The 10 Most Recommended Retail Solution Providers in 2019 [ Business Magazine ]

www.insightssuccess.in

VOL2 COMPANY OF THE MONTH

FEBRUARY-2019

ISSUE 3

10

Shivendra Dwivedi

Most

Founder & MD Maxtra Technologies

Recommended

Retail

Solution

Providers in 2019

AJAY PRASAD FOUNDER

RISE RETAIL & PAYMENT SOLUTIONS Engaging Customers for Thriving Businesses

T h e

From the

Editor

Personalisation for Finding the Best Fit

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ustomers today are spoilt for choices and retailers are trying every trick in their book to grab their attention. With retail no more confined to brick and mortar shops, technology obviously plays a big role in creating new ways to engage with the customer. Of late, personalization is being seen as the new marketing weapon in the retail armoury.

Personalization or customization is the act of tailoring a service or product as per the customer requirement taking into account specific individual or multiple needs. It is used to improve customer satisfaction, sales conversion, branding and up the website metrics. It is seen as a way to connect to the customers on a more personal level and cater to their needs by recognising what they want.

With technology at its disposal, personalization has evolved from just addressing the customers using their first name. E-mails, custom designed products, in-store experiences, push notifications based on customer purchase trends are all examples of personalization being put to action by organizations. Using data analysis and Artificial Intelligence, curated emails are often sent to customers featuring products to their liking. Websites often reshuffle their product image placement based on browsing habits of the customer. Some even use AR and VR to let the customer try a look before they buy it. This all is meant to give the best fit product for a customer in minimum time.

Technology is helping retail restructure itself. From basic stores, online stores to self-checkout stores, technology and personalisation are all about finding what the customer wants and giving it to them in the best possible manner. Sometimes even catering to them even before they themselves realise what they want. For retail, nothing boosts their sales like delighted customers and since ‘No One Size Fits All’, one must personalize!

Sneha Sinha

Editor-in-Chief Pooja M. Bansal Managing Editor Rahul Niraj Executive Editor Sneha Sinha Art & Design Head Amol Kamble Associate Designer Poonam, Shweta Art & Picture Editor Rahul Kavanekar Co-designer Aparna Vanzul Business Development Manager Akansha Garewal Sales Executives Sonica, Ashwini Technical Head Swapnil Patil Technical Specialist Amar, Pratiksha Digital Marketing Manager Prashant, Rahul SME-SMO Executives Swati, Manoj Circulation Manager Tanaji sales@insightssuccess.com

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INTERVIEW WITH INSIGHTS SUCCESS

& Engaging Customers for Thriving Businesses

CXO Standpoint

Expert's Opinion

Ahad Retail Ventures

EffiaSoft

RanceLab

Walkins

Xtreme Media

India Rising

E S I C L A R T

Providing Platform

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Most

Recommended RETAIL SOLUTION Providers in 2019

Retail Solutions for Superior Customer Experience

R

etail Industry has come a long way from barter system, pop-up stores, brick-mortar stores to the latest online stores and virtual stores. A big thank you to technology and a great push from ever-demanding customers are to be credited with the change.

Change is good, but to adapt it, one needs solutions that best fit their situation. In this issue of Insights Success, we enlist “The 10 Most Recommended Retail Solution Providers in 2019” which have taken it up as their duty to bring tailor-made technology to the retail industry. These solutions aim at bridging the gap between customer needs and retail offerings to create delight for both the parties.

The Cover Story of this issue features Rise Retail & Payment Solutions which focuses its solutions on enabling retailers with consumer engagement and developing efficiency in office management. Maxtra Technologies is our Company of the Month that defines designs and delivers technology-enabled business solutions for global entrepreneurs and business.

Also featuring in this issue are Ahad Retail Ventures, a trendsetter in the Retail and Fashion sector with a rich experience in fashion, luggage, and footwear accessories, EffiaSoft Private Limited which builds POS and billing solutions for MSMEs, Lomoso Solutions Pvt Ltd (Walkins), an AI based, easy to use, low cost, integrated, data analytics based customer engagement platform and available on mobile and web, RanceLab, a one-stop destination to shop for Retail Software and POS hardware products especially meant for the Retail Industry, and Xtreme Media Pvt. Ltd, a leading solutions provider in Digital OOH Technology and Convergence.

The issue also highlights the viewpoint of Alvis Lazarus, CEO, Hesol Consulting on Supply Chain and Anand Asaithambi, Co-founder, Intuition Systems on Industry 4.0 . Read through the insightful interview of Sadique Ahmed, Founder and CEO, Pathfinder Software Solutions Private Limited. Our in-house articles FDI and the Indian Retail Sector from India Rising and Required: A Retail Solution for Indian Artisans from Providing Platform intend to bring you some retail therapy.

We hope you enjoy reading this issue as much as we did while creating it!!

Ajay Prasad Founder

RISE RETAIL

&

PAYMENT

SOLUTIONS Engaging Customers for Thriving Businesses

“

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n this age of the Customer, the only sustainable competitive advantage is knowledge and engagement with customers.” – Forrester Research

Businesses change with changing technology, customer demands, innovative products, and competition. What does not change is the bottom line – Customer Connect and Engagement. A business is nothing without its customer. A product or service is what its consumers make out of it. If a product hits all the right chords with the consumers, it’s a hit.

While it is easy for the big businesses to indulge in research, trend analysis and other market tools to capture what the customer fancies and how to get in touch with them, it is the small and medium enterprises (SME) that often are at a loss of means to connect. The other fact is that these businesses have a huge share in the market and their combined forces may at times overtake major players. With changing times in the retail industry, the need to empower these retailers with tools to capture and benefit consumers in a huge opportunity in itself.

Rising to the Occasion Rise Retail & Payment Solutions is focused on creating solutions which enable small retailers with consumer

engagement and develop efficiency in office management. It addresses the core issues such as the need for enterprise skills, technology, consumer engagement, loyalty benefits that small and medium retail market lacks.

The company’s solution portfolio is broadly divided into two major segments that are significant for any retailer to be competitive — Consumer Engagement and Office Management. The Consumer Engagement Solutions ride on a cloud-based system boarding the consumers once they come to a retail store and then further managing their complete lifecycle as a consumer.

The two significant factors that Rise Retail & Payment Solutions stresses on to build a strong connection between the consumers and the retailers are Loyalty Benefits and Continued Communication (automated wishes or offer based messaging). It helps retailers in touching lives of consumers beyond a single transaction by sending relevant offerings. Additionally, the solution helps the retailers in creating an online database empowering them to understand the different customer categories and effectively target these for revenue optimization.

personality making one sharp, agile, critical thinker, responsible, focused and a leader. Ajay Prasad, Founder, Rise Retail & Payment Solutions is all these and more. He is- an avid sports person, and has led a cricket and a football team, a singer who sings for his soul, and a keen follower of National politics. A man with an opinion, he always believed in the need of creating an ecosystem for the SME businesses to help them grow and utilize technology to improve efficiency and consumer engagement. A management graduate from IMDR Pune, his initial career saw him working with MNC banks. He also managed the business for one of the JV of First Data for India and Sri Lanka markets utilizing his strong domain expertise. After 18 years of handling national level roles and creating new businesses in retail payments, finally, it was his time to work on his ideas, and a time to have a focused strategy with a longterm mission, hence Rise Retail was formed.

Connecting the Dots: Industry, Retail Store and Consumers

A Multifaceted Leader

Indian retail industry looks very promising with its phenomenal growth rate making it essential to keep stability in this segment of SME. The higher mortality rate is a big concern which can be attributed to the lack of structured fund, knowledge transfer and cost factors for running a business. Being an unorganized segment, percentage of regional/ local brands is increasing and hence the need to digitize and tech-based solutions.

However, as Ajay points out, the industry lacks understanding of its consumer engagement needs and it has to move to next level of its current focus on new customers’ acquisition.

