"Do regular risk assessment and mitigate the risks thereby leading to a better uptime"
M.Balasubramanian
Deputy General Manager ICT
Saipem India Projects Ltd.
Balasubramanian is reponsible for Saipem India’s ICT infrastructure for information communication and technology as well as to develop web based solutions as tools to improve processes.
Challenges in technology to meet enterprise needs in 2013 and expectations
Our industry is into `engineering and construction and there are a host of software tools which we engineer and construct.
1) The big challenge to meet the enterprise needs is to provide solutions to systematize the engineering and construction tools to optimize and reduce the effort.
2) 3D modeling faces hardware bottlenecks and these have to be resolved. Virtualization of 3D modeling workstations has to be tried out and adopted.
3) In house software development using various open source API’s would reduce dependence on third party software which are expensive.
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
We do regular risk assessment and mitigate the risks thereby leading to a better uptime. But things can always go wrong. For example we have provided 2 # 8.3 tonne air-conditioners for our data center so that we do not have a single point of failure. But there was a failure due to the malfunction of the timer circuit which means that both the air-conditioners failed to work. The pain points in the enterprise for which solutions do not exist are as follows:
1) Well designed disaster recovery solution.
2) A secure Wi-Fi network.
3) A well nuanced security system.
Technology trends impacting enterprise business environment
Significant impacts on the enterprise business environment could be if we leverage:
1) Modern Information infrastructure- The type of Infrastructure that helps information producers and information consumers to organize, share and exchange any type of data and content anytime anywhere. However the data sharing is not anytime and anywhere as these tools have their limitations and it is not possible to share and exchange content anytime anywhere. What is possibly needed is a single integrated solution which can share and exchange information anytime anywhere seamlessly and with security.
2) More advanced 3D Modeling software platforms – These would be able to create plant models more easily and would have enough resources to review the models effectively and to animate them with respect to various scenarios.
My roles and responsibilities as a CIO
During the past 2 years my role as the CIO has changed due to the increased expectations of the business. The business has started involving us to find cost effective solutions with respect to the complex business requirements. The business wants top notch ICT solutions but as cost effective as possible. It wants those specialized software but asks why don’t we develop them inhouse? Thus, there is a big pressure on the ICT department to reduce spending, save money and look for home grown ICT solutions.
Lessons learned and advice for fellow CIOs
ICT organization has to be governed (envisage solutions) and implementation and operations are the further two logical functions to be covered.
Here are some lessons to be learned:
1. Most value comes out of Governance as ICT engineers/ managers define
systems, features, evaluate the costs of the solutions required by the business and do cost control.
2. Implementation requires engineers with very good knowledge and it is important to keep the knowledge levels high.
