Digital Transformation – Dutch Uncles

All About The HPE Digital Catalyst Program For Enterprise Tech Start-ups

Anju Nambiar — Mon, 02 Aug 2021 05:35:08 +0000

The HPE (Hewlett Packard Enterprise) is a global technology giant which recently opened applications for the second Cohort of their Digital Catalyst Program in partnership with Start-up India and Invest India. It identifies disruptive start-ups in the enterprise tech industry and provides them with help and support. The inaugural edition of the programme concluded in 2020 and applications for this year’s edition concluded on the 19^th of July. The 2021 chapter is set to commence in August and will go on for a duration of 4 months.

Purpose of the Programme

The purpose of the programme is mainly to co-innovate with disruptive start-ups in the Enterprise tech space. It was launched to identify and go to market with next gen disruptors in the Indian start-up ecosystem. The programme is mainly interested in enterprise tech start-ups in India with product-market fit (PMF), have been through a few rounds of funding, and are already having multiple paying customers.

Eligibility Criteria and Application Process

Eligibility Criteria

Enterprise focused start-ups are eligible that offer digital platforms, cater to industries like QA (Quality Automation) and manufacturing. This year, the focus of HPEs scouting for enterprise tech start-ups will be towards areas like Artificial Intelligence, DevSecOps, Cybersecurity and Intelligence Edge. HPE is looking to partner with the best class of innovators who can respond to unprecedented times through this cohort. B2B start-ups building deep tech solutions in the above-mentioned segments are eligible this year. Also, you should be in an ideation stage, validation stage, growth-stage, early traction, or a scaling stage start-up to be eligible. Vertical agnostic start-ups are mainly eligible.

Application process

The application process is online where you need to navigate to HPE’s Digital Catalyst Program page on their official website. From here, you will be directed to Start-up India’s official website where you can view your submitted application. If you missed the deadline for this year’s application, you could apply in 2022 since this is a yearly event.

Benefits for start-ups

Shortlisted start-ups will obtain the opportunity to work with HPE along three tracks

Technology track

Tech collaboration through licensing agreements

GTM Track

Exploring joint solutions and GTM models

Investment track

Exploring investments in longer horizon technology areas through HPE’s pathfinder program.

Shortlisted start-ups mainly acquire non-fiscal initiatives also get access to resources and support including

Business and Technology Mentorship

Access to expert mentorship across sales, marketing, and technology verticals.

Rapid Prototyping Infrastructure

Access to HPEs infrastructure for building rapid prototypes.

Go-to market support

Building joint solutions with HPE

Partner onboarding

Eligible start-ups within the cohort will be handpicked to join HPE’s Global Partner Network.

Access to Investor Networks

Shortlisted start-ups get the opportunity to pitch to HPE’s Venture Capital (VC) wing, ‘HPE Path Finder’.

Access to HPE Resources

Start-ups get access to the very best of HPE resources and get the opportunity to interact with renowned mentors who are part of the program.

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The programme is mainly interested in enterprise tech start-ups in India with product-market fit (PMF), have been through a few rounds of funding, and are already having multiple paying customers.

What’s in it for me?

Start-ups which are on a level playing field with HPE’s core business will benefit from being selected in the Catalyst program. Through the program, you can get access to HPE’s presence across the world as well as the opportunity to tap into their massive consumer base. Early-stage start-ups participating in the programme can achieve accelerated growth with the support received by the global tech giant.

Participating in programmes organised by industry leaders like HPE allows you to acquire valuable guidance and to strengthen your connections within the industry. Start-ups participating stand to get a chance to develop joint solutions with HPE which you can showcase when the programme concludes. In the four-month period, you will obtain insights into how you can cater to HPEs clients with digital transformation needs. By partnering with Government Initiatives like Invest India and Start-up India, HPE has reinforced its commitment to encouraging absolute small-scale domestic start-ups to apply and obtain a chance of winning.

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Will TCS Enterprise Navigator Benefit Business Leaders During Digital Transformation?

Shalmoli Sarkar — Tue, 11 May 2021 06:05:05 +0000

The saying ‘necessity is the mother of invention’ feels apt in the unprecedented times of the pandemic, which is catalysing Indian businesses to pivot to digital transformation. Restrictions induced by the lockdown, medical emergencies and efforts to keep social gatherings to a minimum have given birth to trends such as – online shopping, remote working and learning, and 4-day work culture. Such trends are expected to continue till the virus is eradicated. Businesses, to stay competitive amid this new business and economic environment, require new strategies, practices, and new technology adoption.

As per a study from McKinsey Global Survey of executives, companies are increasingly looking forward to advancing their customer and supply-chain interactions and their internal operations by three to four years with digitization in the pandemic. According to an IBM report titled ‘Covid-19 and the future of business in India,’ 92 -90 percent of Indian executives, in the wake of the pandemic, are focussing to bolster the operational capabilities such as cash flow and liquidity management, cost management, and enterprise agility over external growth for the next two years.

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According to an IBM report titled ‘Covid-19 and the future of business in India,’ 92 -90 percent of Indian executives are considering to bolster operational capabilities such as cash flow and liquidity management, cost management, and enterprise agility over external growth for the next two years.

How is TCS Enterprise Navigator Benefitting Indian Businesses with Digital Transformation?

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has launched an integrated consulting-led framework by the name TCS Enterprise Navigator which will aid C-suite executives in their digital transformation initiatives, design thinking , strategic value mapping and change management. The platform will act as a suite of consulting and technology solutions. The solutions offered by TCS Enterprise Navigator are built on an ERP background, comprising enterprise applications such as SAP S/4HANA, Oracle Cloud and others, also focussing on a critical factor i.e. user adoption. User adoption by Enterprise Navigator is addressed by empowering employees, suppliers, partners and customers with new capabilities such as automation, Artificial Intelligence and advanced analytics capabilities.

Businesses, in order to remain resilient to the impact of covid disruptions, will find it unavoidable to invest in cloud solutions. IT consulting firm, Gartner estimates that the spending on cloud management and SaaS in India will reach a value of $4.4 billion in 2021. The remote workforce model will continue to stay in the pandemic that will lead businesses to spend more on desktop-as-a-service (DaaS) and Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) technologies.

How will this Digital Transformation be essential for Businesses in the Coming Times?

Indian businesses operating in the largest human health crisis must digest the fact that the pandemic-induced changes in strategies, new workforce models, management, operations and budget priorities will continue to reign. Therefore, it is anticipated that a surge of investments in digital tech, transformation and cloud adoption will be undertaken by the businesses. To survive and flourish in such testing times, businesses will transform three major areas:

New workforce models

Businesses will be operating either with a remote workforce or a hybrid workforce consisting of remote and in-office work. It will be imperative for businesses to invest in technologies for skill development, remote training, learning of employees and extending support for mental health and well-being.

Intelligent work processes

Pivoting to AI, automation and other exponential technologies to reduce friction in supply chain processes, cybersecurity, manufacturing, etc.

Improving operational scalability

Businesses, to bring flexibility and improve operational scalability, will prioritize more in hybrid cloud technologies and shift more business functions to the cloud. Therefore, business leaders and executives should think of adopting technologies and strategies that will make businesses agile and be future-ready in times of such uncertainty and pandemic-induced disruptions.

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How Razorpay and Mastercard will help MSMEs to build digital footprints?

Smruthi Krishnan — Sat, 20 Feb 2021 06:35:04 +0000

Razorpay and Mastercard have partnered up to help several micro, small and medium scale enterprises also known as MSMEs across India to transform their operations to the digital landscape as times change and the business paradigm shifts into a cashless market. Mastercard and Razorpay launched a partnership which puts together Razorpay’s payment processing capabilities along with Mastercard’s trusted and secure digital banking solutions and card services.

Criteria for MSMEs

Based on the criteria of Investment in Plant & Machinery/equipment and Annual Turnover, MSMEs were classified in July 2020 as follows:

Micro Enterprises: Not more than Rs 1 crore investment and Annual Turnover not more than Rs. 5 crores
Small Enterprises: Not more than Rs.10 crore investment and Annual Turnover not more than Rs. 50 crores
Medium Enterprises: Not more than Rs.50 crore investment and Annual Turnover not more than Rs. 250 crores

Shift in Retail Payments Scenario

The pandemic led to a lot of changes in the retail payments of India as more and more people shifted to cashless transactions. Prior to the pandemic, nearly 90 percent of retail payments in India were transacted via cash. However, post pandemic there has been a rapid shift towards digital technologies and a change in the way consumers shop and pay. The end result is a potential expansion of digital payments in India which has opened up the gates for merchants, acquirers and Fintech companies to invest in such directions.

As the future in the payments industry seems likely to become more digital, SMEs and start-ups need to establish a stronghold in digitalising their companies to increase consumer base and meet the demand for secure, convenient and touch-free transactions. As MSMEs often do not have the means to make such transformations, Mastercard and Razorpay’s partnership will work towards helping MSMEs make the necessary changes.

Partnership between Razorpay and Mastercard

The Fintech Revolution is bound to alter the payment and banking experience of consumers and businesses. The market is evolving to cater to different sets of consumers and businesses. Mastercard being the global payments and technology leader will further induce digitalisation and help small scale businesses in adopting industry-leading technologies that help ensure efficiency.

