B Swaminathan
Ashok Thalavaiswamy heads one of the largest IT organizations in Chennai. Laving worked in various industry verticals, Ashok feels that across the business now technology is running the business. In a quick chat, some key insights on the reasons behind the procurement to payment delays, challenges of the IT head and more. Edited excerpts.
Today, in many cases, in every deal, from PoC to release of payment, there is a delay in the purchase lifecycle. One reason mentioned is now, not just the head of Technology, multiple decision-makers are entering.
Here you can rift the same into 2 scenarios, one is Core IT organization and the other one is Non-IT organization. In IT organization it’s considerably better to demonstrate the technology & it’s a necessity in the organization. In non-IT organizations, you have to put some more effort to explain the requirement of the product and to satisfy the management. Purchase delay may happen due to various reasons like a budget shortage, fund Flows. From Technical front, Manpower Constrain, Lack of Technology, downtime requirement for depend services are delaying factors for PoC
For the technology team, which is the most challenging internal client?
Sales team. End of the day they are the ones bringing business to the organization. The challenge here is in today’s competitive world, commitments by the sales team to customers on the architecture of IT Infrastructure. Then we, the IT team has to work on the contrary to ensure the commitments within the time frame agreed to customers irrespective of the challenges/issues to guarantee the business smooth functioning.
What are the new trends you notice in the recruitment process of technology heads and the key outcomes expected from them?
Information in the latest technology available in the market, knowledge of innovative things and cutting-edge technologies and how well you are adapting to it. Way of approach or handling the critical situations also so significant.
In many organizations, earlier the absence of technology team was realized (when things go wrong).
However, now even their presence is realized (to strategize the process better).
Earlier, IT was the part of enabling the business. Whereas nowadays, IT is primarily running the business. Or on other words business happens through IT. It’s all because of the importance of data and it’s availability.
Even though it is much discussed, I would like to ask you. What is your view on acceptance and dependency on IT in a company where technology is the core business versus a non-Tech company?
The difference between a technology company and a non-technology company is much minimized now. As I mentioned in the previous point, business happens through technology. However, you must spend more time to realize the necessity of technology, particularly in the IT Security portfolio.
According to you, which is the most-hyped thing which everyone is discussing which might not work practically at this time or for Indian enterprises?
Robotic Technology. As per my observation, for now, we are not mature or developed to go into robotic technologies. Things may change in the coming years.