"Having a proper usage of an IT implementation is more difficult than implementing it"

Ajay Kumar Meher
Sr. Vice President & Head - IT & Post production
Sony Entertainment Television

Ajay has 17 years of experience in the IT industry with business on the front end and Strategy and Execution as the strength and loves challenges. And he was awarded CIO-100 for year 2009, 2010, 2011 & 2012 by IDG Media. His specialties are Strategy and Execution, Project Management, Process Creation and management, IT Cost management, Service/solution creation, Business process re-engineering.

Challenges in technology to meet enterprise needs in 2013 and expectations

One of the biggest challenges for 2013 is right usage of BIG DATA. For example, if we are talking about CRM solutions, do we have abilities to capture customers view 360 degree is what makes the solutions critical? Do we have ability to know customers view from Social platform, Internet, Print etc.? Though the solutions are available, but it doesn’t capture the requirement fully. The technology providers believe that their solutions will meet all industry, but with varied industry, the requirements are also different and the technology providers should understand the business processes of an industry and should have certain tweaked solutions from their offering.

The areas in business environment where solutions do not yet exist or not up to the mark, and which if existed, would've made job easier

The major pain area today is the integration of available sources of information and solution to each other. Though solutions are available, they are not adequate or expensive to the core.

For example,
1. In a broadcast industry, the Broadcast Management Solutions are the core to the business. The IP owner of these solutions doesn’t want to have integration points to their solution in the fear of revenue losses. That makes the BMS solutions isolated from other systems and services.
2. The integration of Social information in a traditional IT Solution usually gives 360 Degree views of that solution. Though BIG Data claims to provide solutions on this, but the technology partners are yet to stitch all the blocks to make it as a solutions.

Technology trends impacting enterprise business environment

1. BIG Data: This trending technology will have big impact to a broadcaster, For a broadcaster, they would like to pick meaningful information from many non- traditional source like Audio/ Video files, Internet etc. BIG Data offers that though, the solutions are yet to have maturity.
2. Mobility: Though mobility solutions are available, making it more meaningful and efficient could be a point of observation. Right usage of technology such as “Second Screen”, “NFC” etc. could be a way forward to have excitement with the users/ customers and to have efficiency in the solution.

My roles and responsibilities as a CIO

The role of CIOs are changing and evolving. Primarily, it’s getting into more business oriented and expectations are to be hand to hand with other CXOs to meeting their business objectives. For us the role is more into expanding the technology horizon in the organization. A broadcasting organization has many kinds of technology such as, IT, Broadcast Tech, Content Production Tech etc.

Lessons learned and advice for fellow CIOs

The major lesson learned is Drive “Organization Agenda” rather than “Technology Agenda”. Many times, we get motivated to implement a technology if that has a good technology edge. But that solution/ technology may not be exciting our customers with respect to their need. So have the customers’ requirement in your mind before having any solutions going through.

Second lessons learned is having a proper usage of an IT implementation is more difficult than implementing it. Post the implementation of any project, drive the usage for a good amount of time. If that drive is not there, there may be a good reasons and chances for the users
to fall back on the older process and systems.