1. HEALTHCARE TECH
| |Outlook 2013
31
Challenges in technology to meet
enterprise needs in 2013 and
expectations
Business landscape has become complex
because customer’s behavior pattern has
changed. Customer expects simplicity
while transacting with business. To make
it simple, internal business value chain
have become complex. Businesses have
to be more agile and flexible. IT plays
a balancing act between customer
experience and internal value chain.
Today’s challenge is seamless alignment
of technology with business objectives
which is exclusive to the business. To list
few priority areas which businesses are
looking at are synthesis of transactional
data that is generated in large size and
provide meaningful analytics, second
priority area is delivery model of IT
services. Of course, cloud based solution
are available but solution providers will
have to aggressively invest on building
trust of the businesses who still believe
in brick and mortar model.
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
Technology alignment is and will be
always a work in progress. Business do
change very rapidly so as IT. Pain points
are generally not due to framework if it
is appropriately created, but arises due
to change in demands and flexibility
expected out of the framework. If
architecture is sustainable then business
semantics can be accommodated
easily and that makes the job simpler.
However, there would be rigid spots in
the framework which are mostly reason
for pain points. Second aspect is the
new generation IT savvy population
and managing their expectation. Third is
the IT budgets and spending. The irony
is, CIO’s have to face the music from
business and management side.
Technology trends impacting enterprise
businessenvironment
Cloud computing, mobile computing
and new generation analytics is what
will have a major impact on business
environment. But again it all depends
on how businesses take shape in future
course. What I have observed is business
strategies have become more of tactical
rather than remaining strategic moves.
The challenge is to address strategic as
well as tactical moves of the business.
My roles and responsibilities as a CIO
Off late, we are hearing many definitions
of CIO and various debates at various
forums about the roles of CIO’s.The trend
is inclined towards decentralization of
IT to business function level. Eventually,
every business may have the IT budget
to manage the IT challenges and
requirement. It won’t be exaggeration
to state that the role of CIOs in business
organizations will become redundant.
Having said this, the role of CIO is
evolving in the manufacturing sector.
When joined this organization, IT
was another support function. But
it is evolved to the extent that IT has
become part of strategy formulation
and its execution. CIOs will need to think
innovatively and deliberate upon how
IT can drive revenues and contribute to
growth story of the business.
Lessons learned and your advice for
fellow CIOs
I have gone through the same process
as my peers are. Until few years ago, the
role remained the same except for the
change in the designation. One thing
I would categorically mention here is
to try aligning IT with the DNA of the
business rather than harping on end
user satisfaction. Although end user
satisfaction is important, however; treat
is as a transaction.
Vishad Rahangdale
CIO
Electrotherm
Vishad has 17 Years of experience in various industries in India and
abroad namely Steel, Capital Goods, Renewable Energy, Transmission
Line Tower, Automobile, Media, Textile, Engineering and Construction
Industries. A Hardcore technocrat with a business outlook, he
specializes in devising Business-IT alignment strategy, IT governance,
Enterprise Applications implementation and Enterprise Infrastructure.
Today’s challenge is seamless alignment of technology
withbusinessobjectiveswhichisexclusivetothebusiness.
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