CIOs Join Hands to Form the CIO KLUB
By Tabrez Khan
Mumbai, May 5, 2008

CIO KLUB seeks to be an interactive platform for vendors, media, and CIOs. It aims to bring them together to exchange best practice ideas and derive strategy to address common IT issues

IT implementation in Indian enterprises across all verticals has seen a radical change in recent times. IT's role in business has shifted from the traditional EDP setup to today's role of a strategic business partner / unit. The challenges that IT users and implementers face today has created a need for a platform to have a stronger relationship between IT vendors, IT trade publications and the CIO community which will also benefit the CXO community and the Indian Enterprise as a whole.

It's with this objective to facilitate collaboration between various stakeholders that CIOs across various verticals of the industry have come together to form the CIO KLUB. The motto of the CIO KLUB is to "Share Experience, Enhance Knowledge, Explore Business Solutions" by leveraging the collective wisdom.

The primary objective is to drive the business benefit to the organizations of the member CIOs and also help them in their professional growth. The CIO KLUB will also represent the IT user community to governmental bodies, support government's e-governance initiative, interact directly with vendors and the media for delivering CIO needs from time to time.

CIO KLUB seeks to be an interactive platform where the vendors, media and the CIOs will exchange best practice ideas and derive strategy to address common IT issues. For the benefit of CIOs, CIO KLUB will create a test lab environment in the future for new IT products and solutions with industry participation and will create a vendor neutral environment.

The KLUB seeks to encourage the entrepreneur spirit by providing platform for sharing innovative ideas in the larger interest of the Community.

Today business heads have recognized that IT, and thereby the CIO, is critical for the success of any business. To facilitate closer interaction between the CIO and the CEO/business heads, the CIO KLUB will organize "Face2Face" interaction sessions with CEOs and business heads.

The CIO KLUB will be governed by a governing body of the founder members, with focused group committees planned in the near future to handle different initiatives.

The following members have been appointed as the office bearers for the governing body as the first step. Ashish Chauhan of Reliance Industries (president), Vikas Gadre, of Tata Chemicals (VP), Shirish Gariba of Elbee Express (secretary), Vilas Pujari of ACG Worldwide (joint secretary), Radhakrishna Pillai of SRL Ranbaxy (treasurer), and Zoeb Adenwala of Essel Propack, Anwer Bagdadi of CFC International , Prakash Pawar of Intrex India, and Satish Pendse of HCC as committee members.

The following sub committees are already announced to make it more market / business focused.

* Sponsorship & marketing - Anwer Bagdadi, chairman

* Knowledge to insights - Subramanian, chairman

* Membership (CIO) - Prakash Pawar, chairman

* Infrastructure Committee- Zoeb

* Membership (corporate)

* Content Management

* Event Management

* Investments

* Innovation & New Technology

* Vendor Management

* Knowledge / Education

* Governance

* Women leadership


Related Links:

The Metamorphosis of the CIO