This document contains an interview with Apurva Mankad, founder and CEO of WebXpress, India's leading logistics IT solution suite. In the interview, Mankad discusses key topics around implementing cloud-based systems for supply chains. He notes that cloud systems can provide availability of information across supply chain partners. Business models for cloud systems may be based on per user or per transaction fees. Alignment of cloud goals with strategic objectives requires setting key performance indicators for the supply chain. Measuring the success of cloud implementation involves metrics like improved performance and lower costs.

1. ContentsVolume 5 / Issue 1 / March 2014
10
Theory of Constraints and theValue Chain of Higher
Education Institutions
• Shelja Jose Kuruvilla, Ph.D., Professor,
ITM - Business School, Kharghar, Navi Mumbai, India.
6
INTERVIEW
Apurva Mankad
Founder & CEO,
WebXpress- India’s leading logistics IT solution suite
Viability Analysis ofTrucking Operations in India
• Mahendra Parihar, Ph.D., Assistant Professor,
Economics and Management, Thadomal Shahani
Engineering College, University of Mumbai,
Mumbai, India.
8

2. 22
Cold Chain Logistics in India – An Overview
• P. C. Tungare, Professor of Operations Management,
ITM - Business School, Kharghar, Navi Mumbai, India.
• Shatabdi S. Das, Research Associate,
ITM - Business School, Kharghar, Navi Mumbai, India.
Supply Chain of Bicycle - A Case Study of Shops in
Kanpur
• Manoj Jhawar, MBA, IIT Kanpur, India.
• Shivraj Shellagi, MBA,
Delhi Technological University(DCE),Delhi,India.
36

3. Supply Chain Pulse / Volume 5 / Issue 2 / June 2014 6
INTERVIEW
Apurva Mankad
Mr. Apurva Mankad is Founder & CEO of ECFY Consulting Private Limited, owner of brand WebXpress
India’s leading logistics IT solution suite.
Apurva is an Engineer with Post-Graduation in Management from MumbaiUniversity, India.Apurva has
over 18 years of experience in Technology Solutions and Transportation and Logistics industry. Apurva
has worked in IT industry with organization such as Global Telesystems, Satyam Infoway and Infosys
before starting his consulting practice in year 2000.
Apurva founded WebXpress in 2004 with a belief that Indian Logistics Industry needs solutions
customized to Indian scenario using best available technology.Today,WebXpress has over 50 customers
across India with over 8000 users.
Some of WebXpress customers are leading names such as Future Supply Chains, DTDC, Jabong.com,
Safexpress, Transocean, Delex, Surat Goods Transport, Coldex among others. Apurva also works with
Transport Industry Bodies and technology partners such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft and
Motorola Solutions to keep a tab on latest trends, technologies and best practices.
Asrecognitionofhisworkovertheyears,hewasawarded“Logisticstechnologypersonoftheyear2012”
by Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport, India. Apurva is also associated with Management
Education and is a faculty for E-commerce and Logistics at Welingkar Institute of Management since
1998.
1. What are the Supply Chain expectations
for cloud systems to suit different supply
chain structures?
Every supply chain structure is made
of multiple components and partners.
The basic expectation is availability of
information cutting across supply chain legs
and players. Based on specific business,
information needed for supply chain can
vary- for example Cold Chain will need
temperature information on cloud, high
value items needs GPS location at smaller
intervals compared to normal cargo. Etc.
2. Could you elaborate on the business
models for cloud systems to suit different
supply chain structures?
The business models can be based on per
month per user basis or per transaction
basis. There can be variation in terms of
variable models with a cap on maximum
transactionsorusers.Theremaybeseparate
components for telephonic support, on site
visits, custom development etc. Overall,
cloud converts Capital Expenditure of
customers into Operational Expenditure.
3. Which data attributes drive the need for a
cloud system in the supply chain?
Track and trace data is of primary
requirement followed by document scans
and images, sensor data. All of these
grow very fast and need lot of resources,
thus making cloud storage and retrieval
Interviewed by Prof. Ankush Guha
very attractive. Of course, the transaction
application itself can be on cloud.
4. In your concerted opinion is the
modern supply chain firm ready for the
implementation of the cloud system?
This changes from organization to
organization and geography to geography.
Smaller, regional organizations can adopt
cloud easily as their business complexity is
less. Larger and global organizations have
multiple IT systems in place. Thus, their
approach to cloud is more measured and
phase wise.
5. What type of infrastructure and processes
would be needed for implementation of a
cloud system?
Cloud provides all infrastructure, thus all
one needs is good and stable Internet
connectivity/ Mobile connectivity. The
processes needed to deploy an IT system
are needed whether cloud system is used
or a traditional software is used. Yes, cloud
system makes it easier to deploy a system
across locations.
6. How does one align the cloud system’s
goals with the supply chain’s strategic
objectives, could you illustrate with an
example?
A supply chain needs to first set its goals
in terms of Key Performance Indicators.
A cloud system can then be deployed