Being an active sportsperson contributes greatly to one’s

Rise Retail has taken lead to bring the required stability

Rise’s Office Management module caters to the basic operational need of a retail store such as basic invoicing, inventory management, staff productivity management etc. Other additional solutions like customer referral module, enquiry generator, credit management etc. increase the overall ROI for the retailers.

and is strongly dedicated to educate them on focusing on managing consumers using technology and analytics and focus on micromanagement. But the path is uphill as the industry, in this context, is still in the nascent stages and Rise’s initiatives are a little early. Educating businesses and making them aware of the need of consumer analytics and the need for tech derived system was the first set of challenges that the company faced. In spite of understanding the need businesses need sales to push for the decision. This has led Rise into a constant evolution journey making many modifications in its product, business model and propositions. As it ventures into the 5th year of its strong presence in the industry, the company is witnessing the hard work and perseverance it carries being paid off. It is slowly observing more awareness in the industry and retailers getting sensitized.

Technology and Focus for Expertise Solution development at Rise is all about process orientation and feedbacks. As Ajay explains, “As a product model, we first work on the prototype of any feature/ product then look at technical stability and then the advancement work start. During this process, a realtime feedback is taken from the market in terms of product efficiency, user-friendliness and other key parameters.”

The company keeps upgrading its methodology by making use of emerging technologies. It recently introduced an integrated invoicing solution which works through its loyalty rule engine. It is also looking at

transforming our backend from single store to hierarchy based structure to give more flexibility, interactivity and command to its customers.

Rise works on a defined market segment which has strong price elasticity and takes time for technological adaptation. Its expertise in this segment makes it competitive in terms of user-friendliness, pricing and bouquet of features that it offers.

Rise is on a mission to improvise the way small retail stores run their business and impact the larger ecosystem. And this mission has received recognition

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Most

Recommended RETAIL SOLUTION Providers in 2019

with the company being identified as one amongst the” 25 Most Promising Retail Technology Service Provider in Asia Pacific in 2018” by a leading magazine. It also received the Pune Brand Leadership award by CMO Asia in collaboration with ABP News and Yes Bank in 2018.

A Note for Employees and Entrepreneurs Being a young company means significant dependence on individuals for Rise. Hence it is paramount that each member is aligned with the mission and vision of the organization. Employee motivation comes from the longterm focus, strong value system and a sense of creating something new in the ecosystem to serve society. Ajay himself firmly believes in contributing to the society and nation and for him, the journey has just begun.

As an experienced entrepreneur, Ajay suggests that there are different business models which entrepreneurs work on. “My suggestion is to choose a product/ service which has a long-term impact on the society. Keep building up the value to make yourself stronger in offerings and returns.” Entrepreneurs must have a strong focus on key metrics i.e. staff productivity, cost and pricing command in the initial years.

Expanding Horizons Like all successful companies, Rise Retail & Payment Solutions has a vision for innovation, growth, and expansion. The company is focused on horizontal growth which will help it to expand its portfolio of solutions and services at the same time. This could be achieved by creating a distribution system which is a first ever in the retail sector. Though many companies struggle to

balance scalability and profitability, Rise Retail & Payments Solutions aims to perfect this balance by first building a strong base and then bring in the products.

Web-enabled products and solutions are the company’s next project which would let them connect all the consumers engaged with the retail stores. Further, the firm also looks at expanding its retail base drastically and enabling it with payment solutions. Rise aims to reduce the loss of customers at small and medium retail outlets and build an enhanced brand image to pull customers to the outlets. This change in the ecosystem will bring lot more smiles to customers, who will be the ultimate winner of its effort.

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MAXTRA Technology Partner for Business

A

fter a lull of almost a decade for software opportunities in the Indian retail industry, there is a sudden storm. Traditional Retailers are looking for solutions that can bring them on par with online retail and giants. This pressure of going digital and being relevant to consumers has sprung up opportunities for the technology players.

Leveraging this opportunity, Maxtra Technologies, started in the year 2008, defines designs and delivers technology-enabled business solutions for global entrepreneurs and business.

It helps them to build products that solve their everyday problem through creative and conscientious use of technology. Understanding the criticality of a business decision to build new products, Maxtra, promises to do the very best and the right things for a project, user, and team.

A Passion Driven Leader Shivendra Dwivedi, the young, dynamic and energetic entrepreneur, is the Founder and Managing Director.

From being the young graduate from Rajiv Gandhi Proudyogiki Vishwavidyalaya to making Maxtra Technologies amongst most coveted software Development Company globally, Shiv, as he is popularly

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known as, has always decided to be unconventional at each step. He has created unprecedented milestones in business using the technology as his tool. His vision is to see Maxtra technologies as a globally respected corporation.

Solutions for all Businesses Maxtra serves its clients with best-inclass services and customised software solutions for unique business needs.

Being both a product and service based company; Maxtra thrives on creativity and cultivation of techniques by creating masterpieces in business development. It is now a globally recognised face of Digital marketing, website design and development, mobile application development and direct selling software solution. It likes to act as a helping hand to businesses looking forward to a future full of evolution, development and unparalleled quality service.

Analysing the Retail Industry Describing the current set of challenges in the retail industry, Shiv describes an ideal business environment as one where principal companies and retailers don’t just grow individually, but together. With the growing demand for better goods, it is

important for both entities to overcome challenges and forge a strong business partnership. The challenges right now are to keep running a profitable business with an eye for future innovations, timely changes to keep up with changing business environment and taking on digital transformation as a journey acquiring the necessary skills and knowledge and continue to innovate.

Opportunities are never far behind challenges. Retailers now need to capitalize on technology to provide customers with easy access to their needs. With more customer empowerment, retailers will only survive if their business creates shared value that benefits shareholders and society. Social and environmental sustainability will strengthen the communities in which retailers operate, which will in turn appeal to customers.

Maxtra will aim to re-design retail and other businesses so that all stakeholders (as many as possible) benefit: customers, associates/employees, shareholders, the communities it serves and those in the supply chain.

Being Agile Talking about the technological advancements that are redefining FEBRUARY 2019

COMPANY OF THE MONTH industry standards, Shiv says, “Regardless of your personal opinion—Luddite or technophile—the rapid advance of technology isn’t going to slow any time soon. More and more small businesses that fail to adapt are going to find themselves left behind while the savvy ones who learn to keep up will reap the rewards.” One must understand how technology affects their business (for better or worse) and how to apply advancements in order to play them to an advantage.

Maxtra offers its clients products and services that incorporate the latest technology in the offering.

It aims to capture the incredible opportunity for companies to leverage influencers, who have built a loyal following and credibility within an industry, to market to enterprise decision makers. It is using analytics to gather industry-specific information that helps in identifying gaps in an organization’s performance and can be leveraged to achieve a competitive advantage. It is aiming to use Blockchain which represents a decentralized, encrypted secure system of record, with applications in government, HR and countless other industries. It is also developing mobile solutions to cater to every aspect of client business which can be handled from remote locations if a smart device or tablet is loaded with the correct software. Shiv says, “These technologies have incredible implications, and we’re just beginning to see their capabilities. More importantly, we’re just beginning to imagine real-world applications for their use.”

Shivendra Dwivedi, Founder and Managing Director

FEBRUARY 2019

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Creating an Innovative Work Culture Maxtra has full faith in its workforce. Shiv insists, “If a human mind can develop the technology, it sure has the capability to innovate it for use in varied business models; and that’s exactly what our people are capable of!” Maxtra takes care of five points when it comes to its employees Clearly defining vision as a roadmap for the employees Giving employees what they want and need compassing tools, training, and support from supervisors.

strengthen its sales and marketing network by enlisting experienced marketing and sales personnel and participating in more transnational trade fairs.

Shiv concludes, “For us, technology is not about services or products we build. Those are not the end goals.

Technology is a democratizing force, empowering people and businesses through information and analytics. Looking for the future, we will move from mobile first to AI first world.”