At the same time, recently turned Unicorn, Razorpay will help merchants across India become digitally and technologically equipped providing them safe, secure ways to make payments. The two companies will also work together on making recurring payments more accessible to businesses and consumers. They will create consistent onboarding solutions for bill payments, digital content platforms and other subscription services.

We hope that the partnership will be a successful one and will help create a positive transformation in the digital payments space whilst uplifting the small and medium businesses in reaching the level of digitalisation that the future economy requires.

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What is Industrial Transformation and How is it Changing Retail?

Chayanika Sen — Wed, 17 Feb 2021 10:35:04 +0000

As we know, the retail business is all about how consumers and businesses purchase goods and services. Businesses in healthcare, manufacturing, transportation and healthcare all engage in retail sales. Although their area of specialization differs, they all have one thing in common. That is selling their product to their customers. And to do that effectively, they need to improve their processes, products, and of course, customer experience. Needless to say, digital retail transformation is inevitable to do business effectively.

What is an Industrial Transformation in Retail?

Every industry is going through digital transformation to improve its services and facilities. The retail industry is not lagging behind too. It has been embracing the digital transformation to level up its game. With the emergence of new technology and tools, there are going to be new dimensions to the workflow and processes.

While thinking about industrial transformation and digitalization in retail, a business has to re-think every aspect of its business from how they do the sourcing to their inventory management to employee management to managing their customer expectations. New technologies like big data analytics, mobile apps, and location-based services add new dimensions to the retail landscape.

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New technologies like big data analytics, mobile apps, and location-based services add new dimensions to the retail landscape.

The challenges

However, it is not as rosy as it seems. Like any changes and transformations, this industrial transformation also needs to go through its share of challenges. While the challenges are manifolds, some of the top challenges are:

Commitment: Know that digitalization doesn’t mean just having a new website or an app. While many retail companies are enthusiastic about the ideation, they often lack the leadership team’s strong commitment to implement it. One needs to allocate a budget, give assurance to follow the initiative until the implementation stage, and not just leave it in the ideation stage.

Change management: Opposing to changes is natural, especially when it challenges the status quo. Many departments within a retail business interact with their touchpoints differently, thus following different standards or metrics. It is also challenging to take ownership as retailers have their doubts and thus unwilling to implement or accept the new way of working.

Technology infrastructure: An organization needs to have a strong technological foundation to have successful digital transformation. Not just that, an organization also needs to identify the right technology to maximize its Return On Investment (ROI), which is often challenging.

Retailers might not be ready: Finally, not all retailers are technically strong or have the capability to handle the entire digital transformation themselves. Although outsourcing the digital transformation process is an easy solution, retailers need to choose their technology partner carefully to create a seamless transformation journey for their customers and operational transformation.

While there are challenges, retail companies should work towards negating the challenges to implement digitalization successfully. Self-assessment is a great way to analyse the business’s weaknesses and strengths and where one needs to focus. While having a strong change management strategy in place will certainly be helpful, businesses also need to pick the right partners to collaborate with.

What has Prompted the Transformation

For the last few years, the industrial transformation, or should be it be more apt to call it a digital revolution, has given rise to digital commerce, or eCommerce. While the whole retail industry has been seeing a shift with the gaining popularity of eCommerce, the recent COVID-19 pandemic has brought in whole new dynamics to how the retail industry has shaped up. While retail industries were slowly embracing the online platforms, the pandemic has pushed more retail businesses to adapt to the digital transformation.

The Rise in Smartphone Usage

Close to 3.8 billion people, i.e., half the global population, will be using smartphones by the end of 2021. According to Smashing Ides businesses that switch to Progressive Web App technology see engagement to increase from 20% to 250%.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Integration to Build Trust

Data reveals that 81% of users feel unsafe to purchase from sites they do not know. This could mean loss of sales and losing customers in the long run. ERP integration can be a good way to provide useful information to your customers like products, pricing, shipments status, etc.

Automation is the Way Forward

Automation has penetrated every industry, and it is no wonder that it has forayed into the retail industry too. With new technologies like chatbots, automated checkouts, and drones, the retail industry is going through a revolution.

Increase Number of Internet Users

With the economic affluence and evolution of 3G, 4G, and public Wi-Fi systems, billions and trillions of internet users are now globally connected to the world wide web. Mobility solution is the centre of the next big revolution in the retail business.

Digital Infrastructure

Emerging technologies coupled with powerful analytics tools, predictive learning algorithms, visualizations, and access to bid data play a crucial role in the transformation of the retail industry.

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It is important to note that drones can remove delivery cost by 86% while warehouse robots can reduce manual labour cost by 70%.

Technologies in the Industrial Transformation of the Retail Industry

Data Analytics

As the industry sees steep competition, data analytics is implemented in every step of retail business to predict future performance, optimize price, demand predictions, forecast future trends, pick out the highest return on investment options, customer identification, etc.

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence is used across the different steps of a retail business. A survey done by IBM reveals that across 23 countries, 85% of retail companies are planning to implement artificial intelligence by 2021. AI can revolutionize customer experience by helping companies promote products based on customer preference and past purchase history.

Not just that, AI bots can analyse the data and predict future sales. For example, a bot can make recommendations based on customer preferences. Suppose a customer wants to buy a cell phone. The bot will ask questions like if the buyer wants a camera specification and so on and make personalized recommendations.

Virtual Trial Rooms

Retailers who deal with clothing and attire can use virtual trial rooms and digital mirrors to give them a physical store kind of feeling. A customer can mix and match different attire with a touch-based and gesture interface to make a purchase decision.

Internet of Things (IoT)

IoT is playing a big role in the transformation of the retail business. For example, during the pandemic, we have seen how robots can deliver products without a workforce. For example, OSHbot, the latest robot employee of Lowes, helps customers to pick products. It also provides product information in two languages. Automated checkouts and smart shelves are some other applications of IoT that retail businesses can leverage.

COVID-19 and Its Impact

Since the pandemic hit us in 2020, we have seen many changes in consumer goods preferences. While everything moved online, there has been a shift in the spending pattern among consumers. At the same time, there has been the emergence of new purchase channels. While retailers are looking for ways to match these changes, they also explore different options to increase their operational efficiencies. For example, they introduce or connect their existing business to CRM, PIM solutions, ERP, WHM, and eCommerce platforms. While these are some of the immediate changes that we can notice, other changes are more gradual. For example, investment in data analytics augmented reality, and robotics are now looked upon by retailers with more importance. While it will take time to see the changes, it is definitely a positive step for the retail industry to predict future demands and find ways to work more efficiently and remotely in the coming days.

Consumer behaviour is changing rapidly, which is driving the demand for easy shopping experiences. Retailers now need to pay attention to quickly loading websites, personalized choices, responsive User Interface, keeping all relevant product information up-to-date, safety assurances, and many more. Retailers now constantly need to keep in mind to make their consumers feel safe in an online purchase as any unpleasant customer experience can mean sales loss and revenue loss. This means that retailers are now constantly focused on accelerating innovation and driving digital transformation initiatives through the retail industry.

As the competition rises, retailers need to adopt a multi-channel presence. Remember, consumers are still reluctant to enter public places, which means retailers need to offer alternative delivery options. Simultaneously, the onus lies with the retailers to make the consumers feel comfortable and offer a unique shopping experience.

Key Drivers of Industrial Transformation in the Retail Industry

The expectations of the consumers are going continuously. The omnipresent consumer does not care much about the channels, which push retailers to be omnipresent and leverage all the available channels.

The COVID-19 has affected the retail industry badly, but one that is emerging out prominently is transformation is inevitable, especially IoT enabled retail solutions and several data-driven solutions that will make the shoppers feel safe, protect the employees, and help companies save and manage costs.

Digitalization is definitely a proven way to reduce cost, and thus the only way forward for the retail industry.

From smart displays to the digital ambiance, this digital transformation is the solution to feed the demanding consumers’ growing appetite.

Speed, time, and transparency are the key to level the supply chain game, which is only possible through digitalization.

Some of the Key Trends

Systems Integration

One of the critical trends for digitalization that we see in the retail industry is systems integration. As we know, data is critical for predicting future demands, identify new opportunities, and quickly react to them. Connecting software means easy data transfer, so the business can track all the incoming data from all directions. Data integration will help retailers to understand the different aspects of data better, from inventory management to employee productivity, to operational efficiencies. There are several benefits of having a connected system. It helps retailers understand how customers are reacting, the bestselling products, and making customized recommendations to the consumers. Additionally, retailers also need to ensure that the data flow is seamless between the systems. For this, retailers need to adapt to 3PL(third party logistics provider), supplier database, ERP, PMS (property management system), etc., to ensure there is correct display of prices, generate better inventory projections, make a personalized recommendation based on purchase history, etc.

Automation

Automated workflow is penetrating the retail industry in a fast-paced manner. From making recommendations to the consumers to auto checkout facility, automation is a key player in this transformation journey.

