Digital First Magazine – May - June 2021 – India Edition – Technology Trends to Watch Out for in 202

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INDIA EDITION

First Stop for Digital, Technology and Business Insights

FEATURING INSIDE ANKIT DUDHWEWALA, CALLHIPPO AND SOFTWARESUGGEST.COM

NISHIT JALAN, GROVY INDIA PRASANTH YERRAPRAGADA, TELEBU

DARSHANA JAIN, SNAPPER FUTURE TECH GAURAV BHAGAT, GAURAV BHAGAT ACADEMY

PRASHANT RADHAKRISHNAN, SEMACONNECT

KAVIN KANDASAMY, MYPPE WELLNESS SERVICES PVT LTD

RAHUL SHARMA, LOGMEIN RAJIV KUMAR, STOREHIPPO

KAVITA VISWANATH, JFROG INDIA

SHANTHI RAJAN, UNIVERSITY OF STIRLING, RAK CAMPUS, UAE

MARC KAPLAN, CHEKMARC NAGARAJ KRISHNAN, APARAJITHA CORPORATE SERVICES PRIVATE LIMITED

SHREERANGANATH KULKARNI, BIRLASOFT

NARINDER MAHAJAN, ODN DIGITAL SERVICES

SUBRAMANYAM S, ASCENTHR

VINEET BAJPAI FOUNDER & CEO, MAGNON GROUP & TALENTRACK

BUILDING SUCCESS FROM THE SCRATCH

MAY-JUNE 2021

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www.digitalfirstmagazine.com

May-June 2021

Vol - 2 Issue - 3

Technology Trends to Watch Out for in 2021 Editor in Chief

Dr. Varughese K.John, PhD

Managing Editor Sarath Shyam

Consultant Editors

Dr. Johny Andrews Anjana D Shyam K

Anna Elza Stanly Lui Emma James

Editorial Enquiry: admin@digitalfirstmagazine.com

Art and Design

Ajay K Das Manjunath R Rohith Poojary

Sales & Marketing

Jyoti Kumari Reshma Ashokan

Arati Waghmare Rupali Mohankar

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Higher First Digital Education Magazine Digest May-June March 2019 2021

Digital First Magazine is a digital magazine published by Connecta Innovation Private Limited.

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MANAGING EDITOR’S NOTE

What’s Trending in Technology?

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couple of years ago, taking work from home for a day means you are almost on leave. If your boss is in his 50s, who just joined as the admin of a WhatsApp group called ‘70’s Kids,’ then convincing him to get work from home option for more than two days would be nearly an impossible task. Today, you and your boss are at home, wearing the most informal dress you have, texting work status on WhatsApp, and attending team meetings on Zoom. That is how fast things change in our lives, and technology helps us function without disruptions. Today, 90 per cent of the American workforce prefer to telecommute!

Work from home and related technologies are trending in 2021 as well. Let us have a quick look at the other areas with continued growth potential in the postpandemic world. Experts opine that the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) will be extremely valuable in helping companies adapt to the post-COVID world.

In fact, by 2030, AI products will contribute more than $15.7 trillion to the global economy. Another major development would be 5G networks, which will emerge between 2020 and 2030, making possible zero-distance connectivity between people and connected machines.

Similarly, we will witness technological innovations that will reduce human-to-human contact, automate processes, and increase productivity amid social distancing.

In this issue, we address technology trends to watch out for in 2021. We have featured insights and opinions of industry experts to better understand which pandemicdriven tech trends are here to stay. On the cover, we feature Vineet Bajpai, Founder & CEO, Magnon Group & Talentrack. Like Job’s garage where the first Apple computer was built, Vineet Bajpai’s business saga started in a small generator room. Today, he is one of the youngest ever CEO of a multinational advertising group in India.

Enjoy Reading.

Sarath Shyam

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ADVISORY BOARD

Dr. Kuldeep Nagi, Ph.D, MBA, BSc.

Program Director of Ph.D, Recipient of Fulbright Fellowship Award & Dan Evans Award for Excellence and Writer columnist.

Mr. Amulya Sah, PGD PM & IR, PG Diploma in PM&IR (XISS Ranchi)

Senior Director HR. Former Head HR group Samsung R&D Institute India,Transformative HR Leader, Change agent, Digitization facilitator, Engagement architect, Trainer and Diversity champion.

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Dr. Varughese K.John, PhD, MBA, MPhil, MCom, LLB. Former Program Director, MS in Management Program, GSATM - AU

Dr. Ajay Shukla, Ph.D, MBA, BE. Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Higher Education UAE

Mamta Thakur Former CEO (ASEAN), Arc Skills

Mr. Sreedhar Bevara, MBA, B.Com Former Senior General Manager: Panasonic Middle East & Africa, Thought Leader, Speaker & Author of ‘Moment of Signal’ (Amazon’s International Bestseller)

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Digital First Magazine Higher Education Digest May-June2020 2021 November

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VINEET BAJPAI FOUNDER & CEO, MAGNON GROUP & TALENTRACK

BUILDING SUCCESS FROM THE SCRATCH

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14 Work-Life Spill Over and Boundary Breach

LEADER’S INSIGHTS

Shanthi Rajan, Director – Institution Development, University of Stirling, RAK Campus, UAE

New-Age Call Management system for SMB’s and its features

How to be productive while Working from Home?

Ankit Dudhwewala, Founder, CallHippo and SoftwareSuggest.com

Gaurav Bhagat, Founder, Gaurav Bhagat Academy

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LEADER’S INSIGHTS

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Kavita Viswanath, General Manager, JFrog India

Nagaraj Krishnan, Managing Director, Aparajitha Corporate Services Private Limited

Nishit Jalan, CEO, Grovy India

Evolution of DevOps Industry in India

‘Compfie’ Redefines The Dynamics Of Compliance Practice

Luxury Real Estate Trends to watch out for in 2021

Impact of Digital Transformations on the Enterprise Blockchain Development

Darshana Jain, CEO, Snapper Future Tech

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How innovative start-ups are weaving safety into our daily lifestyle

Kavin Kandasamy, Founder CEO, MyPPE Wellness Services Pvt Ltd

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Identifying and understanding key principles and values of community building

How High-Quality Content Augments Consumer Experience and Retention?

Marc Kaplan, Co-Founder & CEO, ChekMarc

Narinder Mahajan, CEO & Co-Founder, ODN Digital Services

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72 Prashant Radhakrishnan, Vice President - India (Sales & Marketing), SemaConnect EV Charging Infrastructure Market in India, Challenges and Solutions

Prasanth Yerrapragada, VP - Technology, Telebu

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Rajiv Kumar, Founder & CEO, StoreHippo How SaaS Based Platforms are Helping Brick & Mortar Brands Ramp Up Their Business

How Working Remotely is Changing the Financial Cost and Employee Satisfaction for Businesses

Rahul Sharma, MD-India, LogMeIn

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Subramanyam S, CEO & Co-Founder, AscentHR Impact of Automation on MIS and Analytics

Survival of the Fittest in the Post-COVID World

EXPERT OPINION

Impact of AI on the Customer Experience – First Touch, Live Support, Dispute Resolution

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Shreeranganath Kulkarni, Chief Delivery Officer, Birlasoft

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IN MY

VIEW

Work-Life

Spill Over and Boundary Breach Shanthi Rajan, Director – Institution Development, University of Stirling, RAK Campus, UAE

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ovid 19, has dramatically transformed work in today’s parlance. Corporates and other businesses have already started to make work from home a norm. Current situation is not conducive to work together in physical spaces in various parts of the world due to this Covid 19 pandemic.

Let us take a step back to pause.

Prior to the onset of Covid 19, employees used to don company batches with a lot of pride. This employee batch neatly tucked in on the trouser or worn around the shirt collar meant various things to various people. Indisputably, the most important was a sense of identity and a sense of individual accomplishments and achievements. Other senior employee’s batches used to reflect the path forward. While at their workstation or in the coffee break-out area most of the conversation tended to be work-ward. This gave them a sense of belongingness toward a purpose. Everyday commute to office was with some work objectives to be achieved and end of the day signaled an introspection on them. For many of them the essence of emotional and psychological well-being sprung from their achievements, recognition and creativity at

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Shanthi Rajan is a senior HR professional with a cumulative 29 years of experience in HR and academia. Shanthi is the Director – Institution Development of University of Stirling, RAK campus and SQA (Scottish Qualifications Authority) Diplomas. She moved to academia in 2009 and has taught in many Universities of repute in UAE, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Malawi and Malaysia.

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ABOUT

SHANTHI RAJAN Shanthi holds a Master’s degree with specialization in Strategic Human Resources Management from the University of Wollongong, and is currently pursuing her Doctorate. Her core areas of specialization and research interest includes Strategic HRM, OB, Leadership and Emotional Intelligence. She is an affiliate member of CILT (UK) and a Senior Fellow of Higher Education Academy (SFHEA, UK). She is a certified S+EI coach from the Institute for Social and Emotional Intelligence (ISEI), Denver, Colorado. She is also a certified ICF approved EIC Practitioner from NLP Academy. She serves as an Advisory Board Member for a few academic institutions of repute. She has completed her Postgraduate certification (PGCert) in teaching and learning from UK and her Higher Education Teaching Certificate from Derek Bok Centre of Teaching and Learning, Harvard University.

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Though remote working is currently a ‘noother-option’ strategy but it’s limited to fewer types of jobs

the workplace. These relationships and bonding were seen as opportunities and occasions to enhance knowledge, develop skills and creativity or just simply to be with ‘talented’ or ‘knowledge’ group. A small pat from their Supervisors or an email that lauds them for their smallest of accomplishments at work were highly valued.

Every day and every part of the office day was keenly awaited. Looking forward to the next birthday celebration of another colleague or a forthcoming festival to be celebrated in the office had its own flavors of happiness, much difficult to describe. Morning coffee or tea with colleagues at the office break-out area always tasted special.

Lunch time was no exception either. Going to one of those restaurants for lunch at the food court below, reverse walking so as not to let lose eye contacts of the group with voice pitches going up and down amidst laughter and excitement talking

about the current and forthcoming projects were all a part and parcel of fun, delight, enthusiasm, motivation, group advises, personality building and bonding that would ultimately transform into on site team spirit, coherence, productivity and a zest to do more.

And to do ‘more’ resulted in volunteering for works on weekends, long hours in office and going that extra mile to render productivity yield at its best. These were all source of immense happiness and pride and far outweighed long commute or personal engagements with family or friends.

These were stress probably physically tiring but stress busters. Being together in an office created relationships between co-workers. And these relationships lasted for years even when people have moved out to different firms for opportunities and growth. They were precious and came in handy to get references, employment opportunities and career fulfilment. Most of us have seen the magic of these relationships in our lives too, haven’t we?

The new format of work called teleworking or working remotely from home is sadly devoid of these aspects. Neither were companies trained in this aspect nor were the employees. To bring a corporate culture home is just not possible for they have evolved over time with painstaking efforts. Though remote working is currently a ‘no-other-option’ strategy but it’s limited to fewer types of jobs. Majority of the manufacturing and production jobs are interactive and cannot be done remotely. Our apartments and homes were not built and neither did the culture prevailing in them to accommodate an office. Besides space constrains they also have constrains of competing attentions with various permutations and combinations.

From TV to familial remote workers to children and elderly and a general difficulty to maintain focus toward work due to various other reasons.

Decibel levels at home is also not something that is amenable to control.

