Professional Documents
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In this Issue! Editorial
Editorial Dear Readers,
DC Updates Thoolika welcomes you to its fifth edition!
NRN's visit Buoyed by the growing strength at
Project Updates Trivandrum DC which is fast approaching
CCD Updates
the three figure mark (It is currently 89!), the
DC Party at Poovar
May T-POT Party month of May proved to be a month full of
Mavericks on rampage events. It started off with none other than the
visit of our respected chairman and chief
Gallery mentor NRN. This edition of Thoolika
features an exclusive interview with NRN,
Interview with NRN where he shares his valuable thoughts on a
variety of topics.
Ala Carte This edition also features the other DC
Light at the end of the tunnel
by Mahesh P updates such as Project updates, DC party,
DC Party at Poovar T‐POT party, etc.
by Siji Varghese For this and more, keep the pages turning as
the pen writes on…
Happy Reading,
Thoolika
Thoolika Editorial Team
Kadeeja B
Vinod G
Mail in your Bouquets and Brickbats to:
Thoolika@infosys.com
Page 1 of 7 Thoolika
Issue 5, June 2004
DC Updates
NRN’s visit
Trivandrum Infosys was honored by the visit of Mr.
Narayana Murthy, our esteemed chairman and chief
mentor. In spite of his busy schedule, he managed to
share his valuable thoughts with Trinfoscions. In his
interaction, he stressed the importance of integrity,
commitment and hard work for achieving our vision
of being a globally respected company. He also shared
his views on the positive and negative factors that
would make India a leader in software industry. After
the address, there was a photo session with Trinfoscions and also an exclusive interview with
Thoolika.
Project Updates
Winn‐Dixie Project Update
Winn‐Dixie Stores, Inc. is one of North America’s largest Supermarket chains. The Winn‐
Dixie Legal Department requires a compliance tracking and reporting database system
which will provide the means for measuring how the company is doing in terms of
compliance to federal and state laws as well as its own standards for conducting business.
The Winn‐Dixie Phase I project was executed successfully despite a very tight deadline and
it was very well appreciated by the client. The project is now in its second phase and has a
team strength of 6 at offshore and one onsite co‐ordinator. The entire application is set to go
live by June 29, 2004. Infosys is also doing a Scope Definition towards Data Warehousing
and Reporting Initiatives for Winn‐Dixie. This is done fully at the client site and is expected
to be completed by the first week of June. Revenues from these Winn‐Dixie projects come to
around 125K. It is also known that there are other projects in the pipeline which should
come through once the current project is successfully completed.
Walgreens Project Update
Vendor portal, the second project from Walgreens to Trivandrum DC, aims to provide
vendors the information they need to help maximize the sales and profit potential of both
Walgreen as well as vendors. This is the first step in realizing the longer term goal which
will focus on Vendor Collaboration on Forecasts, New Product Launches, Promotional
Planning and Business Planning. Three tracks planned to be executed are:
o The Process & Application design work stream
o The Architecture Workstream ‐ a long‐term component that will be driven by the
Strategic Vision
o The Strategy Workstream – Define the long‐term strategy of Vendor portal and
address business needs and ensure business‐IT alignment
Track 1 will have Information sharing and the process work flow for vendors. Vendor Portal
will be the communication vehicle to provide the Promotions, Sales and Inventory
information of Walgreens to vendors. Through process work flow, Walgreens aims to
electronically enable the PO – ASN – Invoice process with its direct to store delivery
vendors. The total revenue of the project is $780K. Current resource strength is 9 onsite and
17 offshore (14 in Trivandrum DC and 3 in Hyderabad DC). The project is currently in the
design phase and will go live by 1st week of September.
Page 2 of 7 Thoolika
Issue 5, June 2004
CCD Updates
The following are the CCD updates for June
256 KBPS VSNL internet link is operational
Polycom video conferencing equipment operational
DC party at Poovar
The second DC party was held at the exotic Poovar island
resort. It was held on 22nd May 2004. Poovar island resort is
located around 20 Kms from the famous Kovalam beach
resort. The highlight of the resort is the 10 minute boat ride
through the calm and beautiful backwaters of Poovar.
Compared to the previous DC party, since we had more
people the party was all the more fun. It was a full day
event with lots of games and fun activities. We have a
detailed report on the same in our Ala carte section with
lot many snaps.
May T‐POT party
Since the month of May was full of election fever, we had our own version of election in
Trinfosys. The election was for the prestigious (but fictious!) post of the “Technopark Mazdoor
Sangh”. The whole gathering was divided into four teams. These teams need to select a leader,
come up with their election manifesto and campaign for the elections. It was fun to see all the
creative energy and enthusiasm of the participants. And as usual we did have a huge chocolate
cake to celebrate the birthdays of Trinfoscions who had their birthdays in April. This time the list
included our DC head Kichu also.