Artificial Reality and Virtual Reality

As consumers shift their interest towards online shopping, retailers are keen to offer a physical experience while shopping offline. Retailers thus have the perfect opportunity to adopt AR/VR to offer a more immersive online experience. As Deloitte mentions, while consumer-focused products can be benefited from using virtual and augmented reality, there is already some success in the makeup, automotive, and furniture industry.

Are You Ready to Start the Digital Transformation in Your Retail Store?

The shopping journey of retail consumers is evolving. As a retailer, you need to keep in mind the consumer’s growing demands while keeping a check on cost, fostering relationships, and streamline the internal processes. If you are planning to implement digital transformation for your retail business, it is high time you do so. Remember, digital transformation does not mean just a web app or an Ecommerce site. It also means improved inventory, supply chain management, alternative shipping options, and more. Remember, when your digital transformation becomes an inseparable part of your business, you are going to make a mark in the industry.

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Recykal: Turning Waste Management into a Legacy

DU Desk — Tue, 16 Feb 2021 04:35:04 +0000

Thanks to the India’s immense waste generating capabilities, it also has one of the largest waste management industries on the planet. Abhay Deshpande saw this as a prime entrepreneurial opportunity and decided to seize it. It was out of this that ‘Recykal’ was born in 2017.

Recykal: New Beginnings

In its toddler years, the brand revolved around working with rag pickers who collected waste from residential homes and sold that to recycling centres. To streamline that process, Recykal launched the ‘UZED’ application, which allowed households to schedule the pickups. The only issue with this approach was reliance on households. The amount of waste they produced was not enough for the recyclers to operate sustainably.

The gap lied in the fact that the waste management and recycling value chain had several stages and multiple parties to it. For example, ragpickers, waste collection centres, municipalities, recycling centres and so on. Considering the existence of all these factors, Deshpande realised that a single app could not cover all the bases.

Also considering the fact that recyclers needed a constant supply of bulk waste to operate at a profit, Recykal’s focus shifted towards bulk waste producers who produce a minimum of 10 kilograms of waste per day in order to meet the needs of recyclers. Thanks to this revelation the company changed its business model in 2019 to a B2B model that was aimed at addressing the needs of all parties in the recycling value chain.

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India has one of the largest and most untapped waste management industries in the world. Recykal's digital-first approach is a pioneering one to say the least.

How Recykal Is Bridging the Industry Gap

Since their pivot to the new business model, they have cut into the stagnant market with an innovative edge and become an end-to-end digital solutions provider. The brand facilitates transactions and coordinates movement between all parties and stakeholders in the waste management and recycling value chain.

Everyone from waste generators, processors, recyclers to bulk waste-producing business owners are connected through the platform. The aim of Recykal is to establish a streamlined waste management process for businesses in India as well as address issues such as demand-supply mismatch and the lack of transparency/traceability of transactions in the waste management industry.

The issue with the waste management industry is that it is dominated by the informal sector. This creates an environment where a lot of the transactions are offline and in cash, making them untraceable. It also makes the sector highly unorganised and lacking a formal economical structure. There is a good chance that at some point or another you would have come across the term ‘digital divide’. It is the term that was coined to describe the extreme gap or divide that exists in India where we have a country so densely populated but a digital structure that does not match the population capacity of the country. In such an instance, the waste management value chain is severely fragmented, which leaves stakeholders to operate in isolated silos with little to no information. This in turn leads to a lack of information on material availability, low recycling capacities, mishandling of waste and more of the waste reaching landfills instead of the recycling centres.

This is where Recykal steps in. This brand operates as a digital platform that aims to close the gap in the industry through the use of digital technology integration.

What Does Recykal Bring to The Table?

Recykal as a brand and as a product has a lot to offer the waste management industry in terms of services. They operate a cloud-based digital platform that connects large-scale waste generators like FMCG companies, electronic manufacturers (e-waste specifically) and even hospitality firms like large hotels with heavy-duty recyclers whose livelihoods depend on the steady supply of waste materials.

What the online platform offers is a single location where the recyclers and stakeholders can simply log in and purchase the materials instead of dealing with the unorganised and fragmented segment of individual vendors. Through the use of the Recykal, these large-scale waste generators can schedule on-demand pickups with their preferred recycler while earning a cost-benefit of up to 20 per cent. This is made possible as all the middlemen are cut out, which saves a lot of cost at the end of the day.

Recykal currently works with over 100 recyclers who collaborate and communicate with over 1000 businesses. Some of the most notable clients include Infosys, Accor Hotels, BigBasket, Honda, Maruti Suzuki and even Spar Supermarkets to name a few.

In terms of pure scalability, the platform sees over 10,000 metric tonnes of waste materials being exchanged across India every month. The company itself predicts that this number will reach over 100,000 metric tonnes a month in the next two or three years.

Core Products and Platforms

Recykal Marketplace

Recykal is primarily a cloud-based platform that connects waste aggregators and recyclers in a streamlined process as stated above. Apart from this primary function, however, the brand also carries an app called ‘Recykal Marketplace’. The function of this app, which was released in early September 2019, is similar to the cloud-based platform. Some of the key features of the application include giving aggregators the ability to create or make an offer based on inventory requirements, allowing users to view their order status and upload documents related to the order as well as execute online transactions. All these features come under the ambit of the brand’s focus, which is, 100 per cent transparency and traceability of funds, materials and transaction histories.

It even helps you categorise the type of waste into three broad segments which are plastic, paper or e-waste. Under these segments, one can even choose subcategories that specify the exact nature of the waste materials.

Upon selecting the kind of materials that you wish to sell off, you can also put in an offer price for each kilogram of material. This makes the app a highly streamlined and incentive-driven model. Apart from all the features, the best part of the application is that it is streamlined and user-friendly interface make it easy to operate.

ERP Loop

ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) Loop is a digital exchange platform where brands can find and conduct transactions with PROs (Producer Responsibility Organisation) and recyclers who deal specifically in e-waste and plastics across India. This platform allows you to set your ERP target according to your preferred type of material and geography and delegate the target and distribute work orders to these PROs or whichever service provider you choose.

Additionally, you can also track the progress of those target fulfilments, making sure if they are carried out as expected and you can track the status of the logistics. Other features include getting instant notifications through SMS or email as well as the complete management and review of documentation like delivery challans, invoices, images of transport vehicles to make sure they meet your specifications and needs.

Smart Centre Solutions

This platform is more anchored towards the waste aggregators, the Dry Resource Collection Centres (DRCCs) and material recovery facilities. It aims to help digitise and streamline the day-to-day operations such as record keeping, transaction tracking, inventory management, logistics management, client onboarding, order management, digital payments and overall market monitoring. The cloud-based nature of it means that there is better success in sight if you were to consider scalability due to the cost-efficient nature of the platform.

Here is how it helps in each one of the above-mentioned areas:

- - Inventory Management: It tracks the inbound and outbound recyclable inventory and creates matching purchase/sales receipts.
  - Order Management:As the name suggests it manages the orders and pickup requests you place.
  - Logistics Management:It helps configure your logistics as per your business’s collections, especially when it comes to third-party collections. A benefit of this is it brings down the overall cost by streamlining the process with pickup assignments and route optimisation.
  - Client/Partner Onboarding: This aspect of the platform lets you register and manage the details of the waste pickers, generators and the end-recyclers in terms of supply/demand and identity validation. This lends itself to the complete visibility of the value chain and the members involved.

UZED Mobile App

As mentioned earlier, this was Recykal’s first iteration of a waste management system that was implemented. Unlike all the other platforms that were so business-oriented and catered to the bulk-waste producers, UZED targeted the average household consumer. The application allowed consumers to dispose of recyclable waste through a pickup service and online incentive scheme. Additionally, the app is also used by big brands, schools and colleges to implement takeback and engagement programs.

The app’s simple interface makes operating it a breeze as all you have to do is list the recyclable material that you want to be picked up, schedule the pickup and once the materials are picked up from the location, you get instant points into your account which can be redeemed in the form of gift cards.

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Though Recykal is a young company, it has lots of potential to grow given that it is tackling and trying to restructure the industry as we know it. This could prove far more successful than anything the industry giants are doing.

The Overview: What Makes It Stand Out?

The waste management industry is a massive beast, more akin to a behemoth just going by the sheer size of it. Coming in at an estimated $ 13.4 Billion (according to Recykal’s Official website), the industry has a lot of room for innovation and business opportunities. Having said that, this sector is heavily saturated with start-ups looking to make a name for themselves. This leaves Recykal right in the middle of a competition-heavy industry.

Some of the top names in the industry are companies like Eco-wise, Vermigold, Synergy Waste Management (P) Ltd and A2Z Group, just to name a few. Yes, these are established names in the industry and are financially massive compared to the recently formed Recykal.

In fact, if you were to look at Recykal’s financials you would see that it is still in the seed funding stage and raised a total of $ 2 Million in June of 2019 from Triton Investment Advisors and the family office of Pidilite Industries. Even though it may not be a unicorn, it is a ‘sooni-corn’ in the sense that it has the potential for exponential growth.

