The 10 Most Influential Women In Tech 2019 by Mirror Review

www.mirrorreview.com March 2019

T H E

Travel Tech Reinventing The Travel And Tourism Industry Using Digital Technologies

Most InďŹ&#x201A;uential

omen

In Tech 2019

Looking Into The Future Learn How Lidar Is Changing The World For Better

Co-founder & COO | Viteos Fund Services LLC.

Chitra Baskar Her Leadership Changed Asset Driven Firmsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Operations

EDITOR’S LETTER www.mirrorreview.com March 2018

T H E

Travel Tech Reinventing The Travel And Tourism Industry Using Digital Technologies

Most Inﬂuential

omen

In Tech 2019

Looking Into The Future

n the era of digital disruption and market innovation, women are bringing their A game to the business & tech landscape. Whether it is a role of a Founder, Senior Product Manager, CEO, COO, CTO or that of a Senior Director of Enterprise, C-Suite of tech organizations are powered and led by women influencers, innovators, and revolutionary thinkers. But what is it about them that make us want to follow in their footsteps? Is it their passion for work, fiery persona, strategic mindset, technological prowess, or all of the rest and some more? Join us in the exciting journey full of remarkable tales as we profile women influencers from the technological sector one by one. In this magazine issue, our featured female pioneers also share their secret of success which is bound to motivate and inspire women entering in tech careers regardless of industry.

Learn How Lidar Is Changing The World For Better

Co-founder & COO | Viteos Fund Services LLC.

Chitra Baskar Her Leadership Changed Asset Driven Firms’ Operations

Celebrating The Female Power In Tech!

Our Cover Star, Chitra Baskar (Co-founder & COO, Viteos Fund Services LLC) is a visionary leader who is making an impact in the private equity industry based on industry insights and technological expertise. We get to know about her childhood goal of becoming an accountant to recognizing the market needs, and later fulfilling them through the inception of Viteos. Indeed, she is a remarkable example of someone who believes in “Little girls with dreams become women with vision.” Moving ahead, we showcase influential women leaders coming from diverse industries, playing equally diverse roles. These include Anjali Kumari (Senior Director of Product, Capillary Technologies), Cay Gliebe (SVP, Marketing & Product Management, OneSource Virtual), Clare Parry-Jones (Sector Director of Enterprise, Computacenter), Daphne Thomas (Chief Transformation Officer, iPipeline, Inc.), Janaki Joshi (CEO, Iris Interactive), Rajashree Rajadhyax (Co-founder & COO, Cere Labs Pvt. Ltd), Kiran Bhagotra (Founder, CEO & President, ProtectBox), and Shwetha Prasad (CEO & Founder, Omnia Digital). Sharing her opinions in the Expert’s Views section, Cami Zimmer (Executive VP Business Development & Marketing, Glympse) speaks about why the last mile delivery is the new competitive vanguard for retail and grocery ecommerce. We have also included amazing articles in the ‘Travel Tech’ and ‘Looking into the Future’ sections for our voracious readers and magazine subscribers. Dream Big & Stay Real!

Anuja Mulmule Managing Editor

CREDIT PAGE Publisher : Archana Ghule Editor-in-Chief : Vikram Suryawanshi Managing Editor : Anuja Mulmule Assistant Editor : Mayur Shewale Contributory Writers : Bansidhar Tigga Deepali Sarwade Business Development Manager : Anagha Acharya Project Manager : Nikita Bokankar Art Director : Vinod Alhat Visualizer : Mark Davis Graphic Designers : Poonam Magdum Sumit Bonage Aniket Diwane Sakshi Bendre Head of Distribution & Production : Aakash Mahajan Head of Operations : Robert Smith Research Analysts : James Adams David Thomas Advertising : Maria Smith

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COVER STORY

ARTICLES 22

Looking Into The Future

Learn How Lidar Is Changing The World For Better

Travel Tech

Reinventing The Travel And Tourism Industry Using Digital Technologies

Expert's Views

10 Chitra Baskar: Her Leadership Changed Asset Driven Firmsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Operations

Cami Zimmer | Glympse

Why Last Mile Delivery Is The New Competitive Vanguard For Retail And Grocery Ecommerce

Anjali Kumari: A Visionary Leader Empowering Retailers With Omnichannel Solutions

18 Cay Gliebe:

A Dynamic Leader In The Marketplace, Utilizing Diverse Experience At OneSource Virtual

Clare Parry-Jones: A Persuasive Leader, Elevating Computacenter With Excellent Management Skills

Daphne Thomas: Setting An Example By InďŹ&#x201A;uencing People To Make Them Successful

Janaki Joshi: Transforming Product Commercialization In The Life Sciences Industry

38 10

Kiran Bhagotra:

A Determined Founder, Making How We Buy Cybersecurity Customer-Friendly By Building Trust

Rajashree Rajadhyax: A Visionary Leader, Exploring The Landscape Of ArtiďŹ cial Intelligence

46 Shwetha Prasad:

A Passionate Digital Marketing Expert Empowering Clients With Omniaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Services

T H E

Most Inﬂuential

omen

In Tech 2019

Chitra Baskar: Her Leadership Changed Asset Driven Firms’ Operations

A well-established professional life is the result of constant learning, and it doesn’t stop even after becoming a leader.

C O V E R S T O R Co-founder & COO Viteos Fund Services LLC.

COVER STORY

or asset management operations, such as in hedge fund and private equity organizations, the constant challenge is to keep ahead of and consistent with efﬁcient and productive processes in an environment of ever changing technology, regulation, and competition. And this overarching environment is undergirded by demands such as transparency, accuracy, timeliness, and reliability in reporting across complex global assets.

It is here where Chitra Baskar saw a need, co-founded and built a firm, Viteos, and continues with her visionary leadership, and with her colleagues, to change the industry. Chitra was Co-founder and is COO of Viteos Fund Services LLC. She and her fellow founders identified operations as an unmet and underserved area for profitable growth. They decided to explore operations in an anticipatory way, and to actually define the space. From there, they developed innovative services and technology, combined with accounting expertise, to meet the market demand. Presently, Chitra directs the daily operations of Viteos, even as she remains visionary in the strategic direction of the company in the years ahead. These directions include AI, robotics, machine learning, and Blockchain on the product side, and expansion into new client areas such as Private Equity portfolio accounting on the client side. Chitra already possessed expertise in investment operations, and diving deeply into this previously shunned area was both challenging and gratifying. Prior to founding Viteos, Chitra led IL&FS, where she worked as the COO of Securities and Transaction Processing Services, and which served as a launchpad for her thinking

A leader must focus on developing solutions that deliver value to uplift their capabilities.

around gaps in the solution set in Capital Market operations – including the viability of an outsourced business processing model. A Journey Started From Early Childhood, Building to Exceptional Achievement and Poised For the Future “Little girls with dreams become women with vision.” This held true for Chitra. Since her school days, she was th taught to consistently learn and improve. In 9 grade, she set her goal to become an accountant, for two reasons: it would draw on her talent and enable her to make a difference, regardless of the industry she entered. The fact is accounting was the platform from which she would become an entrepreneur. It informed her view that accounting could offer value to clients - if it were wed to advanced technology delivery. She set as Viteos’ mission an understanding of operations in depth, and in bringing innovative thinking to what was previously underserved. Now, many of the world’s most complex managers rely on Viteos services and technology for: trade support; reconciliation; collateral management; regulatory reporting; systems implementation; and shadow accounting. As managers broaden their complex assets, Viteos’ experience in deploying accounting relevant technology addresses operational concerns brought about by these assets: accounting; reporting; allocation; and process monitoring. This automation and STP approach unburdens firms’ teams so they can focus on investing. It is this ability to deliver and to provide unparalleled client service that makes Viteos the leader in middle office operations worldwide. And, as investing and regulations grew more complex, Viteos was there to fill the need. The firm now serves the most complex assets in hedge fund portfolios, and more so for the world’s largest and best known brands. Further, her team also developed a modular collection of technology solutions with robust capabilities which interoperatively turn data into useful information. Chitra mandated this modular approach so that each module is created to be intuitive from an accountant’s viewpoint and engineered to automate post-trade activities with minimal manual intervention.

