Laxman Badiga, CIO, Wipro Technologies

With an annual turnover of Rs. 15,000 crores, Wipro is second to none when it
comes to implementing huge IT projects. We talked to their CIO, Laxman Badiga,
and sought his views on the state of IT implementations in India.

What are the major concerns in IT projects that one should be aware of?

Fundamental to the success of a project are the people involved in it.
Unless you have the right people at the right place, you can't expect the
desired results. You need to understand client expectations thoroughly, need to
leverage the expertise of the team and top it up with good project management.
Note that even though you can fix the technology component and process component
but the chief concern remains getting the right people.

Laxman Badiga, CIO, Wipro Technologies

What are the major issues that Indian companies face while dealing with
their clients?

The development team should first understand client expectations. For eg, I
could be servicing clients from sectors as diverse as retail, banking or
security. This would entail that I clearly understand their diverse technical
needs. Secondly, you need to understand the cultural background of your client.
The way you interact with a Japanese should be different from how you deal with
an American or an Indian client. A successful communication involves 53%
listening and the remaining 47% is a mix of body language and written stuff.
Most of the people don't listen enough. Remember, it is easy to solve process or
technology problems but cultural change requires some effort to understand.

How does your usage of IT change with size as you scale up to a
multi-billion dollar company?

The biggest challenge in this transition is project management. Smaller
projects can be easily managed but handling huge teams becomes an enormous task.
So, modularizing is important. You need to ensure proper and effective
communication amongst the people involved. You need to ensure that all your
modules work effectively. Smaller projects with a contained team are easy to
manage. But you miss this element as you scale up.

What's your advice for mid-sized companies that are growing rapidly but
are struggling with their IT, especially when the major technology companies
don't seem to be focusing on them?

I would advise them to focus on areas that they really need rather than
copying what larger organizations are doing. They should look at what makes
sense to them and use due diligence while implementing projects. But don't let
availability or non-availability of resources act as a delimiter in terms of
adopting technology. You have enough guidance available. Wipro has a separate
focus for SMBs. Similarly, most of the big companies have teams to reach out to
SMBs.