"A CIO's role has changed from a business enabler to a business partner"

Venkatesh Natarajan, Senior Vice President - IT, Ashok Leyland speaks on being a practical CIO and technology implementations undertaken at his organization.

Here are the excerpts:

What does it take to be a practical CIO?

Today, CIO and the IT team are expected to drive transformation in the organization. So an IT professional including the CIO needs to identify challenges as a buisness user and try to see how technology works. A CIO should not only work for the business but also with the business. Thus, a CIO's role in today's digital era has changed from a business enabler to a business partner. The solutions which we have built on have significant impact on the business too. An organization looks up to a CIO as a person who has in-depth knowledge of technology, business and societal trends. The application of all these trends together will enable the CIO to help in the organization's transformation journey. 

Which are the two most successful technology implementations that you have done in your enterprise?

Mobility and analytics are my core platforms. For the past five years, we have focused on digital for improving organizational efficiency and productivity as well as cost reduction. We continue to do that and are also focusing on automating processes. We also emphasized on using technology to build new buisness models for profit and revenue generation. The culmination of all these was the launch of a new digital marketplace in Bombay three months ago. The marketplace brought out our organization's brand tag line: "Apki jeet, hamari jeet". This message reveals that all our solutions are targeted at our customers to do their business better. So actually, we have used this digital platform to build a service community. 

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