Well! At the moment with the pandemic we have no other option but to work from home remotely. And for good reasons. We have to follow all precautions for the safety and the well-being of ourselves, our society and the world. Isolation and

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distancing is the key word to stop the spread of Covid 19. In remote working every work takes the form of urgency. Mornings most probably are devoted to discussions with the team of the matters to be delivered or activities to be achieved during the target period. Prioritizing also sometimes become challenging. In conventional offices urgency most likely used to get resolved with the team’s interactions and this was a great psychological factor. Information required were immediately scrutinized and had due diligence done to onward dissemination.

In remote working sometimes it is difficult to reach another team member who could be of help in value adding the required information or the output. This creates stress especially if ‘revert’ request emails keep coming with the supervisors in the email loop. For possibly pressure for response time mounts.

Late evening calls identifying a project element to be discussed urgently because of some slack in the activity network creates ‘sent and not wait’ attitude. These responses could not have undergone the routine due diligence procedures and could end up being detrimental to the project. Such response might have time, cost and quality impacts on the project or the activity. All these might compromise individual and collective productivity creating room for unpleasantness, stress and lesser incentive to stay motivated at work. Remote workers start to get a feeling of ‘boundary breach’ because of these instances. The general feeling becomes of an unlimited time of work contrasting with the conventional office times. Burn outs and stress starts to develop thinking of the backlogs coming in for refinement and the new works piling up. Why backlog work for refinement? Because of probably ineffective supervision or ineffective communication of the desired outcome from the remote worker. And sometimes a fear, apprehension or uneasiness to call a team member or the supervisor again for clarification to avoid the risk of being called ‘not to the expectation’.

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In remote working scenarios it is always best to gradually analyze what are the boundary breaches occurring in the initial days for we have to give a margin as everybody is new to this phenomenon with no training. Everything happened suddenly. Eventually one has to communicate the times that he or she would be available on work days and circulate to the team via an email. Emergencies are always emergencies so they do not come within the ambit of these timings. So this becomes the first step toward building a pleasant remote working model. And that is what we have done just now: defining a work day. Compress as many video calls as possible in the mornings, crisp and to the point so that the remaining part of the day is available for the required work. If any additional work or assignments are asked beyond what has been required for the work day then politely decline to accept them. Weekend offs must also be clearly conveyed to the team and the supervisor.

To get a feeling of an office depending on the space constrains create a designated place as your office at home while remote working. Have a Coffee or tea flask that would remind of that office break-out area. A semi-formal or a formal dress, depending on what one calls a formal, would be an inclining factor to the remote office. Have lunch breaks and set up a time post noon for a group coffee or tea session with other members of the team ideally before the close of the work day. This could involve a formal discussion of work and activities during the day or a cheering session for all or for a discussion for the next day’s work or a combination of all of them. Isolation is just keeping distance but to compensate this physical distance remote employees should cultivate a strong camaraderie and a strong team sense. So that everybody is pleasant, motivated and productive.

If remote working gives time that one saves on commute then up-skilling will be a great option.

Let us hope that soon mankind will triumph over this pandemic.

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COVER STORY

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VINEET BAJPAI FOUNDER & CEO, MAGNON GROUP & TALENTRACK BUILDING SUCCESS FROM THE SCRATCH

Like Job’s garage where the first Apple computer was built, Vineet Bajpai’s business saga started in a small generator room. It was in the early 2000s. Napster had arrived on the Silicon Valley landscape, and NASDAQ became the new buzzword for investors and entrepreneurs alike. Two rented computers and three people were enough for 22-year-old Vineet to start a small company called Magnon on a terrace shed. Today, Magnon is among the largest advertising groups in the subcontinent and part of the Fortune 200 Omnicom network (NYSE: OMC). Vineet has also led the global top-ten advertising agency TBWA as its India CEO. This made him perhaps the youngest ever CEO of a multinational advertising group in India.

Vineet has won several entrepreneurship and corporate excellence awards, including the Asia Pacific Entrepreneurship Award 2013, the CNBC Mercedes Benz Young Turks Award 2014 and the Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2016. He was recently listed by Business World among the 100 Most Influential People in India’s Digital Ecosystem. Vineet’s second company Talentrack is disrupting the Media & Entertainment industry in India. It is the fastest-growing online hiring and content-crowdsourcing platform for the US$ 21 billion sector.

Apart from being a multinational CEO and an entrepreneur par excellence, Vineet is also a national bestselling author with eight books to his credit. He has written three bestselling management and inspirational books – Build From Scratch (2004), The Street to the Highway (2011) and The 30 Something CEO (2016). His fiction novels, the Harappa Trilogy and the Mastaan Trilogy are national bestsellers. The books have won rich critical and literary acclaim. The screen-adaptation rights of the Harappa Trilogy have been acquired by one of the largest film production companies in the country. The Times of India has called Vineet - ‘...undoubtedly India’s new literary superstar’.

In an exclusive interaction with Digital First Magazine, Vineet talks about the most important values he demonstrates as a leader, his journey so far in the corporate world, his books and much more.

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Being a bestselling author and a successful entrepreneur, what are the most important values you demonstrate as a leader?

First up, working as a collective rather than an individual is something that has been a core value for me as a leader. And it is this central belief that I have worked for over two decades to establish as a management culture in my teams. In the context of the current environment, the contemporary leader today needs to balance several human and organizational goals - client value, business profitability, management continuity, employee welfare and mental health, digital transformation, continuous innovation, seamless communication, and a lot more. It is a matter of pride that at both my companies, Magnon Group and Talentrack, we have always nurtured a strong culture of intrapreneurship, because of which this leadership responsibility gets shared. We encourage and empower our employees to be entrepreneurs within the company’s ecosystem, who in turn become ambassadors of our people-centric value system. It is a beautifully virtuous cycle that spawns trust, leadership development and business growth.

Another value that I personally try to embody is the power of incessant, continuous effort. Whether it is leading a large multinational advertising group like Magnon, driving a tech start-up in the entertainment space like Talentrack, or simply writing books, I am a great believer in and propagator of persistent human endeavour. I have witnessed spectacular success stories that have been fueled by a leader with sheer, unstoppable diligence.

It is this conviction that I personally live by, and also the belief that I try to inculcate in my leadership team.

Today, Magnon Group is among the largest and most respected advertising groups in the sub-continent

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From starting your career with General Electric and setting up your first company, Magnon Solutions, in a small shed, you have come a long way to become a business Guru. Tell us a bit about your journey so far in the corporate world?

Thank you for the title of a business guru. The reality is that I am still a student of business and entrepreneurship. As for my journey, I developed a strong orientation towards building and managing my own enterprise back in the early days of my B-school education. I joined GE immediately

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With over 4,00,000 artists and over 20,000 industry recruiters on board, Talentrack is disrupting and revolutionizing creative hiring in India

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after I completed my postgrad in management. The experience of working with one of the most respected companies in the world played a key role in developing my early understanding of a wide range of business areas, especially those of corporate ethics, professional integrity, process-based management, and an overall international perspective. I can say that it was in GE that I completed my management education in the real sense.

However, even in that enriching environment, my thirst for building my own organization remained.

In the year 2000, when Napster had arrived on the Silicon Valley landscape, and NASDAQ became the new buzzword for investors and entrepreneurs alike, I started a small company called Magnon - three people, two hired computers and a terrace shed. We spent the next ten years working with a razor-sharp focus, with only one goal in view - to emerge as one of India’s largest digital agencies. By 2010 we were indeed counted among the leaders in our space.

In 2012, Magnon became a part of the Fortune 200 global media corporation - Omnicom (NYSE: OMC).

Today, Magnon is among the largest advertising & digital groups in the country, with close to 400 employees and working with several Fortune 500 clients. We have also brought in global advertising &

marketing agency brands like eg+ and designory into India.

It was in 2015 that I launched Talentrack - India’s first mobile app and digital platform for talent casting & user-generated content in the entertainment sector. We also own and host the annual Talentrack Awards, the country’s pioneering awards for OTT and digital content.

Today, the platform has 4,00,000+ artists and nearly 20,000 registered recruiters, including casting agencies, filmmakers, ad agencies, production houses, Bollywood producers, TV channels, casting directors, event companies and more.

and show, did imbue in me a deep ambition for material success. No doubt that inherent hunger for growth has manifested itself into the way I lead my companies, where the quest for progress and profitability is a way of life. A wonderful byproduct of that fervour has been the cutting-edge, ever-evolving value we deliver to our global and Indian clients and the employment opportunities we have been able to generate for hundreds of people.

Today, we contribute heavily to CSR initiatives and invest continuously toward employee growth & welfare. All of this has been made possible by our laser-sharp focus on creating value continuously.

What lessons have you learned in your childhood or college days that helped you become the leader you are today?

Hailing from a middle-class family and living in a city like Delhi with all its commercial pomp

Tell us about companies that you are leading today. What are the services they offer, which makes them unique?

Today, Magnon Group is among the largest and most respected advertising groups in the sub-continent.

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It comprises three award-winning agencies, namely Magnon eg+, Magnon Designory and Magnon Sancus, with nearly 400 professionals across Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, and Hyderabad. Our marquee clientele includes ten out of the Fortune Global 500 brands.

Magnon integrates specialized verticals like digital, production, advertising, media, analytics, language services and content marketing into pillars of a new-age agency to deliver world-class marketing solutions to our clients. It is the organic journey of Magnon towards becoming a truly 360-degree agency group that sets us apart. Currently, most conventional creative agencies are making an attempt to go digital. On the other hand, a lot of digital agencies are trying to integrate backwards into traditional advertising. These are mostly quite laboured, inorganic efforts toward being seen as a bundled, integrated service offering. However, this often ends up creating fragmented working structures that deliver fractured campaigns to clients. The edge that Magnon has is that for 12 years, we were an independent, hardcore digital agency.

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Thereafter, in 2012, once we became part of Omnicom and a part of the eg+ and TBWA networks, we swiftly inherited the most sophisticated knowledge capital in advertising, digital, production, media and linguistics, that too from the biggest names in the world. So, it has really been a groundup, organic, and experiential metamorphosis into emerging as perhaps India’s foremost and almost pioneering fully integrated agency offering under a single umbrella.

Coming to Talentrack, it is one of the most exciting tech start-ups for casting and content in the media & entertainment space. Within a short time, it has emerged as India’s leading online talent-hiring and content-sourcing platform for the sector. Talentrack is also the go-to destination for brands and marketers looking for professional user-generated content. With over 4,00,000 artists and over 20,000 industry recruiters on board, the company is disrupting and revolutionizing creative hiring in India.

Your first two books, Build from Scratch and The Street to the Highway, are for budding entrepreneurs and owners of small businesses. What inspired you to write those books?

The central driver behind these two books was my strong desire to give something back to the entrepreneurial and

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SME community, as a part of which I had spent the first decade of my career. I wrote these books because, over my organization-building journey, I felt I had gathered a few truly precious learnings that ought to be shared with budding entrepreneurs, start-ups and the business community at large. Why should every entrepreneur have to reinvent the wheel from scratch? Why should every start-up team make the same mistakes? It was with this in mind that I wrote about the vital elements of starting a business (Build From Scratch) and then building it into a respectable company (The Street to the Highway).

Tell us about your other works of fiction. As a writer, what is more satisfying for you, fiction or non-fiction?

After writing three well-received business books, I felt a strong urge to express the creative storyteller in me. I wanted to write about India’s ancient mysteries, our rich heritage, our way of life, our profound myths, epics and more.

Writing a business, management, or inspirational book is a completely different ballgame as compared to the creation of a fiction novel. Being a management ‘guru’, so to speak, is a very different

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role from that of being a storyteller. And it was during the writing of Harappa that I discovered the intensity with which the storyteller in me was waiting to emerge.