Recykal stands out for one reason, its uniqueness as a business. While the other industry giants offer facilities, logistical support, volunteer and labour-power for clean-up projects, Recykal offers something better, a network. It offers everyone involved in the waste management industry a chance to get connected with one another and thereby bring order to this severely fragmented and structureless system.

The innovation aside, Recykal recently joined hands with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages (HCCB) in June of 2020 for Project Prithvi, which is a joint initiative for developing sustainable plastic waste management practices in the country. This initiative not only focuses on promoting better recycling practices and channelisation of the waste, but it also focuses on the development of the informal sector through activities such as providing soft-skills training, the opening of bank accounts, enabling digital transactions for waste pickers, kabadiwalas, aggregators and so on.

Abhay Deshpande has always been a serial entrepreneur since he stepped foot into the world of business in 1998 with one of India’s first e-commerce platforms ‘Malamall.com’. After building and selling a number of successful ventures he got into the world of tech start-ups as they were just reaching popularity, and that is when he saw the golden goose that was the massive, untapped potential of the waste management sector. Hence, with the help of his associates Abhishek Deshpande and Anirudha Jalan, he started Recykal with the aim of bringing innovation and structure to this primary informal sector.

Given that digitisation since the onset of the pandemic has become a norm of sorts and will likely continue to play a major role in all our lives, it only stands to reason that a platform like Recykal will see tremendous growth and success if it continues down the path of digital transformation in a sector that has never seen its kind before. In that sense, this Hyderabad-based company is already a unicorn in its own right.

For more stories like this, check out our Inspire section.

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How E-commerce Helps Small Businesses Go Global

Avijit Dutta — Fri, 12 Feb 2021 10:35:02 +0000

The Defining 90s

The year was 1991. The World Wide Web was introduced. Later in 1994 the first browser, Netscape was launched to access the internet effectively. These two innovations triggered mass adaptation of E-commerce back in the mid-1990s. In 1995 Bezos launched Amazon and later in 1998 Omidyar launched eBay. The world of retail was never the same again. E-commerce disrupted the traditional business models in retail. It not only took away a few barriers to entry but also eased out a couple of significant shortcomings in the traditional retail model resulting in a level playing field for an incumbent.

Who is This Article for?

In this article, we will identify a key factor among many others that drive growth in E-commerce from the perspective of SMBs who are selling through:
E-commerce marketplaces such as Amazon, Flipkart
Social commerce platforms such as Facebook marketplace, Meesho etc, or
its own E-commerce sites.

Why E-commerce?

Before we dig deeper into the growth factors let’s summarise the top three benefits of the E-commerce model comparing and contrasting it with traditional brick and mortar retail.

Discovery

E-commerce platforms allow a buyer to discover the merchandise of her preference like no other physical store can offer because of two reasons. First, the online nature of the catalogue allows a repository of unlimited inventory of items. This enables the discovery of even a niche or low-frequency purchase product to be available in the online store offering a high degree of variety to a buyer. Second, the instant search capability of an eCommerce platform allows the buyer to get to her preferred merchandise in a fraction of a second. Unlimited catalogue and an efficient search function make eCommerce format the king in the long tail of retail. There is a discovery of another kind that triggers purchase actions: price, a significant decision point for a buyer before making a purchase. E-commerce sites allow for easy comparison of merchandise within and across platforms (comparison sites). In traditional retail, this would require significant legwork.

Convenience

E-commerce happens remotely, from the comfort of our homes, offices or even while on the go through mobile commerce. The ease of discovery, ordering, payment, tracking delivery and customer support through chat, email, call 24×7 makes the customer truly the king from the perspective of convenience. Traditional retail doesn’t have such a degree of convenience.

Quality

Most E-commerce platforms and marketplaces have well-defined processes for grievance redressal, returns, refunds and disputes. Moreover, customers are encouraged to publicly rate and review every transaction on product quality, experience of after-purchase customer care to enable transparency and trust on the platform for both the seller and the buyer. This acts as social proof and fuels growth for the deserved one.

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Unlimited catalogue and an efficient search function make eCommerce format the king in the long tail of retail.

Challenges in Growing an E-commerce Business

Since E-commerce technology has lowered the barriers to entry of incumbents by creating a level playing field, the result is fierce competition among sellers. Though it is good news for the buyer, the seller struggles to earn the loyalty of buyers. The unlimited choices of sellers in front of the buyer coupled with instant price discovery have made the buyer extremely demanding on quality as well as price.

What’s concerning the sellers in this scenario you may ask? Such competition often ends in a price war amongst sellers. As we know a price war triggers a vicious cycle of lowering and further lowering of prices to beat the competition to secure orders until it becomes completely unviable.

Moreover, acquiring a new customer attracts a cost called a Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC). These are marketing expenses such as ads, offers & promotions associated with acquiring new customers. Now, the total estimated amount a customer will purchase in her (purchase) lifetime is called a Customer Lifetime Value or CLV. If CLV is significantly more than CAC, the seller is in good shape, otherwise, she has a reason to be concerned.

For a seller, the key question is as follows: How do we earn the loyalty of demanding, price-sensitive discount shoppers? How do we acquire and retain customers?

Here are my thoughts on this. If the product you are selling is a commodity meaning the product does not offer any opportunity to make it unique, price will always be the dominant decision factor for purchase. In such a case a seller is left with few other levers such as prompt delivery, bulk discounts, great ordering and after sale experience etc. If your merchandise has some uniqueness or you can ethically make it appear unique you have created an advantage.

But whatever product you sell, the one factor you can not ignore is Customer Engagement.

Why Higher Customer Engagement Leads to Higher Growth

Customer Engagement can be defined as the degree of involvement your customers have with your brand. It is built through various ways, channels including social platforms through which your customers interact with your brand. Every interaction is an opportunity for the brand to build engagement.

Why care about this? Because customers who feel a higher engagement with your brand:

Come back for repeat purchases hence have a higher LTV,
Spread the word and refer others to your brand hence lower CAC, and
Are easy to retain. All these three means profitable organic growth.

A recent Gallup survey revealed “customers who are fully engaged represent a 23% premium in terms of share of wallet, profitability, revenue, and relationship growth over the average customer.”

So far, we realise that the one factor that fuels growth in ecommerce is customer engagement. How do we build it, you may ask? Let’s address this question.

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You don’t have to sell everything to anybody and everybody. By using storytelling, and a meaningful narrative you can find your niche.

Here are Seven Ways to Improve Customer Engagement Hence Growth

Step 1: Build an engaged customer base

1. People buy, first your story then your product
Therefore, build an overarching narrative of your brand. This is where you make the promise. This should answer questions such as why care about your brand? Why buy from you? Why now? Be consistent with the story you tell the world. Remember consistency builds trust. And trust leads to engagement. Therefore, content is key.

2. Deliver what you promise consistently
None likes to be short-changed. When we get what we were promised we build trust. When we get a little more than we expected we become a fan. Be authentic, transparent & ethical about your processes right from design, sourcing, manufacturing, packaging and distribution. These days people do care about sustainability and ethics in business.

3. Leverage the power of design
Design the language of the brand not only the processes. Use the power of design in crafting great discovery, onboarding, ordering, payment, and grievance redressal for the user and/or customer. Design for delight not just delivery. For example, if you are selling house paint don’t just sell the paint, help the user throughout the customer journey from discovery, selection, price before ordering the product.

4. Embed higher empathy in customers relationships and after-sales services
Every interaction of a customer with your systems, processes and people is an opportunity to invest into customer engagement. Hence it makes sense to revisit all such opportunities from order confirmation, to return & refund policies, aftersales and grievance redressal system to reflect empathy and fairness. Empower the customer relationship management team with proper training, and instil ownership. When not sure about facts give the customer the benefit of doubt.

Step 2: Guard what you have built

5. Put in place a robust risk management process. This should include online reputation risk management.
Now, that you have built a decent reputation and an engaged customer base take all the measures to protect it. Like a garden requires careful and caring eyes of a gardener your tribe needs to be taken care of and nurtured. Monitor the voice of customers in reviews, social media mentions, besides internal measures such as customer satisfaction scores and returns, refunds and other retention metrics. Have an ORM tool in place so that your team gets alerts on wherever someone mentions your brand in social media or the internet in general.

Step 3: Nurture your tribe

6. Build/find a tribe around your brand
Ecommerce enables the longtail of retail. Therefore, it is about finding your tribe. You don’t have to sell everything to anybody and everybody. By using storytelling, and a meaningful narrative you can find your niche. Once they come to you give them a reason to keep buying from you beyond obvious product usage. It could be a social cause, sustainability, a hobby or a special interest group etc. Contrary to the conventional belief, the more specific the narrative the better.

7. Pamper your tribe on every opportunity
People might come to you because of your narrative but they would not stay unless you deliver what you promise in your narrative. Deliver not once or twice but every day, consistently, incessantly. This will further reinforce your original narrative and trigger a virtuous cycle. As a result, more people will flock to your brand.

Time to time you have to share some reward to your tribe not as a lure to keep them with you but as a genuine appreciation of the trust they have put into your brand. You may personalise some offers using opportunities such as birthdays, and anniversaries just to give you an example. Be creative in keeping in touch with your community meaningfully through emails and social media. Do not spam them with generic promotions rather share something they might care about. And before you know, buying from you and being in your tribe would become a statement of meaning for the Buyers.

