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Abhay Karhade, the Corporate CIO of Bombay Dyeing has changed industries many times and has always believed that understanding the business side of the organization soundly is the only success mantra for a CIO. By Mehak Chawla
Back in 1992, Karhade joined Aftek Business Machines as a Customer Support Engineer. His job revolved around the installation, configuration and administration of Unix systems. He also took care of installation and maintenance of servers and connectivity for the various government organizations to which Aftek provided support.
At Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Ltd. (MHS), which he joined in 1993, Karhade was made the hardware in-charge and took care of their IT resource management, networking and operating systems together with the design and development of VSAT and LAN networks. “We were just beginning to use PCs and talk IT so I got to work with some new and unique systems while at MHS,” explained Karhade.
Along came SAP
According to Karhade, his first SAP implementation occurred at his third job at Jai Corp Ltd. It was here the Karhade got involved with SAP R/3 Project Management. “I was responsible for co-ordination among all functional module leaders for problem solving, corrective actions and enhancement. I also formulated and developed applications providing decision-making databases for top management in ABAP 4,” he elaborated
Alongside, Karhade was also responsible for server management including server tuning, database management, database security design, backup policy, DRS management, authorization system management and transport system management in SAP for Jai Corp.
His first SAP deployment at Jai Corp was such a success that later, when MHS (Then Mahyco Seeds Ltd) went on to do its SAP implementation, it called Karhade to manage it for them. So Karhade spent another two years at Mahyco doing its SAP implementation and implemented SAP R3 4.6C at three sister concerns. “We dealt in the seed industry and our goods were perishable. Doing the SAP implementation brought about some daunting challenges, but it was a great learning experience,” recalled Karhade.
The change-maker
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After finishing the SAP implementation for Mahyco, Karhade did another radical change of industry and joined Welspun—a global line-pipe and home textile company as VP, IT in 2004. Although he primarily worked on SAP expansion here as well, he got the chance to work at it on a global platform.
“We did SAP implementations in Mexico, UK and USA and it was a fantastic learning experience,” remembered Karhade. While at Welspun, Karhade also undertook some other key projects including the implementation of SCM for the company’s US distribution center. “We were five people handling over 600 orders daily, so it was a very challenging project,” he explained.
Karhade also implemented the complete Cisco Human Network for Welspun including VoIP and enterprise mobility.
Change was again in store for Karhade when he decided to move to the education industry and joined Shri Vile Parle Kelavani Mandal (SVKM Group) as their CIO. Here, in a short span of nine months, Karhade implemented SAP for NMIMS University, 22 Institutes and 42 sub institutes of the SVKM Group.
He also established the IT infrastructure for the organization that included fiber LAN, MPLS WAN, perimeter as well as end-point security, content management system, learning management system, and a centralized active directory and messaging system for staff, faculty and students. His SAP implementation at SVKM also received a SAP award.
After SVKM, Karhade joined Bombay Dyeing in 2011 as their corporate CIO. Though he is only seven months into his new role, he is already looking at redefining the application strategy and enhancing SAP landscape for manufacturing, retail distribution and warehousing for Bombay Dyeing.
The business CIO
“No matter what the industry, as a CIO one has to understand the business aspect of his organization very clearly,” believed Karhade. He explained that a CIO always had to be in touch with the reality of the business and match that with the technological needs of the organization.
The biggest pressure point, according to Karhade, that CIOs were dealing with was none other than cost. “You need to deliver everything on time and within a budget. It is hardly acceptable if IT leapfrogs its budget,” he elaborated.
Other than that, establishing IT governance and security and driving standardization in an organization are among the heftier tasks that CIOs face.
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