T H E The modular technology is the engine driving efficiency in servicing clients and the platform operates singularly or collectively. Clients can opt for the full suite or any combination of components. Interoperability, core to the platform, accelerates data inputs, regardless of source. Complete flexibility and customization is the experience of Viteos clients, who benefit from embedded robotics, and Machine Learning development. As one example, the comprehensive technology reporting library, VU 360 is specifically designed for the middle and back office including exposures, profit and loss, attributions, cash projections, and other essentials. This wide-ranging digital library consists of reports, which are customizable to users’ individual needs via simple modifications. Moreover, VU 360 is built on a foundation of knowledge and collective experience from servicing multiple hedge funds of differing complexities, product mixes, and strategies. Leading with Determination and Persistence for Strategic Results Early adoption to technology, enhanced by ongoing innovation, has been the backbone of the Viteos service model. Viteos has consistently been successful because, in addition to its accounting expertise and technology, it delivers exceptional client services. This again is rooted in the principles of being anticipatory of client and market needs and in demonstrating an understanding of each client’s particular business, especially in areas of complexity. Her consultative approach has resulted in partnerships over time, while also making major contributions to the industry as a whole, such as the development of shadow accounting as a category offering. Achieving Future Growth Through Management Vision and Focus Consistent with the anticipatory approach, Chitra and her team are leveraging market dynamics and industry trends. Since the firm’s inception in 2003, outsourcing as a productive approach to operations has proven to be true – and will become more rather than less important. Says Chitra: “By far the most significant trend is the exponential increase in complexity of investment operations, driven by exotic instruments, intricate asset accumulation structures and jurisdictional requirements

Most Inﬂuential

omen

In Tech 2019

Success is the natural consequence of determination, persistence, and perspiration. that managers must handle to remain competitive. These include asset class, regulatory reporting, trading, reconciliation, collateral management, shadow accounting, and treasury – even systems upgrades. As operations are our sole business, we unburden ﬁrms of the inherent cost and maintenance concerns while staying abreast of requirements and developments.” While driving the global strategic growth of Viteos with Hedge Funds, Chitra is also managing its entry into the Private Equity/Private Debt area. The extensive experience of Chitra and her team in the Hedge Fund space further helped them to lead in Private Equity. Utilizing Values with Consistent Learning As a successful tech centered-woman, she is also changing the dynamics in a male-dominated industry. Chitra empowers other women to increase their roles in the company. She oversaw the gender diversity expansion of Viteos from 13% women to 27% from 2015 to 2017, and was instrumental in setting up a network for Women in Hedge Fund Operations as a support and mentoring organization focused solely on the challenges facing women in hedge fund services. Viteos’ expertize in valued investment management services is an example of Chitra’s consistent learning and contribution towards the company’s success. Since the beginning, she always brought creativity, innovation,

COVER STORY

learning, growth, and integrity into her work. Today, she encourages and motivates the Viteos team to utilize those values in the company’s environment. Armored with two and a half decades of experience in ﬁnancial services, Chitra has successfully build Viteos from strength to strength. The dynamic COO of Viteos gives credit to her colleagues and clients for her success. She also appreciates her family for their essential support, enabling her to maintain a good work-life balance, and in her outside activity, most especially in brining Indian music into the U.S.

Secret of Chitra’s Success

I think people need to move past competence to excellence in the skills necessary for their work. Determination and persistence in work and being nimble without losing sight of the vision also counts for a lot. – Chitra Baskar

Co-founder & COO Viteos Fund Services LLC.

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Leader Name

Company Info

Anjali Kumari Senior Director of Product Capillary Technologies

Capillary Technologies is one such prominent company which is infusing technologies to interpret the actual use case of consumer behaviours in the retail industry. www.capillarytech.com

Cay Gliebe SVP of Marketing & Product Management OneSource Virtual

OneSource Virtual was founded in 2008 as the pioneer of Business Process as a Service (BPaaS) outsourcing. www.onesourcevirtual.com

Chitra Baskar Co-founder & COO Viteos Fund Services LLC

Viteos is complexity made simple. It combines technology with accounting expertise to create smart, simple solutions for investment operations—through rigorous processes and innovative technology. www.viteos.com

Clare Parry-Jones Sector Director of Enterprise Computacenter

Computacenter is a leading independent provider of IT infrastructure services, enabling users and their business in a digital world. It advises organisations on IT strategy, implement the most appropriate technology, optimise its performance, and manage it’s customers’ infrastructures. www.computacenter.com Based in Exton, Pennsylvania, iPipeline was founded with the goal of digitizing

Daphne Thomas the life insurance industry by aggregating and distributing up-to-date content for Chief Transformation Ofﬁcer producers selling a variety of insurance products for multiple carriers. iPipeline

www.ipipeline.com

Janaki Joshi CEO Iris Interactive

Iris Interactive is an Independent Software Vendor and a leading provider of proven software. www.irisinteractive.com

Kiran Bhagotra Founder & CEO ProtectBox

ProtectBox is about collaboration, empowerment, challenging norms of who can work in cyber by hiring ex-forces, graduates, returners etc. & fun. www.protectbox.com

Linda Strick Managing Director The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA)

The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) is the world’s leading organization dedicated to deﬁning and raising awareness of best practices to help ensure a secure cloud computing environment. www.cloudsecurityalliance.org

Rajashree Rajadhyax Co-founder & COO Cere Labs Pvt. Ltd.

Cere Labs Pvt. Ltd. a team of entrepreneurs, engineers and researchers exploring the mystery, challenges and possibilities in the landscape of Artiﬁcial Intelligence. www.cerelabs.com

Shwetha Prasad Founder & CEO Omnia Digital

Omnia Digital has specialization in content marketing, digital strategy and execution, campaign management, and insight & analytics. www.omniadigital.in

Anjali Kumari: A Visionary Leader Empowering Retailers With Omnichannel Solutions

oday, the world is heavily inﬂuenced and driven by technology. Right from healthcare, automobile, education and ﬁnance, every industry has been stirred with a rationale to simplify human lives. Hence, it doesn’t come as a major surprise when one thinks about its dominance in the retail industry too. Modern day consumers are well attuned with the evolving technologies such as AI, Big Data, IoT etc. and are therefore raising the bar of expectations when it comes to the deliverables. Retailers who are still using the traditional techniques are left high and dry to survive in the cut-throat market whereas astute vendors who are leveraging these technologies are racing far ahead. Here comes the gamechanging part where having sound insights on what the existing technologies are capable of offering along with clear understanding of the millennial consumers demands becomes a requisite.

