that is committed to developing more of them.

To recap eWIT’s objectives

Expand the women workforce at all management levels in the IT industry ✩

Enable women to tread the career path by equipping them with necessary skills ✩

Facilitate women’s quest for a better ‘work-life’ balance ✩

The journey so far

Promoting IT as a preferred career choice for women starting from the college level. ✩

Providing hands-on training to enhance soft/leadership skills to make women more effective and enable ✩them to take on higher responsibilities.

Completion of a survey amongst women employees regarding their expectations of women friendly ✩ policies/facilities from corporates.

Institution of the eWIT Excellence award. This forum provides immeasurable value to our members ✩as it is a great source for sharing of knowledge through writing of papers and their presentation. This has gained immense recognition.

2008 marked a momentous time for eWIT with the launching of eWIT consulting service in the ✩month of December. 500 women have registered so far. Thanks to the quality of resources available, eWIT’s consulting service is becoming much sought after amongst its member companies.

I am confi dent that the successes achieved so far have laid a solid foundation for monumental achievements in the forthcoming years.

The changing socio economic landscape dictates that we continually redefi ne our offerings so that we optimally meet the needs of women in the IT/ITES.

To that end we are in the process of conducting a research study on share of women, attrition levels and wom-en-friendly policies and infrastructure provided by corporates. We plan to share the fi ndings with organizations and policy makers to increase effectiveness of women.

I am looking forward to taking the forum ahead this coming year. However, the extent to which we succeed is largely dependent on your active participation as members.

On behalf of eWIT committee, I wish everyone all the very best!

Sudha GopalPresident eWIT

www.ewit.co.in

2009 3

MESSAGE

It is a pleasure to learn that Empowering Women in IT (eWIT) is celebrating its 3rd anniversary function on 3rd April’ 09 in Chennai. During the last 3 years, eWIT has been focusing on few important areas of concern to help women survive and succeed in their career in IT. The initiatives of eWIT, like The Research Center and Consulting Services, are commendable.

On behalf of STPI Chennai, I wish eWIT and the members, best wishes and for the success of the event.

C.V.D. RamprasadDirector, STPI Chennai

I am very happy to note that Empowering Women in IT (eWIT) is celebrating its 3rd anniversary function on 3rd April’ 09 in Chennai. I am really pleased that a seed that I sowed close to four years back in the form of an idea has grown so well and is today recognized in IT/ITES circles as the forum of choice for women. From STPI side, we provided the necessary support but I must appreciate the commitment and efforts put in by the eWIT members in pursuing the twin objectives of the forum-enhancing the share and sustainability of women.

Towards achieving these objectives, the activities taken up by eWIT are noteworthy, more particularly the research and consulting activities that they have initiated in the last one year.

After moving over to STPI, Bangalore and interacting with a larger number of companies and employees in the IT/ITES space, I fi nd that the issues faced by women are similar everywhere. I am aware that most companies today are gender-neutral at the time of recruitment. This is good but companies must also ensure that a culture to encourage and empower women to help sustain their careers is developed within organizations. Compa-nies cannot afford to lose trained and valuable resources just because this group also shoulders the primary responsibility of managing home and family. This is particularly important in the current context when IT/ITES companies are facing challenging economic times.

On behalf of STPI Bangalore, I wish eWIT, its members and well-wishers, best wishes for the success of the event.

R. RajalakshmiDirector, STPI Bangalore

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www.ewit.co.in

4 2009

“Understanding the Expectations of Women IT/ITES Professionals from their organizations”

– A Research Initiative of eWIT

Objective of the Study:

Empowering Women in IT (eWIT) as one of its key initiatives embarked on a study to understand and evaluate the Women-friendly policies/facilities that are currently in place in various organizations in the IT/ITES space and whether these meet the expectations of the women work force. The key fi ndings of the study, in our opinion, will aid organizations in formulating strategies and policies that would cater to the needs of women workforce, thereby increasing the share and sustainability of women in these industries.

Methodology:

The research team of eWIT adopted a structured approach for this study, by design-ing a survey questionnaire with basic objectives of collecting information on various women-friendly policies/facilities that currently exist in organizations, and whether these policies match the needs of individuals.

