SPECIAL FEATURE: TATAS IN JAMSHEDPUR

Staying connected

SUHRID SANKAR CHATTOPADHYAY

TATA Steel has one of the best Information Technology (IT) facilities in the country today. In 1996, Tata Steel pioneered the system of intranet (a private network using the World Wide Web software), by virtue of which information could be shared within the organisation among the vast number of its employees dispersed all over the country. Today it has become one of the largest intranet systems in terms of the locations covered and the services offered.

Although the intranet did not arrive in a big way until 1998, in 1995 the Information Technology Services (ITS) department of Tata Steel started looking at ways of using the concept of Internet within the company. "At that time very few companies in the country were using the Internet and no company had an intranet," said V.P. Srivastav of ITS. Tata Steel had an advantage over other companies in that it already had an optical fibre backbone in place by which it was connected to its out-locations such as mines and collieries.

A dedicated team of the ITS set about the task of installing the intranet project. Its first job was to identify interactive points with the departments and set up a directory containing office information, telephone numbers, information on housing and seniority. Individual departments were encouraged to come online. Today more than 75 sites are maintained by various departments. These sites provide information about the departments and also act as a platform for the exchange of information and a means of communication between their internal customers and suppliers. In order to bring in more people within its intranet fold, ITS implemented SAP (systems, application and products in data processing). This enabled other stakeholders such as vendors and the company's secondary products department to get connected to the network. Varun Jha, chief of information, ITS, observed: "We conduct surveys and attempt to meet regularly with intranet administrators. Through the surveys we get to know what is required. We also meet the administrators of departmental sites to share the best practices and to evolve a common approach." According to company reports, one of the largest users of the intranet is the knowledge management department of Tata Steel, which has "made extensive use of the intranet to bring about a culture of learning and to develop a repository of knowledge pieces available within the company".

In 2002, at the behest of Tata Steel managing director (MD) B. Muthuraman, ITS completed a project of creating a virtual workplace. The MD could now be online with all the intranet users within the company. This service, known as MD online, allows the managing director to address employees through live video to every personal computer on the Local Area Network (LAN).

The company has also made the intranet the primary platform for employee self-services. This allows an employee to access information relating to him such as payroll, leave status and eligibility for various benefits. ITS is also planning to make the contents on the intranet available in Hindi, for employees on the shop floor. According to Rajen Sahay, who heads print and electronic media corporate communications, this project is already under way.

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