According to a recent report published by Unisys Corp-On a worldwide level there is a considerable gap between executives' business and IT goals, and the estimation of their organizations' ability to achieve those objectives. This gap indicates that executives are not utilizing the most from their business initiatives and IT investments, and they need new methods to modernize their business processes, strategic applications and IT infras­tructures to address their core business challenges.

The report indicates that while building an IT infras­tructure of a company, the solution providers (SPs) need to do a thorough analysis rather than just getting into the details of technical requirements of the customer. They have to go far beyond just deploying the solutions. Besides knowing the client's IT requirement, SPs need to study their business plans, objectives and roadmaps for future.

This is because IT infras­tructure plays a pivotal role in overall working of a company, in a way that the company's performance and profitability is based on the IT strengths and its functioning.

Bridging the gap
Building up IT infrastructure of a company in order to achieve business goals, demands extensive involvement of SPs in a company's planning procedure. If a company is not able to achieve its pre-set targets and business goals, it reflects that the IT potentials are not fully harnessed. Therefore, the objective of the SPs should be to bring out the maximum utility from the existing infrastructure and to bridge the gap between the IT investments and its actual benefits.

When a SP takes up the project, he should be aware of the ongoing plans and business goals of its customer too so that the IT layouts could be designed accordingly. The challenge is
to give the best solution to the customers in the given timeframe and budget assigned.

Prateek Garg Ceo, Progressive Infotech	Sanjay Bakshi CEO, Quantm Net Technologies
Budgeting should be done in the presence of the owner of the company, the stakeholders as well as the SPs. Customers are beginning to realize the importance of making SPs aware of their plans and upcoming projects	The practice of engaging SPs in pre-budgeting session is essential for the enterprise customers so that the right estimation can be done for the required technology

“The practice of engaging SPs in pre-budgeting session is essential for the enterprise customers so that the right estimation could be done for the required technology. The IT strategy should be shared at the planning stage so that the project deployer can suggest the amount to be invested for IT infrastructure and its operation,” shared Sanjay Bakshi, CEO of Gurgaon-based Quantm Net Technologies.

Allocation of cash
For any project, the crucial factor that an SP needs to consider is the selection of the right technology that fulfills the requirement of the customer within the limited budget. It is customary that clients design their IT budget in presence of the SP so that the latter is aware of the availability of capital and can design the IT project accordingly. However, the better and strategically wise method is to involve the SP in the entire budgeting procedure of the company so that they understand the strength of the stakeholders and design the IT infrastructure in such a way that brings maximum utility of the resources.

“Budgeting should be done in presence of the owner of the company, the stakeholders as well as the SPs. Customers are beginning to realize the importance of making SPs aware of their plans and upcoming projects,” added Prateek Garg, CEO of Noida-based Progressive Infotech.

The current scenario
SPs admit that in most cases, CIOs of a company fail to realize the importance of engaging them in the internal matters. Treating SPs as a part of the company is not prevalent in India in an extensive manner.

Even today a huge distance persists between the CIOs and the SPs. The gap prevails in terms of the requirement of the customers, the budgeting of the IT implementation and the final execution.

SPs are observing a gradual trans­formation of the mindset and today companies are looking forward to engage IT project deployers in the internal busi­ness decision-making process.

“The customers are looking forward and approaching SPs to be a part of their strategic decision-making process. They have become more open to the ideas.

They understand that IT is the vehicle of company's growth,” commented Garg.

Budget allocation expense or investment?
SPs are observing that business organizations consider building IT infrastructure not merely as an expense but as an investment. It is being looked as a medium on which the company grows and moves ahead. This eventually helps in improving customer's satis­faction.

S Premdoss Samson of Chennai-based Exelan Net­working Technologies accorded that SMBs as well as large enterprises consider spending on IT as an investment, but the profitability from IT investment is visible on the long run.

Upgradation of technologies
Technologies today get obsolete faster. Hence the SPs need to keep this under consideration when allocating the budget.

Sharing his view on the technical upgradations hitting the budget constraints of its customers, Harish Shetty, CEO of Bengaluru-based Binary Systems said, “Modifying the budget limit to meet the requirement of technical enhance­ments depends on the size and nature of the company. For large enterprises it could not be a big issue to expand their IT budget, but for small and medium enterprises, it could be a important matter. However, as the competition is increasing we suggest our customers to be flexible in budgeting their IT needs.”

Accountability of SPs
If an SP is engaged in the internal decision making process of an organization, he is responsible and accountable for the profitability execution trend. If the client is unable to bridge the gap between his IT investments and set targets, it should be the task of the concerned SP to look into the loopholes and tighten the required area. As a part of the deployment process, he should take regular feedbacks from the customers, once the project is completed.

“It depends on whether the SP should be accountable for meeting the business goals of its customers. It cannot be generalized, as it differs from company to company. It also depends on the nature of area that the customer is dealing. If a company is not able to increase its profitability because of the slow down of that particular industry, one cannot blame
the IT infrastructure for that,” commented Sudhir Kothari, CEO, Embee Software, Kolkata.

Involving SPs
To bridge the gap of difference in IT investment and business objectives, Garg believed that in it coming days, the CIOs will have to take a partnership approach with the SPs in respective domains in IT, ie infrastructure, applications and managed services, which means that the chosen SP should be involved right from the stage of understanding the business problem to designing a solution and going on to implementing and improving the solution, with a clear business case developed on delivering a measurable RoI to the client.

According to Bakshi of Quantm Net Technologies, “Enterprise customers put the budget in one basket for IT. Instead they should demarcate it in two-infrastructure building and operation and application. What happens is if there is over expense on one side, they end up subsidizing on the other that affects the profitability of the investment.”

Kothari further added that if the building and imple­mentation of IT infrastructure is done in a proper manner, a company can save up to 30-40 percent at their back office operation. Another player, Shetty opined that SPs play a considerable role in helping its customers meeting their business goals and objectives. “As dependency on IT is increasing for day-to-day business operations, sps can advise their clients to opt for the right technology that can harness optimum utility for long run,” he added.

So it is the right time for the SPs to take active part in the designing and in know how of the company to spell maximum profit.

AMRITA TEJASVI
amritat@cybermedia.co.in

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