itnext magazine february 2014

f o r t h e n e x t g e n e r at i o n o f c i o s

february 2014 | `100 | Volume 05 | issue 01 | A 9.9 Media Publicationwww.itnext.com | facebook.com/itnext | @itnext_magazine

Ravi PrakashAGM-IT Infrastructure,

Himatsingka Seide

“How to Prevent the Bad Guy and Defend”interVieW | BRet HaRtman, VP And CTO, SeCurITy, CISCO| Pg 40

Yes, I ammobIle ReadY!

Senior it decision makers seem to be going all out to make their enterprise mobile ready with unique

approaches and best practices Pg 16

Bosstalk

3 Traits of a leader

Pg 06

Insight

embracing enterprise

social Collaboration

Pg 38

Editorial

1f e b r u a r y 2 0 1 4 | itnext

Mobile Savvy Managersare you mobile ready managers? I am impressed to see most IT managers getting ready to absorb this most sought after trend. While BYOD is one phenomenon of enterprise mobility, senior IT managers seem to be absorbing all virtues of mobility in the enterprise.

They are really in line with what analysts and consultants like KPMG argue for--companies cannot afford to side step this transformation and would have to work towards providing user-friendly, easily configurable, flexible mobility options; all this while simultaneously focusing on implementing and sustaining water-tight information security measures.

About a year ago, when ITNext attempted to do a cover feature around mobility, the insights that we got from senior IT decision makers were sundry and just hyped with no use cases. At that time, discussions revolved around whether it was a bane or pain, or no pain, no gain and so on. However, that has changed, and it is heartening to see that the hyped up trend is shaping up well and surprisingly compelling IT managers to rethink their strategy.

The cover feature in the current edition of ITNext, ‘Yes! I am mobile Ready’ attempted to find out how mobile savvy these managers were to develop an effective strategy around it and deploy appropriate solutions. It is rather enriching to discover that IT managers are leveraging enterprise mobility to harness the disruptive forces of mobility strategies and to create new ways of delivering the solutions to customers. The feature found that these IT guys are clued into what kind of skills are required to create a positive environment, to tap the right kind of applications which are mobile savvy, and that they are calling for a fine-tuned strategy for enterprise mobility both inside and outside the company’s four walls to securely connect employees, customers and partners with legacy applications and native ones.

G e e T h a N a N d I k o T k u r

“It is heartening to see that the hyped up trend is shaping up well and compelling IT managers to rethink their strategy”

Blogs To Watch!My Un-Prediction for Enterprise Mobility in 2014 http://theemf.org/2014/01/13/my-un-prediction-for-enterprise-mobility-in-2014/

India And China Will Lead Asia Pacific Enterprise Mobile Software Spending In 2014 http://blogs.forrester.com/katyayan_gupta/13-12-03-india_and_china_will_lead_asia_pacific_enterprise_mobile_software_spending_in_2014

How to Quantify ROI for Mobile Solutionst http://blog.commontime.com/roi-for-mobile-2/

BYOA is ‘as important’ as BYOD http://www.workforceanywhere.com/2013/02/28/1-in-4-enterprises-will-have-their-own-app-store-by-2017-byoa-is-now-as-important-as-byod/

2 itnext | f e b r u a r y 2 0 1 4

Content february 2014 V o l u m e 0 5 | I s s u e 0 1

16Page

for the l atest technology uPDates go to itnext.in

cover story

20 Clear Vision, Hazy Path Right from developing BYOD policies to that of an app, and ensuring tight security to customers-facing mobility, the roads of enterprise mobility have their own share of twists and curves

06 BLv rao, Advisor & cto, voBD Limited on 3 critical traits of a leader that influ-ence change and inspire

Boss tALk

40 Bret Hartman, vP and cto, se-curity, cisco, recommends ways to prevent bad guys using effec-tive defense mechanism

interview

Facebook:http ://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=195675030582

Twitter :http : //twitter.com/itnext

LinkedInhttp://www.l inkedin .com/groups?gid=2261770&trk=myg_ugrp_ovr

F O R T H E N E X T G E N E R AT I O N O F C I O s

February 2014 | `100 | Volume 05 | Issue 01 | A 9.9 Media Publicationwww.itnext.com | facebook.com/itnext | @itnext_magazine

Ravi PrakashAGM-IT Infrastructure,

Himatsingka Seide

“How to Prevent the Bad Guy and Defend”INTERVIEW | BRET HARTMAN, VP AND CTO, SECURITY, CISCO| Pg 40

YES, I AMMOBILE READY!

Senior IT decision makers seem to be going all out to make their enterprise mobile ready with unique

approaches and best practices Pg 16

BossTalk

3 Traits of a Leader

Pg 06

Insight

Embracing Enterprise

Social Collaboration

Pg 38

24 Making the Most of Mobility IT Managers are driving cultural transformation within the enterprise by being mobile friendly and understanding the nuances of it

27 The Cornerstone, an EMM Strategy An effective EMM strategy will help IT Managers in application platform, greater visibility and control over devices

30 Is it all about Apps? App is the new buzzword but there are other aspects like security, BYOD, information governance that are taking the centre stage

coverDesign: SHIGIL NARAYANAN Photo: SRIVATSA

Yes, I am

mobIle ReadY!


UPDAte

08 Most cios Unprepared For

Digitalisation | Digitalisation,

the third era of enterprise IT, is

beginning,but most CIOs do not

feel prepared for this next era

cUBe cHAt

44 High on retail | Anirban

Chakraborty, DGM-IT, Future

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47 will AAP govt. focus

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to find if Aam Aadmi Party in

Delhi Government can bring any

change to IT Industry as well

as meet expectations of the IT

fraternity

My Log

48 can a techie be a good

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have evolved from being service

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regULArsEditorial _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 01

Letters _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 04

Update _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 08

My Log _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 48

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INBoX


or initiatives and are quite happy with what they are doing. The external knowledge is limited to what vendors bring in, who obvi-ously would bring in what mat-ters to them. There is no exposure to what’s happening in the world and how things are changing. Though people are working to improve in their own areas of operation, there is hardly any innovation initiative seen – that could transform or disrupt – the whole ecosystem. This is univer-sally seen across the country.

“CIO as a leader” need to emerge strongly. Over the years we saw the transition that from EDP manager, CIO’s emerged and took leadership position – taking businesses through various waves of technology, in the process enabling and enhancing business performance. There seems to be long pause in between, where most are now seen as maintaining & sustaining the early initiatives. As IT moves out of the traditional finance, accounts and (internal) supply chain domains – CIO (in whatever “avatar”) should again regain the leadership position.

Great show IT Next and Next100 team to bring forth the key issues. SuhaS MhaSkareminent CIO and Next100 Jury Member

January 2014

www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=

2261770&trk=myg_ugrp_ovr

300 members

e-Governance needs to benefit from AAPe-Governance or in general IT implementations in the government sector have faltered not because of the flaws in technology but because of the will issue at different levels of Government and bureaucratic machinery. People planning and executing these implementations need to understand that IT Projects cannot be planned and executed like any other Government project; they need a different approach and set of skills.The benefit that the New Delhi AAP Government has is the influx of people who are new to the political aspect of Governance hence they will not have the same mental blocks in decision making.Agreed that we have had major failures in IT Implementations in Government institutions like IRCTC but we have also had good success like IT infrastructure of SBI. Hence it is more on the mindset that needs to be changed.

aMaNdeep SINgh huNJaN

Manager - IT Services, Orange business Services

IT NeXT valueS yOur feedbaCk

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1 4 ITNEXT | J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 4 1 5J A N U A R Y 2 0 1 4 | ITNEXT

COVER STORY NEXT100 SPECIAL COVER STORYNEXT100 SPECIAL

BY TEAM ITNEXT

ILLUSTRATION BY ANIL T

They have the vision, exuberance, and hunger to get the top IT seat. Most importantly, they are driven about bringing value to the corporate table. The NEXT100 2013 award winners are aggressive, the cream of the crop: the industry must watch out—for they know what it takes to be a Future CIO

BEST 100!THE NEXT

IT NEXT thanks its ReadeRsfor the warm

response

http://www.itnext.in/resources/

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Read this issue online

itnext<space> <your feedback>

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NEWVISIONARIES

THEY HAVE THE VISION, EXUBERANCE AND HUNGER TO GET THE TOPIT SEAT, DRIVEN ABOUT BRINGING VALUE

TO THE CORPORATE TABLE

NEXT100 SPECIAL: LEADERS IN THE MAKING

F O R T H E N E X T G E N E R AT I O N O F C I O s

January 2014 | `100 | Volume 04 | Issue 12 | A 9.9 Media Publicationwww.itnext.com | facebook.com/itnext | @itnext_magazine

next 100 – a Great PlatformNext100 is a great platform for the IT Managers who are aspiring to take the top IT seat in their or other organisations. My interaction with the winners and other applicants who have not won the award have been insightful. Most are looking inwards, towards their company/project

Reasons for Project FailureI believe one of the top causes of Project failure is Project Manager’s lack of expertise. A PM can drive the project to its logical end with his/her skills, by doing apt stakeholder management / expectation management. If he is communicated clear project objectives and has accepted the same while signing Project Charter, then I believe PM becomes solely responsible for meeting Project Objectives and he can do so by his Project Management skills. yaTIN bhaTIa, SgM – Technology, Content head at aptech limited


Boss talk | BLV Rao

“Incidentally, I was able to influence and mould some tough personalities into what they are today, in respected positions and very successful in large business houses”

Leadership is the most critical part of any organisation, and leaders are those who influence their teams greatly in driving the organisation in the right direction. Future CIOs, need to under-

stand the nuances of a leader’s characteristics and leadership management style in its true sense.

3 Most Important CharacteristicsIn my humble view, a leader is one who creates definite direction in any given situation and leads the team and overcoming obstacles, while taking calculated risks. It is important to understand that leadership is contextual to any given situa-tion and much related to organisational dynamics.

Are Leaders Born or Made? In my 30+ years of experience, I have observed that leadership is primarily individual driven. While the personality and principles, ethics and value systems are imbibed as part of upbringing, leadership traits or qualities are driven through a systematic approach and concerted effort in one’s career. However, a certain focused path would help in becoming a leader which is reflected in:

Personality and Position Perseverance: One who creates a never give-up attitude and culture among team members Planning and Productivity Process and People Development Leadership Pinnacle: Incidentally, I was able to influence and mould some tough personalities into what they are today, in respected positions and very successful in large business houses—in MNCs like Microsoft, IBM, Google, SAP, etc.

I was inspired by the leaders like Mahatma Gan-dhi, Sardar Patel, Subhash Chandra Bose, LalBa-hadur Shastry and JF Kennedy.

3 Traits of a Leader

LeAdershIp MAnAgeMenT

how can a leader influence change?A leader should be in a position to face any situa-tion and be able to convince the top management about the right methodology. The challenge here is that most tend to compromise on certain princi-ples owing to certain risks, which may result in the leader losing his identity. The leader must identify and influence stakeholders, find the right style of functioning and take the right action.

guiding Future CIOsAs part of the mentoring program, “Future100 leaders,” for several years in India as well as glob-ally, I have been successful in developing several leaders, including women who have taken up lead-ership positions in the UK and US. A leader should typically recognize talent at a very early stage and continue with mentoring; this is long-term, spread over 3-5 years. It is critical to have a structured program as well as personal mentoring, with hand-holding in complex situ-ations. In my experience, such a strategy would have a 7:10 ratio of success.

It is simple to understand the leadership concepts as well practice easily being truthful and candid.

SuggeStion boX

WRiteR: WaRRen Bennis, Dan-ieL GoLeman, James o’tooLe PuBLisheR: Jossey-Bass PRice: `695

bLV rao, advisor & Cto, VobD Limited


trendsdealsproductsservicespeopleUpdate

i n d u s t r y

TreNDS | Digitalization, the third era of enterprise IT, is beginning, but most CIOs do not feel prepared for this next era, according to a global survey of CIOs by Gartner. The Gartner survey showed that many CIOs feel overwhelmed by the prospect of building digital lead-ership while renovating the core of IT infrastructure and capability for the digital future. The survey found that 51 per cent of CIOs are concerned that the digital torrent is coming faster than they can cope

Most CIOs Unprepared For Digitalization

and 42 per cent don’t feel that they have the talent needed to face this future.

“2014 must be a year of significant change if CIOs are to help their businesses and public sector agencies remain relevant in an increasingly digital world,” said Dave Aron, vice president and Gartner Fellow.

The worldwide survey was conducted in the fourth quarter of 2013 and included 2,339 CIOs, representing more than $300 billion in CIO IT budgets in 77 countries.

