CIOIN

V.V.R. Babu

Group CIO, ITC

IT must partner with various users to provide effective business-IT solutions.

Executive summary

ITC strongly believes in process.  The moot question: when the size of an enterprise grows exponentially, how do you use transformational methods for incremental IT deployments to keep business adrenaline pumping? According to ITC, you don't. What's needed are high-impact IT projects, in parallel with more humdrum IT.

ITC is a classic case of how a huge, diversified business has stayed on top of its mandate to stay aligned with business. Each of these businesses throws up different IT challenges. Given the size and diversity of ITC, planning, budgeting and executing IT - that's aligned with business - could potentially turn into a chaotic anthill, a pile of wet sand worth over Rs 300 crore a year. ITC's stayed on top of its hill using structure and planning. V.V.R. Babu, group CIO of ITC, says that the budget-processing for IT is similar to the process an ITC division follows to clear a business plan, where business growth and pain points are identified.

Part of the structure that keeps ITC's gigantic IT machine moving is that each business unit (BU) creates a multi-function planning taskforce - which includes IT managers - to undertake an annual business planning exercise. The yearly huddle introduces a comprehensive IT plan and roadmap as part of the division's overall business plan. Though ITC isn't a holding company in a literal sense for its group subsidiaries, it acts as one when it comes to budgetary allocations. Each if ITC's 11 business also has its own IT steering committee that works closely with the businesses. The committee, with the group CIO, ensures efficient delivery, sustainability, and also that new technology is in line with an overall IT plan. The yearly blueprints turned out by the 11 divisions are reviewed by a Corporate Management Committee (CMC), the apex body at ITC. Its responsibilities include mitigating the risk of technology purchase.

This pyramid-structure of decision-making is replicated in the IT setup across the group. Each of the eleven business units has a separate IT team and an IT head who reports to the unit head. The structure might seem dated and rigid, but if ITC's track record is anything to go by, it works. It's also Babu's responsibility to ensure that the technology is right, the resources allocated are appropriate and the funding is sufficient. Babu, with the help of separate teams, also looks into issues like technology upgrades and evaluation, annual budget planning and central procurement across the group.

ITC classifies each initiative into three categories: transformational, enablement and enrichment. Each category has access to different resources and budgets, he says. The organization also realizes that some projects have a panorganization impact and have to be deployed across all divisions. These large projects are looked into by ITC's CMC. It is headed by ITC's director of finance, who reports to the CMC. To ensure that the conglomerate doesn't lose focus, ITC's IT division is divided into two parts: demand-side IT (the teams working with specific business units) and the shared services team, who work at the corporate level under the group CIO. The shared services team provides end-to-end IT management services, including creation and running of data centers, maintaining the ITCVPN, databases, storage, archival, security management, network management, etcetera. Separating the two ensures that demand-side IT doesn't suffer because of backend issues.

The IT shared services team then puts up a plan for the infrastructure required to support business units. This frees up divisional IT teams from the hassles of these services," explains Babu. Apart from this structure, ITC has put in place a 'roving band' of IT coordinators who are business process experts and work closely with the business IT teams, ensuring IT-business alignment.