An Elite Congregation of Business Leaders

On August 9, New Delhi witnessed an elite congregation of Business Leaders who shared their expertise, experience and innovation to optimize the growth of manufacturing businesses at the "Manufacturing IT Summit" organized by SiliconIndia at The Claridges hotel. The summit served as a quintessential platform for eminent leaders from manufacturing industry to meet and discuss the Information Technology Trends for today and tomorrow.

The event was kick started by Vijay Sethi, Vice President-IS and CIO, Hero MotoCorp, who spoke on the informative topic, ‘Role of CIO's in Building Manufacturing Industries.’ He stressed on the importance of the role of manufacturing sector in Indian Economy through his invigorating speech. He also gave an insight on the role that can play in today's context in manufacturing sector and the technologies that are prerequisite for manufacturing sector.

It then proceeded to the first panel discussion of the evening on the topic, ‘Changing Landscape of Manufacturing and Role of Technology to Bolster Growth,’ which constituted of reputed leaders from the corporate arena. Virendra Bansal, Group CIO, Luminous Power Technologies; Vijay Sethi, Vice President-IS and CIO, Hero MotoCorp and  Venkata Lavu, General manager, Schneider Electric formed the panel whereas Dr. Mahesh Taneja, V.P. (Finance & I.Tech.), Munjal Showa served as the moderator for the same.

Venkata Lavu, General Manager, Schneider Electric gave an intriguing perspective for the topic, ‘Data Center Physical Infrastructure - A New Perspective’ soon after. Kavita Arora, Software Development Head, IFS India took the stage next to educate us on, ‘Near and Long Term Trends Shaping IT in Manufacturing.’ She was of the opinion, “IT functions would get aligned to business goals and IT has been and would continue to play a major role in improving business performance by improving processes, quality, providing business affecting data analysis to the decision makers which will help them take better decisions.”

The subsequent panel discussion soon commenced with S.P. Arya, Sr.VP Corporate(IT), Amtek Group; Atul Govil, Head (SAP & IT), India Glycols and Balwant Singh, Head - IT, C&S Electric formed the panel, ‘Do More with Less: The New Manufacturing Strategy.’ It was very skillfully moderated by S.Ramasamy, Executive Director - IS, Indian Oil Corporation.

All in all, it was an excellent informative affair to discuss about the key drivers of manufacturing competitiveness and explore the need for advanced IT capabilities that will truly sets an organization above the rest. The gathering also shed light to determine how to increase revenue and grow their businesses, without significantly rebuilding internal processes.

"Manufacturing IT Summit" was sponsored by Scheider Electric, IFS and Epicor.