It was only when I spent nights and days in penning down the manuscript of Harappa (my first and spectacularly successful fiction novel) that I understood the emotional connection needed between a fiction writer and his work. Not to say that writing a business or management book takes no emotional energy. Of course, it does. But after having written three of them and then writing the Harappa Trilogy and Mastaan Trilogy, I can assure you that a storyteller has nearly an umbilical cord connected with his work. I know this might sound silly, but every time I read some of the more intense parts of Harappa, especially the last four or five chapters, my eyes well up. I could not believe that I was crying every time I was reading what I had myself created and written! But believe me, that is the intensity of a fiction writer’s relationship with his work.

But I must confess that the love and popularity I have been showered with after the Harappa Trilogy and now Mastaan, are unparalleled. Thousands of readers are sending me emails, social media messages, tweets, and reviews. It has been one of the most gratifying phases of my life.

What has been significant milestones during these years of your journey as a business leader? Why? While there have been many exciting high points through the years, the most significant milestone has been Magnon’s becoming a part of the global giant, the Omnicom Group.

We started out as an independent agency back in the year 2000 when the whole internet wave had only just started in India. It was in 2012, when Magnon became part of this Fortune 200 multinational corporation, that we suddenly transformed into a global player via the eg+ network, one of

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Writing a business, management, or inspirational book is a completely different ballgame as compared to the creation of a fiction novel

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the largest advertising and creative production companies in the world.

Being invested into and embraced by a globally respected multinational behemoth like Omnicom was a powerful validation of the quality of the organization we had been able to build from the ground up. It was a big day for us when Magnon’s name was up on the homepage of NASDAQ! How do you unplug from work?

To be honest, the quest for an optimal work-life balance has been one of the frustrating failures of my life. I must confess that I am immersed in my work almost every waking minute. It is either the exciting responsibility of leading Magnon into the next orbit of success, or the unflappable enthusiasm of building Talentrack into a profitable enterprise, or simply the writing and marketing of books - I invariably have a lot of balls in the air at any given time. And the truth is, I love it that way!

Having said that, I do have some ways to unwind. I love reading, cooking, spending long evenings with close friends, and strumming the old guitar once in a while.

And, of course, writing books. It not only brings out my personal creative best, but it also helps me connect with millions of readers directly. What can be more satisfying than that?

!ncredible

No matter where you decide to go in India, you’ll find something incredible. And right next to that, you’ll find us. Safe and sanitised stays, waiting to host you.

So pack up your bags, dust those boots, come to an OYO near you.

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LEADER’S INSIGHTS

New-Age Call Management system for

SMB’s and its features Ankit Dudhwewala, Founder, CallHippo and SoftwareSuggest.com

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or any business to be a success, effective strategies, structured operational patterns, and state-of-the-art technology are prerequisites. In the present times, going digital is the need of the hour, and ensuring that the communication with our customers is seamless and instant is equally important.

Hence, choosing the right software in order to have a smooth call management system is critical. This is especially all the more important for small to midsize businesses who are in the nascent stages and are making concerted efforts to make it big. They have a considerable team size and have a different working pattern as compared to brands. They are agile and flexible and end up making quick decisions. The saying ‘customer is the king’ is their core value and hence they require advanced solutions to cater to their customers’ needs and preferences. Managing everything manually is practically not feasible as they might not have the finances to rope in a separate team for handling the incoming calls or might not have the expertise amongst the existing talent. Hence, call management systems step in as the ideal solution for their incoming call management requirements.

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Ankit Dudhwewala is the Co-founder and CEO of Appitsimple Infotek, a company that builds and runs digital products. Appitsimple runs CallHippo – a SaaSbased VOIP product, and SoftwareSuggest – an IT software and services discovery platform and runs it successfully. As the co-founder and CEO of Appitsimple, Ankit sets qualitative and quantitative objectives for the organization. Ankit coordinates with team members to ensure set goals are met and review objectives periodically. While Ankit has competencies in multiple domains, he excels at sales and marketing.

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Having a call management system in place is essential in order to have a competitive edge and ensure that the customer’s journey with the business is a smooth ride

Call management system for SMBs While earlier SMBs were hesitant to adopt the technology, but they now understood that with changing times, there has been a shift in customers’ preferences and the way they interact with businesses. Hence, having a call management system in place is essential in order to have a competitive edge and ensure that the customer’s journey with the business is a smooth ride.

Call management systems in the form of state of the art contact center software apart from fulfilling the primary role of facilitating smooth communication with your customers, also help in marketing activities and ensuring smooth operations. Such systems are designed to cater to all the needs of SMBs ranging from as simple as managing the inbound calls to as complex as constant reporting to improve performance gaps and ensuring the extension of high-end customer services. They are designed in a way so that they are compatible with the SMB’s omnichannel strategies and together they can work in sync to ensure the provision of a good user experience.

They help simplify the admin-related tasks, ensure seamless organizational working, take care of the contact center management vertical and ensure a high-end user experience in the SMBs. By utilizing features of call queues and IVR, they route the bulk of incoming calls based on pre-defined parameters. The call management software also helps SMBs to prioritize

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the calls in real-time and route them based on additional criteria which include customer purchase lifecycle, past communication records, etc.

Call management software especially cloud-based step in a viable solution since the customer’s retention time is indeed short and the longer they are put on hold, the high are the chances for SMBs to lose their business.

This is the reason they deploy contact center software to maximize their efficiency and customer satisfaction and retention. They help in reducing the amount of dropped calls and increasing the revenues. Hence, the contact center software come as a blessing in disguise assisting the small to midsize businesses in enhancing their customer service and communication journey.

Call management systems today are well equipped and come up with in-built basic call management capacities of hold, mute, call transfer, and blocking.

However, there are various other players that come with upgraded features of robust reporting, Advanced Speech Recognition (IVRs), AI-powered chatbots, multi-tiered auto attendants, call forwarding, audio conferencing, social media integration (email, text, etc.), and CRM services.

However, the choice by the SMBs has to be made meticulously keeping into consideration the features required, the workflow, estimate of the number of incoming calls, along with scalability and integration capacities with a long-term vision. Of course, the price and security system of the software are other important factors to be considered before making the selection.

Call management systems providers nowadays also offer flexible services of trial runs and pay as you go so that you can explore the technology, gauge its effectiveness for your business and modify its use or upgrade the features as per your requirements.

Summing Up By optimizing the workflow and managing the incoming call load, SMBs are able to improve customer interaction, experience and thereby help in consumer conversion and retention thereby leading to increased revenues. They help the small to midsize businesses identify loopholes in their operational pattern that helps them alter their strategies in real-time so as to ensure customer satisfaction and improve their performance. This decision of choosing the call management system is indeed an important one and can make or break the organization. Hence SMBs should choose the right one keeping all the requirements and features into consideration.

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EXPERT OPINION

Impact of Digital Transformations on the Enterprise

Blockchain Development Darshana Jain, CEO, Snapper Future Tech

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igital transformation is driven by the need for disruption — either disrupting the incumbent and making way for the new, or augmenting the current for better results. CTO’s/CIO’s of corporates are emerging from a major consolidation initiative post the pandemic that focuses on cost-reduction and if there is one thing that will help us achieve that, it is technology. IT leaders around the world are re-prioritizing their digital journeys to find ways of trusting each other and the identities of people and processes online. With all stakeholders migrating online, there is an exigent demand for trust and transparency as businesses are increasingly being conducted on digital mediums. Blockchain as a technology, fulfils that demand for trust and transparency through immutability and its decentralized nature.

Every digital transformation initiative must have blockchain in the technology of choice. Touted to be in the top three technologies

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With around 25 years of experience in technology and real estate, Darshana has broken quite a few stereotypes about women in male-dominated businesses. She is the first woman to be elected on the executive committee of the Confederation of Real Estate Developers Association of India (CREDAI). She is also the Regional Chair for FIBREE (Foundation for International Blockchain and Real Estate Expertise). Her varied roles in strategy, engineering, business development, sales, marketing, and company leadership with Fortune 500 companies in the US and UK have given her a strong global edge.

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that will change the course of digital transformation, blockchain delivers value in being able to create trust amongst all stakeholders of a digital platform.

Forecasts suggest that global blockchain technology revenues will experience a massive growth in the coming years. Gartner states that blockchain technology will create more than $176 billion dollars’ worth of business value by 2025 and $3.1 trillion by 2030. Over the years, blockchain has matured as an enterprise solution technology but 2021 has in a way, fast-tracked this adoption because of the global health crisis that has shifted the world online.

Corporates have pursued Proof of Concepts (PoCs) and Minimum Viable Product (MVPs) to stay ahead of their competition in the digital transformation of enterprise solutions which are now transforming into large applications. Preferred Blockchain frameworks have success stories for enterprise application, as was seen when the Linux Foundation started the Hyperledger project and large technology companies like IBM, Intel, DTCC and blockchain start-up Consenys made their blockchain frameworks open source under the Hyper-ledger Project.

In the last two years, a variety of blockchain protocols have emerged that have resulted in successful blockchain implementation across business domains.

For example, Ethereum, a decentralized software platform, brings the smart contract to blockchain.

Ethereum’s enterprise alliance aids enterprise clients to build blockchains. Similar to this, many different protocols have emerged recently such as R3 Corda, Quorum and Ripple, that are spelling success in banking, financial and insurance services.

Managed blockchain platforms like IBM, Oracle and Amazon eliminate the heavy lifting involved in the setup of blockchain networks by reducing significant time —up to 60 percent sometimes — as well as maintenance efforts, making it easy to operate networks and easing integration with various applications.

The question is not WHETHER enterprises will adopt blockchain, but WHEN they will. Building robust, trusted digital business operations is critical to success for any business in the post-COVID world.

Small, medium and large enterprises’ response to a digital transformation that enables trust will define their market leadership and bottom lines in 2021 and beyond.

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The key domains that have seen the benefits of implementing blockchain technology are: • Financial Services – Trade Finance and Payment Settlement • E-Governance – VC and Identity Management Sustainable Supply Chain – Traceability, Authenticationand Carbon Emission Tracking • Insurance – Claims and Settlement, Policy Administration, Universal Identity • HealthCare – Citizen immunity Passport, EHR Records • Media – Digital Rights Needless to say, not all problems can be solved by blockchain. Corporates need to go through a workshop to understand and assess whether blockchain is the right technology for them and one that suits their particular requirements. Companies that provide blockchain solutions should be able to consult and guide their clients with a sharp clarity.

Some of our clients using the Internet of Things (IoT) for Track ‘n’ Trace are exploring blockchain.

The technology behind sensors and smart chips is evolving rapidly, making them increasingly portable and applicable for real-time interactions with blockchain ledgers. The combination of blockchain and IoT has a huge potential for the creation of a marketplace of services between devices and gives companies the opportunity to create value from collected data. The growing number of emerging blockchain protocols, partnerships and IoT device providers already indicates that blockchain is a good fit in the IoT sector.

Europe has already defined an EU strategy on blockchain to build a pan-European blockchain infrastructure. Japan, China have done the same while India has also defined a National Blockchain Strategy. Around half of the Indian states are exploring e-governance solutions using blockchain.

In a post-COVID world, the growth of companies has been fueled by innovative business models that incorporate aggressive strategy to meet and exceed customer expectations online. A technology transformation which arrests fraudulent online behaviors to instill trust between networks and stakeholders is going to be the technology of choice going forward.

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LEADER’S INSIGHTS

How to be productive while

Working from Home?

