Tap for the future office

THE JUNE TRADE EVENT IN Mumbai on mobile technology had visitors from unexpected quarters. There were representatives from Oil and Natural Gas Corp. (ONGC), one of the largest energy companies in the world and ranked 7 on the Fortune India 500. Most public sector companies have been late adopters of gadgets and are often uncomfortable with accessing data remotely due to security reasons and sheer inexperience. Therefore, ONGC’s presence was noteworthy.

For years, its field engineers have used handheld devices which run on an early version of the Windows CE operating system (OS) and hosts applications with geographic information systems that help analyse soil samples. ONGC’s technical team was at the tech event to update these devices. They wanted to try out platforms such as Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android, on which a mobile app could help the engineers access their office systems on the move. It would cut down time and resources spent on cross-checking information in (or feeding new data into) their office files.

Companies today, both public and private, have a huge resource pool to draw from. For example, in 2009, almost 3,200 registered developers in India made apps for BlackBerry. That figure has now touched 36,000.

Networking companies such as Cisco Systems and Juniper Networks are already working with telecom carriers to create a work-on-the-move environment. In effect, organisations are looking at enabling employee access to web conferencing, data sharing, voicemail with transcribing services, and internal networks on their tablets and smartphones.

“As 3G and 4G services arrive, new enterprise applications are a new revenue source for telecom companies,” says Sameer Padhye, senior vice president, worldwide service provider, Cisco Systems.

The good news is employees are finding ways to use mobile devices to solve enterprise problems. That is the journey companies such as ONGC have embarked on.

So, how do large corporations transform in the mobile age? There aren’t any easy answers. For example, the Essar Group has markets in Asia, Africa, Europe, and Australia, with a global headcount of over 75,000. Till last year, its senior employees used BlackBerry devices, which were connected to Essar’s server.

In the new environment, companies such as Essar have to consider access to all kinds of devices and OSes, including iOS and Android. This means a new security policy, the prerogative of chief information officers (CIOs) and chief technology officers (CTOs).

The security worries for CIOs are immense: Do companies buy the devices that an employee prefers, or should the employee do so himself? Or do companies pay 50% of the cost and then provide a subsidised data plan? How many applications should it allow employees to access? What happens when the employee quits? Who’ll own the device? How does the company protect its data?

Jayantha Prabhu, Essar’s CTO, had to build a secure, yet friendly, infrastructure for users. Prabhu opted for mobile security that would be device agnostic and completely encrypt communication between the device and the corporate data centre. Sensitive information on employee devices could be wiped off after use, with copies still available on the central server.

“The benefits include remote device-configuration and data backup, better device theft-protection and tracking, and software support. Tips and tricks can be frequently shared, applications recommended, and so on,” says Prabhu. The initiative is also noteworthy because it is one of the rare examples of large Indian corporate groups adopting technology across every level. Currently, all Essar divisions’ top management and white-collared global employees, totalling 1,000, are on the mobile network.

TECHNOLOGY HAS BEEN CHANGING constantly with rapid-fire upgrades, as has India’s demographic profile. For a young workforce, the Internet is ubiquitous. Affordable handsets and led to the mobile revolution; there were also free OSes such as Google’s Android, as well as Internet and broadband services, which drew these employees into the virtual world.

Sudhir Sethi, managing partner of International Data Group (IDG) Ventures India, a venture capital firm, estimates the size of the digital consumer market and services at several billions of dollars, and growing each year at 15% to 20% since 2009. Gartner reckons annual sales of smartphones in India will touch 20 million this December.

The young workforce seems to be snacking on Internet devices. The buyers may not be of the same age, but they use technology every day, every hour. The pursuit for better devices results in shifts from one device to another every nine months or so. “Both work and play are happening on the same device,” says Ashish Dhawan, director (India and South Asia), Juniper Networks.

The introduction to the virtual world begins in the classroom. The digital classroom is a $1 billion (Rs 5,612 crore) market which Gurgaon-based Educomp Solutions dominates. Half of this market comprises government schools, and 40,000 private classrooms make up the remaining. Think interactive whiteboards, projectors mounted from the ceiling, and computers with content for the teacher’s use.

