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Championing Open Source
Having made a mark for himself in the IT fraternity, Sebastian
Joseph is a man of great vision who believes in taking a realistic approach
towards life. By Nivedan Prakash
Sebastian Joseph |
“My commerce background was of great help in analyzing
and gaining a better understanding of commercial business applications. Lack
of a technology background (academic) kept me thirsty for more, resulting in
knowledge exploration to keep abreast with technology.” Sebastian Joseph,
Executive Vice President and Head - Technology, Mudra Communications, has found
life to be an interesting learning experience. Having truly understood the meaning
of the saying ‘life is not a bed of roses’, Joseph’s career growth
has been like a ladder. He had to climb it step-by-step—learning, relearning,
exploring, understanding, failing, and succeeding. Analyzing problems in a logical
manner has helped him tremendously, which has also provided a practical dimension
to his life.
Career path
Joseph’s IT journey began in 1982 at the Central Water and Power Research
Station (CW&PRS), Khadakwasla, Pune where he got hooked onto computers.
He was part of the team that was responsible for setting up a database in the
area of water and power for the ESCAP region under the aegis of the United Nations.
As part of this project, he got exposed to various paperless technologies such
as microfiche, microfilm, database, etc.
He then joined Datapro in 1988. This provided him with a multi-faceted role
that included software projects/products marketing, software consultancy, software
development, application software support, computer education and profit centre
management.
“The quest for higher challenges brought me to Sesa Seat Information Systems
Ltd. (at that time a part of the Seat Group, Italy) as Head of Technology. There,
I successfully designed, developed and implemented an integrated sales force
automation system in a multi-location environment. I was also credited with
the design, development and implementation of a pagination system integrated
with online artwork management using FoxPro and handwritten PostScript,”
highlighted Joseph.
The next port of call was Thermax Culligan Water Technologies, Pune. In this
job, he successfully implemented a 100% outsourcing model. He also evaluated
and implemented an integrated, transaction-based, end-to-end accounting and
manufacturing third party business application in addition to e-mail and other
IT Infrastructure.
A passion for education and the dot com euphoria drew him to Studentsguild.com,
a Norwegian e-learning company. As the Country Head, he was entrusted with the
responsibility of setting up the company’s Offshore Development Center
(ODC) in India. He successfully launched studentsguild.com, a portal that helped
students seeking educational opportunities in the US and other countries.
Landing at Mudra Communications
Joseph has been working for Mudra Communications for almost nine years now.
Heading the company’s IT division has given him the opportunity to redefine
the IT landscape for the organization. Joseph said, “Our journey started
with a clear IT vision of getting the basic business applications in place along
with the necessary IT infrastructure to support them—the hygiene factors.
Having achieved this we turned our focus towards introducing value adds to the
business—the delight factors.”
Here, he has successfully led initiatives such as open source implementation,
CRM, Time Sheet management, budget planning and monitoring/review system, employee
self help portal (EHRMS), digital asset management, studio workflow management
system (mTRACT), and knowledge management system.
The mother of all projects is the in-house developed mBoss (Mudra Branch Operations
Support System). This is a Web-based integrated accounting and operations system
covering the entire gamut of media offerings—mainline advertising (press
& TV), digital media, outdoor media, promotional marketing—making it
one of its kind in the advertising vertical. The system is deployed across multiple
companies and Strategic Business Units (SBUs).
“Mudra’s latest IT initiative, Mudra One View, a dashboard application
that provides Key Performance Indicators (KPI) to the top management on a single
screen/view is the icing on the cake,” pointed out Joseph.
Joseph added, “In this journey, we partnered with various
stakeholders including business heads, functional heads, management and IT champions
to ensure successful implementation. Domain expertise got developed as a natural
outcome. IT team members were empowered for quicker issue resolution. Regular
knowledge sessions, deeper involvement to work as a team, healthy work environment,
etc. helped in stronger team bonding and retention. A well planned staffing
model helped in introducing fresh blood periodically through academic collaboration.”
