Category: DigitalSuccess

Why API Integration Is A Must For Digital Banking Growth In 2019

May 30, 2019

The banking industry is currently overwhelmed by technological disruptions and heightened customer expectations, with non-traditional players such as Facebook, PayPal, Google, and others quickly usurping roles previously played by banks. Non-traditional players have access to cutting-edge technology, which results in excellent user experience (UX) and innovative financial solutions. Customer expectations cannot be met by traditional banks which restrict themselves to digital solutions such as mobile apps or 24/7 customer service. However, banks can choose to be savvy and make the right choice of opening up their APIs to these third-party products and applications. According to one survey, 55% of financial institutions believe that API integration is critical to business strategy. Banks need to collaborate with newer and non-traditional players and open up their APIs in order to remain competitive and witness growth. API integration is an urgent need Behavioral changes and customer preferences have vastly changed over the years, with millennials and Generation Z expecting more from their banks than older users. Providing excellent customer service and a great mobile application are simply not enough anymore, because of the innovative disruptions initiated by non-traditional players. According to a report published by Intelligent Finance, Baby Boomers (or those born between 1946 and 1964) considered poor face-to-face customer service as a major determinant to exit a bank, while millennials revealed they would exit a bank not only if they disliked its smartphone app but also if it suffered from security breaches. Younger customers are also likely to quit a bank if they are unable to use their bank accounts on third-party applications and products. This is a gap that non-traditional players have capitalized on, and is an existential threat to traditional banks. People aged between 18 and 34 are two times likelier than older customers to use mobile payments and P2P lending products. In addition, the same demographic group prefers to receive constant updates via preferred channels such as text message, app notifications, etc. As Millennials grow older and more affluent, and as Generation Z takes the place of the millennials, the importance of digital banks providing a holistic financial ecosystem consisting of third party products and services used by customers become more apparent. Here are some successful examples of API integration: People with financial difficulties in the USA have started to use P2P lending tools such as Earnin and PayActive. It is now possible to consolidate debt too, thanks to debt aggregators. Marcus from Goldman Sachs and SoFi are often cited as examples for non-traditional lenders. Often, these tools are integrated with e-commerce sites or food delivery apps so that people can purchase what they need on credit, bypassing banking lending rules. Credit unions are a non-traditional alternative to bank loans. Walmart MoneyCenters are extremely popular today because they offer a borrowing alternative to people with poor credit histories. If banks integrate their data with these products, customers can continue to make payments for P2P loans without canceling their accounts. One of the best examples of API integration is when PayPal decided to integrate its API with Siri. iPhone users can send and receive money via PayPal by speaking to Siri. Wave is an invoicing and accounting software used by businesses and individuals. Wave uses banking APIs to help users control all their business finances in a single place. It collects as much data as possible from various sources and even markets loans provided by OnDeck on its platform to eligible users. Larger banks have started to offer data aggregation services to their customers. For instance, HSBC recently launched its Connected Money app, on which customers can view their account details in 21 other banks without ever leaving HSBC’s application. Facebook Messenger payments allow Facebook users to transfer money to their friends without ever having to leave the network. Facebook currently has integrated the APIs of PayPal, Stripe, Visa, MasterCard, American Express and others. If traditional banks do not understand the metamorphosis that has already taken place, they stand to lose more of their existing and future customers to non-traditional players. Specific reasons for API integration In order to survive technological disruption, banks need to engage in business model reinvention, which includes open banking and partnering with the newer third-party apps and products. While the producer market consists of banks and other financial enterprises that create products and services, customers can access these products and services on third-party applications, websites and or use voice control. Capitalizing on these distribution channels by opening up APIs is very important for banks survival. E-commerce and on-demand services such as Uber and Airbnb have spurred a customer-centric demand for always-on banking Internet of Things (IoT) enabled devices have led to a growing need for smart solutions and banking services available on intelligent devices Omni-channel banking experience requires data exchange between apps, and customers take this facility for granted now What kind of apps need integration? New services and applications that need API integrations with banking applications include: Payments, clearing and settlement services Mobile and web-based payment applications Digital currencies (DCs), Blockchain and Distributed Ledgers Deposits, lending, and capital raising services Crowdfunding Market provisioning services such as smart contracts and e-aggregators Emerging technologies such as Big Data, cloud computing, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotics (Robo-advice) Electronic trading and insurance API Integration can prove to be challenging If you thought your in-house developers can release an API along with the application, you will be disappointed to learn that in 2019, it is a very complex situation. Developing an integration workflow consumes the most amount of time during API Integration, and requires special skills. Event Driven Integration is far more complex than simple API integration, as it needs to provide real-time status updates to customers. Real-time status updates are crucial in today’s financial market. APIs are not always uniform and there are no industry standards at the moment. 70% of the developers work with REST APIs, which makes it a wise choice for API Integration. However, REST APIs will not work for all kinds of applications and