Communicate well and often during training sessions, memos, newsletters, FAQs, and regular meetings.

Get everyone engaged in planning and decisionmaking Coach employees for success, and practice random acts of kindness.

Feedback is another great motivator which should be given right away, to encourage more of the same performance when positive and to self-correct when negative.

Advising the Entrepreneurs For entrepreneurs, Shiv says that it is important to know one’s passion in order to ensure that the work is done and finances are arranged. It is equally important to innovate by putting one’s passion to work in creating an organization that stands out from others. One should also look for ways to positively impact the team and align their goals with company culture. Entrepreneurs should also remember that “You can do anything, but you can’t do everything. Taking it step by step allows you to grow within your means. Use your money wisely and know when to say no.”

Expanding Networks Maxtra Technology’s future growth plans include expanding its network of customers and to increase its products and services verticals for them. In order to expand its business, it intends to make strategic alliances with other companies that are a strategic fit with its business. It strongly believes that there are still significant opportunities to further expand into both the local and international market. To leverage on those opportunities it intends to

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“We want to be the most innovative software company in any market we choose to operate in, no matter what country or industry”

FEBRUARY 2019

Providing Innovative Retail Solutions

Sadique Ahmed Founder and CEO

T

he retail industry today needs innovative and out of box solutions to cater to the ever growing demands of the customer. These solutions needs to be quick , adaptable and futuristic keeping in trend with the times and technology. PathďŹ nder Enterprise Solutions Pvt Ltd is providing the industry what it needs to win over the consumers.

In an interview with Insights Success, Sadique Ahmed, Founder and CEO, narrates the story of PathďŹ nder.

1. From an Entrepreneur to a business tycoon, kindly brief us about Mr Sadique Ahmed and share a glimpse of his professional journey to our readers.

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FEBRUARY 2019

Interview with Insights success Mr. Sadique has been an Entrepreneur, Product Evangelist, Mentor, and a domain Leader in retail who helped the company to continuously innovate solutions with experience in building innovative technologies helping maximize the potential for Airports, Shopping Centres, Retail, Governments, and Aviation. He Started the company providing POS Solutions to small and medium businesses then reinvented itself to provide enterprise solutions to large businesses and now oversees the transformation of “Pathfinder” from a technology platform to a knowledge platform with an experienced team of veteran subject matter experts supported by a large Data Science team, the combination that is adding tremendous value to clients globally.

2. Kindly brief us about your company and its inception story.

Founded in 1994, started offering IT Solutions ranging from Business process management to infrastructure, security and networking. In the year 2000, we forayed into retail domain to offer POS solutions, then we innovated, the much renowned “XtreMe Imperium Solution” for Shopping Centers & Airports in 2008, which became the foundation for the huge success of Pathfinder. We got

FEBRUARY 2019

recognized by the shopping centres and Airports and received an award in 2012 for executing the best EPOS solution in Rajiv Gandhi International Airport ,Hyderabad India. As an organization, we are 25 years old and about 10 years back we pivoted to providing data solutions.

Our journey began with solutions for Airports helping them with capturing sales data and then running analytics on it. We realized that shopping centres would also benefit immensely from a solution like this. We are now present in over 100 shopping centres in India and are leaders in revenue assurance for shopping centres and airports. With our solutions being used in over 15 Indian airports, 3 International airports, we are now acquiring international airports as our clients. Our latest innovation “RAPPO – Customer Engagement Platform” is no less than a disruption in the retail world. Currently we have direct global offices in India, Dubai, Singapore and Portugal. We work through partners in other countries who help us expand and penetrate new markets.

3. What are the distinct products and services provided by the company?

Our product suite consists of our “P+ Platform” which consists of our Enterprise Applications (Revenue

Assurance, Lease & Contract Management, Facility Management), Data Sciences (Customer Engagement, Footfall & People Analytics, Blended Insights) and Consulting & Advisory services.

4. What is your view about the current opportunities and challenges in the Retail Industry?

There has been a shift in consumer behavior owing to the new channels of retail spoiling customers for choice. Brick and mortar retail are evolving and innovating to catch up with the consumer’s aspiration and cater to the modern customer.

Consumers need an uplifting sensory experience which revolves around brick and mortar retail. In the next few years we will see technology blending seamlessly between online and offline stores. If you notice many successful online brands are now adopting offline channels and the reason is simple, they need to be there, where the customer is and give them a real-time experience of the brand and the products being offered.

While this transformation occurs, the need for retail to adopt new technologies in Data Science is what will give them an edge over competition. From communication

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to engagement, data science is going to drive consumers to retail and focus on what the consumers want.

5. How is the company incorporating technological advancement for offering better solutions? Please mention awards received, if any.

We recently won the International Airport Review Awards for the “Revenue Generation” category. This was a great achievement for us as we won against large global competitors.

With our data science being offered as a platform along with our enterprise solutions, clients realize the potential they gain from having data & insights ona single platform.

Imagine a shopping centre, where decisions on new stores, trading density, sales performance etc., which took 100’s of man hours is now available in real-time. When customers can look at forecast of future revenues, this helps them gear up to run the appropriate campaigns on our platform itself. The data on

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conversions, ROI is all available on our platform, making it simple for management, operation and marketing teams to run, manage profitably.

6. How does the company keep employees motivated and handles it’s societal responsibility?

When you see a customer delighted with our offerings, being able to quickly realize business outcomes, make decisions on the fly, our employees know the feeling of a satisfied customer and that’s what motivates us all. Our HR team runs programs internally to keep employees participating in events, knowledge sharing sessions from senior leadership, so that everyone is on the same page. While having multiple offices is an advantage, we offer our employees the choice to work from locations that is closer to them to reduce the carbon footprint of their travel and saving time for all of us.

7. What would be your advice for the budding startups and entrepreneurs in the industry?

Find a market where your offerings could have an impact and focus on solving customer problems from day 1. Find partners or gain the domain expertise and figure out the value proposition that makes it essential for your target customers. Be ready to pivot when you know you have taken a wrong turn.

8. Brief us about the company’s future perspectives.

We are driven on solving customer challenges with data sciences. This has led us to expand our data sciences offerings for global markets.

With our focus on working with airports, shopping centres and, retailers we see a future where intelligent customer engagement drives business growth.

FEBRUARY 2019

Required:

A Retail Solution for

Indian Artisans I

ndia has been considered as a land of culture, colours and art. Art and handicraft have been an integral part of the Indian lifestyle from time immemorial. Statues and artefacts found by archaeologists at various ancient Indian civilizations are a proof to it.

From handmade household items to delicate and exquisite showpieces, Indians are in love with their handiwork and so is the world.

A Huge Potential The Indian Handicraft market is huge and stands at over thirty thousand crores. It employs over six million craftsmen and artisans of rural and urban areas. This sector includes a plethora of art forms like jewellery making, handmade fabric, cosmetics, fashion accessories, painting forms, pottery, idols, various forms of embroidery and more. This makes India a large player in the international market which exports over ten thousand crores worth of handicraft goods. This export segment is the largest chunk of the handicraft market. The other segment comprises of NGOs working in association with the Government for the overall development of artisans. The ďŹ nal segment is that of artisans which work and market their products locally and comprise of individuals or small groups.

This categorization reects the unorganized nature of the sector. The resultant is the lower than expected appreciation and cost that these deserving artisans receive. Having no access to the retail and global market, they have to settle down with the bare minimum sale price they get

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FEBRUARY 2019

P L A T F O R M P R O V I D I N G via the middlemen who pocket a large share.

Retail to the Rescue The Retail Industry which is the meeting point for product and the customer can play a much bigger/pivotal role bringing due credit to the handicraft sector. Retail as a sector is in a better position, has better reach among customers, and uses varied payment methods which can prove to be a focal point in bringing organized changes to the handicraft sector. Here’s how the retail industry can help leverage the handicraft and art.