Gaurav Bhagat, Founder, Gaurav Bhagat Academy

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ithin just a year, the Covid-19 pandemic has brought the global economy to its knees. From startups to well-established MNCs, every business has suffered a setback. As the lockdowns were imposed all over the world to contain the pandemic, flourishing business organizations had no choice, but to close their offices and adopt the work-from-home (WFH) model. While WFH was something that was frowned upon in the pre-pandemic era, it has now become a lifesaver for businesses. However, for the employees, WFH comes with several challenges and many workers are struggling to maintain their productivity and sanity.

Let us take a look at some of the steps that you can take to stay active and productive while working from home.

Create an office space in your home Just because you’re working from home doesn’t mean you should work from your bed. If you want to avoid becoming lethargic, lazy, and unproductive, you need to create an office space in your house.

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Gaurav Bhagat is the very definition of “self-made, he was dabbling in entrepreneurship even when he was 16 and formally started his first company, Consortium Gifts, at the age of 19 years. After having garnered overwhelming success in the business sphere, Gaurav then turned his attention towards training large corporates, business owners, and working professionals so that they can achieve their goals and 10X success as well. Towards this purpose, he launched the Gaurav Bhagat Academy in 2018, it’s an organization dedicated to training and mentoring businesses and individuals, so that they can enjoy the 10X life.

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Make sure that it’s an isolated corner where you can work in peace without being disturbed by a myriad of other things that might be happening around you. Also, just because you are at home, doesn’t mean you’re available to take care of household chores all the time. Dedicate your office hours to your work and talk with your family members. Respectfully explain to them why you can’t be running chores during your office hours.

Also, make sure that the spot you pick receives an ample amount of lighting during the day. Dimly lit areas can make you feel dull and lazy pretty quickly. Set up a desk if possible and stack it with everything that you might need while working. Having to get up now and then disrupts the workflow.

A haphazard way of working will lower your productivity without you even realizing it

Remember to take a break Taking a break from work is just as important as working diligently. Just because you’re at your home doesn’t mean you do not need to take any breaks. If your office offers lunch and tea breaks then take them. Constantly working can also sometimes affect your productivity. Taking regular breaks will help you relax and realign your focus.

Avoid the sedentary lifestyle Staying at home can cause you to fall victim to a sedentary lifestyle – which is bad for your personal as well as professional life. So wake up early and dedicate some time to doing physically engaging activities like Yoga, calisthenics, aerobics, or whatever you might be interested in. It will keep you happy, healthy, and energized. Even while you’re working, taking small 30 second breaks where

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you close your eyes and move away from the computer screen. Constantly staring at the screen can also make you feel tired and exhausted.

Maintain a time table and stick to it Your office must require you to put in a certain amount of hours per day. While WFH offers a degree of flexibility – allowing you to start late and work extra – you should create a timetable and stick to it. A haphazard way of working will lower your productivity without you even realizing it. Set up a certain amount of time for all the activities that you do daily. Ask yourself these questions: When should I wake up?

How long do I need to exercise and when? When should I take my lunch?

These questions will help you prepare a time table that will save you plenty of time that you would have wasted idling and help you maintain the work-life balance.

Dress for the job you want; dress for the job you do Working from home comes with all sorts of comforts.

Since you don’t necessarily have to show your face to your employer or your clients daily, you might feel tempted to work exclusively in your pajamas. However, let us warn you, it’s a bad idea. You might reason that it makes you feel comfortable and allows you to work better, but at the end of the day, both of us know that it’s not true.

As a professional, you must look sharp, regardless of whether or not you might be meeting anyone. It prepares you psychologically to take your job more seriously and allows you to be more productive. Don’t think it’s true? Conduct your experiment and the results will tell you a different.

Physical distancing, not social distancing Covid-19 pandemic isn’t just a threat to people’s physical health; it has put mental health at risk, for all as well. The very phrase ‘social distancing’ sounds depressing. Instead, we should worry about physical distancing, make sure that we socialize regularly. Human beings are social animals, to make them stay away from communities, social gatherings, interact with their friends, where humans can be themselves, can be taxing on the mind.

It is more important to socialize right now than it ever was. Even though we can’t meet our friends, family, and colleagues face-to-face, technology has enabled us to stay constantly in touch with each other virtually through video calls, texts, and video conferencing. The company executives should try to conduct regular informal meetings, where the employees can interact with each other freely.

This will not only benefit people individually, but will also enable to develop teamwork – which is essential for success of the company and individual growth.

Want to find Investor for your Startup?

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EXPERT OPINION

How innovative start-ups are

weaving safety into our daily lifestyle Kavin Kandasamy, Founder CEO, MyPPE Wellness Services Pvt Ltd

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igitization and Advancements in Technology have changed a lot of perspectives when it comes to the association of customers with a product or brand. We are in a fast-moving world where the market is flooded with options, variants, and choices and the customer is often left in a dilemma as to which to choose and what to reject.

Start-ups, unlike Corporates, are fuelled by Innovation and forward-thinking. With greater momentum, agility, and involvement to access the most recent technological advancements, start-ups facilitate a greater understanding of the Marketplace, build exciting and new products by maximizing the importance of the target audience.

Little did we know that the year 2020 could change all of our long-held beliefs and challenge our very existence of life. No contingency plans or back-ups could bring the world back to normalcy! We started valuing the health and well-being of our family and loved ones like never before. As you are reading this, we have still not been able to recover from the pandemic hit.

Will Institutions and Businesses survive another breakdown? Can vaccines bring our life back to Normal? With all these questions in mind, “Safety and Protection” is the only answer to all our uncertainties and insecurities.

Every half a century we go through major lifestyle upgrades but now this is happening every decade, safety and protection should be our go-to words moving

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The founder of personal lifestyle brand ‘MY’ and a hard core educationist, Mr Kavin Kandasamy has been in the field of revolutionizing the education industry since 7 years. The launch of his brand ‘MY’ completely resonates his characteristics envisioning products created for a sustainable future and also promoting Made in India Brand for global Consumption. Heading operations for K3 Management & Edu Services Pvt. Ltd. – India, Kavin has been associated with the firm from the past 6 years.

He is also an awardee of the Education Evangelist award from India’s leading business journal Forbes. His diverse Professional background ranges from Retail to Safety & Protection, following one central principle and that is sustainability. Under his leadership, the educational business has extended its footprints over 7 institutions spread across 6 campuses serving over 7000 students every year. The organisation has also grown from over 84 employees in 2013 to over 1000 employees in 2019 because of his care and guidance.

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Technology, by monitoring living standards and taking all the parameters into account, provides a conducive environment for us to live in

forward in life. We are together fighting the viral battle now and we might soon be thrown in the podium to wrestle with some other disease-causing micro-organism. Hence, “Staying safe and protecting ourselves is the best way forward!”

Day in and day out we keep hearing about the poor air quality index of various cities like Delhi and the world is not far away from becoming a polluted place for humans to live in. Poor-quality air is also one of the main reasons for various diseases and sadly, this factor is often compromised.

While we might have seen many start-ups coming up with air purifiers and air regulators, the best and economical way is to wear a face mask.

Keeping all of this in mind, many start-ups in the Health and Wellness, and Retail sector are coming up with solutions to make safety blend in seamlessly with the everyday lifestyle of people. And the best way to take safety across to people is by complementing it with technology. Technology, by monitoring living standards and taking all the parameters into account, provides a conducive environment for us to live in. This will encapsulate us from another pandemic and thus enhance the safety of our lifestyle.

With 44.69% of the people having access to Smartphones and 81% of the people searching online for a product or service; almost everyone now is brand conscious and interestingly, concerned about the style quotient. Even when it boils down to the most basic safety products like Masks and Sterilizers, people still expect the look and feel of the product to be edgy and to let the customer take pride in carrying them along with their daily gadgets like laptops, mobile phones, etc.

Therefore, startups that are committed to cater to the safety of people are now in a competitive space to design World Class Products that leave no compromise on specifications, efficiency, and most importantly the looks.

If the above has to be conveyed in a nutshell, “All Business have 2 options- to disrupt or be disrupted”.

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Like it or not, this is the New Normal which includes startups from all the sectors and domains that are concerned about the safety of the people. Making products is one thing but taking it to the customers such that it blends into their lifestyle is the real challenge for any Start-up trying to weave safety into people’s lifestyle.

If a customer starts using the need of the hour products like Masks and Sanitizers without anybody watching or monitoring out of their personal choices and decision, then that is the success and reach of a start-up that produces safety-conscious products that target customers’ health and well-being. Because the people who buy masks from these Startups are wearing them driven by personal choices and not because of a rule or regime passed or proposed by the Government officials.

“According to the 21- day rule, anything that is followed for 21 days becomes a habit”.

For example, when Mask was introduced initially by the Government as a regime for addressing the safety concerns, all of us were finding this new ritual quite a task to follow but now, even without the supervision of anybody, masks have become a part of our everyday attire so much so that if we don’t wear it, we feel like something in us is missing.

This is the reason why any product that becomes a habit for the customer will be a part of their lifestyle and since the world cannot sustain another breakdown, startups need to come up with solutions that not just make people’s lives better but also safer.

Along with the vision, mission statement, and Brand Goals, innovative and sustainable solutions that startups come up with, will make safety a lifestyle choice that helps people transition smoothly into the New Normal without making the people feeling compelled or forced to adapt to the changes. That is the real success of a startup transcending past financial achievements, goals, and vision- “To weave safety into the lifestyle of people”.

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LEADER’S INSIGHTS

Evolution of

DevOps Industry in India Kavita Viswanath, General Manager, JFrog India

• Could you throw some light on the Current Scenario of DevOps in India?

Increased complexity in software development due to new technologies such as containerization, microservices etc has brought attention to software delivery processes that were earlier managed without tools. However, in today’s ‘app world’ in order to meet the ever-changing demands of the customer, its become super important for businesses to look at continuous, secure and seamless delivery of software using DevOps tools. India is at the fore front of this adoption. From leading private banks to ecommerce, we see customers across the spectrum adopting DevOps and demanding more in terms of sophisticated tools that help them manage their DevOps processes end to end.

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Kavita has over 20 years of experience in leading Enterprise Sales, Alliances, Strategy & Planning for core technology & e-commerce companies. As General Manager for JFrog India, she manages India Business and Operations including R&D, Support, Sales & Marketing, Finance & Operations. Before joining JFrog, she was associated with Flipkart, where she worked directly with Sachin Bansal on building the B2B business of their Made in India brand Billion and also with Flipkart Ads as the Head of Planning & Strategy.

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DevOps in itself is going through a transformation where companies are re-inventing their own processes with the help of tools available in the market

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• Can you tell us more about the role of DevOps during the Pandemic?

The pandemic has brought more opportunity than challenges specific to DevOps. The lockdown has severely impacted almost all businesses forcing the tech teams to innovate, reduce costs and push themselves to become more relevant in the changing environment. All these have worked as a trigger for organizations to think about developing and releasing software much faster than before and automate more than ever. DevOps is a very collaborative process involving developers and operations teams to come together, and with remote work kicking in, we are seeing more and more teams relying on tools to make this happen. This will only continue to grow in the future.

• How has the DevOps Industry evolved over the past few years? Has it made life simpler than before?

DevOps in itself is going through a transformation where companies are re-inventing their own processes with the help of tools available in the market. Having said that, in DevOps automation SecOps and CI/CD are definitely emerging as big areas of opportunity where we see large companies investing and adopting it. Our recent release last month is CI/CD Pipelines that is a declarative, modern tool for containers + legacy apps. It automates code to production with advanced capabilities for cloud native apps.