The questionnaires were circulated to women employees of IT/ITES companies during the various events con-ducted by eWIT and the information thus gathered from 300 responses were collated and analyzed, the fi nd-ings of which are summarized in the following sections. The 300 responses came from 61 IT/ITES companies based in Tamil Nadu. The study was conducted over the last one year.

Profi ling of Participants:

Of the total respondents, almost 75% of the respondents (see Fig 1) belonged to IT companies and 20% belonged to the ITES segment.

Also, 47% of the respondents were from companies that have employee size in the range of 100 to 500, while 19% of them were from small companies that had less than 100 employees and only 11% from large organiza-tions that employ more than 5000 employees (see Fig 2 for the segmentation based on Size of Companies).

Fig 1: Distribution based on Type of companies Fig 2: Distribution based on Size of companies

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2009 5

Key Findings:

(i) Women-Friendly practices/policies:

What companies offer?

Among the various women specifi c policies such as Maternity Leave, Flexi-Time, Reduced-Time, ✩Reduced Pay, Work from Home, Sabbatical Leave, Sexual Harassment, and Gender Sensitization, Maternity Policy has been more or less formally implemented in almost all of the organizations. It was found that some policies exist in an informal manner, that is, while they may have management approval, they are not formally documented and communicated to employees. It is also possible that such women-friendly measures are offered on a case-to-case basis.

Next to Maternity, Flexi-time as a policy has been ✩ formally implemented in at least 45% of the organiza-tions. However almost in equal percentage terms (43%), the policy is practiced informally; it is to be noted that the percentage of informal implementation is quite high (59%) as far as ITES companies are concerned.

The least implemented policy across the various organizations is the concept of ‘Reduced-Time, ✩ Reduced Pay’. While 42% of ITES seems to have this policy implemented either formally or informally, this is not so prevalent in the IT segment.

Formal ‘Gender Sensitization’ as a policy is almost non-existent in the ITES segment, whereas at least ✩35% of the IT companies seem to have a formal practice/policy in place.

What women want?

Based on Order of Priority, ✩ Work from Home and Flexi-time were the fi rst two choices in terms of policies, that women wanted implemented in their work place. (the provision of Maternity Leave as a policy was taken for granted, while indicating this order of priority)

Type of policyIT%

ITES%

TOTAL%

Work from Home 40% 64% 45%

Flexi timing 37% 29% 35%

Day care/Creche facilities 23% 7% 20%

Fig 3: Data on Women-Friendly Policies in IT/ITES companies as perceived by women employees

www.ewit.co.in

6 2009

(ii) Facilities currently available:

What companies offer?

From the above, we can see that approximately 90% of the companies do have physical security but only ✩25% of the organizations have implemented other security measures such as surveillance cameras etc.

A very high percentage of the organizations do have In-house training programs specifi cally catering to ✩needs of women employees; also Pick-up & Drop services seem to be a common facility that most of the IT companies provide.

What women want?

Facilities that women would like in their Order of Priority are (i) Retiring Rooms for Women (ii) ✩Crèche facilities (iii) Access to In-house Lady Doctor (iv) Pick-up & Drop facilities. However at present only a meager 4% of the Organizations offer Crèche facilities.

On probing, it was found that women want a place where they can take a short break to relax while ✩at work, either because of the stressful nature of the job or at times when they face regular/occasional medical problems. For similar reasons, access to a Lady Doctor was sought for.

Type of facilitiesIT%

ITES%

TOTAL%

Retiring room 38% 43% 39%

Lady Doctor 20% 24% 21%

Pick-up & Drop facility 15% 17% 15%

Crèche Facilities 27% 17% 24%

Fig 4: Facilities currently available in IT & ITES companies as indicated by women employees

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2009 7

Conclusion:

The study highlights the fact that there are gaps in what women professionals would like their organizations to provide and what is currently being offered by the companies. The other interesting aspect is the fact that although many organizations do have certain women-friendly practices, they do not have these policies and practices structured within their corporate HR policies. This in-turn opens up a new thrust area for eWIT – namely act as a third-party agent that can help companies formalize and implement such women-friendly policies within their organizations.

Note: In case you have any comments or require more information on the study please contact eWIT.

Ms. Vijayalakshmi Rao Director & COO Scope eKnowledge (P) Ltd.