The need is to bring a common retail platform that gives these artisans an opportunity to directly interact with customers.

The retail industry can help showcase quality products are various malls, shops and online retail portals.

Their marketing agencies need to up their act by advertising and creating awareness about the handicraft items, its capability and unique items that can help customers enhance their lifestyle.

They can get in touch with the artisans to teach them about designing and packaging their products in an attractive way.

Dedicated malls or shops that showcase traditional crafts work can be set up at all major tourist spots to give local FEBRUARY 2019

and foreign customers a closer look and direct access to the various items.

Showcasing the products at important places like airports, malls, tourist spots, and trade shows will generate more awareness and new customers.

Handiwork Needed Thankfully, today, the young minds are recognizing the opportunities that lays untapped in the handicraft sector.

The Government too is looking for ways to the boost handicraft through its initiatives like Make in India and Gramin Haat. Many young entrepreneurs are getting in touch with the artisans and providing them with a platform to showcase their potential in the global market. They have introduced the artisans to technology and utilizing it for their beneďŹ t. Using technology is making them create newer markets globally. Imparting marketing and designing knowledge to artisans is also important. They can also be guided to incorporate new and modern designs in their traditional methods to create more globally appealing fusion craft ware. Dedicated workshops can be organised to take the art forms to more people and get more people involved with this sector. These steps are all necessary to keep the traditions alive and stop the attrition that craft villages are facing in search of better livelihood.

-Sneha Sinha 23

Ahad Retail Ventures A Catalyst for Indian Retail and Fashion Industry

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he Retail Industry is in a disruption phase globally. In India, the share of organized retail business is expected to touch approx twenty per cent by 2020 and the Indian E-commerce Industry is likely to touch a hundred billion US Dollars mark. With the consumers becoming more aware and spoilt with opportunities, the future belongs to those who are able to define and cater to the long term needs of the consumers with product & fashionoriented benefits. Catering to these new-age customers who want services and brands at the snap of a finger or rather click of a cursor is Ahad Retail Ventures.

A Brand is Born The company was formed with humble beginnings in 1978 at Bangalore through the efforts of Ifthikar Saleem, a Bangalore based reputable entrepreneur, Retailer and Realtor. He initially started with Dolphin Stores at High Streets of Bangalore and over the years slowly evolved into what it is today. He is a seasoned expert with over four decades of experience in the Retail and Real Estate industry. He has received a plethora of awards and

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critical acclaim for his immense contribution to the Industry including Indira Gandhi Priyadarshini Award, Rajiv Gandhi Excellence Award, Nations Pride of the Millennium Award, A listing in the 100 Most Influential Retail Leaders. Under his watch and leadership, Ahad Retail is on the verge of ushering in a renaissance in the industry.

Offering Premium Services Ahad Retail Venture offers services in Franchising; Space Consulting; and Retailing.

It is revered as one of the frontline franchise companies delivering excellent franchising services to international brands. It comes to terms with the primary objectives, brand value, uniformity, customer handling, sales push plans, events, and culture of the client. In franchising, it offers the best of its talent, expertise, prime real estate for a great in-store experience.

target, help them position rightly and assisting them to make a choice, negotiate and run the retail store.

For retailing solutions, it develops a strategy that takes care of location, kind of store and its chain, selling, in-store experience, sales and aftersales services for client’s products and to be sure it’s one huge success.

Overall, it offers an end-to-end retail service.

Ahad Retail Ventures today is a core member of the ‘Retailers Association of India’ and has over 100 employees on its payroll with an unrivalled experience of partnering with over 40 International and premium brands over the years. Today, it facilitates retail for brands including Creyate Custom Clothing, U.S. Polo, Delsey Paris, Fab Alley & Indya, Flying Machine, Ed Hardy, the Children's Place and many more across high Streets, Malls & Luxury Malls with a rooted presence in Bangalore.

A Progressive Strategy

Location is a prime factor for a retail store’s success. At Ahad Retail, local and offshore clients receive the best real estate and space consulting services. Its in-depth findings on the locality, client's contenders, and set

In the mainstream for four decades, Ahad Retail Ventures understands the importance of staying in sync with changing times. So adapting to new and better technologies is considered

FEBRUARY 2019

T h e

RETAIL SOLUTION

Providers in 2019

“ Ahad Ifthikar Director

Indian Retail is coming of age with many new Indian Retail houses learning from the international markets

Ifthikar Saleem

“

1

Most

Recommended

Founder & MD

Motivating the Millennial

vital. Its backend operations recently moved onto a custom built cloud system allowing it to streamline the process and resulting in better efficiency and effectiveness in management. It has also been using technology across for CRM, Social Media Marketing, Partner Management, as well as vendor management. All of these IT adoptions has helped it stay in pace with the industry. It has also adopted Omnichannel across a few of its stores through its business partners and this has certainly helped it improve its performance and top line.

Maintaining the Lead Ahad Retail Ventures is an equal and social employer. It is complete with all necessary labour rules and regulations of the government. Its employees are its assets and it treats them with respect and dignity in order to enable them to achieve their career ambitions. It also ensures that the employees engage in regular mentoring and feedback sessions to continually improve themselves and ensure that the customers get the best-in-class service.

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Years of experience has made Ifthikar a role-model for the young ones who are looking to carve their own niche in the retail space. To such youngsters, his motivational message asks them to “Stay focused on the profit. Focus on Sustainable growth. Stay Bootstrapped. Contribute to the society.”

Projecting Future Ahad Retail Ventures is currently at an exciting phase in the growth story. It has evolved and repositioned itself as a premium and luxury retailer in the market over the years and the future looks bright and beautiful for its esteemed clientele. It is growing and actively evaluating opportunities that are aligned with its business plans and its vision.

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Expediting Efcient, Intelligent and Affordable Technology

F

ounded in 2012, EffiaSoft Private Limited is a Point Of Sales (POS) and Billing platform development company based out of Hyderabad, India. The company’s vision is to be omnichannel at every billing point in order to enable MSMEs to adopt technology faster by reducing the fear and cost of technology. The company works together with leading payments, hardware and retail distributors and strategic business partners to bring global networks and competencies to provide solutions to the whole MicroSmall-Medium business segment.

A Visionary Founder Koushik Shee is the passionate technocrat behind EffiaSoft. An M.S. in Computer Science, he took to computer programming at an early age of 13, and now has over two decades of coding experience. EffiaSoft is his 3rd startup after his two self-funded, single-man start-ups received moderate success but provided him with a vast experience and exposure on entrepreneurship. Before the entrepreneur bug hit him, Koushik served at Oracle managing enterprise software architecture, algorithm, data structure, design patterns, R&D and project management. He had also developed multiple Govt, NGO and freelancing project since his college days as part of his programming hobby.

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Best-in-Class Software Solutions EffiaSoft has led global products and solutions in billing, POS, inventory, purchasing, CRM, accounting, e-commerce and end point aggregation. The company’s flagship product called “Just Billing” platform has been used to generate 5 Million of tax invoices amounting INR 60 Billions of transaction value just within less than two years and organically without any marketing expenses. It has enabled end-to-end solutions for Retail, Food & Brewarages, Distribution Supply Chain, Inflight Retail Management and smarter SME toolkit by financial institutes. The solution is also being used by Fortune 500 companies from Retail, FMCG, Oil & Gas, Airlines and Shipping industries. EffiaSoft is amongst the first to deliver GST based retail and distribution billing software at the national level. Just Billing is rated highest 4.7 stars in the Google Play Store in the POS segment by the customers.

Other solutions by EffiaSoft include: • Retail Management Software -Multi-Channel Retail Management System & point of sale software.

• Restaurant Management Software -Multi-Channel Restaurant Management System & point of sale software.

• Distribution Management Software -Multi-location distribution management & aggregation system.

• Inflight Retail Management Solution - Inflight retail sales, billing, inventory, automation, reconciliation and aggregation.

