"Time is becoming scarce and therefore process owners are not ready to wait for months for solutions to come alive."

Vivek Khanna
VP – Finance & Information System
Havells India

Vivek, a Chartered Accountant by education joined Havells India as Deputy Manager – Finance to manage Account functions.  Presently, Vivek is heading Global IT, Risk Management & Corporate Governance Department along with guiding strategic decisions of Finance and Accounts. He is also on the Board of INDUS, SAP users group of Indian subcontinent having around 800 plus customers.

Challenges in technology to meet enterprise needs in 2013 and expectations

There is a lot of scope for digitization of marketing and to make use of social networking tools or big data analytics but there is no clear cut cost benefit analysis available for the same. Second most big challenge is the long implementation time lines of any IT solution. Time is becoming scarce and therefore, process owners are not ready to wait for months for solutions to come alive. Once decided they want it on as yesterday basis.
For 2013, I am looking for a complete solution for marketing digitization as well as integration of factory floor operations with ERP/ central data making way to automation and production data analysis.
Expectation from technology providers is to provide clear solutions on new technologies after having thorough understanding of customer requirements and at a logical cost.

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

Despite technological advancement two major issues are keeping most of us awake- One fraud proof/ fool proof accounting systems and Second, information security.
Our dependence on technology is so high, that manual checks and balances have been forgotten and humans are exploiting technological loop holes and we see rise in frauds leaving organizations at a greater risk. This is one big challenge ahead of CIOs.
Information security is another area that poses major threats to companies and thus CIOs. While there is a lot of work done in the area but a lot is still to be done.

Technology trends impacting enterprise business environment

Communication on-the-go has become an integral part of our professional lives and hence ease of communication has found new meaning- mobile phones. Like many other organizations we have been using email solution on mobile platform for years, however effective utilization of mobile devices happened when we deployed an application for field sales staff on Blackberry devices to take care of their sales, MIS and other information including self service activities in 2010. This application enabled them to access customer information on the move and made their discussion fruitful and result oriented. We are now working to extend similar capabilities to our dealers and distributors helping them access all their information on the move. Educating our dealers and distributors about utilising technology to maximise on time and enhancing their efficiency is a task that we have undertaken. We are helping them digitise to reap all benefits that we are offering.

My roles and responsibilities as a CIO

In the last decade, my role has changed from a "system enabler" to "back office automation" and now to front area of "marketing digitization" and "factory automation". I am spending more and more time with marketing department helping them adopt suitable digital strategy. This also entails streamlining operations through various CRM tools and creating customized tools for capturing end- sales and engaging end customers etc. Constant up gradation of various technologies, software and hardware is a critical part of world class marketing department. My perception over these years has changed dramatically. Being a finance person I believed that IT is more or less revolving around finance and accounts only, but today its everywhere and more relevant to marketing and production.

Lessons learned and advice for fellow CIOs

The foremost advice to my fellow CIOs is to have an in- depth understanding of the business you are supporting. This is important as this understanding helps to know internal customers, their requirement, pain points and working methodology. CIOs are expected to speak the business language while interacting with the peers to gain their confidence in him as well as suggested solutions. Second most important thing is to be in close contact with the CEO to understand business goals and business needs. This will help plan better. Last but not the least is to keep oneself abreast of technological advancements, trends and how technology could be an enabler in meeting company’s business objectives.