Summary

Ecommerce has brought in enormous value for the SMBs over the years. However, driving growth with ecommerce requires a thorough understanding of the underlying factors. By looking closely, we find that Customer Engagement is the single most significant driver of growth in this context. We further explored seven more important dimensions that would help us build, guard and nurture an engaged customer base.

The post How E-commerce Helps Small Businesses Go Global appeared first on Dutch Uncles.

Digital Transformation: A Must Have For Start-ups

DU Desk — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 03:47:28 +0000

Established in 1980 Ramnarayan Blue Art Potteries deals in the art of Rajasthan blue pottery. Blue Pottery is a traditional Indian art from Kot-Jewar in Rajasthan, A labour-intensive craft, it has been facing a downfall due to lack of infrastructure and marketing resulting in more and more artisans abandoning it. RN Blue Art has been putting great efforts to revive this unique craft. A family business, run by the second generation works with rural artisans and workers and provides employment to rural workers. Today, the company exports to various countries after the company was driven to digital transformation.

Most organizations big or small have been facing unprecedented challenges since the last decade more so in the year 2020, this scenario has coagulated the value of digital transformation. The organizations high up in digital maturity ratings are performing better than the ones which are lowly ranked. Digital transformation enables businesses to interact and engage with the customer in a better way. Also, the adoption of digital technologies helps a business to collaborate better with partners and even employees eventually boosting business performance. Businesses and society at large are undergoing a digital change, and small businesses are no exception. Not engaging in digital transformation is not an option and businesses can’t choose to be out of it, it is a necessity and a question of survival.

The contribution of Small Businesses to the growth of an economy is undebatable. According to the World Bank the small businesses worldwide contribute to about 90% of total production. They specifically play a vital role in developing economies. In India, the sector significantly contributes to the country’s GDP. Apart from their contribution to the country’s total output, they also widely cater to the large industries sector and act as an ancillary unit. Their role encompasses beyond economic contribution, since they play a vital role in creating jobs, as a matter of fact, this sector employs around 60-70% of workers in both developed and developing countries. These units promote inclusivity by employing a workforce from rural and backward areas and nurture local sustainable development. The small businesses range across various sectors from manufacturing to transport, from construction to retail.

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Small businesses worldwide contribute to about 90% of total production. They specifically play a vital role in developing economies.

- World Bank

Digital transformation is primarily digitalising business processes, with a major objective of optimizing the operations with the support of digital tools and technologies like AI, mobile, AR/VR, etc., and certainly social media. Digital transformation can exist at various echelons from using customer data analytics, automation of processes and workflow, using cloud technologies, and making the most of widespread social media presence.

A yearly report by Cisco on small businesses and digital transformation conducted by IDC reveals that around 16% of the Small and Medium Businesses of the Asia Pacific region have reached the advanced maturity stages of digitalization. However, still, a large 31% of SMBs have not yet embraced digital. In other words, the majority of SMB’s are digitally indifferent.

The study also describes the region-specific data and reveals that about 68% of Indian SMBs have undertaken the path of digital transformation and have digitalised various products and services. Around 60% are aware of digital transformation efforts by competitors and are willing to adopt further to match up with the rival’s efforts. Additionally, 50% of businesses are considering using digital technologies due to the shift in customer preferences. India currently ranked 9th in Asia Pacific AMB Digital Maturity Ranking List whereas it ranked 44th in World Digital Competitiveness Ranking.

Enhancing Customer Experience

Customer-driven by the internet and technology, social media, and mobile culture is more connected than ever. To drive customer value, integration to digital technology is essential for all big enterprises as well as small businesses. An increase in competition and a need to enhance the value for the customer has made Customer Experience a top priority. It is established that companies offering better customer experience are more profitable. For holistic and sustainable growth small businesses should place the customer in the centre of all the decisions related to goods and services they offer to them. New technology offerings can give these businesses an edge to develop an enriching customer experience.

Essential for Customer Acquisitions

Evidently, customer loyalty is at its lowest in the last decade, when a retained customer is more profitable than acquiring a new one. This is where the new technologies which are part of digital transformation like AI provide support to the businesses. On the other hand, a strategy to acquire a new customer by widening the customer base cannot be ignored. Small businesses can use increased digital engagement to cater to a large customer base with minimal increase in operational cost.

Digital not only provides improved customer experience and connects organizations with new customers but also helps them to improve their supply chains and permit the small businesses to compete with their bigger counterparts in the industry.

Digital transformation can help organizations especially small businesses to focus more on customer-centric strategies. To be customer-centric a business needs to understand their customer, their buying journey, and insights into their buying behaviour are imperative. Data comes into play here. The amount of data available now through digital techniques is humongous and very insightful. This available data can be leveraged by the small businesses to enhance the customization and provide better services to their customer in the process making the organization a customer-centric organization.

Providing Agility

The customer-centric organisations are inclined to be more agile and responsive to any shifts in consumer demands and patterns. Using this generated data supports the goal of small organisations to cater to consumer needs by personalizing the products and services and helps in predicting consumer needs and usage as well.

Streamlining the Operations

Reducing costs has been on the agenda of business organisations for long, more so it is an important aspect for small businesses since most small businesses listed lack of financial resources as one of the major constraints they face. Automation, robotic technologies help small organisations to reduce the operating cost and enhance their productivity which successively leads to more profitability. The cost of digital infrastructure set up and acquiring a customer is much more economical through digital methods than traditional methods and small businesses can capitalize on this.

Small Businesses do not aspire to become big organisations which is quite agreeable but they want to grow to their full potential. Small Businesses with limited budgets find themselves constricted in static business solutions and find scalable solutions more relevant. Digital transformation can help small organisations achieve the scalability they desire. Cloud-based solutions are one of the examples of techniques of digital transformation which has proven to be a principal enabler for small businesses and assisting them to be competitive with bigger organizations in the market.

Digital transformation reduces redundancy in organizations by automating monotonous and tedious tasks. It can help eliminate human errors in the day-to-day tasks, consequently increasing the efficiency and optimizing usage of other important resources.

Nurturing Partnerships

Apart from, being an enhancer on the consumer front, digital transformation can be a facilitator of business partnerships as well. Today customers look for a complete solution from a single touchpoint. However, to provide this convenience an organisation has to integrate its value chain. To create an effective network with numerous vendors, digital transformation is highly effective. Digital provides a framework which encourages and enables collaboration and communication across departments and organisations as a whole.

Digital Transformations supports Exploring new Business Models

Undoubtedly, today the organisations have a different business model as compared to earlier times. Data-driven products and services dominate the markets now. Digital transformation allows an organization to investigate its existing business model and offers tractability to change to the appropriate business model and in turn, helps the organisation remain relevant. Besides, flexibility and agility are the hallmarks of small businesses and it empowers them to adapt or change into the newly adopted appropriate business model.

Not A Cake-Walk

Although digital transformation is a boon and a necessity for small businesses, digital transformation should not be considered as means to an end. It is not a prescription and cannot fix a bad process. Of course, it does provide an opportunity to the organization to undergo scrutiny and see the loopholes in the system but then again it can involve making difficult choices, revamp the way business is done, but it will not be able to magically turn things into gold. Needless to say, digital transformation is not blindly picking up new technology for implementation but a well-laid strategy that complements the business strategy as a whole.

Requires Cultural Change

Digital transformation is not only the adoption of technology, it also involves the change in the culture of the organization and how people working in the organization adopt it. Its results are dependent on the reaction of all the stakeholders of an organization, customers, employees, and organizational partners. The right mindset of people and organisations is one of the reasons why digital transformation efforts of some organisations have been successful whereas for few others it fails. For the successful implementation of digital transformation mechanisms, the organisations should embrace a corporate culture encouraging a digital mindset, which facilitates the implementation of digital technologies. But then again, a higher level of digital literacy and adoption of a digital mindset could be a longer process than thought to be.

The study administered by Cisco on Indian Small Businesses clearly depicts that Indian small businesses find the absence of digital skills and access to talent as one of the major challenges they face on their digital transformation journey. Furthermore, these businesses have low digital awareness and make it difficult for them to choose the right platform required to cater to their requirement. Additionally, they also lack basic technological infrastructure due to both awareness and financial constraints. Despite these challenges, it is recognizable that small businesses need to adopt digital technology tools for survival in the present data-driven ecosystem. Ignoring technology may lead to a loss in the competitive advantage held by these small businesses. It can harm sales too, in fact, a study by Google showed that organisations that shifted to digital increased their revenue by 27% apart from various other strategic advantages.

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Digital transformation allows an organization to investigate its existing business model and offers tractability to change to the appropriate business model and in turn, helps the organisation remain relevant.