Capillary Technologies is one such prominent company which is infusing technologies to interpret the actual use case of consumer behaviours in the retail industry. The firm has witnessed remarkable success in the retail domain over the years. During its initial days, Capillary assisted retailers to identify and understand the consumers in the offline world. Afterwards, as the online world got introduced, it started providing .coms to the retailers while promising to blend the best of the online and offline worlds by capturing offline clickstream data so that retail customers can enjoy a seamless and personalized omnichannel experience. At present, Capillary Technologies provides a long range of retail CRM, eCommerce, and Loyalty Program solutions to help businesses to become more consumercentric. The firm’s AI and Machine Learning powered platforms enable enterprises to learn more about consumer preferences and unlock business potentials.

proficiency and finesse. However, the most challenging part of her job is to keep the team constantly motivated and productive. In order to execute this task, it becomes very important to have an open and clear communication with the team. Therefore, at Capillary Technologies, Anjali and the management team provide a dynamic culture to encourage the team members to openly communicate, exchange ideas, evolve, and give their absolute best. Anjali’s Expedition towards Expertise Since the beginning, Anjali has always been a great learner and while studying, she worked as a grader for the course on Algorithm, Design, & Implementation. During her graduation program in Computer Science, she worked as a lab assistant and continued her zeal for knowledge. Later, Anjali received her MS degree in the same field from the renowned Purdue University and successfully completed her MBA from the Indian School of Business. After completing her academia, Anjali started her career as Associate Software Product Developer at Symphony Services. She then moved to Box.com and played a vital role in the firm’s journey. At that point, she gained an amazing entrepreneurial experience when Box switched the strategy to serving business instead of consumers. After several years of experience working at start-ups, Anjali then decided to strike into product management and worked with Myntra for some time. In 2013, Anjali joined Capillary Technologies and began contributing her valuable experience. Since then, she has successfully proved herself as an effective Product Manager. Over the years, Anjali has developed great expertise in product visioning and gained the ability to build them from scratch. In doing so, she has always been customerfocused and data-driven. A Leader that Promotes Authenticity

Leading this industry shift with sound market insights on consumer behaviour is its Senior Director of Product—Anjali Kumari. Being an integral part of the company, Anjali handles several responsibilities with great

Anjali is a dashing leader with tremendous courage who makes sound decisions and stands by them. She makes decisions which are best for the clients, consequently

empowering the company and her team. Moreover, she also makes sure that her decisions are making consumers’ journeys beneﬁcial. Anjali’s voyage with Capillary Technologies has been an amazing one. In her early days, she triumphantly led BI and Analytics product suite and the Tech Publication teams. Later, she worked on ideation, creation, and launch of new products. During this period, she also performed market research and determined product-market ﬁt, evaluation of different pricing strategies, and creation of go-to-market strategies. Therefore, when asked about the secret mantra behind her outstanding performance, Anjali reveals, “My best comes out when I work with my natural personality.” According to her, failure is not fatal; the ability to learn from it is what makes a difference. Great leaders embrace failures and learn from them and therefore Anjali is very much appreciated for this quality as well as for her authenticity at work. Since the beginning, she always showed an implicit trust in her team members and this has helped her in creating a healthy work environment where the company’s leadership team can openly question each other.

Keeping Things Simple Helps in Solving Critical Hitches Noticeably, Anjali concentrates on the part where most humans fail. It sounds basic but the most complicated job in the world is to keep things simple and this small piece of advice has helped her immensely in her professional career. It has also aided her to identify and focus on the top priorities and deliver a solution in the most simple and efﬁcient way. Today, Anjali looks at everything with the lens of simplicity, thereby making her a successful and impactful leader. Overcoming Challenges and Executing Strategies to Stay Ahead When it comes to making strategies for Capillary Technologies, Anjali focuses on effectively communicating with the team as well as the customers. Her impressive background in CRM domain helps her in maintaining good relations with the clients and focuses on making their lives easier. Moreover, her approach to tackling the difﬁculties with audacity and simplicity helps her in being agile when it comes to making effective strategies.

“

Authenticity, trust in team members, ability to embrace failures, and learning from them are the key ingredients of becoming a successful leader.

“

Senior Director of Product | Capillary Technologies

Cay Gliebe: A Dynamic Leader In The Marketplace, Utilizing Diverse Experience At OneSource Virtual

n the world of digital revolution, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is a critical but often overlooked aspect of a digital workspace. Presently, RPA is a piece of highly customized software called a Software Robot or a BOT, that when deployed performs a variety of tasks as a part of an enterprise. Therefore, everyone from the board to the C level is curious about its capabilities but unsure of how it can be utilized within their organizations. In the view of Cay Gliebe, the SVP, Marketing and Product Management at OneSource Virtual (OSV)—RPA is one of the most intriguing tools to date which has the capability to take out repetitive and manual work, thereby enabling team members to utilize the saved time for performing strategic tasks. Most notably, OneSource Virtual has recently launched a Robotic Process as a Service (RPaaS) offering, a solution that leverages a digital workforce of robots to help organizations more efﬁciently navigate a wide variety of business issues in human resources and ﬁnance departments. This new launch is the result of the efforts by Cay and the teams she leads at OneSource Virtual. She brings emphasis on developing dynamic and advanced solutions like RPA to uplift the offerings of OSV. Cay’s Vibrant Journey of Vast and Diverse Experience At OneSource Virtual, Cay leads a marketing department, a corporate sales development team, and product development teams. She helps the company to determine the future direction and strategies with her expertise in Sales Leadership & Execution, Process Improvement, Business & HR Transformation, and Redesign & Project Management. Cay’s professional journey is the prime factor behind her successful leadership role at OneSource Virtual. With a

Bachelor of Science in Interrelated Studies and a minor in Sociology from the State University of New York, Cay began her professional career in the military and then moved into the corporate world. This transition from the military to corporate has made her professional career more dynamic and diverse. Today, Cay has more than 30 years of experience in HR, sales, marketing, operations, and product management. These job roles have provided her with a holistic view of the corporate world and enabled her to learn from highly experienced individuals. This continual learning from practical challenges and interactions with versatile personalities shaped Cay’s career and made her a dynamic leader. With this solid experience in several markets and industries, Cay has built and raised strong teams that are responsible for delivering revenue targets in both small and large technology and outsourcing companies. Developing New Offerings while Tackling the Challenges At OneSource Virtual, Cay handles two completely different business units that are Marketing & Communication and Product Management. According to her, this is the most challenging and fascinating part of her job because both departments have distinguishing characteristics. Cay has successfully helped the Product Management team, a new business unit at OSV, to thrive with her exceptional talent and vast prior experience. Her diverse experience in marketing and product management enables her to manage the department efﬁciently. To keep the pace with changing customer requirements, Cay regularly interacts with customers and ensures that the OSV solutions are solving the real questions and pain points in the industry. Currently, with her effective leadership qualities, she is successfully bringing together solutions that enable the company to exceed its goals and objectives.

OneSource Virtual Services in Workday Ecosystem Under the leadership umbrella of Cay and the managing team, OneSource Virtual offers end-to-end services in the Workday ecosystem. The company has the capability to fully support customers’ use of the Workday platform. It enables customers to realize the value of Workday, reduce their efforts, and help them to see additional benefits with their changing business and Workday functionality. The firm achieves this through patented technology and superior execution with total alignment across the organization while keeping the customers’ needs at the center. In addition, OSV strives to deliver quality professional services to customers and also helps them to expand products and extend reach into additional markets. It offers comprehensive services like Strategic Consulting for Workday, Global Workforce Administration, Benefits Administration, Payroll Services on Workday, Finance & Accounting Services, and Application Management Services. With offices in London and Derry, Northern Ireland, OneSource Virtual is planning to expand its global reach in EMEA to better serve its international customers.

“Advice is good, but obsessing over advice is unproductive,” says Cay. In her long span of professional life, Cay has received numerous opinions but the one she believes to be the best of all is: “Feedback is a gift. Take it, evaluate it, then decide if it’s really wise to consider and implement”. Therefore, the well-versed Cay mostly relies on her experience and vision to understand the feedback from clients and help them to map and deliver a road to success. The latest example of this is the launch of her newest brainchild, the RPaaS offering. Cay developed RPaaS as a means to help customers ﬁll the gap in their operational processes and reduce legal and regulatory risks. It is her experience and vision that makes Cay a dynamic leader in her ﬁeld and a conduit to her customers’ success. Explaining the proper response to advice, Cay asserts, “It’s important to assess and weigh constructive feedback, but in the end obsessing over advice is unproductive.”

“

The value of experience is not in seeing much, but in seeing wisely.