Ms. Sumitra Seshan COO, Fifth Generation Technologies India(P) Ltd.

www.ewit.co.in

8 2009

Consulting Services by eWIT

Women all over the world are doing the balancing act of work and home. The women of India serving the IT/ITES industry are no exception. The number of women in the IT/ITES industry who have decided to call it quits at various levels of their career is continuously increasing. This is primar-ily because women are unable to spend the rigorous hours at the offi ce which is expected of them in the industry today. Though, at entry levels, the percentage of women is growing, at fi rst level management and beyond, the percentage has not risen.

One of eWIT’s objectives is to help women sustain themselves in the IT/ITES industry by offering them skills and opportunities that they require to fl ourish. eWIT’s Consulting Services is one of the ways by which we planned to achieve this objective. During eWIT’s second anniversary function last year, we introduced Consult-ing Services as one of eWIT’s key programs for 2008-2009. We are glad to inform you that eWIT has com-pleted and formalized this service.

eWIT’s consulting services primarily offers the services of women who would like to work under fl exi-career option to the companies that would like to optimize the resources by utilizing these women. By organizing and bringing together the women IT professionals who have decided to leave the full-time based work, eWIT Consulting Services offers an ideal platform to effectively bridge the two entities.

Companies are always looking for ways to cut down on expenses and operational overhead especially during challenging times. Often, a part time or work from home method offers tremendous savings. Companies save on infrastructure expenses, and other HR related benefi t expenses and other overhead expenses by utilizing resources on ‘work from home’ basis.

Why Flexi-career?

Women seek fl exi-career for various reasons:

Pursuing higher studies and would like to cut down on the working hours ✩

Taking a break from full time employment to attend to personal needs, be it marriage, children, or care ✩for the elderly

Like to shift your career to that of a consultant because of your vast and varied experience ✩

Would like to set aside time to pursue other interests (music, dance, etc.) while continue to serve the ✩industry

Simply do not want the stress associated with full-time career and seek a better work-life balance ✩through consulting option

Love to work but don’t want to get involved in corporate politics ✩

Expecting to move out of town or other future commitments that may hinder full time work ✩

www.ewit.co.in

2009 9

Defi nition of Flexi-career

A fl exi-career is an option where:

One can work part time, meaning work less than 8 hours a day on a regular basis. This could be ✩4 hours a day, 2 hours a day, or 3 days a week, etc. basically committing to a certain number of hours per week

One can work from home, again, full time or part time, visiting the offi ce only on a periodic basis. ✩This option usually requires the candidates to have a computer at home with broadband internet connection

Short term assignments which requires commitment for completing specifi c assignments ✩

Location

Currently, eWIT is offering the services to companies in Chennai bridging the women in Chennai. We hope to extend the service beyond Chennai real soon.

Type of Jobs

Not all jobs may be suitable to those seeking fl exi career options. However, there are a large number of jobs that can be effectively shared or served as fl exi career option. We are confi dent that companies, as they explore the fl exi career option seriously, would come up with creative ways to include more job profi les as suitable for fl exi career option.

Currently, we are focusing on:

Programmers ✩

Copy writers, editors, etc. ✩

Technical Trainers, Technical writers ✩

Multimedia specialists ✩

HR professionals, recruiters, etc ✩

Quality process professionals, ISO9001, CMMI process defi nition experts, documentation experts ✩

Internal Auditors for Software QA ✩

Software testers ✩

Computer aided customer care professionals, tele-callers, lead generators, etc. ✩

Project Managers, Senior Consultants, Solution Architects ✩

Based on the market need, eWIT plans to expand the job profi les.

www.ewit.co.in

10 2009

Woman professional seeking Flexi-career option

eWIT has enlisted in naukri.com specifi cally addressing women who are not currently working but would like to seek a fl exi career option. The response to this listing has been overwhelming. We have received over 1000 profi les in just two months. Woman can apply in the naukri site. Alternatively, they can also email to admin@ewit.co.in with appropriate details. The candidates can also post their resumes directly into our website (www.ewit.co.in).

eWIT would analyse the skills and contact the person to obtain additional information as necessary. Once the profi le is verifi ed, the same is listed in eWIT’s web site. Companies would be able to view the highlights of the profi le minus the personal information of the candidate.

Companies seeking fl exi career women

The companies can email their requirements to admin@ewit.co.in along with the contact details. You may also post your requirement directly into our website www.ewit.co.in. eWIT would contact you to obtain additional information as needed. eWIT would analyse the available profi les for suitability and enable the companies to contact the individuals.

