CXO Outlook – May - June 2021 – India Edition – HRTech Companies Special by Connecta Innovation

HR TECH SPECIAL

INDIA EDITION

INSIGHTS. IDEAS. INSPIRATIONS

Agnelo Joseph Co-founder, Tattva Academy and Business Consulting Alok Bansal MD & CEO of BFSI Business, Visionet Systems Ashvini Danigond Executive Director & CEO, Manorama Infosolutions Pvt Ltd (MIPL)

Dr Milind Thomas Themalil Associate Professor, JK Lakshmipat University Prabhakar Tiwari Chief Growth Officer, Angel Broking Ravindra Sudhalkar CEO, Reliance Home Finance Vicky Jain Founder, uKnowva

Hemanth Chandra CEO, Pickkup Lalit Mehta Co-founder & CEO, Decimal Technologies Mayank Goyal Founder & CEO, moneyHop

Vikas Gupta CEO, Greyweave.com Vinayak Srivastava CEO & Co-Founder, Toch

Dr. Bhushan Sahni, Founder

INFOTR ACK SYSTEMS

ADVANCING HR TECH THROUGH INCLUSIVE DIGITIZATION

May - June 2021

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

May - June 2021

Vol - 2 Issue - 5

HR Tech Special (Indian Edition) Head of Advisory Board Dr. Varughese K.John, PhD

Managing Editor Sarath Shyam

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CXO OUTLOOK May 2020 - June 2021

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

How is HRTech Building Organisations of the Future

any offices in India's Silicon Valley, Bangalore, are either empty or half full. The work-from-home model that was taken to keep the employees safe has become a norm for many companies. Undoubtedly, the pandemic has created intense and instant changes to how societies operate and how individuals interact and work. A study conducted by Deloitte found that 68 percent of business leaders used automation to manage work during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to McKinsey, the need of the hour is for HR to collaborate on and leverage the landscape of HR tech solutions across the employee life cyclefrom learning, talent acquisition, and performance management to workforce productivity-to build an effective HR ecosystem. Today, HR managers have a more strategic role in organizations as they strive to deal with human capital challenges and sustainability concerns presented by the pandemic. Being one of the single most important functions for any organization in these unprecedented times, human resource management as an industry is on a tremendous growth trajectory. The global human resource management market size is anticipated to reach USD 38.17 billion by

2027, registering a CAGR of 11.7% from 2020 to 2027, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc. Now, advances in HR technology have instigated companies to implement a hightech Human Resource Management Systems. Be it talent hunt, acquisition or payroll, the HR technology has been adding robust features to support advanced data-driven operations. In this issue, we have identified, '10 Most Innovative HR Tech Companies in India - 2021' that are developing cutting-edge solutions to integrate upcoming technologies into HR systems for enhanced organizational performance. On the cover, we feature Infotrack, an HRTech company that has been in the market for over 27 years, offering services to a broad range of organizations over the period. Infotrack products have made HCM a business transformation enabler with purpose-built custom solutions specially built for the client. Enjoy Reading.

Sarath Shyam

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

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.

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

Mamta Thakur Former CEO (ASEAN), Arc Skills

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

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

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

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

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)

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

Contents COVER STORY

INFOTR ACK SYSTEMS

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

WHATFIX: OFFERING EASY-TO-USE DIGITAL ADOPTION PLATFORM SOLUTIONS FOR ALL

Khadim Batti, CEO & Co-Founder

STARTUP SPOTLIGHT

ADVANCING HR TECH THROUGH INCLUSIVE DIGITIZATION

NEW TRENDS IN TECHNOLOGY WHICH WILL RESHAPE THE BFSI SECTOR IN THE COMING YEARS

Alok Bansal, MD & CEO of BFSI Business, Visionet Systems

WHAT IS INDIAN CARPET INDUSTRY EXPECTING IN 2021-22?

LEADERS INSIGHTS

Vikas Gupta, CEO, Greyweave.com

3 REASONS WHY RENTING A HOME IS BETTER THAN OWNING A HOME KEEPING IN MIND THE FINANCIAL ASPECTS

Ravindra Sudhalkar, CEO, Reliance Home Finance

EXPONENTIAL GROWTH OF THE LOGISTICS SECTOR PROVIDES A CAREER TO MANY

Hemanth Chandra, CEO, Pickkup

OPEN BANKING: MODERNISING FINANCIAL SERVICES

Lalit Mehta, Co-founder & CEO, Decimal Technologies

64 CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

Contents EXPERT OPINION

INTEGRATION OF TECHNOLOGY INTO CAPITAL MARKETS IS GIVING BIRTH TO SMART INVESTORS

TRAJECTORIES OF TECHNOLOGY THAT PROPEL US FORWARD – REIMAGINING THE FUTURE THROUGH OUR PAST

Prabhakar Tiwari, Chief Growth Officer, Angel Broking

Dr. Milind Thomas Themalil, Associate Professor, JK Lakshmipat University

TOP TRENDS INDIAN BANKING SYSTEM MUST FOLLOW IN 2021

Mayank Goyal, Founder & CEO, moneyHop

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

IN MY VIEW

TRANSFORMING HR THROUGH TECHNOLOGY: REDUCING BARRIER OF TALENT HUNTING AND ACQUISITIONS

Vicky Jain, Founder, uKnowva

TRUST LEADERSHIP – AN IMPORTANT FACTOR TO ENHANCE MANAGEMENT SKILLS

TELEMEDICINE: IT IS TIME TO TAKE THINGS TO THE NEXT LEVEL

Ashvini Danigond, Executive Director & CEO, Manorama Infosolutions Pvt Ltd (MIPL)

Agnelo Joseph, Co-founder, Tattva Academy and Business Consulting

HOW INSERTION OF SHORT VIDEOS CAN CHANGE THE FACE OF ADVERTISING AND MARKETING

Vinayak Srivastava, CEO & Co-Founder, Toch

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

IN MY VIEW

Transforming HR through Technology: Reducing Barrier of Talent Hunting and Acquisitions

Vicky Jain, Founder, uKnowva

Vicky Jain is one of the Founder of uKnowva,

a cloud-based HRM software that happens to be the brainchild of Convergence IT Services. Vicky along with his co-founding members Abhay Talekar and Priyanka Jain has played an active role in the development of the software, which provides a 360-degree solution for HR Automation and People Management. Vicky has been responsible for the software’ s exponential growth & operational excellence that has merited uKnowva the badge of a trusted brand. Vicky Jain

n this digital era, when advanced technology like Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning has been transforming each and every industry in our country, how can Human Resource Management (HRM) be left behind? Even HR is going through a new wave, which is called as HR 3.0. Through HR technology, the complex HR processes like recruitment, performance management, employee engagement, payroll among other have been simplified and can be performed in just a click. Energing technologies have completely revolutionsed the HR goals from

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

Shifting to SAAS-based HRM softwares has provided the firms to have universal access to HR services even when you’re remote working, dramatically changing the practice of human resource management

13 merely getting processes in place to a more broad-based goal — driving value from talent. With the current technology at place, popular American worldwide management consulting firm McKinsey and Company has suggested that nearly 56 percent of their hiring to retiring tasks have been automated using the technologies available including the HR software. The HR’s role has also been expanded and more emphasis has been put on productivity and employee engagement. Gone are the days when HR was a person, now it has become portal. Shifting to SAAS based HRM softwares has provided the firms to have universal access to HR services even when you’re remote working, dramatically changing the practice of human resource management. The need of cost cutting or expansion or providing better services has propelled these changes. Recent research shows organizations that successfully adopt sophisticated HR technology tools outperform those that do not. Since many companies have automated their basic HR administration, these organizations have actually determined the use of technology to transform their HR practices and market their HR brand.

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

HR is now adopting new ways to operate and support every new decision the company is taking to reduce the effect of the pandemic

Key challenges of talent acquisition Finding the right talent when you have a huge skilling gap in the country is one of the biggest challenges in these unprecedented times. It is pivotal that HR team is using the right technology in order to streamline the whole process of managing the various job vacancies and spreading out the right messaging. An advanced HRMS helps to manage all the vacancies at one platform. It has been observed that mastering the art of balancing efficiency and quick decision making from the HR is the can being a big change in the process of talent hunting and acquisitions. Decision making needs data but managing and using this data needs to be efficient to be effective.

Role of HR during the current crisis scenario HR is now adopting new ways to operate and support every new decision the company is taking to reduce the effect of the

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

pandemic. The new role of HR is to become more agile, adaptable and augmenting. HRM must aim at achieving competitiveness in the field of HR by providing constant educational and training programs for the personal and professional development of the employees of the organization. It has been seen that the companies have understood the importance of effective recruiting and realized that without the technological support, it cannot be done. The HR people are now making use of the various job portals that are available online to look for the best candidates for the position. The complete recruiting process has become easy and effective with the use of the technology. as many people come to know of the offer and hence increases the probability of hiring efficient employees. Employers can present all necessary information related to job, careers and personal development of each employee on portals online. This is a great promotional tool for the organization.

