ERP a necessary tool for Indian SMEs: CRO, Infogain

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Saurabh Gupta | 02 Dec, 2017
Many small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are using few tools for Finance and accounting, in addition to HR and administration; while some have adopted Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) as well. Unfortunately, SMEs are slow to adopt technology that can bring innovation to their business, leading to better customer services, CRO, Infogain, Vinay Rawat told SME Times in an interview.

He said, "The challenges are often lack of budget, infrastructure or lack of required skill sets. With new age technologies like cloud and cloud-based solutions, the adoption of technologies will be faster. Especially with cloud-based solutions, there are no hassles of investment in infrastructure and setting up a team can be managed through third party support."

Excerpts of the interview...

Infogain is a global IT services provider. Do you cater to the IT requirements of the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector?
Vinay Rawat: The SME sector in India has contributed significantly to the economic growth by boosting India’s exports, creating employment opportunities and prompting entrepreneurship and/or innovation. However, the adoption of technology in this sector is still very low and technology is not considered a business enabler. Many of businesses in SME segment are using few tools for Finance and accounting, in addition to HR and administration; while some may have adopted ERP as well. Unfortunately, SME’s are slow to adopt technology that can bring innovation to their business, leading to better customer services. The challenges are often lack of budget, infrastructure or lack of required skill sets. With new age technologies like cloud and cloud-based solutions, the adoption of technologies will be faster. Especially with cloud-based solutions, there are no hassles of investment in infrastructure and setting up a team can be managed through third party support. Cloud based BI or Analytics tools lead to greater customer insights and because of their inherent agility, it is much easier to adopt these technologies. Even social and mobility solutions can improve SMEs customer acquisition, operational efficiency and workforce efficiency. Infogain has capabilities and provides solutions in each of the segments including cloud, mobility and analytics.

What is Infogain 2.0? How is the progress on that?
Vinay Rawat: Infogain 2.0 is the next phase of growth focusing on automation and Intelligence, in addition to providing consulting with a solution led approach. We have streamlined our internal solutions and defined our offerings sharply, that can be readily taken to our customers. We have strengthened our solution team and our solution leaders are collaborating with clients to understand how these technologies are bringing business wide transformation.

We have recently launched a new Innovation Lab at our headquarters in Los Gatos California. We are also partnering with niche solutions providers like Arya.Ai, The Math Company, AppOrbit and Automation Anywhere to deliver cutting edge solutions in Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning or RPA space.

Infogain is committed to adoption of newer technologies and building/delivering world-class customer centric solutions. Zinnov rated our company in the “Leadership Zone” in Zinnov’s Digital Services 2017 survey.

What kind of technologies is Infogain investing?
Vinay Rawat: Infogain is focusing on enhancing end-to-end Digital Transformation capabilities that includes Digital Consulting, UI/UX, Mobility, Cloud, RPA, Machine Learning/AI, BOTS, Analytics, Business Assurance, DevOps.

Infogain is also investing in developing digital platforms like UAP- Infogain’s proprietary framework for intelligent test automation. cEngage- Infogain’s Engage Platform that addresses gaps in Customer Experience Center and recommending intelligent, modern day technologies that help fulfill these gaps.

Internally, we are creating talent groups on machine learning, RPA and other new edge technologies to leverage the experience and expertise of employees who are already experienced in these areas.

Can you give us some recent examples from your customers?
Vinay Rawat: We have observed a lot of traction among customers interested in adopting automation and intelligence. We helped a leading technology company to implement a machine learning aided search algorithm for their website and knowledge/content management. Similarly, we helped an insurance industry technology leader in automating their FNOL processes and responses and create AI-based voice apps.

Recently, we received a request from a leading Insurance player in Singapore to automate credit card transmission and update records on web and support systems. In another instance a customer wanted to consolidate reports from many disparate systems. With automation, the consolidation step was reduced from 60 minutes to 6 minutes. We are also invited by many of our customers to present on technologies such as integrated testing, DevOps and predictive analytics at their internal meetings/workshops.

Infogain spoke about Innovation Labs in the previous conversation. What kinds of value add they will bring to the customer?
Vinay Rawat: The purpose of the Innovation Lab is to help our clients simulate and experience next generation technologies by demonstrating how this would be an enabler for growth and innovation. Our “experience labs” help customers and prospects pull together answers to their questions quickly, visualize the potential impact on their current ways of working and prepare ground for required changes. These are highly valued uses cases in all industry segments.

What are the major challenges that your sector is facing in India?
Vinay Rawat: The IT industry is faced with changing customer business models and a rapidly evolving technology landscape that forces IT providers to re-invent themselves. The challenge is to bring in constant innovation, invest in new technologies and develop new skills and/or re-skill existing employees. Also, clients’ discretionary IT spend is low and clients are more cautious in evaluating and adopting technology because they want tangible business benefits before they make an investment. Today, market is far more competitive with niche technology providers who are agile, accommodative and delivers expertise in the emerging technology space.

What are you (Infogain) doing to overcome these challenges?
Vinay Rawat: We are strengthening our solutions and services in Digital space. We are collaborating with customers conducting joint workshops and events to assess changing business requirements and making them aware of market changes. It is important for us to get a buy in from our customers for use cases with proven ROI. Internally, we have sharply defined our services and are collaborating with industry analysts and partners to refine them consistently. In addition, we are also seeking innovative partners to build on our strengths. Infogain teams are experienced and trained in new technologies and we have forums (e.g. Innovation Fest) to promote new ideas within the organization. Teams have showcased some fantastic ideas on ChatBots, SmartBots, Augmented Reality and others that can deliver great value to our clients.