WIT: Please tell us a little bit about your background and why did you chose a career path in technology?

Vidhya: I am currently a consultant with Infosys Consulting in Bangalore, India. Until Feb this year, I was with Deloitte Consulting in Chicago. I joined the MSIS program right after my engineering undergrad in India. During the MSIS program, I also interned for 6 months with Pricewaterhouse Coopers in their IT Audit practice. My job profile fits in that sweet spot between business and IT, exactly for which the MSIS program trains you. To highlight few of my projects, I have been involved in large scale business transformation projects, formulation of Master Data Management Strategy and creation of an Operating model for a new prepaid product.

WIT: What influenced you to pursue a career in technology?
Vidhya: When I was pursuing my undergrad, IT was the next big thing and it was right around the time of the dot com boom. Internet cafes were cropping up at every street corner and “googling” was a verb. It was an exciting time, and I knew I wanted to be part of it. Having grown up in a family of entrepreneurs, I had a passion of doing something in management. Put this and that together and the MSIS course was the perfect place to be!

WIT: Have you had to overcome any obstacles in your career in technology that may be specific to being a woman? If so, how did you overcome them?
Vidhya: I have not had specific obstacles to confront being a woman in IT. Thanks to the amazing organizations and teams that I have been a part of. Very often, I am the only woman in a meeting or at a business lunch, and when the conversation moves to too much of sports, I do break in and change the topic to the latest episode of Hell’s Kitchen. It is important to remember that women do offer a different and necessary perspective and it is expected that we express them freely.

WIT: Are there any courses that you took in the MSIS program that you have found particularly useful in your career?
Vidhya: All of them – I mean it! I utilize a lot of the knowledge from the MSIS courses in my work. I even try to go back and refer to some of the slides and project work to refresh my memory. IT strategy, Data warehouse, Business Process Design and Project Management are few that come to mind.

WIT: What advice would you give to a woman considering pursuing a career in technology?
Vidhya: Be confident and sure of yourself. Never be afraid to voice your opinion/viewpoint. And always keep learning, especially if the subject is Football!

WIT: Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Vidhya: Oh, toughie. I guess I just want to be working on something interesting with a team of wonderful and smart people.

WIT: What are the key takeaways from the MSIS program that you found useful in your career path? How has it changed your profile before and after MSIS program?
Vidhya: Among other things, the MSIS program taught me how to manage time and how to work smart. These are integral skills for any profession in this day and age.

Mobility is impacting every aspect of information‐driven business process. In addition to changing how people work inside the company, mobility is also changing how companies relate to their customers. Some traditional business services are becoming mobile applications running on customers’ & employee’s smartphones. Here are a few examples specific to a few domains:

• Healthcare: Some medical applications enable remote monitoring of patients via smartphone or tablet devices. Technology not only enables people to become more active participants in their own healthcare, it delivers better care at lower cost.
• Insurance: Some insurance companies have downloadable mobile applications that enable customers to get quotes, buy policies, and invoke claims processing directly at the accident scene, and if the policyholder has any questions, he will invoke a video call with the adjuster or agent.
• Sales: Companies are looking at arming salespeople with real-time information from Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), supply chain and inventory systems from a mobile device to provide better customer service, a trusted relationship and higher margins through better decision making.
• Customer Support Services: Imagine cable service technicians in the field who can offer promotion packages during service calls based on the customers’ interests. If technicians can create an order and provision the service on the spot, customers get the personal touch and immediate satisfaction. Mobile field service applications also help technicians resolve problems faster and serve more clients per day, creating potentially higher sales revenue for the company in the process.
• Human Resources: Workflow applications are very useful in human resource departments, where approval bottlenecks often impede processes and paperwork.  Allowing employees to fill out and submit time sheets, vacation requests and expense reimbursements from their mobile devices speeds the process; letting managers provide approvals the same way frees them to use their time more effectively. In some cases, the faster pace can measurably lower costs.
• Manufacturing: When plant managers have mobile access to the spare parts database, they can determine immediately whether the broken valve on the production line is in stock. As an added measure,  RFID tags on the spare parts allow plant managers who have a GPS-enabled smartphone to not only verify availability but also determine exactly where (closet, shelf and bin) they’ll find the part they need. Such applications return the production line to service as fast as possible.

From these few examples we notice that business information is core data that everyone (executives, mangers, workers, customers/consumers) depend upon and share in real time. This core information flows in both directions. Data coming in from field sales reporting, remote operations, customer activity, financial activity, and other sources becomes immediately accessible to those who depend upon that information for their own decisions. Companies have started realizing the value and are in the phase of either mobilizing their current processes or evaluating their business strategy and re-engineering their processes to mobile enable their enterprise.

So where the money in Mobility is and what jobs should we expect in this market space?

Enterprises are starting to jump on the app bandwagon to reach customers and bolster their brand. To achieve these ambitious plans, companies will have to reach out to traditional IT service vendors and specialized mobile developers due to lack of in-house expertise. The mobile apps services market is expected to reach 17.1 Billion by 2015. There are three segments of services that will exist in the market. The first segment will center on creating and developing mobile apps. This is projected to be $5.6 billion/year market globally by 2015. People interested in specialized development work should consider this segment. As the apps take on more mission-critical features, firms will look outside for help managing the apps and the hardware and security. This segment will make up $3.9 billion of the global IT services market by 2015. People looking for corporate IT jobs should focus in this segment. And the last segment is around re-inventing the business processes and back end systems to completely digital end–to-end business processes which will grow to be $7.6 billion in revenues by 2015. This sector will favor people looking for consulting portfolios.

–Namrata Damani

MSIS, Class of 2011