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Wipro has been a leading example in implementing a future-proof IT infrastructure. How are you gearing up for the next five years using emerging technologies?
We implemented our existing system in 1999-2000 keeping in mind our scalability and growth. We were only 5,000 people then, today we are a 65,000 strong unit. We take pride in saying that we chose the right platform and architecture. But we believe that the current systems are not enough to scale up for next 2-5 years. We are cognizant of the fact that we need to remodel our foundation and processes to make our system scalable.

We have undertaken an 18-month long initiative of creating a first-tier technology architecture which is going to use SOA and the latest technologies, like business process management and a business rules engine. This will create an autonomous structure, combining technology, process and application (in that order), which will allow us to achieve the same growth pattern in the next five years. We will do so in such a way as to not lose the majority of our legacy systems. We are using middleware technology to bring it all together. Enabling mobile applications is also a priority. Currently we have identified the right business processes, and the fundamental foundation framework. Some parts of the model will be rolling out this year, and the remaining will be in effect next year.

Wipro has to combine diverse assets and functions from various geographies. What challenges do you identify here?
Wipro Technologies has almost 45 offices in India and over 30 offices abroad. In addition, the IT infrastructure serves 65 offices of Wipro Infotech across India. Scalability and flexibility are two key challenges. Our end users are spread across three continents-North America, Asia and Europe. Each geographical location has a different requirement, and our infrastructure system has to conform to each of these in a flexible manner, so as to enable the end users to work together.

Is it difficult dealing with customers who are technologists themselves?
Yes, satisfying end customers that are from the IT domain itself is a big challenge. Integrating their needs and IT understanding with our processes is a crucial task. End customers also create their own IT systems. Our challenge, therefore, is creating a consistent process-at the same time allowing these small IT systems to be part of an integral pole-and scaling up best practices across the organization.

What is the scope of 3G, NGN and IP based technologies in Wipro?
Wipro's entire infrastructure is based on an NGN design. IP is extensively used in our IT infrastructure, and is a key element in the organization's communications network. 3G is not relevant to us, as of now.

Security has always been a CIO concern, especially for the IT segment. What is your security strategy?
We have mature security practices in place. Since Wipro provides services to many technology companies, we make sure that we don't become a pathway for info leakage. Besides the physical security measures in place, we carry out a lot of audits on what kind of information is coming in or going out. We monitor the email exchanges between our employees and outside. Secondly, we are also careful about our clients' security needs. Most of the customers' networks are not even connected to our backbone; this way we make sure that security is not compromised. Risk management is also crucial to our business. After we define-depending upon connectivity-what risks we can expect, we create processes around every possible risk situation. We are also open to periodic audits and we are able to do a reasonably good job on this.

There has been an exponential increase in recruitment in the IT industry. How does Wipro accommodate this while planning its IT infrastructure strategy?
We add 15,000 to 20,000 people every year and they have to be productive as soon as possible. When we bring in so many people together, our challenge is to remain committed towards our customers on delivering consistently. We look at how IT can be an enabler to ease this challenge. Out of an enormous stock of resumes, only 1 out of 10 candidates actually gets interviewed, following a 1:50 ratio of resumes scanned. IT enables scalability starting from the recruitment process, creating an awareness program and smoothening global delivery model (GDM) processes.

In what way have you enabled your mobile workforce?
One of the key things that mobile enabling allows is faster information processing by employees. We have an employee self-service portal that is built around the HR system, where all employees services, like travel, leave, payroll, etc, are put up. All employees have access to this from any part of the world. Our approach has been to implement applications that enable anytime, anywhere access. In the long term, our focus will be developing mobile oriented applications. Many of the approvals by managers for various processes are being carried out on mobiles. Besides this, information exchange related to projects or processes is being done over mobiles. We also provide access to our knowledge networks, to some of our customers.

Wipro is one of the early promoters of infrastructure outsourcing. What more are you looking to outsource?
We believe in outsourcing strongly. We have outsourced MPLS connectivity to service providers in all three locations-US, Europe and India. On the IT infra side, we have outsourced all desktop and server management, as well as lab management. Similarly on the applications side, we have outsourced all Level 1 support. We still own the design and architecture of both. Today we are examining options to outsource Level 2 and Level 3 of IT applications. As per our new initiative we may outsource the maintenance of applications as well.

As for dealing with challenges, we have the right framework, as we have been servicing so many customers. We demand the same quality of support from our vendors which we provide to our customers. Periodically, there will be challenges, as on desktop level support due to attrition at the vendor level. But we can understand that vendors are creating processes to handle this challenge.

Part of the reason for your success in approaching customers is "Wipro on Wipro". How can CIOs of IT organizations benefit from such an approach?
One of the things we pride in ourselves is trying to find new ways of doing the same thing, in order to improve productivity and better previous processes. Wipro has many Centres of Excellence that try out new processes and new services for customers. As per the Wipro on Wipro policy the CIO organization and business units try out new technologies on themselves. We ask the engineers to treat Wipro as a customer for their new services, delivery models or processes and fine tune on us. If it works well, Wipro's clients get to exploit the experience. They can see live examples of new technologies being put to use. This has been a really successful initiative for us.

Malovika Rao
malovikar@cybermedia.co.in