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IT infrastructure has played a key role in the growth of the automotive sector in India. What components of this infrastructure play an important role in your day-to-day functioning?
Auto industry players are early-adopters of IT and are proactively using it to respond to the changing business environment. For successful auto manufacturers, IT alignment with business at strategic and operational level has been a regular way of working.  Use of embedded technology in automobiles has been increasing, and today it forms a major part of the component structure.

Security and IT go hand-in-hand. What security related issues bug you the most?
Today information and knowledge are the major competitive differentiators for organizations, as all others can be outsourced. Information security does not get limited to the confines of IT systems and data centers, but extends to the entire organization, covering processes and people. In fact, the effectiveness of information security measures depends far more on people than technology, the aspect that probably gets overlooked.

Recognizing this, we at M&M have gone for Information Security BS7799 Certification not only for IT systems and data centers, but also for the entire organization.  

How do you align business with IT in your organization?
At M&M, alignment of IT with business happens at both strategic as well as at operational level.  Generally, the long-term infrastructural capabilities are built based on the capabilities envisaged by the business to meet its long-term goals. The same has also driven the IT architectural decisions. For successful alignment, it is necessary to understand and communicate with the business owners in business terms.  Corporate IT team at M&M is mainly drawn from the business functions, which easily relate to the business and operating people. Business functions are also made aware of new advancements in technology. The hardcore technology work is outsourced and managing these service providers and vendors is one of the prime responsibilities of the IT functions.

Outsourcing has become the buzzword in enterprises today. What's your take on this?
M&M realized the importance of IT and its potential for growth as an industry, way back during early 90's, when it formed a JV with British Telecom.  By the end of last century, advances in IT and communication technology, and the emergence of packaged software such as ERP was beginning to impact the way business is done. Realizing this, after the implementation of SAP at M&M, a separate subsidiary with focus on SAP implementation, facility management and business process consulting was formed. The hardcore technology function is thus outsourced at M&M.

Do you think systems such as ERP  will become commodities?
ERP provides the framework of best practices and is a foundation for business systems.  However some organizations would strive to differentiate through processes and resort to customization.

Organization wide ERP implementation would necessarily involve people and change management. The package may be the same, but implementation could differ. As such, it may not be right to put ERP in commodity category.

Do you see IT heading toward any particular architecture faster than some others? Is grid computing, for instance, on your radar?
Grid computing as an alternative to traditional high performance computing,   and has proven valuable in research and education. Its application in business environment is recently being explored.  Although, fundamentally its value in cost saving and flexibility of an operation does add to its attractiveness to business, it is still in the initial stage of maturity in business application. Product development, where many simulation scenarios need to be tested, would be an area to look for.  Though, it is on our radar, we are not yet seriously planning for it.

There is certainly a trend of application sharing and centralized architecture.  We have adapted this approach for our major business units, as well as for smaller group companies, who share the commonly hosted applications such as ERP. We have also adopted this approach for our dealers, where they access centrally hosted DMS and CRM applications.

What's your take on IT governance in the automotive sector?
IT governance essentially needs to follow the broad principles of corporate governance, and it is true for all industries including automotive. Of late, corporate governance has emerged as one of the focus areas for  top management. The recent directives of SEBI, relating to Section 49, make it mandatory for CEOs and CFOs to certify compliance to the corporate governance principles.

IT is now embedded in all business processes. Effective IT governance  defines decision rights and accountability framework for IT related decisions–what decisions need to be made, who will make them, and how will they be made. At M&M, we have both corporate governance and IT governance framework in place. The framework covers IT investments, policies, procurement, application portfolio, infrastructure, and information security decisions.

How do you ensure all IT and telecom investments are linked to business goals such as better financials?
Delivering business value is a challenge, and not a problem. At M&M, value realization through IT is addressed by ensuring that:

• Business–IT alignment at strategic as well as operational level

• Business ownership of the IT initiatives

• IT portfolio classification-Strategic, high potential, key operations, and support-based on their impact on business strategy and business operations-this also facilitates appropriate business case justification.

• Ensuring synergy across the group-the processes and IT infrastructure investments

• Project Management-delivering projects on time and achieving planned deliverable.  Ensuring the post-implementation reviews and corrective actions, if any, thereof.

It is important to bear in mind that  people drive the value, and leading them to the goal successfully is a challenge for any CIO.

Which technologies are going to be the key drivers in the automotive industry in the coming days?
Auto industry is truly a global industry where players not only reach different parts of the world for markets and customers, but also to locate plants and source components to optimize cost.

With networks of partners across the globe, collaborative commerce, mobile computing, web services, wireless applications and devices are becoming  prominent.  Collaborative and demand driven supply chains are using these technologies and emerging solutions such as design to demand, flexible manufacturing systems, personalized CRM, dealer network management. Telematics is also becoming an important part of automobile design. 

It would not be exaggerating if one says that the auto industry is a source of majority of emerging technologies–used in products and operations.

How much do you rely on service level agreements? 
As almost all the technical jobs are outsourced at M&M, managing vendors effectively becomes one of the key result areas for the IT function. Hence, SLA is one of the major tools for ensuring value for money. A great deal of interaction happens with vendors in defining SLAs, so that their performance can be monitored efficiently. SLA adherence is also one of the major parameters for vendor evaluation at M&M.

Rahul Gupta 
rahulg@cybermedia.co.in