A Nightmare for the CIO
It is often said that the CIO is the most responsible man in the organization. If anything goes wrong, it is the CIO who is held responsible. The same is painfully true when it comes to emerging companies. Every CIO has a funny anecdote of the trials and travails that he has to go through; for instance, waking up in the middle of the night just because half way across the globe his bosss Blackberry isnt working. In fact, the most common phrase a CIO is subjected to, yeh kaam kyon naheen kar raha (why is this not working?). It is almost as if the CIO is endowed with super powers.

Most of the times, the expectations are very high from the CIO. He is regarded as the virtual know-it-all when it comes to running the organization. At times it can get very overbearing, says Prakash Pradhan, head, IT, Jagsonpal Pharmaceuticals. Almost all CIOs agree with Pradhans contention. It is a fact of life and one has to learn to live with these expectations, says Parab from Ion Exchange.

The biggest challenge faced by the CIO is islands of applications. In emerging companies, the infrastructure is added on an immediate need basis, so after a few years time, the whole system gets infinitely complex and becomes a nightmare for the CIO, says HS Sai from Thomson Press.

Meanwhile, the expectations from the CIO have also increased phenomenally, both from within the organization as well as from outside. A CIO today has to satisfy internal customers (employees of the company) as well as external customers. Everyone wants information at the click of the mouse, thus, the responsibilities borne by CIOs have increased manifold, Vishwajeet Singh, national manager, IT, FCm Travel Solutions.

Indigenous Innovation
It is said that necessity is the mother of invention and that is especially true for CIOs of emerging companies. As IT departments work on stringent budgets, it is imperative on the part of the CIO to be innovative. Most CIOs have stated that their focus in the coming year is small investments with high returns. It just proves that innovation is very much a KRA for a CIO.

Take the case of XPS World; it had to provide its clients hard copies of bills for receiving payments. But scanning the bill and couriering it to the user was a costly and time consuming method. Also, the company could not invest in hi-end PDAs just for the sake of printing bills. To solve this problem, Bhattacharjee came up with a unique homegrown solution. With the help of a computer and a webcam, he developed a system whereby the hard copy of the bill could be engineered cheaply and effectively. The system also did not cost much in terms of infrastructure investment, and has also won an award for innovation from CyberMedia. The best way to solve a problem is not necessarily the costliest way. A CIO from an emerging enterprise needs to be conscious of saving every penny that he possibly can while delivering an effective solution, says Bhattacharjee.

Business process transformation and infrastructure consolidation are the two challenges for CIO, the strategist and CIO, the implementer respectively	A CIO today has to satisfy internal customers (employees) as well as external customers. Everyone wants information at the click of the mouse Vishwajeet Singh, national manager, IT, FCm Travel Solutions

Meanwhile, Matharu talks about going green for the sake of profitability. I am passionate about going green not only from the point of environment friendliness but also profitability. Just by doing little things, a company can save immense amount of money in terms of power costs. Hence, at Infovision, I am driving a major push for clients. I am also looking at earning carbon credits. And someday we would be adding to the bottomline in a big way, he says.

Vendor Tangle
While almost every fortnight, big vendorslike SAP and Oraclemake announcements of how they are keenly focusing on emerging companies, the ground reality is quite different. Many CIOs complain that these companies are not clued in to the needs and requirements of small companies and what they basically offer is a rundown version of the same products they sell to big companies. This creates a lot of problems for CIOs as they need to display the benefits of an enterprise application in a short time. So, the only option available is to demand what you want.

We dont really entertain sales pitches. Rather than going through vendor presentations, we tell them to go through ours so that they can understand our needs and suggest solutions instead of the other way round, says Shah from Angel Broking. Pendse from Wellingkar also emphasizes on the partnership model. Buyer and seller is not the best equation. It needs to be more collaborative in nature, he says.

Nonetheless, a majority of CIOs list finding the right vendor as one of their top challenges, and are open to build rather than buy if the need be. Bhattarcharjee has evolved a simple thumb rule, If the modification to an application is around 30-40%, then it is preferable to build rather than buy, he says.

The relationship is also much dependent on how the CIO interacts. If you leave the steering wheel, the vendor will drive it. One needs to be firm and clear about the business and technical objectives at the very onset. Once you have the commitment, there is little that can go wrong, says V Subramaniam, CIO, Otis.

Finding Talent
For Chetan Asher, CEO, Tonic Media, the biggest worry is not only to find the right person for the right job but also to somehow hold him back long enough to justify the hiring cost. Talent management is the biggest challenge faced by the Indian economy, more so for emerging companies. It is very difficult to find and retain a right candidate when the market is booming and 30% salary hikes are the order of the day. We are continuously grappling with this issue, says Asher. So, one of the many ways devised by him is to give a higher designation to his employees to meet their aspirations and give them an ego boost. Also this, in a way, makes them rather unemployable so as to say.

We ensure that team members are happy and content with their work and also see that they are getting challenging projects, says Shanmugham from Mahindra Finance. Getting the right manpower was listed as the biggest challenge by most CIOs polled for this story.

Globalization and Compliance
Since 1991, when the Indian economy was liberalized, there has been much change in the Indian context. While Indian companies have faced the onslaught of foreign brands, they have also been privy to how these companies function. This has compelled Indian companies to relook and adapt to the new business scenario. Emerging companies have not been untouched by the wand of globalization.

As many Indian companies are doing business with foreign companies, this had led to a transformation from within. Indian companies have immensely benefited from this exposure. The flattening of the world has also compelled Indian companies to work on their internal processes and functions, thereby making the most of them. The best thing that I personally admire about foreign companies is their devotion to processes. Anything that impacts more than five people needs to go through a complex change control mechanism wherein all systems and processes are defined and documented. This ensures that the system works brilliantly, says Matharu.

While globalization is driving the uptake of systems and processes, emerging companies are also very conscious about compliance-related issues and more than half of all panelists agreed that compliance will be a big driver for IT adoption in the next few years. One of the best ways to get a CEO to agree for investment into a project nowadays is to package it under the risk and compliance heading. Anything under that title gets cleared in a jiffy, quipped a CIO in a lighter vein.

In conclusion, sitting with all those CIOs attired in a business manner in Mumbai and Delhi, checking mails frequently on their Blackberrys or constantly monitoring the systems on their laptops, one thing is certain: their needs and requirements are little or no different from those of big companies. As a matter of fact, their requirements are more complex as they have the additional responsibility of providing a roadmap to the company while constantly working on the nut-bolts.

All CIOs appeared business savvy and articulate on the fact that IT is very important for driving growth and transformation of small companies to top tier companies. It is heartening to see a new breed of CIOs leading the change at the very core of the Indian economy; and if they continue to keep doing the great work they are doing at present, the emerging enterprise tag would need to be replaced pretty soon. And we hope and pray for the same.

Shashwat DC
shashwatc@cybermedia.co.in

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