Being a core engineering company, it is imperative to have an equation with technology. Digital transformation is a big leap which has evolved QuEST GLOBAL in various ways and for a company dealing with customers, embracing technology can only be beneficial. As we speak to Mr. Sumeet Arora, VP and Global CIO, QuEST Global, he likes to talk business in the language of his customers and meeting their demands with the use of technology. He gives us an insight about how QuEST has evolved in the digital era and his role in the organisation. Here’s an excerpt:
Q1.
Anchor: What are the unique challenges of being a CIO in the engineering
services industry?
Sumeet Arora: QuEST is a global Product Engineering and Lifecycle Services company. We serve global companies in the most essential industries which consider engineering to be at the core of their business success. These companies develop products and services based on technologies native to their industries which enable them to make journeys safer, the world greener, connect people to opportunities, add comfort to homes, power communities, enhance peace of mind, and give hope to patients. Our target industries include Aerospace & Defense, Aero Engines, Transportation (Automotive and Rail), Power and Industrial, Oil & Gas, Medical Devices, and Hi-Tech (Semiconductor, Software & Internet and Consumer Electronics).
Pure-play engineering services is a specialized domain, which necessitates deep knowledge about the customer’s business, industries they work in, and their end consumers. This understanding is vital to what we do for them. We focus on building deeper, trusted, long-standing partnerships with our customers, who are leaders in their own fields.
Being an innovative global company with a local flavor, QuEST operates across geographies seamlessly. We provide end-to-end solutions to solve the engineering challenges of our customers and help redefine their engineering strategy from a long-term perspective. Today, we have more than 12,800 experts working out of 15 countries as extensions of our customers’ engineering teams, helping them to create new products, open new markets and maximize efficiency. Though our business is not largely transaction-intensive, our day-to-day work involves handling huge volumes of highly-sensitive data.
In order to manage this efficiently, we work in a hub-and-spoke model -- creating, storing, and replicating data. Since data is stored in disparate ways, security becomes an intrinsic aspect of the entire operation. We work closely with our customers to develop and implement security parameters they are comfortable with to ensure the safety of this intellectual property. In fact, we have set up well-defined Offshore Development Center (ODC) models for most of our customers.
Another interesting fact is that we work
with the leaders and challengers in most industries. Their business interests
may be discrete or even directly competing with each other, and we do respect
this fact. We leave no stone unturned to ensure that each of our customer’s
data is physically and virtually segregated, and secured. For example, there
are only a few companies that build engines for aircraft. QuEST has the
privilege of supporting the best of them with mission-critical engineering
services for their futuristic projects. Over the last two decades, we have
built such deep and long-standing relationships with our esteemed customers
that they bestow us with high level of trust and more opportunities for partnership.
Q2. Anchor: You have led a huge IT transformation exercise within your organization. Please share your experience and key learnings.
Sumeet Arora: Though it has been more than 20 years since our inception, QuEST considers itself as a young and vibrant company. One of our guiding business principles is to be ‘Always be aspirational, always be humble, always be hungry’. We constantly check, recheck and improve ourselves. As part of our continuous improvement efforts, we wanted to bring about a change in our IT infrastructure landscape.
While evolving technology and its dynamic nuances are the buzzwords today, changes are not easy in the niche space we work in, thanks to the extent and kind of critical customer data and intellectual property we handle day in and day out. Any change we want to bring in our infrastructure needs to be done in consultation with our customers as well.
At one point in time, we were running six different data centers in Bangalore and a few more in other geographies as well. In order to consolidate all of them, we worked along with our customers to ensure accurate segregation of each customer’s data in server cages. Finally, we were able to consolidate the entire infrastructure predominantly under one roof, following the right processes and best practices in this regard.
This was not a fancy technology project,
wherein we implemented the transformation right away. We took our customers
into confidence, discussed with them, got them onboard, kept them engaged at
all times, and ensured that we listened to their perspective on a particular
technology all through. Working along with the customers was a vital part of
this transformation, and I believe that was the highlight of this exercise.
Q3. Anchor: With the proliferation of both digital technology and end-users beyond the perimeter, there are growing security challenges. How do you deal with the same?
Sumeet Arora: The perimeter is a crucial part of our security model we have created for each of our customers. As I mentioned earlier, the security controls we build are all in consultation with them. However, due to the very nature of the engineering services industry, majority of our workforce is not mobile — so there are only a limited number of users who are outside the perimeter. Hence, endpoint security has not been a major concern for us, compared to service providers in IT Services or Business Process Services that have kinetic workforces.
Having said that, security is, and will
continue to be an integral aspect of our customer engagement model. Customers
who entrust us with enormous volumes of sensitive data also enforce several
security controls upon us. Moreover, we undergo regular, in-depth audits from
our customers to ensure these are being followed.
Q4. Anchor: Your LinkedIn profile says ‘Business on my mind, technology in my heart’. Please elaborate.
Sumeet
Arora: I strongly believe that one of the
most important skills a leader should possess is the ability to talk to our
internal customers in a language they can understand — and that is the language
of business. Nonetheless, it is important in my role to be able to translate their
business requirements to the language of technology. As a CIO, wearing both
these hats with ease and style is integral to the role I play in the
organization.
Q5. Anchor: How has your experience been with Dell Technologies?
Sumeet Arora: At QuEST, we always try to drive standardization. Our core infrastructure, which is the server side and also the end-user computing side, are both predominantly working on Dell Technologies. Unless there are specific demands, we strive to maintain this consistency throughout the organization. Approximately 85% of our end-users use Dell products. Our partnership with Dell Technologies is built on this strong foundation of mutual trust.
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