Former Future Group and Panataloon Retail CIO Chinar Deshpande recently transitioned to a new role of a CEO at Creative IT India (CITI), a 100% subsidy of US based Creative IT International. He is a member of the management committee at the US-based technology company (operating in biometrics and identity management space), and is responsible for establishing IT Services Business operating out of India. CITI is focused on providing end-to-end business solutions for retail and distribution-led companies. In an exclusive interview with Biztech2.0, Deshpande gives an idea of the company’s services and his role.

Can you tell us about your new role and responsibilities at CITI?

It’s a combination of many things. We are setting up delivery capability that requires 2 types of resources. One is core expertise and high end consulting, but we need a lot of foot soldiers for the execution. So we have strategic alliances with Wipro, NCR, HCL, Moser Baer, and a lot of technology players in the retail market. On the client side, we have already bagged key customers like Aditya Birla Retail, Unilever, HLL, Spencer’s, and distribution businesses. We’re now building on top of that. We are operating in a very niche market of retail and distribution based businesses.

Are the services on offer for small retail companies as well?

We have launched a very new concept called CIO on demand. A lot of organisations have very aggressive growth plans and a huge appetite to grow. They are willing to invest money in their core business proposition. In order to grow, they need a very high end IT strategy and its execution. But they cannot afford to hire very expensive CIOs. So what we’re providing them is this service where there will be one relationship manager. Someone like me would interact with the CEO and essentially be their part time CIO – developing IT strategies, talking to different vendors and bringing them on board, helping them in change management, etc. I will also pull in very specific technology experts from various areas depending on the need and the subject matter to make sure that even though I am the one point contact, they get the best of the complete technology consulting.

So it’s similar to SaaS - CIO as a Service?

Yes, absolutely. That’s also one of the offerings that we have – SaaS. We have created a bigger basket of services called ‘IT in a box’. For a smaller retailer, if you give them a CIO on demand, once the strategy is frozen and agreed, we will actually take on the entire budget of that company, for say 3 years of investment. They don’t have to invest upfront - they can just pay us as an EMI. We essentially finance their entire IT operations. In return, we’ll ensure that the implementation is done by us.

We have a relationship with the respective vendors for hardware, licensing, technology, facility management, the whole gamut. It’s a one stop shop for a retail company to get the entire IT done. It does look exciting on paper and we are working closely with a couple of companies on finalising the concept of IT in a box. It’s too soon however to disclose names at this stage.