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Contents

Is mobile banking safer and superior

than the online banking?

HRIS enabling business sustainable

strategyHR & IT as arts and science

4

7

Role of IT in optimizing Supply Chain of

emerging global business12

Interview with Deepak Malani an IIM-C

alumnus and an associate product Managerat Flipkart15

Interview with Apoorv Kalra an IIM-C

alumnus and a consultant at Capgemini

UK

17

Dear Reader,

The Systems Consulting Club is back with a new edition of

CrossRoads. Any advanced technology is indistinguishablefrom magic and we try unraveling the secrets behind the mag-

ic in this edition. The issue features interviews with distin-

guished IIMC Alumni. Mr. Deepak Malani an associate prod-

uct manager at Flipkart and Mr. Apoorv Kalra a consultant

at Capegemini UK share their thoughts. This years edition we

try to explore several new areas such as Mobile banking, role

of IT in Supply chain and HRIS. We have explored a plethora

of roles that IT plays in enabling businesses in todays world.

The magazine team had a great experience in putting together

this edition of CrossRoads and hope you have as much fun

reading it as we had creating.

Best Regards,

CrossRoads Team,

From the editors desk


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Is mobile banking safer

and superior than the

online banking?

With the invention of smartphones, PC based

online mobile banking certainly looks old-er technology wherein, we use to make the

transactions through the PC using the ser-

vices of the internet service provider. Mobilebanking is rather a platform with which we can

make the transactions online using the mobiledevices inherent features with the help of the

same mobile service provider. Though the ap-

It provides the ull scale array o details and

options, providing the end users rich GUI ex-

perience with the ull controls o the accounts

management. On the other side, in the case

o the mobile banking applications, end user

can experience only the transactional eatures

o the banking application with the additional

security enabled text backs which are used as

the second orm o the authentication or the

end user.

As we see that the use o mobile phone bank-ing is increasing day by day and more than

50% mobile users practice mobile banking

on their cell phones. This raises a concern - Is

mobile banking more secure than the online

banking? Lets try to answer this by analysing

it rom dierent angles.

Each mobile device is having its own identity

which takes away the concern o the middle

man security and thus the transactions are

much secured than we anticipate. Further-

more, the online rauds take time to be de-

tected and they cannot be distinguished in

real time. Whereas the mobile banking rauds

can be distinguished in real time. The use o

the SMS and push messages allows us to dis-

cover the rauds as and when they happen in

real time.

With the use o the mobile phone or banking

purposes and the installation o GPS capabili-

ties by the smartphone manuacturers in the

mobile phone, we can essentially locate theraud beore it happens. This makes the use

o mobile phones or banking much more se-

cure and reduces the chances o geolocation

rauds. The same cannot be ound in the on-

line transactions in real time. The anticipation

o the upstream usage o the mobile banking

will denitely lead to the invention o the bio-

metric based security or the mobile phones

or the transactions which may not be present

in the online transactions. The latest Android

mobile operating system, Ice cream sandwich,

has made this possible by launching the user

acial recognition system to unlock the mo-

bile phones and the same is anticipated to

be used as a banking transaction security

eature. More over the nger scan enabled

mobile phones will also add to additional

security in the mobile banking applications

in near uture.

Having said that, we can also say that online

banking has some advantages over the mo-

bile banking as there is more transactional

capability in the case o the online banking.

We can easily download the applications

on the PCs/Laptops without much secu-

rity concerns. Attack o Zeus Trojan on not

only blackberry platorm but also on an-droid devices is now becoming a concern.