SMART Technologies, a Canadian multinational, entered India last year and has sold education products such as interactive whiteboards in 1,500 schools so far. Its big seller is SMART Exchange, an online portal where teachers collaborate and access content. To date, SMART Exchange has created 50,000 free education programmes for students from grade 1 to grade 10.

“Technology enables the use of audio-visual content to make lectures more interesting,” says Srikanth B. Iyer, chief operating officer of Bangalore-based Pearson Education Services, which owns Edurite, a digital content provider. So technology not only improves productivity, it also addresses the problems of students whose attention spans are decreasing. “Children are exposed so much to 3D animation now. To make learning more interesting for them, there is no choice but to bring technology into the classroom,” adds Iyer.

“But, not all of us are computer literate,” says a kindergarten teacher of a renowned school in Bangalore, who requested anonymity. “It isn’t rocket science, but it would be better if the school invested continuously in knowhow and personnel.” As of now, teachers have to rely on a technology person or coordinator for help as needed.

But if users have to master the facilities before teaching children, technology needs a roadmap. The teacher in Bangalore cites how whiteboards can vary from those with styluses and a touchscreen. SMART Technologies has invested in training and induction programmes for 50 teachers at a time.

Last year, advertising agency Lowe Lintas approached a developer to create an ‘ideation app’ on the BlackBerry platform for use by the media and entertainment industry. Put simply, if a Lowe employee travelling on a Mumbai local train gets an idea, he captures it in voice or video, adds a note and posts it to the team via his BlackBerry. The teammates in turn deliberate on myriad ideas via a chat-messenger facility on the phone that can substitute hours of brainstorming in office. Effectively, the management of Lowe Lintas, which has over 500 employees, is able to monitor work out of office.

“In the future, organisations will abandon big offices and direct employees to the hub nearest to their homes,” says Madhusudan Thakur, regional vice president-South Asia, Regus, a Belgium-headquartered company that designs flexible workplaces, and recently set up operations in Bangalore. Such a workplace has offices with meeting rooms, business lounges, video communication studios, etc. available for periods ranging from a few weeks to less than six months.

The banking and financial services industry (BFSI) has also realised the importance of building a mobile network, especially for sales or transactions. “The shift in the past couple of years has been the increased focus on the customer: the front end,” says Amit Sethi, CIO and senior president of Yes Bank. This has prompted banks to address the need for real-time access to data and analytic tools for faster and better personalised customer service.

Take the Click-In software from mutual fund Birla SunLife Asset Management that allows distributors to submit completed applications via cellphones. Images of the completed applications are uploaded to a central server, where the time of transaction is recorded and the net asset value (NAV) allotted. For the distributor, it saves time—no need for two or three trips to the applicant’s house or office to get the form filled, verify the details, and allot the NAV. More recently, Axis Bank started a mobile phone-based card service that converts a merchant’s handset into a card acceptance device by simply attaching a card reader to it.

Mumbai-based Mswipe Technologies, which makes these card readers, is targeting stores with home delivery services, cash-on-delivery agents, and taxi and autorickshaw drivers, who can now accept cards from customers. The customer is sent a receipt of the transaction via SMS or e-mail.

However, employees, and managers are yet to understand that there are also serious security risks. In BFSI and telecom, regulations are forcing companies to evolve, so that customer information and networks are safe. But there are still many instances of data being compromised by employees in critical roles, says M. Srinivas Rao, founder and CEO of Aujas, a risk management services advisory in Bangalore. “In large organisations, there is a greater threat from insiders. People within can transfer data inadvertently or deliberately.”

Rao won’t name clients, but he cites an instance when employees who quit one company leaked pricing plans, payroll data, and call data records to competition. With a mobile workforce, companies come under pressure to build risk accountability into their systems.

