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IT infrastructure is critical for your rapidly expanding business. What is your investment plan in the next couple of years?
IT is a critical function in a retail organization as it is one of the key enablers that drive business right from an inception stage to the moment when merchandise is sold into the hands of the consumer. The loop doesn't end here as feedback and response is fed back into the system. Successful IT strategy and deployment is one of the key differentiating factors, which give retailers a competitive edge over their rivals. We have already embarked upon an ambitious IT roadmap for the group and lined up investments to the tune of over Rs 100 crore over the next three years. The IT plan of the company is for its lifestyle and value retail businesses. Currently the company is growing at a rapid pace, and to maintain its competitive edge, a complete IT infrastructure revamp has been pursued and the strategic relationship with SAP is in this direction. SAP is already implemented for the retail business across all business functions including finance, category management, SCM and store back office and is covering all stores across India. BI solutions from SAP are in place and we are looking at implementing management dashboards and advanced analytics using niche solutions.

Information security is the prime concern for many enterprises. At the same time you are facing exponential manpower growth across the country. What security standards do you follow?
Growth of manpower is phenomenal for us. In order to ensure that information security is controlled within our premises, we are educating our manpower. With this in mind, we have tightened our internal processes, while our HR practices are in line with our overall policies. Since HR is playing a crucial role in creating awareness among employees, this has become a day-to-day practice for our employees. In fact, we are not facing any external threat as we have put strong firewalls-both hardware and software. This apart, we have tried to combine best of prevailing standards in the industry, ranging from perimeter security to desktop level security. Taking into account the geographic spread and the nature of business we have segregated the internal set-up from the outward facing infrastructure and implement the best in class products, services and solutions.

How do you align your business with IT?
In order to specifically cater to emerging and growing business needs, the IT team has a business relationship cell which interfaces with the various business teams to understand their needs. IT has got strategic importance within the organization and is represented at the senior management reviews and discussions.

What is your outsourcing strategy?
We have a strong outsourcing strategy in place. Our belief is that non-core activities need to be outsourced to specialized players so that we can focus on core activities and play a greater role in aligning IT with mainstream business. The primary role of the outsourced partner will be to execute and at the same time also suggest best practices, emerging technologies, etc. 

Retail companies rely on ERP implementations. What matters the most to you in such implementations?
Top management buy-in and change management are the two crucial drivers, which make or break any ERP implementation. We have been fortunate to have strong top management support during the implementation of SAP. We took many steps in managing change which was brought about during the SAP implementation, such as getting business teams involved on full-time basis, naming and branding the SAP implementation project as SAARTHI, starting a news letter which kept all employees fully involved in the project on real-time basis, etc.

Which IT risks bother you the most and how do you handle them during the process of keeping in touch with customers and vendors round the clock?
In order to keep pace with the rapid and unprecedented business growth, technology obsolescence becomes a very high risk factor. Widespread geographical presence makes the set up vulnerable to risks in many ways. Technology obsolescence is managed by forging close partnership with our technology vendors along with interactions with major global consulting partners. The vulnerability is being handled by continuous review of current set up in terms of handling soft spots and regular forecasting to keep the enterprise architecture future dated.      

The industry faces obsolete technologies, while demands of customers change day by day. Do you face challenges as far technologies and goals are concerned?
The problem is not with technology but gap in the perception and possibility. It's very crucial to correctly understand stakeholder expectations and deliver optimal solutions within the constraints of time and cost.

How do you ensure all IT and telecom investments are linked to business goals?
All IT initiatives/investments are linked to the IT balance scorecard which is linked to the Org BSC.  Return on investments (RoI) and TCO (Total cost of Ownership) is measured before any major IT investment. As part of our IT plan, the company has implemented fully integrated transaction system (SAP) which would accumulate accurate real-time data as each of the key functions of the organization performs their day-to-day operations. We have also implemented a data warehouse and a business intelligence tool (of SAP) on top of the transaction data accumulated by the above systems.

Customer satisfaction and profitability are critical for a retail chain. Can convergence play a key role?
Convergence will be the key in the days to come. With aggressive growth plans of reaching out to consumers across the length and breadth of the country, convergence will play a key role in unification. Sitting at the HO, one common window audio, video and data feeds will provide a snapshot of a store's performance, customer feedback and response. Convergence will enable better buying decisions, a store manager will have better control of his store from the back office, chairman will be able to connect with the employees and customers sitting at one location, etc.

What are the new technologies, which could further revolutionize the retail market in the country?
Emerging store technologies for better customer experience and RFID technology for better inventory control and visibility.

Can Indian customers get new technologies and value-added services?
As compared with India, retail players in the US and European markets make huge investments in IT, in line with customer demands. This is primarily because they are mature markets. Over a period of time, Indian customers will experience more value-added services from retail players. Our vision is to offer the best services to customers. We have already implemented a company wide network (VPN) connecting all the stores, warehouses and offices. The network is capable of handling heavy traffic of data, voice and video. The company is in the process of building the capability of transmitting relay of all CCTVs at store to head office or zonal offices to get live feeds of store action. Also, there would be video conferencing capability between store managers and category teams at head office for highly personal and interactive discussions on anything from merchandise display to fast movers to innovative schemes for increased business.

What are your future plans?
In order to improve visibility of this data across the value chain, there are plans to implement a complete Enterprise Portal (a web based platform) integrated with the company's core transaction systems, which would provide common interactive interface (platform) to share information with all the stake holders.

Baburajan K
baburajank@cybermedia.co.in