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

MOST INNOVATIVE

HR TECH

COMPANIES

IN INDIA - 2021

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

echnology has taken over our lives over the last couple of years. With innovation at every avenue, it has become an inevitable part of society today. To this effect, technology has entered the field of human resources as well. According to the World Bank, the Indian workforce comprised about 472 million people in 2020 and is one of the largest workforces in the world despite the decline due to the pandemic. With more people joining the workforce, there is a need to increase efficiency and create smart systems to allocate resources aptly. Today, many organizations that embrace innovation opt for HR technologies to carry out their hiring process, employee payrolls, work analytics, and even efficiency calculators. These companies essentially use data science, predictive analytics, AI, and machine learning to pick out outstanding employees and even use them to hire candidates that are skilled and credible that best fit a job. With everything being remote, these systems help HR managers take control of the company workforce and keep tabs on them from the comfort of their homes. As we move to everything digital, employers can improve and expedite HR processes through data-driven recruiting and HR analytics. Being one of the youngest populations in the world, employment continues to be a rising issue. What used to be a simple process has turned into a challenging task for employers. Each year, a new set of people join the workforce, and with this influx, it becomes increasingly difficult for HR managers to govern the workings of the company. So, they adopt HR technologies to create more systematic networks through analytics, data, and innovations and allocate resources smartly and efficiently. We present to our readers ‘10 Most Innovative HR Tech Companies in India – 2021’ in this issue. Through cutting-edge ideas and resourceful conceptualizations, these companies have become leaders in their industry and have prepared the road ahead to the future of human resource management.

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

MOST INNOVATIVE

HR TECH COMPANIES

IN INDIA - 2021

Company Name AscentHR

Culturro Technologies

EdGE Networks

Infotrack Systems

PeopleStrong

PerspectAI

TIGI HR Solution

Key Person and Designation

Description

Subramanyam S CEO

The company’s customized HR solutions strengthen clients’ business infrastructure, processes and enable them to be more flexible, accessible, efficient & secure.

Ashish Manchanda CEO, Founder

Arjun Pratap CEO

Dr. Bhushan Sahni Founder

Culturro helps companies build the ideal workplace experience to drive towards their desired strategic objectives. The company’s end-to-end Talent Management Products for organizations ensure the 360-degree view of the talent supply chain helping make informed decisions and building an intelligent workforce. The company has developed state-of-the-art products that have gained a reputation for cost-effectiveness, reliability, robustness, and ease of integration within existing systems.

Pankaj Bansal Co-Founder & Group CEO

A leading SaaS-based HR Technology company, PeopleStrong’s mobile-first, SaaS suite includes robust solutions for Human Capital Management, Talent Management, Collaboration, and Payroll.

Jignesh Talasila Co-Funder & CEO

The company’s immersive and engaging game-based assessments capture cognitive abilities along with the personality and behavioral traits of a candidate, helping organizations find their 'Right Fit'.

Dax Bamania Founder & CEO

A top-notch technology-based recruitment company, TIGI HR is also known as the top most trusted and preferred recruitment brand in India for potential talent outsourcing.

WeCP (We Create Problems)

Abhishek Kaushik CEO & Co-Founder

The company filters qualified candidates with an AI-driven test creation engine, and runtime evaluators to hire developers effortlessly in no time, accurately, and at a high scale.

ZingHR

Abhishek Kaushik CEO & Co-Founder

ZingHR provides HR software that combines technology, effortless Cloud HRIS solutions covering the entire spectrum from Hire-to-Retire processes.

Zoho Corporation

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

Sridhar Vembu CEO

With over 60 million users worldwide, Zoho's 45+ products aid client’s sales and marketing, support and collaboration, finance and recruitment needs— letting them focus only on their business.

Want to Sell or find Investor for your Business? 19

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

COVER STORY

Dr. Bhushan Sahni, Founder

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

INFOTR ACK

SYSTEMS advancing HR tech through

inclusive digitization

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

n a short span of time, the COVID-19 crisis has brought about years of change in the way companies in all sectors and regions do business. Companies have accelerated the digitization of their customer and supply-chain interactions and their internal operations by three to four years. The advent of technology, changing demographics, and post covid-19 scenarios are forcing significant differences in the way organizations hired and managed their talent. HRs are no longer limited to doing the daily chores of hiring and managing employees but are also contributing

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

data-driven insights that can help in strategic business decision-making. Thus, digitization acts as a catalyst for HR transformation in the future, carving out a more strategic role for HR in the business. With the new-age dynamic workforce distributed across geographies, and the majority working from home/remotely, organizations are grappling with multiple processes, multiple systems, and multiple time zones. The established rules of HR need to be altered in correspondence with the evolving hierarchies, new organizational alliances, and demographic characteristics.

These changing workspace dynamics require a complete overhaul of people management and policies. Technology is getting inter-twined and is re-writing the rules of business and HR. “Over and above these challenges, employee expectations demand a more inclusive, transparent, and integrated digital workplace experience. Hence there is a need for the HR Tech platforms to be intelligent, endto-end, agile, accessible, and flexible”, points out Dr. Bhushan Sahni, Founder, Infotrack Systems. An AI-based, unified, intuitive, scalable, and secure, intelligent HCM platform that gives the users a hassle-free and world-class experience, Infotrack System’s People Dynamics HCM Platform’s mobile-first approach provides the speed, agility, adaptability, transparency required by the modern workforce, and delivers enriching employee experience with maximum operational efficiency. Post the pandemic, the physical interaction between employees and HR is minimized, creating an urgent need for a secure, intelligent, and user-centric system. “The user-centric approach of Infotrack ensures that technology assists the employees in improving their productivity by ensuring that there is a perfect balance between ‘Work’ and ‘Life’ for the employee”, remarks Dr. Bhushan Sahni. Founded in 1994 by a team of professionals with a wide range of experience in the IT Industry, Infotrack Systems has a cumulative experience of more than 27

Founded in 1994 by a team of professionals with a wide range of experience in the IT Industry, Infotrack Systems has a cumulative experience of more than 27 years in the HCM domain, which is reflected in their products, processes, and best practices

ABOUT DR. BHUSHAN SAHNI Dr. Bhushan founded Infotrack Systems (P) Ltd in the year 1994 and he is currently the Chairman and Managing Director of Infotrack Systems (P) Ltd. Infotrack is a pioneer organization in the area of ObjectOriented Technologies and provides state-of-the-art IT solutions to leading corporates of India such as ITC, SIDBI, etc and also the Ministry of Defense, Government of India. Dr. Bhushan obtained his Ph.D. in Computer Science specializing in Artificial Intelligence. He began his career as a member of the faculty of the Department of Computer Science. Later he worked for ICRISAT, a UN Organization. Dr. Bhushan was conferred a Membership of the International Who’s Who in the Year 2005. He is one of the youngest Indians to be bestowed with this honor. He was also recognized by the IBC Cambridge, England as one amongst the 2000 leading intellectuals of the 21st Century for his contributions in the field of Artificial Intelligence and Object Oriented Technologies. He was also awarded the Stony Carter award for Professional Excellence and Humanism in Feb’2005. He also enjoys astrology, palmistry, trekking and has deep interest in Yoga, Ayurveda and Bhagwad Gita.

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

Senior employees receiving awards after completing 20 years at Infotrack

Providing a robust engine for effective decision support, Infotrack’s Neural Network-Based Analytics helps transform data into intelligence, making analytics simple and accessible

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

years in the HCM domain, which is reflected in their products, processes, and best practices. Led by Dr. Bhushan with his vast experience in the field, Infotrack Systems have been able to help transform businesses for the greater good with their innovative vision. Their secure state-of-the-art products have gained a reputation for cost-effectiveness, reliability, robustness, and ease of implementation. Infotrack’s user-friendly solutions are engineered on the strong foundations of Object-Oriented Technologies and are completely integrated. When Infotrack was initially started, a lot of people did not have confidence in the company. “India achieved Independence in 1947, but the mindset of some Indians did not come out of the slavery mode. As a result, Indians had minimum confidence in Indian products. They still believed that they are not capable of producing IPR. We

had to initially struggle to convince them that Indian products are much better than the imported products”, states Dr. Bhushan.

Offering Customized Solutions

Providing state-of-the-art and end-to-end integrated, onpremise/on-private cloud solutions, Infotrack Systems is the only object-oriented AI-based HCM Solution that offers a comprehensive HR Suite, ER Suite, Contingent Workforce Suite, Retirement Benefits Suite, Travel Management, and ESOPs with an AI-based voice-enabled virtual assistant. Infotrack RBMS is engineered on strong foundations providing a high degree of flexibility, scalability, extensibility, portability, reliability, robustness, and seamless integration IRBMS incorporates the best and the most reliable techniques that not only secure your present but also your future. The Pension administration software system facilitates the smooth and hassle-free administration of retirement benefits management. All aspects like superannuation, gratuity, accounting, pension trust management, and provident funds are easily managed through this portal. Employees get the facility to view PF balance and update PF yearly passbook in this pension management software in India. They can also avail handy tools like the pension calculation sheet and gratuity calculation sheet.