In android platorm, it shows as a security

application and once installed it starts lis-

tening to incoming messages and acts ac-

cordingly. There have been many apps, de-

signed or phishing o banking credentials

rom unsuspecting customers. Moreover,

third party, non-issued apps are also risky

as a customer has to share credentials with

an unknown and untrusted source. Browser

security needs to be addressed. It can be

addressed by ensuring that banks mobile

web site is only accessible through browsers

Amit Kumar Aggarwal (FT13104)

Bharat Mehndiratta (FT13314)PGPMGreat Lakes Institute of Management

authors

plications are custom built for the mobile ap-

plications but some part of the application inthe PC based web world is buried by the mo-

bile application developers to make the entire

application more user friendly.Banking using

the PC based web browsers allows us to use

the ull scale menus o the applications and

also provides maximum services o the bank-

ing application using the browsers eatures.


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that have a minimum 128-bit SSL support. For

raud/risk modelling, bank should see i mul-

tiple accounts are accessed via the same mo-

bile device, as it can be something shy and

banks should act accordingly. This problem

can be addressed by tying only one account

to a phone. Most importantly customer educa-

tion is must. A customer should never leave a

note with passwords on mobile deice cover or

inside their address books. A customer should

always pay attention to the app store he uses

to download the applications. He shouldcheck the source, read the reviews and the ne

prints o the applications. Customer should

make sure that he always protects his phone

using a password and auto lock his phone in

every case. One should try to avoid the use

o the public WIFI network while doing any

HRIS ENABLING BUSINESS

SUSTAINABLE STRATEGY

H.R & I.T as Arts & Science

Vinod Gandhi

IMI Delhi

author

Emerging Trends in Management Towards Sustainable Development

I we analyse how rms (GE, BMW, DRL,

and APPLE to name a ew) stay competi-

tive in such dynamic environment all

around, we would see rms with a com-

petitive advantage oer value to cus-

tomers- that is superior to the value their

competitors provide. In other words, it

is- Creating value or customers is the

source o above-average returns or

these rm.

The most important thing or staying

ahead in business now is to understand

the dynamics o environment. Let uspick only one variable Demographics

out o seven dimensions o environmen-

tal analysis and we will see how rapidly

it has been changed in last ew years.

Needless to discuss what impact tech-

nology e has done to rms. Staying

competitive in economy today can be

possible with uniqueness o resources

& capabilities o rm. And in a way how

a rm manages its Human Resources.

With my recent summer internship ex-

perience at BMW and a handul primary

Vinod Gandhi is presently doing MBA in HR rom IMI Delhi. He has 3

years o work exp. in TCS and spectrum Study circle.

He is passionate about Understanding Human beings and their inter-

action in organization.

transaction and Try to download the updates

whenever they are available. One should add

security sotware to phone and should secure

Wi-Fi connection and always check padlock

icon. Above issues need to kept in mind irre-

spective o whether it is mobile banking or pc

banking. Mobile banking is as secure as online

banking, i above points are addressed prop-

erly.


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research with GE, I eel H.R capabilities alone

can work wonders or an organization.

I.T has changed the era completely. It is be-

cause o Inormation systems today that the

organizations, such as Amex, Inosys, MakeMy-

Trip and many more, are leveraging on their

competencies to compete in such a dynamic

economy. Inormation technology and Inor-

mation Systems (ITIS) has become a critical as-

pect o developing and using human resourc-es management programs to better manage

the human capital o an organization; and ur-

ther evolving H.R related inormation systems

(HRIS).

A human resources inormation system (HRIS)

is the integration o sotware, hardware, sup-

port unctions and system policies and proce-

dures into an automated process designed to

support the strategic and operational activi-

ties o the human resources department and

Firm Size

Financial

Resources

Culture

Computer

Literacy

Improved Eciency

-Speed & Accuracy

-Cost Reduction

Improved Eectiveness

-Decision Making Im-provement

-Desired Management

gols

H

R

I

S

H1

H2

H3

H4

H5

H6

H7

lenges. A strategic HRIS provides important

inormation about human resources needs

and capabilities; this inormation assists the

management team in establishing the orga-

nizational mission and setting goals and ob-

jectives in motion.Firm use this inormation

technology systems or strategical, tactical,

and operational decision making; to avoid

litigation; to evaluate programs, policies, or

practices (e.g., evaluating the eectiveness o

a training program); and to support daily op-erations. Mohan Thite, Michael J. Kavanagh:

Human Resource Management and Human

Resource Inormation Systems

HRIS can assist human resources in numerous

ways, but particularly in their day-to-day duties

by streamlining workfow processes through

control processes, system interaces and data-

base validation. One o the most common HR

gripes is being bombarded with mundane e-

managers throughout the organization.