4. Supply Chain Pulse / Volume 5 / Issue 2 / June 2014 7
INTERVIEWto measure these indicators from daily
transactions. The cloud system can then
be aligned to provide information to meet
strategic goals. Also, the speed and size of
expansion plans of any supply chain will
drive usage of cloud. For example, when
an MNC wants to enter India, it may be
prudent to use a Standard Cloud based
system to begin with while the company
settles. Later as business grows and specific
needs increase, additional features of cloud
system can be enabled.
7. How do one audit skills and competencies
required for successful implementation of
the cloud system?
One has to select the right partner for
the same. Partner can be evaluated on
deployments already done, technology
knowledge and supply chain domain
knowledge. Also, organization must have
people to use the cloud based system well.
8. How does one evaluate the cloud system
provider?
As mentioned above, one needs to look
at track record, cloud system already
deployed, business continuity assurance,
financial stability, ability to provide data
backup when needed etc.
9. How does one assess the success of the
implementation of a cloud project?
Moving to cloud is one part but the success
of such migration can be measured as
follows:
• Improved bandwidth and speed of
application
• Better application performance in peak
hours
• Lower downtime incidents due to
infrastructure issues
• No impact on performance even in face of
good growth
• Overall lower total cost of ownership
10. How does one measure ROI in the cloud
system implementation?
• ROI should be measured on Total Cost of
Operations
• Thus, cost of application, cloud
infrastructure, maintenance, data security
and backup will form TCO- these should be
taken over a 3 year period at least
• The return will be a little tricky to measure
as the application may run essential
operations and financials- these are needed
to run an organization
• One can introduce an Index of Automation
to measure how much of work is done using
Cloud Application and how much is manual
11. Which type of leadership is most effective
in the implementation of a cloud based
system?
• Cloud implementation requires an IT and
Executive leadership open to new ideas and
innovation
• They are willing to try new concepts even
when things are working otherwise
• They also try to look at global best practices
and make it a point to introduce them to
their customers
• A leadership only focused on costs and
waiting for others to move first may not be
suitable for cloud architecture
12. How does one assess the risk and volatility
in supply chain integration, using the cloud
system?
• Cloud can enable integration in a supply
chain. For example, tracking data from LSP
can be sent over to customer electronically
using could applications
• Better data integration leaders to better
visibility for all stakeholders. This helps to
reduce risks and react to volatility in an
organized manner
• In absence of cloud systems, there may
be data islands in each segment of supply
chain resulting in slower decision making
13. How does one measure the robustness of
the cloud system in the supply chain?
• Firstly, the track record and technology of
cloud service provider needs to be assessed
• Then the deployment done for a given
initiative should be checked for instances
of downtimes and slowness
• The real test will be when an event occurs
that shoots up usage of systems- say year-
end sales, holiday season, sudden demand
due to natural calamity/ war etc.
• KPIs such as Transaction entry TAT, Number
of downtime instances, Mean time to
closure of downtime, transactions handled
per hour, concurrent users supported etc.
can help measure robustness
14. What are the security attributes that
would be needed for reliable cloud system
implementation?
• Security is of utmost importance for any IT

