WiredScribe: The Business of IT

Gone are the days when voice and electronic messaging were the hottest trends in communication. Unified messaging systems have now become a business tool for organisations the world over. But what’s the position on the home front? The Internet, by making our inboxes accessible to us anytime, anywhere, has forever transformed the way we communicate. Wireless technology has gone a step further by making it possible to stay connected while on the move. And this, technologists believe, is just a glimpse of what the future has to offer. But advancements in technology have made it necessary for business executives to respond to problems instantly, especially since customers are quick to shift loyalty to a service provider who is more efficient. As Doug Firebaugh, chief executive of PassionFire International says, "Communication is really all anyone ever gets paid for ultimately and if you cannot effectively communicate you will pay instead of getting paid." Nothing can be tr...

Denmark-based company Navision was acquired by software giant Microsoft .  Yash Nagpal , managing director, Navision India elaborates on the effect this takeover would have on its Indian operations What are the dynamics of the acquisition of Navision by Microsoft? The Microsoft offer for acquisition of Navision was made in April while the deal was finalised only on July 11, 2002. Microsoft bought our shares at the rate of $40 each, amounting to a total of approximately $1.45 billion, which was paid for in stock as well as in cash. Subsequently, Navision has been delisted from NASDAQ and other stock exchanges and we are now the seventh new division of Microsoft, called Microsoft Business Solutions. Even Great Plains, a US-based company, which was acquired by Microsoft last year, is a part of this division. Microsoft Business Solutions will continue to develop, market and support Navision’s business applications. These applications, which will now be known as Microsoft Nav...

Bill Cowper, industry director, Communications, Asia Pacific, Sun Microsystems , has worked in the telecommunications industry for 35 years, including 26 years with Telstra, Australia’s leading carrier. On a visit to India he spoke Sun’s offerings for the Indian telecom sector Please provide us your views on the telecom scenario in India. Telcos are the same the world over. They subscribe to the same technology and face similar business challenges. The key difference would be the environments in which they exist. But if the governments of developing countries want to drive social and economic change, then a robust communication infrastructure is a must. China, for instance, realised this early on, and today has more mobile phones than the entire world had four to five years ago. China went from nine million mobiles to more than 300 million in less than four years. I can see India taking a similar route. In 2001, when India had just 3.5 million mobile subscribers, I had predicted ...

Even in a price-conscious economy people persist in paying a 40 percent premium to Blue Dart to courier their letters and packages across the country. What is Blue Dart’s secret? In an era where companies are slashing prices to tap new customers and retain existing ones, one company has been bucking the trend. Blue Dart , one of South Asia’s leading courier and integrated air express package distribution companies, is charging a 40 percent premium for its services and still acquiring customers by the dozen. And all this while continuing to retain its existing base. Blue Dart boasts of more than 100,000 shipments per day. No wonder then that the company has almost doubled its income in the last four years—from Rs 176 crore in 1998-99 to Rs 315 crore in 2002-03. “Effective implementation of technology is the primary reason behind the phenomenal success that Blue Dart enjoys today. Technology has not only enabled us to sustain a competitive advantage by providing quality services b...

After waiting cautiously for the right solutions in the market, Lupin has decided to go in for a big bang approach that will see the company undertake a slew of initiatives in the space of ERP, CRM and SCM. In the first phase Lupin will implement all the modules of SAP  The second phase will see it embark on setting up a comprehensive SCM solution  In the third phase Lupin plans to implement CRM solutions "By effective use of information, we can analyse business information and identify under- performing areas" "Organisations must view BI investments holistically, with appropriate budget and staffing for system and user management" In today’s business scenario where monopolies are almost non-existent, undoubtedly ‘Information Technology’ is a weapon, which has become an absolute necessity in a company’s arsenal. While IT has permeated almost every industry domain, it is perhaps more strategic as a tool in the pharmaceutical industry. IT has brought an...

If you have ever been to a large manufacturing plant you would have probably seen gargantuan machines the size of which puts many multi-storeyed buildings in our cities to shame. Powering these behemoths are boilers whose mammoth proportions belie one’s imagination at times. And the power behind these juggernauts is nothing but information technology. One organisation that has demonstrated the power of IT in this space is the Rs 100 crore Thermax Babcock and Wilcox, (TBW) India. The company, with installations in more than 15 countries across the world, claims to be the first project company in India to have implemented ERP to increase efficiency and cut costs. The company Babcock and Wilcox (B&W) had implemented ERP in all its branches globally much before entering into a partnership with Thermax. Because of this relationship with B&W, TBW had got into the process of thinking about ERP right since inception. Says K K Diwakar, group general manager for marketing and business...

A change in the top management saw Bank of Rajasthan, which had been suffering losses for more than four consecutive years, finally get out of the red. The same management realised the importance of IT to make the bank globally competitive. What would a bank do if after a hiatus of four years it finally makes enough profits to be able to pay dividends to its stockholders? Pay up, of course—what better way to make customers happy and increase confidence in the bank. But Jaipur-headquartered Bank of Rajasthan (BoR) decided otherwise. The private sector bank actually skipped two dividends to invest in information technology. And if Bank of Rajasthan executive director Vinod Juneja is to be believed it is the only private sector bank in India to do so. The bank has till date made an investment of more than Rs 20 crore in scaling its operations to current levels. Losses prompt need for IT BoR had accumulated losses amounting to Rs 157 crore by the year 1999. This was when chairman P ...