• What are the key trends in DevOps to watch out for in 2021?

2020 accelerated remote work, expedited the migration to cloud, and turned DevOps from a best practice to an essential part of every business. As we move into 2021 the industry will embrace hybrid on multiple facets.

First, businesses will fully embrace hybrid workforces that combine the advantages of remote work and onsite team collaboration. Second, business models will become hybrid, such as conferences that merge virtual scale with local networking. Finally, hybrid will become the deployment norm as companies modernize their stack to take advantage of cloud-native technologies, but realize that not everything can move off-prem.

The winners in 2021 will be companies who embrace hybrid across their business, model, and products.

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EXPERT OPINION

Identifying and understanding key principles and

values of community building Marc Kaplan, Co-Founder & CEO, ChekMarc

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e are presently living in the digitally connected era where communications are instant and engaging. The availability of the internet has further made the use of social media and social platforms easy for people across all age groups. As the saying goes ‘all that glitters is not gold’, hence, online communication comes with its fair share of negativity comprising of bullying, abusing, and trolling.

The harmful impact of such negativity can be combated by leveraging the concept of communities to spread positivity in communication.

Having such interactive communities in place can help build a cohesive environment, reduce negativity, and improve the value of connecting with people worldwide.

Understanding key principles and values of community building While the communities foster strong relationships amongst its members and can have a positive influence on its members, building a community is indeed

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Marc is a visionary and began the ChekMarc journey with a vision for a free, positive and uplifting community where people could connect and drive change. He is beyond excited and energized to see his vision come to fruition. Marc has often commented that he wished ChekMarc existed prior to the business being launched because he would have benefited immensely from other experts in the field. He will most surely have Explorer requests, as he knows the power of tapping into the right expertise and knowledge. Marc is also looking forward to give back to the community and act as a Catalyst in areas of professional development, travel advice, and other expert areas that allow him to draw on his own experiences.

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Communities focused on fostering effective relationships with the members where they share a good rapport will build strong connections

a detailed strategy altogether. Before getting into the tactical task of building a community, it is essential that we understand our members’ requirements and preferences. Additionally, we should focus on extending a good overall experience as this aspect can eventually make or break our community.

We should take into consideration the kind of interactions members may want and accordingly create a space that can cater to their needs. By following this direction, we will be able to extend a meaningful, fruitful, and satisfying user experience to the members.

Here we share with you a few key principles and values of the community building process that successful organizations have paid close attention to.

Always keep your members as your focus A community is nothing without its members, and therefore they should be the primary focus when making decisions no matter how big or small the decision may be. This can help create a sense of belonging and togetherness amongst members where they feel valued and empowered making the community a contributory environment wherein members drive the community and take initiatives.

A true community appreciates all kinds of members Understanding that not all members are the same in terms of knowledge, academic background, and work exposure among other things, is key. Diversity across all aspects of the member profile drives connection, inspiration and creates an environment where people can feel appreciated and heard. Creating a value proposition based on all members being as important as the next adds value to the platform distinctly.

This vision along with the members’ requirement analysis should be clear so that the community can extend the requisite experience to them allowing the community to grow and also create a cohesive environment.

A community is built on relationships A community is a sum of all its members, and the effectiveness of the community is based

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on a fundamental concept – relationships.

Communities focused on fostering effective relationships with the members where they share a good rapport will build strong connections.

It is these strong connections that will further drive the growth of the community and also enhance the overall experience of the members.

A community should be engaging A community performs well when it provides an engaging environment. Keeping members positively engaged, active and involved along with communicating with each other can give them something that will drive their pro-active participation. This engagement comes from linking together needs, relationships, and common goals.

Extends a collaborative cohesive environment A community should present as a collaborative and cohesive environment. It should be a shareable ecosystem wherein one can easily exchange ideas, information, post updates, and resolve queries without any hesitation. Additionally, aligning members towards a common goal of the community’s growth will help achieve this aim of creating a collaborative community.

A true community offers multi-level growth to the members When every member devotes his/her time and effort to supporting each other and driving the community’s growth, the community as a whole successfully reaches its goals. Eventually, the community is able to extend various offers and benefits to their members be it achievement, emotional, brand building, visibility, or position of power.

Ensures a two-way partnership The partnership and two-way relationship between the community and the members is of critical importance. The individual requirements, desires, and goals of the members should be given due importance and catered to.

Ensures that there is fruitful interaction, privacy, safety, guidelines A successful community is the one that ensures that the communications happening are engaging, positive, flexible, and meaningful.

Additionally, the privacy and safety of the members is of paramount importance. Having some form of guidelines and moderation and safety in place will help in the communication being positive and aligned with the community’s goals and policies.

Empowers the members Only when there is motivation amongst the members will they be taking the initiative to engage and drive the community forward, and this motivation can be of the smallest size. With motivation comes empowerment and this breeds proactive engagement. With empowerment comes the will and desire to move ahead propelling members towards their individual growth as well as the growth of the community.

Facilitates inclusion and diversity A powerful community is one that facilitates inclusion and welcomes a diverse set of members. Diversity could be of age, gender, preferences, mindsets, geographical areas, economic, political inclination, etc. This inclusion can make members everywhere feel welcomed and valued, allowing them to engage and connect effectively.

Having diversity and ensuring the inclusion of all will help in the overall development of the members as well as the community.

Summing it all up A flexible and accommodating community possesses high chances of succeeding. Capturing and promoting diverse mindsets and voices and ensuring a collaborative environment will be welcomed and preferred by members. Taking into consideration the key principles mentioned above can help in the creation and development of an engaging, interactive, positive, and successful community.

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LEADER’S INSIGHTS

‘Compfie’

Redefines The Dynamics Of Compliance Practice Nagaraj Krishnan, Managing Director, Aparajitha Corporate Services Private Limited

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ith the determined dream to digitalise compliance management across organisations, Aparajitha Corporate Services Private Limited, the country’s No. 1 company for Compliance envisioned the need for a unique technology platform. Thus, was born ‘Compfie’, an intelligent software that enables organisations to become ‘Model Employer’ by being fully compliant, establishing powerful compliance tracking process, avoiding financial and reputation risks and unwanted board room worries. Organisations can now mitigate their compliance risks and stay smart with this e-compliance platform.

‘Compfie’ is the result of me and my team of CXOs, who worked passionately to transform a visionary idea into a futuristic global product. Backed by a highly energetic team consisting of more than 1200 plus compliance experts, the

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Nagaraj graduated in Mathematics from The American College, Madurai in 1993. He went on to pursue Masters in Social Work (specializing Human Resource) from the Madurai Institute of Social Sciences and then completed his Masters in Business Administration (specializing Human Resource and Marketing) from Thiagarajar School of Management.

Nagaraj has been instrumental in conceptualizing Aparajitha ’s business framework and leading it through. His expertise in labour & industrial laws along with a blend of logical process-oriented approach and people-focused leadership has positioned Aparajitha as the market leader in “Compliance Knowledge Process Outsourcing Services” in India.

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‘Compfie’ is the result of me and my team of CXOs, who worked passionately to transform a visionary idea into a futuristic global product

company is seriously dedicated to achieving customer delight with the comprehensive compliance management tool.

At Aparajitha, it is our constant endeavour to create benchmarks and constantly upgrade. We understand that real business success cannot be measured by market share or business volume alone. We know that longterm, sustainable growth can be achieved only by real client satisfaction and by adopting a responsible attitude towards the compliance needs of our clients. This ethos sits at the heart of Aparajitha and the way we work. ‘Compfie’ is in line with this endeavour. It’s a Cloud-based global platform whose DNA is powered by our 20 years of Compliance Knowledge and expertise across industries which monitors, ensures and drives an organizations Compliance performance; it also serves as an audit-ready tool with the required dashboards representing the current status and compliance reports of the organisation.

‘Compfie’ architecture is designed to provide complete visibility and a bird’s eye view of the compliance status across Global, Country, State and Unit levels. Our Compliance experts provide round the clock support in updating Country-wise Industry-specific laws and auto-configuring the software with an appropriate domain covering Laws under Labour, Fiscal, Corporate, Commercial, EHS, and Industry Specific catering to large global organisations, medium and small firms.

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EXPERT OPINION

How High-Quality Content Augments

Consumer Experience and Retention?

Narinder Mahajan, CEO & Co-Founder, ODN Digital Services

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hrases like ‘content is the king’ or ‘content is the backbone of every business’ have become a part of daily organizational conversations. But seldom do we realize that the power of high-quality content is indeed boundless and its potential is yet to be utilized optimally.

Top-notch content acts as a driving force for the organization’s growth and comes with various benefits ranging from tapping the target audience, consumer conversion, to enhanced consumer experience and their retention.

Businesses today realize that it’s compelling content that does all the talking and takes over the entire brand communication. high-quality content just not helps businesses target the right audience but also helps them boost their marketing activities to drive desired business objectives!

Helps show that you understand the consumers It is clear that a business can be successful only when it caters to the needs and desires of its consumers. In an already over cluttered market,

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Narinder Mahajan cofounded ODN Digital Services in 2015 and is currently serving the organisation as its CEO. Looking at the opportunity to simplify the digital conversion process, Narinder came up with the idea of ODN Digital Services. At ODN, Narinder is consistently striving to deliver superior quality services to the customers and keep ODN at the forefront of the industry. He is actively involved in designing service roadmaps and identifying ways to improve client experiences. A retail specialist for over 18 years, Narinder has worked with gamechanging organisations across different industries and formats of consumer retail before starting his entrepreneurial journey with ODN.

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customers today prefer those brands that understand their requirements and preferences and deliver accordingly.

Their brand loyalty is driven by the bond that they share with the brand and unlike the popular myth, that’s because of its popularity and this bond is developed only when consumers have had a good experience.

It is the unrivalled content that helps businesses cover their journey from that of an organization to a brand. Not only does it plays a major role in converting the target audience to consumers but it also has the potency to develop and maintain the organization’s relationship with its customers.

One of the basic yet easy ways to do so is by producing and publishing content that would strike a chord with the customers. Anything that is of their interest or is their need would of course grab their attention. It is here where we should utilize the power of content and deliver the consumers what they want so as to build a relationship with them.

Enhanced consumer experience and consumer retention Extending an enhanced consumer experience has now become the major focus of various businesses. Companies today have realized that doing this helps in developing and maintaining good relationships with their customers.

Once the consumer experience is taken care of, their retention won’t be tough.

And this is the stage where quality content steps as the ideal solution. As a brand, one needs to dig deep into the customers’ persona, and psyche to have a better understanding of their preferences. Once they do this religiously and offer customers what they want, their brand loyalty becomes unbreakable.

It is Your ‘consumer-centric’ and ‘consumer first’ approach will give you a competitive edge over the other players in the market.

Resolve customer’s queries As per KPMG’s report titled, ‘Customer experience is the new reality’, 90% of customers regard resolution as their most important customer service issue.

Resolving their queries promptly and gathering their instant feedback helps businesses earn brownie points and form good relations with them. It shows their pro-activity and that they value their customers and make efforts to immediately provide solutions to their challenges. This contributes majorly in extending an enhanced brand

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experience to the customers and further leads to their long-term associations.

In the present times when the online space is booming, blogs and articles are the best ways to promote our products and showcase their features amongst the consumers. These elements also offer a platform to instantly resolve customer’s queries and to cater to their grievances promptly.

Allyouneedtodoiscreatethelistofplausiblequestionsfrom the consumer’s end and post the solutions to the same. Doing so enhances your bond with the consumers and also leads to better engagements.