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Influencer Marketing: 14 Things To Know In 2019

May 17, 2019

Have you heard of Lil Miquela? She’s a 19 year old singer and influencer from California, with 1.3 million followers on Instagram (@lilmiquela). The stunning social media star was invited by Prada to take over its Instagram account during one of its Milan shows. Time magazine named her as one of 2018’s 25 most influential people on the internet. But the only catch is; she doesn’t exist. Yeah, Miquela is a computer-generated model and brands are attracted to her! From Computer Generated Influencers (CGIs) and nano-influencers to Instagram killing accounts with fake followers – 2018 was an activity-packed year for influencers and marketers alike. Here’s a rundown on important insights & news from 2018 that will have an effect on your influencer marketing strategy this year. 1) Micro-influencers are in the highest demand  Micro-influencers, or those with less than 100,000 followers, are the most sought after influencers because marketers feel they are cost-effective and have a better connection with their audience. Brands have collaborated with micro influencers such as Steven Onoja, Yannick Merckx and Miette Dierckx because it’s been reported that micro influencers generate 6.7X more efficient per engagement than celebrities with millions of followers. Brands like Google, Nike, Starbucks, Gillette, Sephora, Coca-Cola, and Red Bull are collaborating with micro influencers who apart from being great storytellers are adept at creating authentic content. 2) More efforts towards building trust & transparency  A startling report in The New York Times uncovers the “black market” of bot followers that can be bought for just a few cents each. And these fake followers were being sold to celebs including athletes, politicians, and film stars. Marketers and social channels are proactively taking steps to address the issues of authenticity and credibility plaguing the influencer ecosystem. Last year, Twitter took major actions towards deleting suspicious accounts from the platform. The purge affected the follower count of celebs including Barack Obama, Katy Perry, and Justin Bieber. It was reported that Katy Perry, the most followed person on Twitter, lost at least 1.5 million followers! Instagram also took a major step towards cleaning the platform. It said we will begin removing inauthentic likes, follows and comments from accounts that use third-party apps to boost their popularity. We’ve built machine learning tools to help identify accounts that use these services and remove the inauthentic activity. At Cannes Lions 2018, Unilever’s chief marketing officer, Keith Weed said that the brand won’t work with the influencers who buy followers. He called for more transparency from influencers and urged the marketers and social media platforms to “take urgent action now to rebuild trust before it’s gone forever”. He laid out a three-thronged approach to improve the situation which involves “cleaning up the influencer ecosystem by removing misleading engagement; making brands and influencers more aware of the use of dishonest practices; improving transparency from social platforms to help brands measure impact.” 3) Clamour to grow for real-life like content  It’s an Instagram promotional content for Listerine as it’s been clearly mentioned in the post. Then, what went wrong with this post by Scarlett Dixon? Why did some users go berserk over this post? Let’s check some of the comments Listerine in bedroom… hahahah ridiculous post and constructed/fake reality A picture that provoked a thousand arguments. Personally I see the irony/humour and think it’s brilliantly staged 😉 *gets up, blows up balloons, makes the bed, puts strawberries on top of a plate of wraps, puts mouthwash on bedside table, takes photo Imagine if girls actually looked up to you and realised they could never reach this (which many girls all over the world will never experience pancakes and strawberry’s in a expensive hotel suite) especially the way suicide rates are going through the roof, you keep doing you though Someone even suggested that the campaign was a parody set up by Listerine. https://twitter.com/DaveParkinson/status/1036180435913633792 The more an influencer gives an unfiltered insight into his/her life, the better is the connection between the influencer and the users. We are seeing an emerging trend in the influencer landscape where more and more users are calling out the content creators who cram the feed with over-edited photos and carefully shot videos that border on faux reality. Amidst conversation around social media and its impact on mental health, we will see the trend to continue in today’s age of envy as noted by The Guardian. The report quotes Ethan Kross, professor of psychology at the University of Michigan as saying “envy is being taken to an extreme…We are constantly bombarded by “Photoshopped lives” …and that exerts a toll on us the likes of which we have never experienced in the history of our species. And it is not particularly pleasant.” 4) More opportunities for creators & brands There have been a host of developments last year aimed towards helping marketers and influencers collaborate with each other. We saw Snapchat rolling out “Snapchat Storytellers” pilot program that connects brands with popular content makers. Facebook also launched Brand Collabs Manager to help marketers connect with relevant social media creators so they can collaborate on sponsored-content campaigns. It also rolled out a series of features including poll and game features to Live and on-demand video for Facebook creators and new profile settings that let creators place their video content front and center. Also, there have been concerted efforts by social channels towards helping creators earn money and grow their fan base. YouTube, the world’s largest video site, rolled out channel memberships, merchandising, marketing partnerships, and “Premieres” to help YouTube creators generate revenue from their videos outside of traditional advertising. The announcement read With Channel Memberships, viewers pay a monthly recurring fee of $4.99 to get unique badges, new emoji, Members-only posts in the Community tab, and access to unique custom perks offered by creators, such as exclusive livestreams, extra videos, or shout-outs…Since launching in January, comedy creator Mike Falzone more than tripled his YouTube revenue. We want to make it easier for more creators to sell merch directly from their channel. So we’ve built a product that allows them to do just that. From shirts with a logo to phone cases with a creator’s face, we’ve joined forces with Teespring so creators can choose from over 20 merchandise items to customize and sell via a shelf on their channel…The creator of Lucas the Spider recently turned

