Friday, November 2, 2012

Interview with Poonam Gupta, CEO of Iyka Enterprises Inc Chicago


Poonam Gupta-Krishnan addressing
the Technology Innovation Summit
on Oct. 23 in downtown Chicago
 
Interview with Poonam Gupta, CEO of Iyka Enterprises Inc Chicago
By Sunthar Visuvalingam  of Desi Talk

The day-long Technology Innovation Summit (TIS) hosted on Oct. 23 by Northern Trust Bank in downtown Chicago brought together visionary Indian American innovator Sam Pitroda, US technology corporations, and local government administrators amidst exchange and excitement. TIS organizer, Poonam Gupta-Krishnan, CEO of Iyka Enterprises, explains her initiative to Desi Talk.

What do you hope to achieve from TIS?

This summit came about because of challenges that several municipal technology managers have shared with me over the years. There are two major issues they face today: 1) keeping pace with the fast-changing technology landscape; and 2) the government bureaucratic process itself. Unfortunately, there is still a gap between the two resulting in inferior services to citizens, less jobs, and a higher and disproportionate cost to conduct government operations. Our goal is to spur discussion among major stakeholders on how to improve local government technology, connect bureaucrats with thought leaders in innovative technology, and help them design effective projects by highlighting best practices.

Why was Sam Pitroda invited as keynote speaker?

Pitroda brought the telecom revolution to India when 80% of the population was rural and 1990s reforms were still far away. He has succeeded in taking his vision into political and governmental processes and is playing an active role at the national level in innovation, technology, and public policy that is bringing over a billion people together. Over the last 2 decades, here in the USA, we are seeing a decline in the creativity and innovation that had made our country great. My hope was that Pitroda would impregnate the US government technology scenario with is hard-won wisdom. Indeed, Pitroda made paradigm shifting remarks with pertinent examples, such as fears of information security (privacy) holding back the efficient delivery of education, healthcare, and other basic services to the poorest of the poor. The $3 billion National Knowledge Network has been launched in India. It consists of 1,500 connection point nodes operating at a bandwidth of 40 gigabytes to pull together all of India’s universities, libraries and higher learning institutions. When Pitroda met with President Obama last November, they decided to launch a joint open-source, open government platform for the U.S. and India. This August, Pitroda met with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to announce that this platform will now be available to all countries free of charge. The Network—already available to Japan, the European Union and the United States—enables their universities to seamlessly interact across continents.

How can India and the US learn from each other?

Seen from far the two countries, developed and developing, are very different. However, Pitroda pointed out that Western service model is not scalable as it focuses on a minority population of the rich and not the majority population of middle class and poor. He talked about democratization of knowledge, redefining the role of educators, making talents a universal commodity, political will, and affordability of services. All of these scenarios apply also to the USA. So from the technology services point of view there are more similarities than difference between the two countries.

How different were the aims of last year’s summit?

The themes were the same but in 2011 we focused on the collar counties. This year we wanted to provide a much larger perspective ranging from the international to local nuts and bolts. [Ed. Note: Collar counties are the five (DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry, and Will) that border on Cook County. Though tied to Chicago economically, they have very different values than does the core city.]

What has been the feedback from TIS 2012 participants?

TIS 2012 offered a pyramidal structure with Pitroda bringing the international perspective, Toni Preckwinkle the county vision, with panels covering specific challenges at the interface between the processes of technology and government agencies.  Most feedback, largely favorable, was on Pitroda’s inspirational speech and how well the event was put together, with ongoing offers of support from individuals and corporations.

Tell us about Iyka Enterprises and your role as its CEO

Iyka, which I founded in 2000, is now serving Europe, North America, and South Asia. A certified minority, woman owned company, Iyka provides data management services to government, financial institutions, healthcare, education and telecom. I was listed among the “Top 100 Under 50 Executive Leaders” by “Diversity MBA” magazine; Iyka as  “Top 10 Fastest-Growing Asian Businesses” by the US Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce (USPAACC), “Top Employers to Work For” by “The Business Ledger,” and “Fastest-Growing Minority Company” by the Chicago Minority Supplier Diversity Council. I have served on a number of boards, including North West Housing Partnership, Metropolitan Asian Family Services, IT Industry Group, Minority Input Committee, as well as governmental legislative committees.  I have MSc. degrees from Illinois State University and Kanpur University in India. Prior to founding Iyka, I worked for Cabot Corporation and INX International.

How did you end up in Chicago and this techno-vision?

I was born in a humble Kanpur family. My father was an orphan who became the most educated of all in his extended family. I was the first girl in all my extended family ever to go to high-school and beyond. Growing up I was not happy seeing the world around especially for women. All I wanted at first was to do the best I can then give it back to improve the world around me. Against many odds and fierce resistance, I got admission in Illinois State University and came to USA to be something. I was never satisfied by doing only “the job.” I left my “regular” job to start my own business in 2000. Earning money has never been my prime objective but making a difference in people’s lives has always been at the core of my being. I have served in many non-profits so far as well helped the needy in USA and India. Making a major impact in people’s life gave me solid self-confidence.

Small business has its own challenges but it really bothers me to see that we look at government for all solutions. It is true that government support is necessary but at the same time citizens have to be engaged. I saw a gap in technology, Innovation, and leadership. I had some discussions with Illinois Institute of Technology’s Innovation center and decided to put these pieces together to bring about Technology Innovation Summit. Going forward, I would like to invite major corporations to join hands in building an innovation center for government technology.

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Cook County Seeking Tech Talent as it Looks to Upgrade

Rose Tibayan | On 30, Oct 2012
CHICAGO, IL— Just like the ’80s blockbuster hit movie, Back to the Future, Cook County is looking back in time to see what it needs to progress forward. Currently, the technology serving the millions of county residents is, literally, trapped in time. And, while the rest of the world marches forward in the information age to cloud computing, and the next generation of technology, Cook County’s information management system is older than some of the people working in its offices.
Money, bureaucracy, and investments in systems that have become obsolete are at the heart of the Cook County’s technology shortfall. Earlier this month, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle unveiled her 2013 budget. With tax revenues down, and county expenses on the rise, Preckwinkle is calling for deep cuts in spending and dozens of layoffs to close a more than $267 million deficit. Amid the cuts, Preckwinkle is also trying to modernize the county’s information systems.
Last week, at the Technology Innovation Summit held at Northern Trust Headquarters in downtown Chicago, Cook County’s new chief information officer, Lydia Murray, revealed the depth of the county’s technology gap. She says that, while iPhones and other smart devices are the norm for professionals and consumers, County workers still carry outdatedBlackberrys.
Besides lacking smart phones, the county also lags behind when it comes to computing power, she says. Electronic data at the county flows through slow and aging computer mainframes built in the late ’70s and early ’80s. In some departments, information continues to be stored the old fashioned way — in warehouses packed with mountains of paper files requiring time-consuming searches to access. Murray says that, because of the various departments, there’s also a mishmash of differing technologies and systems. Through the years, department heads have brought in different systems that don’t necessarily communicate with those in other departments.
With a limited budget, Murray is looking for creative ways to close the county’s technology gap.  Some of her solutions include partnering with the City of Chicago, the State of Illinois, and other governmental agencies.  She’s hoping to use those partnerships to reduce the costs of updating and improving the county’s technology. She’s also hoping to leverage some of the county’s existing systems, such as its investment in a fiber optic network, to improve the county’s information infrastructure.
Despite the budget deficit, President Preckwinkle acknowledges the importance of the county investing in technology. She told the audience that she is looking to hire more tech experts to help pull the county from 1980s… and back to the future.