Intelligent Enterprise Awards 2005

Creating value in the organisation

The Intelligent Enterprise Awards honour CIOs and IT heads whose vision guides their companies and the IT industry. They form a key part of all business functions, design steps for improvement, and are able to identify powerful new approaches to overcome challenges and grow.

As you read about this year’s list of award winners, you’ll notice the difference between the winners of an Enterprise Value Award and those who came close. Winners understand the value proposition of their business, and the degree to which they can orient their work to business value.

Based on parameters carefully formulated by industry veterans, the Intelligent Enterprise Awards honour innovative IT initiatives that provide companies with a definite business advantage. In celebrating the power of IT to fundamentally transform businesses, the awards recognise enterprises that use technology in new and effective ways to secure a clear competitive edge.

There were nine categories in this award. (See box on Nominees)

Proactive Risk Management

In the Banking category, HDFC bagged the award for its Proactive Risk Management system that reduces credit card-related frauds and enhances customer service by alerting a customer on high-value transactions at a risk-prone merchant location. Says C N Ram, Head-Information Technology, HDFC Bank, “Considering that credit card frauds are a serious threat that undermine a bank's bottomline, we have embarked on a journey that proactively addresses this issue.”

Customer Relationship Management

North Delhi Power (NDPL) won the award in Energy & Utility category for a homegrown project for Customer Relationship Management called ‘SAMPARK’ that facilitates the logging and tracking of consumer requests and grievances related to electricity connections. Akhil Pandey, Head (IT), NDPL feels that it’s great to win an award especially with all the challenges that his organisation faced in Delhi.

e-governance

Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation won in the Government segment for its e-governance project on Citizen Facilitation Centres (CFCs). Subhash Patil, Manager Systems, Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation said that the award meant a lot in terms of showing the corporation’s commitment to better governance for citizens. “We were not aware that we had been short listed for the awards. The confidentiality with which the winners list was maintained was quite surprising and we were excited to be declared winners.”

Messaging service

Wipro Technology was awarded for building a next-generation messaging infrastructure in the IT & ITeS category. Aamer Azeemi, General Manager-Global IT, Wipro Technologies says, “Our achievements have been recognised internally but at a national level someone appreciates the same, it feels great.” For him, the award meant two things; Firstly, it was recognition for him and his team and secondly, their work would set up the next best practice in the industry.

Integrated support system

Bharti Cellular won for implementing Adagium PACS. It provides an integrated support system for high growth or low ARPU prepaid subscriber segment and lower cost of ownership for prepaid customers vis-à-vis agent-based costs for CRM. Chakrapani P, CIO, South, Bharti Cellular says, “The award highlights the importance of innovation, especially in the telecom scenario wherein ARPUs issues persist.”

Information management system

SRL Ranbaxy was declared the winner in Healthcare for its implementation of a CLIMS (Central Lab Information Management System), an ERP module that lets them consolidate and centralise information. “It feels great to win an award. At the same time we feel proud that the award has been appreciated by many. This also acknowledges our work and adds value to IT within the organisation helping answer ROI issues with the management,” says its Head of IT, G Radhakrishna Pillai. He also felt that healthcare in India is either managed by government or trust bodies. This initiative will help in moving towards corporatisation and making IT management an industry practice.

Data consolidation

Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) won an award in the Infrastructure category for building a solution that consolidates the data related to sale of tickets at an all-India level and checks the authenticity of each ticket and more. Dr Rajesh Narang, Chief Systems Manager, CRIS says, “This award means a lot to us. Now, we have visibility among the Indian CIO community and it gives recognition to CRIS and my efforts.” According to him, people feel that there is not much happening in the government sector, this award will showcase that even the public sector is gearing up. “For us it means the project that aims to touch about 11 million travellers in the unreserved category is being appreciated and taken seriously.”

Digital service

AIR won the award in the Media & Entertainment segment for setting up the digital New Broadcasting House (NBH). Yogendra Pal, Director (Engg), All India Radio (AIR) says, “For an organisation that is traditionally not known for big-ticket IT implementations, we feel honoured to receive an award of this nature.”

Risk Management

In Financial Services, ICICI Lombard bagged the award for Risk Management System (RMS) that helps to zoom into spatial level risk data representing real-world entities including both geo-referenced and quantitative attributes attached to it at a national scale.

Compiled by Akhtar Pasha