During the first era of enterprise IT, the focus was on how IT could help do new and seemingly magical things — automating operations to create massive improvements in speed and scale, and providing business leaders with management information they never had before. The last decade has represented the second era of enterprise IT, an era of industrialization of enterprise IT, making it more reliable, predictable, open and transparent.

However, while this second era has been necessary and powerful, tight budgets and little appetite for risk left scant room for innovation.

Entering the third era of enterprise IT technological and societal trends, such as the Nexus of Forces and the Internet of Things, are changing everything; not only improving what businesses do with technology but changing the basis of competition and in some cases, creating new industries.

2014 will be a year of dual goals:

responding to ongoing needs

for efficiency and growth and digital-

paradigm

source: pwc - iiMa survey on consumer value

The significant brand differentiator across telecom circles is network coverage. In a metro market such as Mumbai, customer service is most important while in assam, network quality is the biggest driver for a differentiated brand.

Biggest Brand differentiators in telecomtelecom

Base: All respondents (2,152) There are big differences between

various network brands

All major brands of mobile networks are

the same

The only difference between major network

brands is call rates

per cent of respondents who highly or somewhat agree with the statement

48% 57% 31%


TreNDS | The Cisco 2014 Annual Security Report reveals that threats designed to take advantage of users’ trust in systems, applications and personal networks have reached startling levels. According to the report, a worldwide shortage of nearly a million skilled security professionals is impacting orga-nizations’ abilities to monitor and secure networks, while overall vulnerabilities and threats reached their highest levels since 2000. Major Findings:

As of October 2013, cumulative annual alert totals increased 14 per cent year-over-year from 2012

The sophistication of the technology and tactics used by online criminals—and their

Huge Increase in Sophisticated Attacks : Cisco

visitor traffic to Web sites that host malware.

Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks—which disrupt traffic to and from targeted websites and can paralyze ISPs—have increased in both volume and severity.

Multipurpose Trojans counted as the most frequently encountered web-delivered malware,

Java continues to be the most frequently exploited programming language targeted by online criminals.

99 per cent of all mobile malware targeted android devices.

Sectors like pharmaceutical, chemical and the electronics industry, have had high malware encounter rates.

As of October 2013, cumula-tive annual alert totals increased 14 per cent year-over-year from 2012

Nokia’s rumoured Normandy smartphone, believed to be based on Android, has been in the news for months now, with leaked images hitting the Internet on a regular basis, along with speculated availability.The leaked image shows the alleged Nokia Normandy’s rear panel, which is notably reminiscent of Nokia’s Lumia Windows Phone smartphones. In addition, the leaked home screen panel also included the BBM app.

around the World

Nokia Normandy Android Phone Leaked

Marc Benioff, ceo, salesforce.com

“I think the biggest mistake Mark Hurd ever made was letting Keith Block leave Oracle, because he’s probably the best sales executive the enterprise software industry has ever seen”

nonstop attempts to breach networks and steal data—have outpaced the ability of IT and security professionals to address these threats.

100 per cent of a sample of 30 of the world’s largest multinational company networks generated

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dossier

Amod RanadeGeneral Manager,

schneider electric

iT Business out-

lines six major chal-

lenges that need

to be addressed to

ensure an optimized

data center, which

are increasingly

tied to business

success.

Efficiency, Agility and Visibility are the three core attributes that are essential for resolving the key challenges - Efficiency of existing DC, high-density racks, adding power and cooling, virtualization, visibility and control.

ASK THE EXPERT

1 0 itnExt | f E b r u a r y 2 0 1 4

Six key challengeS to optimize the data center

What are the three major critical components of an optimized data center?the three critical components of an optimized data centre which can ensure optimal performance are efficiency, agility and visibility. With regard to efficiency, it decision makers need to ensure they make the most of their ener-gy while ensuring reliability and availability. the second is agility. as business needs change, it’s important for data center infrastructure to keep pace. the third key aspect is visibility which allows the data center operators to gain complete insight into the data centres to ensure that it is always functioning at its peak performance. to ensure that these components are addressed effectively, the it managers need to tide over six key challenges with the data centres, which include improving efficiency, adding high density racks in a low density data center, extending life of a data center by adding power and cooling, build-ing a new data center, gain visibility and control over data center’s key processes and implementing data center

consolidation and virtualization project.

How does one improve the efficiency of existing data center?data center efficiency isn’t just about installing high-efficiency components. one also needs to manage the data center using data center infrastructure management (dcim) software in order to push the data center to the peak of its efficiency curve. Besides having a standard-ized and modular infrastructure that can scale to accom-modate capacity needs now and in the future is also criti-cal. Steps to ensure an efficient datacenter:• First, benchmark your power usage effectiveness (PUE)

through measurement and modeling to learn what needs improvement

• Focus on your cooling system. Hot aisle and cold aisle containment systems offer significant sav-ings opportunities

• Install DCIM software to gain visibility and control in

10-40%

of energy con-sumption can be reduced by virtualization and consoli-dation as it maximizes availability, and free up space.

ask the expertC U S T O M P U B L I S H I N G

1 1f E b r u a r y 2 0 1 4 | itnExt

every part of your data center, allowing you to optimize efficiency, eliminate the silos between facilities and it, and manage capacity more effectively.

How do you add high-density racks in a low-density data center?Self-contained zones and pods can make high-density computing possible in low-density data centers. these pods offer more computing-per-watt and have no nega-tive effect on existing infrastructure, but they do require getting your power and cooling infrastructure in shape. it results in scalable, “pay-as-you-grow” pods eliminate the need for a new data center build and electrical efficiency increases at fuller loads, so running high-density equip-ment actually decreases your data center’s PUE.

Some easy steps to deploy these:• Start by leveraging design tools and assessments • Next, deploy solutions such as modular, three-

phase power, row-based cooling, and hot air or cold air containment

• Maintain predictable operation even after moves, addi-tions, and changes using dcim software

How can you extend the life of your data center by adding power and cooling efficiency?most existing data centers were not built to handle today’s densities, dynamics, or reliability require-ments, but building a new data center is often too expensive. Work around this challenge with facility modules, which allow you to add capacity on an as-needed basis, like building blocks.

the process should begin by identifying capac-ity constraints using data center assessments and audits, and identify your end goal. enable right-siz-ing of capacity to match changing it loads with scal-able power and cooling designs. it helps in avoiding building out a new data center, preserve it space — facility modules can be shipped in one piece and installed outdoors, add power and cooling capacity up to 60 per cent faster by eliminating field work, save 20 per cent on upfront costs and cut energy costs by up to 30 per cent compared to traditional power and cooling infrastructure.

How to get visibility and control over your data center’s key processes?now that it complexity, high densities, and virtualiza-tion are the norms rather than the exception, hav-ing visibility and control over your entire data center domain is critical to its success. the most comprehen-sive way to achieve this power is with dcim software, with its context-aware monitoring capabilities.

How to implement a data center virtualization and consolidation project?Virtualization and consolidation have the potential to reduce energy consumption by 10 – 40 per cent, maxi-mize availability, and free up space. But virtualization can also create challenges such as hot spots if your dcpi is not agile enough to deal with a dynamic it envi-ronment. Virtualization helps in increased availability via physical infrastructure that automatically and dynami-cally responds to migrating virtual loads.it also avoids system downtime through management software that automatically migrates it loads away from failing com-ponents or risky environmental conditions and it rapidly deploy power and cooling distribution to support high-density zones that result from consolidation.

How to ensure a robust data center ?if you are looking to build a new data center, following an established procedure is vital in preventing down-stream mistakes. But for some reason, proper system planning remains a major challenge for smaller it facilities. it is helpful to look at system planning as a dataflow model, with a standardized sequence of tasks. one should begin by setting design parameters with standardized tools and methods. employ modular and scalable architecture to right-size dcpi, which saves on upfront costs but empowers you to expand easily in the future. partner with a single-source data center expert who can provide end-to-end services including power, cooling, and management systems.

“Self-contained zones and pods can make high-density computing possible in low-density DC.”

The secTion BRoUGhT YoU BY

1 2 itnext | f e b r u a r y 2 0 1 4

case study | airtel

Over the next few years, a n a v e r a g e e n t e r -prise employee will use over 3GB per month of mobile data, thanks to

the increasing momentum around mobile enablement – mobile applica-tion, BYOD, M2M – across enterprises. Expecting the enterprise employee to take on this cost would make him shy away from making the most of enterprise mobility. ICICI Prudential, a leading private sector insurance company in India, realised this early on and consciously worked towards freeing its employees of mobile data cost burden.

Driving Tablet Usage: A challengeICICI Prudential had mobile enabled their field force and advisors with tablets to login into their online applications. However, the usage wasn’t picking up. The field force and advisors had inhibitions to access online applications through tablets due to the data costs involved.

ICICI Prudential picks airtel to enhance field force productivity using tablets

Case Summary: ICICI Prudential approaches airtel to make browsing and usage on their portal free for the employees airtel delivers Toll Free Mobile Data services in less than 2 months With the competent solution, ICICI employees access applications in real-

time, thereby, increasing productivity The usage of the portal improves with field force consuming over 15-20 GB of data ICICI Prudential hopes to extend this feature to other functions and to enhance customer service for their online/mobile customers

1 3f e b r u a r y 2 0 1 4 | itnext

airtel | case study

“We have no doubts about team airtel translating these

visions we have into reality”

Mr. Kiran Reddy, AVP, IT , ICICI Prudential further elaborated on the two options ICICI considered to remove the cost burden for the employee yet improve usage. One option was for ICICI to pay the entire mobile data bill for f ield force/advisors. The second option was to make brows-ing and usage on our portal (that provides access to a wide gamut of business applications) free. Finally,

“Despite distributing tablets across 3000 field force/advisors, the team was unable to push usage beyond 20%.”

Mr. Shaibal Chatterjee Executive Vice President ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company

Mr. Shaibal Chatterjee Executive Vice President

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company

ICICI Prudential chose the second option as the former came with the hindrance of keeping a track of total data usage, etc.

airtel Toll Free Data: Up your Mobility UsageICICI Prudential approached multiple telecom operators and chose airtel, despite airtel not being its primary service provider. They wanted an operator that could provide a quick turnaround, competent solution and scale. airtel Toll Free Data scored on all three fronts.

Quick turnaroundTeam airtel made the solution go live in a record time of 2 months. ICICI Prudential had approached two lead-ing operators – their existing service provider and airtel – to provide a solution to improve mobile data usage without a huge rise of our cost burden. airtel’s prompt response and well-stitched toll free data solution won over ICICI Prudential. Further, airtel’s ability to test and deliver the service in less than 2 months added to the customer’s delight. With most users on alternate service provider, Mr. Chatterjee felt such quick turn-around was applaudable.

Competent solutionairtel Toll Free Data provided free website access to tablet users with-out any worries about mobile data costs. The solution was also applica-

1 4 itnext | f e b r u a r y 2 0 1 4

case study | airtel

E-mail: [email protected]: www.airtel.in/business

Address: airtel business, Bharti Airtel Limited, IIIrd Floor Tower C, Plot No. 16, Udyog Vihar, Phase IV, Gurgaon – 122015

ble during roaming and had no limita-tion with respect to content type being accessed increasing end consumer delight substantially. And the results have been encouraging. Using airtel Toll Free Data, the field force/advisors

"The key to the success of mobile enablement

across enterprises relies of usability of

the solution by the end user. Data costs is one of the major deterrents in enhancing usability. Hence, we decided to

launch innovative solutions like toll free mobile data where in we provide free

enterprise website access (for some pages) on

mobile for the end user so that they no longer worry

about data costs."

Sukesh Jain, CMO, airtel business

have been able to access applications real-time and enhance productivity. Within a few weeks, ICICI Prudential saw the usage of the portal improve, with field force/advisors consum-ing over 15-20 GB of data using their tablets, recalls Mr. Reddy. In the future, they expect this number only to rise.

Greater ScalabilityLooking ahead, ICICI Prudential hopes to extend this feature to other func-tions within their organisation and to the end customer. And they are confi-dent of airtel translating these hopes into reality. In the coming months, ICICI Prudential hopes to experiment with the solution to enhance customer serv ice for their onl ine/mobi le customers. For instance, free online

chats, free checking of your balance, free customer facing app usage, etc. would be some areas they would look at, said Mr. Chatterjee.

cover story | xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

1 6 itnext | f e b r u a r y 2 0 1 4

S C MittalGroup CTO, IFFCO

TG DhandapaniCIO, TVS Motors

Subhrajyoti Bose, Global Head, Applications, Trelleborg Sealing Solution

Sahil SagarHead-IS, Aditi Technologies

Ravi PrakashAGM-IT,

Himatsingka Seide

Jayantha PrabhuCTO, Essar

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx | cover story


It really struck me when I read about the revelation made by Gartner about the unpreparedness of CIOs for digitalisation. At the seminars, conferences, meetings where I observe vendors trying to preach enterprise mobility, I never found an IT manager being vocally negative about this emerging trend. So, is it akin the verses of Bible which most followers never contest but very seldom practise?

