S. Gopalakrishnan (Kris),President and COO (CEO-designate), Infosys

“One of the seven founders of Infosys along with Narayana Murthy and Nandan

Nilekani, S. Gopalakrishnan (Kris) has vast experience in implementing major IT

projects across the globe. Poised to takeover as the CEO in June, he talked to

PCQuest about his priorities, the challenges that project heads face while

implementing new technologies, the difference in implementing mutli-billion

dollar projects in India as compared to implementing them abroad and the overall

challenges that the Indian IT industry faces.

Congratulations for being nominated to succeed Nandan Nilekani as the

CEO, Infosys. What would be your priorities after taking over?



I'll prioritize my tasks based on the current environment in IT. I would

begin by focusing on competitiveness and productivity. For that, I would try to

forge a linear relationship between adding people and increasing productivity.

In addition to this, we also need to improve competency in various domains and

the level of consultancy within the organization. We are a 55,000+ engineer

strong company and need to leverage this huge IP resource pool to our advantage.

How do Indian companies differ from foreign ones, when implementing huge

IT projects?



In India the metrics to be considered while deploying big projects are very

different from what they are when deploying abroad. Your templates must be in

tune with the labor costs, as any justification for a project will necessarily

include labor costs. So, you need to be very careful in evaluating a major

technology for deployment, as supporting infrastructure could be sorely lacking.

Moreover, volumes are not high enough to justify support for

development/deployment.

S. Gopalakrishnan (Kris),  President and COO (CEO-designate), Infosys

You have much experience in implementing multi-billion dollar projects.

What advice do you have for other companies that plan such implementations?



While implementing big projects you get to experience a lot of new

technologies. These technologies provide opportunities for collaboration and

benefits to vendors and their partners. You see work being co-ordinated across

multiple locations, multiple time zones. This also provides opportunities to

organizations in terms of new revenue streams.

Based on your experience, what are the pitfalls that they should avoid?



It is important to make sure that you have support infrastructure in India

for technologies that you plan to deploy. As companies transition toward newer

technologies, you need to train your people to bring them at par with the new

requirements. Also, you need to make changes to your business processes, else

you won't get the desired benefits. At Infosys, we first look at the operational

changes required and then make systemic changes. It's only after both have been

taken care of, that we decide upon the technology to be used.

What are the recipes for success or, the concerns during large-scale

implementations?



There is a lot of interdependence between people and complexity of scale.

Training a lot of people at one go is a concern. You also need to interact

regularly with the client and with various departments in an organization. So,

allow sufficient time for communication and collaboration between interested

parties. Make sure that you take care of their concerns and manage those

interactions very diligently. You also need to synchronize changes in the

system. Amidst all this, ensure that the impact on the client is minimal. And

wherever he is impacted, take care that he is kept in the loop before decisions

are taken.

How important is the IT infrastructure consolidation project for Infosys?



This project allowed us to further the goal of consolidation across various

departments in the organization. We plan to consolidate on similar lines, other

infrastructure across the organization. Now we are in a position to take it even

further and show it as a service to our clients.

What was the management's support to the IT team for this project?



We gave them the resources and the space, and they did a fantastic job! We

passed on the complete ownership of the project to the team. We felt that such

an approach would provide opportunities to the team to learn despite the risks

involved. It also creates a sense of entrepreneurship within the company. We

allowed them to take bottom lines in hand and chalk out their own path to

achieve desired goals.

What do you think of the IT landscape in India?



There is under-investment in IT in India. Look at sectors such as telecom

and banking that have taken strong strides forward in recent times. As we become

part of the global supply chain, we need to ensure that our IT infrastructure is

at par with global requirements. We should take advantage of the fact that we

have little legacy and go in for the latest technology in our IT deployments. In

India, costs are lower in terms of technologies and labor. We should understand

and leverage technology better by coming up with newer ways to achieve

something. As more and more R&D is taking place in India (companies such as SAP,

Oracle, Intel and Motorola already have R&D centers here) we need to make full

use of that. However, we need to tackle the decrease in R&D activity in

education. We need more research taking place at the PhD level.