Government Initiatives

Realizing how crucial digital transformation is for small businesses, the Government of India has been proactive in its approach to promoting this transformation. To address the basic gaps like inadequate awareness, shortage of digital skills, and lack of technology infrastructure, the Government of India has launched many initiatives. Coincidentally, the private sector has also pitched in this effort of the Government. To improve the access to information public, increasing transparency to reduce corruption, the Government has taken governance online. E- governance assists small businesses to register online, make available expert advice, and formation of virtual clusters. Another program Digital India has a wide scope and has a clear objective of Digital Empowerment of Citizen along with Digital Infrastructure Development. Localization of production and focus on zero dependence on imports of ICT devices are part of the mandate in an effort to develop the digital infrastructure. Seeing the biggest challenge faced by the industry is the lack of skilled human resources in this area, the Government has launched many skill development initiatives under the Digital India Program.

Small businesses will be able to reap benefits by acknowledging data trends. The key to success in the future lies in the set of factors, which includes building capabilities for the workforce to take leverage of digital, technical skills training, and a cultural shift that radically supports digital is necessary. Additionally, communication is the key to the successful implementation of digital transformation.

Digital transformation has proven a successful strategy if implemented accurately and has a great scope for small businesses as it can help these businesses to retain their competitive advantage, bring in more profit and improve their business performance. Digital transformation can empower Small Businesses tremendously, as revealed by Cisco SMB Digital Maturity Study 2020, adoption of digital transformation by Small Businesses may add US$ 158 to 216 billion to India’s GDP by 2024.

The post Digital Transformation: A Must Have For Start-ups appeared first on Dutch Uncles.

Why Digital Platforms for Basic and Preventive Healthcare is On An Upswing

DU Desk — Sat, 16 Jan 2021 08:24:35 +0000

It was rather strange for Pavan, a Senior Financial Analyst in Bangalore, when he started getting severe coughs during a conference call with his client. It was 2 pm and immediately after wrapping the call, he discussed with his family and decided that he should go in for testing for the Novel Coronavirus.

But there was fear of going to a hospital and risk of contracting Covid-19. After a brief discussion with friends, he registered with healthcare app mfine and booked an appointment with a Senior Doctor.

The Doctor went through the process of understanding Pavan’s symptoms and upon further detailed assessments, prescribed a couple of allergy medicines and advised to hold-off testing for Covid-19.

“It was my first time to consult a Senior Doctor over a phone and it was sort of unnerving,” said Pavan. “Even after a week I have doubts whether I was diagnosed accurately and if I am safe with allergy medicines. The cough though has reduced, but my mind is not settling through this kind of diagnosis,” says Pavan.

Winning over people like Pavan and scores of other fence sitters, is a challenge in the Indian ecosystem and there are numerous players who are actively engaging with all stakeholders to bring in normalcy to telehealth.

“It is a myth that a physical examination is a must, while it is needed for many situations, there’s a slew of other conditions that don’t need physical diagnosis. What we require is correct history and clear communication from the person seeking a diagnosis,” said Dr Sanjay Gowda, a Senior General Practitioner who consults with multiple hospitals in Bangalore.

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The onslaught of Covid-19 has accelerated the adoption of healthcare delivery through digital channels and also is serving as a means for legacy chains to accept the new normal.

Dr Gowda is among the many Doctors who are seamlessly straddling the offline and online modes of healthcare delivery and pretty much satisfied with the progress done by multiple healthcare digital delivery platforms.

“Our attempt is to make diagnoses that are effective with evidence-based guidelines, for cases that can be handled with virtual care. We are not claiming that through tele-consultation we can solve emergency situations and life-saving medical care. There’s no ambiguity in the fact that not all cases can be treated with virtual care,” clarifies Gowda.

The onslaught of Covid-19 has accelerated the adoption of healthcare delivery through digital channels and also is serving as a means for legacy chains to accept the new normal.

“In my discussions with multiple hospital chains, I understand that a good 64% of surgeons have witnessed reduction in their outpatient services and 37% of them have stopped outpatient services totally. More than 50% of Doctors like me have adopted online consultations,” explained Dr Gowda.

According to Dr Niranjan Patil, who runs S G Healthcare, elective surgical work has dropped more than 90%. He asserted, “We are also witnessing a significant decrease of close to 50% in emergency services. We are going through the throes of immense financial impact over our as how to stabilise the centre. Small and standalone hospitals like us are struggling to carry on as patients have restricted their visits owing to the fear of Covid infection.”

Cost optimization and how to be a lean and mean machine are the aspects which Doctors like Patil are increasingly looking towards and the new age platforms offer a possible solution for this conundrum.

“The administrations of hospitals are realizing that the implementation of a streamlined cost optimization plan is important as it enables the hospitals to sail through difficult times. As these healthcare organizations continue adapting to the new normal, many new players in the digital delivery of health care are aligning closely with legacy hospital chains and both are twinning the benefits,” said Dr Gowda.

This paradigm shift in approach from multiple stakeholders was accentuated and investors led a 50% surge in investments in the Indian healthcare sector during the first half of 2020.

Practo, the Bangalore-headquartered healthcare firm which was the pioneer in innovating in delivery of healthcare through digital channels, said that in-person visits to doctors fell by 67% during the April-June 2020 due to Covid-19.

“Telehealth has multiple applications, optimal care and virtual care is possible and extremely helpful in a pandemic scenario like Covid-19. It uses high-definition transmission and clarity to provide rapid, accurate and real time consultation from professionals with expertise. Healthcare professionals can evaluate, diagnose and treat in a seamless environment. Patients are proactively using healthcare to manage their health and telehealth is a great alternative and has the potential to reach exponential levels”, says Dr C M A Belliappa, General Physician based in Bangalore.

Shashank N D, Founder & CEO, Practo says that doctors, patients, authorities are all slowly accepting this new form of healthcare delivery, which has shown a lot of promise. “Masses beyond metropolitan areas are increasingly getting used to consulting specialists online. A reality that will take years of trust and infrastructure building to get down to the last mile but will prove to be one of the best investments in future proofing healthcare for a billion + Indians,” he added.

Practo, mfine are among the players who are pulling away from the crowded market to establish themselves and expected to lead further consolidation. Together these two platforms have reported to have handled more than 500,000 cases during the past three months.

There are at least more than two dozen notable players in this space who are trying to establish, and this is ensuring the pie is getting larger.

Consultants at PwC indicate that players operating in the digital healthcare market experience stiff competition from each other. The market comprises various players including start-ups and established global companies, aiming to expand their footprint in India. The presence of numerous players leads to a fragmented market. The relatively untapped market offers high potential and thus attracts significant investment opportunities.

In terms of revenue, the digital healthcare market in India was valued at Rs 116.61 Bn in 2018 and is estimated to reach Rs 485.43 Bn by 2024, expanding at a compound annual growth rate CAGR of 27.41% during the 2019-2024 period.

The digital platforms are carving various niches to address specific gaps in the healthcare system and emerging consumer needs. Prior to Covid-19, the health tech industry catered mainly towards developing diagnostics and medicine delivery solutions, building wearable gadgets, treating lifestyle-related issues like stress and anxiety disorders through remote therapy, enabling early diagnosis of genetic disorders, and the alleviation of pain after painful procedures.

“With India at the epicentre of Covid-19, key segments where new opportunities will emerge include the development of tools to facilitate emergency care and improvements to medical infrastructure through technology-based optimization. This includes expanding the scope of wearable devices to track health conditions, developing patient-facing mobile health apps, and the greater integration of artificial intelligence (AI), robots, and blockchain technologies for example, surgical robots, robotic carriers, electronic records and monitoring systems, sensors, remote diagnostics,” said advisors at Dezan Shira & Associates, who specialize in advising global investors on where to invest in India.

Contactless healthcare tools and systems, immunity-boosting nutrition, and safety and hygiene are some of the most viable segments for investors going forward as Covid-19 has brought about a paradigmatic shift in our consumption priorities and social behaviour.

Although the digital healthcare sector offers ample opportunities, significant barriers are slowing down the adoption of digitization in the Indian healthcare sector. The lack of digitized data regarding patients’ info and prescription hampers the adoption. Factors like inferior technology infrastructure and lack of structured regulations pose as challenges to the digital healthcare market. Furthermore, the high cost of customer acquisition, along with a complex and multi-layered ecosystem leads to difficulties in value proposition.

Dr Devi Shetty, the celebrated cardiac surgeon and Founder of Narayana Healthcare notes that the disruption caused by Airbnb and Uber is nothing compared to how technology will disrupt the healthcare industry. He affirms, “People talk about the use of data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI). But all these technologies need data. Now, how do you get the data when 95% of the hospitals in India don’t have electronic medical records. If you don’t have EMR, you are looking at manually typing in the data, which will not be 100% accurate. So, the big game of data analytics making a big difference in healthcare will only happen if every hospital is using EMR, and every patient has his own personal health record in a digital format.”

The mHealth segment is estimated to dominate the market, with close to 41% of revenue share in 2024, followed by the telehealth segment. Enhanced accessibility and convenience encourage patients to embrace mHealth services and solutions, including healthcare apps and wearable devices.

“The digital healthcare platforms are sharpening their strategies to provide on-demand access to quality healthcare to millions of Indians while ensuring medico-legal safety to its partners on the platform. Collectively, these players have been able to make a larger impact on the way primary healthcare is being delivered,” said Dr Patil.