In the new age, tablet thefts or loss also means losing critical data. Rao has encountered other types of insider threats. An employee in a software company built code as part of an application. When he quit the company, he claimed the data belonged to him because he wrote it, and not to the company where he worked. “He decided to take it with him when he left and that put the company at litigation risk,” Rao says.

Consumer technologies have become ubiquitous—and are present even in buses. Karnataka’s state bus operator introduced in-bus entertainment in January, which cost over Rs 6 crore. The facilities comprise live TV access to 60 channels on screens attached behind each seat and Wi-Fi at Rs 15 for half an hour in six Volvo buses.

By August end, the bus operator—Karnataka State Road Transport Corp (KSRTC)—will have also deployed an Intelligent Transport System, which harnesses global positioning system (GPS) data and predicts the arrival time of its bus fleet, in Mysore, Karnataka. This is a Rs 20 crore investment. But the real effort goes into educating and motivating the workforce, says N. Manjunatha Prasad, managing director, KSRTC. “To make the workforce adopt technology, you have to attach incentive schemes.”

So, electronic ticketing machines accurately clock the number of tickets purchased by customers by locating a GPS-enabled bus. This information is accessible to the bus control room, as is footage from an on-board camera. “The camera also captures the passenger load in a bus, and data download is optional,” Prasad says. Based on such evidence, KSRTC allots 1% of a bus’s total collections to its ticket conductor and driver each.

Sticking with travel, the Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS) is all set to do away with paper passenger verification lists for ticket checkers on trains. Instead, they have been equipped with handheld terminals, similar to a personal digital assistant (PDA), and thermal printers. The devices are wirelessly connected to the passenger reservation system and enable downloading and updating reservation charts while checking the tickets in a coach.

This means information on vacant seats is available in real time, bringing transparency in seat allocations. Also, receipts when collecting excess fares, penalties, and other charges can be issued electronically and the amounts collected can also be registered in real time. After a four-year trial on trains such as Shatabdis and Rajdhanis, Indian Railways is procuring 550 handheld terminals and 750 thermal printers to be introduced on other trains.

THE BIGGEST BANE to technology adopters is India’s woeful infrastructure planning. Courier service and logistics company DHL Express wants to implement its SmartTruck technology in Bangalore to plan routes for pick-up and delivery based on real-time GPS data. The idea is to manage truck fleets, save on fuel, and cut delivery time. But, because of bad city planning, the company is still tweaking its system.

Even when DHL’s technology calculates the best route at a certain time, the delivery can be scuttled because of how buildings are planned, addresses or postal codes allotted, and because roads are sometimes converted into one-ways on a whim. There is only so much that can be fed into a digital map.

“It takes a lot of effort to deploy technology. Policy implementation is just part of it,” says Vishal Tripathi, principal analyst, consumer tech and markets team, Gartner. “You can’t get intimidated. The best you can do is prepare yourself for what is going to happen. It is better to adopt technology sooner than later.”

In upmarket Greater Kailash-I, New Delhi, jewellery portal Caratlane.com’s 400 sq. ft. store has no solitaires on display. Instead, customers walk in and check out the entire range on one of two iPads and a large table running Microsoft Surface (an interactive software with a touch interface). They can choose from among 120,000 solitaires based on the cut, clarity, carat size, and colour. Once they have chosen their stone and set it virtually in, say, a ring, they pay and collect the piece within two days. The company plans to launch virtual shops in Mumbai and Hyderabad this year.

In hospitality, The Leela Palace in New Delhi is replacing the TV remote in its rooms and suites with iPods and iPads, respectively. Guests can now watch movies, listen to music, play games, view messages, check on stay expenses, and browse the Internet on the room’s 40-inch LCD TV using the iPods or the iPads.

The devices are loaded with DigiValet, an app made by Mumbai-based Paragon Business Solutions. It enables the guest to manage anything from lights to air-conditioners to entertainment and even in-room shopping. Features such as Video Eye Hole enables them to see who’s at the door and open it with a tap on the iPad from anywhere in the room or even the washroom. DigiValet is also used at the Indore and Pune properties of Sayaji Hotels, Suba International in Mumbai, La Marvella in Bangalore, and the Radisson Hotel in Ahmedabad.