Alternatively, the companies can also access our site, www.ewit.co.in to search the candidates posted (without the personal details and contact details) to see if any suitable profi les are available based on their requirement. The searching can be done for FREE.

FEE

The women can post their resumes for FREE. Once the fi rst engagement is confi rmed, we require the candi-dates to become an eWIT member by paying the annual membership fee of Rs. 500.

The corporations can avail the searching service for FREE. However, once a candidate is identifi ed and con-fi rmed for engagement, the company has to pay Rs. 2,500 per candidate. This fee is charged primarily to make this a sustainable program.

Benefi ts to the consultants by contacting eWIT

eWIT is a ‘not for profi t’ organization. Therefore, there is no percentage based fee to avail the service. ✩The consultant just needs to become a member of eWIT by paying the nominal membership fee before starting the fi rst engagement.

eWIT maintains the privacy of the consultants. The companies would have access to the contact infor- ✩mation of eWIT consultants only after eWIT contacting the consultants fi rst.

eWIT would help the consultants to draw up consulting services agreement, if needed ✩

eWIT would help them with the tax returns, and provide contacts with regard to other legal matters ✩

eWIT would help negotiate the consulting rates on behalf of the consultant, if the consultants would ✩like us to do that

www.ewit.co.in

2009 11

eWIT would be arranging periodic networking meetings in order for the consulting women to get an ✩opportunity to meet other consultants and establish contacts, share thoughts, etc.

periodic workshops for the consultants to continuously upgrade their skills ✩

eWIT’s objective is to help women sustain and fl ourish and derive the maximum benefi t by associating with eWIT.

eWIT’s Consulting Services is a way by which, the women can have the cake and eat it too. eWIT requests the companies, big and small, to take advantage of this service and benefi t from it. By doing so, you are helping to increase the share of women in the IT industry at all level and help women sustain in the industry.

Thank you for your support.

Kalyani NarayananGeneral Secretary - eWIT

CEO & Principal Offi cerwww.easyinsuranceindia.com, Chennai

www.ewit.co.in

12 2009

eWIT Excellence Award – 2009

eWIT hosted the “eWIT Excellence Award – 2009”, a Paper Presentation Contest, conducted to unleash the potential of IT/ITES woman professionals, to showcase their talent and expertise in their respective areas, and this opportunity was extended to woman stu-dents too.

Candidates from various organizations and colleges had sent in their papers from which the eminent panelists had brainstormed and selected 4 papers each in Technology and Human Resource, Quality and Student categories.

The oral presentation for all the categories was held on 21st February ’09 at Exemplarr’s offi ce. The fi nal one day event saw a healthy and tough competition amongst the fi nalists in all categories and the event was teeming with ideas and conversation.

Amid the tough competition that existed, the following candidates emerged as winners taking away the fi rst and second place respectively.

Technology: I. “Green IT”

1. Ms. Gayathri Ekambaram of Fidelity Information Services

2. Ms. Swetha Christy of Systech Solutions

3. Ms. Ramya Nirmal of Computer International

Human Resources: “II. Innovative ‘Return to Work’ Strategies”

1. Ms. Kahekashan of Systech Solutions

2. Ms. Sudha Sastri of Hewlett Packard

Quality: “III. Role of Quality processes in Delivery in an increasingly competitive market”

1. Ms. Lakshmi Krishnan of Kumaran Systems

2. Ms. Jaishree Rajagopalan of Scope e Knowledge Centre Pvt. Ltd.

Student: “IV. Importance of Internship as part of curriculum – Indian Context”

1. Ms. Sheetal Iyer Natarajan of Royal College, Mumbai

2. Ms. Aditi Gargeya of Womens Christian College, Chennai

The winners in each category walk away with a cash prize of Rs.10000 and Rs.5000 for the fi rst and second place respectively.

eWIT extends cordial appreciation for the support given by all the members and participants in making this event a grand success. Especially, eWIT thanks the panel of judges who had spent their invaluable time in select-ing the papers for the fi nal presentation and also for chairing the event.

And now those of you who think that you had lost an opportunity to participate or spectate the event; it’s not over yet! eWIT Excellence Award will be hosted year on year with the emerging concept to equip women with new challenges. Keep awaiting!

www.ewit.co.in

2009 13

Panelists

Our heartfelt thanks to the following panelists and judges for the support and guidance extended to us to make this event a great success. We look forward to your continued support for our future events.