ITNext attempts to take a holistic view on what’s happening in enterprise mobility--ranging from ambiguities around the trend to mobile readiness of ITDMs today, from how an effective strategy can help in laying the roadmap to mitigation concerns which have cropped up due to proliferation of devices, from the mobility perspective.

We embarked on a study because we wanted to find out how enterprise mobility is perceived and what its effective strategies are. Interestingly, IT managers are making concerted efforts to build the right environment, both in terms of technology and business.

And more importantly, culturally!Enterprise mobility is no more a fancy word

residing in the confinement of posh offices and sophisticated users. It goes way beyond.

Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative (IFFCO) is an organisation that caters to the development of farmer community. Now, IFFCO with its major initiative, IFFCO Kisan Sanchar Limited, has gone mobile to educate farmers through applications.

Enterprise Mobility has been the talking point for quite some time, but there have been a few frowns of skepticism around ITDMs’ mobile readiness

by Subhankar kundu

“Yes! We are Mobile Ready”

Design by hariDas balan | illustration by shigil narayanan

20 Clear Vision, hazy Path24 Making the most of Mobility27 the Cornerstone, an eMM strategy30 is it all about apps?33 being social, internally35 a flexible package will cost less

than a cup of coffee

inside

1 8 itnext | f e b r u a r y 2 0 1 4

cover story | EntErprisEs’ MobilE rEadinEss

S C Mittal, Group CTO at IFFCO, says, “Mobility is beyond mobile but it’s not just about devices. It’s the challenge and opportunities that enterprise mobility offers. The major complex factor is the operating system (OS) in enterprise mobility. With such diverse OS platforms across devices and assorted needs, we need one solution development for all enterprise OS.”

The most important skill required is knowledge about the mobile equipments out there, so that the mobility solutions around it can be tuned to meet the needs.

Enterprise mobility doesn’t always come with big investment challenges.

Mittal says as cloud is catching up fast, it will help enterprises go big on mobility.

The deployment of mobility solution at IFFCO goes on to imply the mobile readiness of ITDMs and CIOs across organisations and across verticals.

Of course, there are ambiguities around it. There has to be a thorough understanding of unique mobility requirements across industries. But we-are-ready is what they say.

Are CIOs not prepared for digital

“Lack of planning caused confusion with no fallback

solution. That’s the area where IT managers need to focus on”

Can leverage BYOD

Better collaboration among

internal employees

Impact of flexible working on

businesses, from downsizing

office space to increased

productivity

Video and voice augmentation

Better RoI assurance

Creation of mobile-driven

business processes

Enabling business

transformation

Mobility Makes Sense

But, the learning, culture and knowledge flows from top to bottom. In most organisations, the culture of mobility, digitalisation and other emerging trends have not been groomed.

Jayantha Prabhu, Chief Technology Officer–Essar, feels that companies that have a mobile strategy realise many benefits, but also face key challenges that involve investments and breadth of skills and capabilities.

“Enterprises highlight the challenge of investing in and maintaining varied mobile technology infrastructures and having the expertise and ability to develop the skill sets to support multiple mobile OS platforms and technologies (e.g., iPhone, Android, Microsoft). Given the challenging economic climate and the need to optimise RoI, enterprises must consider the value of making their own investments in these capabilities or look to a third party that can provide these capabilities at lower costs by leveraging the investments/costs across multiple customers,” says Prabhu.

Additional challenges include keeping pace with rapid changes in the mobile OS/hardware landscape, designing to the many types of form factors needed and providing the robust security required to protect not just end-user data but also an enterprise’s brand, reputation and ability to ensure business resilience due to unforeseen events.

Perseverance and RoI demonstrating capabilities would be key to convincing the top management about its benefits; but when IT managers look at RoI, they don’t find mobility yet to take it up from the RoI perspective. Mobility, to them, is more about making people more productive, more agile, more flexible, and anytime-anywhere access.

Vishal Tripathi, Principal Research Analyst, Gartner, says, “The common observation is IT managers are mobile ready as they have been or planning to move into the right direction. But it puts some pressure on their infrastructure, the storage, the end point protection. But there is little confusion in terms of the starting point. There is an additional burden on their shoulders as they are already taking care of CRM, Data Center, etc. A lot of companies have gone the

Vishal Tripathi Principal Research Analyst, Gartner

leadership? So, what does the Gartner report reflect? Is it true or is it just that a strong hold on digitalisation will be observed only with the next gen CIOs, the future IT leaders?

mobile way and come back because of the lack of planning. They did not have a fallback solution. That’s the area where IT managers need to focus on.”

So, when they decide that they need to have a mobile strategy in place, it cannot be just about developing an application. There has to be a broader strategy in place as they need to chalk out a roadmap. Once they decide on the road map, they can proceed to more of an execution phase which involves the investment plan.

“The biggest complexity is the OS. With such diverse OS

platforms, devices and assorted needs, we need one solution development for all

enterprise OS”

S C MittalGroup CTO, IFFCO

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Clear Vision, Hazy Path

Confusion in PlatformThere is a certain element of haziness that exists around platforms. With diverse platforms across mobile devices, security mechanisms and manageability on those devices become tricky challenges for IT managers.Five major challenges around platforms:

A host of mobile platforms with diverse feature sets and capabilities

Lack of certainty/future proofing with respect to mobile platforms

Which aspects of an enterprise provide more value on a mobile device?

Dependence on IT services vendors

With BYOD being the mandate, convincing the top management about security, formulating policy creates certain degree of confusion.

For instance, while the right BYOD strategy can offer benefits such as improved productivity and cost savings, it can also open the door to risks to corporate data security and protection. Navigating to the optimal approach will capitalise on these benefits, while reducing the potential business risks of BYOD. With a very fine line differentiating the personal and business spaces within the device, ambiguities are bound to arise.

“You have to have an idea of what you are going to do, but it should be a vague idea.” That may apply to a celebrated painter Pablo Picasso but not IT folks.

So, it’s time to clear the ambiguities cluttering the minds of ITDMs even before they make a concrete plan to proceed towards mobility.

The ambiguities are many. It starts with the question in ITDM’s mind--where to start from? Then it leads to an even more critical question--do I need it and if I do, what would be the solution?

The ambiguities exist around policies.

Right from developing BYOD policies to that of an

app, and ensuring tight security to customers-

facing mobility, the roads of enterprise mobility

have their own share of twists and curves


EntErprisEs’ MobilE rEadinEss | cover story

who lack business/domain knowledgeTypical inflexibility of telecom

architecturesTG Dhandapani, CIO, TVS Motors,

says, “Deployment of mobility solutions is not just providing laptops or extending email systems in smart phones. It is something substantially more than that. It also includes enabling IT solutions in mobile devices that are not provided in existing IT solutions as well. It is an innovative outcome of digitising business solutions using mobility which are otherwise not deployed due to cost or convenience factors or are compromised. Enterprise mobility implementation is not just about BYOD.” Dhandapani adds that mobility is also about applications and security solutions implementation on mobile devices whether owned by the company or employee. In TVS Motors, dealers have even been given dashboards to monitor business metrics without even visiting office.

Jayanta Prabhu, CTO, Essar, asserts this question is not theoretical because enterprise mobility itself will remain ambiguous if constituents fail to figure out what mobility means for businesses--which he considers to be the most important point.

He says, “The other important point here is to understand that the biggest game changer lies in the fact that, earlier, the centre of innovation was business technology; but now it has moved to the world of the consumer, and every day, there is a new consumer technology that is pushing its way. Users are selecting their devices, installing their apps and working when and where they please.”

A lot of ambiguity exists around supporting mobility, while at the same time, keeping data safe and secure is daunting and requires new approaches. Not everything that is possible on a desktop application or on a website must be on a mobile device; but the user experience must be pleasing and consistent. The same underlying business process must be exposed in an appropriate way.

But the skepticism is less among some young IT managers when it comes to ambiguities.

Sahil Sagar, Head-IS, Aditi Technologies, feels there is no ambiguity about enterprise mobility being the need of day; very soon, the IT fraternity will move towards it.

But Ravi Prakash, Assistant General Manager – IT Infrastructure, Himatsingka Seide, differs with Sahil. He outlines privacy as the utmost ambiguity, liability of device and cost being an additional factor. Ravi has recently upgraded the corporate website to a responsive website to suit the mobile audience. The challenge he faced was that they got to assess if the present infrastructure and the security was ready for the deployment.

Prakash says, “Users feel that the mobile is personal to them and monitoring, tracking of the device is an intrusion into their private space. Then comes the liability factor: who’s liable if the device is stolen? The third interesting

“The smaller players who do not have the capabilities to

offer an end-to-end solution often pitch standalone

technologies to IT Managers”

point is the cost. 80 per cent of leaders and majority professionals claim the end user pays for all or a portion of the expenses associated with their device.”

Vendor Confusion – Product versus Solution The perception of mobility among IT managers are largely influenced by the way vendors pitch mobility to them. The Indian industry is highly segmented and IT managers meet several vendors as they talk about different solutions and offerings around mobility.

For example, some vendors talk about Mobile Application Development Platform (MADP), some about Mobile Device Management (MDM), Mobile Application Management (MAM) platforms from a BYOD perspective, some talk about capabilities and functionalities. Hence, ITDMs can get confused with different jargons, the three

Prashant SharmaCountry Leader, MobileFirst, IBM India

2 2 itnext | f e b r u a r y 2 0 1 4


pieces of technologies and what exactly they need to do.

The confusion arises from the lack of education and expertise in these technologies, as it doesn’t help them evaluate the capabilities of these technologies; the technologies have been floating around but nobody understands them thoroughly from the mobility standpoint.

The other confusion exists around the development of an app which runs on open source, versus a platform which is about managing all aspects of the mobile development lifecycle.

Now, the big question is what do they do to ensure effective mobility plan?

“Deployment of a mobility solution is not just about

providing laptops or extending the e-mail

system in smart phones. It is something substantially

more than that”

The first and most crucial step is to look at how enterprise mobility fits in within the overall strategic direction and define the core reasons for adoption

Look at the current state of business and assess Total Cost of Ownership (TCO), upfront investment for BYOD and ongoing operating costs Calculate the potential savings and generate an estimat-ed ROI Assess the compatibility of applications across various platforms. For example, may be new screens have to be developed to fit into the screen. Portals should be made reactive to auto fit into the screen

Extending IT solutions through mobile increases productivity and ensures information security Information can be served contextually to enable faster decision A high degree of user friendly applications should be developed Understanding the short to mid-term targets in terms of number of apps, downloads, end users etc. Comprehending the business objectives behind mobility--customer service, operational efficiency improvement, revenue/profitability enhancement, lead generation etc.

Steps that IT managers need to adopt to eliminate the ambiguities

technologies to IT managers. There are small shops mushrooming in India that lead to confusion. Also, it is very important for ITDMs to have clarity on their requirements and not be influenced

There is no doubt that vendors do create a great deal of confusion.

The mobility market f r o m t h e ve n do r perspective is highly segmented. On one side of the curve, there are big players like IBM, Cisco and SAP, and on the other, there are comparatively smaller players.

Prashant Sharma, Country Leader, MobileFirst, IBM India, says, “The smaller players who do not have the capabilities to offer an end-to-end solution often pitch standalone

TG DhandapaniCIO, TVS Motors



by vendors. There is a set of people who are well educated about this trend and they have done their homework; and there’s another set of people who struggle to understand the benefits they can reap out of enterprise mobility.”

So, there are two sides of the coin. It all depends on the maturity and understanding of the people who are buying it and also the vendors who interact with them closely.

The three key drivers for enterprise mobility that IT managers and CIOs consider are BYOD, internal enterprise collaboration apps and external customer facing apps.

new Scope of BYODThere is no doubt that a BYOD infrastructure will demand new support processes and new skills from IT Managers. Many feel that mobility is a service desk’s nightmare. Ensuring that the IT support team is well equipped in terms of training, being hands on, etc., would help in effective support.

Organisations should invest and make use of new technologies; for example, the support team must be able to take remotes and access the devices remotely. Team Viewer has now launched an app whereby the support team can take the remote access of any mobile just like any other PC. Organisations also should clearly include expectations from the support team in the policy. For example, would a standby device of the same make and model be made available in case of a device that would need repairs? Having boundaries of some sort will be key to an effective support function in mobility.

