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Back in the summer CIO had an opportunity to meet process management guru Ganesh Natarajan. The relaxed Indian has authored a number of books on business process management, outsourcing and knowledge management (KM) and was in London lecturing at the London Business School.
Natarajan moved into IT from engineering and discussed with CIO the lessons he learnt as an engineer which he now applies to process management in the IT world. He is vice chairman and CEO of Zensar, which specialises in business process outsourcing from Pune in India.
Natarajan had four years as an engineer in the manufacturing of materials. "I moved into IT as there was a need, and I liked it so much I have stayed with IT," he says. Asked what his greatest lesson from engineering was he says, "Engineering is to take a larger perspective and how to address a real problem. Engineers do not get carried away by the problem at hand, but look at the cause of the problem," and you sense that Natarajan doesn't believe the same is true of the IT world.
The CEO takes a similar view to business process management (BPM) and outsourcing, describing it as "real business" rather than an IT solution.
"You need a good process, then add the technology. It starts with someone being humble enough to want to change," he says of the need for senior level leadership in any BPM change.
Zensar has gained a lot of customers and experience in the retail and financial sectors as a provider of business process outsourcing services and business process technology, amongst its top flight customers is US retail giant Walmart. From Pune it develops systems for merchandising, supply chain and purchase order as well as the full gambit of processes retailers require end-to-end of their organisations.
"Supply chain is always the problem area," he says, adding that "Walmart is always optimising its supply chain".
As a result, Natarajan sees BPM as a unique opportunity for CIOs to play a major role in the improvement of supply chain and back office functions of their organisation. "Use your budgets to create and RoI," he advises, before adding that he sees CIOs increasingly approaching his organisation looking for advice on how to use business intelligence (BI) applications across the organisation to improve BPM. "IT now drives business strategy rather than just being part of the strategy," he says of the marriage of BI and BPM, led by CIOs.
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