Creates trust The primary objective of any business is not to sell but to create trust with the customers. When the latter is taken care of, the former will automatically happen at the right time. With trust, good consumer experience and customer retention come simultaneously.

Of course, developing trust needs time but it also requires efforts and content. Creating organic, creative, and innovative content will help in humanizing your brand.

When your brand communication takes an aesthetic turn, every marketing activity you eventually undertake and the content you post will contribute in the development of the ‘trustworthy’ factor of your brand. And once your consumer trusts you, this relationship will be strong and will be for long!

The vicious circle of content, consumer experience and their retention To ensure that you optimally utilize the power of content, it should be original, relevant, of remarkable quality, and innovative so that it can effectively spread the brand messaging amongst the existing and prospective consumers. Focusing on the above-mentioned points will help you achieve this aim of developing stellar content.

While this isn’t a fixed guide and there is always a scope for trials and errors, the permutations and combinations to experiment with content are limitless.

The idea is to understand and deliver as per the consumers’ wish list and make them feel valued. This will extend a good consumer experience and the more enhanced this experience is, the more will they like your brand. And the higher the likeability factor is, the higher will be consumer retention as well. It’s indeed a vicious circle but all of this is doable by the assistance and capability of high-quality content.

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LEADER’S INSIGHTS

Luxury Real Estate

Trends to watch out for in 2021 Nishit Jalan, CEO, Grovy India

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eal estate is one of the fastest growing sectors around the world.

According to IBEF, by 2040, the real estate market is expected to grow to US$9.30 billion from US$ 1.72 billion in 2019.

The growth is complemented by the rise in income and constant desire to buy better residential, commercial and hospitality spaces.

Talking about luxury real estate, over the last couple of years, the segment has witnessed significant growth in demand due to a rise in the number of high net worth individuals.

According to the Wealth Report 2021 from Knight Frank, at present, India is home to 6,884 ultra-high net worth individuals and 113 billionaires. The number is expected to grow to 11,198, a rise of 63% in the next five years. These statistics indicate the potential, luxury housing holds.

With a sudden wave of relocations and low mortgage rates, the real estate market was on fire in 2020. Moving forward, various trends are expected to drive the real estate market in 2021. Let’s have a look at them especially for the luxury real estate segment.

Real Estate Market in 2020 The commercial and housing market is considered as a significant indicator of economic growth by economists. From the investor point of view, it is considered as a healthy

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Nishit Jalan is an industry leader with a demonstrated record of driving innovation and delivering constructive business results. He is the driving force behind the venture and manages the purchase, construction, and sale of projects. Erudite with a stellar academic background, Nishit has completed his BTech in Mechanical Engineering from BITS Pilani. Earlier, he worked in a multinational engineering firm Norfolk mechanical. Over the years, Nishit played a pivotal role in the growth of Grovy India, making it a renowned real estate platform.

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market for investment – obvious type properties. These properties from real estate signage all over the are usually second or third homes neighbourhood. where multi-generational families The real estate market among can gather safely with lots of room many others was hard hit by the for individual privacy.

Online booking pandemic in 2020. Though there Further, the following are was a mass exodus of people amidst the trends that are structuring the platforms, lockdown and work from home, the growth of luxury real estate: prices hit a low due to layoffs, salary virtual tours, cuts and shut down businesses. But • Growing Interest in drone shoots the government has been quite Second Homes pro active in reviving the market Luxury buyers are increasingly and video calls and helping the people seeking to on the lookout for second homes invest. Some important initiatives – farmhouse at countryside or for project by the government include higher picturesque properties in holiday tax breaks, lower interest rates on destinations. Holistic living has short listing are home loans and a stress fund of paved the way for investing in a Rs 25,000 crore for stuck projects. luxurious second home. common trends Also, the market started recovering Second-home destinations in the second half of 2020. As per are also becoming popular amidst among buyers PropTuger.com, developers sold permanent work from home or and developers 35,132 units during Jul-Sep 2020, a work from anywhere. Certain significant increase of 85% from the locations like Goa, hill stations, previous quarter.

Alibaug etc. are hot favourites Further, with impressive of the luxury buyers with their growth in online demand, there exceptional offerings of favourable has been increasing digitisation of real estate. Online weather conditions, modern architecture style villas, easy booking platforms, virtual tours, drone shoots and video connectivity and better AQI. calls for project short listing are common trends among buyers and developers. It can be said that 2020 was a • Location year of revolutionary change in the real estate market as An increasing number of buyers are seeking properties technology continues to play an influential role in property in elite neighbourhoods and tier-1/metropolitan cities. buying, registration and renting. Talking about millennials, Bungalows and spacious apartments at these prime locations their values and preferences continue to evolve and when will continue to be the favourite choice of luxury buyers. it comes to investing in property especially residential, they want luxury house ownership. This is because they • Advantage NRI prefer proximity to nightlife and entertainment and also, The increasing interest of NRIs in Indian real estate is a the ability to socialise in communal areas. significant factor that will continue driving luxury real estate in India. Many factors such as growth prospects of real Luxury Real Estate in 2021 estate in India coupled with value depreciation of the Indian Luxury real estate is one such segment that attracts everyone Rupee American Dollar has piqued the interest of NRI. and also, a hidden dream of many. After all, who doesn’t want to own a beautiful house at a posh location with all • Low Interest Rates advanced facilities? Every luxury buyer has different Interest rates for housing loans are at a historic low which preferences for the property of his dreams. According to allow for considerable savings and also, an option to raise Sotheby’s International Realty’s 2021 Luxury Outlook the loan amount. This broadens buyers’ choice for a more Report, the most important facilities for luxury buyers today luxurious property. are nearby parks or private outdoor space and additional All in all, 2021 will be a strong one for high value square footage for remote work & education. property transactions. We will see more luxury properties The report also highlights a significant trend among high coming up with advanced technologies, modern equipment, net worth individuals who are investing in large compoundclassic architecture and fancy furniture.

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EXPERT OPINION

Impact of AI on the Customer Experience – First Touch,

Live Support, Dispute Resolution Prasanth Yerrapragada, VP - Technology, Telebu

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merging as a leading trend in technology, artificial intelligence (AI) continues to be popular for providing hyper-personalized, outstanding customer experiences. Several companies have been investing in it mainly to improve efficiency as they are able to reduce the call processing time and complaint resolution duration. Organisations which are leaders in the customer experience domain have also been leveraging AI to increase humaneness in their services – to achieve a deeper level of customer understanding, create personalized journeys and provide them customization.

AI-empowered customer experiences are being enabled acrossdifferent areas, such as improving customer support and customer service interactions, troubleshooting problems and issues faced by customers, enabling returns, improving website experience, messaging and customizing offerings.

AI: Re-Humanizing Digital Customer Experiences AI endeavors to replicate human intelligence in machines. Moving forward, machines need to rationally think and act like humans. As of now, AI is being used to perform menial tasks, for basic problem-solving, learning, planning, speech recognition, and face recognition.

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Prasanth Yerrapragada, is spearheading Telebu communications towards its organisational goal as its VP Technology. He leads the product strategy and development teams which together focus on building enterprise/ customer communication products that are intuitive, customer centric, scalable, secure, compatible, iterable, constantly evolving, and businesses can build around with them. A B.Tech in Computer Science, Prasanth has grown from starting his journey as a Software Engineer, Team Lead, System Architect, and VP Technical Operations to VP Product during a career spanning 14+ years.

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However, AI will enable brands to behave more like humans if employed well – and the brands that behave humanely are the ones that will thrive. Today, enterprises exist because of the experiences that they are able to provide as that is how they can differentiate themselves from their competitors and interact with their customers.

AI technology allows an exceptionally humanized experience, one which the customers trust and would wish to come back to. Hence, AI is expected to become a vital weapon to reach out to consumers and increase their level of engagement.

AI-enabled technologies are much capable of understanding consumer sentiments and express empathy, make it humorous or show understanding and respect. Likewise, AI can reproduce digital human experiences which a consumer may experience in-store such as customer support, customized recommendations, and purchases. The entire customer journey can be easily handled by a chatbot, making it more conversational.

Therefore, a user interacts with brands many times before they finally engage with it in any manner whatsoever – query, purchase, etc.

Enabling Seamless First Touch Experience To ensure that the user keeps on engaging with the brand in any manner after their first engagement with their business, it is essential that the user has an impeccable& delightful customer experience. Therefore, hyperpersonalization combines AI and real-time data for delivering content that is specifically relevant for a customer.

AI, machine learning and algorithmically targeting technologies are advancing with time and they’re enabling intelligent opportunities meant to personalize e-commerce and other experiences for customers.

Brands and consumers are also proactively investing in conversational AI technologies as these can provide personalized experiences which are quicker and more convenient compared to the traditional ways.

Another pain point in customer journey is repeating the information that they’ve shared previously, such as re-confirming a phone number or re-explaining a particular issue, that they are facing, to multiple agents. AI-based conversational tools enable brands to tap into conversation histories, customers’ previously recorded intentions and other relevant data to lend that personal touch to the brand-consumer conversations.

AI-powered personalization facilitates a highly personalized seamless first touch experience that leaves the customer coming back for more. With these

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AI is expected to become a vital weapon to reach out to consumers and increase their level of engagement

technologies, vendors can analyze huge clusters of data faster and present the most worthwhile offers to their consumers. The seamless experience which customers get enables organizations to stay ahead of the curve.

Personalized emails, personalized landing pages, personalized greetings, personalized suggestions, instant query resolution, smart assist, and tailored offers for customers based on their location are all examples of how AI technology enables the perfect hyper-personalized customer experience.

AI and Live Support Live support technology provides companies with different ways to interact and communicate with users when they visit a company’s website and other media properties. Live Support is used by their sales, marketing and customer service staff to answer and resolve the queries of customers and prospects. Based on the nature of support required, companies can select from different live support options including on-call support, live chat, chatbots, video-call support, on-site support, self-help via KMS and ticket-based support.

Chatbots are deployed by organizations on their websites for offering 24/7 customer service all 365 days a year. These chatbots eliminate slow, clunky activities and provide quick, real-time responses to our questions, and the service is getting better with time at the kind of help which they can extend.

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LEADER’S INSIGHTS

EV Charging Infrastructure Market in India,

Challenges and Solutions Prashant Radhakrishnan, Vice President - India (Sales & Marketing), SemaConnect

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he 2010’s have seen the rise of the Electric Car as a force to be reckoned with in the automobile industry across the world. Large technological change driving Battery Performance, fall in prices of battery packs driving a cheaper EV and a market leading company driven by a technological leader with a mass following – Tesla and Elon Musk,have been some of the kep factors behind this charge by EV’s in the industry. By 2020, a small set of modern EV’s have entered the Indian 4 wheeler market as well and we are slowly seeing the established trends in the West entering the Indian market. Exciting new entries in the 2 wheeler EV space are also making the Indian market an exciting one to watch.

While pollution has always been an alarming issue in all the major and densely populated cities and towns of India – with the terrible air quality constantly coming into focus in the winter months across the North Indian plains, the real drive towards EV vehicles (both 2&4 wheelers) will be an economic one. India has always spenta massive amount of money on the import of crude oil from overseasand this import along with the associated forex costs and the huge state taxes have meant that India has one of the highest rates for automotive fuel in the world. Operating costs of EV’s today are easily 1/5 to 1/8 of what it costs to run a similar ICE (Internal Combustion

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Prashant Radhakrishnan is the Vice President and Head of Sales & Marketing (India), SemaConnect Charging Infra Pvt. Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of SemaConnect Inc. With extensive large company and entrepreneurial enterprise experience, he is translating strategy into actionable goals for performance and growth of the company and helping to implement organisationwide goal setting and performance management.