Customer Facing AppsMobility plays an important role in customer interactions. The closer the organisation gets to its customers, the sooner it can get feedback.

Based on strategic business goals, the IT team at Essar is working together with the lines of business (LoBs) to outline an agenda called the “mobility voice of the customer.” Trust is not an easy task. Typically, when customers hear brands going mobile, they assume easy access to information and

applications regardless of location, time of day, or device.

Prabhu says, “The prime concern of the organisation is to analyse where mobility is beneficial for the customer and see if the investment makes sense in terms of RoI—and then communicate accordingly.”

For example, a high net income investor may not really want a mobile financial planning application; whereas, a technology-savvy retail customer may want to order household products using her phone. The point is, customers attach attributes to any product and service they consume, and it is important for the organisation to be sympathetic to

at essar, Jayantha and his team have published the byoD Policy where employees are allowed to use their personal smart phones (approved in policy) to access the required enterprise application during the move. Considering the many aspects to take into account, device management is one of the most critical parts to ensure seamless execution of byoD. the following aspects were evaluated while forming strategy for the byoD policy:

single or cross platform supportForm factor and utilitysecurity and mobilityui design/ patterns Devices used by employees/ partnersit service provider’s capability

Cost of device open platform e.g. android or Controlled Platform i.e. ios

Prabhu says, “trust byoD policy is very critical since it has a bearing on users, scalability, manageability, cost, future roadmap, and day-to-day operations. While end-user devices have motivated enterprise mobility programs, they also bring significant challenges. one of the key reasons for the challenges lie in the focus on consumers by most of the platform and device oeMs--in the process ignoring or at least underplaying the needs of the enterprise. this trend is surely changing now; for example, the ‘iPhone in business’ initiative incorporating enterprise needs like connectivity, security, encryption, local/remote wipe, etc.

that need. Prabhu is exploring various scenarios in which customer facing application can be very helpful.

Subhrajyoti Bose, Global Head- Applications, Trelleborg Sealing Solutions, says, “Being a strongly customer oriented organisation, we have a well defined digital strategy in place. Most of our apps are built for the use of external customers. Last year, we developed close to 10 new apps. As of now, we support iOS and Android platforms for these apps. However, for the future, we are keenly investing the mobile application development platforms in the market that allow developing hybrid mobile apps.”

Policy is the BYOD King at Essar

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Making the

most of Mobility

IT Managers are driving major cultural

transformation within the enterprise by

making the environment mobile friendly

and understanding the nuances of it

“I am mobile ready, are you?” Now, that’s the question thrown up by IT managers not only to the top management but the entire organisation. Practice-what-you-preach is the attitude among the new bunch of IT leaders.

Subhrajyoti Bose, Global Head, Applications, Trelleborg Sealing Solutions, thinks the most important aspect is that business objectives around mobility need to be well defined so that the RoI can be measured.

Bose believes the culture has to flow from the top. He says, “The Enterprise Mobility initiative needs to have a strong push from the top management in order to be successful. Considering the current popularity of smart phones, training is often not a major concern. It is important that the app interfaces are as self intuitive as possible. Significant investment is required in terms of experts who can

“Significant investment goes into finding right expertise that can drive the mobile

innovation in the organisation”

Subhrajyoti Bose, Global Head, Applications, Trelleborg Sealing Solution


drive the mobile innovation in the organisation.”

This is a paradigm shift for a large number of the business users, mainly in a traditional industry; a long term commitment from the top management is the most important element in the success of an enterprise mobility strategy.

imbibing a Strong SecurityJayantha Prabhu, CTO, Essar, thinks that once an organisation makes the decision to adopt mobility on various devices, it is paramount to follow the principles of privacy by design by embedding privacy and security directly into the operational process. By applying these systematic methods and assuring end-to-end safeguards, organisations will diminish the costly risk of data loss, and in turn, witness significant long-term gains.

Consistent with the Privacy by Design principle of comprehensive end-to-end security, IT managers examine information management risks and work on practical implementation guidance to mitigate them.

He says while there is no one-size-fits-all solution, IT managers at Essar have followed a comprehensive following five-step process of deployment: Step 1: Requirement Documentation--Understand the usage patterns of all mobile workers Step 2: Technology Selection--Align the right technologies to assure compliance across the infrastructure Step 3: Policy Development--Establish obligations, requirements and criteria in a formal policy Step 4: Security--Address data security risks with effective administrative controls Step 5: Support--Ensure support for end-users with appropriate capabilities and processes.

Users need to understand their part in securing enterprise data: compliance with security policies, password protection, use of unsanctioned apps and lost/stolen devices.

Any IT investment that ITDMs put in should have a business reason, the business imperative that made him go ahead and deploy enterprise mobility. This means he has to have use cases for better evaluation as to what exactly he is going to do with the mobile application. So, the rationale behind enterprise mobility is important--the business case--is it employee productiv-ity, reduction of transaction time or customer satisfaction?

IT managers need to delve deeper and formulate a secure framework which means whether an app been run or not or whether the enterprise assets have been extended to employees and customers. Enterprise assets, here, mean an application, the WiFi environment in which one is roaming within the organisation, e-mails. On giving this access to people in the organisation, ITDMs have to examine the success of the adoption.

Another best practice is from the adoption and usability perspective. The observation is that some employees strongly feel they don’t want to clog their personal devices for their professional commitments. Privacy is a big factor that hinders an effective enterprise mobility deployment across organisations. So, IT managers need to convince the employees that this would not compromise on personal data or privacy. This strategy will not change the employee’s persona.

When IT managers start on this journey, they need to deploy apps for internal as well as for external. They must ensure that they deploy the apps across all the platforms. These apps have extremely short shelf lives. So, the question is about how they could manage new releases, new applications, new versions that come across all the platforms. They must think of a strategy that comes under the model of Build-Deploy- Manage-Secure for all the apps over a period of time.

IT managers also need to check how these apps are going to talk to the back-end. They must ask themselves how they will ensure a robust compliance and security framework around the entire app governance. They have to ensure that there is no scope of reverse engineering of this app and no one can misuse the data in isolation.

IT managers should stop looking at point solutions and look at enterprise mobility in a much holistic way.

The total cost of ownership (TCO) should be looked at while identifying the solution.

IT managers should evaluate the support administration and system management in totality. The four pillars of enterprise mobility cannot be evaluated in silos. It has to be an end-to-end.

What You Must do to be Mobile Ready?


2 6 itnext | f e b r u a r y 2 0 1 4


Companies that have a mobile strategy realise the many benefits but also face key challenges involving investments and breadth of skills and capabilities. Enterprises highlight the challenge of investing in and maintaining varied mobile technology infrastructures and having the expertise and/or ability

to develop skill sets to support multiple mobile OS platforms and technologies.Given the challenging economic climate and need to optimise RoI, enterprises must consider the value of making their own investments in these capabilities or look to a third party that can provide them at lower costs by leveraging the investments/costs across multiple customers. Additional challenges include keeping pace with rapid changes in the mobile OS/hardware landscape, designing to the many types of form factors needed and providing the robust security required to protect not just end-user data but also an enterprise’s brand, reputation, and ability to ensure business resiliency due to unforeseen events.

IT managers should have a keen knowledge of various aspects of mobility like legal, training, support etc. A well drafted, comprehensive and precise policy that clearly states both the employee’s and the employer’s rights, drawing the line between personal and business use.

Ravi Prakash, AGM – IT infrastructure, Himatsingka Seide, says, “The fundamental thing to remember is that that there is no use having a BYOD policy if nobody knows about it. Whether it’s the IT manager or the HR manager, someone needs to take employees through the policy and ensure they fully understand it.”

The IT manager will be required to have a keen sense of UX (User Experience) as well

“It’s just that we need to have a mind shift

that corporate applications can

also be on the mobile”

Sahil SagarHead-IS, Aditi Technologies

leaders need to focus on, such as negotiation skills with vendors, formulating policies that ensures security yet enables the organisation, culture transformation and most importantly, articulating with the right tone and pitch at the corporate table.

IT staff from application developers to service desk, too, would need to be trained to support multiple platforms.

Cultural ShiftThere is obviously a need for some cultural alignment with all these latest technologies. Sahil Sagar, Head-IS, Aditi Technologies, thinks that even as the mobile is becoming a commodity, IT managers are already there in terms of cultural requirements.

He says, “Think about it, how many of us don’t use a mobile in our day to day lives? It’s just that it’s viewed as a very personal space application; we need to have a mind shift: that corporate applications can also be on the mobile.”

At Essar, the most important change is the redesigning of the IT Service Management (ITSM) process for mobility. In order to assess impact, it is important to first identify a few specific areas of service management that may be affected by the enterprises’ use of mobility. Extensive training on service desk application user training incident managers is essential. Some of the training that needs to be conducted includes: technology training, competency training to fit workforce into new roles and workshops to create awareness and acceptance toward mobility.

GroomingThere is nothing that’s different in terms of skills that IT managers need to groom themselves to be ready for mobility. The skills and capabilities are largely inherent. The technical skills required are inherently possessed by IT managers, except in some, who will need to groom themselves in application development.

It’s more of the business skills that these future IT


Enterprise Mobile Management (EMM) comes as an oasis for an IT manager, when it comes to dealing with enterprise mobility. EMM gives a fair amount of visibility and control of the device to IT, which helps in enforcing various set policies. For example, EMM updates of an app can be pushed across devices across platforms, devices can be forced to have complex passwords put in place, and data can be wiped off when the device is lost or stolen or found to be compromised.

IT managers often find it difficult to convince all the stakeholders, who bring about procrastination to overall strategy and implementation planning. This is the major challenge that most IT managers or end users in an organisation face when they look at implementing mobility.

IT managers have to start with a roadmap, then look at strategy and what it would consist of.

integration is the new MantraNow, the crucial point is IT managers have to delve deeper into it and identify the loopholes and fix them.

Organisations have started developing mobile strategies standalone and they need to understand that mobility also paves the way for it to be integrated with the overall strategy.

Vishal Tripathi, Principal Analyst, Gartner, says, “If you are trying to run it in silos, this will not work. The IT and Line of Business (LoBs) partners are not collaborating to set the business goals. Organisations are not adopting practices that instill resilience in the ever changing devices and end user demands.”

Mobility is shifting the cost models, as IT users share the responsibility of using these devices. It cannot be considered purely from cost savings perspective.

Centrally manage and access to all devices in enterprise regardless of operating system Deploy updates, remotely wipe lost or stolen devices, and manage and control company data separate business and personal applications across mobile devices get the online support that’s needed for your organisation to thrive helps improve employee productivity by allowing them to work anywhere anytime helps boost morale by providing employees with flexibility and independence

Benefits of EMM to IT Managers:

The Cornerstone, an

EMM StrategyAn effective EMM strategy will help IT Managers

develop good application platform, provide

greater visibility and control of the mobile

devices and better provisioning of services

2 8 itnext | f e b r u a r y 2 0 1 4


Partnering Vendors The major volatile element in enterprise mobility is centered around the numerous end user devices that are available today with our customers. While it’s important to reach as many customers as possible, the variety of devices poses a strong challenge to the “time to market” and “cost” of the apps. Though there are hybrid technologies available for developing “build once run many” apps, the adoption of the technology itself is a complex process that is driven by future business goals and technology vision. EMM is ultimately about enabling and supporting a complete range of mobile functionality.

Vendors must ascertain their value as partners who are not just trying to sell their products, but show eagerness to get a seat at the decision making table. Especially, when it comes to an emerging trend like mobility, it definitely needs a great deal of collaboration at the client-vendor level.

Ravi Prakash, AGM-IT, Himatsingka Seide, says, “Organisations can partner with vendors to provide and implement MDM tools that will give organisations an integrated real-time view of all mobile devices deployed across the organisation. A vendor with the right experience and expertise can also help organisations develop policies that are well suited to their business.”

“A vendor with right experience and expertise can help develop policies well suited to business”

Vendors often go overboard in creating the hype around enterprise mobility but they fail to understand the custom-ers’ fears and skepticism. Vendors need to go out of the product mode and weave the solutions, keeping in mind the very unique and specific needs of the custom-ers. It will not only help the ITDMs but fuel the vendors’ continuous drive to bring this new trend to the fore.

Capacity PlanningCapacity planning plays an important role in considering EMM, as it’s really different having a few thousand people on a system versus having 50,000. It’s a different approach with regard to deployment, and it’s certainly a different approach with regard to managing the apps and the data once they’re deployed. And so as ITDMs move forward, one of the most important things is to make sure the management tools are appropriate for dealing with those kinds of numbers.

