We have positioned IT as an integrated partner with business to deliver margins: Arivarasu Selvaraj, Chief Information Officer, Adani Total Gas Limited

Adani Total Gas Limited (ATGL) is an Indian multinational conglomerate, headquartered in Ahmedabad. The company is engaged in the business of developing city gas distribution networks to supply PNG to the industrial commercial and residential segments and CNG to the automotive segment. It monitors pipeline systems to ensure safe and reliable delivery of natural gas to its consumers. Adani Total Gas operates through the selling and distribution of natural gas segments and is authorised in 33 geographical areas across India.

Express Computer had an opportunity to speak to Arivarasu Selvaraj, Chief Information Officer, Adani Total Gas Limited. He spoke about the recent digital initiatives taken by Adani Total Gas, maintaining profit margin and how emerging technologies (AI, RPA) can help in improving the overall efficiency of an organisation. 

Excerpts: 

What are some of the recent digital initiatives you have taken and what has been the impact?

Some of the digital initiatives that we have undertaken are:

• MyAdaniGas App that automates the entire customer cycle from customer registration, onboarding and billing to payment, customer support and loyalty, along with value added services.
• RPA initiatives on business processes that are manual – these initiatives will bring productivity to the business stakeholders.
• Cloud based IVRS offering seamless experience by providing enhanced first call resolution of customer queries and provide customer delight.

• Monitor, control and manage all operational assets from a central command center to improve operational excellence and enhance productivity.
• Building AI models to address critical business challenges and improve key business KPIs.

Gas prices have always been volatile. How do you think technology can help in alleviating some of the challenges in maintaining your margins?

The volatility in gas prices is the result of a combination of global and local factors, which are inevitable. However, from a technology standpoint, we have positioned IT as an integrated partner with business to deliver margins.

Technology is just not an enabler anymore. IT and digital have become an integral part of business. The underlying technology and digital layer, agility, scale and scope of the IT system and digital systems in today’s world determine how an organisation performs against its competitors.

Single source of truth for data from technologies like ERP, Data Management, technologies associated with it like data science, AI along with predictive analytics in today’s world, help to predict customer behaviour, inflection points and product touch points to maintain profit margins.

Could you brief us about the data analytics tools that your company uses to streamline operations and reduce the downtime?

The organisation’s portfolio of IT tools and technologies is assessed at the group level and tool selection is based on the business and process specific needs that can easily be integrated with other applications.

Another factor to be considered is not to proliferate the IT applications and landscape. We have all the necessary tools within our portfolio and they are robust.  

How do you see the role of emerging technologies (AI, RPA) in improving the overall efficiency of your organisation?

Emerging technologies like AI should be viewed in terms of the underlying data set, quality of data, data structures and the models that can be built around them. These technologies need to be trained over a period of time to deliver value to the business. There is no question that, once these stages are established in terms of data set, data quality and computing model, AI will be embedded in all technology aspects going forward.

As a technology, RPA also has an AI component involved but the core part of it is the process. Further considerations in this space also involve whether we are looking at RPA as a tactical or strategic solution for the business to deliver value for the investment.