| Open source implementation |
Corporate mailing solution, Linux OS
for all corporate applications, JBOSS application server, OpenOffice, Pentaho
BI, Liferay, Alfresco and Adobe Flex are some of Mudra's open source initiatives
that have been effective in cost savings |
| Digital Assets Management (CRM) |
This is a Web-based system that facilitates
the storage and retrieval of various digital assets pertaining to clients
or brands. Research presentations, strategy presentations, media strategies,
online guard books (print ads, TV commercials, radio jingles, etc.) are
all available in a single repository. The assets are catalogued for meaningful
retrieval. Role-based access is provided to ensure security. The system
is accessible by the client in addition to the agency’s account management
team |
| Time Sheet management |
This system facilitates ascertaining
client or brand wise profitability based on actual time spent in addition
to the direct revenues or expenses. This system is tightly integrated with
the accounting and HR system |
| Budget planning & monitoring/review |
This is an integrated Web-based system
that manages end-to-end budget planning, monitoring and review. At the beginning
of each financial year all SBUs draw up their financial plans (revenue and
expenses). The budget system provides various guidelines and historical
data to draw up a more realistic and efficient plan. Budget policies, as
proposed by management, gets automatically enforced through the application.
The plans get automatically consolidated as per the management's requirements.
The monitoring and review modules generate alerts or alarms to indicate
variances |
| EHRMS |
This is a Web-based employee self help
portal as well as HR and payroll system. The employees can login and check
their leave balances, claims, salary details, file income tax declaration
and many other routine tasks on their own. The HR manual, appraisal system,
IT policy manual and other such documents help in bringing about transparency.
In addition to recruitment, appointment, HR database, payroll, appraisal
and separation modules, it has a powerful MIS module that provides various
manpower analysis |
| mTRACT |
This is an end-to-end Web-based studio
workflow management system. The account management team can enter a job
request (creative artwork) that gets pre-QCd, assigned to an operator, post-QCd
and delivered to the user through a workflow. Each stakeholder has a dashboard
that displays the status of a particular job online. E-mail and SMS alerts
are generated intimating the user of the job status. It has a robust image
library management system that allows users to upload images, catalogue
them with metadata and retrieve them for reuse |
| Knowledge Management |
This is a custom built Web-based KM system
for the agency’s operations. It has a strong repository of various
categories, references, posting, etc. Each user has a personal page that
can be personalized. Ratings and review options are provided to capture
tacit knowledge. In addition to role-based security, document level security
is also provided. |
This year’s implementations
Joseph believes that technologies like convergence (voice, data, video, mobile
devices), cloud computing and virtual office infrastructure will definitely
transform the current computing landscape. In his organization, he is evaluating
cloud computing and virtual office infrastructure.
“We plan to implement virtual office infrastructure. To augment this, we
are developing a portal that would act as a single window for accessing all
business processes. Unified communication along with collaboration and video
conferencing is being implemented at our new infrastructure,” added Joseph.
The goal behind implementing a virtual office infrastructure is that employees
can work from any geography. The base application platforms that address end-to-end
business processes are already in place. The organization is now building collaboration,
security, single window portal, and end user connectivity infrastructure.
According to him, the recession taught CIOs how to stretch the Rupee to the
maximum, to innovate, and optimize resources/infrastructure, amongst other things.
In fact, it made them play the simultaneous roles of Cheap Information Officer
(focusing on cost), Chief Information Officer (focusing on optimization and
business alignment) and Chief Innovation Officer (focusing on innovation).
One of the interesting business trends that he is witnessing is that there is
a stronger partnership between IT and business, a true partnership. In most
enterprises, IT is being made an integral part of the decision making process.
The open source movement is gaining momentum as well as acceptance. Tougher
economic conditions have brought in various innovations within the enterprise.
Above all, CIOs are taking on business roles as an additional responsibility
including that of a profit centre.
In his message to aspiring leaders, Joseph says that they need to live a balanced
work-life. They shouldn’t get too bogged down with technology and need
to focus more on business issues. They should be clear about the end objective
while doing any projects and have a clear cut implementation strategy, identify
partners from business, cross functions and IT, pay attention to training, support
and help desk. They must network with fellow CIOs as this gives them a great
opportunity to learn lessons about project success or failure and they must
keep abreast with the latest technologies to the level of being aware, rather
than becoming an expert, and interact with vendor community.
They also need to develop the following qualities—be a team player, have
passion, be a good listener, have positive attitude, have hunger for learning,
and freedom to fail and from fear.
nivedan.prakash@expressindia.com
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