Meet Sardar Naufil Mehmood: KESC’s beacon of light in the otherwise darkened (by constant load-shedding) atmosphere prevalent at the Karachi Electric Supply Company. Optimists however, often state that the proverbial glass is half full rather than half empty, and that is precisely the reason why, on the occasion of KESC’s 100th anniversary, Sardar Naufil, CIO at KESC is determined to look at the brighter side of the picture. Initially a state-run organization, KESC was privatized in 2005. Three years later, Sardar Naufil joined it and revamped it with innovative strategies and implementations of SAP – linking the enterprise from within as well as to external players. It led to accruing benefits for employees, employers, and most importantly, the customers.
As the firm’s CIO, Naufil Mehmood plays a major role in KESC’s recent advancements. But what did this century-long expedition entail? Naufil attributes KESC’s success on the competency of the workforce. In his words,“The workforce I inherited had a very thorough understanding of the billing process which resulted in ease and efficiency of system integration.” Naufil Mehmood, CIO KESC, is responsible for the hardware and software side of the organization as well as adding more value with latest technologies to the organization. Previously, the applications running in KESC had several discrepancies as they were built in-house – and it made it difficult to acquire a precise financial position everyday. “With the implementation of SAP, the entire infrastructure was changed. It was a total remap, “said Naufil.
It was a big achievement from KESC to shift from working manually with paper documentation to a digitized work model. It has been a great ordeal. Naufil, however, remarked on the ease with which the change was made, “There wasn’t any resistance; everybody knew that they had to change. So that resistance was not really there. In an increasingly digitized age, it is interesting to note how willing everyone is to take the plunge.”
The real challenge in any business is to cut down the costs and perform operations without disruption, and that has a lot to do with the CIO – to make sure that there is no leakage in terms of revenue, allowing managers to take actions accordingly. A sharp contrast is drawn before and after the vital IT injection. Naufil explains, “Previously, meter readers used to go with books for meter readings but now a lot of all such operations are performed using hand-held units. Technology collaborates in such a way that the same application designed for a particular purpose can also assist in other related functions. It cuts down the total cost and improves the overall procedure.”
Currently KESC is using hardware services of CISCO, IBM and HP while SAP heads the software side of the organization. It results in a robust functioning model, allowing sharper processing and reducing revenue leakages, crucial under the role of the CIO. “We’ve focused on SAP and enterprise applications in terms of financial reporting and inventory as well as the core application for billing and customer relationship. Instead of having a lot of varied platforms we are focusing on SAP to build applications around it, which allows us to do a lot of workflow management using Microsoft share point.”
KESC’s efficiency is also invested in outsourcing DR Site / Data Center, Web Hosting, Help Desk Support, Bill Printing and Distribution KESC Core Network Ring & HW Maintenance & Support. The fundamental advantages KESC derived from the procurement of these tools was efficiency and transparency. With these advancements, no one can make any changes without being noticed. Every change becomes visible to the managers. “One of the rules for revenue assurance is to ensure that whatever change you made is recorded and made visible, which automatically assures the revenue and stops leakages,” elucidates Naufil.
Customers are content with the latest advancements in KESC, which is conducting surveys also to make sure customer services are provided effectively. A contribution of paramount significance is the presence of the largest blackberry/mar-Com users enabling people to use technology to improve service to the consumers. Moreover, call centers have increased from 3 to 4 times, and now call center services are available around the clock for KESC customers. Earlier call center services were only available in the day time, which created problems for the customers.
Naufil Mehmood is very hopeful that KESC will become a completely paperless enterprise in the near future, thereby a benchmark for other companies to follow. Additionally, Naufil also plans for the smart grid system – the system of the future, connecting demand, supply and grid along with mapping all of the Karachi’s licensed area on a GIS (geographical information system).
Now, KESC is among one of the few selected organizations that are running on advanced management systems, which is quite a big achievement in itself considering the tough period KESC had to go through earlier. Naufil Mehmood as CIO of KESC has played a big role in revamping the entire infrastructure of KESC management systems. Naufil concludes with these remarks, “There are great things being done with latest technology to improve not only the business models but also the customer service relationships as well. In the next five years, we intend to move ahead and bring more innovation to our organization. There have been tough obstacles; it has been challenging but we can tackle them – and yes we have done that!”
