Viraj Profiles Ltd. – Taking a leap towards the new tomorrow through digital revamping

16 May 2018

Viraj Profiles Ltd., the largest manufacturer of stainless steel long products in India has embarked on a new journey of technological upgradation. The company has planned to revamp its Communications, Collaborations capability. Last month Viraj has signed an agreement with CISCO, a world class supplier for network & communication equipment, on areas of networking revamp, introducing enhanced video collaboration capability and securing our Email communication. The years ahead will be an interesting mix of retaining basics but renovating the outer structures in shade of digitization. New technologies will replace many traditional work practices. Gone are the days when companies were viewing the digital transformation as a project. Now it is like an ongoing journey and in order to stand out from the crowd, the companies are evolving themselves from time to time with the aim of improving the customer experience. Viraj Profile Limited has already joined the bandwagon and taken a long list of initiatives for embracing technologies to optimize its processes and enhance the customer satisfaction.

According to Mr Neeraj Kochhar, Chairman & Managing Director, Viraj Profiles Ltd., “Because of rapid inorganic growth we had since 1992 Viraj really did not have the luxury of design and structure of network equipment and in so many years we ended up using various technologies provides by different service partners. Although individually they all were great choices but as an Enterprise-Wide network we did not fare well. A constant source of complaints in IT Infrastructure area particularly in Video Conference, SAP performance and email speed always haunted our IT support team. We realized that in days to come when we are planning to work more from remote locations and also introduce Internet of Things, the network backbone should be more robust compared to what we have today.”  

Sharing more details about this, Mr Suman Basu, President IT & CIO, Viraj Profiles Ltd. shared,“ We have now planned to have proper three layer Network architecture where the Head office data center will have two Core Switch of latest technology ( CISCO 9500 Series ) in High availability whereas all remote offices and all dedicated Distribution Switch so that we can create different VLANs to segregate the network traffic  and decide QoS ( Quality of Service) for different applications and also a constant load balancing between different incoming internet connections.” In Data Centre, we are also adding two Firewalls in High Availability mode and all plant endpoints are getting connected with dedicated Access Switch. We expect that these major revamps of network to be over in a five-month from now so that the response time reduces considerably. Also, Firewall will add an important security layer.

Talking about the reasons of the change, Mrs Pooja Mehra, Executive Director, Viraj Profiles Lt says, “The biggest challenge being faced by Viraj was the diverse location of its plants and accessibility to its India and overseas offices. Our plants which are spread over a distance of 10 KM and are connected through Public Road do not have an internal voice communication network and at times when the mobile networks are not available we faced complete communication blackout causing serious business loss.  Also, dependency on the Mobile network has a health hazard especially when the meetings continue for a long time. We are now switching to IP Telephony where the mode of communication is over our own Fiber or Radio Frequency link and not dependent on a mobile network.” For selected users, the company is also providing Video phone so that the video chat also possible. With this technology the company shall be able to collaborate with all its offices located in Delhi, Mumbai, Netherlands and Dubai. And using another application called CISCO Jabber, they would be able to talk to international and domestic mobile phones; even during International roaming. She further adds, “Nevertheless, we expect that our communication will be at ease and at a considerably less expensive than the medium being used currently. Fax machines can also be connected to this infrastructure as well.”

Talking about the new video conferencing infrastructure, Mr Suman Basu, CTO and CIO Viraj Profiles shared, “CISCO DX unit is a TV fitted with Video conference capability will be available with our core team offices so that they can get connected with any video unit anywhere in plant and during any Video Conferencing anyone who has an android phone or Laptop can collaborate in the same video talk even on travel. In addition, we are introducing two MX700 & MX 200 which are mobile large TV and VC equipment so that the same can be used in different office locations. We are also improving Video Conferencing facility at our Port Office.” In addition to this, Viraj is also procuring CISCO Webex license so that the company can now introduce organizing multiple conference call with video facility and also if required we can convene customer meet, vendor meet completely online.

Overall, the entire IT infrastructure at Viraj Profiles Ltd is undergoing a sea change and soon the results of the same will be visible to the partners and customers, suppliers all across the globe.

About Viraj Profiles Ltd.
Viraj Profiles Ltd., is one of the largest manufacturers and exporters of Stainless Steel long products in the world. With turnover of USD 1.5 Billion, the company is exporting its stainless steel products (Wire Rods, Wires, Welding Wires, Flanges, Fasteners, Bright Bars and Profiles) to more than 1300 customers based across 90 countries spread over 6 continents. With melting capacity of 528,000 tons per annum, the company produces more than 50,000 SKUs in various grades like Austenitic, Ferritic, Martenistic, Duplex and Electrode in various shapes and sizes. The core competency of Viraj lies in its integrated manufacturing facilities which enables it to meet customer specific requirements.  Viraj’s stainless steel products see application in automobile industries, food processing industries, boilers, pressure vessels, shipbuilding, oil pipelines, petrochemical facilities, construction projects and surgical instruments – among many other means of utilisation. Viraj also functions as one of the world’s largest stainless steel flange manufacturers, which has led to the company’s trusted reputation as a leading provider of flanges for marine applications.

For further details, please contact
Bipin Thakur, Corporate Communications
+91 7875443561 | bipin.thakur@viraj.com