Providing a comprehensive suite of employee relations solutions for HR professionals, Infotrack System’s ER Suite Court Cases Management configures itself to meet the organization’s requirements, gain control of employee relations to advance business, accomplish business goals faster and with fewer incidents. This suite supports different practice areas such as investigations, grievances, litigation, appeals, and ethics for managing issues across legal, employee relations, and HR. “By leveraging our ER Suite platform and powerful content management capabilities, Organizations are empowered to handle complex and unpredictable grievances more effectively with the support of contextual content and smart analytics”, states Dr. Bhushan. Addressing issues that every HR has in mind, Infotrack brings to the HR tech space many innovations like machine learning for recruitment, AI-enabled virtual assistant, Power BI for data visualization, face recognition and biometricbased attendance, interactive dashboards for real-time data analysis, and powerful people analytics to engage the workforce and retain the right talent. Providing a robust suite engine for effective decision support, Infotrack’s Neural Network-Based Analytics helps transform data into intelligence, making analytics simple and accessible. “Our services give any organization an upper hand as we know what is in trend in the HR industry. We help in leveraging effective talent management by accurately profiling and

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

segmenting employees and enhance their productivity. Our products also help in rolling out targeted initiatives aimed at improving employee performance and motivate employees to contribute to their company’s growth”, opines Dr. Bhushan. The products Infotrack Systems offers have made HCM a business transformation enabler with purposebuilt-custom solutions, especially for the client. “Our modern age HR solution with technology can be integrated and implemented within any organization to increase people’s engagement, drive productivity,

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

enhance top-line, and increase EBITDA margins”, says Dr. Bhushan.

Pillar of Growth – Employees at Infotrack

Defining standardized processes for their organizations, Infotrack System has an stringent and comprehensive quality management system along with their innovative methods to support continuous process refinement, service quality improvement, and maintain several certifications to ensure the highest standards of service and reliability

for their customers. “We are strongly committed to the continuous improvement of the environment. We have commissioned a Mini Solar Power Plant to partially full fill our its electricity needs and are consuming the green power produced by our own solar power plant. We are committed to reducing carbon footprint through energy efficiency measures and increasing the renewable energy component of our energy portfolio”, adds Dr. Bhushan. Infotrack’s team comprises functional specialists in HCM, Finance, Payroll, Tax, Telecommunications, Command and Control Systems, Network Management, Simulation, etc. Software specialists in Artificial Intelligence, Machine/Deep Learning, Neural Networks, Predictive Analytics, BI/Business Analytics, ObjectOriented Technology, Databases, Document Specialists specializing in Rational Rose and UML, Information Security specialists, etc. Having been in the market for over 27 years, Infotrack Systems has serviced a broad range of organizations over this period. Infotrack products have made HCM a business transformation enabler with purpose-built-custom solutions, specially built for the client. The modern age HR solution with technology that can be integrated and implemented within any organization to increase people’s engagement, drive productivity, enhance top-line, and increase EBITDA margins. “We have provided our services to various companies ranging from mediumsized businesses to Fortune India 100 enterprises which include some of the leading companies, banks, and government agencies such as the World’s largest two-wheeler manufacturer--- Hero MotoCorp, India’s largest private sector bank---HDFC Bank, India’s second-largest pharma company-Aurobindo Pharma Group (10 + companies), India’s progressive public sector fertilizer giant- Gujarat Narmada Fertilizers Group (GNFC), Prestigious Murugappa Group companyCholamandalam MS General Insurance Company Ltd, India’s largest retail giant Future Group (30+ companies), DCB Bank Ltd, SIDBI, ITC, Vesuvius”, enumerates Dr. Bhushan.

Delivering Customized Experiences

Endeavoring to deliver real business value by going far beyond by offering a mere HR processes automation tool, Infotrack Systems lead the HR Tech space with innovations like Machine Learning for Recruitment, AIenabled Virtual assistant, Power BI for data visualization, Geo-fencing and geo-tagging, for the Mobile workforce, face recognition and biometric-based attendance, Interactive dashboard for real-time data analysis, powerful people analytics to engage the workforce and retain the right talent. Infotrack aims to become a game-changer in this field with its intuitive, conversational virtual assistant powered by AI that uses NLP, NLU, deep learning, and selflearning neural networks. It is loaded with featurerich functionality and an intuitive UX based on chat and voice recognition, all in a conversational tone that feels natural. Artificial intelligence and machine learning gather data anonymously and refine it into actionable intent, enabling a personalized, predictive, and effortless customer experience. While most of the HR products offer conventional Chatbots, Infotrack’s Digital Virtual Assistant goes way beyond, performing complex tasks; navigating the entire system, saving precious time and resources. One can directly converse with it on the go, as it is now available on mobile as well as the web. “We have a dedicated team working on innovative cutting edge technologies like Workforce Productivity Tools, Employee Well-Being and Work Management, Intelligent Communications, Intelligent Employee Experience Tools, Intelligence Self-Service and Sentiment Analytics. With our innovative technologies, we are taking a creative angle to be the most soughtafter company in the HR Tech Sector globally”, concludes Dr. Bhushan.

Having been in the market for over 27 years, Infotrack Systems has serviced a broad range of organizations over this period

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

STARTUP SPOTLIGHT

A 28

Whatfix: Offering Easyto-Use Digital Adoption Platform Solutions for All

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

bout a decade ago, it was believed that if you were building software out of India for the globe, you could only cater to small businesses. The expectation and perception at that time were that if you wanted to sell to a larger enterprise, you needed to be physically present in that geography. Since India was at a nascent stage at that time for startups building software, Khadim Bhatti, CEO and Co-founder, Whatfix, believed that if he built enterprise software and sold it in the US or Europe, his company would need to be present in that geography. This is what led him to start his first venture, SearchEnabler, with Vara Kumar, CPO, and Co-founder, Whatfix, which catered to SMBs globally. Realizing that their previous perception didn’t hold anymore, Khadim saw many businesses were democratizing their purchases, and both small businesses and large enterprises were ready to bet on startups. Over the last three to four years, he observed that it doesn’t matter where you are located, you can actually build software for enterprises and sell globally from anywhere. During the pandemic, this has further accelerated. Now, you can build any type of company from anywhere. “Another aspect that has drastically changed is gaining local funding. When we started our growth stage and late-stage funding, we saw a greater preference for investments in consumer startups. Enterprise startups had to typically look at US investors for funding in these stages. Now, a lot of funding is available for SaaS startups in India”, adds Khadim. A Passion for Innovation Born and brought in Mumbai, Khadim completed his Bachelor’s in Electric Engineering from the University of Mumbai and Master’s in Information Technology from the International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore. Before Whatfix, Vara and Khadim had worked together for almost 9 years at Huawei and shared a common passion to build an innovative global product company

m Kh ad i

There was always an eagerness to work closely with customers and build something of our own, and that pushed us on the path of entrepreneurship

Bh at ti,

-fo

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

in India, which made them realize they could work well as a team to start something new. Having vast experience in the software industry, Khadim has over 20 years of experience in leading technology teams and has worked at Kenexa, Applabs Technologies, and CMC Limited, while Vara has spent nearly 9 years at Huawei in various roles from Software Engineer to Systems Architect. Working for an MNC, which was a huge part of his career, Khadim noticed that he typically worked a lot more in the background than in the forefront which did give him very few opportunities to work with customers. It was difficult for him and Vara Kumar, Co-founder of Whatfix, to see their ideas materialize without interacting with customers. “Vara and I are engineers and we have always been building products rather than working with customers. There was always an eagerness to work closely with customers and build something of our own, and that pushed us on the path of entrepreneurship”, says Khadim. Started in 2011, Whatfix was founded when Khadim and Vara decided to start to target SMBs by marketing SearchEnabler, an on-demand SaaS tool that businesses could use to implement recommendations for enhancing their organic search visibility. While SearchEnbler received good traction and gathered about 100 customers within

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

a year, they faced a newer challenge – the product was not being adopted effectively as most customers wanted extensive support and hand-holding. Building smart flows to solve this core pain point led to the inception of Whatfix. Whatfix offers a unique Digital Adoption Platform (DAP) that helps with simple in-app walkthroughs, videos, and guides for using new software solutions and features. In a world where sophisticated software such as CRMs, ERPs, and HCMs require significant training and time before they can be used to their full potential, Whatfix is enabling faster, more efficient onboarding and usage for all types of organizations. The platform is designed such that customization and authoring of outflows is one of the easiest. “Our content can be easily integrated with the learning management system (LMS) of the organizations and the entire engagement can be tracked in analytics for further modifications as well. Today, we play a significant role in the digital adoption process, while still allowing our customers to learn and adapt to digital transformation at their own pace”, points out Khadim. In 2019, Whatfix acquired Airim, a company that provides an AI-powered Personalization Engine for users and customers. By incorporating Airim’s capabilities, the company is working on providing hyper-personalized

-F o Co & PO Ku m ar ,C Va ra

Growing Despite Hurdles Successfully building a new category, many understood the problem Khadim and Vara were trying to solve, but they did not necessarily understand that there is a solution available to them, which they are currently tasked to solve. “We are invested in our mission to empower companies to maximize business outcomes by eliminating technology complexities for their users. We will continue to innovate while delivering enhanced customer experiences consistently”, opines Khadim. A global leader in DAP, Whatfix’s growth has been on a strong upward curve. Their customers have shifted their entire workforces to remote working, necessitating them to find new ways to remotely engage with their employees. Due to this, in-app engagement with employees by their customers through Whatfix has increased by 150% every month, as compared to the pre-Covid period. Additionally, the company has seen a 2X increase in revenue. This was strengthened through the addition of over 130 enterprise customers including Center State Bank, Vivial, AkzoNobel, Ciena, Aurecon, and more, adding additional support for desktop and mobile applications, in addition to browser applications. The COVID-19 pandemic led to an accelerated pace of digital transformation across industries. A great part of digital transformation is the adoption and optimal utilization of critical platforms and tools. Whatfix plays a significant role in ensuring that an organization’s entire employee base is onboarded and effectively using the tools at their disposal. Their SaaS offering is helping businesses increase the output of companies while reducing the costs of tech enterprise tools. As a company with the majority of its employees based in India, yet selling to global organizations, they were well-equipped to keep

in-app guidance at the user’s point of need such as analyzing clickstreams, how long a step takes and where users get stuck or abandon the process completely. “Gartner has recognized our category – Digital Adoption Solution – and positioned us as one of the pioneers in the space. We have been recognized by Deloitte and Everest Consulting as well in industry reports on this category. Recently, Whatfix has been featured in the LinkedIn Top 10 Indian Startups 2020 list, showcasing how we have emerged as one of the leaders in the digital adoption solution category”, says Khadim.

