Keeping digital transformation at the forefront, the company is changing its processes in a big way, rendering more operational efficiency across verticals
ABHISHEK AGARWAL
BALMER LAWRIE
We may think about Cloud-based solutions where we are not able to project the load on the system. It may hamper our business which is only possible in travel as it is a dynamic business and highly dependent on technology.
Digital transformation plays a critical role at Balmer Lawrie, a diversified corporate entity looking at digitising processes across its chosen business segments. Abhishek Agrawal in his capacity as a CIO reviewed the architecture of applications and infrastructure within the organisation. He conducted gap analysis and launched certain critical projects such as creation of HA architecture for critical servers, asset management, Next generation firewalls, secure web gateway, end user devices backup, consolidation of printers using MPS as well as implementation of AD based on it. They also launched their own exchange server services. All these projects are believed to form a strong base for the digital transformation projects within the company.
Balmer Lawrie is targetting to revamp their travel portal as well as some mobile apps. Digital transformation can play a pivotal role in enabling that as well as in logistics business unit. It will enhance the operational efficiency, especially in their travel business as more and more customers are moving online and it presents a huge opportunity to the company and may also be instrumental in increasing revenues. The organisation is also targetting business intelligence and analytics as a tool for B2C and B2B user-centric businesses.
“All the projects have cross-functional teams which helps in completion of projects as per user satisfaction. Projects are monitored by both CIO and COO which helps in closure of issues which were not able to get resolved at the team level,” informs Agrawal, adding, “A plethora of new technologies are available in the market but we need to go for the one required for our organisation and not because it is the latest one available.”
At present, Balmer Lawrie is avoiding Cloud-based solutions although in some cases they might go for an antivirus or cloud based security of employee end points but not for parallel infrastructure. For now, all their infrastructure is new and does not need replacement.
He further said, “My vision for digital transformation is to see an organisation which is totally IT dependent. IT should be providing tools to the business which are best suited for the organisation. IT should be an enabler and not the executor. It should come in parallel as a driver and not as a support function.”
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