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When Technology Met Traditional Banking

April 3, 2019

Digitization has transformed and challenged every traditional business. Therefore, New Age Banking is nothing but digitization of traditional banking procedures. That means, now you can skip those long queues and can be click dependent! During the course of digitization in India, team Indus Net Technologies have played a predominant role in digitizing products and services for several financial organizations, allowing them to be accessible 24X7 for client servicing and acquiring new businesses. Today, we have a wide plethora of digital products and services and this article takes you through the process of digitization in banking. Online Lending Traditional lending always drove off customers, owing to the cumbersome procedures. However, financial institutions identify lending to be an effective revenue channel for which, banks are also putting effort to minimize the time and effort for a customer to avail loan or cards. Therefore, online lending eases customers to avail of the lending services in no time. Following points brush through the Unique Selling Points (USP) which are used by banks for lending Pre-approved personal loans Paperless transaction Seamless and short online journey Instant disbursal The digital lending process thus simplified the complications of lending and removes the human resources thereby helping banks to maximize their profit. Use case: IndusInd Bank provides pre-approved loans to their customers from their portal where ETB users can log in and get lending’s instantly if eligible. They also have a portal for providing Loan Against Securities and services to provide Consumer Durable Loans. FOREX Foreign currency exchange is something that was served by only aggregators and offline shops till recent times. Digitization of foreign currency exchange is one of the hottest trends sweeping the industry. “Multi-currency Travel Card” is another product in their bouquet. Today, the complete act of end-to-end foreign currency exchange has become hassle-free. And that’s what technology is meant to be! Following USPs are used by banks for foreign currency exchange Hassle-free onboarding Paperless transaction Complete online journey Airport/Kiosk based delivery With respect to the product “Multi-Currency Travel Card” banks today, eased the seamless card buying and reloading process, allowing the customer to opt for the product over cash. Security is another aspect that allows the customer to choose “Multi-currency Travel Card” as their travel buddy. Following USPs are used by banks for channelling customers for “Multi-Currency Travel Card”. Hassle-free reloading Encashment of leftover currency Currency conversion Door Step delivery Airport/Kiosk based delivery & reload Use case: IndusInd Bank has facilitated a dedicated portal for providing existing and new customers with foreign currency exchange, purchase and reloading Multi-Currency Travel Card. The best part about digitization is the end-to-end delivery of the service. That means not just the product became handy, but also the delivery process! Banking Services Banking services is a mandate for the bank customer to visit a branch of a bank. Owing to ease off the ‘request service’ procedure and providing a response to the request, banks are attaining the requests via their service request digital platforms. Different digital platforms are created by banks via web and mobile platforms which allows customers to login with their information and place their service request. The information in turn is processed digitally by the banks and is implemented as per request. USP’s for digital service request processing are Hassle-free requesting placement Less cost of the request processing Customer satisfaction WHAT’S IN STORE FOR TRADITIONAL BANKING’S FATE? Looking forward, digitization is gradually changing the course of human interaction with the bank with respect to our requirements. Though the expectation from a bank remains the same the interaction procedure and channels would completely transform. That way, our future is pretty clear when technology will replace traditional bank visits for whatsoever purpose.   Following transformation in traditional banking could be predicted  Increase in customer on-boarding via the mobile medium Digitization of the products and processes Targeting Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC) level customers Less investment in process and more investment in digitization

