Head to Head

An executive conversation

G. Radhakrishna Pillai CIO Dr Sanjeev Chaudhary CEO

The Rs 250 crore Super Religare Laboratories Ltd., refer SRL (Formerly SRL Ranbaxy Ltd), is set to expand into upcountry markets, while staying focused on extending healthcare to the rural market. Understanding the nuances of IT and its advantages, Dr Sanjeev Chaudhary, CEO of SRL and CIO G Radhakrishna Pillai have been pioneers in deploying technologies and applications across medical research and diagnostics. They both have worked on strengthening customer relationship to increase efficiency.

How do you see the market opportunity in the healthcare domain?

Dr SC: Despite the economic turmoil, the healthcare industry has been on a growth path. The awareness amongst the consumers is increasing, which has prompted us to drive diagnostics much beyond the diagnosis role. Going by the statistics, from a growth standpoint, the people to doctor ratio in the country is still small—there are about 650,000 doctors in the country which stil lags behind the US in the patient-doctor ratio. Further this industry is unorganized which poses a challenge. There are only 200 accredited laboratories out of a total of 50,000 laboratories in India.

RP: Being an unorganized sector, healthcare industry is getting more commerical to deliver faster and cheaper solutions across the upcountry market.

What has been your growth and business drivers in this domain?

Dr SC: It is important that one has the business fundamentals right from the perspective of providing accurate information for patient-care and diagnostic reports. Quick turnaround of diagnostic reports is a key growth enabler as the patients do aspire for quick analysis of their problems. We are growing at 40-50% YoY to reached Rs 250 crores in 2009. We now have 50 branches with 1,200 collection centers spread across the metros and in upcountry markets.

RP: While it is not a cost to the consumer, I don't see any impact owing to the slowdown. We have been growing significantly despite the cautious approach taken towards spending.

Can you give us an instance of how information availability will make a difference to your business?

Dr SC: Information availability is critical for our business to drive accuracy along with speed in bringing out the diagnostic test results. For example, samples are collected and bar-coded, which are then tested. Post that, the data is reviewed electronically, while creating repositories of these tests. Hence speed of information is key to us.

RP: Information is the need of the hour for us to process end-to-end business functionalities as it is a backbone for our customers to understand their health condition.

How has the role of IT changed over the years in SRL?

Dr SC: During the earlier days of our establishment, we were slow in adopting IT. But going by the demand, as we had to take up advanced diagnostics tests and research. This increased the dependence on IT and we deployed network equipment along with other business critical applications, which become critical for our core business. I don't think the use of advanced technology would really translate into higher cost to consumers but we see ample benefits from it.

RP: During the initial years the focus on automation was not serious as it was only the delivery process of the diagnostic reports which was important. But it has gone beyond mere delivery to include getting faster and more accurate information about diagnostic tests. The situation has come where every department consults IT to improve their operational efficiency.

Can you recall any major IT deployment where you have been the pioneer?

Dr SC: We have been the pioneer on various fronts. Our Laboratory Information Management (LIM) system has been one of key deployments where our competitors are yet to catch-up. We have built a robust infrastructure including a DR. For maintaining patient records, CRM was another deployment in improving the patient-care. We have deployed SAP ERP for transactional functions.

RP: Owing to our regulatory framework, our entire research and diagnostics is carried over using IT. Automated analyzers are used for quick turnaround in our deliverables. We developed applications such as LIM in house based on PowerBuilder and Oracle [partially developed on .Net]. The skepticism revolved around the fact if the end-results were accurate and convinced the end user, it can is rolled out electronically.

Does SRL view IT as a cost centre or as a catalyst?

Dr SC: IT is definitely not viewed as a cost centre if used for more quality purposes to achieve better results.

RP: Since we are into clinical research, IT cannot be viewed as a cost centre. The cost factor depends upon the success of each project, based on this the other projects are approved.

What are your priorities going forward?

Dr SC: Our key emphasis is to be science and technology driven in our research; be first in deploying technologies for research and diagnostics across our offices in UAE, Nepal and Srilanka. We have a clear thrust on expanding the geographies of having 100 labs in the next 18 months.

RP: The focus is shifting from patient dialysis to wellness and creating consciousness about health. The thrust is on developing CRM applications to ensure that this concept works.

Which are the top three technologies that you would be investing in 2010?

Dr SC: Our IT spending is expected to increase by 20% in 2010 and we consider that a good amount of work would be around connecting our collection centers. Having deployed CRM we would further enhance initiatives around patient-care.

RP: The additional focus areas would be on storage and BI. While being prudent, we would look at SAP and call center applications as well.

What trends do you think are emerging in the IT space which would be ideal to your industry?

Dr SC: Convergence is the trend I see emerging fast across all technologies and we are seeking details on services around handheld devices, besides enhancement around laboratory information software applications.

RP: Virtualization and cloud computing is catching up and we are evaluating the cloud services model around for our key applications. n

geetha.nandikotkur@expressindia.com