HRIS enables the human resource department

to make a more active role in organizational

planning. Computerization can make orecast-

ing more timely, cost eective, and ecient.

Integration and storage in a single database

all o the human resources inormation. HRIS

can accelerate the process o comparing costs

and benets o human resources activities. An

eective HRIS does acilitate the east storageand retrieval o human resources records that

are very vital or operations. Human resources

inormation systems (HRIS) can play an impor-

tant part in a companys HR unction.

The role o HR is becoming pivotal in the 21st

century. As organizations ace sti market and

other external pulls and pushes, the HR be-

comes vital source or managing uture chal-

mail and administrative work that takes away

rom the actual practice o HR proessionals.

The eld o HRIS has also seen the implemen-

tation o enterprise resource planning (ERP)

conguration in HRM with extensive use o

manager and employee sel-portals. Most

critically, these changes ensure that rms can

signicantly advance in use o people knowl-

edge in managerial decision. They can access

people knowledge more rapidly with a higher

degree o accuracy. HRIS merges some o HRMunctions with the IT eld, wherein the plan-

ning and programming o data processing sys-

tems have evolved into standardized routines

and packages o Enterprise Resource Planning

(ERP) sotware.

ERP integrates the human resource module

with nance, production, and sales and admin-

istration modules. Technology-driven automa-


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tion (IT) processes certainly help reduce costs

and cycle times as well as improve quality.

Inormation System (IS) can urther help deci-

sion makers to make and implement strategic

decisions. HR data, i collected eectively and

contained within computerized, accessible

systems, can both compare organizational HR

bottom line outcomes by HRM unction, be-

tween unctions and with national or interna-

tional perormance benchmark

Proactive HR managers ensure that their HRIS

contributes to organizational perormance.A recent development in the uses o HRIS in

many has been the linking o benchmarking

practices to the design, choice and imple-

mentation o such systems as a directly strate-

gic initiative. Integration with organizational

is uttermost to get competitive advantage.

Numerous researches speak the same too. A

talent management program is a part o the

human resource planning (HRP) unction o an

organization. Recruiting talented individually

by using social networks has been increasing

too. Very ew companies have quality Talent

Management computer applications.

Inormation systems can be applied in ev-

ery aspect o talent management, rom con-

ducting job analysis to ocussing on the hu-

business intelligence to produce TM analytics

can provide company a competitive edge.

Perhaps one o the major obstacles in the use

o an HRIS is its implementation. It is impor-

tant or company to realize that the major

challenge to successul implementation is

more behavioural than technical. Organiza-

tions will surely move towards HRIS but to

make it a strategic way, change manage-

ment lessons must be applied here. Process

reengineering is a critical component in HRIS

implementation. Inadequate documentationor training can undermine the systems utility

and increase resistance to the system by ex-

actly those employees and managers who are

supposed to aid in its use. Given these sorts o

hurdles a careul needs assessment obviously

Reerences

Fisher, J. (2002). Human Factors and the System Development Process. In: Sociotechnical and Hu-

man Cognition Elements o Inormation Systems, Clarke, S. (Ed.). Idea Group Inc., USA.

Haines, V.Y. and A. Petit. (1997). Conditions or successul HRIS. Hum. Resour. Manage.

Jaee, D. (2001). Organization theory: Tension and change. McGraw-Hill, USA.