everything running smoothly from customer support and sales perspective. In the current remote working environment, users no longer can turn to the person on their left, or easily reach out to a colleague to walk through sophisticated solutions. At such a time, it becomes even more critical to enable independent production and make everyone more efficient to sustain business momentum. “As organizations navigate their digital transformation journey and make significant investments in software solutions, our platform will be a protection of those investments”, says Khadim. Raising their Series C round of funding in February 2020 and bring a total of $50 million, Whatfix continues to grow its teams to meet the high demand of the digital adopting space. Whatfix has a unique advantage in being able to integrate our solutions with almost any form of application. Continuing to innovate, re-invest in their development and technology, Khadim concludes, “We have recently expanded our product footprint to desktop and mobile applications. We are currently focused on expanding Whatfix globally in the ANZ, EU, and SEA regions. We now can focus not just on our existing customers, but expand the scale of our offerings to provide our services to enterprise organizations”.

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

LEADERS INSIGHTS

New Trends in Technology which will Reshape the BFSI Sector in the Coming Years

Alok Bansal, MD & CEO of BFSI Business, Visionet Systems Alok Bansal is the Managing Director of Visionet

India and the CEO of BFSI Business. Over the last 20 years, Mr. Alok has been instrumental in leading massive technology transformation initiatives and implementing scalable outsourcing and delivery services. He is experienced in managing strategy, global operations in the BFSI industry. He has a strong track record of scaling up businesses. In the last five years, he has grown the BFSI business by 5x, and the employee base has grown by 3.5 x. This is a testimony to his skills in steering and scaling a business and his Alok Bansal

leadership ability.

n March this year in Sydney, during the virtual Gartner Security & Risk Management Summit, the keynote address by Peter Firstbrook, research vice president at Gartner, articulated that security and risk management leaders globally must reinvent organisations in response to COVID-19 and meet the challenges that are now confronting traditional cybersecurity practices. Even though as Firstbrook said, 80% of organizations have a hard time finding and hiring security professionals, the need of the hour is a rapid response to the risks being faced by industries due to mercurial regulations, migration of workspaces and threats like ransomware and business email compromise.

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

Faster inspection of financial statements, credit scores and inherent flaws and loopholes in the lending system can protect institutions from massive setbacks

The pandemic has undeniably altered the way we work, live, interact and do business. The engine of the BFSI (Banking, financial services and insurance) sector too has had to deal with the aftershocks unleashed by COVID-19 and as the 2021 Gartner CIO Agenda Survey specified, remote working models now entail a total reboot of policies and security tools. Endpoint protection services will need to be cloud delivered and data protection, disaster recovery and backup policies will have to be rebooted. Gartner also predicts that by 2025, 50% of large organizations will adopt privacy-enhancing computation for processing data in untrusted environments or multiparty data analytics use cases. The point being that industries will have to adapt to new realities and interpret change in creative and constructive ways to be future ready. In the BFSI sector in particular, I see the following trends defining the future.

Prescriptive Security: The pandemic has made it essential to speed up processes with minimum human effort and delay and so a blend of multiple technologies will be employed for increased efficiency and protection from the danger of cyber security threats. It goes without saying that artificial intelligence (AI) and automation will play a big part in not just detecting cyber frauds but preventing them. Prescriptive security predetermines security controls and procedures based on potential risks and forms premeditated

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

strategies to protect and seal institutions against possible cyber attacks. Given the increasing dependence on digital transactions, it can get overwhelming to analyse the voluminous data that is generated each second but customised and prescriptive security measures can predict and mitigate suspicious behaviours, risks and dangers even before they can unfold. Data generated by businesses is a sensitive resource that must be protected in an increasingly porous world. How data is collected, processed and shared needs to be systemised and streamlined so that leaks can be plugged by the smarter algorithms of prescriptive security, even before they spring up.

Fully scaled quantum technology is going to be the future of the banking industry

Emphasis on managing credit risks: In an economically volatile atmosphere, how can financial institutions minimise credit risk? But the basic question first. What exactly is credit risk? This refers to the potential loss caused by a borrower's failure to repay a loan or meet contractual commitments. The danger in such a case is that a lending institution may not receive the principal amount or the accrued interest. A smart way to prevent this eventuality is to create intelligent and predictive analysis models that can determine the possibility of fraud or the risk of default. Given the number of bad loans afflicting the banking industry in India, it is critical that institutions invest in smarter, and increasingly intuitive technologies,

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

machine learning and analytical models to safely weed out risks. Faster inspection of financial statements, credit scores and inherent flaws and loopholes in the lending system can protect institutions from massive setbacks. Emphasis on fraud analytics: With faster business transactions, the risk of transactional data mismanagement has also increased. Error-proof, reactive and proactive, manual as well as automated response systems and advanced analytics can identify risks, detect and prevent anomalies and frauds. What fraud analytics achieve most effectively is the identification of the possible reasons that facilitate frauds. This is done through data integration after a painstaking and thorough analysis and mining of structured and unstructured information, records and the sampling of every scrap of relevance so that anomalous patterns and gaps can be identified. Experimental testing methods that assess risks, employ prevention mechanisms and offer remedial measures are now crucial for the health of our highly regulated industry. Analytics that protect against tampering, cash, billing and financial statement fraud and practices like site cloning are now the norm rather than exceptions. The importance of quantum computing: Fully scaled quantum technology is going to be the future of the banking industry. Technology that does not just optimise regular activities but presents statistical probabilities by processing, analysing and crunching unstructured reams of data more quickly than ever before. Quantum technology hence saves time and speeds up decisions, refines customer service and simplifies encryption-related tasks. During the pandemic, the skill to assess risks well in time is becoming invaluable and necessary even though it has still not developed to a point where all institutions can access it to make faster and more accurate decisions. The age of open banking: What exactly is open banking? Well, it is a system that allows banks to open up their application programming interfaces (APIs) and enables them to synergies with fintechs and third party entities. Through open banking, banks allow third parties to access financial information they need to develop new and better personal finance management (PFM) applications. APIs are the key to this synergy as they connect developers to payment networks and also improve the service component of the banking system. Open banking increases customer reach, strengthens revenue streams and helps banks to monetise their infrastructure and with time, we will see it growing and gaining more currency.

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

EXPERT OPINION

Integration of Technology into

Capital Markets is Giving Birth to Smart Investors

Prabhakar Tiwari, Chief Growth Officer, Angel Broking

An IIM Bangalore alumnus, Prabhakar Tiwari

has led Angel Broking’ s marketing transformation since 2019. He has played an instrumental role in expanding the brokerage house visibility through several award-winning campaigns along with a strong focus on performance marketing and technological integrations such as leveraging web and app analytics and AI/ML based retargeting campaigns. He has previously also held key positions across several leading consumer and digital companies such as Marico, Prabhakar Tiwari

CEAT and PayU.

echnology is transforming the economies as businesses and industries move towards adopting advanced solutions such as digital payments, online banking, and cashless transactions. Digital technology in capital markets is changing the market operations. In fact, the technological progress in capital markets is offering the opportunities to boost flexibility, scale efficiencies and reduce complexity in how the markets operate. The impact of disruptive

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

The technology here is not a replacement for the human brain, but is a tool to make it even smarter

37 technology on capital markets is as significant as fire was to the cavemen. Well, the new technology-aided solutions are only adding to the human capacities in the capital market scenario. Today, machine learning and artificial intelligence are part of financial institutions among other aspects like investment trading. The technology here is not a replacement for the human brain, but is a tool to make it even smarter. Let’s look at a few ways how deploying different trading technologies in capital markets is making investors smarter: • There are companies that are providing their clients with ongoing assessment of compliance risk by combining machine learning technology with high-speed and big data processing power. It happens as an AI platform allows for identifying complex trading patterns on a massive scale across multiple markets - in real-time. • Financial professionals now have the provision to go through financial data, access notes, market insights and trending companies, all in real-time, due to speech recognition and natural language processing technology. It saves traders time as they do not have to go through every single note or conversation.