Quality Mr. Srinivasan Desikan System Software Master Level Technologist-HP

for Oral Presentation Ms. Sarada substituted Mr. Srinivasan Desikan

Ramesh Krishnamurthy VP - Testing, Lister Technologies P Ltd

Dr. S. Ravichandran Chairman & CEO of Trimentus

for Oral Presentation Mr. Shareef, Ex. VP of Trimentus substituted Dr. Ravichandran

Technology

Suresh Sambandam Founder & CEO, OrangeScape

N S Ganesh Head - Banking Vertical Practice Group, HCL Technologies Ltd.

Gowri Subramanian CEO of Aspiresys

Human Resources

Ms. Soundarya Rajesh Avtar

Rohini Jagan Associate Vice President - Human Resources, Sutherland Technologies, No. 46, Santhome High Road, Mylapore, Chennai - 600 004.

Johnson Sasikumar Founder Director, OWE Global Solutions

Students

B. Srinivasan Director of School of Managemnet & Computer Applications, SSN College

for Oral presentation Ms. Sumitra Seshan Substituted Mr. B. Srinivasan

Ms. Isabella Jones Dhanalakshmi Engg. College

Mr. Sriram Greatlakes Institute of Management

for Oral presentation Dr. Raghavan, PGPM Director of Great Lakes Substituted Mr. Sriram

www.ewit.co.in

14 2009

Interplanetary Internet

In today’s world we can talk to almost anyone in any corner of the world instantly because of the Internet and other advancements in communication systems. Scientists and space explorers now are looking for a way to communicate almost instantly beyond Earth. The next phase of the Internet will take us to far reaches of our solar system, and lay the groundwork for a communications system for missions to Mars & other planets.

The Interplanetary Internet (IPI), as presently conceived, is a set of fl oating nodes in space which can communicate with each other. The best example of IPI is 1997 Mars Pathfi nder rover mission, where Data from the Pathfi nder was trickled back at an average rate of about 300 bits/sec.

To understand briefl y, in Mars Network Plan, there are three basic components of interplanetary Internet:

NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN) ✩

A six-satellite constellation around Mars ✩

A new protocol for transferring data ✩

The DSN is the international network of antennas used by NASA to track data and control navigation of in-terplanetary spacecraft. It is designed to allow continuous radio communication with the spacecraft. There are three global facilities in California, Australia and Spain that make up the DSN.

Under the Mars Network plan, the DSN will interact with a constellation of six microsatellites and one large Marsat satellite placed in low Mars orbit. These six microsats are relay satellites for spacecraft on/near the surface of the planet, and they will allow more data to come back from Mars missions. The Marsat will collect data from each of the smaller satellites and beam it to Earth. It will also keep Earth and distant spacecraft con-nected continuously.

Programmers are developing a special Internet fi le transfer protocol to transmit the messages and overcome delays and interruptions. One idea for the space protocol is called the parcel transfer protocol (PTP), which will store and forward data at the gateway of each planet.

www.ewit.co.in

2009 15

Astronomical Challenges

Engineers need to overcome several challenges before we plan our virtual journey to Mars through cyberspace. Those challenges are:

The speed-of-light delay: ✩ On Earth, we are only a fraction of a light second apart however as you move farther out into space, there is a delay of hours because light has to travel millions of miles, instead of thousands of miles

Line-of-Sight: ✩ Anything that blocks the space between the signal transmitter and receiver can interrupt communication

Weight: ✩ High-powered antennas that would improve communication with deep space probes are often too heavy to send on a space mission.

Conclusion

The interplanetary Internet will possibly wire us to Mars within the decade and to other planets in the decades to follow. It will no longer be necessary to go into space to experience space travel. Instead, space will be brought right to your desktop. With enhancements made to boost data rate transfers, you and I might soon be able to take a virtual space trip to the mountains of Mars, the rings of Saturn or the giant spot on Jupiter.

Gayathri EkambaramFidelity National Information Services

Winner – Technology Category – ‘Green IT ’

www.ewit.co.in

16 2009

Innovative ‘Return to Work’ Strategies

Introduction

Gone are the days where women were just home makers, now women are career oriented and more ambitious than before. Women are not happy with the role of a secretary, receptionist, or just desk job any more. Now women are a part of the board meetings, they are decision makers and stake holders of many businesses and corporate.

