Focus shifts to guaranteed delivery service in IT
- Mr. Gopalan (CEO of MNC) said the immediate challenge was to discover the ways to replicate the CEO (Chief Executive Officer) experience at the account-management level. “How can we do this?”
- “More I empower the organisation, the more I put the company in risk,” he said. This contradiction, however, needed to be addressed and managed to expedite the decision-making process in a dynamic environment, which required quicker solution to a client problem.
- The second challenge related to the changing type of work requirements, especially in a “cloud environment”.
- He felt that “cloud adoption” was happening at a faster pace in the U.S. In India, however, embracing cloud was having its own share of problems due to the not-so-reliable network. But moving to the cloud posed a new set of security and other worries to the companies.
- “The cloud may look white and puffy. However, it is dark and dirty for me because many factors related to cost, security, licences, portability, performance related to accountability and the like require companies to be very careful with cloud,” he added.
- Far from playing a reactionary role, the IT companies were now increasingly left to take proactive role. They were now looked upon as “idea partners” and not merely as service deliverers, he said.
On heritage run, world's oldest locomotive puts up a better show
- The 157-year-old steam engine, the world's oldest locomotive, remained true to form during a heritage run organised by Southern Railway here to mark the Republic Day
- The EIR 21 hails from the stable of Kitson Thompson and Hewitson Leeds in the United Kingdom.
- Arriving by shipment to India in 1855, she served the erstwhile East Indian Railway till 1909 before turning an exhibit in Jamalpur and Howrah for over 100 years.
- The EIR 21 is even regarded to be a tad senior to the Fairy Queen (EIR 22), and together these two locos share the legacy of transporting troops during the 1857 mutiny.
- They also shared a little secret about the loco's special diet — shovels of coal sourced from The Nilgiris.
- The EIR 21 is also known to effortlessly adapt to modern-day gizmos such as a GPS-based speedometer and a wireless video monitoring system.