"CIOs should have a firm grasp of business"
By Nikita Virdi
Mumbai, May 16, 2008

Arun Gupta, CTO of Shopper's Stop speaks to Nikita Virdi on the company's technology selection parameters. He also emphasizes the significant role of CIOs and CTOs in enhancing business processes

What is the role of technology in your business process? How does it help you to stay ahead in the competitive marketplace?

Technology plays an important role in the retail industry across almost all business processes, starting from planning of merchandise to the point of sale, where the customer buys the merchandise and the entire supply chain covering the partners, the warehouse, and the stores. With the help of technology, we are able to keep our merchandise up to date and available to our customers. It also enables us to manage our customer information and provide them with the best experience, which is superior to our competitors. This in turn helps us to stay ahead in this competitive marketplace where IT is the driving key for almost all the processes.

How do you ensure business technology alignments to achieve optimized returns?

We classify all our technology investments by impact to customers, employees or partners in the short-term, and mid-term or long-term. We also prioritize them by the need of the hour that is critical and important for running the business. Across this matrix, we are able to differentiate between projects, which we should undertake, and which can be deferred by us. Each project then is expected to provide the TCO over 3 years and business benefit in terms of revenue, savings or process improvement. This makes it easy to create and sustain the alignment with the business.

Which are the main business processes in the always-on market place that you have automated?

I presume that the always-on marketplace refers to buying channels like e-commerce and catalog. In the case of Internet, an end-to-end technology solution has been deployed to address the customer's capability to buy when one wants to. On the other hand, for the catalog business we address the need through a call center. Frankly speaking, our operations are not as yet in an always-on mode. However, an always-on marketplace requires primary ability to manage orders and inventory.

What are your main technology selection parameters? Presently what are the technological applications implemented by you in Shoppers Stop?

The main technology selection parameters that we keep in mind include alignment to business requirements, TCO, lifespan of the technology, fit into current architecture, ease of maintenance, and scalability. Presently, for our retail operations we are using applications from JDA and Oracle Applications for financial accounting. Complimenting these are Microsoft SharePoint, Exchange, Office Communication Server, and Skelta Workflow.

In terms of hardware (servers, networking equipment, storage, communications, etc.), what infrastructure have you deployed at your data center and at other locations?

We have deployed our core ERP solution on IBM AS/400 and the other applications on standalone or virtualized Intel and AMD servers. Further, for storage solution we are using NetApp IP storage box. Whereas, for networking our primary device provider is Cisco, while not missing our networking partner which of course is Sify.

What are the major business and technology benefits?

IT helps run the business and to stay competitive with efficiencies it can create. It is therefore required in every aspect of our business. From merchandising, replenishment, managing supply chain, and billing; to shifting the merchandise to the stores or the warehouse everywhere; technology is a necessity. IT is the key drive for achieving the aims of our business and without it nothing is possible. A day without technology makes it impossible for us to run our business on normal working procedures.

How important is it for a CTO to have a firm grasp of business?

Every solution deployed typically addresses some aspect of the business and impacts it in a positive way. It's not just important, but critical for the CTO/CIO to have a firm grasp of the business, otherwise his role becomes extremely operation-based. Without knowledge of business they will rarely be able to achieve success. With in-depth knowledge they can be a support function to the organization and the employees, and not just a partner to the business. When the CIO understands the business, he/she can empathize with the pain points and create effective solutions. If this is not the case, the CIO runs the risk of a gap between what business desires and what IT can deliver.