Many women are forced to take a break in their career. The reasons for career break can be family, raising children, taking care of parents or even accompanying husband. When a woman thinks of returning to work she realizes that the world has

changed. It doesn’t matter whether a woman is returning back to the work after a few months of leave, or a career break of several years. The break creates behavioral changes in her job.

Concerns of Women willing to return to work after a break:

There are many questions which bother her when she thinks of returning to work, such as; How much time does she really want to spend at work? Can she really go back to her old job? Does her previous employer, or will next employer, operate ‘family friendly’ policies and a supportive culture? How will childcare arrangements work? Does she need to brush up on a few skills fi rst? Has the IT industry changed, have her skills become outdated, does she need to retrain herself?

What Bosses Feel:

Employers are a little hesitant to hire women who have taken a break. Employer feels that a woman who has taken a break (irrespective of the time interval) may or may not be potent candidate for the job. If the employer has an option between a woman who has taken a break and a candidate who is currently on the job, the employer will obviously prefer the candidate who is on the job.

20 Managers and Recruiters of various IT fi rms were interviewed and surveyed on their fears and concerns about rehiring employees who have taken a break. Their response is captured in a pie chart below.

www.ewit.co.in

2009 17

Strategies of Return to Work

Let us now look at strategies to over come the problems and concerns of the Employer and women employee who are willing to return to work. The strategies sighted below shall help the employer and the employee un-derstand each other’s problems and a solution to help them thus complementing each other.

Strategies for Employers

Strategy I – Loyalty Quotient

Organizations can introduce Career break policies which can be tailor made for women, where a women who has successfully completed a given number of years in the company can take a break for a period of one year or two years. The policy may be limited to maternity and adoption, pursuing higher studies, joining one’s spouse in his location of posting and take care of elderly in the family. This will increase the productivity and reduce the attrition too as women will be willing to serve more as they feel secured about their job even if they wish to take a break in future.

Strategy II – Quick Strike

Quick Strike policy where a candidate can be given a short term project or assignment where they can be judged on their capabilities and abilities and based on the performance on the short-term project they can be hired. This policy may act as an ice breaker for both the employer and the employee. They both will be aware of each other’s expectations and fl exibility.

Strategy III – Behavioral Test Analysis

To understand the intentions, concerns, motivations towards work, ability to handle work and family, and other aspects of career of a female candidate willing to return to work, companies can conduct behavioral test analysis for candidates where they can be questions on personal life, on particular scenarios, judgment skills, emergency management and various other job related aspects.

Strategy IV – Work – Life Balance

The employer can offer various facilities to female employees to help them balance work and personal life. Crèche facility is an age old and best remedy for working moms, organize re-fresher training to help employ-ees brush up on their skills, offer various programs such as time-management, multi-tasking skills, personality development, etc.

Strategies for Woman Employees Willing to Return to Work

Strategy I: Remember Your Value

Prior to leaving the workforce you were valuable to your employer and made signifi cant contributions to the organizations you worked for. Remembering your value is an important fi rst step. So start by mak-ing a list of your top 10 most precious accomplishments, contributions and achievements. This could be something as small as an idea that you once shared at a meeting which lead to some major happening in your department.

www.ewit.co.in

18 2009

Strategy II – Defi ne Yourself

Of all the things you have done in your career thus far, what captured your interest and heart the most? What is most precious to you? Your greatest impact can be made when you are truly passionate about what you do. Your genuine authenticity will take you to the next level in your career journey and there you will fi nd the work-life balance, freedom and fl exibility you are looking for. This is the point in your career where you aban-don the status quo, forget about what’s socially acceptable and embrace your unique passions, strengths and affi nities.

Strategy III- Stay visible and connected

Take a proactive role to stay on the radar screens of recruiters and employers and keep your professional net-work active. One way you can accomplish both is by joining the network and forum of women, social network-ing forum created to help you stay visible to recruiters and employers and connected to professional women from 47 different fi elds and industries: from women in accounting and broadcast to women in venture capital and Web consulting.

Strategy IV – Position yourself as an expert

Whether you decide to return to the workforce, pursue a new career path or become your own boss, posi-tioning yourself as the expert in your fi eld can help you attract more recruiters and employers or customers and clients into your sphere of infl uence with ease. As you may know “the expert” is always in demand.

