"The CIO now has the ability to act as an important contributor to the business process re-engineering with use of the technology trends"
N Jayantha Prabhu
CTO
Essar Group
Jayantha has an overall 20 Years of experience in IT enablement in Global Conglomerate Manufacturing sector. As the CTO at Essar Group he has been responsible for establishing the company’s technical vision and leading all aspects of the company’s technology development across all areas of Information Technology. He has been playing an integral role in the company’s strategic direction, development, and future growth.
Challenges in technology to meet enterprise needs in 2013 and expectations
The focus on the sweating of assets to drive efficiencies in the existing implementations is more as a result of which the focus on adoption of new technology innovations has become blurred. The effectiveness of the Business Process being carried out by a certain Technology has a lesser chance of adoption due to the business apprehensions on the higher relative cost associated, as compared to the incremental cost associated with the fine tuning of existing technology. I would like to look forward to solutions that can enable to focus more on Effectiveness i.e. “Doing Right things” as compared to Efficiency “ Doing things Right”.
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
One of the pain points is the disconnect among the solutions of various technology partners when it comes to the compatibility amongst each other. The need for these partners to compete amongst themselves often results in a confusing set of options for customers to choose the right set of products. The Security landscape is one such kind of environment where the concept of SOA has not yet percolated into the industry. While there are quite a number of SIEM solutions which make a contention of the ability of integrating the various security products into a single dashboard, the fact of the matter is that there is a lot to be done in that regard.
Technology trends impacting enterprise business environment
We are following the trends which we feel will have a significant impact on business.
• Mobility
• Cloud
• Social and Collaboration
• Big Data
My roles and responsibilities as a CIO
Over the last few years, the role of the CIO has undergone a huge transformation due to the trends like Mobility, Cloud, and Big Data. These trends have enabled the CIO to reach out to the CMO and the CEO with the capability to help drive business competitiveness and improve productivity. The CIO now has the ability to act as an important contributor to the Business Process Reengineering with use of the technology trends to drive the IT enablement of Business process to improve efficiency. Business Transformation becomes an important aspect of the role of the CIO and will continue to be in the future.More importantly, the CIO will have to identify himself as a business leader and vie for a place on the Board.
Lessons learned and advice for fellow CIOs
• CIOs and CFOs must communicate openly and transparently so the organization can exploit the opportunities created by technology while maintaining the level of investment appropriate to its size and overall budget.
• CIOs must become more financially literate.
• CIOs must explain their requests in terms of business objectives and in business language.
• CIOs must make strong bonding with CFO and can also leverage their role in strategic planning for the organization.
• Closing the gap between marketing requirements and IT capabilities requires a culture of collaboration in which the CMO and CIO work towards a set of agreed-upon goals that factor in both marketing and IT interests.
