Enthusiastic Participation from Industry & Academia in IIMK's Annual IT Management Seminar

Enthusiastic Participation from Industry & Academia in IIMK's IT Management Seminar 'AIMS 2006'
Post-event Press-release

The third edition of the Annual IT Management Seminar (AIMS 2006) was organized by IIM Kozhikode on the 12th and 13th of August 2006 at its scenic campus. The seminar was addressed by top managers from some of the most well-known IT companies, with the talks revolving around the theme, "IT India: From Cost Advantage to Strategic Partnerships".

The Knowledge Partner for the event was NASSCOM, and it was sponsored by Cognizant, HCL, and IBM. Rediff.com was the online media partner, and The Hindu BusinessLine, the print media partner.

Mr. Manish Gupta, Chief Technical Officer, IBM, the keynote speaker for the event, presented IBM's perspective on the changing face of the Indian IT industry and its shift towards the higher-end of the value chain. He underscored the point by mentioning the role played by Indian engineers in developing 'Blue Gene/L': The Fastest Supercomputer. In conclusion, he highlighted the poor quality of higher education, coalition politics and inadequate infrastructure as the major deterrents to the industry.

Mr. K. Harishankar, the Chief Information Officer of Hindustan Lever Limited, gave a riveting talk on how IT has been used to radically improve HLL's supply chain. He explained how both in-house and third-party ERP systems have been used to centralize planning, improve forecasting and achieve execution excellence in HLL's supply chain, with even field sales being IT-enabled. HLL considers the growth of modern retail an opportunity rather than a challenge, he emphasized, since collaboration through IT-based systems is easier with more tech-savvy channel partners. He praised the natural beauty of the IIM-K campus, calling it the best he had yet seen among technology or business schools, and looked forward to a continued association with the institute.

"Technology is just an enabler," said Mr. Ramamoorthy, Director of Corporate Marketing, Cognizant Technology Solutions. Talking about the paradigm shift in the business models adopted by Indian IT companies in the recent years, he said that strategic alliances and acquisitions have emerged as the new business models. He stressed on the importance of organizations providing quality customer experience to differentiate themselves from their competitors.

Mr. Mahadevan Narayanmony, Senior Manager, Corporate Advisory Services, Grant Thornton, spoke about Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) within the IT industry. He pointed out the recent trend of Indian IT companies acquiring foreign companies. He then talked about the motives behind M&A and stressed the importance of evaluation in avoiding failure. In conclusion, he said that M&As help IT companies to move up the value chain towards strategic partnership, either by delivering strategic advantages to them, or by helping them grow faster.

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Contributed by -
Malavika,
Media Cell Team,
Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode,
Kozhikode, Kerala.

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