“

SVP, Marketing and Product Management | OneSource Virtual

Looking Into The Future

Learn How

LiDAR

Is Changing the World for Better

uman beings are peculiar creatures who want to know anything and everything. In order to do this, we have developed many technologies and devices so that we can search and gather about the unknown. LiDAR stands for Light Detection and Ranging, is a remote sensing method that measures the distance to a target by illuminating the target with pulsed laser light and measuring the reﬂected pulses with a sensor. LiDAR is one of those technologies, which helped scientists and researchers to characterize vegetation and other objects across large sections. To map objects, LiDAR uses ultraviolet, visible, or near-infrared light. This remote sensing method is used to make geological maps, create virtual models of city landscapes, scan the ocean ﬂoor at some shallower depths, and map changes happening in coastlines. Working of LiDAR Technology LiDAR works in a similar manner as radar and sonar works, but it uses light waves from a laser.

Generally, a LiDAR device consists of a laser, a scanner, and a specialized GPS receiver. From the LiDAR system, light is emitted from a rapidly ﬁring laser. The sensor on the system calculates the total time taken for each pulse to bounce back. Since the light moves at a constant speed the LiDAR device can calculate the distance between itself and the target. The GPS is used for identifying the X, Y, Z location of the light energy. By repeating the same process, it forms a map of the surface it is measuring and the 3D model of the surface can be constructed. LiDAR is becoming popular and used in various sectors that are: Evaluating the surrounding areas of Autonomous Vehicles With the invention of autonomous cars, the automotive industry has transformed into a completely new level. Many organizations started ﬁnancing as well as building self-driving cars. An autonomous vehicle uses LiDAR technology to look at its surrounding area. The remote sensing

technology measures the distances, categorizes obstacles ahead, brightens objects with a laser and then creates high-resolution digital images of the surrounding areas of self-driving cars. By mounting a LiDAR on the bumper or the roof of a car, it can calculate the distance between two vehicles to avoid the collision. The LiDAR technology also provides information to the Adaptive Cruise Control system of the selfdriving to decide when to apply the brakes, slow down, or accelerate the vehicle.

ultra-detailed 3D mapping which allows another AR system to pile his data on top of a precise and reliable map. The point cloud created by LiDAR scanner can offer an extraordinary AR experience. Currently, there is research going on the application of Doppler wind LiDAR, which would allow us to see the clear movement of the wind. The research would be useful in aviation safety, data visualize of atmospheric, weather forecasting and disaster management. Landscape Analysis

Transforming the Real World view with Augmented Reality (AR) Augmented Reality (AR) might not be the same as virtual reality, but the technology is proving itself as a very useful tool in our everyday lives. The AR is rapidly growing in popularity because it incorporates the elements of the virtual world into the real world that enhances the things we see, hear, and feel. AR merged with LiDAR can heighten the transparency and ďŹ nal output of AR systems. In principle, a LiDAR scanner offers the

The most common use of LiDAR technology is to survey the landscapes. With the recent advancement in hardware and software sector, the analysis of LiDAR data can be processed more efďŹ ciently. The remote sensing technology can enter in thick shades, which allows the scientists to uncovered earth territory models that was not visible to them by picture based photogrammetry. A comprehensive and updateable risk model can be introduced allowing risk to be managed, rather than responded to.

Looking Into The Future Biodiversity for Species and Insects Forest is home of different species and insects. To unveil the mystery of their lifestyle LiDAR technology is used. Using LiDAR, scientist and researchers gather data about various species and insects. Then, the gathered data is analyzed to see whether the forest is a suitable place for them to live or not. Essentially, the vertical arrangement of trees, shrubs, and other plant tell what species can live and prosper in that area. Tsunami Hazard Model We all had known about tsunami and its effect on human lives. The natural disaster can destroy infrastructure and take a thousand lives. However, LiDAR technology can help to minimize this damage. Scientists can utilize LiDAR technology to understand the area that will be covered when the tsunami happens. The 3D CG representation of a terrain’s surface produced by LiDAR gives the elevation value of the seashores and bathymetric data provides underwater elevation. The data layered in the GIS gives us the ﬂood area details when a tsunami occurs. Aiding Forensic Researchers Due to LiDAR’s capabilities to survey areas and detect life form, the researchers pondered on whether LiDAR technology could be used to ﬁnd unmarked graves. For this, the researches obtained numerous corpses that had been donated to science and buried them in various unmarked graves. Using LiDAR technology, the researchers were able to make out the outlines of all of the graves even those that were covered by leaves and other debris. Conclusion As the LiDAR technology becomes cheaper and more available, no doubt people around the world will continue to enjoy fascinating new applications built from it. LiDAR technology gives an opportunity to do impossible tasks out of human capabilities like surveying the remote landscapes. The technology has a versatile nature for utilizing its sensors in various situations. Moreover, LiDAR technology can change the viewpoints of the human for monitoring an object or anything. This technology has the potential to transform human insights on various things and in future, we might see things from a different perceptive.

Clare Parry-Jones: A Persuasive Leader, Elevating Computacenter With Excellent Management Skills

usinesses are constantly increasing investments in enhancing their digital agenda, the speed of their networks, building their cloud capabilities, and most importantly, improving their resilience for their customers. The customer-centricity has given a rise to new strategies amongst businesses that specifically concentrate on customer requirements. Therefore, the products, services, or solutions from companies are greatly proportional to customer demands. Clare Parry-Jones, the Sector Director of Enterprise at Computacenter and her colleagues have built powerful partnerships with the world’s leading technology providers to offer such customer-focused solutions. At Computacenter, Clare is contributing to a path of sustainable growth with her excellent leadership qualities and influential communication skills. The Journey of Leaping from Versatile Roles to being a Leader at Computacenter Being the only child of her parents, Clare was very close to them. Since childhood, she saw her parents efficiently running a hotel business; she observed them putting the customer at the heart of everything. That observation was the beginning of her journey. In her studies, Clare initially started with A-levels in Chemistry, Biology & English Literature. While doing that, she took an additional O-level in Computer Studies. Moving ahead, Clare dropped her idea of doing Food Science with a thought of spending 4 years in a lab coat and took admission in a new degree in Business Information Technology at UCLAN and pursued it with full interest. After completing her studies, she moved to various companies leading them with different roles. Interestingly, Clare’s roles transitioned from technical support, systems engineer to sales management. With her adaptable nature, she joined Computacenter in 2007 as an account manager. Her dynamic business and

leadership qualities were soon recognized, and are utilized daily in her current role of Sector Director. Assisting Clients in their Success while Maintaining Healthy Relationships Today, at Computacenter, the team is successfully adding value to the clients’ businesses by offering complete advice on what choice of technology will be best suited for their businesses. They listen to customer needs and find the best ways to integrate Computacenter services to their environment and help them to manage it securely and reliably. Commenting on the growth of Computacenter, Clare asserts, “Being 38 years old and UK based, we’re proud of what we’ve achieved. We’ve created a ‘can-do’ culture where people matter and are encouraged to thrive. Today, our business has grown in capability, reach, and reputation.” Clare and team are therefore continually focused on long-lasting relationships with customers and long-term goals. Computacenter believes that profitability is directly related to customer satisfaction which encourages them to experiment with new trends and technologies and explore delivery locations for new service centres. Likewise, the team leads the go-tomarket strategy primarily with their service business which helps them to drive the overall strategy for Computacenter. Computacenter views Managed Services as the prerequisite for long-term customer relationships and retention, whilst Professional Services give them visibility and recognition as they work with CIOs to make their IT infrastructure suitable for digital services. Further, these relationships help their Technology Sourcing business to flourish. Additionally, to remain ahead in the challenging environment where clients prefer high-quality services at low price points, Computacenter constantly focuses on maintaining high levels of professionalism and quality

with competitive pricing while considering the commercial viability to avoid any losses. Defeating Problems while Making Conﬁdent Decisions Since joining, Clare has signiﬁcantly contributed to the company to new horizons of growth. Being a mother and a senior leader in a reputed organization is not an easy task. Clare remarks on this, “For me, ensuring my worklife balance is critical. I’m not always perfect at balancing it, but I certainly try the best to manage my home as well as work.” Therefore, like most of us, she has to juggle everything and say ‘no’ to certain things. Clare always tries to approach everything with an open mind and trust her instincts while taking decisions. Regarding decisions, she was given advice by a past manager of hers from Compaq— “Make a decision and move on!” Clare follows this mantra to avoid stagnation and allowing for corrective action to be taken if required. Clare’s customer-centric approach was learnt from her parents. She always thinks about remaining relevant to her customers and concentrates on their end goals to better assist them with Computacenter services.