Having an influential academic background with MBA from IIM Calcutta, Prashant has over 25 years of experience in Sales, Marketing, Operations and Business Management. He has extensive experience in the Internet and Technology industry with stints in MNCs and startups over the years. Before joining SemaConnect, Prashant was indulged in his entrepreneurial stints, delving into Technology & the F&B industry.

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The paradigm of “fuel” in the context of EV’s is different – it refers to the “Charge left in your battery”

Engine) automobile. With the introduction of a new wave of EV vehicles in the Indian market, we will not only see a gradual move towards EV adoption and a corresponding reduction in pollution levels – lowering of battery costs (driven by technology advances and greater demand) will reduce the current gap in the capital costs of buying an EV. The Indian government has been reasonably proactive with the FAME (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of EV) scheme by the union government and various state policies including waiver of road tax and reduction in GST rates – a lot of thought and some concrete policies need to established for one of the critical challenges in mainstreaming EV’s – the challenge of Charging Infrastructure for Electric Vehicles.

Challenges of EV Charging Infrastructure Market in India India today has a robust network of fuel stations (numbering over 70000) catering to ICE vehicles. They span the length and breadth of the country and anyone travelling anywhere does not need to fear being stranded without fuel.

The paradigm of “fuel” in the context of EV’s is different – it refers to the “Charge left in your battery”.

In today’s world of smart phones, we are all familiar with the fear of running out of charge, and we always have spare chargers kept everywhere – one in the bag, one in a car and one at the office and home. To supplement the fear of not finding a power outlet, we also carry “Power Banks” or energy capsules in our bag.

In a similar way – an EV is also suspeptible to running out of “Charge” and hence we need infrastructure to allow us to charge “On the Go”.

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A short analysis of where people charge their electric vehicles in more mature markets in the West suggest: Over 80% of charging is “Captive” – being done at the vehicle owners’ home or residence; with the balance required for road trips and cross city travel requiring top ups at different locations.

Charging stations: EV batteries are much larger than cellphone batteries and hence take longer to charge. The typical EV 2 wheeler in the country has a 2-3Kwh battery, while a 4 wheeler battery would range from 30kwh to 45 kwh. As battery technology evolves, these batteries will get larger and also more efficient. A Level 1 charger plugged into your home 5amp or 15 amp power supply will take quite some time (15hours +) to charge your 4 wheeler.

Hence L2 Smart chargers are the need of the hour at homes, offices and retail locations – these would charge your typical 4 wheeler in 5-7 hours thereby enabling you to be confident of the charge levels in your car.

DC Fast chargers have always been in the news because they allow your 4 wheeler to be charged upto 80% in half an hour – but these chargers are very expensive to buy and deploy due to the huge amount of power – upwards of 100kw and upto 400. The real use case for DCFC’s is in inter city travel and should be the kind of chargers deployed by oil distribution companies at inter city outlets.

Given the number of hours it takes to charge a car even in an L2 environment, it means that we need the deployment of a large number – range from 2-3X the number of EV’s on the road at different locations to make it a fully functional infrastructure for EV’s to be a mainstay of transportation.

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EXPERT OPINION

How Working Remotely is Changing the Financial Cost and

Employee Satisfaction for Businesses Rahul Sharma, MD-India, LogMeIn

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hen the COVID-19 crisis was at its peak, most businesses and companies across the world decided to plunge into uncharted territory by taking the necessary decision of shifting work and business operations online. The initial rush to push employees and company functions to the virtual hemisphere wasn’t without its hiccups. But soon after the dust settled in, remote work has become the ‘new normal’ for many multinational companies, global businesses, and enterprises the world over.

Facilitated by the right technological tools provided by new-age SaaS innovators, working from home has proven to be favorable to increased cost-effectiveness, employee satisfaction and productivity, and business profitability. Indeed, thanks to the availability of advanced remote working suites in the market today, companies have struck upon an increasingly popular alternative for cost-optimization and financial planning. Against this backdrop, let’s take a closer look at how work-from-home (or ‘WFH’) has been a gamechanger for businesses and how the remotely enabled workplace is helping them bolster their financial planning: • A customizable office, reduced overhead costs Studies conducted amidst the pandemic have suggested that a typical business could save approximately $11,000 annually for every remotely working employee. There are clear advantages to saving on office-space rental costs, housekeeping and maintenance, operational

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Rahul Sharma is the Managing Director for India & SAARC region of LogMeIn, one of the world’s top 10 public SaaS companies, and a market leader in communication & conferencing, identity & access, and customer engagement & support solutions. In his current role, Rahul is responsible for spearheading all the operations and go-to market activities. Further, he is actively involved in defining and delivering key growth metrics, heading and managing cross-functional teams, and engaging with customers, partners, and stakeholders to build the ecosystem for LogMeIn in India & SAARC countries.

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costs, and more. Instead, companies can now leverage WFH platforms to enable seamless connectivity, communication, and collaboration between employees. Enforcing remote working models has empowered employers in the United States to save over $30 billion every day by eliminating costs related to real-estate, overhead expenses, travel subsidies, and other business operations.

the workers want to continue with the remote working arrangement in the future. It also highlighted the effect of WFH on employees’ mental health, with 62% of the respondents asserting that they are happier when working remotely.

Besides bolstering the mental and emotional wellbeing of employees, WFH can help reduce the gender-gap especially for women who are forced to juggle parental and domestic responsibilities along with the office work.

Working from home provides with better scope for focusing on childcare, domestic chores, pets, partners, etc. The net result points toward a better work-life balance, which only helps employers drive efficiency as well as employee retention in the long run.

• Curbing travel and commute expenses, lowering commute stress Indians reportedly spent a good 7% of their day just to get to the office in the pre-pandemic times. These numbers add up not just for employees, but also the employer. For businesses that conventionally allocated a certain percentage of their funds to offer A study has found facilities such as office vehicles and employee travel allowance, that employees the opportunity to enable work from home considerably can save between eliminates these costs. Not just $2,500 and $4,000 that but saving on the hassle of commuting also makes for a year if they work improved employee mental well-being and fewer stressors, remotely either thus creating satisfied and more productive workers. A study has half of the time found that employees can save between $2,500 and $4,000 a or full-time year if they work remotely either half of the time or fullfrom a less time from a less expensive expensive location location. This also brings us to the next financial advantage to bear in mind, namely employee productivity.

• Improved employee wellbeing and mentalhealth leads to gains in productivity One of the most widely cited Stanford studies from 2013, seven years before remote working became the norm, is about the effect of remote working on the employees’ performance. It found that those working remotely were 13% more productive as compared to their counterparts working from the office. Reduced stress of daily commuting, the comfort and convenience of working from one’s home, lesser distractions from coworkers, a reprieve from loud and busy offices are among the factors contributing to the increased productivity of remote workers.

A recent Forrester Consulting survey commissioned

by LogMeIn corroborates this, revealing that 75% of

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• Expanding your talent pool, minus the extra costs A lesser-known but interesting facet of remote work is that it truly enables businesses to diversify their workforce and make it more inclusive. By shifting to digital platforms that can be accessed remotely, employers can expand their hiring pool across geographical boundaries without the worries of visa and citizenship hurdles, travel costs, and more.

Gone are the days of being limited to local talent, as working from home has considerably increased the employability of those from diverse cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds.

Not just that, but your scope expands to groups like persons with disabilities as well as home-based caregivers in need of flexible schedules, making the range of perspectives much more inclusive. The influx of fresh talent from diverse backgrounds adds value to the business and brings fresh perspectives on board, thereby helping decision-making to become more progressive.

Considering these advantages, it is no wonder that companies have embarked on a journey towards a fully remote or hybrid model of the workplace. 451 Research highlights that nearly 64% of organizations have implemented expanded and long-term remote work policies while 35% of them are enforcing strategies to establish a tech-led workforce in the long run. The future is undeniably digital – the existing and emerging trends suggest that it is remote as well.

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LEADER’S INSIGHTS

How SaaS Based Platforms are Helping Brick & Mortar

Brands Ramp Up Their Business Rajiv Kumar, Founder & CEO, StoreHippo

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echnology is fast evolving to become omnipresent across various industries. Given the pace of its development, it can be tricky for an entrepreneur, who isn’t tech-savvy, to keep up pace. No doubt, the recent technologies can aid even those businesses to become more efficient, leaner and highly profitable which aren’t yet tech-enabled yet.

Implementation of the right technology at the right time and in the right place can help businesses reduce operational costs and grow simultaneously.

The future of brick-and-mortar shops has been changing into a hybrid of traditional and digital, and the current health crisis is fast-tracking the digital experience. Addressing this need, many brick-and- mortar(B&M) companies are taking to SaaS (softwareas-a-service) based platforms to boost their business functions.

And these SaaS-enabled companies can clearly attest to the benefits brought about by cloud services, including flexibility, lower costs of implementation and improved speed.

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Mr. Rajiv Kumar, a qualified Software Engineer, who has a 20+ years of experience, has offered his service to the Companies like Tata Infotech, ST Microelectronics, HCL Technologies, E-Trade Financial, Oracle, Waterfall Mobile, Tavant Technologies. With vast experience and deep knowledge of handling Technical Architecture and Technical Design Projects, he has started his own Operation of providing E-Commerce Solutions to the Small Medium Entrepreneurs and Individual Entrepreneurs.

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To stay ahead of the curve, retail businesses must constantly innovate, be agile and ensure accuracy wherever possible

Businesses, both large and small, have come to gain a competitive edge through cloud adoption. And though this may initially appear to be a sizeable investment, adding cloud-based services can considerably enhance customers’ experience for businesses.

How SaaS is Transforming B&M Companies Saas-based infrastructure can significantly streamline and improve the internal operations of an enterprise in many ways. Everything from Big Data Analytics to clearly charted organizational roadmaps have the ability to increase company’s efficiency and bring about profitable results for the business.

To stay ahead of the curve, retail businesses must constantly innovate, be agile and ensure accuracy wherever possible. Cloud computing helps them achieve all three by building the relevant capabilities. Retailers have realized that SaaS platforms are a cost-effective

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technique for providing a seamless experience and fulfilling the needs of the customers. In addition, retail businesses are also embracing retail cloud computing for improving their retail management systems. This way retailers are able to use cloud-based technologies to gain visibility and track inventory within the supply chain cycle.

Traditionally, brick-and-mortar retailers have offered products and services to their customers face-to-face in their offline stores which tends to give them a unique advantage over online businesses. With a physical location, retailers can learn more about their customer’s preferences and enables them to focus on providing a stellar customer experience. The year 2020 was all about moving online and providing one’s customers an immersive digital experience that goes much beyond a mere online shopping cart.

While e-commerce system is a key component here, yet we need to move ahead of the cart and focus on the customer’s buying channels.

SaaS-based platforms are offering battletested solutions to B&M companies and reducing the development cycle, effort and budget substantially. The main advantages of using SaaS for retailers are minimal initial costs of installation, negligible hardware expenses, is scalable and accessible, and easy to administer and maintain. Also, modern SaaS platforms offer a one-stop solution that includes marketing, shipping, and hyperlocal ecommerce for a better business presence and streamlined deliveries.

SaaS platforms built on the premise of mobilefirst principle can also help B&M Businesses tap the M-commerce potential and get better Omni-channel sales for their business. Hence, augmenting brick-and-mortar businesses with a SaaS platform can propel the company towards new opportunities.

