Utilities/Transportation/Real Estate

A mixed bag of IT

There is a massive build up for infrastructure projects driven by the Union government and entrepreneurs. This would translate into big spending on basic computing, networking, EWA and servers By Neeraj Gandhi

Large Businesses (LBs) have always been in the forefront of technology adoption when compared to small or medium businesses. Availability of capital, growing business volumes, global competition, compliance, product development, are some of the reasons for this. Although these reasons apply to small and medium enterprises as well, due to the nature and volume of their work, large enterprises were more aggressive in their attitude towards IT.

The survey states that desktops/laptops, printers, servers, software, security, and networking were the top of the list priority areas with a 100% presence in large enterprises across verticals. Internet applications, cabling, connectivity and power conditioning come next in line, with 90 to 100% adoption. Other technology areas such as enterprise applications, storage and storage software, WAN and wireless networks came after these.

Technology adoption can also largely governed by the nature of the business. For instance, LBs in the BFSI segment leveraged all available security solutions, business applications required for OLTP systems, hardware and software as compared to those in the utilities/transportation/real estate sector.

The Utilities/ Transportation/ Real Estate/ Construction placed greater importance on basic IT infrastructure such as desktops/ laptops, printers, networking, connectivity, and Internet applications.

Getting the basics right

Desktops and laptops account for the maximum presence in all verticals surveyed and this vertical is no exception. According to the survey, 100% of the companies from this vertical have deployed desktops and laptops. In contrast, thin clients find few takers (13%). The percentage of companies planning to invest in thin clients was almost the same (14%) suggesting that those companies that had deployed thin client technology were quite happy with the same but that there were not any newcomers raring to deploy these devices.

59% of companies in this sector intended to invest in desktops in 2008-09 and 36% were planning to invest in laptops because their business heads, engineers and others who traveled from site to site needed to be connected to the network. Nevertheless, desktops remained the preferred medium for conducting day-to-day business.

Bundled with specific applications such as AutoCAD, and other design software, the penetration of notebooks was expected to be higher within the real estate, construction vertical. That said, not only the architects/designers who used notebook PCs, even the marketing team had driven adoption, since client meetings involve showcasing design presentations, and digitally created building designs, in addition to hand made sketches.

Besides, notebooks also found acceptance among the top brass forming as they did a major tool for business development. Notebooks were used to carry information pertaining to business productivity, production, sales and marketing strategies and proposals and key customer databases. The senior management used them to expedite business-related decisions on the move.

Take the case of ITD Cementation India Limited. One of the leading construction companies with a presence in construction of marine works, highways, bridges, and industrial projects, it had over 1,500 employees, and recorded a turnover of approximately Rs 1,000 Cr in 2007.

Rajendra Poyarekar, AGM, IT & Systems, ITD Cementation (I) Ltd., said. “We have approximately 350 desktops including some percentage of notebooks. Senior management and the marketing personnel use notebooks at present. Since, our intake of desktops and notebooks depends on the number of projects, we procure them accordingly.”

Another company in the civil engineering domain was Patel Engineering Ltd. Involved in the design and construction of powerhouses, hydroelectric projects, dams, national highways, the company had its head office in Mumbai, and regional branches in Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad with 1,300 employees.

“We have 80 desktops and 20 notebook PCs. This is for the head office and branch offices. All the branches connected to a network and we use desktop PCs for financial and engineering transactions. Notebook PCs were used only while traveling. We don’t use thin clients since different users require different software to work on, and it becomes difficult to configure thin clients,” said Jayant Patel, IT Manager, Patel Engineering Ltd.

Ganesh Dhawade, Assistant Manager, IT, Patel Integrated Logistics Ltd., added, “We have over 750-800 desktops and notebooks (taken together). The desktops are being used for data entry and maintaining records. Senior management and the marketing team are using notebooks. As a policy we also procure twenty five desktops every year.” The company provided unified solutions through door-to-door express cargo service, surface transport, and air and sea transportation, and offered services in warehousing and secondary distribution. It had over 1,000 employees working at its head office in Mumbai besides many working in 200 branches across India.

Printing: Lasers lead

Laser printers seemed to have cemented their position as the preferred printing medium offering good quality printing at a comparatively lower cost. With vendors offering high output laser printers, the printing scenario within this business would only get better. Also with the acquisition cost for laser printers coming down, usage is bound to increase. As per the survey, all respondents were using lasers, and approximately 14% were planning to install additional laser printers in 2008-09.

