Mumbai, Nov 17: Rajiv Kaul, director, Microsoft India, flagged off hispresentation on the importance of a digital nervous system (DNS) for anenterprise at IE 99 with a set of figures. They were indicators ofMicrosoft's performance over the last five years.Net revenues grew 32.4 per cent and profits after tax an incredible 46.6 percent. These compelling figures, Kaul said, was possible because Microsoftmanaged its operating costs far more efficiently because "we implementedmore efficient processes".
These efficient processes was what he called a DNS. Drawing an analogy, hesaid that "what blood is to our bodies, a DNS is to an organisation." Themost important function of a DNS, he explained, was that while it helped increate a set of world-class services, it also helped an organisation handleunplanned events.
The best part, however, he added, was that a DNS could be built byleveraging existing resources. Responding to a query, he said that what itwas was an independent platform. The only dependent variable being whetheran organisation is determined to implement such a process.
Providing an insight into how to build a DNS for an organisation, Kauloutlined six basic principles:
Isolate the core processes and minimise the number of informationsystems to execute the process.
Standardise the data definition and business templates on a globalbasis.
Implement packaged software whenever possible and make itsimplementation global. There is no point in reinventing the wheel.
Use a minimum number of licenses from packaged software vendors anddump key data into data warehouses for access via intranet packages.
And finally, don't build bridges to old systems. Instead, eliminatethem.The most tangible benefits from putting a DNS into place, he said, was onthe bottomline. He pointed out to some of the systems at work in Microsoftto highlight the benefits.
Till a while ago, the cost of ordering supplies was $60 per transaction."Till we linked it to SAP. All our vendors are tightly integrated into thesupply chain. And each time a entry is created in the system, all recordsare updated electronically," he said. The cost per transaction also felldrastically to $6.
Only one person handles all of the systems worldwide. Earlier, there were 26people doing the same job. And all of this was made possible on one databaseserver and one Web server.
Responding to another query on how viable such systems were in the India,Kaul said that a lot of companies were actually implementing such systems."It could be as basic as a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network(WAN). Tonnes of companies are implementing ERP and a lot of solutions arehappening," he added.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.