Throughout her career, Clare has been helping, driving and supporting people in their careers. While doing this, she never thought about leaving a legacy behind - she always wanted her team, colleagues and company to succeed. When explaining about her opinions on legacy, Clare said, “I’ve never really thought about leaving a legacy [behind]. I don’t want to be famous for being a woman in IT. I want to be famous for being a Leader and Role Model that happens to be called Clare, who along the way has made a positive impact and depending on your point of view that could be as a daughter, a mother, a wife, a friend, a co-worker and leader.” Finally, this well-versed leader offers her advice, Clare shares “Treat people as you would want to be treated, approach each day with a smile as if it’s your ﬁrst and never be afraid of failing.”

“

Life is busy and work is busy, so smile and believe in yourself because you are the creator of your destiny.

“

Sector Director of Enterprise | Computacenter

Daphne Thomas: Setting An Example By Inﬂuencing People To Make Them Successful

hen leading a business organization, you must be able to motivate your workforce for various reasons including task completion, vision alignment, and even employee development. A personality that can change someone’s behavior for good, can fruitfully drive organizational growth towards great heights of success. Moreover, as leadership is about impacting, influencing, and inspiring, an adept leader impacts people for getting results, influences them for spreading the passion he/she has and inspires teammates and customers to thrive. One of such personalities is Daphne Thomas, who is an active Chief Transformation Officer (CTO) at iPipeline, Inc.

Coming from a Computer Science background, Daphne has worked as a developer for many years in Ireland, the UK, and Japan. After a long career at Siemens Medical, she was elevated to VP of Research and Discovery, where she led an Enterprise Development team of 1,500 employees across 5 different countries. Moreover, Daphne is deeply experienced in agile/process consulting and building a services team. In 2008, when Daphne joined iPipeline as the Head of Services, she developed a solid delivery methodology that helped the firm to grow its customer base to over 130 insurers and 1,300 distributors & financial institutions, with best in class profitability. Considering Customers as Paramount Today, being the Chief Transformation Officer of iPipeline, Daphne is involved in collaborating with customers in the insurance and financial services industry to transform not only their business, but the industry. Through her immense contribution, she provides the best practices and consultative services to the industry as it evolves to a more digital landscape. While developing iPipeline’s strategies, the customers are Daphne’s top priority, as enhancing the lives of customers and helping them protect their families is at

the forefront of everything she does. Similarly, Daphne and her team focus on how the potential strategy will improve the lives of the consumer as they consider buying insurance. Further, the viability of bringing a potential strategy to market is also a priority in the decision process at iPipeline. An Organization with a Mission to Make the Difference Based in Exton, Pennsylvania, iPipeline was founded with the goal of digitizing the life insurance industry by aggregating and distributing up-to-date content for producers selling a variety of insurance products for multiple carriers. Presently, the tech solution provider is a leading the space of cloud-based software solutions and dramatically improving the planning, selling, and servicing of financial products. With a vision to dramatically improve how insurance is sold, iPipeline offers innovative solutions that include pre-sales support, new business & underwriting, policy administration, point-of-sale execution of applications, post-sale support, data analysis, reporting, user-driven configuration, consumer delivery & self-service, and agency & firm management. iPipeline’s mission is to provide a world-class, integrated, end-to-end platform to the financial services and life insurance industry to accelerate and simplify sales, compliance, operations, and support. With this mission, their team looks ahead to continue expanding the capabilities of their platform, grow responsibly, and capture more than 75% of industry electronic transactions, while focusing on customer-centricity. Employing the Experiences to Create Great Teams As Daphne has spent ample time working overseas, immersing in new cultures has helped her become who she is and shaped the way she navigates the diverse

philosophies within the teams she works. Moreover, Daphne is passionate about cultural diversity and believes in building a global team. While speaking about how her overseas career journey has helped her, she says, “The experiences I gained by living in 4 different countries has given me an appreciation for the unique value each culture holds, and how to tap into these unique traits to build high performing teams.” Challenges are the Part and Parcel of the Business As iPipeline’s innovative efforts grow along with the booming industry, the firm is always in need of the topmost talent. Daphne finds the most challenging aspect of her job is to find great talent. In these times, iPipeline’s goodwill tends to help her a lot. “Fortunately, we have a wonderful reputation and culture that help us attract great minds, but we always have room for new innovators,” Daphne asserts. Measuring the Success by the Success of Mentees

many people she has mentored, and how many now hold positions higher than her. That question inspired her to look at her network and realize her great contribution to people is mentoring. The success of those people always gives her a feeling of great pride and inspires her to contribute more to people seeking guidance. When asked how she would like to be remembered, Daphne replied, “I would like for my legacy to be that of a leader and mentor. I hope the individuals I have mentored will remember me for what I taught them and how my leadership helped them grow.” Moreover, in the Mentor Club for Women at iPipeline, Daphne and her team share books and articles to empower women in their careers and hold open discussions around how they can help each other overcome the challenges that women face in the workplace. They are currently reading a book that Daphne recommends to anyone looking to grow their career—“Why Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Ofﬁce.”

Being a leader, Daphne also acts as a mentor for various members of her team. Once a mentor asked her how

“

By means of iPipeline, I strive to provide the best practices and consultative services to the industry as it evolves to a more digital landscape.

“

Chief Transformation O cer | iPipeline, Inc.

Expert's Views

Why Last Mile Delivery Is The New Competitive Vanguard For

Retail & Grocery eCommerce

more and more under their umbrella, introducing faster shipping options and giving customers the ability to see where their driver is on the delivery day.

The eCommerce era has redeﬁned customer expectations

The industry has followed suit, and thankfully you don’t have to have the economies of scale of Amazon (since almost no one does!) in order to incorporate last mile improvements for customers. All you have to do is focus on the opportunities for engagement at every step of the last mile journey.

ccording to a 2018 study, the preceding 18 months saw a 50% increase in last mile interactions, largely due to increased demand in B2C eCommerce. Here’s how your business can prepare itself to excel in this new reality.

The evolution of customer expectations when it comes to home delivery has been discussed frequently in recent years, but in reality it’s more appropriate to say that they have been redeﬁned in the current environment; the term “evolution” doesn’t quite capture just how quickly the standards have changed. For example, in just a short time Amazon went from completely utilizing the major shipping carriers for all of their deliveries to bringing

Consistently excellent last mile service sets you apart In the case of retail delivery, companies are typically competing against other entities that offer similar (or often the same) products at similar prices. This is especially true in the grocery industry, where companies

already compete for razor-thin margins and brands are increasingly turning to home delivery as a part of their core CX.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

On one hand this seems daunting, but it also represents an important opportunity: if your competitors are also offering home delivery, you can differentiate yourself by making incremental yet important improvements in your last mile experience. Make a commitment to increase visibility whenever possible. Invest in new technology such as AI that automatically optimizes delivery routes. Provide customers with easy options for returns and follow up with instant feedback opportunities. Last mile self-service options make sense for consumers and brands The ultimate goal is to make every aspect of the last mile experience as easy as possible for everyone involved—your customers, your delivery drivers, and your customer service team. Selfservice functionality is a crucial part of this strategy, and innovative technology is now taking things that were impossible just a couple of years ago and turning them into routine interactions.

