What is ISG?
ISG or the Internet Solutions Group is the web solution provider for the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta. The website is unique across b-schools in that the IIM Calcutta extranet is a highly integrated interaction arena for all the stake holders of the institute including students, faculty and alumni. And ISG is unique in that it is completely composed of the student body. The conception, construction and maintainence of the IIM Calcutta website is a 100% effort of the students. The result - better interaction with stakeholders, faster problem solving and myriad new ideas!
ISG is all about pride and passion in catering to the needs of IIMC. It is about creativity, excellence of service, commitment, team work and having fun. It is about the sense of achievement at being part of building something important.

Launch:
The idea was launched in early 2000 - Students of the 36th batch presented the concept to the faculty. The basic skeleton had been prepared to demonstrate possibilities of taking the community online. This idea was found viable within the campus community, so a pilot version of the first extranet was launched with the 2000 batch convocation. Prof Amitava Bose hit the enter key in the presence of the chief guest (late) Prof Sumantra Ghoshal.

Evolution:
Bharath and Gufran( also of the 36th batch) recruited a group of students from the 37th batch and guided them into creating a sturdy infrastructural backbone both on the organizational aspects of such a group, as well as the delivery imperatives like content generation, interfacing with stakeholders, responding to ppl who visit iimcal on the browser. They started off with a SWOT analysis, measured ISG against yahoogroups, harvard and other US alumni sites, different Indian sites; mailed a few alumni on our database for ideas.
The 37th batchers started various innovations, enabling unthinkable possiblities within campus ... building an alumni databank of 1500 from 20 .. taking executive education online .. launching magazines ... trying to support the student council and campus community in events ... mentoring iim wannabes ...etc
One big change the 38th batch actively focussed on was to move from being a technology group to a more well rounded role - ISG started getting into content. The thought in the group was that technology can give only so much, after that what differentiates is content. With a few more than raised eyebrows, some internal newsletters were launched ,alumni newsletter was revamped etc.
The further batches continued adding new features, updating and upgrading the old ones. The intranet saw a number of changes with focus being on usability and getting students and faculty to use the Intranet more and more.

And in the words of Bharath, "ISG HAD BECOME A MONSTER!"

The way forward:
Now that the IIM Calcutta website has grown to such huge proportions, ISG faces some entirely different challenges. To keep up the pace of innovation and solve the new web needs of the community in addition to solving the increasing varieties of mundane everyday problems and keeping the content updated is a large task. Innovations in strategies and team structure are already in motion... New features have been implemented. Still other jobs are in the pipeline, but there is a need to pick up the pace and go on with the glorious tradition of ISG.

Bharath --> "The toughest challenge I had in building the ISG organisation was in inculcating a culture of commitment, excellence, professionalism & responsibility. I evolved these values with the 37th batch, and those folks taught me a lot about organization culture & teamwork through my second year. We achieved a positive impact within campus, and this perception of ISG remains etched in the community. These expectations are passed down every year. People have come to expect the best from ISG today."

NRK -->"Because people knew we were serious they trusted us.And ISG higher than the individual, people thanked ISG for stuff, not the individual. While this is bad as it does not directly recognise individuals, but it is brilliant when it comes to attracting the best people and keeping them motivated by being aligned to an organization like the ISG. And finally, the trust that the name ISG inspired was good enough for us to enforce policies and methodologies, both internal and external."