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In addition to health check-ups and follow-on discussions, Indians are facing multiple lifestyle-oriented challenges and many of them are going in for aggressive preventive healthcare solutions.

In addition to health check-ups and follow-on discussions, Indians are facing multiple lifestyle-oriented challenges and many of them are going in for aggressive preventive healthcare solutions. The digital system of healthcare delivery is extremely conducive in such situations both for doctors and for citizens seeking guidance and support.

“The wellness healthcare is estimated to be around $170 billion by 2025 and this is the biggest focus which all the new age healthcare platforms are working on. Changes in diet and lifestyle are among the top aspects which are seeing traction and it will play a differentiated role in how these platforms expand further,” says Dr Patil. According to Dr Gowda, all the digital platforms have close alignments with the hospital chains and as and when there is need for upstream care in a hospital, the patients are referred in for further care.

“There is absolutely heightened competition between the players but parallelly there is strong collaboration. The consumers will benefit as this industry consolidates and global and Indian investors are burning the midnight oil to make this happen,” consultants at PwC. To put this in perspective, a good $3 billion has been invested across some 200 plus health tech firms in India over the past couple of years.

Dr Jacob Kuruvilla, Advisor with Practo says that as we prepare to step into the “new normal” where cities are now easing restrictions and citizens are preparing to step back into a different world, healthcare is going to be seen through a different lens. “How we deliver accessible, affordable and convenient healthcare to the remotest parts of India is the next big focus. Telemedicine along with other healthcare technologies like online appointment booking, to avoid crowding, will play a huge role going forward,” Dr Kuruvilla feels.

While many of the private equity and venture capital funded digital platforms are trying to find their niches in Tier-1 cities, the Government of India is rolling out expansive measures to reach adequate healthcare to the rural masses.

“The poor to non-existent coverage of rural healthcare services will result in greater public healthcare spending and the government’s interest in the participation of private stakeholders using technology and R&D for improving ease of access and ensuring quality of care,” said advisors at Dezan & Shira Associates.

While the low cost of medical services in India has attracted considerable medical tourism in recent years, the country is also increasingly focused on developing its R&D capabilities given the relatively lower cost of clinical research.

The challenges here would be the expansion of India’s hospital and medical education infrastructure, which is currently unable to provide sufficient coverage in the country. Expansion of educational institutions and medical facilities to tier 2 and tier 3 cities will be key to the growth of the healthcare sector.

Here telemedicine will have a crucial role to play in terms of providing low-cost consultations and extending diagnosis facilities in remote and rural areas; this of course is dependent on the reliable availability of high-speed internet connectivity and telecommunication.

Foreign investors will thus find multifaceted opportunities when looking to enter India’s healthcare market, the hospital industry, medical electronics and devices, the medical supply chain, home healthcare, telehealth systems, and healthcare-focused software as a service (SaaS) platform.

The legacy hospital chains, which still form the backbone of healthcare delivery systems are parallelly scrambling their acts to have a strong foot in this sector which is expected to see a further sharper hockey stick growth. From Manipal Group to Apollo Hospitals, traditional healthcare operators who rode the investor interest wave till 2019 are digging in their heels to stave off competition.

“All the established hospital chains are adopting aggressive technology implementation plans in an effort to create a connection with patients directly,” said Dr Gowda.

Even as these moves by traditional and new age healthcare firms play out in the marketplace, Pavan’s cough is now under control and he has booked an annual subscription at a digital health platform for preventive care not only for himself but for his family of four. And he is actively advocating the same to his friends.

The post Why Digital Platforms for Basic and Preventive Healthcare is On An Upswing appeared first on Dutch Uncles.

Digital Transformation: Reshaping Your Business

Kiran Kennedy — Thu, 24 Dec 2020 03:58:33 +0000

You have most likely heard of the term ‘digital transformation’, but interestingly enough, it has very little to do with technology. It has more to do with how well a business can adapt to the rapidly changing and digitising world of economy and commerce.

It Is Not All About Technology

The most widely known and accepted definition of digital transformation is the integration of technology into the various areas of a business, which fundamentally changes how the business functions. Yes, the technological aspect is important but it goes far beyond that.

It is a change in workspace culture as well. For digital transformation to happen effectively, there needs to be a willingness to move away from the status quo, that is to say, from long-standing business models. The technologies that you integrate into the business is not what transforms it – it is how you implement them in parallel to the business operations that matter. The technology is merely a tool, at the heart of digital transformation, is strong work culture and leadership.

Why Is It Necessary?

Think of it as a sink-or-swim kind of situation. The business practices that were in place a century ago, at the dawn of the industrial revolution, cannot be used in today’s context. Though there are certain principles, practices, and theories that we still use, they are used in parallel to modern-day practices. In the same way, today’s practices will, for the most part, change sooner or later.

It becomes a question of survival for a business, especially in today’s rapidly changing economy. The COVID-19 pandemic and the global lockdown that ensued brought the need for these changes into the limelight. The need for business to operate digitally skyrocketed.

With the requirements of employee/customer safety measures at an all-time high, there came a change in the form of the work-from-home business model. The very nature of businesses changed as companies had to operate in such a way that it could still reach its customers while adhering to social distancing and safety norms.

Despite the sudden change, the adoption of digital methodologies has proven quite useful and more efficient for the most part. That said, it is unlikely to go back to how things were and it is because of these reasons that digital transformation is an ever-growing necessity in today’s context.

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There has never been such a dire need for more advanced digital infrastructure in a day and age where work from is the norm.

Fundamentals You Need To Worry About

The simple fact is digital transformation projects, for the most part, end in failure. Harsh as this may sound, it is true. The average digital transformation process, no matter how well planned, often fails because it lacks one or more of the fundamentals that are needed to make it successful. Success requires you to pull together the fundamentals into a single, unified process. They are technology, data, people, process and organisational change capabilities.

Technology

With technological advancements comes many solutions in the form of the Internet of Things, AI, blockchains and cloud computing. Though they all play an integral part in digital transformation, they are only one part of the equation. The other half is how you can integrate them into existing business processes, which is arguably far more complex than the tools themselves.

Most companies operate on older methodologies which have been in place so long, that changing them or suddenly introducing new technology into the mix could severely disrupt how the business operates. That is why it helps to have a plan for gradual technology integration in place before jumping in. Another thing that can help with that is a skilled IT department.

Data

It goes hand-in-hand with the technology aspect, yet it is one of the most neglected parts of the process. This is not to say that it is completely ignored – companies are very well-aware of the data they have access to and they know it may not be up to standard to achieve what is needed.

The issue lies in the mishandling of data, either because the company lacks the infrastructure to process it or skilled personnel to do it. You need to have a team that can decipher large pools of data in short periods of time, while also being able to differentiate and discard data that is not usable. Streamlining is the aim.

People

Speaking of hiring a team that can handle large amounts of data, you need to ensure that, even after you select and hire the most skilled individuals, you continue to refine and hone their skills. The more training, they receive on a regular basis, the more upskilling happens and the smoother the integration process will go.

Process

There is a need to change the operational process of the business in parallel to the digital transformation. The change that needs to happen comes in the form of rethinking ways in which the new digital approach can help deliver to the customer what they want. The challenge that comes with this move for change is that most businesses and management heads find it difficult to do so while clinging to traditional hierarchical structures. As a result, this aspect has been very neglected and turns the transformation process into a cautious approach. While these incremental steps are valuable, they are not really transformational.

The solution for this perhaps lies in moving away completely from such a mindset, in favour of something more modern. As much as you change the technology to suit the times, you must also change the nature of the business to suit the transformation.

Organisational Change Capability

This aspect has more to do with the managerial and leadership domains of the transformation process. Other than the usual – good communication skills, listening, work ethics and so on – the context here is a skill. Skill in the sense that whoever is leading the charge on the digital transformation of a business, has to be an expert on the subject.

If not, all the time and money invested in it will be pointless as the project will fail or not take hold as effectively. Outsourcing is the best way to find such skilled individuals who can lead the change in the ‘human’ side of things.

Digital Transformation Trends Of 2020

There will be rapid adoption of digital transformation operations across various industries out of sheer need.

Those who have invested in big data governance and analytics will overtake the competition.

An uptake in the use of AI and machine learning in the workplace will go up. At the other end of the spectrum, blockchains will also become a prominent feature for the storage and access of huge pools of data.

More IT services will be outsourced when specialised skills are needed.

Digital partnerships will run rampant between businesses, for example – influencers collaborating with businesses that feature prominently on Instagram for more cross-promotions and advertising.

Cloud technology is growing into a commonplace tool for businesses on the rise and will continue to expand into the public domain.

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Past trends in the digital space can be accurately measured and this in turn can help you formulate the ideal digital transformation plan going forward.

Get Started The Right Way

The master plan

Start with getting a digital design or transformational plan in place. You need to decide how to best make use of social media, mobile marketing, analytics, cloud technology and the Internet of Things. Again, remember that IT and the technology are not the core elements though they are essentials. They only work when you have an overarching business plan that can put them to use.

Set the foundation

When attempting digital transformation initiatives, you need to ensure that the business has a strong operational backbone that can bear the weight of the change. Core systems like ERP, supply chain and logistics need to be properly structured. If the digital aspect is the brains of the business, the operations will act as the skeleton and brawn holding it up – giving the business structure and movement.

