ELBEE EXPRESS : 'Unified communications would be very important for the consignment delivery sector'

Elbee Express, a consignments delivery company with a solid distribution
system, is looking at doubling its presence from the present 125 offices this
year. Its application eTABS provides access into its network for information and
updates on the physical movement of the consignments. Shirish Gariba, CIO, is
responsible for the acquisition and management of information resources and for
providing broad leadership in planning, budgeting, acquiring, and managing IT
resources. Gariba spoke about the company's initiatives for data and hardware
infrastructure, Web initiatives, and e-commerce directives. Excerpts

Elbee Express is known for innovative technology deployments to keep pace
with customer demands. What are your focus areas for 2008-09?

We are planning to double the number of offices across the country from the
present 125. To improve performance and offer better experience to the growing
number of customers, our main requirement for IT includes Web-based centralized
application, mobile application for the filed, and SaaS-based CRM model. We need
a centralized database in order to ensure that rest of the HO can access any
data on a browser. On the telecom front, since the application is Web-based, we
are working with various service providers and telcos to provide us with a
reliable network for data and voice. We are also setting up our own call center.
We need to centralize our call center where the telecom plays a big role.

Shirish Gariba CIO, Elbee Express

Are you looking at new IT initiatives to strengthen CRM?

We need a good CRM package. Ideally, we should be able to capture the
conversation between our customers and executives on the field and offer better
solutions. At present, services available to a customer in remote locations may
not be as good as those available in metros. For instance, we have clients like
IBM, who want the uniform customer experience across all branch offices.
According to us, satisfaction should be common when our customers deal with a
small branch office or a metro office.

Keeping this in mind, we are looking at a CRM package, which covers sales
management and customer relationship among other things. This package should
also assist us in forecasting the market demands effectively.

What were your main IT deployments in 2007?

Delivery of new centralized Web-based business application to users was one
of the main focus areas in 2007. This year we will strengthen our focus on
mobility. We see a lot of value by deploying a technology that would ultimately
benefit our customers. We will also explore business application on SaaS model.

Which technology is going to be the key driver in the coming days? Are you
convinced that technologies would deliver business value?

Regarding technologies that would drive my industry, my bets would be on
mobility, unified communications, RFID, and Web-based centralized solution. At
Elbee Express, we have started looking at unified communications and I believe
this would be very important for the consignment delivery sector.

Any technology that does not suit the business requirement has a tough task
to deliver business value. Vendors come up with many new solutions and
technologies and we work with them to understand their use. There are many
occasions where we are convinced about some of the new solutions and deploy
them. There are cases wherein we have chased the technology that is showcased to
us, but did not choose since we did not find value for our business.

All investments are linked to business goals as IT is aligned to business.
Is RoI a major challenge for you?

This is really a big question to answer. Yes, it is a challenge but the
moment business users ask for new solutions, we identify the same for them. As
said earlier, we work with them very closely right from the beginning. Only when
they confirm that they vouch for a particular solution, we adopt it. This
ensures that there is a linkage to the business goals.

I guess there would be hardly any organization whose IT infrastructure is not
critical in this globally competitive environment. To answer your question, it
has to be up all the times. So, it's very critical and the business depends on
infrastructure.

We have user engagement right from the beginning of the project. Whenever
there is a new requirement of application/solution, or if we find there are
solutions in the market to solve our business problems, we bounce the idea to
the business and explain how this would solve the problem. If the organization
decides to go ahead with that particular solution, we deliver necessary IT
services and technologies to execute the solution. The objective here is to
solve the business problem whereby IT automatically gets aligned to business.

How do you handle security issues? Which IT risks concern you the most?

Security is outsourced to the IDC, which is an expert in the field. We have
only one goal that we should try and keep our business pretty secured and give
comfort to internal and external customers. Like every organization, we also
have a mission and to accomplish it, we use IT systems. The risk management
process for us is to protect the IT assets and enable the organization to
achieve the mission.

Elbee Express is setting up its own call center. What approach do you
follow in outsourcing, and is the outsourcing component growing?

Yes, the outsourcing component is growing. Honestly, I have liked the
outsourcing model from the beginning and thus anything which the market can
deliver better, faster, and cheaper, we try and put the outsource model to it.
Once all the stakeholders, including the business, are ready, we go for it
completely.

What has been your experience in terms of services delivered by the
service provider?

Most of the times, the services from the vendors are good; they deliver as
per the commitments made. But it does not mean we have always had exceedingly
good experience with them. We have had our own share of bad experience from the
vendors. I would not like to name any vendor. But if you look into the problem
and try to analyze why this has happened, it is either the vendor has not
understood the business problem and is trying to address it with a solution
which does not fit the organization, or they oversell. When it comes to
delivery, they do not get the required approvals from their management and thus
they try to run away from their commitments.

The worry is not how much good or bad experience any organization has. The
real issue from vendors is generally post deployment of the solution. Here only
customer-focused company supports you and the relationship manager drives it.
So, it is dependent on a particular person and the moment she or he leaves the
job, trouble starts.

Baburajan K

baburajank@cybermedia.co.in