The increasing e-consumerist culture is evident across the country. Myntra, an online apparel retailer, derives 60% of its revenue from tier II and tier III cities. This means a Nike, Pepe, or Allen Solly doesn’t need to invest in outlets in these areas to reach customers.

There are challenges, though, in more remote areas. There are 951.3 million mobile phone users in the country, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. The number of active mobile Internet users, according to Indian Market Research Bureau, is less than 10% of this user base. “Almost 90% of users don’t have Internet on their phones or apps to rely on,” says Manish Maheshwari, global business head of Intuit’s TxtWeb platform that converts Internet content into SMSes. But there are signs of improvement and this is where, perhaps, great opportunity lies.

It is common for doctors at super-speciality hospitals such as Max Healthcare in Delhi, Narayana Nethralaya in Bangalore, and Dr. Balabhai Nanavati Hospital in Mumbai to access reports on their mobile phones and tablets using tele-radiology (electronically transmitting the patient’s radiography images and details in text). Fortis Healthcare went a level higher, adopting a GE Healthcare solution—Critinext—to electronically link its Delhi HQ to intensive care unit (ICU) facilities for patients in remote areas such as Raipur in Chhattisgarh and Dehradun in Uttarakhand.

“Finding trained intensive care specialists to man ICUs in remote areas is incredibly hard—this was the genesis of an e-ICU like Critinext,” says Amit Varma, head of critical care medicine for Fortis Healthcare. With Critinext, however, specialists from Delhi collaborate with local doctors using audio-video facilities. Smart alerts flag off trends in a patient’s condition, and clinical parameters are tracked to generate clinical notifications. Currently, Critinext helps to monitor patients in 34 beds in Raipur and Dehradun, and Fortis wants to scale up to 500 e-ICU beds across 20 of its hospitals by 2014.

In agriculture, too, multinationals such as Intuit and Bangalore startup CropIn Technologies are bridging information delivery gaps. Intuit’s Fasal is an SMS-based platform that helps farmers connect with potential buyers, agents, and institutions for selling or purchases.

Farmers register on Fasal by calling a toll-free number. An agent takes information on the commodity the farmer grows, current crop season, land size, and his personal details. The Intuit service then sends the farmers messages on crop prices every day in his local language.

CropIn, on the other hand, has a more nuanced and sharper approach. It created a smartphone application in 2010 through which farmers can send images of, say, pest attacks or deficiencies in crops to CropIn’s agronomists who alert them in advance. CropIn boasts clients such as Omnikan, PepsiCo, and FieldFresh Foods, a joint venture of Bharti Enterprises and Del Monte Pacific.

“Most of our customers are global,” says Sanjaya Mariwala, managing director of Omnikan Earth Sciences, a Mumbai-based contract farming company, referring to the information on the raw crops at every stage. CropIn has added automated monitoring as well. Currently, Omnikan monitors the fields of over 7,000 farmers. One supervisor has to keep track of 50 to 100 tillers, including details about crop spread, acreage per crop, etc. CropIn designs the app on smartphones, which companies such as Omnikan pay for and provide to farm supervisors.

It has not been problem-free for CropIn, though. Among the biggest hurdles have been the attitude to changes in technology and the difficulties that farm supervisors have had in learning to input data or images into the smartphone. “We needed to invest in training our people before handing them the phones,” Mariwala says. The process of tech orientation and handing out of phones cost Omnikan around Rs 50 lakh to cover around 5,000 farmers.

THESE MAY BE ONLY examples, but the bigger picture is the huge change from the preceding generation of Indians. As Sudhir Reddy, CIO of MindTree, a mid-size IT firm, says: “Around 15 years ago, employees went to office to experience the Internet because bandwidth speeds at their homes were slow. Today, the technologies and access that employees enjoy in their personal lives surpass the infrastructure they experience in office.” Now, business must either fear the wave or ride it.