5. Supply Chain Pulse / Volume 5 / Issue 2 / June 2014 8
system, especially cloud based
• Security can be divided into transaction
security, business continuity and disaster
recovery
• A cloud system should be secure enough
so that transactions stored in cloud are not
accessed by any unauthorized person
• Business Continuity requires that cloud
system as well as service provider are
available in long run – thus they need to
have a viable business model and good
customer based and sound financials
• Disaster recovery will require that cloud
infrastructure is ready in case one part
of the infrastructure is compromised / is
unavailable. Thus it is important for cloud
service provider to have multiple facilities,
backup restoration procedures etc. in place
15. How does one monitor the cloud system
performance?
• As mentioned above, one needs to devise
KPIs (Key Performance Indicators)
• KPIs can be technical in nature- downtime,
concurrent users, bandwidth usage, time
to download, resource utilization of CPU/
memory etc.
• KPIs can be functional- number of
transactions handled- on an average and
at peak, ability to handle load in season/
month end/ events etc.
• These should be measured regularly
and comparison made with industry
benchmarks
16. What are the critical success factors for
development and implementation of the
cloud system in a company’s supply chain?
• CSF for cloud systems are:
• Development- Availability of manpower/
partner to design application suitable for
cloud, infrastructure within organization to
access cloud based systems,
• Implementation- quality of users in
company’s supply chain, ability of partners
to leverage cloud to collaborate and share
data
17. What are the key factors for development
and upgrade cycles of the cloud system?
• One of key differences of a cloud based
system is that service provider will have a
uniform platform for multiple customers,
thus users of cloud are required to upgrade
as per schedule of cloud provider
• It is thus important to understand the
options to opt in or opt out of cloud
platform upgrades
• Also, it is important to understand
configuration options of cloud so that a
particular upgrade can be tuned off for
your organization
• The upgrades will also entail continuous
training to team
18. How does one draw an SLA with a Cloud
service provider?
• SLA is the most important document with
cloud providers
• Generally, cloud provider will provide a
standard SLA for uptime, performance,
upgrade etc.
• Onecanreviewthesameandaddconditions
or KPIs suitable to each organization- for
example, number of trainings, backup
restoration etc.
• It is also important to understand how
cloud provider will furnish numbers and
reports to showcase SLAs. These should be
reviewed regularly to confirm whether SLA
is met with
19. How does one assess the appropriate
cloud system’s resources required for a
given supply chain setting?
• This will vary depending on a specific supply
chain of a given industry/ geography/ size
of organization etc.
• Some of the measured to decide
on appropriateness are: Number of
transactions, locations of usage, types of
access devices- PC/ Laptop/ Mobile, Type
of transaction- do they involve video,
images- how many, Data integration with
customer/supplier systems
20. Howdoesoneremedytheshortages(Cloud
- Resource Gaps) in the resources required
for cloud system implementation?
• Generally,cloudprovidesmuchlarger-ifnot
unlimited- resource pool for infrastructure
• The shortage can be for manpower to
manage and use cloud based systems
implementation
• One can take help of specialized
organizations to support in-house teams
for the same
21. Could the choice of the cloud system (ERP-
CRM, Ecommerce solution, reduce the
cost of the corporate IT Function?
• Yes, the choice of application will drive
costs as well as savings
• Some of the direct cost reductions are for
• Provision of extra resources to handle
growth or peaks,
• Manpower needed to manage in-house
infrastructure,
• Space utilization of such servers,
• Management bandwidth for IT functions
etc.
22. Could the choice of the cloud system
improve business - IT alignment?
Yes, in many ways.
• Cloud will help business to deploy more
systems quickly without getting into full
procurement cycle
• As most cloud investments are Opex based,
faster decision making is possible. Also, the
initiative can be dropped if not found to be
useful
• This will put much lesser load on IT and thus
enable them to help business- resulting in
better alignment
23. Would the use of an external provider
(i.e. outsourcing the cloud solution)
rather than running in-house result in a
responsible and reliable functioning of the
organization’s computing resources?
• Cloud provider will only help on server side
resources and management- a big help
• But in-house team will continue to provide
other resources such as networking ,
connectivity, security etc. for overall
organization
• Yes, the fact that critical systems are now
handled by expert outsider will free up IT
resources
• These should be realigned as Governance
mechanism to manage Cloud service
provider and measure SLAs
24. Could the on-demand cloud system in
a supply chain setting complement the
already existing installed investments, if
so how?
• This is possible to do. Suppose organization
has ERP deployed as on premise solution.
Now there is a need say for a freight audit
system
• A cloud based system for freight audit
can then be deployed on top of ERP thus
leveraging data from ERP at the same time
getting a key functional solution on cloud
• Thus, if done correctly, cloud can enhance
existing IT investment and there may not
be a need to change all systems

6. Supply Chain Pulse / Volume 5 / Issue 2 / June 2014 9
25. What is the impact of cloud systems on IT
corporate governance?
• This has many impacts:
1. Impact on security policy- as cloud
provider is external, this will require
changes in security policy
2. BCP/DRP- changes in BCP/DRP plans to
include cloud applications
3. Roles and responsibilities- the role of IT
team members will change from execution
to monitoring and SLA measurement
4. IT budgets- as discussed above there will
be implications on procurements cycles
26. What are the core parameters for an
organization’s business systems that
could be managed with the cloud
system’s implementation to ensure the
implementation achieves their business
goals?
• With today’s technology- most of the
business systems are now available on
cloud
• Thus, choice of system will depend on
• Current systems in place and their maturity.
• Are these systems end of life or can still be
used for foreseeable future
• Are these legacy systems that are needed
27. What are the base-line requirements that
a cloud system provider must meet?
Following can be base line requirements:
• Own certified cloud infrastructure or tie up
with leading cloud infra provider
• Customer base using cloud system
• Onsite or online training and support
offerings
• Customization/ configuration options and
methodology
28. How will the supply chain adapt to the
new cloud system solution?
• Ideally the supply chains should only use
and application to get information or get
transactions done
• Sign of a good cloud system is that users do
not realize the complexity of cloud system
and same is hidden from users
• Thus, the supply chains should adapt by
aligning processes in line of cloud system
availability