• Bank Smarter SME ToolKit -Replacing card processing Electronic Data Capture (EDC) devices for merchants with smarter devices not just to process payments but also to manage the day-to-day business by merchants.

Meeting Challenges and Greeting Opportunities Koushik considers MSME sector as the most vibrant and dynamic, yet an underrated sector. It promises high growth potential for the Indian economy but is lacking the required support it needs to be more competitive at National and International level. The MSME share to the total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is about 37%, provide employment to around 40% workforce and they also contribute to 43% of exports based on the data maintained by Ministry of Commerce.

Yet they face a number of problems such as inadequate and timely banking finance, skilled manpower, limited capital and knowledge, non-availability of suitable technology, ineffective marketing strategy, constraints on modernization & expansions, etc.

But with recent changes in government policies to technological advancement, MSME is looking forward to leveraging the e-commerce trend,

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T h e

RETAIL SOLUTION

Providers in 2019

“

Actions speak louder than words

Koushik Shee

“

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Most

Recommended

Founder • IBM “Global Entrepreneur” • Google “Startup Launch” adoption of technology, taking advantage of Government & financial schemes, social media and mobile phones.

EffiaSoft is providing in its own capacity to embed the social and cloud platform to open up vast opportunities for revenue growth and operational efficiency.

Backing Technology EffiaSoft boasts of a multi-tenancy, multi-level aggregation, rapid business application development framework, multilayer Service Oriented Architecture and simplified DIY model. Its agility lets it adapt to the latest technology in less time providing the following benefits to clients: • Technology: Mobile, Cloud and Blockchain.

• Cost: SaaS multi-tenancy, negligible CAPEX, low OPEX, • Functionality: End-to-End business solution and compliances for MSME • Platform: Solution for various business verticals and business needs • Pre-configured workflows for 45+ business verticals in retail & food The Company has been awarded and recognised for the technology innovations by • Certificate of Recognition from Startup India, Govt of India • Red Herring Asia 2016 Winner

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Life @EffiaSoft Koushik says, “Monday blues, Friday meeting, and early morning town hall... is NOT what Effians do at the office!

Our young energy doesn’t allow us to do boring stuff! We follow a three-step cycle for making our workplace – Freedom, Learn, Grow”. At EffiaSoft, people do not work as individual employees, but as a team, as a group and as a dedicated member determined to achieve the goals. The company works with its products and services to bring socio-economic changes for a better and efficient business ecosystem.

Mission Future EffiaSoft has been able to create the unique billing technology platform and solution model, which will continue to keep its competitors one step behind and ensure success in the upcoming years. EffiaSoft is now present in India, Singapore, Dubai, and the United States and in Africa. Koushik says, “We are now focusing on expanding into new markets such as Africa, South-east Asia and Middle-east Asia. From the technology side to be the number one also in the future, we are investing in innovations using machine learning, artificial intelligence and big data.”

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India r e t a i l

revolution Relevance of brick-mortar stores in Industry 4.0

T

he 4th Industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) is the age of artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, automation, and biotechnology. The idea is to use machine learning algorithms to train machines or computers, to mimic human learning in certain tasks. In some cases, even more effectively than a human, creating machines with context-specific intelligence. Industry 4.0 is built on the foundation of the previous information and digital age which has generated large scale datasets. The ultimate goal of AI is to analyze this data, to create intelligent machines with a certain level of perception, cognition and intuition to mimic human-like functioning in some jobs. We can derive actionable insights that can significantly improve the business, reduce inefficiency, and uncover hidden patterns, personalized solution. Some examples of this perception intelligent machine include voice recognition tools like Alexa, and Siri and facial recognition tool in iPhone X series phones.

Examples of cognition intelligent machines include Google’s partnership with US DOD to make smarter drones for surveillance and defence, Tesla’s foray into autonomous vehicles, IBM Watson and Lantern Pharma are leveraging AI technology for mapping right cancer drugs to the right cancer patients using a genetic signature with a very high predictive accuracy. One such example for the intuitive machines is India based Intuition Systems’ POS. Intuition is an award-winning POS and business management technology group in India with a core foundation of data, AI, robotics, software, hardware technologies. Intuition was founded in 2012 when Asai brothers couldn’t find a modern easy to use affordable POS system for their previous restaurant businesses. The complexity, data, security aspects of the business naturally took Intuition towards integrating machine learning, automation and intuitive user experience in their POS software and hardware.

Data-Driven Retail Industry 4.0 As Industry 4.0 unfolds, the retail sector will have a tremendous impact. Every part of shopper journey is digitized and has evolved into customer-centric. Some of the advantages of retail Industry 4.0 include better digital payments, instant loan approvals for customers and retailers, RFIDs, connected stores, actionable insights driven by data and deep learning, biometric security, interactive interface, seamless workflow, automation and integration, smart warehouses, personalized customer experience (PCE). Amazon and Alibaba are leading this retail revolution globally in e-commerce. For example, the new Amazon GO is an example of cashier less connected stores leveraging AI, computer vision and RFIDs. Amazon Go is generating volumes of big data tracking every customer movement as soon as the customer enters the store translating that into actionable

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AUTHOR

ABOUT THE

CXO Standpoint

Anand Asaithambi is a mechanical engineer and serial entrepreneur with specialization in n-tech and food-tech. He co-founded two innovative companies including Intuition Systems. He is skilled in software app development, robotics, design, UI/UX, product management and marketing. He led Intuition systems from a start-up to a leading POS, billing and business management platform company in India.

insights, better ROI, new services, products, personalizable and easy solution. Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba brought almost all of brick and mortar stores in China to the internet, a massive social revolution in itself connecting Chinese retail, small and medium businesses domestically and internationally in one platform.

Data from 2010 shows that all major brick and mortar retailers including Target, JC Penny lost value while Amazon gained 1910% during this period by embracing and implementing new emerging technologies faster than anyone.

How is retail India embracing digital transformation in Industry 4.0?

Digital India and Make in India initiatives heralded a new era in India’s retail revolution 4.0. The central theme of retail 4.0 is empowered retailers and personalizing customer experience (PCE). Many startups are leading the way in the digital transformation of the retail sector including Flipkart, PayTM, Razorpay etc. In terms of POS and payment industry, Intuition’s IVEPOS is leading the way with the core objective of empowered entrepreneurs of small and medium businesses and personalized customer experience. Using Intuition’s FEBRUARY 2019

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IVEPOS, now brick and Mortar retail stores can seamlessly manage Omni channels, derive actionable insights, manage and automate supply chain, track stocks and automated inventory management, personalized customer experience (PCE) and marketing, data-driven In-store experiment. IVEPOS is also emerging as a payment, data and business aggregator connecting with third-party services consolidating all in one connected POS system. These features provide better in-store experience for customers, improved operational efficiency, and increased profits for retailers. In addition to these new features, some of the other key features of this app include ease of billing, payments acceptance including payment wallets, KOT(Kitchen Order Taking), KDS(Kitchen Display System), user management, product management, AI-Analytics, Real-Time cloud-based reporting, accounting and GST compliance & tax management, CRM. Obstacles against retailers in Industry 4.0: Previously, this enriched data-driven technology suite leveraging AI and automation was not available for brick and mortar retailers and they had to rely on bulky, expensive legacy solutions resulting in inefficient processes and huge losses. Another recent obstacle for this new age retail transformation is flooding of the market by unintelligent mobile and digital POS devices, mass made in China and sold as an alternative to conventional legacy systems.

Although cheaper, they are basic devices that do not offer any actionable insights, prone to crashes, security breaches, not easily serviceable, basic functionality without embracing emerging technologies of Industry 4.0 thus creating more problems and expenses long term, not a real solution. Retailers are not willing to invest in new technology and skills thus losing out to competition that invests in Industry 4.0 digital technologies. Data shows 30% of small businesses fail within 2 years of formation (https://www.investopedia.com/slide-show/top-6-reasonsnew-businesses-fail/).

