In 1993 or 1994 or so I was working as the Branch Manager of Alfa Laval. We had a brilliant infotech manager called Mahesh Deshmukh who was looking for an office which could be the test case in his computerisation plans for the company. Wipro the contractor was in Bangalore and given my interest he chose my branch.
The company planned to set up a local area network system with about 5 or 6 desktop units and a gentleman with a similar name – Vashishta – was the Manager from Wipro. As they executed the job, I discussed with him that the LAN would be of no use if we still had to call up/ go meet colleagues when all we had to do was leave a message. Could he have a system wherein we could send messages to each other and when the person logged in, it would pop up. They did it and we soon had a very effective communication system where we didn’t forget messages and even instructions/ feedback were typed off and sent instantly. This effort gave me immense satisfaction at a personal level.
Later in 1996:
I joined this new company called Cincinnati Milacron and I had a colleague called Ramachandran who looked after service. The internet by then was kicking off in India and we acquired laptops to work. The internet connection was the now archaic shell account dial up and that was an experience by itself. One very interesting experience I then had I have recounted in a separate blog which you can read here, but then this is about a colleague’s genius.
During our web surfing, we came across an American company that had created a database of plastic materials, products, processes, product attributes, suppliers with contacts and even specifications of plastic raw material. The database cost a fortune but had a one-month trial. Ramachandran’s reaction was – lets go for the trial and we will copy it when we get it. So, we asked for it and got them on a series of small floppy disks. Installed them and started using it, and soon the trial period was over.
It stopped working. We tried all the tricks in the book. We changed the date on the laptop, and it said – “you have changed system date”. We tried installing on a different laptop, but no luck. Ramachandran was by now obsessed with it. He said he was going to break it. True to his word, within a few days, he broke it, and we could continue to use it but only he could operate it and I never got to know what he did. This genius Ramachandran if he had been in the infotech industry would be a dollar billionaire by now.
That was when I got this question in my mind – how could people easily “pirate” Microsoft software, whether it was Windows 95 or Office 93? When a small company could build such strong safeguards like we had seen, why could MS not do the same? Over time I surmised – MS wanted its software to be pirated - that was the way everybody got addicted and whole offices switched to MS. Some brilliant software like Lotus Notes, Netscape all died a quick death unlike MS.
2000’s
I joined this American company called Nypro in 1998 and it was left to me to bring in “computers” as a part of our work and soon we were the proud owners of a desktop and a dial up 16 kbps internet account. Soon the Y2k bug was the topic of the world and the American corporate office with hundreds of devices to protect formed a global team for regular calls, tests, updates, progress. What was funny was I got dragged into it because we in India had ONE desktop. They made me do all kinds of stuff and write up reports to ensure our desktop didn’t crash due to the Y2k bug. That helped me become friends with folks in the corporate IT group.
By 2005, computers had proliferated, LAN systems were common, costs were reasonable (for those times) and as we built a new factory, it was decided to network the whole plant – and I was given the responsibility. That was the time when I met an industry and thought leader – Vinay Deshpande whose company created the path breaking product Simputer and we were manufacturing parts for it.
On one of my regular visits to his office his colleague was doing some stuff as he stood in the hallway, and I was intrigued since his laptop wasn’t connected to anything. He explained they were using Wi-Fi or a wireless internet network. I was hooked and decided our new factory would have a Wi-Fi network and not miles of cables all over the campus.
The first hurdle was to get an internet connection and while the local Satyam was my choice the Americans would have none of it and wanted their service provider to be selected. That company was around Rs. 20 Lakhs (25,000 $ in today’s rate) more expensive and I threw a fit. The Americans on the board threw a fit so much so that on one occasion one of them even threatened to throw me out of the moving van in which we were travelling.
Finally, we decided on Satyam to provide a leased line 64 kbps internet connectivity and connect to the corporate network. The corporate service provider wanted exclusive control over our server and Satyam also wanted exclusive control. The whole thing became a Mexican standoff with no solution in sight. Desperate, I came up with what I felt was the most stupid idea possible. I would buy 2 servers instead of one, they would sit side by side, hardwired to each other, but one server was in the American control and the other Indian control. Even to date I have no clue if this idea makes sense, but fact is both bought the idea and we installed 2 servers, gave each of them control over one, had our local internet but yet connected to the global corporate network. One of the reasons for such ideas to be conceived and pushed was having a colleague who managed the IT services who seemed equally crazy as me – Ramakrishnan. He supported me or should I say tolerated my madness at every stage.
I then said we will have a Wi-Fi network which even the USA corporate headquarters didn’t have. One more argument ensued and soon I was on a flight to USA to meet the IT chaps – who by then were friends, had never met me, but knew me as a nutjob. As I walked into the IT group office in Clinton, Massachusetts, Charlie Constantine loudly announced – Ravi is here. Almost everybody stood up like jack in the boxes from their seats to look at me and Charlie explained that the whole department wanted to see the chap who was such a pain in the butt.
The chief of the IT group – Mike McKenty discussed the whole thing and finally said he would visit India, audit everything and in our office attempt to hack into the Wi-Fi network. If he did, I would implement the good old, wired LAN. If he failed, I go with the Wi-Fi plan. I said he needed to hack in within 30 minutes. He agreed. Long story short – we won the day. Got clearance to set up a campus wide Wi-Fi network with routers purchased from USA.
The pleasure as each of us
seamlessly navigated from office cabins to conference rooms to shop floor as we
carried our laptops at work – unbelievable.
This was my last encounter with the infotech world and computers as the technology soon jumped orbits and tablets, smartphones came in fast and furious, and our lives changed. Today life is such, I can only recall a speech made by Karunanidhi the former Chief Minister of Tamil Nādu at a tech company function which I attended. He said – “for long people like me had multiple telephones and were considered powerful and influential, but today I don’t even know how to use a phone and have to ask my school going grandson to help me.
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