Advisory Board
By CXOtoday Staff
Mumbai, May 9, 2008

With the objective to add more value to our content and provide deeper insight on contemporary tech trends,CXOtoday has formed an Advisory Board.The Board comprises eminent experts representing diverse market areas. Here's a list of Advisors.

V.S.Manikkam, head(IT) of Henkel CAC

V.S. Manikkam holds a masters degree in materials management from the Indian Institute of Material Management,and his work portfolio includes diverse functions including finance. His initial break into IT was in 1992 when he was entrusted with deploying Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP) solutions for his company.

Manikkam took up the challenge and delved himself deep into IT, training himself as well as handling crucial projects for various employers. He was instrumental in setting up the IT department at Converter Adhesives and Chemicals which he joined in 1999. The company was later merged with Henkel KGaA. Manikkam helped organize the IT function for the newly created entity Henkel CAC and currently heads the IT department of Henkel CAC.

Under his guidance, the company has been able to deploy best-of-breed ERP applications, spanning the entire breadth of business processes including production, quality control, purchase, finance, inventory, sales, marketing, etc.

With a keen interest in enterprise technology applications and innovation, he's a prolific writer on the subject and a regular contributor to CXOToday.

Factors required for successful ERP implementation:

On an average, an ERP implementation is a nine-month effort from start to finish. Depending on the size of the organization it takes an average of two and a half years from project initiation to achieve a quantifiable return on investment for an ERP system. One of the biggest problems for ERP project leaders to face comes not from the implementation itself, but from expectations of senior management members and other key senior staff.

ERP vendors negotiate contracts with senior staff and senior management, but typically those who see the implementation through on the customer side are the day-to-day operations staff. Keeping the interests of the entire team in mind presents a challenge to internal project leaders.

The ERP vendor needs to keep the focus on the key Management and their needs but keep the day-to-day operations people happy, too. That's what a project manager needs to keep in mind.

Commitment from top-level management is also imperative to the success of an ERP implementation.

A quality implementation can be derailed by poorly trained employees who do not know how to properly operate the new technology. The knowledge transfer to the employees is arguably more important than the quality of the implementation.

Many companies are not paying attention to this issue, and systems integrators frequently focus most of their attention on the IT process reengineering and relatively little time on reengineering the human resource. Companies don't build training into the total cost of ownership.

If you look at the total cost of the project, [training] can have the single biggest line items. Too often the focus is, 'Here's an order, enter it, and take it through. What they don't plan on is the unseen things that happen. What if you enter an order and the item is out of stock? In a lot of training scenarios, the vendor teach people how to do the basics, but they don't teach them what to do when they run into problems."

Knowledge transfer must begin at the first step of an ERP implementation,and throughout the process, the ERP vendor should be teaching the client how every facet of the system works.

If the ERP vendor does too much of the work, and the client's not involved, the knowledge transfer doesn't effectively happen, and the client is continually dependent on the vendor.

The software must become a critical aspect of the business. The ERP vendor and the client jointly needs to understand how it's set up and how it works, so that as the business evolves and changes, the vendor can change the setup of the software."

Shirish Gariba, CIO,Elbee Express

Shirish Gariba is a commerce graduate with training in software development and financial management. He has a rich experience spanning 21 years, across various industries and varied business processes. Gariba's unique trait has been his utilization of technology in each of his roles.

He has been instrumental in driving Elbee Express from a small-time logistics player to one of the leading Indian logistics companies. He was also instrumental in setting up a partnership between UPS, a logistics company,and Elbee.His recent initiatives have been toward utilizing technology to provide real-time critical information about shipments to clients.

How do you look at the performance of ERP software delivered by vendors, especially in the backdrop of failed implementations, long implementation times, no custom-fits etc?

I do not have an experience of the ready ERP what we have in the organization is home grown ERP. The implementation though would be same either in home grown or ready package. The implementation cycles could be long to short depends on the customization done

Given the high rate of failure of ERP implementations, do you think it would be wise to shift to opensource ERP? What in your perception would be the benefits and drawbacks?

In the industry which we are I think most of the players have gone in for homegrown ERP and we see more benefits because it supports the process as defined by the domain experts

Do you think ERP outsourcing is the only answer to resolving issues with implementing ERP which is a business-critical enterprise application?

Not necessarily. Outsourced and in-house both works depends on the functional involvement and cooperation. If it is a business critical application then the organization should work towards making it a great success. finally its going to help the users and organization

Suresh A. Shanmugam, national head (IT) of Business Information Technology Solutions (BITS) and CIO of Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services

Suresh A. Shanmugam is a mathematics honors graduate from Madras University and has obtained advanced certifications in software programming. With a vast experience spanning 16 years, he has worked in various fields including software programming and hardware fine-tuning. Before joining MMFSL, Shanmugam worked with Appsoft and UPS.

