BI Provides Right Direction To Indian Oil

The petroleum industry is going through a major crisis today with oil prices hitting the roof globally. In such troubled times, what can the CIO of an oil company do to ensure that IT makes a difference to the organisation and delivers more from less? Biztech2.0 speaks to S S Soni, CIO, Indian Oil, to understand his role and its associated challenges in today’s global scenario.

How far is IT aligned with business at Indian Oil?

IT has to be aligned with business, as IT cannot exist in isolation. There cannot be an IT deployment in the enterprise without knowing what value it will bring to the business. So IT has to provide what business lacks and needs to be more than just an enabler. At the end of the day, the business also needs to know why there is an implementation, which has been done at such a high cost.

Thus, any kind of implementation expenditure needs to be tracked down to the profit level. This links all implementations to the business, its needs and business processes. There needs to be a roadmap drawn to ensure that IT implementations of any kind do not serve just one purpose but make the existing processes more profitable and complement other initiatives as well.

What are some of the challenges that you face at Indian Oil?

The major challenge that I face as a CIO is that of technology. Today, any technology that we embrace should be of the highest quality and state-of-the-art. It is tough to decide which technology is the best and which will be accepted easily by end users. Secondly, the role of a CIO is often more business oriented than technology oriented. The ratio keeps changing as the role is diverse and needs to be reviewed every single day. As a CIO, the main quality that you must posses is a vision and a strategy to reach that vision. Aligning such a vision and strategy to the business is another challenge. Attrition is also a challenge, which needs to be looked at every now and then. Every CIO also needs to play the role of an intermediary, who keeps his peers and subordinates content and the business profitable.

Are data centres becoming the nerve centres of business?

Data centres are increasingly gaining a lot of importance. For any business, there is a centralised data processing activity. Thus, the data needs to be stored in a data centre, which is often very comprehensive, advanced and also needs to have scope for expansion. At the end of the day, everyone needs information. Thus, getting information promptly and in the right format for strategic purposes is the need of the hour. Today, at each level, everyone looks at the data centre for maximising business opportunities, so it is gaining a lot of significance.

What role does business intelligence play at Indian Oil?

BI is changing the face of businesses across the globe and our company is just one of them. In the petroleum industry, there is more to BI than one would generally comprehend. For instance, if there is some particular information needed for strategic decision making, getting that information in the right way at the right time and from the right source assumes prime significance. At Indian Oil, BI plays a role of assembling decision-making information, analysis etc into one single view and in a structured format. The management does not just require the data, it is more than the data, it is about how the information can be leveraged productively. Thus, BI is not just an information enabler; it is a business driver to give the business the right direction for the future.