Page 3 of 7 Thoolika
Issue 5, June 2004
Mavericks on Rampage
The Trinfosys cricket team has entered the semi finals of the Technopark Cricket tournament.
They defeated teams from US Software and NeST to get through to the semis. Considering the
fact that Mavericks was formed out of 50 Trinfoscions, this is truly a commendable achievement.
Mavericks is one of the four teams that is left out of the 32 teams the tournament started with.
Here is the score card from both the matches
Pre Quarter Quarter Finals
US software B -112/9 Nest 72 all out in 14.3 overs
Gallery
Page 4 of 7 Thoolika
Issue 5, June 2004
Interview with NRN
Thoolika: During the Billion $ celebrations it was emphasized that as we
celebrate, we need to look forth to achieving the next billion & for that one of
the key factors is to differentiate ourselves in the global market. Could you
tell us what every Infoscions should do towards achieving that goal?
NRN: The consulting skills, problem defining skills & implementing
it are the qualities to be nurtured in a software engineer right from
start. In our daily lives we see a lot of problems all around us, we
need to think how we can develop high performance, how we can
design very user friendly software . So I think Problem Solving
should be the first step towards it. We should be ‘Proactive Problem
Definers’ rather than ‘Reactive Problem Solvers’.
Thoolika: When the company was formed in 1981, what was the initial business plans based on? What was the
turning point for Infosys?
NRN: Right from day one, our desire was to add value from India but during the initial stages in 1981‐1992,
there were a lot of hurdles we had to face, for e.g. it was very difficult to get visas for traveling to the U.S., so
once we were able to get there, most of the work was executed in the U.S. Later, around 1992, off‐shoring
trends started with infrastructure improvement and we were able to add more work force in India.
Thoolika: During the initial stages while the company was being formed, did you feel like giving up at any point?
NRN: Ashok Arora, one of the founder members had left the company in 1990. At this juncture there was an
offer to buy infosys for less than a million. At that point we were not really sure if we would really see light
at the end of the tunnel.....
Thoolika: Being member of so many organizations (Member of the National Information Technology Task Force of
India as well as the Prime Minister’s Council on Trade and Industry, Director on the board of the Reserve Bank of
India (RBI), Member of the Asian Executive Board of the Wharton Business school ), how do you manage your work‐
life?
NRN: Right from day one, I was very lucky to have Sudha to support me... She was ready to sacrifice so that
I could go up the ladder. She resigned her job from Telco and took up teaching as her profession inspite of
always being a topper in her academics. Once I remember I was away in France for 6 months on a project,
my son had an accident and broken his arm, after 3 months when I spoke to him on the phone he says “My
arm is okay nowʺ, then I get to know that he had an accident....
Thoolika: Did you have any role models who inspired you in your career?
NRN: Mahatma Gandhi was always my role model. He was a man who walked the talk... he used to say
ʺKeep the windows and doors open but don’t let the wind blow you offʺ. I was also very much impressed
with Lee Kuan Yew; he was a great Singapore Reformer who brought Singapore from a third world country
to a first world country.
Thoolika: How do you encourage entrepreneurship within the company?
NRN: There have been many people who have come up with ideas. For e.g. Yantra, OnMobile are ideas that
came from people within Infy. Yantra still remains to be a part of Infy.
Thoolika: So far Infosys has grown organically. Are you looking at acquisitions as the future growth strategy?
NRN: I am religious at home but outside home I don’t bring my religion. I respect everyone elseʹs religion;
similarly I don’t want to be too rigid on the growth strategies. Things will change based on the situation.
Thoolika: What is your message for Trinfoscions? Thank you for giving this interview.
NRN: I love this state for 3 things ‐ Secularism, high level of literacy among women and this state has
proven that social reforms cannot be brought by calling out slogans or planting red flags, but by creating
jobs & wealth. So be proud of your state.
Page 5 of 7 Thoolika
Issue 5, June 2004
Ala Carte
‘Light at the end of the tunnel’
By Mahesh P
What is mankind? Millions of people have wracked their brains over this question. Many have told
that we are part of an infinite intelligence. Some of them have told that we are a dream of a greater
self. Some others have told that we are just adapted monkeys. Different people have different
opinions, and the discussions and the arguments still continue. About the existence of God, of the
meaninglessness of life, of the infinity that we represent and about the life after death and the
existence of an imperishable entity called soul. But no one talks about the meaningfulness of life,
and the infinite possibilities of each and every human being. And as each one of us attach more
importance to our search for the infinite; we just forget to live for the day and wait and see what is
happening around us. Every one of us talks about God, preaches about Him, believes in Him. But
we never believe in our fellow beings. We believe in something that we have never seen or felt. We
are being misdirected by the millions of years of conditioning of the mind.
