For Eveready Industries Ltd, cloud has provided some of the answers, but work needs to be done in the areas of vendor lock-in and data safety.
It’s one of those companies that have become a household name. Thanks to its brand of batteries that became synonymous with dry cell batteries that were used for everything – from children’s toys and transistors, to torches and remote controls, Eveready is the first name that comes to mind the minute one mentions batteries. The brand has grown by leaps and bounds since then. Its brand portfolio includes not only batteries, but also torches, flash lights, compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs), homecare products and packaged tea. For a company with such a diversified portfolio, it becomes all the more crucial to keep its IT infrastructure up-to-date and robust. Arup Choudhury, senior GM-IT, Eveready Industries Ltd, talks about how the company’s IT department meets these needs and where cloud features in the journey. Edited excerpts from an interview:
What are the challenges for a company like Eveready where IT is concerned and how has your department ironed out the issues?
A major challenge that we face with IT is technology obsolescence. Another major concern is the rapid change in market dynamics that needs IT services to be delivered within a stipulated timeframe for the business. These timeframes are generally very short. We try and constantly upgrade our IT infrastructure and services to the latest available platform. We invest in software that can be scaled up quickly to meet our business needs.
Where does cloud computing come into the picture? When did the company start using the technology?
We started using cloud in 2009, when we rolled out the eFact system on public cloud. It is essentially sales force automation software that was perceived by the sales department. The software captures secondary sales information from the market, open market rates as well as looks at scheme management. The solution is hosted on an opex model and the total cost is Rs 90,000 per quarter. There is, however, no additional capex for servers and manpower.
Despite cloud’s popularity, there are several reservations about public cloud when it comes to safety and confidentiality. What are your views on the same?
Safety is still a concern, especially in India where we have weak laws related to data security. Confidentiality is maintained by having a non-disclosure agreement with the party hosting and maintaining the application. We have ensured additional security by encrypting the stored data. But in doing so, we have had to compromise on the speed of data retrieval.
For Eveready, what is the road ahead where cloud is concerned? Are you going to be using it for more functions with time?
At present we do not plan to move any other application to cloud, since the cloud picture is still very cloudy. Vendor lock-in and data safety are major issues. We will only look at moving mission critical applications to the cloud only once there is more clarity on licensing, tight integration with packaged software and stricter cyber laws in India.
