A technocrat and a leader

A man of great conviction, Daya Prakash, Head - IT, LG Electronics India, knows technology like the back of his hand and he aspires to create a global platform for his organization, writes Nivedan Prakash

Daya Prakash

Carrying a Masters in Computer Management (1992-1994) degree from the University of Pune and an MBA in Finance from Amity Business School (2007-2009), Daya Prakash, Head - IT, LG Electronics India (LGEIL), is also a certified Project Management Professional (PMP).

He has over 16 years of experience in the IT industry spent managing IT applications and infrastructure. With in-depth knowledge regarding various aspects of business, Prakash has been at the forefront of LGEIL's IT operations and is responsible for the implementation of the latest technologies and business process innovations to enhance organizational competitiveness.

Journey so far

After completing his MCM, Prakash joined a software company based out of Delhi, wherein he looked after the accounting/inventory management system that was developed for the company's Australian customer.

He then moved on to another software company where he worked for a brief period of around six to eight months. There he was in-charge of rolling out an application for the Seagram liquor company that was launching its Indian operations.

“They wanted to know what brands or categories they should bring into the Indian market, as they had a plethora of brands in their kitty and there was no point in launching each and every one of them in India. Before coming to the Indian market, they wanted to study the market and that's where we helped them out,” said Prakash.

From 1996 to 2001, he worked as a Project Manager for a company called Aithent Technologies, that was into consumer electronics. He worked in the company's software development arm with the same name in the US. Aithent creates solutions for the information management needs of banking, government, healthcare and insurance organizations.

He added, “India was their offshore development center. I worked on a couple of systems related to travel and hospitality, healthcare as well as finance and sales. We developed a system for a company called ADP that was into automated data processing.”

In addition to the above, he has acted as a consultant for many overseas organizations such as ADP, UC Davis cancer hospital and various other hospitals in the US and conceptualized business opportunities for different clients in the fields of finance, healthcare and travel. His expertise includes project management, project delivery and extensive client relationship management.

“So far, it has been quite an exciting journey. I have been a pure software person, wherein I have been involved in software development, requirement certification management, accounts management, etc. Going from these areas to donning the role of a CIO, it has been a sea change. Moving from a technology background to a technocrat business-oriented role or profile has been a long as well as an exciting journey,” pointed out Prakash.

At LGEIL

In 2001, Prakash joined LG Electronics and from 2001-2007, he took care of the entire application needs of LG Electronics. From 2007 onwards, he has been looking after the company's IT operations in their entirety.

His key responsibilities include managing the IT operations at LGEIL, ensuring corporate IT governance, formulating IT strategies and plans and taking care of integration with systems at headquarters.

“I am managing the ERP application, which is based on Oracle E-Business Suite, as well as the company's widespread infrastructure. We have two factories, the corporate office, nine regional offices, over 45 branch offices, over 40 stock points and 470 area offices across India. Managing IT for such a large set-up is a substantial part of my responsibilities. I am also responsible for corporate risk, governance and compliance,” asserted Prakash.

Oracle E-Business Suite was rolled out under his supervision back in 2004 and he considers this to be a major achievement as it was a big initiative at LGEIL that took seven months to complete with the help of a team of 200 professionals.

A few systems have also been developed on top of the ERP platform. On the customer service side, the company provides customer service to third party service providers. These third party service providers are called Authorized Service Centers and today the company has about a thousand of these service centers across the country and there are 5,000 authorized service engineers working at these centers. He and his team created a platform called LG CSNET to integrate these centers with the company's centralized ERP system.

He added, “We have also developed a vendor ERP system that manages our end-to-end integration with the vendor or supplier community. It helps us in inventory reconciliation, accounts reconciliation and even shares our production plan and schedules with the vendor community so that they can supply us with related material on a just-in time basis. Besides this, we have also introduced a Global Supply Chain Planning System, which not only integrates our local operations but also enables integration with the LG operation worldwide.”

The IT team at LGEIL has developed a homegrown system wherein it is operating a successful CRM operation. “These are just a few of the systems that we have rolled out on the top of the ERP system. All of these systems have given us a kind of competitive advantage when compared to the competition. Another noteworthy achievement has been the implementation of a manufacturing execution system, which we have implemented at our Noida and Pune plants on different product lines,” added Prakash.

Looking ahead

Looking at some of the current trends in the technology space, Prakash believed that Web 2.0 was a technology that had totally changed the landscape in terms of the way that organizations operate. Green IT including virtualization, consolidation, etc. was another area of focus for today's CIOs, he felt.

Business intelligence was also picking up fast as it enabled accurate decision making. Unified Communication including video conferencing was helping organizations cut overheads.

According to him, a CIO's role was not limited to just IT implementation; they were responsible for the entire organization as well as to society.

By the end of 2010, Prakash plans to complete the roll out of Global Process Instance, which is part of the Oracle E-Business Suite. The goal of this initiative is to achieve end-to-end corporate IT governance for LG. On top of this, there are a few other initiatives that it the company is working on including knowledge management, CRM, Web 2.0 and BI.

“My immediate priority is globalization, wherein we want to have a single global operating system in place by the end of 2010. Once we achieve this, we are looking at some challenges or opportunities that will emerge out of this step in terms of redefining local excellence in 2011. Thereafter, we will be looking to develop solutions which will be LG India specific but at the same time creating solutions at LGEIL, which we can take to the global market,” concluded Prakash.

nivedan.prakash@expressindia.com