Cami Zimmer | Executive VP BDM

Customers can get real-time updates on driver location from any mobile device, and even track the driver’s position in an instant, all without having to call to ﬁnd out where they are or when they will be there. For customers who do call during the last mile, integrated Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems keep them in the loop nearly as quickly, all without the need for interaction with a live agent. This is an incredible operational savings to brands! Success in the last mile is built on a foundation of technology and dedication The newest, most user-friendly last mile technology available won’t be very useful unless it’s paired with employees who are willing to execute your CX strategy sale after-sale. And the most dedicated employees in the world won’t be able to save you from falling behind the competition if you don’t provide them with innovative

Expert's Views

technological tools that make home delivery more convenient and worry-free for consumers. The new frontier of the last mile for retail and grocery businesses lies at the junction of innovative tech and team members who prioritize the service experience for every customer. Customers expect more from their last mile experience than ever before, but brands also have more affordable tools and feasible strategies at their disposal than ever before. It’s up to you to combine them in a way that delivers sustained value to your buyers each time they click the checkout button on your eCommerce platform.

Sources:

retaildive.com/news

oracle.com/webfolder

Janaki Joshi: Transforming Product Commercialization In The Life Sciences Industry

oday’s technology world is going through a transformation of corporate IT systems. The switch from in-house infrastructure and teams to cloud-based infrastructure as well as the continued trend towards the Software as a Service (SaaS) model has completely altered the way business is done. Furthermore, the arrival of pioneering technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AL), Machine Learning (ML), Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Text mining has attracted attention from various industries. This is not dissimilar to the trends in the telecommunications and entertainment industries where we have seen a shift from traditional to new technologies. Over a decade ago, consumers moved to smartphones and VoIP based communication from landlines and old mobile phones. In the entertainment industry on demand content streamed by Netflix or Amazon Prime has led to the demise of traditional DVD chains such as Blockbuster. For developing and launching new products in the Consumer Packaged Goods and Life Sciences industry, Iris Interactive offers an innovative approach to its customers. The New York-based company is as an independent software vendor, which has developed a product commercialization platform that companies use to innovate with speed, efficiency and quality. Janaki Joshi, the CEO of Iris Interactive leads the company to achieve breakthrough results for its customers in commercializing their products. Journey from Accountant to an Entrepreneur

Janaki started her professional life as a Chartered Accountant. During the early stages of her career, she worked with big consumer, pharmaceuticals and telecommunications organizations. While working as an accountant, she uncovered the need for a companywide software system that cross-functional teams can use to develop and commercialize their products in the market more effectively. Furthermore, she observed that in

accounting, software systems are used to automate tasks with capabilities to track every activity. However, the business processes in R&D, marketing and sales of new products were being managed in an ad-hoc manner which led to wasted investment and resources as well as lost opportunities to achieve the success and loss of competitive edge. Further, Janaki observed that the stock market was focused on the net present value of future cash ﬂow of the company and innovation was the key driver which crucially relies on the ability of a company to successfully commercialize products ahead of their competitors. She saw that effective product commercialization was one of the prime factors impacting the future of the company. In the Life Sciences industry this is even more mission critical due to the short time available for companies to launch their products to fully realize their revenue potential before the patents expire. Janaki saw a big opportunity that needed to be addressed, so she quit her job to embark on a journey to become an entrepreneur and established Iris Interactive to offer comprehensive end to end product management solution. Iris Interactive, Providing Platform for Commercialization Statistics show that more than 90% of product launches in the consumer packaged and the life sciences industries are either late to the market or do not fully realize their sales potential. Iris Interactive helps such companies by enabling cross-functional teams coordinate their activities in all aspects of the commercialization process including customer insights, R&D, communication development and go-to-market activities. Janaki and her team at Iris Interactive is committed to helping companies launch the products faster to the market, accomplish higher sales and build strong brands.

The Iris system supports multi-disciplinary teams comprising marketing, clinical, R&D and sales professionals involved in the new product development and commercialization process. In the life sciences industry, to bring a new drug or biologic to market, the Iris platform provides tracking of all the activities that involve FDA submissions, clinical milestones, launch and post-launch activities. Iris provides a central platform for all information related to the new product so that each team member can access it from anywhere. CEO’s Philosophy to empower teams to innovate Janaki believes that to become an effective leader, it is necessary to balance the growth of the organization and endure the failure that comes with the growth. Furthermore, an innovation culture requires taking risks and accepting the fact that some ideas may not be easy to implement or the initial investment may exceed the company’s willingness to invest in innovation.

Europe, USA, Australia, and Asia. This opportunity provided her with an insight into the leadership styles which makes her as an operationally focused, strong and skillful leader. Facing Challenges while Aiming for Growth and Proﬁt The biggest challenge for a platform like Iris is the lack of awareness among companies that innovation and product commercialization can be managed using an enterprise platform to bring high levels of transparency, accountability, and control. Therefore, increasing awareness among business leaders regarding end-to-end innovation management using both ‘Challenge based and Open Innovation based’ thinking to increase the rate of launch success, is a high priority. Moreover, Janaki wants to help corporate leaders realize that growth and proﬁtability can be achieved without unnecessary stress and with the help of innovative technologies, that minimize wastage of resources help teams achieve work life balance.

In the last 25 years of her professional life, Janaki has had the privilege of working with the leaders of global fortune 500 companies and interacting with cultures across

“

Creating a culture of innovation requires taking risks and accepting that some ideas may not be easy to implement or investments may exceed the initial budget.

“

CEO | Iris Interactive

Kiran Bhagotra: A Determined Founder, Making How We Buy Cybersecurity Customer-Friendly By Building Trust

he present cybersecurity market is complex, changing and over-filled with thousands of vendors, which makes it challenging for businesses, particularly small & medium businesses (SMBs) to decide the appropriate solution for their companies. Many customers end up confused & with security solutions that are not essential for their business needs. The rising competition between vendors has also made the customer-centric approach more important. To fulfill this essential security gap, the Founder, CEO and President of ProtectBox, Kiran Bhagotra left her UK government role and established a simple, quick and affordable cyber comparison website & marketplace for SMBs & suppliers globally. A Journey from a Cabinet Job to Establishing ProtectBox Having worked in completely different industries, Kiran never imagined herself as a cybersecurity entrepreneur. But, the highly curious Kiran fell in love with cybersecurity when she was contracting for the UK government’s Cabinet Office & Foreign & Commonwealth Office managing international cyber relations. Two years ago, she moved forward with her passion and founded ProtectBox. In today’s “customer is king” market, UK & US-based ProtectBox is successfully helping choice-rich buyers to find the right fit cybersecurity solutions for them. At ProtectBox, Kiran and her team are not driven by the profit-centric approach alone but more so by the experience-centric approach that includes working with partners (government and corporates) and suppliers who understand and care about the requirements of ProtectBox customers. In short, building trust with their customers. Despite not coming from a coding background, Kiran is successfully leading the company and with her extraordinary efforts has enabled it to win various awards and recognition like Corporate LiveWire’s Cybersecurity Comparison Site of the Year 2019 Award, Security & Fire Excellence Awards, 2018’s Cybersecurity Project of the Year, Wired Security 2017’s Start-Up Award. Likewise, nd ProtectBox came 2 for HRH Duke of York/Prince