Brick and mortar businesses with negligible or no digital presence need to start building their digital branding without further delay. They can launch an advanced online store with the help of modern turnkey SaaS-based ecommerce platforms. Alongside, they must engage in branding activities on various social networks like Facebook, Instagram etc. to create a buzz around their business. Companies can also leverage mobile commerce and build mobile-ready stores and apps to attract and captivate more customers.

Indian retailers need to begin their online journey on a strong footing. They need turnkey ecommerce solutions designed to adapt to their requirements. Additionally, these solutions need to be easy to use by them and their staff (delivery boys, store staff etc.). On top of it the infrastructure should be at par with the latest technology trends so that these small-sized businesses aren’t left behind in any way in comparison to their bigger competitors. A levelled-playing field in terms of technology and ecommerce solutions within their budgets is all that these companies need to sell and grow online.

With cloud, employees do not need to spend time managing data and related systems. As a

result, they can focus on more strategic business goals such as product development, sales and competitive analysis.

Digitization can open up new markets for Indian retailers, be it the mom-&-pop store or established local businesses. With a store open 24×7, these retailers can easily reach customers round-the-clock and by using mobile commerce they can create a better sales channel for their business. Usually, small businesses cater to a few blocks in the neighbourhood. But by creating a digital presence, they can partner with similar stores and create their own online marketplace to sell to distant customers within the city. They can also go for targeted marketing using digital channels as that will allow them to understand the local buyer sentiments the best.

Retailers can use hyperlocal ecommerce to get better audience and sales. They can opt for multi-store ecommerce solution combined with hyperlocal ecommerce. This will enable them to have multiple storefronts wherein they can have their shops displayed as a unique store and still have a common central admin. With hyperlocal ecommerce they can ensure better customer satisfaction, faster delivery with their own delivery boys and better customer relationship through their online as well as offline stores.

Conclusion The current pandemic gave a jolt to businesses of all sizes. But the smaller players had to bear the maximum brunt. The biggest concern right now is to survive and then revive businesses to preCovid levels. Since the customers are still sceptic about venturing out, going digital can help small businesses reach their customers without any constraints. With an online presence, small-sized companies can tide over the prevailing crisis, render their business cost-effective, and also open new sales channels for them. By making available big data analytics to the retailers, cloud services have removed the guesswork about what can sell and what might fail to capture buyer interest.

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EXPERT OPINION

Survival of the Fittest in the

Post-COVID World Shreeranganath Kulkarni, Chief Delivery Officer, Birlasoft

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he year 2020 reinstated a reset mode, making enterprises relook at their existing business models and accelerating their digital-first approach for business continuity. Digital acceleration, future of work and technology innovation emerged as common themes for global enterprises and sectors alike.

Digitalization has played a crucial role across sectors for enabling an ecosystem for business operations continuity. Businesses observed that during these testing times, the survival of the fittest was the ship that would sail them through towards the post-COVID world.

Flexibility and agility would be the imperatives for organizations to transition into the new normal and survive post-COVID. Adoption of Emerging Technologies While enterprises were already adopting emerging technologies, the pandemic has worked as a catalyst for accelerated technology adoption. Enterprises on their digitalization journey are using emerging technologies like AI, ML, IoT, RPA, etc. to drive digital

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Shreeranganath Kulkarni (SK) is the Chief Delivery Officer (CDO) at Birlasoft and is part of the executive leadership team. SK was earlier with Accenture, where he was the Managing Director and Technology Delivery Lead for Financial Services.

Prior to Accenture, SK was part of the leadership team at Cognizant and Infosys, where he held key roles. In his more than 30 years of rich experience, he has been involved in all aspects of Technology Services - in Delivery, Sales, and Client Engagement roles. He has also led large businesses units and managed relationships with Fortune 500/Marquee Wall Street clients across North America, UK, Europe, APAC, and the Emerging Markets.

SK has also anchored multiple mergers and acquisitions.

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acceleration, increase resilience, enable scale, and cut costs. According to a NASSCOM CEO survey report, 71% of CEOs expect global technology spend to be significantly higher than 2020. Adopting emerging technologies helps support COVID-19 guidelines for remote operations with contactless interactions and human safety in dangerous environments. The emerging technologies help in better prediction, rapid decision-making, ability to align with customer’s organizational priorities, and pivot to market dynamics.

AR/VR, 3D Printing, Automation for their survival in the new normal and post-COVID world.

Building a Zero Trust Framework via cloud A collaboration between IT and HR The emerging needs to be built to enable a trusted environment in which sensitive technologies data can be stored, processed, and help in better analysed in the new normal of workfrom-anywhere, giving enterprises prediction, and clients a feeling of safety that their data is secure. Businesses rapid are re-aligning IT strategies for the new hybrid work environment and decisionHyper- Digitalization Wave addressing increasing cybersecurity Today, the industry is witnessing concerns by implementing zero-trust making, an era of change, with technology security architectures. Adopting cloud taking centre-stage to respond to enables the IT delivery function to be ability to disruption, navigate immediate agile by cutting provisioning time, align with challenges, and build a more resilient reducing infrastructure spending by and humancentric economy. The having a mechanism to use it optimally customer’s post-COVID world requires adopting and facilitating system rationalization hyper-digitalization; a more Phygital & modernization. Cloud adoption organizational (Physical + Digital) world. The reduces disruption risk and provides current business models will have scalability to enterprises. priorities, to be revised and re-defined to help To maintain its place globally in enterprises grow beyond marked innovation, the IT Industry needs a and pivot boundaries by offering a connected policy framework to enable access customer experience, automating to the shared knowledge economy to market sales or front-end functions, resolving and ease of doing business. The key dynamics supply chain disruptions, etc. priority for the industry is to create an innovation ecosystem consisting Reskilling employees for the of innovation clusters where hybrid working model talent and capital come together to Businesses are seen unleashing new develop IP-led growth. Businesses, technologies and adopting new ways governments, and society need to of business this year. Reskilling has come together to reimagine, rebuild always been one of the top priorities for the IT industry and transform our economy into one that benefits us all. to ensure that the workforce is prepared for newer With the government’s encouragement, the IT Industry is technologies, disruptions, and can support business now looking to collaborate with vaccine manufacturers to continuity. According to a NASSCOM report, India’s ensure a safe environment for employees, moving towards demand for digital talent-based jobs is approximately survival of the fittest.

8x larger than the size of its skilled talent pool. By 2024, The business playbook of the new world will have to be this demand is expected to become 20x the available re-written, with Trust, Agility, Talent, and Innovation being talent pool. Therefore, it is of utmost importance for the critical pillars. A people-centric approach, advancements enterprises to reskill and upskill their workforce in in technology, trust-based collaboration, relentless focus digital technologies like AI & Big Data Analytics, IoT, on talent, and adaptability to a hybrid work model will be Cloud Computing, Cyber Security, RPA, Blockchain, necessary for survival in the post-COVID world.

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LEADER’S INSIGHTS

Impact of Automation on

MIS and Analytics Subramanyam S, CEO & Co-Founder, AscentHR

A

t the core of all enterprise-level decision-making is valuable, processed, organized information. It is gathered in an orderly fashion over a welldefined period. The availability of this usable information is no coincidence.

It is made possible through relentless work invested into collecting data, organizing it into searchable formats, and maintaining the repository of information in a query-ready state. This process of ensuring that data is kept ready for use comes under the contemporary moniker ‘Management Information System’ or simply MIS. Importance of MIS to a business No business in modern times tries to get by without an MIS. And for those that are convinced of its efficacy, the applications to be harnessed are plenty. The reliance on MIS reports has only grown in the past two decades and is not likely to dip anytime soon.

An MIS combines both the software and hardware capabilities for housing an organization’s data repositories. All operations required to keep the MIS in working order require specialized knowledge of Computer Systems. The outputs of an MIS are the reports it offers. A business could maintain databases and MIS related to Finances, Sales figures, HR metrics, Budgets, Trend reports, or Exception reports. Across an organization, various middle and top-level executives would require these reports periodically to make the best possible decisions in line with established organizational goals.

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Subramanyam S, founder, president and CEO of AscentHR, is an entrepreneur with immense experience in Finance, Legal and Business management.

He is a corporate lawyer and a fellow member of “The Institute of Company Secretaries of India”. A finance and business management specialist, it was Subramanyam’s quest for bringing innovative solutions and services in the HR industry that led him to build AscentHR. His experience includes exposures in Advani Oerlikon group, Shonk Technologies in finance, HR and corporate legal services.

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Analytics in the scheme of a business Much has been written about data-led insights being the in-thing. It continues to be valued because Analytics is the broad-range area of study that has made quantitative, instructive decisionmaking possible. Data-led decisions stand the test of varying business cycles. Accumulation of data with a specific purpose in mind, and the utility of the said data further downstream are the prerequisites of effective analytics.

Analytics are used by businesses to get answers to deeply-specific queries. Using past-data, future trends and projections are made to help a business make crucial estimates and preparations for resources. With the pull and push of demand and supply underscored by a multitude of factors and drivers being what they are, analytics is the lone ‘sensible’ way of making decisions.

Analytics and MIS – the invariable meeting point in business strategy If the maintenance of MIS is the core on which all decision-making is based, Analytics is the process of manipulating the reportage gathered over time to produce usable insights. Predictably, these two efforts are all the better for a keen sense of business understanding to guide the avenues along which they are deployed. This intangible skill is called ‘Business Intelligence’.

Business intelligence is central to the use of MIS and Analytics to optimize results. The tenets of Project Management may be used to coordinate all these activities and proceed gradually towards the listed goals.

The use of data-led techniques like Analytics on the MIS where Business Intelligence is employed to drive decision-making is sometimes lumped together under the umbrella term ‘Business Analytics’.

Enter Automation in Business Analytics Automation of oft-used processes reduces time and resources expended on it. The stakeholders involved in the decision-making worry less about the time taken to separate insights from the noise when automation is on point. Instead, they focus on the import of the insights, and how they can

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be deployed towards greater efficiency of their operations in the future.

The freed-up cerebral equity is then diverted to creative exploration, planning, and analyses which do not fall under the purview of numerical quantities. Examples of areas that stand to benefit from effective deployment of Automation are Corporate Social Responsibility, Sustainability, and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria.

Cost-savings are only a part of the picture.

The amount of trouble saved in repeated tasks, especially across distributed teams, contributes directly towards process harmony and outcomes are optimized. Where errors enter the workflow, their origin can easily be flagged and corrections can be enforced within moments. The configuration required for these additional checks and balances is programmable within a few extra steps.

Automation is scalability-friendly. Like any good piece of tech, Automation in MIS and Analytics can cushion dramatic shifts in demand, with little or no loss. Housed on cloud platforms or proprietary storage databases, automated workflows run predictably for pre-defined sample sizes, but can also be altered with minimal effort when the size changes.

These facets of Automation prove that it’s not just a good-to-have feature, but a necessity. Forwardlooking businesses cannot afford to miss out on the many advantages Automation offers.

Future scope Automation of workflows and task families across MIS and large datasets on which analytical procedures are usually carried out is open-ended. There are virtually few limitations to its applicability. With the right infrastructural capabilities, the full scope of automation across data sets can be envisaged by corporations. The transferability across applications and environments becomes possible by virtue of APIintegrations and plug-and-play automation systems.

As such the applications for automation are only set to increase in a largely-digitized business panorama. The true extent of it is, at the moment, only limited by the human elements that play the role of facilitator-and-master-controller.

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