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Maintaining a balancing act is like walking the tightrope. Amrita Gangotra, the lady at the helm of the IT affairs at Bharti's mobility business line-Airtel-has been a success at it, whether it be striking the balance between work and family, or getting the right balance between the company's outsourcing vendors and the needs of the internal customers. But, there's more to her personality than meeting the challenges thrown at her. She's the one who's gone out of her way to actively seek out challenges and take them head on. That's what, perhaps, has brought her to a position where very few women have managed to, or even aspired to, reach. Breaking the glass ceiling, she is amongst the handful of women CIOs in the country today, at the helm of IT affairs of one of the country's largest mobile operators with an ever-growing base of subscribers.

Amrita Gangotra CIO-Mobility, Bharti Tele-Venture

Gangotra confesses that making it big in an industry dominated by men required her to make a lot of extra effort. And this meant that she kept bettering herself, keeping ahead of most of her male peers-whether it was being a gold medallist student or an award-winning CIO. At Bharti she was faced with the daunting task to get the billing system, which was not implemented correctly at the time, working. Considering that billing is at the heart of any telecom operator's operations, this was a real test to prove her mettle-from day one. Not only did she prove it and win several accolades for that, but as the chief information officer–Mobility, Bharti Cellular Limited, Gangotra also spearheaded some of the key IT projects within the organization.

A graduate in Mathematics and post-graduate in Operations Research from Delhi University, Gangotra started her career with Allen Bradley as a research officer for developing/automating heuristic and statistical models on market surveys. Her job profile provided her with exposure to computers as well as market surveys and statistics. It was around this time that the IT space was just starting to open up, and foreseeing the opportunities therein she decided to take up a career in this emerging industry. This led her to HCL (then HCL Ltd) in 1989, after having spent just a few months at Allen Bradley.

Though Gangotra was involved with computers at Bradley as well, her first real stint with IT came at HCL, wherein she was involved in the in-house development and implementation of software. This was a very basic form of ERP, an application connecting and interlinking the various departments and functions within the organization. According to Gangotra this was a very nascent stage of the ERP applications. "There was hardly any concept of package software at the time and so the in-house systems were developed, linking the outputs from one department to another," she explains.

From module leader, she moved up as the project leader and then as the project manager in the company.

Within a span of about 16 years her career has evolved from software development to being the CIO of a telecom major, responsible for overseeing solution engagement, program management, development, deployment and operations of IT and call center solutions. This has indeed been a long journey in terms of moving up the career ladder within a short time span. In between, Gangotra has had wide ranging experience with both IT and non-IT companies, including stints with Nestle and HCL Comnet, before finally moving to Bharti. What made her shift from one vertical to the other instead of remaining in the IT industry, and move up there itself for a lucrative career? She promptly replies that instead of being satisfied with the status quo she has always tried to seek out more dynamic opportunities that enable her to enhance her knowledge and skills. "It is important to know and have in-depth knowledge of your area, and the various business processes. And in IT, once you have acquired the basic technical skills, what changes is the domain/industry. All this wide experience gave me the opportunity to gain a variety of domain/industry knowledge," says Gangotra.

One of the key learnings of her career, that she acquired during her stint with Nestle, was involving the user community and making them take up ownership for various IT projects. This, believes Gangotra, is helping her in good stead in terms of efficiently carrying out the role of a CIO, and ensuring successful uptake of IT within the organization. On why the same software application is successful in one organization and a disaster in the other, she says: "What you do with that application is what is more important, not just the application itself". Today, Gangotra is taking this learning forward to implement some of the key projects at Bharti. In fact, she has been instrumental in aligning IT to business and transforming the IT function from being an enabler to being a business driver.

One of Gangotra's biggest credentials at Bharti has been getting the billing system into shape. When she stepped in, the company was undergoing major problems in terms of its billing system. She managed to get it up and running within a year's time frame. She has spearheaded other projects-Business Intelligence, call center, etc. Before she joined, IT in the company primarily involved billing and CRM application, which was not properly implemented and integrated with billing. Gangotra was instrumental in re-implementation of the CRM package in all the circles, and its integration with the billing system. She is also responsible for the company's robust call center infrastructure, which rivals any of the top BPOs in the country today in terms of size and operations. On an average, the call center handles around 3 to 5 calls per user, per month, and with around 12 mn customers this adds up to a huge number.

As Airtel expands its operations, and with the fast growing base of its subscribers, there's plenty to satisfy her craving for newer challenges. Gangotra says that with the company outsourcing more and more of its IT systems and processes, the onus of responsibility on the CIO in fact increases instead of going away. One of the biggest being to ensure that there is the right balance between what the vendors are giving and what the business/users are demanding, and all this while ensuring that the systems run smoothly.

According to Gangotra, some of her key challenges going forward will be ensuring the availability of cutting-edge technology that will enable the company to introduce and deploy innovative services. Also on her agenda is ensuring that the growth challenges are met and supported through the ability to scale up. She adds that the telecom scenario in India is highly competitive with cut-throat competition and it is imperative for IT to ensure that the company is able to maintain the leading edge in the market. In fact, IT has been responsible for the introduction of some of the innovative schemes like the "Kahin Bhi Kabhi Bhi" service as well as the flexible tariff plans.

So, what keeps her going and thriving in this highly competitive scenario, where technology, and hence, the CIOs cannot afford to let their guard down for even a moment: "While you are at your job you have to be willing to take up the challenges along with the excitement of change, new learning, and growth opportunities".

Shipra Arora

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