Retail Industry 4.0 and digital transformation is here in India with a merchant and customer-centric goal by leveraging data and emerging technologies. Retailers both small and big should embrace this change to survive and be successful in this new age.

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& FDI

the

SECTOR

T

he Retail Sector is one of the biggest contributors to India’s GDP. It also has a high rate of employment. A retail store is the final frontier of the manufacturing to consumer chain. It sells products to the customers for final consumption. Derived from a French word, it means “to cut again”. Simply put a retailer cuts off small portions of a big production for sale and consumption by the customer. The shop at the corner, a multi-brand store or a single brand store is all retail shops. With the internet taking over the world online retail stores are now popular too.

The Current Structure The Indian Retail Sector is mostly unorganized with small, family shops making almost ninety to ninety-five per cent of the sectors. The organized sector counts for only five to ten per cent. Moreover, all the retail stores are currently indigenous or have Indian nationals as their owner and proprietor. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in this sector has long been a matter of debate. FDI is understood as an investment made by a company in one country into a company based in another. The investing company can either set up a company on its own or establish one in collaboration with a native country.

FDI in Indian Retail Retailing can be multi-brand or single-brand. A store or showroom that gives consumers many options under one roof is a multi-brand retail. An exclusive store or a store that houses products pertaining to a single brand is a single-brand store. Currently, the Indian Government has allowed up to 51% FDI in multi-brand retail and up to 100% FDI in singlebrand retail after years of contemplating on the possibilities and disadvantages. These investments are subject to permissions from the Government Authorities. The demand for FDI was long being pushed by the major players wanting to encash the phenomenon of globalization. But the government had its own share of apprehensions. Slowly it did open up the avenues with certain terms and conditions.

The Yay and

e Nay Sayers

FDI in Indian Retail has always been an arguable issue. Those in favour deem it as a powerful catalyst which can make the retail sector organized and competitive in a healthy way. Opening up for foreign companies will bring growth to the

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India Rising economy by funding foreign currency in the Indian market. The new infrastructure requirement will call for more construction and help the real estate market. The ďŹ nancial needs will be met by the banks thus boosting the banking sector. Being an organized market needs people who can help it maintain the quorum thus facilitating and opening up more job opportunities. Big retailers generally get in touch directly with the producers or the farmers removing the middlemen. This brings greater beneďŹ ts to the farmers and better price for their produce. It will also improve the supply chain management system and create a pool of skilled manpower. The consumers are to get beneďŹ t due to more options and better pricing.

Those against FDI are worried about the displacement, and job loss of thousands of small and mediumsized retail shop owners.

They also fear the reverse effect or draining out of Indian revenue to foreign countries, thus weakening the Indian economy and growth. Another concern is that the initial prices may be lowered to lure in the customers and once the companies achieve a monopoly, they can hike the rates as per their wish. Similarly, for farmers, too much dependency on the companies may lead to lower prices in the longer run.

Changing Times With changes in the global market, growth in purchasing power of Indian and their demand for quality products, the rise of organized retailing is imminent. The market is growing and is at peace with the unorganized section as shown by Indian Retail Brands which have been in operation for some time.

Online retail is another segment that is rising by leaps and bounds. FDI can surely be given a chance to bring world-class products to Indian customers. They can also provide a great platform for the local produce. The slow and steady pace of opening the market can give a fair idea of how things are set to play in the market. With proper planning, transparent processes, correct channelling of information FDI can bring about the required and positive changes required in the Indian Retail Market and the economy as a whole. -Sneha Sinha FEBRUARY 2019

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RanceLab® FusionERP Simplifying Retail Business Practices

T

he Retail Industry in India accounts for more than ten per cent of the GDP. It has a place for small neighbourhood shops, big and international players as well as retail chains. With growing purchasing power and exposure of consumers to goods in both national and international market, the industry is growing even more. To meet growing demands, and digitization, retail stores have to be more organised and tuned to the customer’s choices and preferences.

Simplifying Retail Founded in the year 1996, RanceLab has evolved as a one-stop-shop for Retail Software and Point-of-Sales (POS) hardware products for the retail industry. It offers networking services and customized software and reached its 100th installation mark with a team of just six members in four years of hardship and learning.

The Exponent and the Industry The company is a handiwork of Navin Ladha, Founder and CEO, and a food connoisseur by passion. He has over fifteen years of experience in various IT related products, services and solutions, specializing in Retail and F&B businesses. His efforts in delivering IT solutions have reaped consistent growth in sales and profits of over five hundred retail stores,

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restaurants and food courts.

Navin and RanceLab have kept up with India’s retail industry that has been growing steadily over the years. The retail industry has witnessed many regime changes from malls to multistorey shopping centres that offer shopping, entertainment and meals throughout the day under one roof.

Retail business is showing an accelerated growth, with retail growth not only to cities and metro but also in Tier-II and Tier-III cities. The purchasing power of consumers is growing in categories such as clothing, cosmetics, shoes, watches, beverages, food and jewellery.

The opportunity is also marked by challenges like consumers choosing multi-channel shopping experiences, and expecting a perfect experience.

Retailers, on their part, need an extraordinary experience to keep their customers and a silent marketing infrastructure makes receiving messages expensive and difficult to manage. There are many technologies to increase marketing and sales, but they do not seem to work together.

Overall, RanceLab addresses these challenges and helps bring growth to retail businesses.

Serving the Industry with Distinguished Products RanceLab has three distinct products –

FusionRetail (its flagship product), FusionResto and FusionPMS which are ready to use software for the retail, restaurant and hotel business respectively. Apart from these, it also has FusionERP which is an all-in-one integrated ERP for Retail and Hospitality businesses and FusionMobi - a suite of Mobile Apps for Tab Ordering, Mobile reports, Customer Feedback and Kitchen/Service Display System. Its expertise also lies in working with hardware products consisting of the latest range of barcode and POS products. Marking its presence in over 40 countries with 35000+ installations, the company today has offices in India, UAE and Africa.

As a company, it always ensures that the products are not just market or industry ready but also future ready, meaning it not just looks into customer’s current requirements but also supports its growth down the line.

It constantly works towards improving its products by inculcating the latest trends and business practices.

Its journey has been marked by several appreciations for its work, which keep the momentum going at RanceLab. Navin says “It motivates us and keeps us going forward.” It received the ‘Best Value Software’ by COMPASS and also ‘Innovative Software Developer Company’. It was also

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Recommended RETAIL SOLUTION

Providers in 2019

“

By using IT solutions at its best, our mission is to be a global retail solution provider

“

Navin Ladha Founder & CEO

recognised as the ‘Best ISV - Retail Solution (East) 2018’ at ITPV Partner Leadership Summit, “Emerging Company from East” by NASSCOM in 2012 and “Innovation on Display” by Khadhya Khurak.

“Many a time I have found that people lack focus. The enthusiasm and passion that they start their venture with, seem to fade away as it progresses, they succumb to the challenges that the industry and the market throw at them.”

He shares the mantra as “The mantra is to believe in yourself, your product and your company and to not give up on your vision that you started with.”

Being a Holistic Company

Chalking out the Future

With so much happening in the industry, the workforce commitment has increased. The Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become the most important outlook for any organization where it seems more attractive to employees but all the organization looks for is the workforce who thinks and has the potential to make an impact. The best thing that the employees at RanceLab are motivated for is the creative ways of working and bringing out practical as well as logical ideas. The organization supports and gives the workforce the space for their creative ways and they are never constricted from their innovative working ways. This brings up better employee engagement relations and also brings a feel-good nature of the organization’s CSR involvement.

RanceLab’s future lies in recognizing what the customer is going to demand and how retailers plan to meet that demand. Navin muses, “What the organization looks for is the main source of consumers, what they focus on and what they need. As we believe that the future industry will be more automated, the technological inclusion will have Block-Chain, Artificial Intelligence, Natural Language Processing and more.”