Jayantha Prabhu, CTO, Essar says, “At Essar, we firmly believe Enterprise Mobility will impact how enterprise functions, thereby affecting their business models, technology architecture, sales and marketing, and workforce management.”

Prabhu outlines what he thinks are crit-ical for strategising Enterprise Mobility:

Steps to Ensure an Effective EMM Plan

Look for common approaches and consistency, from multiple devices to multiple apps and multiple points of services. This will help provide a single and consistent end-user experience Establish a minimum level of capabili-ties a device must provide. Not all older devices can be supported with similar security Establish procedures for procurement and servicing of devices as well as streamline device deployment and provisioning. Provide self-service provisioning whenever possible Black-listing and white-listing mobile apps should be considered based on security needs Streamline and automate mobile asset and inventory management Give users a single service desk to access help quickly with any end point device (PC, phone, PDA, or tablet) Consider an EMM provider’s infra-structure, rate of growth, R&D teams and vision. Each is different and so is each end-user organisation. Under-stand the differences and choose what is best for your enterprise now and for the long term.

Ravi PrakashAGM-IT, Himatsingka Seide



unauthorised device access, but it’s powerless if the intended user forwards an email containing sensitive data to an unsecure or malicious recipient. There’s more to enterprise mobility management than security.

A strong EMM strategy will also help mobile end users work more productively by providing them new tools to do their jobs on smart phones and tablets.

In mobility, the benefits lie in transformation that occurs where corporations and ISVs are creating apps specific to mobile that allow people to do things that they fundamentally could not do before mobile. This is about doing things that one literally couldn’t do before because of always-on availability and because of form factor and ease of use.

1Due diligence needed to understand the

manufacturing value chain and identifying where this innovative technology can be utilised - - Being into manufacturing industry, mobility can add business value by simultaneously i m p r ov i n g wo rk f o r c e productivity and attracting new customers.

2Outlining a Strategy for Mobility: Traditional

approach is an “inside out” approach--that is letting technology drive enterprise mobility strategy. Then had stakeholders adapt to their technology infrastructure. With this approach we can end up with a web of immature applications and technologies to integrate and manage.

3Information Technology, critical aspect of Mobile

Strategy - In Essar’s mobile strategy, IT has a larger role to play in terms of security, service management, enterprise architecture, enterprise collaboration, platform integration, and device selection. Indeed, the day to day management of all these elements can overshadow the long-term strategic view of helping the business. However, in a strategy for mobility, IT assesses technology readiness and acts as a trusted advisor to the business.

4Voice of customers/ partners/ suppliers plays important role

in strategizing mobility: The prime concern of the organization is to analyze where mobility is beneficial for the end user and see if the investment makes sense in terms of RoI. For any service or product, we should ask whether any aspect of mobility be incorporated to improve existing services. The next question should be, “What does the customer/ partner/ supplier value?” These fundamental questions lay the

Jayantha PrabhuCTO, Essar

“Effective EMM can provide quantifiable value to firms managing their mobile infrastructure”

foundation for better understanding and drive innovation along with the demands from the market. Naturally, any idea must be subject to evaluation to confirm feasibility and help prioritize initiatives.

Enterprise mobility management (EMM) is an all-encompassing approach to securing and enabling business workers’ use of smart phones and tablets.

EMM typically involves a combination of mobile device m a n age m e nt ( M D M ) , m ob i l e application management (MAM) and mobile information management (MIM). These three technologies address specific concerns, but do not provide complete solutions to the problems that enterprise mobility can cause or exacerbate.

For example, MDM protects against

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Is it all about Apps?Apps is the buzzword but security, BYOD, Information Governance are also taking the centre stage

Enterprise Mobility’s key- word is app. But is it confined only to apps?

Well, no. It would be too half-baked an observation, though in the hype around mobility, it is mostly apps that come to the forefront.

But coming down to serious discus-sion, and aspects like security, policies, and mobile platforms erase the hype.

Sahil Sagar, Head-IS, Aditi Technolo-gies, says, “For us, right now, it’s about internal employees. However, in the long term, it should be a combination of both. Businesses are centred on customers, so I would say end users apps come first. I think collaboration is a good use case. Some transactional applications (leave, etc) also make for a good candidate.”

information GovernanceThe first step is to form an information security governance model consisting of two distinct parts—the information security governance lifecycle and the information security governance framework.

Let’s examine the information security governance framework (which represents the major areas to be managed for ensuring security and privacy across a business and technology environment):

Data Retention and Recovery Information Security Policies and Procedures



How Himatsingka Seide brought HR and ERP to BYOD

CASE STUDY

Many organisations absolutely shudder at the thought of implementing a byoD program. but himatsingka

has enthusiastically embraced byoD with respect to mobile devices to realise the potential efficiency gains when users use their own state of the art smart phones for official purposes; not to mention the cost savings in not having to provide and support company-owned devices.

Prior to byoD, at himatsingka, the company issued blackberry devices, the only mobile devices allowed to connect remotely to the company’s network. these devices were configured via the blackberry enterprise server. they were primarily used for accessing emails. With the smart phone hysteria that started with apple’s iphone, coupled with on boarding of tech savvy employees, himatsingka started looking at a byoD program.

the it team led by the Cio and various stake hold-ers across functions deliberated on the pros and cons of adopting the byoD concept with respect to data security, financial benefits, employee satisfaction etc. an example shared by one of the employees was about how the president of usa was not allowed to use any mobile

device other than a blackberry for reasons of data secu-rity. though a very valid point, this couldn’t cut ice given the adaptation of ios and android based mobiles. it was frustrating for users to carry two different mobiles, one for official purposes, one for personal.

it was decided to take a step by step approach. email being the primary application that was being accessed via mobile devices, users were first given access to only emails from their mobile devices. to manage the security of the message transmission over internet, ssl encryption was deployed. users who would need access to other internal portals were allowed to connect to the network via VPn client from their mobile device after passing through the authentication process.

given the success of the initial program, more applica-tions like those of hr and erP are being considered to be made accessible through mobile devices. there is no doubt that byoD has brought in an increase in employee productivity, allowing quicker decision making, along with employee satisfaction.

“Need of security tools, addressing the multiplying number of users, devices”

Data Architecture and Design Access Management and Role GovernanceData Security and Privacy Security Operations Review and Incident Management

Mitigating Concerns about SecurityIT managers may have a LAN switching infrastructure and put up a wireless infrastructure and then put services on top of it. With both wired and wireless infrastructure, it is a challenge for IT managers. Now, within the IT team, some people will manage LAN, some people will manage wireless and another set of people will manage security.

networking Face to MobilityThe challenge to the IT manager is multifold because security policy is

Mahesh Gupta, Lead-Enterprise Network Architecture Sales, Cisco India & SAARC

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Being in the forefront of innovation has always been a key business strategy

for success at Trelleborg Sealing Solutions. The company’s continuous

endeavour is to provide its customers with the most appropriate and cost-effec-

tive sealing solutions. One of the key success factors for its customer oriented

business philosophy is the systematic use of IT to enhance enterprise mobility,

operational efficiency and real time data availability. There is an international team

of IT experts supporting business objectives by providing the necessary strategies

and systems.

Subhrajyoti strongly believes in the potential of digital natives to create the

next-generation competitive advantage. Continuous research on the ways to attract

and retain a connected workforce has led to the belief that smarter business ena-

blement through mobility is key to future success. Trelleborg’s enterprise mobility

strategy is mainly centred on increasing productivity of its employees, enhancing

efficiency for customers and contributing knowledge to the engineering community

in general. A strong leadership commitment ensures that it has a long term focus on

enterprise mobility initiatives within the organisation.

The company’s business is suited for enterprise mobility since the complex

nature of the business processes lends several business cases for automation. In

June last year, it demonstrated the prototype of a logistics app at the Paris Air Show.

This app automates the direct line feed process that helps its customers reduce

stock levels. Apps like these need a deep understanding of business processes. In

addition, they have created a number of mobile apps for critical engineering calcula-

tions. These apps make life easier for its customers and the engineering community

in general, by increasing the efficiency of their daily work. Consider, for example, the

“Unit and Hardness Converter” app which helps users to convert between more

than 250 frequently used engineering and scientific units in 22 categories.

The app also offers in-app purchase for special dimensions. Such opportunities for

automation come with the challenge of carefully prioritising the portfolio of apps

and aligning the same with business objectives.

Over the last couple of years, the company has invested in building a team of

mobile apps experts in Bangalore, who have helped create several apps on iOS and

Android platforms. It has established a Center of Excellence to focus on research-

ing current and emerging mobility trends like MEAP, Augmented Reality, Location

Based Services, etc., and investigating its applications to its line of business (LoBs).

The COE owns the mobile technology strategy and engages in investigating the

related challenges and their solutions.

This year, it has several new enterprise apps planned to aid and improve engi-

neering, collaboration and business processes for its customers and employees.

All the mobile apps will be available for iOS and Android platforms wide access. It is

continuously on the look out for experts interested in bringing forth a change in the

field of engineering through mobility.

a concern. To an IT team, enterprise mobility is of business relevance in a network service which can be monetised. The IT team needs one network which is both wired and wireless and which leads to a convenient one network, one policy, one management. As multiple users and multiple devices come up, IT managers need to have a robust network.

Mahesh Gupta, Lead, Enterprise Network Architecture Sales, Cisco India & SAARC, says, “There are different segments of security that are getting rolled on and the number of users on these devices is multiplying because the devices are multiplying. The headache for the IT team is to do more with less--which means that with the same staff, it has to manage 2X or 3X number of employees, 2X or 3X number of networks and management consoles, and the multiplying number of calls.”

There are number of measures that can be taken, including deployment of a Mobile Device Management (MDM) platform that can help in erasing devices in case of theft. Simpler ways include designing the app to run over VPN or secure networks to prevent unwanted data leak. Sensitive data can be prevented from being stored in memory, and can be accessed on demand through services. Choosing the right method requires evaluating several factors including the sensitivity of the data, key business objectives, budget available etc.

Four levels of security need to be addressed:

Security in motion--through robust encryption Application security through authorisation controls Device level security for remote management and wipe off Application wrapping--service on demand

Sagar says, “Security is going to be a paramount concern for any organisa-tion, when it comes to mobile. Secure application, and also backing the mobile rollout with some of the organisation policies, will be the key to a successful strategy.”

Business Gets Busier with Mobility at Trelleborg

CASE STUDY


Being Social, Internally

Senior ITDMs are exploring ways to leverage

internal social platforms to engage employees,

paving the way for effective internal

communication and collaboration

Be it IBM Connections, or Yam-mer which has been now acquired by Microsoft, they have been driving social networking within the organisations. Now, some key features of these tools have been extended to mobile.

Prashant Sharma, Country Leader, MobileFirst, IBM India, says, “The real-ity is that the transformation in the inter-net happened ten years back and mobile transformation is happening now. There is an established collaboration frame-work being built through products like connections; faces and some features are being extended through a mobile apps on the mobile phone.”

One of the aspects are the plain vanilla benefits that IT managers realise could be yielded through presence anywhere-anytime. The other aspect is transformative processes which were never thought of earlier.

People will always reap the benefits of what’s already available on the internet, intranet or mobile.

In today’s work environment, execu-tives need to be closer to the customer, support, the supply base, and manage operations, while remaining aware of what is happening in the entire value

“The benefits are clear-it increases collaboration and

responsiveness that helps IT managers”

Prashant Gupta, Head Of Solutions, Verizon Enterprise Solutions

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Facilities management at Essar is aided by enterprise mobility. In this

case, they are working on wall-mount-ed cameras which can deliver a live video stream to smart phones over a low latency network such as 802.11n. This is especially for sensitive plant facilities which can be monitored with-out expensive wiring. This will also help in observing any security discrepancy in real time. Another area in mobility deployment is that wireless sensors can be used both for maintenance management and asset tracking. The latter is of extreme importance in Essar, especially for industries such as

mining, and especially for open cast mines. A variety of mobile assets such as dumpers, excavators, front-end loaders, and large grab buckets are spread across a very large area. GPS-enabled sensors could allow workers to track them on wireless handheld devices, allowing for faster decision making in the event of a change in mine planning.

