Personal correspondence

The same number described two different pieces of equipment

Chief Information Officer India

I want a cargo operation to recognise its equipment, reconcile interrupted work and leave a technology supplier without losing the system it thought it owned.

The equipment existed in the workshop before it existed in a unified register. A battery and a charger could have the same local number because their earlier records had been maintained separately. In 2018 I approved an import that used the number alone as the enterprise identity. A selected review found 24 physical devices represented by 18 records. Six pairs had been collapsed because the import treated a shared number as evidence of a shared identity. My approval had made that assumption part of the system.

A system earns trust when its meaning survives a handover. The next person should know which physical item the record describes, which event has already happened and which capability still depends on somebody outside the enterprise.

Information function: 23 colleagues; Three leads across enterprise systems and operating support
Annual IT expense: ₹4.9 crore; Separate ₹2.6 crore change programme; operating suitability separately owned
Systems career: 32 years; Applications support through enterprise information leadership

A record of service

2021-04 — present: Chief Information OfficerDerlashi Urban Cargo
2016-04 — 2021-03: Head of ITDerlashi Urban Cargo
2010-04 — 2016-03: Enterprise Systems ManagerDerlashi Urban Cargo
2002-04 — 2010-03: Applications LeadVarnelshi Systems Services
1994-06 — 2002-03: Applications Support PractitionerVarnelshi Systems Services

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The same number described two different pieces of equipment

A battery and a charger could carry the same local number. In 2018 I approved an import that treated the number alone as an enterprise identity. Our selected review found 24 physical devices represented by 18 records: six numbers had each been used for two different devices. The application had made the register look tidier by collapsing distinctions the workshop still needed. I had accepted the premise behind that result.

I am Shalini Vekrashi, chief information officer of Derlashi Urban Cargo in Surat. Our 184 colleagues provide electric cargo-cycle operations and fleet support, with ₹91 crore FY 2025–26 revenue. Three leads coordinate my 23-person IT function. Ajay retains enterprise authority and Roshan owns operations. My team can repair the way a system identifies equipment; it cannot infer technical suitability or authorise use merely because a record has become unique.

Later work tested whether the account survived other kinds of handover. A selected exercise contained 32 operating handover events: 24 recorded online and eight recorded during disconnection, then reconciled without presenting their later upload as new physical activity. A supplier-exit rehearsal found that ten of twelve agreed business functions ran in the replacement environment while two still depended on supplier components. I kept those dependencies visible rather than describe an export as completed independence. These are bounded fictional examples, not universal performance claims. My career began in applications support, and I remain interested in the moment a technically convenient representation acquires an operating meaning it cannot justify. A first outside-board contribution would require further preparation, employer consent and a specific assessment, with 23 proposed annual days. I would bring a willingness to ask what the enterprise can actually identify, reconcile and operate when the familiar context is no longer available.

Twenty-four devices needed twenty-four distinct identities

Six shared local numbers had collapsed twelve physical devices into six records within an eighteen-record import; the selected register was rebuilt without treating identity as technical approval.

An upload was not another physical handover

Eight disconnected events were reconciled with 24 online events in a selected 32-event exercise; the connection returning did not create new operating work.

Two supplier dependencies remained after export

Ten of twelve agreed business functions ran in the replacement environment at the first rehearsal; two required further work before the tested scope could be accepted.

A defined information-function remit

Three leads coordinate 23 colleagues within ₹4.9 crore annual expense and a separate ₹2.6 crore change programme; operating suitability remains with qualified owners.

Current focus

Enterprise systems that preserve identity, unfinished events and supplier dependencies

Conversations I welcome

A continuing CIO mandate and preparation for one suitable outside appointment

The leadership record

Trusted with consequential decisions.

Formation

Bachelor of Science in ComputingKelnavri Computing College · 1994

Shalini made the supplier rehearsal useful by naming the two functions we still could not run, rather than allowing a successful export to settle the business question.

Ajay DervalkiFictional Chief Executive, Derlashi Urban Cargo

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Contact

A continuing CIO mandate and preparation for one suitable outside appointment

Board appointments
Executive opportunities

Write to Shalini Contact page