Kahekashan K Systech Solutions

Winner – Human Resources Category – ‘Innovative ‘Return to Work’ Strategies’

www.ewit.co.in

2009 19

Every Woman is a Project Manager

The current lifestyle is very challenging and women have a greater role to play. It is quite challenging to balance work, home and people. The natural instinct of women to get along with people, multi tasking, and perfection of work helps them to achieve success in whatever area they are focusing on.

Whether we are working women or a homemaker, scheduling is very important as each day is fi lled up with lot of activities. Activities may include preparation of weekly Menu, addressing people and home needs, fi nancial management apart from offi cial engagements and commitments. Though we are effi cient in balancing and jug-gling between our tasks, we do encounter issues due to fatigue, emotional stress etc. Schedule slippages at home are more common like delay in breakfast, which requires extra effort and cooperation from other mem-bers of the family (stakeholders).

Most of the women follow a methodical approach. There is a well-defi ned approach in them and every stuff (right from the grocery to assets) in the house is properly placed, well arranged, controlled and monitored. This totally eliminates the people dependency and a single phone call to them, will let the person at home know where to locate the documents, bills, cheque books or any other sundry items that is needed.

Mentoring child is the most challenging activity in everyone’s life. Social brought up had forecasted women as the most responsible person in mentoring children. We need real people management skills to bring up children. Mothers are able to mange their children by understanding their mood swings, their real needs, their potentials and groom them in the area they are good at without a management certifi cation.

A good measurement/gauging system help to monitor and evaluate our performance; it may be a self-assess-ment, or performance of any activity. Whatever metrics system we have been advocating, asks us to estimate, measure the actuals, set the goals depending on the activity, compare the estimates and actuals, verify you have met the goals if not take a corrective action to meet your goals. I feel this has absolute reference to our real life activities, as all of us are trying to meet one or other goals, irrespective of the roles we play. When an indi-vidual is able to identify the areas he needs to improve it becomes very easy to achieve his target clearly. We as women, not only have personal goals to reach, but also the goals set for our family members and help them in achieving that by continuously giving our feedback and suggestions.

We do have a strict audit procedure not on a monthly or a weekly basis but on a daily basis. A team evaluates our work products (each day menu items) and gives areas of improvement and positive feedbacks, but the dif-ference is that there is no escalation scenarios needed in most cases.

Lakshmi Krishnan Kumaran Systems

Winner – Quality Category – ‘Role of Quality processes in Delivery in an increasingly competitive market’

www.ewit.co.in

20 2009

A Word of Appreciation

The project of “Importance of Internship in curriculum-Indian Context” given by eWIT was where I came into the picture in this organization. To prepare the project I started with a negligible knowledge of internship. According to me internship meant just the training a person gets at the very initial stage of his job. Once I started I was forced to review my views.

The research and browsing about the topic gave me an extensive knowledge of the topic. I understood that internship is not only for employees of the organization but also for students to get training in the fi eld they want to enter into in the future. I understood the

importance of internship to a student- a future employee in times of this recession where jobs are rare. Stu-dents who had been selected in campus interview before have been refused. But students with a good remark in the internship certifi cate are still in demand and have jobs waiting for them.

I even applied for a summer internship job when usually I would have taken the vacations for granted and used the time to just get rest from my busy schedule.

For this I need to thank eWIT. The presentation was also a novel experience to me. I understood the differ-ence in presenting before my friends and professors who know me and whom I know to presenting before a third person having more knowledge and expertise than I have faced before. The judges were excellent in their questions and responses.

The competition was a really good one and I would surely like to participate in the coming years also.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank this organization for giving us such a wonderful topic, my aunts for introducing me to this competition and being with me throughout my journey to success and my mother for being my constant source of inspiration.

THANK YOU!!!

Sheetal Iyer NatarajanRoyal College, Mumbai

Winner – Student Category- ‘Importance of Internship as part of curriculum – Indian Context’

www.ewit.co.in

2009 21

About eWIT

Empowering Women in IT (eWIT) is a womens forum conceptualized by a group of IT Professionals ✩in India. Considering the high growth of the IT industry in India, its vast global coverage and the huge employment potential that it offers, the need has been felt to create a separate platform that addresses womens issues.

