As per my strategy, CIOs need to showcase some best practices and also do the pilot in minimum investment to build the management confidence after those things become easier and speed up
This is an exclusive interview conducted by Santosh Vaswani, Content Writer & Editor at CIO News with Amit Saxena, Chief Information Officer (CIO) at Ramco Plexus Ltd, on his Professional Journey.
Amit Saxena has a dynamic career of more than 20 years that reflects his rich experience in the Africa & Indian region and a year-on-year success in IT Operations, ERP Implementation, Project Management, Data Center Management and IT Security.
He has worked with well-known companies including Godrej Consumer Products Limited, Wilmar Group, JBM Group and A.G. Industries (Hero Group).
When asked how he planned his career path to be a successful CIO, Amit Saxena, Chief Information Officer (CIO) at Ramco Plexus Ltd, in an exclusive interview with CIO News said, I dreamed that one day I become a CIO of a renowned company such as this one. Therefore, I started step by step working towards the goal and always defining my vision for the next 5 years. Currently, in line with my technological vision, we have targeted more business process automation and ROI-based projects. At the same, we are exploring new technologies like cloud-based solutions, IT security, digital, and automation where we can drive more business benefits and give full confidence to the business and its processes.
In my last 20 years of work experience, I have learned a lot, especially in my first three assignments. As below, each field had its base of concentration and focus.
- Automobile industries – focus on quality and service delivery
- Textiles industries very focused on brand, marketing, and consumers service
- FMCG – more on supply chain and customer fulfilment
All these have me the skills and ground to achieve my target journey as a successful CIO.
When asked about the challenges he faced in his career path and how he overcame them, he said, “Yes of Course we faced many challenges and I had to understand and make the plan to overcome and bring success for the organisation”.
Key challenges I faced in my carrier are as below
- Change management
- Analytics-based culture
- Skilled resource
We have done many pilot projects where we proved the project’s business benefit successfully in very low investment and build strong confidence from the management.
We have provided much in-house training to build a capability in our internal resources with the help of the HR team.
In the Analytics platform, we did many webinars and training, where I shared the business benefits to the entire management team.
When asked about a cyber-attack or any security incident faced by his current organisation and how did he tackle it, he said, “Yes so I remember we faced some challenges in a Ransom attack, however, we did realize early enough and put mitigation measures by ensuring all patch management EPO is done and regularly update the AV definition”.
We have an IT security policy where we have an auto-check for all security protocols in terms of server log monitoring and maintenance. Patch management, AV server management, and data storage back up and testing to ensure that we have 100 per cent system checks in place.
When asked how his organisation geared up in terms of technology in the COVID times, he said, “We have a very rich technology platform where it is easy to manage all COVID related challenges like”.
- Work from home – MS team
- E-com plate for customer
- Monday.com to manage online all projects
- And many more options to track and speed up the process
When asked about technology solutions and innovations he plans to implement in the post COVID era in Ramco Group, he said, we are planning to roll out RPA and IoT very soon. We are working on multiple case studies on the same.
When asked about the challenges faced by CIOs today in a similar industry while implementing digital technologies, he said, the major challenge is the difficulty in influencing the top management and align with the changes in the technology road map. Also, like the current process Vs the new proposed process, which is known as change management.
When asked how CIOs can overcome the challenges faced, he said, as per my strategy, CIOs need to showcase some best practices and also do the pilot in minimum investment to build the management confidence after those things become easier and speed up.
When asked about best practices/industry trends/advice he would like to suggest to fellow CIOs for their successful professional journeys, he said, I think industry 4.0 is a great example and most of the manufacturing industries need to adopt to improve productivity, customer service, inventory management, etc.
He highlighted, “To upgrade my personal skills (technology upgrade and leadership skills), I have done many internal courses within the organisation and external courses including Business Leadership Principles from Harvard Business Schooland Effective Managerial Skills from MDI Gurgaon, India”.
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