Intelligent Enterprise 2004

Honoring innovation in Indian IT

Finally, an Award for Indian enterprises that have employed IT intelligently to score a definitive competitive advantage. This October, Computer Associates Intelligent Enterprise Awards will honor these organizations

Imagine an illiterate farmer in a remote village in Madhya Pradesh sitting at a desktop wired up to the WWW through a small VSAT link powered by a small power generator, downloading invaluable information about weather forecasts, sowing trends, or checking prices at the nearest government-run market.

A few years ago such a scenario would have seemed outlandish but today it's a reality. ITC's e-choupal project covers over 15,000 villages in Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh.

In IT parlance, e-chaupal is nothing but an intelligent blend of applications like CRM and supply-chain management. It is a business initiative to create farmer communities and facilitate sourcing of high-quality farm produce for its fast growing agribusiness.

Intelligent Enterprise

Today, several Indian enterprises are churning out smart and intelligent IT initiatives that are not only best-in-class globally in terms of technology deployed but also in terms of its business and social impact.

To recognize such groundbreaking IT initiatives in all walks of life, Network Magazine instituted the Intelligent Enterprise Awards last year. The core objective behind these awards is the belief that technology by itself can no longer provide a competitive edge. With organizations having easy access to similar technologies, innovation is key to maintain their advantage.

Such technological innovation cannot be judged simply by technology deployed and level of investment. Even small enterprises with paltry IT budgets can blend relatively old technologies to create intelligent solutions that generate immense business value.

Computer Associates Intelligent Enterprise Awards recognize enterprises that have exploited existing technologies in newer ways, or experimented with new ones. Also, it takes into account innovation on the process side. An organization can invent new technology processes or tune existing ones gaining a definitive competitive edge.

Methodology

Computer Associates Intelligent Enterprise Awards 2004 will be given away in nine key verticals that include ICE, Energy, construction and utilities, Banking, Financial services and Insurance, Health Sciences, Industrial production, Government and infrastructure, and Retail & consumer products.

Nominations are invited through multiple channels and shortlisted by Network Magazine and Ernst & Young on the basis of pre-defined evaluation criteria. Based on the scores awarded, finalists are shortlisted for selection by the Jury. The selection of winners in each category is done by a Jury consisting eminent personalities from diverse fields. The shortlisted entries are judged broadly on the merits of innovativeness of the application, technology used, value and impact thereof.

Highlights 2003

Last year, the Intelligent Enterprise Awards were given out in four categories a ceremony in Kochi. The Award for the Most Intelligent Enterprise went to V. V. R Babu, CIO, ITC (e-Choupal Project).

There were three runner-up awards, one going to Dabur for engineering an in-house application integrating its primary distribution network. The second runner-up was Eicher Motors for implementing an employee sales portal. The final one went to BPCL for implementing a core operations applications called the Digital Nervous system to improve information flow across it refineries.

the awards 2004

This year, over 110 companies have sent their nominations. The selection process is underway and the Jury Meet to select the final winners is scheduled for October 9, 2004 in Mumbai. The Awards will be presented on October 28 at Technology Senate 2004.