All women associated with the IT/ITES industry by education and/or profession anywhere in India or ✩abroad are welcome to become members of eWIT. Further more, any person, provided he/she fulfi ls certain conditions, interested in the cause of womens issues in IT, can be associated with eWIT as a well wisher.

Vision

To be the preferred forum for interchange of ideas and for pioneering initiatives so as to unleash the ✩potential in women and drive their growth in the IT industry.

Objectives

Expand the women workforce at all management levels in the IT industry. ✩

Enable women to tread the career path by equipping them with necessary skills ✩

Facilitate women’s quest for a better work-life balance in IT Sector ✩

Activities

To achieve the above objectives, focus would be on the following activities:

Promoting the cause of IT as a preferred career choice for women starting from the college level. ✩

Providing hands on training programmes to enhance soft/leadership skills to make them more effective ✩and enable them to take on higher responsibilities.

Provide mentoring/counsellingservices. ✩

Take on relevant projects that would facilitate women to pursue their careers (eg. Expanding the ✩ network and day care centres, etc.)

Act as preferred voice of women in the IT industry to take up women-related issues with corporates ✩and governments.

* The above will be done by organising seminars, contact programmes, training courses, workshops and projects.

Past Events

Insurance literacy - The program focused primarily on the advantages and benefi ts of insurance cover- ✩age.

Opportunities For Women In Technical Leadership Roles ✩

Personal Effectiveness at Work ✩

How to be a competitive Software Engineer ✩

www.ewit.co.in

22 2009

Executive Seminar on Software Business/PSP.. by SEI authorized trainers on topics included 'The Soft- ✩ware Business', 'The Personal Software Process','Building self-directed teams', 'Managing with facts and data', 'Building Quality Products' amongst others.

"Women in IT - Tips For Success". ✩

eWIT's networking event, with a focus on SMEs. ✩

A Seminar on Effective management of personal fi nances ✩

Job Fair and Formation of eWIT at Manonmaniam Sundaranar University.. ✩

Workshop on Business Communication... ✩

Software Project Management Workshop.. ✩

Be Breast Cancer Aware' was jointly organised by U. S. Consulate General, Chennai, eWIT (Empower- ✩ing women in IT) and CAN STOP.

Talk by Ms. Virginia Little John, CEO of Quantum Leaps on ‘Relevance of Entrepreneurial Skills’ ✩

Annual Membership Details

Corporations with > 1000 Employees Rs. 15000 6 members

Corporations with > 500 and < 1000 Employees Rs. 7000 3 members

Corporations with > 100 and < 500 Employees Rs. 5000 3 members

Corporations with up to 100 Employees Rs. 2500 2 members

Colleges Rs. 2500 2 members

Individuals Rs. 500

* The membership would entitle the members to attend all the regular events. Some special events may be charged additional. Also, more number of women can be sent by corporate members to attend by paying extra amount for the event

* Please write cheque to Empowering Women in IT and mail to: eWIT, C/o STPI, No. 6, Kalakshetra Avenue, 2nd Street, Thiruvanmiyur, Chennai 600041. Ph: 044-42964000. email id: admin@ewit.co.in along with company and contact details.

Copyright © 2006, eWIT. The contents of this document and any attachments are Confi dential and Proprietary to eWIT, and are not to be distributed, reproduced, or disclosed in any form without prior written permission from eWIT.

www.ewit.co.in

2009 23

Key ContactsKey ContactsSudha Gopal President 98400 09821 sudhag@systechusa.com

Sumitra Seshan Treasurer 98407 06800 sseshan@fi fthgentech.com

Vijayalakshmi Rao VP 98840 51683 viji@scopeknowledge.com

Usha Srinivasan Adviser 98410 14514 ushatr@gmail.com

Kalyani Narayanan General Secretary 93810 44068 kalyani@icmindia.com

Pushpa Krishnaswamy Jt. Secy 93848 63178 pushpa.krishnaswamy@gmail.com

Namagiri Exec Committee 98407 34054 grnr@vsnl.com

Rajini Reddy Exec Committee 98400 71245 rajini@exemplarr.com

Sarada Exec Committee 98401 82538 sarada@ciindia.com

Sulochana Ganesan Exec Committee 98403 23416 sulochana.ganesan@gmail.com

Rajalakshmi Advisor r.lakshmi@blr.stpi.in

www.ewit.co.in