Andrew’s Pitch@Palace 9.0 People’s Choice Award & been a finalist in 25+ other Awards. Defeating Severe Challenges with Courage, Communication and Clan The awards and recognition are the result of dedication and efforts by Kiran and her team at ProtectBox. When asked about experiences and challenges she faced while leading ProtectBox, Kiran said, “Sadly, just like many of our SMB customers, I have experienced the same challenges they do whilst setting up ProtectBox. I have paid for nearly all ProtectBox’s build by myself, as marketplaces do not get investment until they are scaled. We have been let down by technical people for not delivering what they promised & have had to run lean to make up for the extra costs whilst building replacements. The encouragement of loved ones & asking for help, not to mention my faith that ProtectBox needs to be done for the sake of others, has got us through.” Often the dynamic CEO must switch from CEO, CTO, and other positions to get the job done. However, Kiran successfully combats such changes and challenges with her confidence and emotional intelligence. Likewise, she believes in courage, communication, and clan: courage to accept her fears, communicating to deliver the message concisely and finally, clan means surrounding oneself with the right and inspiring people that include customers, investors and stakeholders. Eliminating the Lengthy and Costly Cybersecurity Selection Process with ProtectBox Today, most SMBs often waste thousands of pounds on consultants to decide & buy for them, cybersecurity solutions that cost an additional hundreds or thousands of pounds. Likewise, if SMBs decide to purchase on their own, they need to go through numerous terminologies or jargon, which is not affordable as it consumes both time and money. Commenting on this difficult situation, Kiran asserts, “How much easier would it be to go online & in one hour, fill out a simple questionnaire with customer services on hand, get 6 comparisons of technology,

training & processes that can be personalized using ﬁlters & sliders before buying with a single click. With lots of ways to pay, including instant credit & government grants/subsidies.” ProtectBox does this. It is a cybersecurity comparison website & marketplace that automates the purchasing of cybersecurity products (technology, people, and processes) to be quick, simple and affordable for SMBs globally. Kiran and her expert team have also created an answer for complicated jargon. Info icons are available on each question to explain the jargon & customers can delegate questions to their teams, inside or outside the company. All these activities can be seamlessly managed through the customer’s account. A Strategy to Expand Worldwide In the coming month, Kiran and her team plan to launch ProtectBox as an internationally successful product, which will help businesses across the world. Additionally, the product can be sold/joint-marketed as an all-in-one cyber add-on by accountants, telecoms, banks, lawyers, consultants or any data-related service provider to SMBs. Likewise, governments can extend the capabilities of their

marketplaces by integrating with ProtectBox’s platform and ProtectBox’s all-in-one bundles can be part-funded through government grant schemes. These various beneﬁts have attracted large players to partner with ProtectBox. Already, the company has signed 4 partners with another 10 partners in the pipeline globally. “People will help you because they believe in you..,” says Kiran Finally, Kiran shares her best bit of business advice, which she got from her late father—“If you don’t ask, you don’t get”. She explains further, that she has come to understand the kindness of strangers & one should never be scared to ask for help. According to her, people will help because they believe in you, or believe in your cause and efforts. In her daily emails, the founder receives praises saying—“We so desperately need a capability like ProtectBox in cybersecurity so please stick at it, we can see how hard it must be but don’t give up, keep up the good work”. Such trust of people in Kiran and her team is inspiring and keeps them moving forward no matter what the challenges are.

“

Life is hard. I’ve got through it by looking forward, accepting my fears, surrounding myself with people who help. Giving back by sharing, listening, and smiling or making someone else smile everyday!

“

Founder, CEO & President ProtectBox

Travel Tech

Reinventing

Business

Using Digital Technologies

he digital transformation has renovated the personal and professional life of every human being. Numerous organizations have integrated themselves with digital technologies to improve their workﬂow and expand their business around the world. Moreover, the travel and tourism industry has been adapting the digital technologies for decades and constantly changing the way people travel. The positive impact of digital transformation in the travel and tourism industry is that we do not have to wait in a queue to book railway tickets. Through digital mediums, the tickets can be booked over the internet effortlessly and customer’s time is saved. Similarly, we can book airline tickets, bus tickets or any tickets from the many online travel portals. Online booking is just a single example of digital transformation in the travel and tourism industry. The introduction of new and innovative travel technologies is redesigning the travel and tourism industry in the following ways:

Utilizing innovative technologies for boosting airline facility While traveling by airplane, the customer’s baggage might mislay or stolen. Adapting the blockchain technology can help the airport to avoid such a situation. A specific message could be attached to the baggage for tracking its position from the origin point. The message would be in encrypted form that is stored in a blockchain system. In this way, each baggage check-in will contain a unique code and the baggage management would become effortless for the flights, connected flights, airports, and customs. Along with that, robots powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) can execute the entire operations of the airport. Another area of improvement can be an airline’s On-Time Performance (OTP). The OTP transformation into digital would enhance flight delays and operational efficiency as well as increase the airlines’ brand value while maintaining the OTP. AI-powered chatbots can optimize the booking process efficiently. The smart

chatbots can handle queries of travelers as well as book their tickets effortlessly. Redesigning travel amenities using big data analytics Before the digital transformation, the hotels used to have binders on the desks, outlining where to eat, what to see, what are the hotspots and everything you needed to know about the area. Using those binders, explorers used to see and search nearby locations, but the digital transformation changed everything. Now, tourists can easily search for information about their nearby areas with their smartphones. Based on their experience, tourist offers their opinions via Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, TripAdvisor, and other travel review websites. These channels produce a large amount of data, which could be utilized by tourism brands. For that reason, new as well as old vendors in the travel sector are searching for innovative ways to take advantage of generated data from consumers so they can offer more customized and cost-effective

products and services. Big data analytics can help vendors to identify consumer trends and business opportunities. The statistics information also enables the hotels to offer the best experience to the customers. Travel agencies are also utilizing the gathered data to provide customized and ďŹ&#x201A;exible package, which is suitable for their travel and accommodation needs. Accessing any information from the wearable device Wearable technology is fast becoming one of the best innovations in the modern world. The trend is no longer a simple idea that gadget lovers can sport under their collar and many individuals adapted it across the globe. The travel and tourism companies are slowly but surely using this technology to offer customers a more personalized and united experience. While traveling from one place to another, the wearable device performs many functions the same as a smartphone. Some of these functions are boarding

Travel Tech

pass reminders, reservation information, gate updates, QR codes, etc. which greatly benefit travelers in their journeys. Through wearable technology, airlines can push a gate change notification directly to a user’s watch, and down the line, travelers may even receive this alert via smart headphones. Experience the world without leaving home Over the past few years, travel and tourism industry have seen an increase in AR or VR popularity. Typically, these technologies are being used either for content marketing or to enhance the customer experience. However, virtual reality allows users to get an opportunity to see new sights or to enjoy exotic journeys without leaving the comfort of their own space. For example, a traveler can experience the sceneries of Italy from home. Furthermore, the hotel can use VR to exhibit their rooms, reception areas and even local area hotspots on their website, in order to boost bookings. Utilizing the recognition technology in the travel industry The existing system needs to be reformed to tie up with cutting-edge technologies. For safety measures, many devices and technologies are used such as fingerprint, facial recognition, retina scanning or other biometric identification methods. However, the travel and tourism industry utilize these technologies to diminish traveller’s distress. As technology advances and becomes more widely accepted, travelers could use this technology to authorize payments or check out of the hotel. This could radically help reduce the long queues and free up restaurant or reception workers to deal with customers who require more hands-on assistance. Conclusion: Every traveler has faced good as well as bad experiences at one point or another within the tourism industry. Often times, the services provided to the travelers were not up to the mark and as a result, they remain unsatisfied. With the implementation of innovative technologies, the travel and tourism industry can offer consumers with personalized packages at an affordable cost and enhance their customer experience. In this way, the consumers can search according to their needs and buy a holiday or vacation package that contains all the services they need under their budget. Hence, travelers can enjoy their trip with better amenities. Alongside this, the service providers also get the profit due to which they expand and cultivate themselves in the travel and tourism industry.