Inkjet printers were next in line on the popularity charts in this sector, with 83% having adopted this technology. The printing requirements in this vertical involved more designs and sketches as compared to other verticals; therefore inkjet were the obvious choice. 23% of the respondents were planning to invest further in inkjet printers.

Contrary to the notion that the dot matrix printer has faded into oblivion; 70% of the respondents in this vertical reported the use of dot matrix printers mostly for billing suppliers and customers. This clearly showed that all three printing technologies had a substantial amount of usage.

“We have around 30 printers (a mix of laser and inkjet printers) and laser printers usage is quite high—most used in making the designs and sketches during the early stages when we begin a project. It is only at this point that we start using inkjet printers. We also have a few dot matrix printers, which are being used by the accounts department. We use only a few MFDs. Although we have dedicated one MFD for every project, largely it is laser printers that are being used,” said Poyarekar.

52% of the respondents used MFDs which was marginally above the average for LBs across verticals. “We largely print reports and statistics. To cater to this we have 25 to 30 laser printers, and 5 to 10 inkjet printers. The accounts department uses DMPs heavily. We have 15 to 20 MFDs that act as standby devices. Lasers and inkjet meet our daily printing requirements,” said Dhawade.

Patel added, “We have five A4 and A3 size laser printers and 25 inkjet printers. Inkjets are connected to each workstation, while lasers are on the network. Additionally we also use three MFDs, which are also connected to the network.”

Other printing devices like digital copiers and thermal printers have adoption rates of 48% and 4% respectively.

VSAT connectivity holds greater promise

Connectivity was an area on which companies in this vertical had spent on leased lines, that had a high adoption rate of 96%. LBs had also deployed DSL and Gigabit Ethernet LAN, with 48% and 39% adoption respectively. Other mediums like ISDN, VSAT and cable modems also recorded a fair percentage of adoption ranging from 30 to 40%. However, the adoption of Wi-Fi and MPLS on the lower side at 17%. Looking at planned investments, leased lines, Wi-Fi and MPLS had the most takers with 14% each.

In terms of leased lines, fiber was preferred over copper something that denotes long term thinking. The adoption of fiber stood at 91%, in comparison to 78% for copper. Fiber optic acts an excellent medium of data communication over long distances. It provides faster data transfer rates and is immune to electrical inference. That said, planned investments in copper at 14% outdid those in fiber at 9%.

“Connectivity is very important for our business. A MPLS connection from BSNL forms the backbone, offering bandwidth of 2 Mbps that helps us communicate with our regional branches at Kolkata, Delhi and Chennai. We use leased lines for the last mile. Additionally we also have 15 VSAT connections that we keep shifting from one site to other depending on the need. We also use a Ethernet LAN with a 100 Mbps switched network, and have plans to upgrade our entire WAN, and are also looking at leveraging RF connections,” said Poyarekar.

83% were using a LAN connection of which 39% had gone in for gigabit Ethernet. Depending on the growth in business and increase in data, 5% of the respondents were planning to deploy gigabit Ethernet LAN in 2008-09. The adoption of MPLS, Wi-Fi and T1/T3 lines was recorded at 17%.

“VSAT forms the basis of our connectivity infrastructure. Sometimes projects are undertaken at remote areas where it is not possible to deploy a wired infrastructure in a short span of time. Only VSAT is a reliable choice. The bandwidth that we are getting is 128 kbps on VSAT, and 512 kbps on another leased line connection that we use. We also have a Gigabit Ethernet LAN at our head office,” said Patel.

“At our head office in Mumbai, we use two RF connections offering a bandwidth of 512 and 256 Kbps, a Fast Ethernet LAN and Wi-Fi. We don’t use leased lines, DSL or MPLS. We communicate with our branches over the Internet. However, we will soon install a Gigabit Ethernet LAN,” added Dhawade.

Security and storage get the cold shoulder

The small and medium business survey highlighted clearly that security goes for a toss in comparison to other IT needs. In both segments, on a scale of 10, with smaller number assuming greater importance, approximately one-third of the respondents ranked security below seven. The survey had also pinpointed that only basic security solutions such as anti-virus dominated the security sphere within the SB and MB segments.