Inspiring the Young Guns

RanceLab is and will continue to be the preeminent provider of world-class technology to its customers.

Exploiting new technology to bring more simplicity and ease to the frequent and habitual business processes is what it believes in. The company is all set to provide assistance and bring growth to the retail industry over the coming times as a completely automated solution.

For any startup or the aspiring entrepreneurs, the key to success is to keep moving forward consistently. Navin adds,

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35

Supply Chain e Magic Wand

D

ecades before we all believed that ‘Quality comes with high Cost’; then the Japanese showed us that ‘Doing it right the first time’ increases the profitability. TPS (Toyota Production System) showed us how to work leaner, produce quality products at less cost as well as to provide world class customer experience. Seeing the success of TPS, every organization started to reference TPS and build their own lean production systems. Clearly, those days the lean production systems created the much-needed competitive edge for businesses. The benchmarks are broken quite often, and the bar was kept rising every now and then. Decades passed by and now almost every big organization has mastered the art of lean manufacturing. Thereby, slowly lean manufacturing has lost the status of secret recipe and the competitive edge is lost. The gap is filled by none other than the Supply Chain Management. Supply Chain is one of the key discussion points in every board room and a lion’s share of the Budget is getting allocated to build the supply chain for the future.

As of today, we can loudly & confidently say ‘The Organization with the most successful Supply Chain is the Winner’.

Evaluating a Supply Chain The Supply Chain has 3 main functions within – Sourcing, Manufacturing and Distribution. The success of Supply Chain is measured by – 1. Reaction time – Supply Chain is packed with uncertainties, no matter how well you plan. The successful Supply Chain reacts and re-aligns almost real time to ensure the performance is seamless.

2. Efficiency – Supply Chain has numerous sets of activities bundled together in a sequence. With multiple if and then, the flow is very complex. The successful Supply Chain is efficient by having full control on each step within the process.

3. Cost – Sometimes we may feel cost is always a sub set of the above two. Partially it is true; by being efficient we save cost. But the point here, the successful Supply Chain has the most updated method of performing the processes and thereby cost efficient.

Starting from Supply Chain Basics till the new trends like IoT and Industry 4.0, all are well aligned to this. For example, in a Nutshell the IoT Supply Chain adds value by aiding in real time decision making which is aligned with the reaction time.

Building a Supply Chain Brick by Brick Though it sounds so simple, building a Supply Chain from scratch is not a cake walk. It needs a lot of careful considerations, quantitative analysis and design. One wrong assumption in a Supply Chain can back fire very badly. Let me quickly tell you two blunders in Supply Chain Design: 1. The biggest blunder ever an organization could do is taking decisions here by experience. Each Supply Chain decision must be backed up well before you implement – that’s why Supply Chain Design extensively uses Simulation and Modelling tools.

2. The other blunder is blindly implementing a Supply Chain Solution which worked well at another organization. The

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About the Author Alvis Lazarus is Chief Executive OďŹƒcer at Hesol Consulting, an Award Winning Supply Chain & Management Consulting ďŹ rm from India. Senior Leader in Supply Chain & Logistics with almost two decades of SCM hands-on experience in devising Country Level and Global Supply chain strategies, Solutions design and spear heading Supply chain Implementation across 10+ Countries. He holds the distinction of driving Supply Chain Solution Design & Implementation across various industries such as Automotive, FMCG, Pharma, Health Care, F&B, Agriculture and ECommerce. Global Exposure on handling Operations and leading Supply chain, Warehousing & Logistics Projects across EMEA, APAC & AMERICAS Regions.

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a

ssumption is here is it worked well for my competitor and it will work for me as well. It is terribly wrong. Supply Chain Design and Solutions are developed for an organization and hardly we can replicate it from external source.

This applies for any Supply Chain Design, ERP, Tech Product, Automation, IoT, Processes etc.

The crucial take-away is to stay away from these blunders and build the Supply Chain for your organization to cater to the demand and expectations of your customers.

Though the detailed explanation of Supply Chain design takes pages, I have consolidated all the nuances in setting up of a supply chain from scratch into 4 Main steps: 1. Network Modelling 2. Facility Design 3. Process Design 4. Process Controls Network Modelling This applies to a new supply chain set up or for an organization which is expanding or entering a new category of business.

Network model is a key exercise which is the base for all the supply chain implementations in an organization. Supply Chain Network Model takes in the input of demand, supply, service fill, KANO Model (customer needs) and other parameters to chalk out the Supply Chain Map for the Organization. A Supply Chain Map will have all the detailed ways to service your customers at the optimum cost such that the business is yielding the targeted profit margins.

Facility Design Facility Design includes the set up of Manufacturing Hubs, Warehouses, Transit Hubs and all other infra needed as per the Network Model. Facility Design starts with Space Calculation and delivers Space Utilization to the brim, efficient Product Flow and Material Handling. Each square foot that is leased is arrived at scientifically and every square foot leased is designed to the detail on the activities to be done.

Process Design Unless each step in Supply chain is documented well and presented at POU it is very difficult to train the resources and standardize the output. Process Design uses the right tools like FDM, VSM or PROCESS FLOW DIAGRAMs to document the processes. The most efficient form of Process Design is standard work which document the steps, timings, equipment, method and other useful information.

Process Controls I still remember what my Quality Guru said – “You can’t control What you don’t Measure”. Process Controls are set at each crucial node within the Supply Chain. They track performance and report on the same. Basis the report, all the underperforming areas are acted upon by performing a root cause analysis and setting up an action plan to correct them as well as prevent the issue from reoccurring.

These 4 Steps applies for a new design as well as existing supply chain improvement projects. In a New design all the 4 Steps are followed to build a Supply Chain and in an existing Supply Chain improvement project, these 4 Steps are followed to arrive at the gaps and fix them.

Effective Implementation of Supply Chain through these 4 crucial steps will ensure a happy smile on your customers. This will also give the organizations the much-needed competitive edge which your competitors can’t copy or follow in a short period of time.

With that I conclude that ‘Supply Chain is the Magic Wand in the current business world ’.

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Empowering Small Businesses with Technology

S

hopping or Retail Therapy as some would like to call it is very dynamic and trends change with the customer, country, economic conditions, technology and more. But there’s no denying that the Retail industry is indispensable and a big contributor to a country’s growth. The last few years have seen Indian retail space change significantly with affordable internet, smartphones and arrival of online shopping. While the bigger market players have embraced the changes, the smaller peers are yet to change and adapt.

Fixing Small Business’ Big Problem The technological empowered change in consumer buying behaviour has left the micro, small and local businesses in a fix as they are finding it difficult to compete with big retailers and are losing footfall and a repeat business.

Lomoso Solutions Pvt Ltd, Ahmedabad, is a technology startup empowering these businesses with affordable and AI enabled technology for customer engagement. The local businesses have a huge market share but are lagging due to poor customer engagement outside their business premises. Lomoso came-up with an affordable technology solution Walkins –an AI based, easy to use, low cost, integrated, data analytics based customer engagement platform available on mobile and web.

Lomoso’s Walkins is a brainchild of

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Gaurav Sutaria and Taral Shah, Co-founders and childhood friends sharing enthusiasm, risk-taking capacity and passion to help society and complimenting each other’s capabilities. Gaurav’s stronghold is sales and marketing and Taral chips-in with his expertise in cloud computing and is an AWS certified system architect.

Of Hits and Misses The story of Walkins starts with the problem of sales in the local business.

The first solution introduced was OneHop but its market fitment or acceptance was not as per mark and was scrapped. Team Lomoso then leaned down on operations, took no salaries for months and with high resilience and conviction, kept building, motivating everyone, aligning everyone with company’s goal and vision, continuously staying in touch with customers, taking feedback and making a product and business roadmap more specific, measurable, and attainable.