Remote Terminal Units (RTU) can already communicate wirelessly to control systems. Dispersed supply chain and workforce/operations makes the supply chain manager’s job challenging. The volume of parts,

suppliers, warehouses, and logistics services that need to be synchro-nised is huge. Real-time visibility into the processes at every step, coupled with centralised monitoring,

Applications that allow smart phones to scan barcodes already exist. Coupled with this, RFID tags connected to inventory items can be read using Near Field Communication (NFC) enabled mobile devices. When connected to the ERP system, supply chain managers can get real-time information on materials movement, which is crucial in a Just-In-Time (JIT) environment.

At TVS Motors, TG Dhandapani and his team have consid-ered mobility to be a strategic initiative for creating new

business opportunities and improving productivity across business. The initiatives are three fold--Hygiene, Cost Reduc-tion and Strategic.

Dhandapani says, “This enables employees to get away from the excuse “out of office” or “limited access to email,” etc.

Under Hygiene initiatives, all office productivity improve-ment projects like work flow for approvals for leave, capex, reports on sales, production, quality, project status are also pushed to mobile devices and covered. More than 30 appli-cations have been developed under this category.

Under cost reduction initiatives, around 10 applications have been developed to prevent or minimise loss or create sales opportunity. Applications for sales executives help to improve the dialog with dealer and maximise sales or col-lection. Collection processes are also automated for one of the businesses.

Strategic mobility initiatives help to go close to the cus-tomer and help him interact closely with the business, plan for service, monitoring service history and improve resale value of vehicles. Also, by broadcasting critical incidences to all stake holders, the issues are closed through simultaneous action rather than sequential actions.

Enabling Workforce at Essar

Creating New Business Avenues at TVS

showing the Way - internal enterprise apps

Here are two cases-at Essar and TVS—where the practices in enterprise collaboration apps showcase the power of internal apps and its impact on employee productivity and operational benefits

chain and understanding the impact of their decisions on customer-facing aspects such as marketing and after-sales services can gain a lot from mobility.

For example, capturing feedback has been largely enabled by the use of social media, accessed from mobile devices. Such initiatives will help organisations gain a larger and more loyal customer base.

Essentially, getting feedback on a product or service and hearing about the customer experience need not rely solely on focus groups or other traditional forms of market research. These traditional forms are bottlenecks; it takes time for key data to flow back into the organisation.

Prashant Gupta, Head Of Solutions,

Verizon Enterprise Solutions says, “Enabling the workforce in mobility has its own benefits which have been realised by IT managers. The benefits are clear--it increases collaboration and responsiveness. Most importantly, IT managers need to devise a mobility strategy. It should be a phased and parallel approach.”


xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx | cover story

A Flexible Package will Cost Less than a Cup of Coffee

QHow is Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) going to transform the environment for the

senior IT decision makers?In the backdrop of changing mobility land-scape, today’s enterprise employees want freedom when it comes to their mobile devices and the flexibility to get their work done from anywhere, using the device they choose. With the growing diversity of mobile devices and platforms in the workplace, a multitude of security requirements and the rise in mobile app use, there are significant challenges ahead. A new approach that embraces enterprise mobility Management (EMM) can address all the concerns by pro-viding a single, intuitive management con-sole to manage the employees’ devices, users, groups, apps and services.

BlackBerry Enterprise Services (BES) over the years has become the gold standard for enforcement of IT security and management. BES10 represents a consolidation of Black-Berry’s enterprise mobility management (EMM) product portfolio, which includes Mobile Device Management (MDM), Mobile Application Management, and security solu-tions leveraging the BlackBerry infrastruc-ture. It’s both an Enterprise and a BYOD centric management system. BES10 pro-vides a single, unified management console to manage Android, iOS, BBOS, and BB10 devices. This unified approach helps provide secure mobile access to work email and data in a cost-effective manner. BES Express, the zero-cost software provides enterprises the mobility platform to deploy corporate email and applications on BlackBerry devices and manage them securely, without the need of any additional license cost.

With the launch of cloud, BlackBerry is evolving to extend the scope of its enterprise offering. As the industry has adopted BYOD and mixed mobile environments, we’ve responded with our multi-platform EMM solution to give clients the opportunity to complement their current solutions. We are creating an opportunity for BlackBerry to become a trusted “one stop shop” for secure enterprise mobility solutions. This new solu-tion will give existing clients the choice to expand their EMM strategy with BlackBerry.

Akash Mainra, Business Lead- Large Enterprise, BlackBerry India in conversation with N Geetha.

Akash Mainra, Business-Lead Enterprise, BlackBerry India

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How do you see the migration from On-premise to cloud services on mobile?We see a great potential in the adoption of cloud services especially from the SMB sector. The cloud service will offer an ideal service for companies that want to provide employees easy access to work information and apps on their BYOD or company-provided mobile device, with-out the fuss and expense of an on-premise solution. An enterprise can activate its current smartphone devices on to our cloud offering with ease, with little setup initially on the server console side and then within minutes, as the users enroll their devices to the new cloud based server, they will be up and running.

What are the pain points you witness among customers which prompted you to come out with cloud strategy?Enterprises look for Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) solution which will enable them to easily secure and man-age corporate and personal devices at an affordable cost. Scalability, flexibility and low upfront costs are some of the other critical factors for CIOs while deciding on enterprise mobility solutions. A cloud based offering addresses these concerns for the enterprise.

Also, our enterprise client base has demanded a multi-platform cloud enter-prise mobility management (EMM) solu-tion for a long time. This cloud service will deliver enterprise-grade features and security in a secure, low-cost and easy to use service. With flexible controls for users, groups, apps and content, each organization can define the level of man-agement that’s right for their business and users at subscription pricing.

Elaborate on the cost structure on cloudThe cloud service will be available through a single monthly subscrip-tion which covers both the license and technical support. Subscription pricing means no big upfront costs so long-term cost savings even as it offers compre-hensive device and app management for iOS, Android, and BlackBerry 10 users. All this will be in a flexible pack-

age that will cost less than a cup of coffee a month and its availability dates will be announced shortly.

What kind of applications do you see being used on cloud?IT administrators will be able to use the following features on the cloud:

Comprehensive device and app man-agement for iOS, Android, and Black-Berry 10 users Easy to setup and use online manage-ment console for defining individual and group email, WiFi, VPN, compli-ance settings and more Ability to publish recommended apps to a private app storefront from App Store, Google Companies can monitor devices and automate action to enforce compliance Self-service portal saves time and cost – users can easily manage their own devices without relying on an admin-istrator

What kind of RoI can the CIOs observe using cloud model?For CIOs, the cloud service will deliver

enterprise-grade features and security in a secure, low-cost and easy to use service. With flexible controls for users, groups, apps and content, each organization can define the level of management that’s right for their business and users. The subscription pricing will also result in low upfront costs and long-term cost savings with the added benefits of a comprehensive device and app manage-ment platform for a fleet of disparate mobile devices.

What are the terms and conditions as part of the SLAs?BlackBerry will offer industry leading SLA to its Enterprise customers, exact SLA’s will be shared closer to launch

What is the mode of availing cloud services?The cloud service eliminates the need for organizations to purchase any serv-ers or software – IT administrators sim-ply register online and then log in to the web-based management console to eas-ily define users, enroll devices, set secu-rity controls, and deploy apps.

Can you elaborate on the security model in cloud?The cloud service is a fast, cost effective and secure device and app management solution. For management that goes beyond basic Microsoft ActiveSync, BES 10 Cloud is purpose built to satisfy both business and end user needs. Setting up and on-boarding users, deploying apps and applying the right security settings is a lot easier and requires no IT experience.

What are the architectural changes needed to deploy cloud?No architectural changes will be required, simply the current email system which the Enterprise is using, whether on prem-ise or on cloud, it needs to interface with our cloud version.

Which are the verticals currently using clouds or ready to deploy?As mentioned earlier, we see a huge opportunity in the SMB market along with enterprises across verticals with respect to cloud service adoption.

“With flexible controls for

user groups, apps and

content, each organization

can define the level of

management that’s right for their business and users at subscription

pricing”

ITDMs and CIOs need to overcome the fear factors that prevent them from implementing it

by AjAy KAul

Embracing Enterprise Social

Collaboration

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For many Chief Information Officers (CIOs), enterprise social collaboration is the elephant in the room. Today, only a small percentage of

CIOs embrace social media, making enterprise social collaboration a hard sell to executives who are unsure how it can work for their organization.

There are several reasons why CIOs are reluctant to implement a social collaboration platform in their companies. However, there are just as many reasons for CIOs to temper their fears and embrace social collaboration.

Here are some fear factors that causes hindrance in the adoption of enterprise social collaboration.

Fear FactorsFailure - Unfortunately, there’s one big contributing factor to CIO concerns - the weighty statistic that 70 per cent of internal social initiatives eventually fail. That number doesn’t give the not so pro social networking CIOs much motivation to join the social business trend, despite the fact that the number of successful social collaboration is growing rapidly as best practices are put into place.Lack of Knowledge - Often CIOs don’t participate in social media themselves, or feel it’s something for “the younger generation,” so they haven’t taken the time to be familiar, let alone being comfortable with this platform of communication within the company. Coupling that with the sharing of information companywide makes them a bit nervous in terms of security.Change - Quite often, the company’s culture calls for a change to embrace the ideas of sharing information, connecting virtually and collaborating in a virtual space beyond email. This shift of sharing corporate information across different segments of the company can be daunting for some in the C-suite.

Debunking the myths: Recogniz-ing the benefits of enterprise social collaborationEngagement beats failure - Success

“There are several fear

factors why CIOs are reluctant to implement

a social collaboration

platform”Ajay Kaul

Managing Partner, AgreeYa Solutions

to share and grow, leverage knowledge, whereby they can be empowered to engage with each other. Using these tools will build an infrastructure of collaboration; discussion and co-worker support, and yields multiple benefits including a stronger corporate culture with the feeling of a community.Learning beats ignoring - Social is inevitable. CIOs can educate themselves and the senior leaders about how this

new trend can enhance interactions with employees, business partners, customers, prospects and the web. To be forward-thinking, CIOs need to know how social media works outside the enterprise for them to successfully implement an enterprise social collaboration tool within the walls of the

company. With universal connectivity to information and systems, today’s CIOs need to adopt a more holistic approach to achieving and maintaining their company’s competitive edge.Change beats stagnation - Employees now expect companies to provide the same kind of collaborative technologies they experience at home. Providing the tools that enable employees to share, connect and collaborate is something new for most enterprises. CIOs can deprive themselves and their companies of opportunities to harness employee ideas and connect with customers, partners and vendors while modern business and the consumer are changing around them.

By 2016, 50 per cent of large businesses will have implemented an enterprise social collaboration network; and 30 per cent of these will be considered as essential as email and telephones. The structure of businesses today is shifting from islands, or silos, to one integrated body where ideally each part knows what all the other parts are doing and all parts collaborate to accomplish corporate goals accurately and efficiently.

When integrated into day-to-day work environments, enterprise

social collaboration tools enable communication among employees, customers and partners, helping flatten hierarchies, speed up business processes, and boost efficiency and agility. That’s why CIOs who are already social media savvy are better positioned to embrace and implement successful social collaboration tools.

“It’s one of those things that you don’t know you need until you have it,” says Carl Eberling, CIO and SVP-IT, Encore Capital Group. “Once you have it, you can’t imagine not having it.”

is measured by the adoption rate of employees engaging with each other within the enterprise collaboration program. The failure rate is reduced with proper on-boarding of employees using a collaboration tool. Enterprise social collaboration increases the employees’ effectiveness by providing a platform


EMbRAcINg ENTERPRISE SOcIAL cOLLAbORATION | insight

interview | AdriAn de LucA

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Bret Hartman | interview

Prevent the Bad Guy: use defensive MechanisMs

It is beyond doubt that the entire IT landscape is going through a major transformation, something which is very interesting to watch. This obviously poses an immense chal-lenge for chief information security officers who now have to deal with business risks arising out of this transformation.

emerging threats and risks

There are three compelling areas that CISOs need to watch out for.

expansion of mobility to cloudCISOs are finding it difficult to prevent leakage of information with this trend as more and more devices are joining this league of cloud. The other side of the equa-tion is that as more data and appli-cations are moving on cloud, it’s difficult to determine how much security cloud service provid-ers are able to guarantee or how much you can trust cloud service

providers with corporate data.

expansion of threatsThe second trend is to do with the expansion of threats. The contin-ued growth of threats, the fact that attacks were simpler 10 years ago, are now much more sophisticated which is affecting the intellectual property of the enterprise, which is alarming. This also implies that the attackers are far more moti-vated, and spend a lot of resources, time and technology. These threats exist across verticals. Earlier, we thought that some threats were only targeted towards the govern-ment, but not anymore. Every ver-tical is exposed to threats.

complexity and fragmenta-tion of enterpriseThe third one which is complexity and fragmentation of the technol-ogy has been there for some time. The complexity is a result of the fact that most enterprises are using

over 50-60 security products to be able to secure their environments, not being sure which is the right one. Now, this comes at a great cost and it’s a point to ponder upon in terms of driving the efficiency of the business. Organisations are looking at simpler solutions.

