June 3, 2008 (Computerworld) WASHINGTON — In addition to benefiting IT services firms, the rapid growth of offshore outsourcing in India is enabling efforts to improve lives in that country in ways that residents of Western nations take for granted, such as the development of 911-like emergency response systems.
For instance, three Indian states, with combined populations of about 130 million people, now have access to automated emergency call center services developed by the Emergency Management and Research Institute, a not-for-profit organization based in the city of Secunderabad.
EMRI mobilizes help as soon as someone dials 108 on a phone. That three-digit number puts callers in touch with a 24/7 dispatch center that can automatically notify police, fire and medical authorities of emergencies, log calls for audio replay and send out a fleet of EMRI-operated ambulances equipped with technologies such as GPS locators and videoconferencing links that let doctors view real-time patient data, such as cardiac information.
"So far, we have saved 20,000 lives over the last two years," said Verghese Jacob, chief integrator and lead partner at the Hyderabad, India-based Byrraju Foundation, which has been funding EMRI. In this case, saving lives means that emergency help was delivered in a critical time period, making a difference in the survival of patients. The emergency response system, which originated in the state of Andhra Pradesh, now is being expanded nationwide, according to EMRI, which hopes to have it in place throughout India by 2010.
EMRI received top recognition in the Health Care category at the 2008 Computerworld Honors Program awards ceremony here last night. The Byrraju Foundation, which like EMRI was set up by the founders of IT outsourcing vendor Satyam Computer Services Ltd., also won a 21st Century Achievement Award in the Nonprofit Organizations category, for a telemedicine program that it has built on top of a wireless broadband network to deliver health care services to rural residents of Andhra Pradesh via videoconferencing.
The Computerworld Honors Program was established 20 years ago. Patrick McGovern, founder and chairman of International Data Group Inc., Computerworld's parent company, said at last night's ceremony that the program's mission began as and remains "a search for new heroes, because information technology was making a dramatic change to the quality of life, standards of living and satisfaction of people."
The 10 organizations that received awards this year were chosen from among 50 finalists — five in each of the categories. The finalist came from a group of 204 companies and organizations designated as 2008 Laureates for submitting case studies about technology projects that met criteria for originality, breadth of vision and significance to society.
While EMRI and the Byrraju Foundation demonstrated dramatic results from their uses of technology, Laureates such as the Virginia Credit Union also had projects that were true to the overarching goal of the Honors Program — even if they weren't designed to save lives.
The Richmond-based, member-owned credit union estimates that it has reduced its annual data center power bill by $100,000 after consolidating rack-mount systems into server blades in a virtualized environment — thus eliminating 200 servers, about one-third of the total it had before the changes were made. Chris Saneda, the credit union's CIO, said that the energy consumption savings will help with an estimated two-and-a-half-year payback for the virtualization project, which was finished earlier this year.
The green-computing benefits of the project, as well as the lower operating costs that have resulted from the IT initiative, "are helping us to give back to our community," Saneda said.
The credit union's project may illustrate a point that John White, the head of manufacturing at The Royal Bank of Scotland PLC's RBS Americas unit, sees as being critical to advancing IT: ensuring that shareholder value is enhanced by technology investments. "In doing so, that will maintain the image of the IT industry as being very successful," said White, who received the 2008 EMC Information Leadership Award, one of three individual awards handed out at the ceremony.
The Honors Program is global, and 40% of the submissions accepted this year came from organizations outside the U.S. If any theme emerged among the latest Achievement Awards winners, it involved the use of videoconferencing and remote access technologies.
For instance, Deaf Link Inc. provides a video-based American Sign Language interpretation service that can be delivered over the Internet or cellular networks for applications such as two-way videoconferencing via cell phones. Companies, emergency shelters and other organizations can use San Antonio-based Deaf Link's services to provide ASL interpreting to customers, employees and clients who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Kay Chiodo, Deaf Link's president and CEO, said that in Texas, the service is used to alert individual users to emergency situations, such as hurricane alerts. Calls are placed to cell phones, which vibrate to indicate the receipt of an e-mail that contains a video message delivered in sign language.
The service also can be used for things such as telemedicine, distance learning and distribution of news, according to Chiodo, whose company received the Achievement Award in the Business & Related Services category. "Through this technology, we are able to open doors," she said.
Videoconferencing capabilities are also a key part of a system developed by the Arizona Telemedicine Program to deliver telemedicine services in that state and help medical personnel collaborate remotely with one another. The Tucson-based ATP was the award winner in the Education & Academia category.
And in the Media, Arts & Entertainment category, the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo was honored for its use of a Cisco wireless mesh network and videoconferencing technology to offer a real-time distance learning program to schools. What students get is, effectively, a virtual field trip that lets them view the zoo's seven most popular exhibits. "We're reaching out to those students that don't have an opportunity to visit a zoo in their area," said Cathy Ryan, an education specialist at the zoo.
Like the Virginia Credit Union, BNSF Railway Co. — the recipient of the Achievement Award in the Transportation category — is benefiting from its use of technology to reduce energy usage.
Fort Worth, Texas-based BNSF is using business intelligence tools developed by Teradata for analysis and forecasting purposes. One result was a 1.5% reduction in the railroad's fuel consumption. John Krebs, manager of business of intelligence at BNSF, said he couldn't disclose what the fuel-usage reduction means in terms of financial savings, but he added that it is a significant amount.
"Railroads are truly the most efficient way to haul a lot of commodities," Krebs said. "And if we can make that more efficient, then we can help our country, our economy and our environment in many different ways."