"Technology companies may have a product to use, but they lack the acumen, knowledge and science to correlate data sets."

Ranendra Datta
Vice President – IT
SABMiller India

With over 24 years of experience in varied field of IT operations and strategy, currently Ranendra is responsible for developing short term and long term goals for IT in alignment with business strategy and formulating strategic plans to implement it. He has earlier worked for GlaxoSmithKline and Western India Industries. Ranendra was chosen a finalist in CIO 100 2012 for his acumen to use IT to transform the business at the enterprise efficiently.

Challenges in technology to meet enterprise needs in 2013 and expectations

Business analytics being the top most challenge for enterprise to ensure appropriate decisions are made with the data science. This requires acumen, knowledge, expertise and science to relate data from a structured data to unstructured data elements. Technology companies may have a product to use, but they lack the acumen, knowledge and science to correlate data sets and that I see a big challenge.

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

With ever evolving technology, CIOs role gets tougher by the day. Technology in use rather than new technology keeps me awake in the night. The technology solutions in use is never stable with new patches being deployed every day/ every week and I am most disturbed as it brings in more challenges to test before deploying and I am not sure if that will safeguard/ remove my pain points. This brings in another view that solutions today are so complex that doesn’t make the job easier any longer but challenging by the day.

Technology trends with significant impact on enterprise business environment

1. Cloud technology and security associated with it.
2. Data surge in digital technology and associated analytics to open new opportunities

My roles and responsibilities as a CIO

My role as CIO has been ever evolving. My role is now becoming more strategic from operational and tactical over time. The business now needs my involvement in various business initiatives and projects.

Lessons learned and advice for fellow CIOs

1. Stay grounded to realities- things will breakdown and fail learn from it and implement the experience in next initiative.
2. Always keep yourself updated with what's happening around the world, but implement those that are important for business value.
3. Networking with peers within and outside the organization helps you to understand the business and implement technologies better.