That said, considering the fact that large enterprises rely heavily on IT, security should therefore be at its best. Ironically, if not among all verticals, at least the Utilities vertical is not very aggressive towards adopting security solutions. Companies in this vertical had been so preoccupied with putting a basic IT set-up in place that they continued to use point security solutions. Looking at planned investments, security and storage did not figure among the top ten spending areas.

As per the survey, two security solutions stood out namely anti-virus and PC-based firewall with 96% and 87% adoption respectively. The adoption of other solutions was, however, lower. Only 61% of the respondents had an anti-spam solution in place, followed by 57% using network-based firewalls. After this the deployment of advanced solutions such as anti-spyware, IDS, content filtering and penetration testing dropped to 30% or less; in some cases it was as low as 13%.

Hardly anyone was willing to invest in advanced security solutions in this vertical. 14% were planning to invest in anti-virus and network-based firewalls. In contrast, only 9% were willing to invest in anti-spam and VPN. The percentage for those planning to invest in content filtering and IDS was as low as 5%, and none of the respondents were planning to invest in PC-based firewalls and penetration testing.

Patel told us that since they were not using any enterprise application such as ERP, they did not have high end security solutions. “We use anti-virus, anti-spam and anti-spyware solutions,” he said.

Dhawade said that his company was in the process of upgrading its security infrastructure, and was looking at leveraging SSL VPN. Presently it used a firewall from Elitecore and an anti-virus solution.

“Our security infrastructure is well integrated. Almost every solution, be it anti-virus, anti-spam, anti-spyware or IDS has been installed. We use Symantec anti-virus, Checkpoint firewall, and Trend Micro InterScan Gateway Security Appliance (IGSA). Presently we are looking at deploying a disaster recovery solution,” added Poyarekar.

DAS dominated the storage arena with 52% adoption, followed by tape with 48%. As regards future investments in these areas, 5% and 14% of the respondents were planning to invest respectively in these two technologies. Tapes offered a secure mechanism for storing huge chunks of data for a longer period, and this justified a greater number of companies planning investments on tape.

The adoption of NAS, SAN and SAS stood at 30%. This adoption level was quite similar to that of small and medium businesses.

For instance, ITD Cementation was using only tapes, and no other storage medium. Patel Integrated Logistics’ case was quite similar. Here, in addition to tapes, NAS was also used. Both organizations were not looking at any immediate investment in networked storage. At Patel Engineering, hard discs were being used for backup, and storage was being done on the server itself.

As regards storage software, 78% of the respondents were leveraging database archiving solutions, followed by 65% using e-mail archiving. Database archiving allowed organizations to maximize the benefits of existing SAN and NAS. It helped in unloading the extra data and increasing the performance of the database, thereby providing easy access of critical information and data retention. Database archiving also was a key component for implementing Information Lifecycle Management to manage complex relational data.

E-mail also acted as a hub of critical data. E-mail archiving was a systematic approach to saving and protecting the data contained in e-mail messages. Compliance was another factor, driving organizations across verticals to spend on e-mail archival solutions. Other storage software included backup & recovery, storage resource management, and replication software. Their adoption varied between 25 and 30%. Planned investments in storage software were scanty with e-mail archiving finding no takers and all the other areas mustering just 5% each.

ERP stands tall, Convergence low

Looking at the application side of IT usage in this vertical, it was Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) that was the clear winner. As per the survey, 78% of respondents were leveraging ERP, followed by enterprise messaging with 74% adoption.

The main reasons for leveraging ERP included streamlining processes, matching industry standards, achieving faster delivery of products and services and attaining competitive advantage. An ERP system enabled the enterprise to get a consolidated picture of its operations and integrate its entire business cycle. Other enterprise applications being used included CRM (43%), SCM (35%) and BI (9%).

“We use legacy software for HR and inventory because of our large employee base. Although we have plans to deploy an ERP system, we feel that the ones that are available are more suited for real estate than infrastructure companies,” said Patel.

Additionally, both ITD Cementation and Patel Integrated Logistics were also leveraging in house enterprise applications looking after payroll, plant maintenance, and inventory, and load and dispatch. Both of them were also looking at leveraging an ERP system sometime in the future. However, we found that none of them were using VoIP, Web conferencing or video conferencing.

As far as convergence was concerned, the adoption of applications such as VoIP, Video Conferencing, and Web Conferencing was moderate.

This vertical has focused on creating basic infrastructure—desktops, connectivity, networking and UPS and once that stabilizes it would look at strategic areas.

neeraj.gandhi@expressindia.com