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

Investors no longer have to rely on experts as data science produces trading strategies that resolve investment challenges

• Investors also have top stock recommendations for every day at the click of a button. The pattern recognition technology and a price forecasting engine process diverse sets of data to come up with a stock-ranking rating. • Technology is further democratizing trading. Investors no longer have to rely on experts as data science produces trading strategies that resolve investment challenges. Some firms even offer end-to-end machine learning, data science, and AI and software development for business— including the trading sector. • The companies are also setting up a trading ecosystem by bringing together AI and the trading community where they can increase earnings by scanning markets to locate optimal trading opportunities. • Some companies have deployed Robo adviser platforms which place dozens of investment algorithms to a million trading scenarios overnight to increase the alpha probability. The next day, only those strategies are shared with the traders that have a success rate of 60% and above. In a nutshell, it is time that leaders in the industry embrace these new-age technologies which are further going to transform the capital markets ecosystem in the upcoming years. Data and analytics are among key enablers for technology-driven changes in the capital markets. At the same time, the advancements in machine learning and artificial intelligence enables predicting abnormal market risks, events and detecting market abuse. Therefore, the way forward is to leverage technology and apply it in creative ways to develop the markets.

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

EXPERT OPINION

Top Trends Indian Banking System Must Follow in 2021

Mayank Goyal, Founder & CEO, moneyHop

Mayank Goyal is the brain behind moneyHop,

India’ s first cross-border neo bank offering fullstack global banking solutions catering to the global aspirations of the Indian millennials. As the Founder and CEO of the company, he spearheads its vision of revolutionising banking for millennials and becoming an aggregator of financial services where the consumer’ s financial needs can be addressed from a single touchpoint. A B.Tech graduate in telecommunications, a chartered financial analyst from Chartered Financial Institute and a financial Mayank Goyal

engineering graduate from Imperial College London, Mayank’ s inclination towards fintech was an outcome of his personal pain points experienced while conducting cross-border banking.

he year 2020 will be etched in history for the disruption and unprecedented chaos it created. Many businesses experienced formidable losses and surrendered under the pressure of the pandemic. The economic crisis the world experienced in 2008 was a result of the aftermath of financial turmoil caused due the fall of Lehman brothers.

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

Amid this growing ambiguity, banks today are comprehensively focusing on the use of technology to augment their risk monitoring and management capabilities

Contrary to that, the economic crisis caused by the 2020 pandemic is rather a health crisis leading to a confidence crisis amalgamating into an economic crisis. Despite being one of the most turbulent years in our living memories, on both the personal and economic front, 2020 also offered a few pleasant surprises. This disruption is causing a shift in the economic regime, driving unambiguous changes in the way business and governance were being done. The interruption and social distancing acted as a catalyst for several businesses to increase their dependence on technology which has resulted in high productivity and operational efficiency. Unfortunately, the financial services sector has been deeply affected by the pandemic and is coping with systemic issues, like the rising levels of non-performing assets (NPAs) as well as the looming global slowdown. Amid this growing ambiguity, banks today are comprehensively focusing on the use of technology to augment their risk monitoring and management capabilities. In 2021, the sector can be reimagined by leveraging the following key trends in driving banking and financial services seamlessly in the country:

1. ‘Middle India’ opening up to neo banking: The Covid-19 outbreak had given rise to a trend of contactless banking and transactions even in Tier 2 & Tier 3 in a bid to contain transmission of the virus. To securely navigate daily life with this behavioural change can be quite challenging. Neo banks or

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

digital-only banking ensures a high level of convenience as it eliminates the need for physical bank visits that involve tedious paperwork and unnecessary time-consuming long queues. The additional benefits that neo banking offers include cost-effective management, prompt bill payment and crossborder remittances, real-time analytics, and quick balance evaluation. Even though India still has a long way to go in switching to digital for the majority of transactions, with the improved efforts by the regulatory bodies, more and more customers can be seen adopting digital banking every day. This might also contribute towards bringing the country's 200 million unbanked population into the financial ecosystem.

2. Open banking to become the new norm: Open banking is a framework which was floated in Europe with the aim to facilitate innovation in the fintech sector by giving the consumers the ownership of their transaction data and enabling third party providers to build application around financial institutions through open APIs. Open banking proved its proficiency way back in 2013 when it was introduced in India by Yes bank and RBL bank unveiling their Application Programming Interface (APIs) even before the standards were set. Soon after other banks followed the league. However, RBI realised the necessity of regulating and further enabling this framework in order to build a more mature ecosystem for the digital transformation of financial services and better service the unbanked and underbanked population in India. As the pandemic regresses, more banks are estimated to get on board with many fintech solutions for a better reach and use technology to simplify their operations. There is an increased level of trust-building with consumers especially in India where

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

the Account Aggregation (AA) eco-system established by DigiSahamati Foundation (or Sahamati), India’s answer to Open banking regulation in the EU, is just getting implemented. This framework enables free flow of transactional data amongst financial service provider, with customers’ consent. Fintechs will now be able to use this data to create value added services for the consumers and MSMEs. With a streamlined procedure, there will be a new class of remodelled banking services and products that can help reduce debt, enable better financial decision-making, effective distribution of credit, financial inclusion of underbanked and unbanked and increase long-term wealth generation. The financial industry collectively hopes that the phase of open banking in India will grow rapidly in 2021 just like other initiatives like Aadhaar, UPI, eKYC, etc. 3. Democratisation of credit through Open Credit Enablement Network (OCEN): India has limited access to credit, which needs urgent attention. Since the country at present has close to 500 million smartphone users due to the wide availability of mobile services and lower-priced internet access, the new credit protocol infrastructure, Open Credit Enablement Network (OCEN) acts as a common language for lenders and marketplaces to use and create innovative, financial credit products at scale. The marketplaces/aggregators using these Application Programming interfaces (APIs) to entrench credit offerings in their applications are called ‘Loan Service Providers’ (LSPs). While some of the top lenders in the country like State Bank of India, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, IDFC First Bank, Axis Bank and Bajaj Finserv are already onboard to adopt this protocol, more financial institutions will soon be in a state of readiness to usher in OCEN for everyone in the country to be inclusive financially.

As the pandemic regresses, more banks are estimated to get on board with many fintech solutions for a better reach and use technology to simplify their operations

4. Usage of newer technologies such as ML, AI, Blockchain etc.: The banking architecture of 2021 will be remarkably different from the previous era. To remain competitive and risk-free, technology-enablement in decisionmaking is a requisite. The new-age banking system will emphasise digital infrastructure for the betterment of consumer services. It will be using ML to provide detailed insights into consumer spending for credit scoring and churning predictions, higher-level customer services and enhanced security. Major Banks and financial institutions are also realising the potential of blockchain technology that could massively improve the efficiency of their processes by safeguarding data sanctity, detecting fraud & eliminating risks to improve efficiencies, and reducing costs, particularly in crossborder payments. Meanwhile, with the emergence of feedback-enabled AI, there will be a paradigm change in the way consumer profiling is done and relevant financial product suggestions are made to them. Responsible AI will allow banks to maintain their ethics and governance and minimise the typical risks while driving continuous efficiencies.

5. Free movement of capital: Consider this as one of the paramount factors for any developing economy. Though India is a capital-controlled economy where every outbound remittance across all purposes has to be facilitated by AD1 banks and need to be reported to RBI, we are seeing some early signs of liberalisation. RBI's recent announcement to allow Indians living abroad to invest up to $250,000 a year in International Finance Centres through LRS can help domestic institutions raise money in foreign currency instead of going abroad. Whereas, for the individual investor, this will open up the door for one more new financial instrument to invest in. Another example of this is RBI’s (Reserve Bank of India) regulatory sandbox program to drive innovations in cross-border payments: This will empower the country's FinTechs to test new products or services in a controlled regulatory environment for which regulators may or may not permit certain regulatory relaxations for the limited purpose of the testing. This sandbox will help FinTechs and upcoming start-ups to innovate and build solid digital solutions while ensuring consumer protection.

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

EXPERT OPINION

Trajectories of Technology that Propel Us Forward –

Reimagining the Future Through Our Past

Dr. Milind Thomas Themalil, Associate Professor, JK Lakshmipat University, Jaipur Dr Milind Thomas Themalil, Associate Professor,

JK Lakshmipat University, Jaipur, is passionate about learning, teaching and research. He has worked on the miniaturization of Pixel Antenna (Agile Radiating Matrix Antenna – ARMA, for implantation on the Argos CubeSat 4U, CNES, France and has worked on microstrip antenna design for WLAN, Jadavpur University. Dr Themalil has published research in 5 Foreign Journals, 2 Indian Journals and over 15 International & National Conferences, including France & Spain. He has guided M.Tech theses in the area of Dr. Milind Thomas Themalil

antennas and wireless communication. He completed studies in India, Bahrain and Sultanate of Oman and developed academic professional career in West Bengal, Bangalore and Kerala.

enerational advancement in technological tools has a tremendous impact on society. The use and consequent advancement of such tools provided us with more control over our environment. Hence the trajectory of the progress of such tools and subsequent inventions became the prime mover for civilization, what we also call development. Civilization hasalways advanced with empathy by investigating different

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The full implications of the innovative breakthrough technologies on human life required several decades to manifest, for example, the widespread nuclear energy use became popular in the 21st century

design options for their tools and their socioethic implications that strive to achieve optimal benefits to society. Technological progress has always brought in fear of new information affecting society’s general decision making (augmented by the selective theory of exposure) to adopt a technology, especially in the postcovid-19 scenario. For example, issues of how digital technologies can be used to determine one’s mental health status require frameworks for integrating ethical analysis into engineering practice in the context of online digital mental health therapy delivery, also called digital psychiatry. Another challenge is to develop new products and services in highly agile environments, providing opportunities for those displaced through automation penetration. Each generation of technology lays the foundation for the next; for example, the invention of simple machines, in turn, enabled building larger engineering structures. Naturally, the role of technology as the fuel for future societal change and the social implications of technology emerged as the focus of research which flourished along with other new social movements of the early 20th century. Study of the negative impacts that the First Industrial Revolution had on society and the powerful capabilities enabled by the adoption of data-driven decision making was emphasized since1950. The full implications of the innovative breakthrough technologies on human life required several decades to manifest, for example, the widespread nuclear energy use became popular