What are the innovations happening in information security which can be lever-aged by the cisOs?The information security space is also struck by innovation, and technology vendors are coming up with tools across functions. Couple of areas, focusing on the scenario in India from my experience as I have been talking to partners, customers and the government. I didn’t find much of a difference in the nature of security challenges faced by CISOs of organisations across verticals.

I will start with probably the big-gest one and another from the per-

Bret hartman, VP and CtO, Security, Cisco, argues that the classic defense in-depth argument on what CISOs should do to prevent the attackers. In conversation with n Geetha, Hartman recommends deployment of a set of authentication tools and defense mechanism to have the right visibility of the network fabric to prevent attacks.

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interview | Bret Hartman

spective of Cisco, which is the whole change in network infrastructure.

There is a big change that’s going on in networking. We call it Application Centric Infrastruc-ture (ACI). Change lies in the way the whole network will be used and controlled in the future. The main importance of that innova-tion is that it opens up the APIs with that network, so that appli-cation can get maximum informa-tion out of the network.

So, the notion of the dynamic aspect of networks is very trans-formational to information security. This is because what’s happening today is that, in the information security world, we always have challenges with the changing trends.

The incredible aspect of Soft-ware Defined Networking (SDN) and ACI which is the new buzz word is allowing us to change the policies and that too on the fly, quickly and efficiently.

After coming to Cisco, I realised the use of network to be able to enforce security in this new world is phenomenal.

Also, another big innovation is taking place in the area of mobility. With all kinds of devices around, it has become extremely challenging to ensure the data is protected. So, the challenge is how to have those flexible policies that can decide who is to have access to what ser-vices with those devices. Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) is a security policy management and control platform. What it does is, it automates and simplifies access control and security compliance for wired, wireless, and VPN con-nectivity. Cisco ISE is primarily used to provide secure access and guest access, support BYOD initia-tives and enforce usage policies.

Also, in the latest enhancement envelope, capabilities like integra-tion with mobile application man-agement (MAM) and mobile device management (MDM) technologies,

support scalable to 250,000 active and 1,000,000 registered devices and integration with security information and event manage-ment (SIEM) and threat defense technologies

are there situations where net-work has control over devices in terms of policies?Well, to some extent. It’s very dif-ficult to complete the control of those devices. There is so much chaos on the endpoint because in a BYOD scenario, it’s up to the user as to how aware he is in terms of security and what kind of data is residing on his device.

What are the major steps enterprises should take in terms of managing ByOd?

It’s very difficult to lock down in a BYOD scenario with both corpo-rate and personal data usage on a device. That’s the basic problem.

The first requirement is to use state-of-the art tools to control the configuration of that device with the help of MDM and MAM prod-ucts; but the challenge there is that the technology isn’t perfect.

So, it is important for CISOs of these organisations to keep up with technology as it keeps evolving.

The second step should be to use best of breed solutions to

“ Technologies like network fabric and SDN can be used as they are easier to clean up by partitioning the network or mediating into changing access policy. Analytics is critical to tackle the security problem”



project the information on these devices and operating systems within the devices.

The third recommendation would be to balance between enabling the employees to use these devices, respecting the pri-vacy of the user and controlling corporate data.

Another area would be to have good ways to monitor those devices as per the compliance. Having the right kinds of feeds from those devices for logging and monitoring should be one of the best practices.

So, having the right visibility of the usage to better control of the devices and better function of the policies are key to a secure environment.

The most important step would be to plan for change as these tech-nologies will keep evolving.

is there a compartmentalised approach that cisOs take today?There is a notion of containers in the mobile devices but it’s a very immature area. There are several third party vendors who provide containers for the mobile devices but there is no consistency there.

And because these containers depend on operating systems, it implies that there still may be ways, potentially, to bypass those containers.

What are the best practices you recommend to tackle these next-gen threats?We talk about innovation, dur-ing, before and after an attack. It’s a great guideline to identify the different source of technolo-gies that one can apply and how to apply them.

Before an attack, there has to be a set of defense mechanisms deployed in advance to protect the system.

The classic defense in-depth argument is that do your best to prevent the bad guy from break-ing into that system--classic fire-walls, access control mechanisms, different encryption approaches, the whole set of authentication and a long list of mechanism that should be deployed.

And that’s where organisations have made huge investment.

The challenge though is that in this highly complex world where everything is connected, I cannot guarantee that no one will bypass the system.

So, this leads to more and more investments in the next

two phases: during-an-attack and after- an-attack.

During an attack, it’s impor-tant to detect that an attack has occurred. A lot of focus is needed to even know that there is an attack. When I talk to companies that may be a little less mature in security, they seem to be con-fident that they have not been attacked. They may not even be aware of an attack as intellectual properties are not stolen like materials you possess in your house. The intellectual properties don’t disappear but the attackers can copy and run away without leaving any signs of theft.

So, it’s important for enter-prises to detect during an attack; it would not be wise to miss this phase of protection.

Now, in some cases, there may not be mechanisms to protect and detect in before-an-attack and during-an-attack phases. So, one has to deal with the aftermath of an attack, the third phase.

In this phase, it’s critical to see what levels of breaches have taken place and mediation-- how is it going to get cleaned up?

Typically, the technologies that people have in place today are quite immature in this space. Most of it is very manual, they can take weeks or months to clean up because one has to fig-ure out what machines were compromised and do their best to get rid of malware, as hackers tend to put executables all over the place. So, this after-an-attack phase is the least mature in the entire technology security space.

Technologies like network fab-ric and SDN can be used as they are easier to clean up--by parti-tioning the network or mediating into changing access policy.

What ties them together is the evolution of analytics space, the big data space. Analytics can be really advantageous to tackle the whole security problem.

Find other inter-views online on

the website www.itnext.

in/resources/interviews

cube chat AnirbAn ChAkrAborty

4 4 itnext | f e b r u a r y 2 0 1 4

High onRetail

An urge to do something new and challenging has always inspired Anirban Chakraborty, DGM – IT, Future Group. Steve Jobs inspires him too.

The sheer love for technology and its ability to change the way businesses function brought him to IT. A turning point of his career was the assign-ment in Tesco, one of the largest retail chains. Chakraborty says, “The tremendous amount of confidence that I derived out of managing projects in a number of countries where Tesco had pres-ence was immense. The engagement with busi-ness, understanding of retail as a business and technology requirements, stakeholder manage-ment, managing project budgets and cross-func-tional people across geographical locations--all these were critical learning points of my career.”

He loves travelling, even at work, and that was all the more reason why his stint at Tesco excited him.

Working with Future group is also another turn-ing point for him. The sheer pace, the ever changing demands from IT, people-process-technology gover-nance required in the middle of continuous changes in priorities are very unique in the organisation and it keeps him on his toes. On Future Group, he says, “There is no doubt that Future Group has been in the forefront in bringing about a revolution in the retail segment, it has revolutionised organised retail in India and played a pioneering role.”

At Future Group, he plays a pivotal part in enabling IT for the large retail chain.

Heading the application support function Managing App release management Technical and functional support Heading the service desk function

No alternative for

hard work

Retail in IT has always made ITDMsface the challenge of constantly keeping pace with the rapid technological changes and trends. Anirban Chakraborty, DGM-it, Future Group has been helping retail industry in taking that leap.

By SuBhankaR kunDu

cube chat


The fast evolving IT in retail has been phe-nomenal, as IT always needs to be aligned with business demands; that makes the task more challenging.

Chakraborty says, “We ensure that the solutions and systems that are being deployed in the organisations are always up to date by being closely aligned with the business. Continuous interactions with the business, the reviews and the governance meetings with stakeholders throws up insights in technology areas.”

Chakraborty and his team have developed and implemented several innovations.

The Infrastructure team has implemented the hosted share desktop project.With this technology, it helped Future group adopt BYOD. Another innovation, the in-store video

analytics program that is implemented, is aimed at macro and micro level analysis of customer behaviour, purchase patterns, sales and transactions, marketing campaign effec-tiveness. Anirban loves challenges.

The biggest challenge he faced was when he started a new team of application support/maintenance with new objectives, goal and demands.

“A few months of extreme hard work with micro-level analysis and planning, with speedy executions and a hawk’s eye on pro-cess adherence helped me sail through the trying times and streamlined the process completely,” he says.

Anirban wants to start his own business entrepreneurship and an NGO. This is one dream that still remains unfulfilled.

Fact File

Full name anirban Chakrabort y

Current designation dgm

Current role head--serviCe desk and appliCation support/maintenanCe

expertise strategiC planning and setting up it blueprint, it operations, inFrastruCture management, business proCess reengineering, transFormation leadership, projeCt management, selling it solutions to business, business Continuit y planning, vendor management, Crm, solution arChiteCture, strategiC outsourCing, p&l, business engagement and Customer advoCaCy at the global level

Work experienCe 17+ years

Favourite quote “iF you Want to Walk Fast, Walk alone. iF you Want to Walk Far, Walk together!”

Favourite book First, break all the rules by marCus buCkingham and Curt CoFFman

Favourite Food authentiC bengali deliCaCies, Chinese

Favourite destination the english Countryside, hill stations oF north and north east india

Favourite gadget For Work blaCkberry, android

Favourite gadget For personal use android

“A few months of hard work with micro-level analysis and planning, with speedy

executions and a hawk’s eye on process adherence helped me sail through”

Sony VAIo TAp 20 This desktop-tablet hybrid is about

getting you a stylish, space-saving all-

in-one desktop with a built-in battery. It

has great looks and design, decent hardware

that performs well, and offers good multimedia

potential. However, it’s rather large for a

tablet when it comes to personal use,

and quite cumbersome to

move around.

Price: ` 69990

TrAnSIT BlueTooTh SpeAker By Soen

This pair of bluetooth speaker by Soen

Audio offers an extremely immersive

audio experience. Audio sounds are much

more detailed than what most alternatives in

the same price bracket offer. Bass is on

the lighter side, mostly because of the

size limitations for the sake of

portability.

neW Price: ` 12990

InTex SoundBox SmASh BT

It is compact, has an eye catching and

comes with integrated subwoofer for powerful,

deep lows without distortion. It has range of

connectivity options including a iPod, iPhone and iPad

dock, Bluetooth, LineIn, AUX and Video Out. Since this

has a standard connector and not the lightning

connector used in the latest iPhone 5, 5S, 5C

and the latest iPod touch, you can’t dock

these in the speaker.

Price: ` 4 ,999

Cooler mASTer STorm deVASTATor

This gaming mouse and keyboard

combo has a great design with a decent

build quality and adequate features. To sum

it up, the Cooler Master Storm Devastator

combo is one of the best cheap gaming combos

we’ve come across in a while. We would

suggest gamers who have a medium

to low budget for a decent gaming

keyboard and mouse combo.

hoT

Price: ` 3100

update

4 6 ITnexT | f e B r U A r y 2 0 1 4

here is a preview of the latest tech toys on the block to add to your arsenal. Take your pick and then go splurging!

Like something? Want to share your objects of desire? Send us your wish-list or feedback to [email protected]

Indulge The hottest, the coolest and the funkiest next generation gadgets and devices for you

update


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A platform to air your views on the latest developments and issues that impact you

Ashish KhAnnAAssIsTANT VIce PresIdeNT - cOrPOrATe IT - OberOI GrOuP I believe the aaP Govern-

ment will open up lot of

new opportunities for tight

e-Governance framework

around. This would mean

more opportunities for SI’s

on integration, automa-

tion and enablement of

every government / public

sectors online. There are

other IT professionals who

would believe that Kejriwal

will go aggressive on e-

Governance framework like

Passport, License, Home

registration etc. enable-

ment of web based access

to all data will bring a lot of

transparency, a govern-

ment’s core agenda and

this can only be done by

using IT tools.

LALit KumAr seNIOr MANAGer - INfOrMATION TecHNOlOGy, JbM GrOuPCloud implementation of

various Government pro-

cesses will help people. It

also brings in a great deal

of transparency in terms of

processes. e-Governance

is a must do but it just

doesn’t stop there. There

should be infrastructure

and system in place to

monitor and manage the

e-Governance portal rather

than running it just for the

sake of it. e-Governance is

definitely one of the focus

areas given the lack of

transparency in the way

Government functions but

we should not restrict our

expectations from aaP

in terms of IT to only e-

Governance.

