Just nine months into his new role, Sandeep Kulkarni, vice-president and head, IT at Viom Networks, has his hands full. He is excited to be an integral part of the company?s transformation under the ?Viom Next? strategy, wherein smart and embedded use of technology is a critical pillar for driving higher efficiency in the organisation. Viom Networks has put in place a three-pronged strategy to maximise its assets, says Kulkarni. ?The company is focused on remote management of towers by making its assets smarter to ensure proactive monitoring. Energy management is another priority and Viom is putting in place an energy management system to automate all aspects of energy supply management. The company is also moving towards integrated billing using the SAP system, which will enable recording of real-time readings and loads for each telecom site. All these measures will lead to energy optimisation and real-time information availability, taking Viom Networks to a different level of customer satisfaction.?
Kulkarni notes that technology and IT will increasingly play a major role in shaping the future of tower companies. Machine-to-machine communication will be the buzzword in the industry. The focus would be on making assets smarter so that they can trigger alerts ahead of failures, thereby enabling proactive preventive measures. Companies will invest in big data and analytics, and combine structured and unstructured data to make the right decisions. Moreover, telecom tower companies will use technology to achieve green energy targets.
Kulkarni has 22 years of industry experience, having worked with companies such as the Kirloskar Group, Emerson Climate Technology, the RPG Group, Microsoft and Infosys. Amongst his assignments, Kulkarni identifies his current role at Viom Networks as the most challenging. He says, ?My current role gives me the opportunity to implement cutting edge technology. The challenge lies in implementing an integrated programme, pursuing end-to-end automation encompassing asset instrumentation, managing energy efficiency and optimisation, integrated billing, establishing master data management and eventually getting into data analytics.?
Kulkarni intends to establish IT and energy management as independent profit centres for Viom by extending consultancy services in these areas to other firms. Time away from work is spent with family. An avid reader, Kulkarni likes reading Devdutt Pattanaik and Gurcharan Das.