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Stakeholders in academia, business, and government must have tangible results for the social impact of technology to be prioritized considering ethical, legal, and social implications

in the 21st century. Technological innovations of the 19th and 20th centuries along with contemporary global challenges and their underlying processes are deeply ingrained in techno-politics. Industrialization has resulted in extraordinary prosperity while forcing large rural populations to move to urban areas leading to higher levels of migration. The wealth gap between nations has widened too. According to UNESCO one in every five children, adolescents, and youth is out of school worldwide. Also, more than 25% of the world is at risk of preventable diseases, due to a lack of clean drinking water. The World Bank’s forecast is that extreme poverty has declined to 8.6%. We move into the age of 4thIndustrial Revolution with all these statistics, while striving to distribute the benefits of prosperity. Given the emergence of complex adaptive systems, convergence occurs at every level, so interdisciplinary approaches to understanding systems are critical, for example, the earlier generation OSI model for communication networks fail to make sense of newer capabilities emerging from the cyberphysical convergence enabled by the Internet of Things and the deep interconnection of computing devices.

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Technology trajectories enabled the UN to establish sustainable development goals driven by innovation, changing the geopolitical landscape. For example, technological innovation influenced the transformation of the superpower balance, enabling Asian countries to emerge as the global market. In this multifaceted dynamic environment, nations make distinct choices with direct societal ramifications like massive investments in artificial intelligence, often reflecting unbalanced trade-offs, such as those between enhancing defense capabilities against addressing a more equitable approach to social development. Stakeholders in academia, business, and government must have tangible results for the social impact of technology to be prioritized considering ethical, legal, and social implications. Let us foster a culture of thinking about technology and society that is guided by the economic and social concerns and incorporates ethics and fairness in decision making, thus codesigning for the future, transforming society and introducing new forms of governance to influence technological solutions. The future challenges of technology trajectories are significant but so are the opportunities for new ways.

Powerful protection designed for PC gamers

NORTONLIFELOCK.COM CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

EXPERT OPINION

Telemedicine: It is Time to Take Things to the Next Level

Ashvini Danigond, Executive Director & CEO, Manorama Infosolutions Pvt Ltd (MIPL)

Ashvini Danigond, Founder and CEO of

Manorama Infosolutions Pvt Ltd (MIPL), is a successful global entrepreneur and tech-innovator working on Innovations in healthcare information technology (IT). She has been conceptualizing, architecting and delivering world-class healthcare solutions for over 17 years. With Master’ s degrees in Healthcare, Computer Sciences and a degree in Law, this enables her in adopting a unique 360-degree command of Data Sciences covering Domain, Technology and Regulatory nuances. Ashvini Danigond

t is the most appropriate time for India to start harnessing the power of tech platforms in the treatment of non-communicable diseases. This remains the only way forward considering that the doctor to patient ratio in the country is abysmally low, which is merely 0.7 doctors per 1,000 people, compared to the World Health Organisation (WHO) average of 2.5 doctors per 1,000 people. Also, one of the key challenges has been that while a large proportion of population lives in rural areas, large healthcare facilities are located in urban settings. Telemedicine holds the promise of bringing in the much-needed change in the healthcare landscape through bridging of the gap between the urban and rural India. The sector received much-needed fillip after the outbreak

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

Telemedicine holds the promise of bringing in the much-needed change in the healthcare landscape through bridging of the gap between the urban and rural India

of Covid-19 in March 2020 as remote consultation gained currency during nationwide lockdowns. It is now time to take things to the next level as India grapples with a second wave of Covid-19 pandemic and the healthcare system faces the brunt. Set-up regional 24x7 telemedicine clinics in tier2 and tier-3 cities There is an urgent need to activate and setup regional 24x7 telemedicine clinics at Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities as a focused line for alternate ways of assessment of patient who don't require critical attention. This will help reduce the burden on healthcare facilities.

Need to enable real-time data and analytics on patient There is need to use digital health solutions to enable realtime data and analytics on patient, medication and vaccination for Covid-19 patient for planning and predictability towards supplychain efficiency. Incentivisation for adoption of digital healthcare tools There should be means to incentivise hospitals and healthcare providers for adoption of digital healthcare tools like Hospital Information Management System (HIMS), Telemedicine and other clinical solutions, which help is better outcome for care providers and patients. Towards faster and scalable digital healthcare infrastructure It is an appropriate time to build public-private partnership (PPP) projects involving technology companies working in healthcare space for faster and scalable digital healthcare infrastructure. While telemedicine was already in the spotlight during the Covid-19 outbreak considering the practicality aspect, but with new guidelines in place there is much-needed clarity on policy now. In the end, the success of the sector in the true sense would ultimately depend on building tech awareness for remote healthcare to gain further ground.

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

EXPERT OPINION

Trust Leadership – An Important Factor to Enhance Management Skills

Agnelo Joseph, Co-founder, Tattva Academy and Business Consulting

Post-graduate in HR & OD, with close to 25 plus

years of experience, shaped by actively formulating HR practices and driving training and development experiences for teams across reputed corporate, Agnelo leverages his immense wealth of experience, knowledge, and skill in driving change management initiatives at an organizational level using learning and engagement as tools of change. He is an alumnus of IIM A- having completed a PG- Senior Leadership General Management program to enhance his entrepreneurial & business management skills. Agnelo Joseph

rust, more than a trait, is a significant component of every human relationship. Come to think of it, trust between people at work is the crux, the basis on which the whole of the organizational behavior is decided. It creates an atmosphere of safety, well-being, and acceptance - all of which are crucial to building healthy relationships between employees. Is being trustworthy an essential leadership quality? Let's look at it this way: When you think of leaders, you imagine them as powerful, decisive, calm, and responsible beings. More often than not as torchbearers of right-doing, and someone you can trust wholly, especially at the time of crises.

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

Trust leadership is a very critical essence in building any organizational culture for better productivity impacts

Trustworthiness, therefore, tops the list of qualities a leader must possess. To simply put it down, when your team doesn't trust you, they don't put their best effort. Come to think of it, if you look back in your professional career , how often your decisions to stay or move was based on your leadership trust factor I am sure the answer is most often. So Trust leadership is a very critical essence in building any organizational culture for better productivity impacts. It’s the actions of the leaders that make very visible but subtle impacts on people working in the organization. While establishing that comfort zone is fairly easy within an office space, what really matters today is how effectively a leader manages to create/maintain an atmosphere of safety and comfort at the time of a humanitarian crisis like Covid-19.

Here's a checklist to begin with: 1. A non-binary approach to issues There are always more options than 'do it' and 'don't do it'. Always more options than just yes or no. A systematic, more insightful approach towards issues will not only help people grasp the depth of the issues, but also encourage them to learn from the same. Approaching issues with a "let's see how we can turn this around" or "let's see how we can avoid this in the future" adds value to the learning part of the whole situation.

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

More about

Agnelo Joseph Agnelo has been a catalyst in grooming and developing future talent and leaders, and creating a much-needed cross mobility strength for talent migration for leading corporate across the NBFC, IT, and Telecom sectors. He has been instrumental in building strong global best practices organizations having taken some of his organizations in the Best Employer club at AON & GPTW institute. "How learning culture can bring change in an organization" a white paper published by Agnelo, was chosen at IIM – Kozhikode as part of a learning case study for students.

52 2. Calling a spade, a spade Layered feedback, especially at the time of crises may create unwanted confusion. Doing the talk, calling a spade a spade makes a leader reliable and trustworthy. While it is important to be empathetic, it is also important to call out problems and solve them mindfully. It is important to note that spades are different type choose how you call and where you call. 3. Honesty is the 'only' policy Many organizations have been going through transitional phases at the moment. Companies are facing losses, structural changes and chances are a lot of them would keep going through the same for the next couple of months. It is important to keep employees at every level in the loop of the latest development so they could also prepare themselves for the worst. The shock value of unexpected news can have an irreversible effect on their lives, particularly their mental health. Transparency,

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

therefore, is very important. Don’t shift the goal often, create new playing tactics to score the goal. 4. Bridge the gaps if any As a reliable leader, it becomes important to bridge the gap between different teams from the organization, formed due to confusion or miscommunication. If left unacknowledged could create further problems, thereby causing unnecessary distress. A leader needs to be a fixer sometimes, just to provide a neutral ground for discussion. Learning to swim by throwing in deep waters is not always possible. There can be better ways of teaching the skills when using the same situation how it can be communicated without any gaps. Having a trustworthy leader is reassuring. It encourages employees to give their best while they can leave the rest on their leaders. Trust Leadership is all about the experience you create to enhance a belief system.

123

Higher Education Digest October 2020

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

LEADERS INSIGHTS

What is Indian Carpet Industry Expecting in 2021-22?