Mercer Human Resource Consulting, (2007). HR transormation in Europe: A Mercer Study. Survey

Mumord, E., (2003). Redesigning Human Systems. Idea Group, USA.

Shirivastava, S. and J.B. Shaw. (2003). Liberating HR through technology. Hum. Resour. Manage

Targowski, A.S. and S.P. Deshpande. (2001). The utility and selection o an HRIS. Adv. Competitive-

ness Res.

strategic objectives is achieved by the subse-

quent establishment o perormance targets

and quantitative measures. As a strategic tool,

HRIS can be used to contribute to the devel-

opment and modication o HR plans, on

both quantitative and qualitative bases, and

to eed into specic HRM unctions.

Recently I attended NHRD workshop having

discussion on how ESSAR group is competing

with their e-Compass aligning individuals to

business goals strategically and building as

a Talent Management company with I.T en-abled HR ramework. Outcomes are shown in

gure attached

HRIS and other inormation systems can be

used to support a Talent Management Pro-

gram. The importance o talent management

man capital demand and supply or current

and uture jobs, attracting the right talent in

a specic location, hiring based on desired

attributes, and retaining high perormance

employees. Ultimately, the HR department o

an organization would use an HRIS to moni-

tor and measure the overall contribution o

talented employees with other result on bal-

anced scorecard, and these results could a-

ect the design o other HRM programs. The

use o analytics in TM, particularly the use o

should be done prior to adopting an HRIS.

To conclude, I strongly eel that there is a

strong need o leveraging Human resources

with I.T and communication management

to sustain the competitive advantage or

any rm. Being Inormation-Technology up-

graded and communicating strategically with

market (by scanning, monitoring, orecasting

and assessing) can make a rm win such com-

petition. I there is one central theme o our

look toward the uture, it is the importance

o HR policies matched with organizationalchange and technology; this alignment will

have the greatest impact on the uture suc-

cess o HRIS and the organizations investing

in these systems.


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Role of IT in optimizing

supply chain of

emerging Global

businessIn todays marketplace marked by

intense competition, companies are

trying hard to build their

competitive capabilities in order to

dierentiate themselves. Developing

ecient supply chain

is one such step towards building

competitive capabilities. An ecient

supply chain requires

smooth movement o physical goods

and inormation among dierent

members o supply

chain. Given the increasing impor-

tance o outsourcing, globalization

and shit in power

structure towards customers, the de-

pendency on accurate inormation

has increased evenurther. Inormation Technology plays

a very important role in smoothening

o inormation

fow. Investment in inormation tech-

nology (IT) or managing s upply

chains has been an

eective way o obtaining competi-

tive advantage (Spalding, 1998; Kwan,

1999).

A typical supply chain looks more or

less looks like the one shown in Fig-

ure 1. Inormation fow

is bidirectional and iterative in nature. In the absence o

accuracy, the entire supply chain

becomes vulnerable to eects like bull whip eect

leading to excess inventory or dead stock

on one hand and stock-outs and reduced customer ser-

vice level on the other.Lets take the case o Supply chain

o companies like Dell, Walmart and P&G. Inormation

technology has transormed the entire supply chain o

these companies by smoothening the

movement o materials and inormation. In

case o Dell, eciency has been achieved

through

real time inormation sharing with its suppli-

ers. Facilitated by Inormation Technology,

Dells

suppliers are no longer compelled to locate

near the manuacturing plant. This has helped

Dellin expanding its suppliers base competitively

and also extending more customization ben-

ets

to its customers.

In case o P&G and Wal-Mart, both the compa-

nies entered into strategic alliance with each

other under which Walmart shared the P&G

products point o sales (POS) data with the

company. POS data provides insights into pa-

rameters such as which products are selling,

when

they are selling, where they are selling, who

Trisha Pandey

SJMSomauthor

are purchasing the products etc. On the ba-

sis o

this data, P&G replenishes the inventory

whenever reorder point is reached. IT enabled

processes has reduced paper work, time, cost

and eorts required by both these companies.

