Tech-Driven Collaboration: Taking Mid-Size Cos To Next Level

A sector that everyone is watching closely and has their eyes on is the mid-size enterprises. At a time when mid-size enterprises operating in a globalised environment are at their most ambitious, they are battling with volatile market trends and need to formulate business strategies that can accommodate and ensure growth despite any external business scenario.

Biztech2.com Emerging Giants: Enabling Growth and Beyond, powered by Microsoft, aimed to address these critical challenges faced by mid-size enterprises. A power panel comprising of CIOs and industry leaders discussed and debated the various aspects of technology-driven collaboration and how that can help organisations improve productivity, which is core of any growth strategy.

The panel consisted of S. R. Balasubramanian Former Executive Vice President, Godfrey Phillips India, Upal Chakraborty, Former CIO, DLF India, Satyadev Adruti, CIO, Acme Telepower, Sukhvinder Ahuja, Lead, Unified Communication, Microsoft and was moderated by Shipra Malhotra, Executive Editor, Biztech2.com.

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The panelists discussed various technology elements like VoIP, web conferencing, unified messaging, cloud based apps, virtual office, and how these helped organisations collaborate more effectively, both internally and externally. Thus, driving up productivity and business innovation. Even while mid-size enterprises effectively leverage these technology tools, aspects like security are a challenge, which will need to be overcome.

Today, mid-size enterprises are looking at multi-fold growth for which a well-defined strategy is needed with productivity at its crux. “Earlier, mid-size enterprises were not very ambitious and had a stable environment. Today, they have to deal with volatile market dynamics such as recession, inflation, and so on,” said Balasubramanian. To this Chakraborty further added that these enterprises are more prone to market variants and are unable to compete since technology deployed might be inadequate, leading to less economies of scale. According to him innovative use of technology is a must.

Top-Down or Bottom-Up Approach?

Even as the panelists agreed in unison that productivity is the biggest factor driving business innovation and that technology will be the key enabler for this productivity, they advocated varied approaches, ranging from top-down to bottom-up and even a hybrid approach.

Chakraborty was of the opinion that a bottom-up approach is required and recommended from time immemorial. “Suggestions coming from below must be captured through various collaborative technologies. The management must filter and crystalise these suggestions and then work out a strategy in the next few years. This is what mid-size enterprises in particular will have to lay more stress on since they ultimately need to have a USP,” he added.

However, for Adruti it must be a combination of both- top-down and bottom-up approach. Mid-size enterprises must collaborate with vendors and create a niche for themselves.

Internal and External Collaboration

The panelists were of the opinion that enabling external collaboration with partners, vendors and customers is as critical as internal collaboration among the employees. According to Ahuja, interface in an organisation is with a whole slew of people in the chain and not just with the internal teams. He added that reducing cost of communication will help drive ROI for an organisation.

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What about Security?**

On one hand collaboration opens up a whole new paradigm, allowing organisations to better harness the expertise of their people, maximise the dynamics of their team relationships, and offer the utility of information that can drive better outcomes at a lower cost. However, on the other hand it also opens up the organisation to security vulnerabilities.

Balasubramanian agreed that security is an issue since public networks pose a threat. “For security, policies are important than tools. With a mix of tools and policies, enterprises can arrive at a good level of security. Hacking is a reality, which more often than not goes unreported,” he concurred. Both Adruti and Chakraborty stressed on the importance of balancing collaboration and security.

Leveraging Cloud

With cloud computing inching its way closer to enterprises of all sizes, the panelists were excited about the opportunity that cloud holds for mid-size enterprises. They discussed how cloud-based apps can specifically help CIOs of mid-size enterprises utilise the IT rupee better by reducing CapEx, and thus using it to find growth instead of expenses.

Chakraborty was of the opinion that despite the security issues, agility of an enterprise goes up ten times with cloud computing. On that note, Balasubramanian added that today’s security measures are adequate and will get robust as the market matures. Security should not deter CIOs from adopting cloud computing. The best way to tackle security in the cloud is to outsource it and handover the responsibility to vendors.

Addressing the challenges faced by CIOs of mid-size enterprises, Biztech2.com Emerging Giants: Enabling Growth and Beyond, endeavoured to establish how an approach to technology-driven collaboration and productivity can help mid-size enterprises move to the next level, that of tomorrow’s giants.

Even as orgainsations debate upon the best possible approaches and technology tools and iron out issues like security, the writing is clear on the wall – technology-driven collaboration and productivity is the way to go.