Vikas Gupta, CEO, Greyweave.com

Vikas Gupta, a young entrepreneur, was

born in Jaipur in the year 1987. After his initial schooling, he went on to pursue a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the reputed Birla Institute of Management Studies. Owing to an entrepreneurial bent of mind, Vikas learnt the nitty-gritty of ground-level management from his father. After the initial handholding, he forayed into the family business of rugs and carpets. Vikas focused his energy on carpet exports and successfully entered into hitherto untapped and Vikas Gupta

newer markets for Indian rug products.

ndia knows the carpet weaving as a traditional and wellestablished industry. Exquisite Indian carpets reflect timeless amalgamation of nature, culture and art while being part of luxurious lifestyles in modern times. These magnificent masterpieces created by over 3 million Indian carpet weavers and craftsmen continue to grab eyeballs by the consumers around the globe. This industry contributes significantly in the employment

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

Carpet industry in India is the finest example of how a domestic industry practiced at home can be transformed to a full-grown mechanised industry

and income segment as well as foreign exchange earnings. Since the inception, this sector has industry has been rural based, thus, it also leads to notable regional growth. The sector is therefore prepping up for major upgradations to elevate its export performance. Carpet weaving is not a newly emerged profession as the tradition of pile the carpet weaving dates as far back as the 16th century, when Mughals established the art of carpet weaving in the town of Akbarabad, now Agra. Carpet weaving continued expanding and surviving in India under the patronage of the Indian nobility. The contribution of carpet industry to employment and income generation is well-recognised. It remarkably caters to the employment in rural and semi-urban areas, while contributing substantially to the societal objectives like poverty alleviation with the help of employment generation. Indian carpet industry is primarily an export-oriented industry. Indian carpets are exported globally to around 200 countries. USA, Germany, UK, UAE, Italy, Australia, Turkey, France, Canada, Belgium, Brazil, Japan, Netherland, Saudi Arab and Sweden are considered to the extensive carpet exporting destinations.

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

Adoption of omni channel retail will continue to have a profound impact on every element of the supply chain

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

Carpet industry in India is the finest example of how a domestic industry practiced at home can be transformed to a full-grown mechanised industry. The sector is growing exponentially from the safer confines of the home where the carpet was weaved to the market catering global audience with its online and offline presence. Strategic business models are being widely used in the textiles world these days to analyse the problems and prospects of any business situation. Since the COVID crisis has hit the market badly, more brands are now gearing up to mark their presence on digital mediums through virtual fairs and online business. The digital presence is expected to enhance brand’s ability to generate traffic and sales for the business. Virtual fairs and online shopping platforms will boost the ability to reach people through the website, through which the brands will witness significant amount of increase in the number of customers. The online visibility will not only foster the business but also help the entire carpet industry to emerge as an organized sector while increasing brand’s credibility and visibility in the larger target audience. Adoption of omni channel retail will continue to have a profound impact on every element of the supply chain. The strong presence on mobile search engines like Google Mobile will strengthen the brand while helping them with digital systems. Mobile e-mail is seen the most used extension of telecommunication functionality and search functions are the primary driver of Internet commerce, so it can be a lucrative adaptation. Brands and retailers need will enable transactions and deliver confirmations via the mobile web or phones. Various brands have understood that it is the right time to get strategic about cross-channel targeting and marketing. Also, the paramount use of analytics to mine business intelligence and understand customers will be critical.

CXO OUTLOOK Higher Education Digest May - June 2019 2021 December October January 2020

LEADERS INSIGHTS

3 Reasons Why Renting a Home is Better Than Owning a Home Keeping in Mind the Financial Aspects

Ravindra Sudhalkar, CEO, Reliance Home Finance

With over two decades of experience

in the financial services sector Ravindra Sudhalkar, has transformed the way of doing business for the organization. Being a passionate leader, Ravindra has led the way for RHF to being one of the Best Places to Work. Under his leadership RHF’ s employee base has scaled to 900 employees from 800, a year ago. Ravindra holds an MBA and MSc. Electronics degree.

Ravindra Sudhalkar

he home rental market in India has been gaining traction steadily over the years. Considering the high property prices in most metro cities, buying a house is still a financial undertaking which could prove to be taxing on the funding resources of an individual. On the other hand, renting a home within the city is still quite affordable, as annual rentals are just 1-3% of the value of the property. In this regard, one of the most attractive advantages that renting instead of buying a home is that an individual gets

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

People who relocate to a metro city, it is in their best interest to stay on rent for a year or two before deciding on buying a property

a wide choice of locations and the flexibility to relocate if needed. We would look at someone taking property on rent as an individual who wants to postpone the decision of buying a house immediately. If there are expenses envisaged such as funds for child education, which would erode the savings significantly or if one is not sure about the stability of a job and location, if one wants to start a new business in the near future, then taking a property on rent remain a good proposition. Similarly, people who relocate to a metro city, it is in their best interest to stay on rent for a year or two before deciding on buying a property. Ideally, as a thumb rule, a tenant should not spend more than 25-30% of the household income on rent. Maintenance of the property, which can be recurring in nature is another cost factor. These can be property tax, regular repairs, and society maintenance charges among others. As a tenant, an individual doesn’t need to worry about such cost heads. A better option could be that, if an individual decides against buying a home, they can instead invest the funds which would have gone into paying equated monthly installments (EMIs) into financial products for better returns, while staying in a rented accommodation that does not pinch their pockets as much as an EMI would do.

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

LEADERS INSIGHTS

Exponential Growth of the Logistics Sector Provides a Career to Many

Hemanth Chandra, CEO, Pickkup

B Hemanth Chandra

acked by a technology-driven transformation, the logistics sector has in recent years emerged as a leading contributor to the economy as well as a major employment generator. The logistics sector in India is estimated to be a USD 200 billion industry with a contribution of over 14% to India’s GDP. The post COVID economic transition has further boosted the growth of the sector while accelerating a digital transformation across the logistics chain – from warehousing to supply chain management right to the last mile delivery. As per an assessment by the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) last year, logistics was among the five top employment generating sectors in the post COVID economy in India (the others being tourism and hospitality, construction, information technology and telecom). Interestingly, the pandemic and its aftermath have served to transform the logistics sector from a supporting service sector into an essential one. With the growth of e commerce penetrating down to smaller towns and a large number of businesses shifting to online selling, the demand for efficient logistics services has surged over the past year. This has also given a major push for value addition, automation, resource optimisation, digitization and adoption of best practices for the logistics space. Surge in high skilled specialized jobs While the need for optimising logistics costs and resources was always high, the post COVID environment has made it indispensable

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

With the growth of e commerce penetrating down to smaller towns and a large number of businesses shifting to online selling, the demand for efficient logistics services has surged over the past year

for logistics service providers to improve the predictability of the supply chain and make the entire logistics process transparent and trackable. The need for establishing automated warehouses, ushering in system upgradation in the entire supply chain and instituting enhanced navigation facilities is driving the next phase of growth of the logistics sector. The need to digitise and automate processes has generated a growing demand for professionals with specialized skills such as digital adoption, data analysis, AI know how and automation, to name a few. In the post COVID world, delivery providers have in many places toyed with the idea of robotic or drone deliveries of food and medicines. In the American city of Houston, Domino’s Pizza is starting a robotic pizza delivery system to meet the rising demand for online orders for pizza. In an Ireland town, a startup has announced the use of drones to deliver mobile phones and tablets to residents. At the same time, as demand for same day or next day deliveries rises, the last mile delivery apparatus is being upgraded with tech-enabled solutions to optimise resources, predict order volumes and ensure route optimisation. Clearly, the logistics industry is no more a ‘low-skilled’ industry and is actively seeking highly skilled human resource to herald the rapid deployment of digital technology, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. According to an estimate, the logistics sector employed about 21.24 million people back in 2016 and this number was expected to go beyond 30 million by 2022. From rising demand

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

The logistics industry is no more a ‘low-skilled’ industry and is actively seeking highly skilled human resource to herald the rapid deployment of digital technology, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

for courier delivery agents to warehouse managers, data analysts and people with specialised skills such as project mapping and process conversion, the sector is opening a range of work opportunities for both skilled and unskilled professionals.

Surging job opportunities in the logistics space Here are a few career opportunities that will find increasing resonance in the logistics space in the coming years: AI Professionals The use of ArtificiaI Intelligence backed tools is enabling the logistics sector save time and costs by automating a series of manual tasks while helping optimise resources across the supply chain. AI Professionals are therefore in high demand to herald new algorithmic solutions, automated systems and predictive models for guiding the dynamic processes that are the need of the time. Data Analysts Like many other fields, Big Data and predictive analysis is presenting a huge opportunity in the field of logistics, supply chain management and last mile delivery as well. Effective predictive analytical solutions helps service providers predict order volumes and analyse the behavioural

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

patterns of customers. Similarly, predictive analysis allows logistics applications to achieve route optimization and streamline processes across the supply chain. Already, E commerce companies are leveraging Big Data is a major way to achieve better targeting and customisation of their selling approaches. Professionals with data analysis skills are therefore likely to be a major draw in the logistics space. Delivery agents This is a given! As e commerce sales surge and doorstep delivery becomes a necessity rather than a luxury, there has been rising demand for courier delivery agents across the urban landscape. Over the past year, the demand for last mile delivery agents has already surged as online purchases pick pace in every sector – be it food, medicines or consumer goods. Warehousing managers With online buying of food and grocery generating an increasing demand for same day deliveries across top tier as well as smaller cities, e commerce providers are increasingly feeling the need for establishing warehousing facilities in multiple cities. This has in turn led to an increasing demand for warehousing managers, not just to man the facilities physically but also update the digital warehouse management systems.