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15 Actionable Insights From Our Webinar On Digital Marketing Mistakes in 2018

January 11, 2019

We collaborated with DigitalMarketingUniversity.com to organise an insightful session with Aji Issac Mathew, CEO | Indus Net TechShu on the topic “Mistakes that may have hurt your Digital Marketing Campaigns in 2018”. We listed down 15 actionable insights from the session, these tips will definitely help business owners, marketing managers and even people who are into execution. Visit our Facebook page to get access to the entire session video. You can also take a look at the Aji’s presentation on SlideShare. Tip#1: Businesses need to first define the purpose of hiring a #DigitalMarketing agency before investing.   Tip#2: Don’t judge an agency based on your past working experience with a different agency, dynamics change!   Tip#3: Develop a yearlong roadmap in terms of execution and review every quarter.   Tip#4: Identify people responsible for short and long term success and keep a track on the progress.   Tip#5: Don’t invest all the budget on branding, keep part of it for the follow-up campaign to support sales.   Tip#6: Don’t take decisions based on opinions, it should be backed by competition data, complementary products, markets, trends and customer behaviour.   Tip#7: Keep a track of your marketing campaigns every week and brainstorm with the execution team to optimise it at all levels – design, copy, audience selection, channels and budget.   Tip#8: Team structure is key for the best results in #DigitalMarketing   Tip#9: If you are confused in terms of choosing the right channel. Invest the budget in all primary channels and check where you get the best results. Based on the output, plan the budget accordingly going forward.   Tip#10: Spend time in positioning your product/service for the identified customer segment. While you do this, involve your operations team as they have more insights from the real customer data.   Tip#11: Talk about the vision and what the company stands for in front of the customers. Digital allows you to connect with your customers at every juncture.   Tip#12: Invest in the market/channel which is giving you the best results, however, keep experimenting with other channels and see if tweaking the communication is adding value. Tip#13: Don’t create “global content” for the “local audience”. Develop the messaging based on the need of the customer, also in 2019 focus less on creating fresh content but more on consolidating content.   Tip#14: Facebook is a great platform for B2B lead generation, however combining the behaviour with interest always give good results.   Tip#15: Desktop is more popular when it comes to B2B customers, however for B2C it is observed that more visits come from Mobile. Bonus Tip   Digital Marketing University recently announced a Digital Marketing Strategy course for business owners and marketing professionals in India. If you wish to know more about the outcomes you may expect from the course, click here.

