Tag: eyantra

Server and Vastu: Technology and Spirituality

Prasad Ajinkya5 Comments

Throughout my life, I have been a Mulder and sometimes a Scully (for those who have not seen X-Files, a believer and sometimes a skeptic), but mostly a believer. But whenever there would be a rite performed which seemed a bit on the inane side, I would question the entire objective behind the same.

Some days back, we procured a server for our hosting needs. After a decently elongated procurement cycle, we realized that we would also need a separate server room for the same. Thus, a server room was built and the server was appropriately installed in there. Then, most of the management suggested that we do a vastu study on this. Fair enough, a vastu feasibility study was conducted, and it was decided that the server be shifted to the corner of the room. The power supply could not be put in the corner, and the table had to be shuffled across in that small space. Finally, my server room was vastu compliant. A post-installation pooja was done for the server, the coconut was broken, arati done and sweets distributed.

Funny no? That we have reached such a decent level of technology, albeit we stick to our religious practises and beliefs, to ensure that the gods are appeased.

Who would the god of hosting and server space be? Suggestions welcome.

Server-goda–swahaa!!

I am SAPped!

Prasad Ajinkya2 Comments

Back in December, me and my team were in an iterative process for creating a lightweight ERP for our ecommerce based stores. Being a bridge to the technical and the business worlds can be exciting, but without the proper understanding, it can go haywire. Fortunately, we were able to handle the business requirements and all was well. The main reason for any software provider to cry foul is scope change; this is true especially in the case of a flexible business wherein, the entire revenue model of the business changes.

These are the times when the parity between execution and strategy becomes the most clear. So, in December, I had this sudden flash in the pan idea of doing a due diligence for SAP. The right calls and voila, we were underway … what followed were umpteen number of presentations by various SAP implementation partners, visits by the SAP India sales team to reinforce our decision and “smoothen” the entire decision making process.

What will SAP do for me? Well …

  • Accountability, Transparency and Accuracy of information
  • Facilitation of further analysis for top management
  • Scrutiny of our business processes by a Third Party for improvements
  • Adherence to globally accepted norms

Four months down, we have went through the entire workflows and process charts at least three times … the user licenses have been bought, the hosting has been more or less figured out … and you know what … I hope to let go a big phew!

b****c*** bahut kharcha hua re!!

SPECIAL NOTE – The post is written ONLY in a lighthearted fashion and does not in any way reflect the organization’s vision and mission or complete lack thereof.

Lights out!

Prasad AjinkyaLeave a comment
lights

Well, here’s a little about me on the professional front. I manage the entire technology of a small corporate merchandising firm. People ask me (that includes my mother as well), what the h3LL is an IIM grad doing managing technology in a fledging firm? Arent they bred for big corporates?

Answer is simple. Do what brings a smile to your face at the end of the day. Web Retailing it is. Now, managing something which always tends to move forward out of your hands is turning out to be pretty tricky.

If you can manage to foresee programmer hiring, feature roll-outs, unexpected leaves, budget constraints, server crashes, everything, and a lot more … believe me you definitely are not prepared for light outages!! Hail the Government of Hyderabad :-).

What should happen when the lights do go out? Well, somehow since the computers are not working, it becomes a technology issue.

The day the lights went out, an IIM grad became an electrician.