Companies such as Home Depot, Xerox and

Sears already use on-demand web-based data

hubsto identiy and track the position o their

goods are in real time. Supply chain errors

also have

come down drastically. Third party logistic

providers (3PLs) a lso greatly use IT in their

operations to share the required data, tracking

and packaging processes.

The role o IT in optimizing supply chain can

be broadly divided into our buckets:


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Transaction Processing: It in-volves use o IT or rictionless exchange o

inormation

among dierent members o supply chain

like generation o production order quotes,

billing, delivery receipts, dispatch verica-

tions etc . EDI , XML or Extranet are typically

used in these transactions.

Cachon and Fisher (2000) have proposed

that the benets o IT use are more due to the

positive eects o IT on transaction process-

ing eciency potentially leading to shorterlead times and smaller batch sizes than to

sharing o inventory and demand

inormation. Warehouse management sys-

tems (WMS), transportation management

system (TMS), enterprise resource planning

(ERP) are some o the typical applications.

Communication: It involves use oIT or communicating inormation like sharing

planning related inormation through ore-

casts, inventory position, production capac-

ity, review policies etc. Supply chain event

management (SCEM), Collaborative planning,

orecasting and replenishment (CPFR) are

some o the t ypical applications. Studies have

ound that typically the sharing o demand

inormation in supply chains increases the

perormance o the supply chain by increas-

ing availability and reducing inventory

related costs (Evans et al., 1993; Gavirneni etal., 1999; Cachon and Fisher, 2000; Lee et

al., 2000)

Relationship Management:This involves use o IT or improving customer

service level.

Customer service level depicts the probabil-

ity with which the customer receives the

product or service within the promised deliv-

ery time. Customer Relationship

Management (CRM), Supplier Relationship

Management (SRM) and Advanced Planning

and scheduling (APS) are some o the typical ap-

plications o IT in this eld. Specic

technologies like online analytical processing,

dashboards and keyboards can be used

or this purpose.CRM, SRM and APS have to be de-

signed and enabled dierently or dierent types

o products. For instance ,in case o innovative

products like digital cameras, designer

shirts , jewelry the supply chain needs to be

more responsive while or unctional

products like perishables the supply chain needs

to be more ecient.

IT based Supply chain Decision

support system (DSS): It involvesuse o IT to aid better decision making process

through data obtained rom transaction process-

ing and

communication. Decisions involving production

schedules, supply chain network designs

are made through DSS. Specic technologies like

scheduling algorithms, visual composer

are used or eective supply chain DSS.

Conclusion

The decision or Inormation Technology devel-

opment and implementation rests with top

management in organizations. They oten han-

dle IT implementation in piecemeal manner

resulting in multiple types o sub-systems, plat-

orms and interaces. This eventually causesintegration problems. The need or top manage-

ment is to rst assess their business objectives

and then nd out the alternative technologies

that are required to support those objectives.

Once this is done, based on the modeled con-

straints o their business they should decide on

specic technology that would be most suitable.

Future systems should be able to modularly link

to current and past systems. Only then IT would

be most eective in providing the best possible

supply chain optimization.

I nterviewsDeepak Malani is an alumnus ofIndian Institute of Management Calcutta and

currently an Associate Product Manager at Flipkart.

about

What are some o the topics most requented on Product Management interviewsin the Systems domain at present?

Common topics would include design questions where you could be asked to design a guitar or

disabled persons or a paper cup or use with a coee vending machine. You should be clear about

the rst result o the design process, that is, what is expected rom the exercise.

There are also mock exercises involving pitching a product to a team and responding to their

responses. You will be judged on the impact o the solution you create at the end o the mock

exercise.

What are the most important attributes that are evaluated in a Systems interview?

Familiarity with coding or user experience design does help. You should demonstrate that you

understand the constraints involved in designing and developing products.