ViKAs JAinseNIOr MANAGer –IT, erNsT & yOuNGWhile aaP Government can

take lot of initiatives to spe-

cifically boost the IT sector

but whether it does that or

not currently, it has to be

observed but it has certainly

raised lot of expectation in a

common man’s mind and it

will be an interesting phase

in our lives to see a very

different phase of democ-

racy. Though e-Governance

should be one of the key

focus areas but boosting IT

sector in Delhi should be top

priority as we can see more

and more investments are

going to Gurgaon and Noida.

The IT and bPO compa-

nies, largely, have moved

to either Noida or Gurgaon.

aaP Government needs to

promote Delhi as IT Hub

as well.

Will AAP Govt. focus on e-Governance?

open DebAte

your views and opinion matter to us. Send us your feedback on stories and the magazine to the editor at [email protected]

booK For you

Straight to the Top: CIO Leadership in a Mobile, Social, and Cloud-Based World

STar VaLue:

IT NEXT VerDict an invaluable guide to help IT and

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ITDMs are looking to infuse the

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move away from controlled / inter-

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the impact social media is having on

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auTHOr: GreGOry S. SmITHPubLISHer: JOHN WILey & SONSPrICe: `3566

my log Sangita thakur varma managing Editor, india now

4 8 itnext | f e b r u a r y 2 0 1 4

As Nandan Nilekani readies to take the plunge into politics, many in the tech world are wondering: can a techie make a good administrator? From my vantage point the question begs another question in the form of an answer: “Why not?”

What does an administrator do in any field that a techie is not qualified to do? Half the battle is won for a technology manager as he gets his training in business administration on the job. Yes, that’s true. Today’s workplaces with their overlapping functionalities are the training grounds for many a good administrator who is from the technology field and who has had no formal training in business or financial management. IT managers have long since evolved from being mere providers of services to partners in business enterprise. This has obviously entailed their being good organisers, facilitators and administrators.

Look closer home at your own portfolio. When software or hardware purchase decisions are to be made for the company, it is the techie who is the chief decision-maker and the financial manager. He is also the one who will

Can a techie be a good administrator?Trained to deliver - IT Managers have evolved from being service providers to business enablers.

cube chat AnirbAn ChAkrAborty cube chat

6 7f e b r u a r y 2 0 1 4 | itnext6 6 itnext | f e b r u a r y 2 0 1 4

Heading the service desk function The fast evolving IT in retail has been phe-nomenal, as IT always needs to be aligned with business demands; that makes the task more challenging.

Chakraborty says, “We ensure that the solutions and systems that are being deployed in the organisations are always up to date by being closely aligned with the business. Continuous interactions with the business, the reviews and the governance meetings with stakeholders throws up insights in technology areas.”

Chakraborty and his team have devel-oped and implemented several innovations.

The Infrastructure team has imple-mented the hosted share desktop project.With this technology, it helped Future group adopt BYOD. Another innovation,

the in-store video analytics program that is implemented, is aimed at macro and micro level analysis of customer behaviour, purchase patterns, sales and transactions, marketing campaign effectiveness. Anirban loves challenges.

The biggest challenge he faced was when he started a new team of application sup-port/maintenance with new objectives, goal and demands.

“A few months of extreme hard work with micro-level analysis and planning, with speedy executions and a hawk’s eye on process adherence helped me sail through the trying times and streamlined the pro-cess completely,” he says.

Anirban wants to start his own business entrepreneurship and an NGO. This is one dream that still remains unfulfilled.

high onRetail

An urge to do something new and challenging has always inspired Anirban Chakraborty, DGM – IT, Future Group. Steve Jobs inspires him too.

The sheer love for technology and its ability to change the way businesses function brought him to IT. A turning point of his career was the assignment in Tesco, one of the largest retail chains. Chakraborty says, “The tremendous amount of confidence that I derived out of man-aging projects in a number of countries where Tesco had presence was immense. The engage-ment with business, understanding of retail as a business and technology requirements, stake-holder management, managing project budgets and cross-functional people across geographical locations--all these were critical learning points of my career.”

He loves travelling, even at work, and that was all the more reason why his stint at Tesco excited him.

Working with Future group is also another turning point for him. The sheer pace, the ever changing demands from IT, people-process-tech-nology governance required in the middle of con-tinuous changes in priorities are very unique in the organisation and it keeps him on his toes. On Future Group, he says, “There is no doubt that Future Group has been in the forefront in bring-ing about a revolution in the retail segment, it has revolutionised organised retail in India and played a pioneering role.”

At Future Group, he plays a pivotal part in enabling IT for the large retail chain.

Heading the application support function Managing App release management Technical and functional support

Fact File

Full name anirban Chakrabort y

Current designation dgm

Current role head--serviCe desk and appliCation support/maintenanCe

expertise strategiC planning and setting up it blueprint, it operations, inFrastruCture management, business proCess reengineering, transFormation leadership, projeCt management, selling it solutions to business, business Continuit y planning, vendor management, Crm, solution arChiteCture, strategiC outsourCing, p&l, business engagement and Customer advoCaCy at the global level

Work experienCe 17+ years

Favourite quote “iF you Want to Walk Fast, Walk alone. iF you Want to Walk Far, Walk together!”

Favourite book First, break all the rules by marCus buCkingham and Curt CoFFman

Favourite Food authentiC bengali deliCaCies, Chinese

Favourite destination the english Countryside, hill stations oF north and north east india

Favourite gadget For Work blaCkberry, android

Favourite gadget For personal use android

“A few months of hard work with micro-level analysis and planning, with speedy

executions and a hawk’s eye on process adherence helped me sail through”

No alternative for

hard work

Retail in IT has always made ITDMsface the challenge of constantly keeping pace with the rapid technological changes and trends. Anirban Chakraborty, DGM-it, Future Group has been helping retail industry in taking that leap.

By SuBhankaR kunDu

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ITDMs and CIOs need to overcome the fear factors that prevent them from implementing it

by AjAy KAul

For many Chief Information Officers (CIOs), enterprise social collaboration is the elephant in the room. Today, only a small percentage of

CIOs embrace social media, making enterprise social collaboration a hard sell to executives who are unsure how it can work for their organization.

There are several reasons why CIOs are reluctant to implement a social collaboration platform in their companies. However, there are just as many reasons for CIOs to temper their fears and embrace social collaboration.

Here are some fear factors that causes hindrance in the adoption of enterprise social collaboration.

Fear FactorsFailure - Unfortunately, there’s one big contributing factor to CIO concerns - the weighty statistic that 70 per cent of internal social initiatives eventually fail. That number doesn’t give the not so pro social networking CIOs much motivation to join the social business trend, despite the fact that the number of successful social collaboration is growing rapidly as best practices are put into place.Lack of Knowledge - Often CIOs don’t participate in social media themselves, or feel it’s something for “the younger generation,” so they haven’t taken the time to be familiar, let alone being comfortable with this platform of communication within the company. Coupling that with the sharing of information companywide makes them a bit nervous in terms of security.Change - Quite often, the company’s culture calls for a change to embrace the ideas of sharing information, connecting virtually and collaborating in a virtual space beyond email. This shift of sharing corporate information across different segments of the company can be daunting for some in the C-suite.

Debunking the myths: Recogniz-ing the benefits of enterprise social collaboration

Embracing Enterprise Social

Collaboration

“There are sev-eral fear factors why CIOs are

reluctant to im-plement a social

collaboration platform”

Ajay KaulManaging Partner, AgreeYa Solutions

collaboration increases the employees’ effectiveness by providing a platform to share and grow, leverage knowledge, whereby they can be empowered to engage with each other. Using these tools will build an infrastructure of collaboration; discussion and co-worker support, and yields multiple benefits including a stronger corporate culture with the feeling of a community.Learning beats ignoring - Social is inevitable. CIOs can educate themselves and the senior leaders about how this new trend can enhance interactions

with employees, business partners, customers, prospects and the web. To be forward-thinking, CIOs need to know how social media works outside the enterprise for them to successfully implement an enterprise social collaboration tool within the walls of the

company. With universal connectivity to information and systems, today’s CIOs need to adopt a more holistic approach to achieving and maintaining their company’s competitive edge.Change beats stagnation - Employees now expect companies to provide the same kind of collaborative technologies they experience at home. Providing the tools that enable employees to share, connect and collaborate is something new for most enterprises. CIOs can deprive themselves and their companies of opportunities to harness employee ideas and connect with customers, partners and vendors while modern business and the consumer are changing around them.

By 2016, 50 per cent of large businesses will have implemented an enterprise social collaboration network; and 30 per cent of these will be considered as essential as email and telephones. The structure of businesses today is shifting from islands, or silos, to one integrated body where ideally each part knows what all the other parts are doing and all parts collaborate to accomplish corporate goals accurately and efficiently.

When integrated into day-to-day work environments, enterprise

social collaboration tools enable communication among employees, customers and partners, helping flatten hierarchies, speed up business processes, and boost efficiency and agility. That’s why CIOs who are already social media savvy are better positioned to embrace and implement successful social collaboration tools.

“It’s one of those things that you don’t know you need until you have it,” says Carl Eberling, CIO and SVP-IT, Encore Capital Group. “Once you have it, you can’t imagine not having it.”

Engagement beats failure - Success is measured by the adoption rate of employees engaging with each other within the enterprise collaboration program. The failure rate is reduced with proper on-boarding of employees using a collaboration tool. Enterprise social


EMbRAcINg ENTERPRISE SOcIAL cOLLAbORATION | insight

interview | AdriAn de LucA



Prevent the Bad Guy: use defensive MechanisMs

It is beyond doubt that the entire IT landscape is going through a major transformation, something which is very interesting to watch. This obviously poses an immense challenge for chief information security officers who now have to deal with business risks arising out of this transformation.

emerging threats and risks

There are three compelling areas that CISOs need to watch out for.

expansion of mobility to cloudCISOs are finding it difficult to prevent leakage of information with this trend as more and more devices are joining this league of cloud. The other side of the equa-tion is that as more and more data and applications are moving on cloud, it’s really very difficult to determine how much security cloud service providers are able to guarantee or how much you can

trust cloud service providers with corporate data.

expansion of threatsThe second trend is to do with the expansion of threats. The contin-ued growth of threats, the fact that attacks were simpler 10 years ago, and are now much more sophisti-cated which is affecting the intel-lectual property of the enterprise, which is alarming. This also implies that the attackers are far more motivated, and spend a lot of resources, time and technology. These threats exist across verti-cals. Earlier, we thought that some threats were only targeted towards the government, but not anymore: every vertical is exposed to threats.

complexity and fragmenta-tion of enterpriseThe third one which is complexity and fragmentation of the technol-ogy has been there for some time. The complexity is a result of the

fact that most enterprises are using over 50-60 security products to be able to secure their environments, not being sure which is the right one. Now, this comes at a great cost and it’s a point to ponder over in terms of driving the efficiency of the business. So, organisations are looking at simpler solutions.

What are the innovations hap-pening in information security which can be leveraged by the cisOs?The information security space is also struck by innovation, and technology vendors are coming up with tools across functions. I will touch upon a couple of areas, focusing on the scenario in India from my experience as I have been talking to partners, customers and the government. I didn’t find much of a difference in the nature of security challenges faced by CISOs of organisations across verticals.

I will start with probably the

Bret hartman, Vice President and Chief technology Officer, Security, Cisco, argues that the classic defense in-depth argument is that CISOs should do the best to prevent the bad guy from breaking into the system. In conversation with n Geetha, Hartman recommends deployment of a whole set of authentication tools and defense mechanism in order to

Bret Hartman, Vice President and CTO, Security, Cisco, on how to prevent the bad guy from breaking into the system. Pg 40

Embracing Enterprise Social Collaboration. Pg 38

Anirban Chakraborty, DGM-IT, Future Group has been helping retail industry in taking that leap. Pg 44

call in the vendors and select the final product. He is the one to oversee implementation, trial run and the final upkeep. Apart from this, the techie will carry on his relationship with the vendor in future. If you are the service provider then again you are there at the forefront right from the time you are formulating the pitch to sitting in vendor meets, working out the financial deal to working on the client side.

In the bygone days of management, a requisition would have been forwarded for the administration to take a decision on such a purchase and if you were the service provider, your role would have come at the end of the negotiation. In fact, the management style has undergone such dynamic changes that every decision of the company is now a combined decision of the various departments who have sat together to arrive at it.

And in all this, the techie clearly has a better claim to the administrator’s chair given his precise vision unclouded by any emotion, his discipline, ability to encode the toughest codes, dedication to the job at hand which makes him deliver in the wired world.

3 EssEntial REads

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