The PCQ Top IT Implementations of 2012: What Made Them Win

We were a little skeptical about getting too many project nominations this time, given the current 'shaky' market situation and with talks of IT budget cuts happening everywhere. We were really wondering whether there were too many IT implementations happening across the country. But contrary to belief, we received very healthy participation this time as well, with over 170 project nominations. We have covered all the nominations and the going trends in IT implementations across the country in our last issue. This issue, after months of efforts, we bring you the winners of this year's Best IT Implementation awards and the semi-finalists.

Actually, we were amazed to see the returns on investment that companies have enjoyed by using technology, and of course, we've made it a point to highlight those gains very prominently in each of the project write-ups.

In fact, companies of the winning projects this time have not shied away from spending on technology no matter how costly or complex it is. But rather, they've done it with a very clear vision on what business problems they need to resolve, careful assessment of technologies to choose the right one for the job, and a lot of innovative thinking to put the technology to best possible use. These are very clearly the secrets to any successful project deployment, and the results truly speak for themselves.

Take for instance, the Essar Voice CUG project, which was adjudged as the overall best IT project by the jury, is a fine example of using technology for effective communication and reducing cost. The group has been growing very fast with presence across the globe, making it imperative that its employees are able to communicate from wherever they are, be it the manufacturing plants where wireless Tetra walkie talkies are used, or across the globe somewhere with their smartphones, tablets, etc. The solution allows connectivity from anywhere over any technology. No wonder then that they've been able to save Rs. 9 Cr per month just in communication costs, apart from the productivity gains and other benefits.

With the same technology available to everyone, the difference is in using it innovatively. That's exactly what the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation's LAN/WAN inter-connectivity project is all about. It's a simple networking project, but with a lot of innovative thinking behind it. They've used the fibre they had laid across the railway tracks for signaling to also carry the application data. As a result, they managed to get LAN like performance over WAN like distances. Not only that, but they've avoided digging roads and saved the cost of going in for leased lines. Moreover, there's futuristic thinking involved, wherein they plan to lease out the spare bandwidth on this fibre to ISPs and make some money in the process. Money that will pay for the implementation itself!

Speaking further on innovation, Mahindra Finance have been disbursing loans in the rural sector for years, and every year, they've been enhancing their reach by using technology. A few years ago, the company used to take two days to process a loan. This year, they've reduced loan processing time to just 2 hours with the help of extremely powerful and feature rich hand-held terminals that can function as mini-bank themselves. These devices are connected to a centralized server over the Internet, and have all modes of network connectivity, be it LAN, wireless, or GPRS to update information in real time. The end result is 41% increase in revenue for the company.

Likewise, all other similar projects have a similar a WOW factor to them, and we'll let you go through them at your own leisure. This time, we've divided the awards into two-one set for large enterprises, govt, and public sector companies; and the other for small and mid-sized enterprises.

Even the semi-finalists that were presented to the jury this time, demonstrated interesting use of technology.