Rajashree Rajadhyax: A Visionary Leader, Exploring The Landscape Of Artiﬁcial Intelligence

‘‘

would love to be remembered as somebody who created a mark, a person who created something of value that has helped people in their lives!” says Rajashree Rajadhyax, the Co-founder and Chief Operating Ofﬁcer (COO) of Cere Labs Pvt. Ltd.

document processing that allows digitization of printed documents. Using Cerescope as the platform, Cere Labs strives to come up with more such AI-based products, which will help in adding real value to businesses. Rajashree’s journey in the making of Cere Labs

Through her venture, Rajashree endeavors to help businesses adapt to the next era of digitization by deploying Artiﬁcial Intelligence (AI) solutions. Rajashree’s team and project management capabilities combined with her excellent hold on technologies like Deep Learning and Cognitive Computing have been instrumental in shaping and developing the company’s core AI product and platform. Apart from leading the AI product development, she oversees the operations of the company and drives the business to sustainable and extensive growth. An Oath for Value Addition to Businesses The word “Cere” in Cerelabs is taken from “Cerebrum”—a Latin word for brain. Cere Labs was formed with the idea of making a software that works like the human mind. The company, today is driving its focus towards process automation which involves the processing of unstructured documents, thereby laying the foundation of the fundamental steps to adding AI to businesses. Most of the organisations possess unstructured and unanalysed data (commonly referred to as ’Dark Data’) gathered from multiple operations and channels. The research team at Cere Labs has developed an AI platform “Cerescope” that uses cognitive capabilities to process this unstructured and dark data. A major offering by the ﬁrm is the “Cerescope D-tect” for

Rajashree has always been passionate about technology and performing arts. After having worked in the healthcare tech industry for some time, she decided to start something on her own by bringing her love for technology and performing arts together. As a result of her decision, she started a venture called “meetkalakar”—a portal for online coaching in performing arts, which today has more than 300 students worldwide learning various forms of performing arts. While dealing with “meetkalakar”, she was also connected with a group of her friends who had plans to leverage IoT for healthcare and therefore alongside the online portal, she participated in the development of their product. Having closely looked at the IoT technology, Rajashree realized that making sense out of the huge volumes of data generated by millions of interconnected devices is very soon going to be the toughest nut to crack and AI seemed like the only solution to the problem. With this idea in mind, she stepped into the journey of building an AI startup with a friend & colleague Devesh, and co- founded Cere Labs in 2015. Leadership Elaborated Eloquently Rajashree believes that leadership is about getting people with multifarious skills and talents to work

along to share a leader’s dream. As long as a leader shares a vision that inspires employees to follow, his/her demands will be fulﬁlled anyway. Moreover, while sharing what’s that one thought that helped her throughout the way, Rajashree asserts, “I have always found that inherently all people are good, you just need to give them a direction. It has worked for me always.” Bits of Advice that Help Rajashree One of the best advices Rajashree has received is from her mentor who has given her lessons on setting the priorities, time management, and disadvantages of having a rigid mindset. Having kept those suggestions in mind, she always applies them in her life. At Cere Labs, she alongwith her team often use the agile approach by coming up with quick prototypes of their product followed by test marketing to see if it is accepted. The test does not result in positive ways always, and hence she says, “If it doesn’t work, one

should be ready to go back to the drawing board and go through as many iteration as needed till you get it right.” Pioneering something is quite a Challenge Although there have been a lot of talks around AI, it is comparatively a new technology, especially when it comes to its application in business. The reason behind it is even if the business users see a working prototype, they tend to show disbelief in the fact that an AI solution can add value to their business and that is what Rajashree ﬁnds quite challenging to make them believe in the technology. While commenting on the adoption scenario of AI, Rajashree utters, “Adoption of AI solutions for business is in its early stages yet, quite like what IT systems were in the early 1990s.”

“

People say, data is the new oil and I believe that the use of AI is inevitable to harnessing the value of data.

“

Co-founder & COO | Cere Labs Pvt. Ltd.

Shwetha Prasad: A Passionate Digital Marketing Expert Empowering Clients With Omnia’s Services

n business, especially in the service industry, a major challenge for a leader is to keep the employees motivated, happy, passionate, and driven towards the company’s vision. The leader of an organization acts as the glue that keeps the team members together and promotes a healthy collaboration. Likewise, in the days of the financial crisis, the leaders have to stay strong because it gets lonely on the top while facing bad financial situations. Shwetha Prasad, the CEO and Founder of Omnia Digital, has tackled these challenges during her expedition of leading the company. Sharing her experience positively, she says, “As long as we love what we do, we will end up finding the solution for the problems that do come our way.” Therefore, her passion and inclination to empower businesses with various digital marketing services keep her going ahead regardless of the uncertain situations. Shwetha has a deep faith in strong passion and dedication to succeed and believes that these qualities come when people work for what they like the most because if one wakes up and worries about going to office then such people need to rethink their profession to find their true passion. Therefore, Shwetha prefers to hire like-minded people who would love to work at Omnia and act as an extended part of the business. At the full-service digital marketing agency, Shwetha and her team members do things with the utmost passion. She follows her idol Gary Vaynerchuk who once said, “The best marketing strategy is to care”. Shwetha followed the same advice throughout her career and today, keeping the digital marketing at the core, Omnia is offering services from branding, names, logo creations, collaterals, brochure, creating digital assets like websites, e-commerce portals, mobile apps, digital marketing and numerous related solutions.

Shwetha’s Journey of Excelling through Passionate Learning An experienced professional with a demonstrated history of working in the marketing and advertising industry, Shwetha has led and built many startups where she was the youngest core member having to do handle key departments from accounts, operational, tech, etc. Those practical experiences gave Shwetha, a clear expectation about the VC’s and PE’s and how valuation and other business related things in her previous company which was a startup. As COO in an established agency delegating & managing almost 70 people under her. During her days as a COO, she learned leadership and mentorship skills from the highly experienced founder of that organization. Seeing her dedication and passion to learn things, the leaders proposed a partnership to Shwetha to use her leadership skills and take decisions for the business. Shwetha utilized this opportunity with full responsibility and steadfastly worked hard towards unlocking new achievements for that organization. Today, Shwetha successfully owns and leads Omnia Digital with her unique business style and sets an ideal example for her team. She believes that a leader must get own hands dirty and help the team to learn from it. It is an important aspect for a CEO to follow because setting an example encourages team members to do the same and keeps them motivated to walk on the same path. Optimizing Clients’ Online Presence with Expert Digital Marketing Services Digital marketing is at Omnia’s core and its team members are committed to digitalize the businesses from startups to SMCs which aim to rebuild or expand their online presence. Till date, Shwetha and her team have worked with numerous MNC’s and are also offering a range of services to startups, service, and product-based

companies. Similarly, they have improved customers’ views towards brands via promotions, thereby assisted their clients to gain and retain a large customer base. To help the customers achieve their goals, the Omnia team follows a data-driven digital approach. They focus on real results and create an optimized ad campaign that adds value to the client’s business. As the right content for representing a brand delivers depth and visibility in today’s competitive marketplace, the Omnia team enables brands to build lasting relationships with the target audience through Content Marketing. Further, using Digital Strategy and Execution, the company develops strategies that help businesses achieve favorable business outcomes. Additionally, to further increase the brand recognition, Omnia team creates the right Campaign Management for clients backed by an intelligent Insights and Analytics and ensures that data is monitored, analyzed, and managed before, during and at the end of each campaign, which ultimately enables them to optimize efﬁciency.

Planning Worldwide Expansion while Delivering Measurable Results At present, the company has specialization in content marketing, digital strategy and execution, campaign management, and insight & analytics. Utilizing their skills and extensive experience in the aforementioned forte, Shwetha and her team of Omnia offer a wide range of digital marketing solutions including digital brand presence management, print design and collateral management, e-commerce marketing, digital asset, and campaign management, etc. In the coming days, they are also looking forward to continue delivering some measurable results to the client through digital mediums while focusing on expanding pan India and globally. Finally, looking behind the achievements of Omnia, Shwetha asserts, “The thing that’s closest to my heart is Omnia. At my core, I want to change and touch many lives through Omnia. Even we are small in number and hopefully, in the future, we will be large enough to facilitate and change a lot of lives and provide growth for people.”

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Your passion, dedication, and the drastic work to set an example have the capability to make you a successful leader.

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CEO & Founder | Omnia Digital