Our lessons from the Covid 19 crisis: Ashok Nayak, CIO, IPCA Laboratories

Among India’s top ten pharma exporters with worldwide presence, IPCA Laboratories has taken a series of initiatives to ensure business as usual. Ashok Nayak, CIO, IPCA Laboratories, briefs us about his firm’s preparedness

By Ashok Nayak, CIO, IPCA Laboratories

At IPCA Laboratories, we have ensured that critical applications have been centrally hosted and virtualised. These applications are accessible over the Internet through VDI in containerisation mode. Containerisation helps in securing data which is most critical for exposing data over the Internet.

Since we did not have a WFH policy, we had to roll out this concept with training, instructions and monitoring of the usage.

Even though technology was available on board, it was not exposed or used. Some of the users were not trained. HR Policies for monitoring and attendance for employees those who opt for WFH had to be fine tuned. We also had to provide seamless Internet connectivity for the users who were accessing application and data. There was a need to eliminate or minimise manual workflow and processes that required manual intervention, with respect to signature and physical presence of employee. We also had to ensure availability of business information digitally. As the pharma sector works in a regulated environment, there is a need for compliance.

For our collaboration needs, we used Go-To-Meeting for web meetings and webinars. We also made use of WhatsApp for chatting and video calls.

While WFH is now the new normal, it cannot be 100% implemented for manufacturing industries. For office work, it can be implemented which has immense benefits including faster business transactions even though employee is physically not present in office. Employees are also motivated as they can save time in traveling. From an organisation perspective, there is no need to provide a permanent seating place and other provisions.