With work experience, the t and the relevance with the company is more important than the

amount o work experience. Your attitudes are also tested through challenging questions, to nd

out whether you are a team player. The ability to understand and structure your solution is more

important than your creative skills; decomposition o a problem, evaluating possibilities is more

important, however creativity is also appreciated.

Are there any courses or specic kind o projects that one could highlight in a Sys-

tems interview that could signicantly impact the interviewers evaluation?

MIS courses, e-commerce, IT enables services and data mining are some courses that can be high-lighted or a project manager interview. Demonstrate that you derive meaningul insights rom

data.

The live project opportunities on campus are genuinely live, and it would be great i students

devoted more time to them.

How are entrepreneurial skills values in laterals and nals interviews? Does men-

tioning entrepreneurial plans make the companies disposition towards a candidate

more or less avourable in a product manager interview?

Im not sure, but as a product manager you are expected to be a mini CEO, so rms denitely

wont have problems with hiring people with entrepreneurial experience.


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How is the typical career path or a product manager dierent in start-ups dierent

rom that in an established systems company?

Startups oer roles that are not well dened but have a steeper learning curve. Established com-

panies will have more well dened roles, so they lose out on the ability o students to work on

unstructured problems. The choice o whether to work or a star tup or and established company

depends on the inclination o the person.

Please talk about your laterals and nals experiences.

Flipkart usually comes to campus or an operations prole in laterals and a product manager

prole or nals. The rst round o my Flipkart interview was about my live projects and questions

in product designing, estimation and cost benet analysis. The specic problems I was asked tosolve were more structured than a case problem. Some questions I was asked were: what eatures

can be added to a product display page, what new modes o payment can be provided to Flipkart

users, how can the problems o increased returns due to allowing cash-on-delivery be overcome

and how Flipkart can promote buying in the rural market given that cash-on-delivery does not

have that kind o reach.

In the second round I was asked to design an alarm clock or a blind person and asked why I

wanted to join Flipkart and why I wanted to do product management.

The third round had a problem where I was asked about the process o designing a disposable

cup. I was also asked questions on user experience, whether I was comortable with sotware

languages and i I could code.

The ourth round was an HR round. It is good to ask questions ater all the interview rounds.

In general, the interview processes or systems companies are well structured, the panel knows

what they are looking or and people rom the concerned department are the ones who usually

interview students.

Apoorv Kalra is an alumnus ofIndian Institute of Mangagement Calcutta and

currently a consultant at Capgemini Consulting UK

about

What is the big dierence between placements or product management roles and

IT consulting proles? And how is laterals prep dierent rom that or nals?

Product management roles are more dicult to crack than IT consulting and it is better to have

product development experience. In laterals every company looks or a specic kind o work

experience. So dont expect shortlists based on IRs, CGPAs and PoRs. They will ocus on your work

experience.Laterals prep is quite dierent rom summers and nals. You need to have a very good storyline

and need to ocus separately on each company and be clear about your uture prospects in each

company.

How should one go about preparing or IT consulting roles?

For consulting prep, use Vault and other popular consulting guides. It will help a lot or IT consult-

ing companies. Please sit with your riends and do mock interviews. I you have work experience,

ocus on representing it better. For example, people with e-commerce work experience should

ocus on how they will be useul to the companys e-retail agenda. Understand the products, ser-

vices, clients and industry rom your work experience thoroughly.

Be prepared or questions like: how does a IT services company work, how would you classiy the

IT consulting company X, how is company A dierent rom company Y in IT consulting or strategy

consulting. Reach out to PGP3s to be able to answer these questions better.

Please provide your advice about the placement process.

Laterals is a tough experience. Check how the market looks and take your own calls to get the

right job. Do not panic i it takes time or you to get placed. There are a lot o good companies you

might miss out on and get rustrated i you panic and get placed too early. Speak to PGP3s, talk to

them and take their advice. And nally, dont worry about the money.


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