To love our neighbor, our friend or any one who comes in our path, we need him to satisfy certain
conditions. The person who is near us, the ultimate pure soul, does not matter to us. But it matters
whether he smiles, he extends his hand, he smells perfectly, he dresses neatly and millions of other
miniscule things, which should never matter. We label each and everything that comes before us.
We label that this guy is foolish, this guy is intelligent and another one is useless. We have learned
to divide and judge. We are trained to do that from the moment that we are born. We are born into
petty little groups called ‘families’. And we belong to a particular ‘state’. We should love a
particular ‘language’. And then we should be ‘patriotic’, we should love our ‘country’. And why
should we do all this? Is it because we are “Practical”? Gradually the ideal pure self that we are,
gets converted into a practical, trained robot. And we lose the innocence, the holiness inside us.
We all are able to align ourselves with the society. And that is supposed to be the goal of our life, to
grow rich, to have a good position in the society. And how do you become that? You need to be
ambitious. Any one can understand that ambition is just another word for greed, when you think
only about yourselves. Ambition should be for the entire world. Not for a particular individual, a
particular state or a particular country. It is evident that today’s society is unhappy. We are an
entire group of unsatisfied unhappy people. We are not able to be content with what we have. To
be frank and point‐blank, each of us is discontent in one or the other way. Why do we need to
complicate this simple life?
So where is the light at the end of this dark tunnel of unending miseries, ambitions, judgments and
all the other byproducts of practicality? We need to be ideal!! There have been men who tried to
restructure the society into its simplest form, of the ideal one and where everyone is just the same.
The time has come when there should be another man who can do the same. We need a man who
could take the first step and then his power of love will make millions follow him. We need a man
who can change this entire world into a powerful bond of love. Where everyone is just the same or
where there is no individual existence and there is only a collective existence of a single unified
force of love. Each one of us has this capability to stand up and speak. But just one man has to take
the first step. Every story should have a beginning, and the beginning is the toughest part. So shall
we begin?
Page 6 of 7 Thoolika
Issue 5, June 2004
DC Party at Poovar
By Siji Varghese
Guess where Trinfoscions partied on 22nd May 2004?? It was at the
exotic Poovar Lake Resort. It was raining heavily when we started our
journey, but by the time we reached the boat jetty the sun was up and
shining bright. To get to the resort we had to travel a good distance by
boat. Though many people were at first a bit apprehensive (in plain
English it means scared) about the boat journey, once it started all those
apprehensions vanished as they were mesmerized by the serene beauty
of the Poovar backwaters.
On reaching the resort (without losing anyone in the waters of course),
each person was given many balloons to blow. These balloons were for
playing the first event ‐ Three legged Balloon bursting game. The rules of
the game are pretty simple. Each team would consist of two members
with one of their legs tied together. They would have a balloon each tied
to their free leg. The mission of the game was to break other team’s
balloons and at the same time making sure nobody stomps yours. Once
the game started, it was utter chaos and it looked like some Hollywood
war movie. It was great to watch, but playing it was more fun!
After a chaotic game of balloon bursting, everyone was all set and
ready for the next event – Ball throwing. This too is a pretty simple
game. In this game the whole group was divided into two teams. One
team would form the outer circle and the other team would be inside
the circle. The outer circle team would be given a soft tennis ball. The
mission is to tag all the players in the circle, by throwing the ball at
them (below the knees). Both the teams will get a chance to play either
part. The team that strikes out maximum number of players of the
other team wins. It was fun to see all the “acrobatics” and “athleticism” (or the lack of it?) of all
players.
By the end of the first two events all were exhausted. So just as a breather we had the “Lemon and
spoon” race for the ladies, “Sack” race for the men and 10M Sprint for the toddlers After all these
activities all one could think of was food. And thus, lunch was served. It was a feast. So many
varieties and it was hard to decide where to start. After a heavy meal the drowsy crowd gathered
around for a game of songs ‘Anthakshari‘. Many utilized this time to dive into the pool for a game
of water polo. Most of them were seen walking in the pool though. By
the time Anthakshari was over, it was time for snacks. Everyone then
just packed up, all set to leave. At the dock, we had to wait for the boat
to arrive. Since most of us work in T&M projects, it is kind of difficult
to just stand there and waste time. So we had “Catch the Egg”
competition. Everyone paired up and each team was given an egg. The
team members were lined up and they were supposed to throw the
egg to their team mate. After each successful throw (without dropping
or breaking the egg), the distance between the players was increased.
The team having the unbroken egg for the farthest distance would win. It was messy, but that
made it all the more exciting.
The boat ride back to the jetty was quiet and everyone was keen on capturing the beauty of the
lake. And that was how our DC party was. I know I can write a big book on our DC party, but still
it wouldn’t mirror all the fun we had.
Page 7 of 7 Thoolika