In a world of constantly changing technologies, it is challenging to keep pace with changing customer expectations. Rajendran Dandapani spoke about the challenge of satisfying customers in projects.

Drawing on his experience with Zoho, a software products company, he provided delegates a set of mantras to help make an indelible mark with customers.

He emphasized on the frequent delivery of working software and striking a balance between tackling bugs and designing features, instead of chasing deadlines. He said project managers must welcome changing requirements even late in the development phase. “Google was in the final stages of developing an Android phone when Steve Jobs launched the iPhone in 2007. It was a phone without a keypad, which led to changes even in Android phones. Finally in 2009, the first Android phone was launched. So it is very important to embrace change even if it comes late in the development,” he said.

Concurring with him on the fact that continuous technology excellence improves agility, Subodh Mathur highlighted how the government was using technology to improve the tracking of funds.

He made an eye-opening presentation on the public finance management system (PFMS) and the direct benefit transfer scheme that are helping the government effectively track fund disbursement of all centrally-sponsored public schemes and reducing corruption.

“We started collating data on the electronic process. The first step was to know which agencies are implementing central schemes. We started a massive initiative to register schools, colleges, and community health centers on the PFMS system and through expenditure filing, we were able to find out what was the realization of these funds.”

Now PFMS tracks more than 1,500 government schemes under the central government’s budget of Rs. 22 lakh crore.

RAJENDRAN DANDAPANI,
business solutions evangelist, Zoho Corporation

SUBODH MATHUR,
additional controller general of accounts, Ministry of Finance,
Government of India