Caparo Engineering: Focus on smart investments for IT infrastructure upgrades

With technology evolving at an ever-increasing pace, organisations must constantly review and upgrade their IT infrastructure to stay competitive and meet business needs. Amit Kapil, Group Chief Technology Officer at Caparo Engineering India Ltd, believes that the shift towards modernising infrastructure is no longer optional; it is a necessity. However, a strategic approach is needed when dealing with infrastructure upgrades as this involves a huge capital investment with long-term consequences.

Founded in 1968 by Lord Swraj Paul, Caparo is a private, diversified, UK based global group, One of its group companies, Caparo Engineering India Ltd incorporated in 2000, offers steel processing, steel fabrication, fasteners, tube manufacturing, forging and foundry solutions to leading commercial, passenger, and off-highway vehicle manufacturers. In a recent interaction with Express Computer, Amit Kapil, Group Chief Technology Officer at Caparo Engineering India Ltd, highlights the need to have a strategic vision for upgrading of IT infrastructure in manufacturing organisations like Caparo.  

Kapil emphasises that the key lies in understanding both the purpose and the desired outcome of actions. “The other crucial component is the approach we intend to take,  ensuring the roadmap aligns with both current and future business needs. Hence, it is all about making smart investments that compliments the organisation’s strategic direction, ensuring that all money spent is used wisely,” he states. 

Balancing innovation with business continuity

Pointing out the events that occurred following the pandemic and other disruptions, including cyber-attacks, Kapil asserts that business continuity and disaster preparedness have become critical for every organisation. “While some companies didn’t know how to handle it from a technical perspective, many others realised that they lacked the capability to respond quickly due to the absence of proactive planning. Further, it could be said that Caparo was fully prepared for the pandemic since it had made preparations years in advance,” he says, adding that in 2018, the company developed a detailed five-year strategic roadmap that included not only applications and software needs, but also critical infrastructure elements such as back-end processes, automation, connectivity, security, and end user computing. He also believes that having a ‘balanced perspective’ is critical to create such roadmaps. 

“During the assessment of our infrastructure needs, we identified a substantial focus on refreshing or modernising current infrastructure, especially in the realm of security,” he says. Caparo had also proactively identified and categorised over 32 strategic projects that mainly involved rebuilding infrastructure to support newer technologies. Regarding the update of IT assets, management had to make a difficult yet necessary decision to dispose of 2,500 outdated assets. That way, they ensured that their infrastructure was future-ready, and was used to its full potential without draining resources, both financially and environmentally.

To overcome financial issues such as large initial investment, the company signed leasing agreements with OEMs to refresh their IT infrastructure. It facilitated continuous cash management and served to meet the organisation’s technological needs. They ensured that all the hardware bought had the required software pre-installed, minimising setup time and enhancing efficiency. This also allowed them to manage devices remotely which proved to be useful as teams shifted to remote work during the pandemic. By implementing a refresh cycle, they were able to schedule timely updates, ensuring that new assets were seamlessly integrated into their system. Besides keeping the workflow uncomplicated, this model also well complemented their financial forecasts. “Our CFOs were well aware of the multi-year projection, which facilitated the integration of the refresh cycle in the P&L, establishing a sustainable and predictable economic model for the organisation,” adds Kapil. 

Is ‘cloud-first’ still the right approach?

In the era of cloud computing, a practical business approach in the industry has often been ‘cloud-first’. However, Kapil believes that this strategy may not be suitable for all organisations. “For us, it was never a cloud-first approach,” he affirms. 

Caparo is a company with limited legacy applications and zero “Ghost IT” (IT systems or processes within an organisation that are essentially “hidden” or unknown to the wider IT team). According to Kapil, for Caparo, an immediate cloud adoption would have been premature.

The choice to avoid an immediate transition to the cloud was based on a comprehensive assessment of the organisation’s capabilities and level of maturity. “We realised that as an organisation, we were not mature enough to move everything to the cloud. Moving to the cloud without the necessary in-house expertise could have resulted in failed projects, damage to business continuity, and loss of confidence in the IT department’s ability to deliver,” he points out. 

Evaluate, prepare, then migrate

Kapil recommends other CIOs and IT professionals to assess their competencies before moving into cloud adoption. Internal preparedness should be evaluated and it is important to know if the company has the right skill set and physical infrastructure for cloud migration.”Success depends on picking projects that are achievable and ensuring that your team has capabilities to support those projects,” he says, reiterating that was the kind of approach that suited Caparo- starting with simpler workloads and ensuring that the transition was seamless before moving on to more complex initiatives.