Digital transformation is driving change in how CIOs work
TG DHANDAPANI
TECHNOLOGY EVANGELIST
On the changing role of CIOs, he says that it is quite radical these days. In 1990s, the CIOs needed to provide day-end, weekend or month-end reports to the finance and stores controllers. In 2000, when ERP was implemented, CIOs started talking in business language with CFOs, CMOs and COOs. Now, in IoT era, CIOs have grease on their palms by working in the shop-floor and take joint ownership to achieve business targets.
TG Dhandapani is a well-known name among the top CIOs or technology officers in India. Dhandapani, who has spent most number of years in the manufacturing sectors, has undertaken several projects to digitally transform the companies he has worked with. For example, he worked on an IoT (Internet of Things) project wherein around 400 devices were connected in the shop-floor to enhance the productivity, quality & visibility of the company.
Other projects executed by Dhandapani included a genealogy project which was initiated to help identify the root cause, in traceability and thereby reduced the cost of warranty. Automation was used to improve productivity enhancement and rich data collected to provide insights to redefine design geometry.
Being in the brick and mortar industry of manufacturing, Dhandapani feels Information Technology is a strong enabler for better performance and driver of strategy and business targets. “IT projects can reap full benefits only when used as an investment in a business,” shares Dhandapani, adding the simplicity and user friendliness of an application is must in this sector.
Besides, he says that collaboration of the stakeholders in this sector is important as IT users are the key and all the projects should be implemented as cross-functional team where the end-user views are fully reckoned. He adds that productivity improvement, quality improvement and greater agility in the shop-floor increases with the adoption of technology and the major benefit is derived on Big Data which offers many insights.
Talking about the issues around legacy infrastructure that many companies deal with, Dhandapani says it poses a great challenge but the companies should re-skill its people and their mindsets before adopting to any technology, be it network, computing or storage. “Based on the need, other infrastructure can be replaced or upgraded over a period. Anyhow the progressive organisation would have acquired agile and adaptive infrastructure. Human infrastructure is the key and a difficult part to handle,” he adds.
Dhandapani puts in that the companies should collaborate with start-ups in their path of digital transformation and bring a digital (extended) organisation to provide best in-class service to business customers (extended - connecting suppliers, organisation, dealers and customers).
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