While developing this backbone, do not be afraid to stop the development and integration process at any given moment. When you feel it is good enough and can withstand the digital transformation process, feel free to pivot concentration on the digital aspect. After all, it is all about making that leap into the digital business space, the operational side is just one leg of that journey.

Branch out and diversify

Create a network of digital applications and social media channels that can give your business a diversified and well-connected digital platform to stand on. Do not rely on any single digital medium too much, because the more ways you reach out to people the more your brand gets noticed in the public domain.

Making use of strategy properly and making the most of all the different tools you have access to gives your business a higher chance of success. Check out our article on ‘Business Strategy’ to learn more about how you can better prepare your business for this rapidly changing economic landscape.

The post Digital Transformation: Reshaping Your Business appeared first on Dutch Uncles.

How Google For Businesses is helping them Go Digital

Shalmoli Sarkar — Sat, 19 Dec 2020 07:34:53 +0000

Google Helps Businesses To Go The Digital Way

Owning a beauty salon was a dream come true for Priya, as she believed in making women feel better about themselves. Be it Kylie Jenner’s hairstyle or Deepika’s bridal look, she could do it effortlessly. However, things took a different turn with the lockdown announcement as it demanded the closure of all shops and malls. As the pandemic compelled staying at home and social distancing, Priya realized that her salon would remain closed for a long time and no customers would be coming in.

That is when she decided to give her business a digital presence with the help of Google My Business. To start with, she got her salon listed on Google My Business for free and added all necessary information such as contact details, services offered, business hours and pricing. She also posted some pictures of her salon and the equipment used there to highlight how she follows stringent hygiene measures. Priya knew people would like to keep cash payments to a minimum due to pandemic protocols. So, she downloaded Google Pay for Business to ensure digital payment. She further leveraged the ‘Nearby Stores’ feature on Google Pay to make her business easily discoverable for searchers staying in the vicinity. Now that she is future-ready, her customers are booking appointments and making payments online before availing her services at home or at her salon.

Priya’s narrative should not be unique, though. According to a report by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), India is home to approximately 6.33 crore medium and small businesses which account for 29.7 percent of GDP, and hence, is the backbone of the Indian economy. The impact of the pandemic outbreak has hurt small businesses as they are staring at financial losses due to low demand during multiple lockdowns. This necessitates a digital transformation so that businesses can still operate and stay afloat.

Why Small Businesses Need a Digital Interface

According to RedShift research, 63 percent of Indian small businesses do not have a website; 40 per cent believe that their business is too small to have a website; 19 per cent perceive website creation to be complex and 17 per cent believe website creation to be expensive. However, with the Internet adoption growing at a fast clip – in 2020, India had nearly 700 million Internet users, according to Statista – digitalization can catapult efficiency and innovation across business operations. Here is a quick look at how Web technologies can help small businesses.

Brand building for customer growth

A potential customer’s journey comprises multiple touchpoints before she actually decides to buy. The first touchpoint in that journey is the online discovery of your business. But what happens when your business does not have an impressive web presence? According to Google, if a company does not have a proper website, 45 percent of customers will turn away and look for an alternative. Therefore, a basic business listing online is a must. Adding more information about your products and services as well as contact details can convert casual surfers and searchers into customers.

Ease of transaction

The pandemic crisis has driven customers to remote buying and digital payments. It means one’s brick-and-mortar shop must be able to accept online payments to ensure customer convenience. On the plus side, all transactions get tracked and recorded without any manual intervention so that there is zero error in payments history. One can also save on time and efforts.

Enhanced efficiency

Unlike Priya and her staff, a remote workforce has become the new workplace normal, but most small businesses are still struggling to cope with the absence of a physical establishment. Consider a sales lead or a person in charge of finance who requires constant access to crucial data and documents for decision-making. Then there is the admin staff who needs to carry out back-office tasks. Finally, one cannot do away with those ubiquitous meetings without which no business could possibly survive. However, a virtual network of office employees with secure access to crucial data would solve most of these problems. Whether it is budget planning, client presentation or holding a town hall meeting, tracking inventory or procuring it, a virtual office can do everything and more.

How Google Helps Businesses

Small businesses which want to stand tall, need to have a profound presence online. Right from managing its payments, workforce management, advertising to operations, Google has tools that can cater to all your business needs. Here is the list of Google tools which will help your business go digital.

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According to Google, if a company does not have a proper website, 45 percent of customers will turn away and look for an alternative.

Google My Business (GMB) listing

Businesses without a digital presence can sign up with Google My Business for a free Google listing. Just like Priya, one can add all relevant business information such as product/service descriptions and contact details besides photos, videos, and posts so that the business becomes discoverable on Google Maps and via search engines. Signing in with Google My Business will also create a free website domain name. Or you can purchase a custom domain. To understand how customers are engaging with their business listings, owners can access Google Insights that gives a detailed report. Let us understand this with an example, suppose we have a bakery shop and we have added all information to get it listed on Google, Google Insights gives a report having details that if a customer has searched your bakery shop through a direct search or a discovery search that is customer searching for a particular cupcake where your shop appeared or branded search where customer searched for a particular brand of cake and your store name came up. Besides these it can give a detailed report on customers actions such as how many of them clicked on your shop website, requested for store directions or have directly called you. Hence, giving a complete understanding how your bakery shop is performing online.

Additionally, Google Pay for Business has recently added a feature called Nearby Stores. As the name suggests, it helps users find neighbourhood stores which are providing essential goods or services. Business owners using Google Pay can provide necessary information such as business hours, availability of essential goods, home delivery options and hygiene measures followed in their stores. Google gathers this information from businesses and displays it in the list of Nearby Stores that helps both users and businesses.

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Today it’s important to be present, be relevant and add value.

- Nick Besbeas, former CMO of LinkedIn

Google Pay for Business

The pandemic has compelled minimum physical contact and triggered the use of online or contactless payments. In such times where contactless payments are deemed safe, Google helps businesses to go for contactless payments by encouraging them to download ‘Google Pay’. The facility of cashless payments gives the customers a convenient way of making purchases in a swift, simple and safe manner hence driving customer satisfaction.

There are five major benefits of using Google Pay for Business:

Payments made by customers reach directly to the owner’s bank accounts with no fees.
Customers can make payments using phone numbers and QR codes.
A detailed transaction report showing how much the owners have earned on Google Pay.
Earn cashback rewards that is directly deposited in the bank account.
It gives the businesses to receive and accept payments with ease through multiple payment options such as credit or debit cards and multiple bank accounts on a single platform.

Apart from transactions, Google is in talks with financial institutions to offer loans through Google Pay for Business app to support small businesses in India.

Google Workspace

Businesses working with a remote workforce will be new normal now. Hence, streamlining of work processes digitally is essential for the overall productivity of the company. Google Workspace is an integration of multiple applications such as email, video conferencing, chats, docs sheets, slides, to-do lists etc for effective communication among team members. Use of Google workspace will help in making fast decisions. One can easily schedule meetings with automatic email invites. With the cloud storage feature, one can store all important documents such as sales agreements, contracts or financial reports. The documents stored in cloud storage can be accessed by remote team members for downloading anytime thus making it easier to collaborate. Company data in the cloud is protected from cyberattacks as it provides protection through multifactor authentication and security keys.

Google Small Business Hub

The government of India’s initiative of going ‘Vocal for Local’ has led Google to come up with a Make Small Strong initiative. In this initiative, Google helps businesses that are small and medium in size by creating short quick help videos that help the business owners to make the most of the digital tools. This initiative is providing free digital skills training to the business owners to equip themselves with the required skill set to bring business online. The skill courses are branched into three:

Digital unlocked: The course contains 90 self-paced video tutorials which offer quality training on a comprehensive set of topics right from building a web presence and driving online growth to reach customers over mobile to email marketing to social media marketing. It also has an extensive toolkit that will help in getting the business online.

Primer App: It is a free educational mobile app that offers quick, bite-sized, jargon free video lessons to help business owners and individuals learn new skills in digital marketing and business. The five-minute lessons cover topics like business planning, management, sales, customer satisfaction, online advertising, analytics, social media that come with actionable next steps where people can start reaching their goals.

Skill shop: To develop digital marketing skills it provides e-learning video courses ranging from Google ads to analytics to ad manager, and while learning gets certifications of the course completed.

Google has partnered with Zoho, a provider of Web-based tools for businesses, and Instamojo, a full-stack digital services platform for MSMEs, to help businesses build websites, create online stores, and manage inventory and shipments all from a single platform. SMBs can create websites by signing up with Zoho inventory and Zoho commerce for free till March 31, 2021, and with Instamojo which is offering a six-month free subscription to its online store solution. It has also partnered with Swiggy, the online food ordering and delivery platform and Dunzo that provides online delivery for food, medicines and groceries to enable businesses to accept online orders and enable delivery. Small businesses with a zero-sign-up fee with Dunzo can avail its 24×7 merchant support for instant registration and can use Swiggy’s ‘Fast Track Onboarding’ to make its business online.

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