Associated with MMFSL since 1997, Shanmugam is a member of the first Shadow Board of Mahindra Finance instituted by the Mahindra & Mahindra group. He's also on the strategy board to formulate the business information solution requirements.

He reads extensively on rural technology requirements and is an active contributor to CXOToday.

How do you look at the performance of ERP software delivered by vendors, especially in the backdrop of failed implementations, long implementation times, no custom-fits etc?

It will be quite interesting or really a challenge to debate on such large implementations and long development times for ERP since it involves complex relationship between technology, process and people. Generally ERP software creates more enhanced human performance which results in better business performance. Surely ERP will enhance business performance if the deliverables are on or before time. However, delays could lead to frustrations at the work place among employees and even affect management's decision making ability with regard to business tractions and operational changes.

Given the high rate of failure of ERP implementations, do you think it would be wise to shift to open source ERP? What in your perception would be the benefits and drawbacks?

Both implementations do have Pros and Cons and we have to be very clear, which option we will opt for and accordingly plan for open source or proprietary ERP.

Today we have the latest next generation of ERP software, designed with object-oriented architecture and enhanced functionality hitting the market. These features were hitherto unavailable even in the largest and most capable ERP software, so the choice is widening. While the acquisition of an ERP system is made with the advice and input of the IT department, it is always an executive committee-level decision. Picking an ERP vendor is critical for obvious reasons; in truth, the deployment of an ERP system requires significant commitment of corporate resources, in both time and capital.

Do you think ERP outsourcing is the only answer to resolving issues with implementing ERP which is a business-critical enterprise application?

Management should be very clear of the process people technology mantra in terms of the policy Information required for the business and the tools required to enforce specific tasks at specific intervals. They also need to be very sure about the resource which they are going to build and the available resource with which they are going to operate. Also the benefits both to the company as a whole and to employee productivity need to be mapped clearly.

Early ERP systems, using proprietary formats, provided a common window for information that was available across all of the functions and units of a business.

However, today the proprietary architectures, data formats, and legacy code that provide the basic structure of these aging systems makes them vulnerable on several levels. Business will need to closely examine the costs of maintaining these systems in the light of change--both functional and technological--within their organizations. Given the increased cost to implement these systems, compared to the initially forecasted budgets, businesses will need to consider the financial and performance risks of maintaining these systems as they consider their strategic IT budgets going forward.

Satish Pendse, CIO of Hindustan Construction Company(HCC)

Satish Pendse possesses a rich experience of 22 years in the field of IT. He has worked across various organizations including Johnson & Johnson, Jet Airways, Marico, Kuoni Travels, and is currently the CIO of the HCC Group.

Pendse has been responsible for implementing large IT initiatives including projects such as SAP implementation, document management systems, automation of distributors, acquisition of IT based organizations, business specific front-office software, business specific technical software, and conceptualization to implementation of state-of-the-art complex IT Infrastructure.

Working with the senior management team of his organization, he ensures business-IT alignment and the broadbasing of ownership for IT strategy and subsequent IT initiatives within the organization. He also focuses on building, developing, and nurturing the high performing team of knowledge workers so as to channelize their strengths and energies into delivering the value of IT to the business of the organization.

An engineering graduate, Pendse is also an MBA in finance and has a specialized IT qualification from NCST. He has been an active contributor to CXOToday.

Anwer Baghdadi, senior VP and CTO of CFC India Services

Playing a pivotal role with CFC India Services, Anwer Baghdadi is involved in building and managing the secured technology enabling infrastructure framework, interconnectivity, and the technology team to support the company's ongoing operational availability requirements.

An IT veteran with over 24 years of experience, he has been instrumental in creating and managing enterprise IT set up at leading organizations such as Godrej & Boyce, Godrej-GE Appliances, and New Standard Engineering. He has also been instrumental in building up an IT infrastructure for BPOs like Lawkim and Epicenter.

Baghdadi has extensive experience in successfully implementing large IT projects on Enterprise Resource Planning solutions (ERP), multi-geographical Wide Area Network (WAN) implementation, and many other industry specific solutions.

Recipient of an international scholarship in "Systems Engineering" from Tokyo, Japan, he holds a degree in mechanical engineering from VJTI, Mumbai and has done postgraduate diploma in systems management.

C.N. Ram, former CIO of HDFC Bank

C.N. Ram has been a prominent technology leader who has successfully taken the technology and banking initiative in HDFC Bank to new heights during his tenure there. He joined HDFC Bank in 1994, the year when it was incorporated, and has helped established it as a premier private bank in the country.

Ram is a founder member of the Global Advisory Board of NCR Corporation. He's also a member of Asia Pacific Technology Advisory Board of Visa International and a member of Reserve Bank of India's Technology Advisory Committee. His keen eye for technology application within the banking and service industry has been appreciated across the industry. Apart from this, Ram is also on the advisory board of many technology companies such as Symantec, Sun Microsystems, etc.

If you want to discuss technology deployment issues with our Advisors, please mail at editor@cxotoday.com.