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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CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

LEADERS INSIGHTS

Open Banking:

Modernising Financial Services

Lalit Mehta, Co-founder & CEO, Decimal Technologies

Lalit Mehta, the Co-founder & CEO at Decimal

Technologies is the driving force behind the company that has pioneered digital banking over the last decade. Lalit founded Decimal Technologies in 2009, when the concept of digital transformation in the BFSI sector was in its infancy. Under his leadership, the company enabled early adopters in Indian banking ecosystem to implement digital technologies and thereby helping them to become leaders in newage banking today.

Lalit Mehta

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

anking is evolving rapidly with the changing expectations and behaviours of customers and emerging technologies. During the coronavirus pandemic, integration of technology and digital transformation became the call of the hour in a socially distanced world and financial organisations had no choice but to adapt. The shift towards digital banking is accelerating as consumers are increasingly starting to prefer virtual processes. Financial institutions are partnering with Fintechs to meet the new demands and application programming interfaces or APIs are witnessing a surge in utility, giving rise to ‘Open Banking’. Open Banking is not a new concept but it gained prominence during the past year when the move to digital became essential.

Open Banking works when banks and other financial share their consumer banking data with thirdparty financial service providers such as Fintechs

Open Banking works when banks and other financial share their consumer banking data with thirdparty financial service providers such as Fintechs. This data sharing is done through APIs as they allow varied softwares to communicate with each other instantly. This enables the establishment of strong networks across financial institutions and creation of robust mobile platforms addressing the customers’ demands of ease of doing cross-platform financial transactions. Financial institutions can build better products and services on the back of Open Banking. For instance, a person might have multiple bank accounts for different purposes and keeping a track of the transactions from all the accounts can get tedious. In this case, open APIs built by banks that allow Fintechs to read the transaction data can export the account management in one accessible mobile app. Many leading banks in India such as YES Bank, Kotak Bank have opened their API portals for collaboration with niche fintechs. With the access to data from financial institutions, Fintechs are able to build solutions that enhance the customer experience with personalised offerings, foster innovation and partnership between Fintechs and banks, and democratises the financial infrastructure.

Open Banking in India Indians don’t have to look far to witness the benefits of Open Banking with one of its most significant successes being the United Payments Interface (UPI) that brought about massive transformation

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

More about

Lalit Mehta At Decimal Technologies, Lalit’s role encompasses conceptualizing new products & offerings, own key client relationships, giving direction and shaping the future roadmap for the company. He has built a path for Decimal where it can keep reinventing every few years and stay ahead of the curve. Lalit has been instrumental in design and delivery of some of the best know Digital Implementations in Indian Banking and Financial Services. Lalit has over two decades of experience leading innovation in the fields of finance and technology. He is a serial entrepreneur who has founded another company in identity and access management viz., Mobico Comodo, in addition to one in the education space called The Olive Schools. Interestingly, Lalit has also worked in the automotive space and was a part of his family car dealership business before he found his calling in finance.

Lalit holds an MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

to the digital payments landscape in India. Transaction volumes over UPI more than doubled over the past year from 1.25 billion to 2.73 billion in March 2021. This is due to UPI offering customers an ease of conducting transactions with any other bank account by linking their bank accounts to registered mobile apps. It has enabled real-time payments and is driving financial inclusion. Open Credit Enablement Network (OCEN) is another framework of APIs that has the potential of expanding access to credit to the unbanked and underbanked areas. The framework will allow the lenders (such as banks and NBFCs), loan service providers (such as fintech players) and account aggregators to interact and develop innovative scalable credit products. Lenders also need to

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

adopt customer-centric business models to survive and by addressing the needs of the MSME segment, OCEN will ensure real-time loan approvals. In another boost to the digital banking, RBI recently announced their decision to allow mobile wallets to process RTGS and NEFT transactions. This means that mobile wallets will soon be able to receive and transfer funds, a service that was limited to bank accounts till now. Customers will also be able to use their mobile wallets to withdraw cash at ATMs. This will bring Fintechs companies on par with banks. Customer-centric banking experience Increased adoption of Open Banking can significantly improve the banking experience

Increased adoption of Open Banking can significantly improve the banking experience of the customers

of the customers. Banks and other financial institutions usually offer limited options and standard services to all their customers. Open Banking will open up the choices available to customers and give them the freedom to go with the most customised of offerings. Domestic payments have already been made more convenient with digital wallets. The lethargic process of transferring money overseas is slowly being made smoother, less expensive and faster by fintech companies with the help of APIs. Open Banking can empower customers by allowing them to take charge of their own finances by providing transparency. APIs can streamline the various financial activities linked to one customer in a single record and help them manage multiple accounts in with ease. With data being the foundation of Open Banking, cybersecurity remains the most important aspect of this framework. It is important for the banks to prioritise privacy, security and strict laws ensuring both as they move towards Open Banking and the society transforms into a cashless global economy. Fintech partners can identify the risks beforehand and build infrastructures to mitigate them. APIs also provide the added advantage of communication without a customer’s account credentials being revealed, that is, the Fintechs do not store passwords or other data. Conclusion In the highly competitive banking industry, it is important for financial institutions to adopt a customer-centric approach. Customers prefer more autonomy over their financial transactions. The traditional model of banking will not be sustainable for long as the demands to be able access to financial data anytime is increasing. Open Banking is expected to transform the banking industry over the next few years and the financial institutions need to adapt to it in order to not be left behind.

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

EXPERT OPINION

How Insertion of Short Videos can Change the Face of Advertising and Marketing 68

Vinayak Srivastava, CEO & Co-Founder, Toch

nline content, undeniably, has become the king in today’s tech-driven world. A large percentage of this online content consumptionis constituted of short videos which are becoming the next big thing for advertising and brands across the globe. Video ad spending has been garnering increasing momentum and brands are transitioning towards digital channels with a focus on in-video ads.

Vinayak Srivastava

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

Exploring new landscapes and possibilities Video based ads have an advantage over traditionalmedia by virtue of allowing brands to collect important data about targeted and customized audiences that result in the formation of actionable insights. This data fashionsgreater understanding of the audience preferences and motivation, which is instrumental for brands as they try to capture mind share and build a buyer persona. The cultivated data enables brands to increase their exposure and be more competent by utilizing personalized programmatic content. Targeting and reaching out to a relevant audience set is one of the key objectives of an advertisement. And only by understanding an audience can one formulate relevant strategies. This is not quite the case with print media because it only offers a one-way approach. You design content, advertise and that’s the end of it. There is no end result in terms of gleaning data for understanding consumer behavior. As such, bombarding largenon homogenous audience set with less relevant content is a costly and a less efficient strategy.

Video based ads have an advantage over traditionalmedia by virtue of allowing brands to collect important data about targeted and customized audiences that result in the formation of actionable insights

69 Through AI assisted and data backed videobased ads a brand can reach out to the right audience with the right content and drive a higher ROI. Building a brand-consumer connect Effective businesses are built when the customer is at the core of the many business functions and actions are driven with an objective to drive value for them. Brands who focus on building a stronger connection are able to navigate the business environment better. And since the bulk of any given brand’s customers are ‘digital’, it is of utmost importance for a brand to sift through vast internet netizens and zoom in on its target audience, otherwise, a brand risks the possibility of being lost in cyberspace. Consumers today are digital-savvy, well-informed, and fond of screen-time and the appropriate way to reach out to them is utilizing the very medium through which they experience new-age interactions and transactions – finely curated and personalized videos.By 2022, online videos will make up more than 82% of all consumer internet traffic and this is why ads in inserted video can change the game of advertising and marketing.With the insertion of ads in short videos, a brand can reach out to its target

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

By 2022, online videos will make up more than 82% of all consumer internet traffic and this is why ads in inserted video can change the game of advertising and marketing

CXO OUTLOOK May - June 2021

audience and broadcastits product offerings. As such, this is about tapping into every individual possessing a smartphone through different content pieces which appeals at an individual’s level. In fact, this is an approach capitalized on heavily by e-commerce giants such as Amazon, eBay, Walmart, Alibaba, Myntra, and so on. Amazon and eBay, in particular, reported that inserted contents complimenting a product description have the genie magic to scale viewership dramatically and generate increased sales by a margin of 35%. Analyzing from a behavioral point of view, when it comes to building a brandconsumer connection, it is all about appealing to the emotions of people and building a bond with them. To that end, an inserted video is the answer to this question of an emotional appeal. It is so because a video gives marketers the liberty to piggy-back on all kinds of messages or tones as may be deemed emotionally appealing. Therefore, it is no wonder that brands leveraging this new-age method have greater odds of scalable, organic brandconsumer connect. Courting the ‘viral’ dynamic of contents on social media In a nutshell, inserted videos leverage the power of intrinsic interest and action n– a highly effective way to reach out to an audience. Today, consumers themselves create and share video content on social media platforms. Roughly, 700 videos are shared by Twitter users every minute. As such, an in-video marketing approach means communicating with consumers in the very medium and language they use. So, to conclude, the face of marketing and advertising is set to change with the advent of in-video ads. If a certain brand wants to make an impact and foster new relationships while keeping existing ones, the answer is to embrace this new method of advertising and marketing.

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