The resultant was Walkins, a powerful technology platform which provides various customer engagement tools to small businesses, simplifies all the tools and techniques using integrated technology and helps them connect to their store walk-ins. It also collects their store’s data, digitizes and organizes them and stores it on a centralized location for reuse. The

beauty is the ePage, a dynamic micro website with built in SEO and browserbased notification and a customized loyalty program, which helps businesses to reward their customers on each trade and encourage them for the repeat visit to their store at the right moment.

The Industrial Temperament There is a big opportunity in India for Retail solutions as shown by statistics which says there are thirty small and micro businesses and eleven retailers amongst thousand citizens. Being meticulous, Lomoso surveyed the market to find out the current challenges and how Walkins can solve them. They found that small businesses do not gather store visitor’s information; have digitized customer data; use digital medium; adapt to technology and use business insight.

To solve these issues, the Walkins platform provides - easy to use, and affordable solution; collection, digitization, organization and storage of store visitor’s info, at a centralized location; meaningful communication on customer’s preferred medium; Business intelligence, providing insight into business to make future decisions.

Embracing Technology and Recognition The company believes in having a hyper-scalable technology architecture which is able to meet the changing requirements and allows plug and play

FEBRUARY 2019

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Recommended RETAIL SOLUTION

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Execution is the most important mantra of success

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Gaurav Sutaria & Taral Shah Co-founders

of new features or services with a minimum effort across the entire customer base. Walkins was created to provide this convenience to stores. Its focus is on Business Insights, software integration and use of emerging technology such as BOT, Artificial Intelligent and Machine learning. The company has also developed an IP named RoamingSE, for internal use, created to automate Feet-on-Street process. It captures all information about sales team from store visit to follow-ups, meetings, payment, collection and lead tracking. It believes in automation and has automated all its process whether it is for monitoring, code management or deployment, testing, helping it to save lots of efforts and avoid any human errors.

The company won the Grand Challenge in Vibrant Gujarat Summit. It has also been recognized as a start-up by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion under “Start-up India” and as an innovator by “Start-up Gujarat”.

Besides, a prestigious “Trend Setter” certificate by Gujarat Innovation Society truly defines its success voyage.

Working as a Family Gaurav and Taral treat employees as colleagues and an integral part of the start-up, building a team of passionate and talented dreamers making sure that the team stick together as a family and support each other during difficult

FEBRUARY 2019

challenges. Everyone is aware of his or her duties and works in line with the company’s goal. They sit with individuals and regularly provide them with feedback on the area of improvement, discuss their growth and recognize and reward great performances and successes. Various events are organized for the whole team and it is made sure that work-life balance is maintained and that people are working happily.

Walking Towards Future Being a startup company and into the entrepreneurial shoes themselves, Gaurav and Taral advise budding ones to take some risk, develop a business plan and take a plunge with full passion. “Just remember three words adaptation, resilience and conviction”, they added.

Lomoso and Walkins journey to provide ammunition to small businesses in customer engagement and empower them with the latest and greatest technologies to fight against the common issues continues. As a step towards the future, it has started with the affordable SaaS model for quick and better adaptation. Its vision is to not only build a product for its customers but also for the end consumers and provide them with the better deal at right time on a right medium and convert it into commerce over conversation. trackwalkins.com

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Xtreme Media Digitizing Retail Advertisement

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hen someone mentions Times Square, the first image that pops in one’s mind is a cross section bejeweled with billboards and advertisements. The flashier they are the better and not to forget that most of them are digitally synced with today’s time. Digital displays might be LCDs, LEDs or other technologies and display digital images, mostly advertisements and information. These are placed at high vantage points at public places and other outdoor locations. Digital signages, as they are popularly called, is a very visual and effective method of displaying text, image or video or all combined.

Of Home (DOOH). It offers varied solutions under its two flagship product lines – LED Displays and Digital Signages. Its products are custom made to suit the requirement of industries like retail, smart cities, corporates, BFSI, advertising, transportation etc. It provides Indoor & Outdoor LED video walls with eleven product series and twelve different software products. All these solutions are designed and integrated as per the particular industry needs. It designs its own ancillary hardware & services such as media players for digital signage and content services for LED video walls.

From Inspiration to Inception

Promising this razzmatazz of advertising to the Indian Market is Xtreme Media Pvt. Ltd., a digital display solutions company, started in the year 2009 with the mission of creating ‘WOW Factor For Brands’. It is now a leading brand with more than four-hundred LED displays and is powering more than twenty-thousand digital signages across India. It is an innovator and a front runner with many innovative projects under its belt and a trusted brand.

Total Digital Advertising Solutions Xtreme Media is a total solutions brand offering hardware, software, content and services for Digital Out

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Sanket Rambhia, Founder and Director, is a techie turned entrepreneur. He completed his Masters in Computer Science from Drexel University. While in the US, working for Blackrock for 4 years, he was inspired by the Times Square to incept a company which can build a remarkable digital display landscape.

So he returned to his roots in India to establish a Digital Display Solutions company - Xtreme Media. A firstgeneration entrepreneur; his vision and passion not only turned this small project into a company of over a hundred professionals but also made Xtreme Media the most preferred brand in the Indian market.

Retail Advertising: Going Digital According to Sanket, “Retail is one of the most lucrative sectors for any company in the digital display space and we are no exception.” Many of Xtreme’s new product launches are specific to retail which include transparent LED video wall, an excellent storefront display. Its crowd analytics software uses the facial recognition technology to provide insights on customers and triggers the right ad on the digital display.

Interactive Wayfinding Solution by Xtreme is an instant hit amongst the malls which helps visitors to navigate easily and find desired stores. Indian retail scenario has a lot to catch up to when compared with the international market which is quite mature. He continues, “Retailers need to attract and engage users to sustain; our solution is smart, dynamic and eyecatchy a perfect combination for retail.” The challenges that are still prevalent are ‘the expenditure’ and ‘the change in the mindset’ as many retailers are yet to get comfortable with their POP and window displays going digital. Digital displays are a one-time investment which offers higher ROI in the longer run with either no or minimal recurring cost, which retailers are now accepting slowly and gradually.

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With technologies like facial recognition, AR and beacon, retail will be soon transformed into the digitally empowered world.

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Sanket Rambhia Founder & Director Ideas Need Efforts

Xtreme Media embraces new technologies for software with open arms to create new products. It is working on beacon based indoor navigation system, facial recognition, machine learning and advanced analytics.

For large format LED video walls, it is bringing the beauty of various form factors and concepts which can enthrall the viewers. Its endeavours have won it 1st runner up title for “CNBC Awaaz Masterpereneur India 2014”, and it was listed as” Top 50 innovative companies” and ” Top 100 SME’S” by leading media publications.

WOW at Work Xtreme Media is a young organization and the similar is reflected in its work culture, where innovation is always encouraged It believes that “happy employees are the key to happy customers”, it regularly organizes gaming session, sports outings and picnics. Xtreme Media is also associated with few NGO’s through which it arranges blood donation camps, donations etc. Sanket adds, “We encourage our employees to strike a balance between professional life and health, we have yoga and meditation sessions regularly which keeps the stress level low and happiness levels high.”

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Every startup begins with an idea and transforming that idea into a successful company depends on its leadership and team. Sanket advises that having a strong core team is a must. Every entrepreneur must wear many hats when they begin, which includes grass root level operations too.

He adds,” What makes a startup stand out is their ability to change and adapt quickly which becomes a base for innovation, so don’t hesitate to experiment which is true for a technology-driven industry like us.”

Pushing Limits to Reach New Heights For Xtreme Media, retail has been the second most contributing sector to its revenues, with a majority of the most innovative projects coming from this sector. It is expanding its local presence to reach maximum cities directly rather than through partners. It has many new products in the pipeline which can contribute positively to digital display landscape and encourage more and more brands to accept digital displays as their mainstream medium to communicate and promote their brand. So the New Year will see Xtreme Media bringing a new ‘WOW Factor for several Brands’.

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