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Twitter Chat: Open Banking in Indian Context – Opportunities and Challenges

October 26, 2018

Open banking will soon drive businesses with the power of APIs, we wanted to raise awareness about its impact on the Indian economy by sharing valuable insights on the challenges and opportunities present in Open Banking. To do so we organised an interesting Twitter Chat session on the 9th of October between 6PM- 7PM (IST). This virtual chat was led by Abhijeet Davane from RBL Bank. Let’s take a tour of this amazing session: #DigitalSuccess New age of banking services through technology where banking is present, not banks. Banks too are now realising the importance of being part of customer journeys than selling traditional banking products and services. — Abhijeet Davane (@iamabhiee) October 9, 2018 #DigitalSuccess Business cant be done without risks. ?. You have to deploy right systems, processes, & controls. Also customer awareness to ensure risks are managed. — Abhijeet Davane (@iamabhiee) October 9, 2018 #DigitalSuccess 1/3 PSD2 is for payments. However in India acquisition, online lending and robo-advisory are equally on the rise. The growth of FinTech relies heavily on development and maturity of an ecosystem around it. — Abhijeet Davane (@iamabhiee) October 9, 2018 #DigitalSuccess 2/3 Banks and most vitally the regulator are the biggest change agents in this ecosystem. Hence, for wider and universal adoption, India needs to adopt a PSD2 like structure as a whole. — Abhijeet Davane (@iamabhiee) October 9, 2018 #DigitalSuccess 3/3 RBI with iSpirit has come up with draft guidelines on some APIs for Banks & financial institutions to follow under the new NBFC Account Aggregator master direction. I believe it’s the right step. — Abhijeet Davane (@iamabhiee) October 9, 2018 #DigitalSuccess 1/2 Open Banking help increase the scale using the (#FinTech) collaboration. If implemented correctly with process automation it will bring operational efficiency resulting in reduction in cost. — Abhijeet Davane (@iamabhiee) October 9, 2018 #DigitalSuccess 2/2 FinTech collaboration also take away the Mobile APP development, maintenance, Support & customer service in cases like payments where banks are in background. PhonePe, Google Pay (Tez) are classic examples. — Abhijeet Davane (@iamabhiee) October 9, 2018 #DigitalSuccess Oh! its just started and can take few more players. I know few new names who got funding recently to jumpstart payments in India — Abhijeet Davane (@iamabhiee) October 9, 2018 #DigitalSuccess 1/2 FinTechs are creating easy-to-use apps that with an uncompromised focus on customers’ interaction and experience, trying to capture the front-end of banks’ value chain. — Abhijeet Davane (@iamabhiee) October 9, 2018 #DigitalSuccess 2/2 FinTechs can focus on customer engagement & interaction while banks are providing real-time backend support using API’s. — Abhijeet Davane (@iamabhiee) October 9, 2018 This is a process. New trends ride on hype. People overestimate either the technology or human ability to adapt in the short time frame in which the hype scales. Then reality sets in, and we take a few steps back to course correct and start again. People and technology evolve. — Abhishek Rungta (@abhishekrungta) October 10, 2018 Hence it’s always advisable to start understanding the long term vision and not short terms requirements of some business / partner. I know one of the big bank is suffering today with API Banking setup after manage to get around 150-200 customer/ partners integration. — Abhijeet Davane (@iamabhiee) October 10, 2018 #DigitalSuccess 1/3 Yes, it has become very difficult for banks to retain their customers on their portals /Apps. It is very difficult for banks to compete with FinTechs in customer service and outreach. But FinTechs also depend on banks for their APIs. — Abhijeet Davane (@iamabhiee) October 9, 2018 #DigitalSuccess 2/3 Hence, open banking has opened many ways for FinTechs and bank to collaborate and deliver extraordinary product and services to the customer. — Abhijeet Davane (@iamabhiee) October 9, 2018 #DigitalSuccess 3/3 Looking at the pace at which open banking continues to grow, I am sure we could reach the maximum number of citizens and enable banking services to all. — Abhijeet Davane (@iamabhiee) October 9, 2018 #DigitalSuccess 1/4 We have seen a lot of banks starting their own incubation centers, Hackathons, and innovation challenges to engage with FinTechs to drive innovation inside and outside the organizations. — Abhijeet Davane (@iamabhiee) October 9, 2018 #DigitalSuccess 2/4 For instance, RBL Bank had organized a Hackathon in (July 2018) and partnered with 3 Winning Startups on cutting edge technologies. Recently, we have conducted an innovation challenge in collaboration with the AP govt and shortlisted 5 FinTechs for POC. — Abhijeet Davane (@iamabhiee) October 9, 2018 #DigitalSuccess 3/4 Other banks such as Axis, ICICI are also engaging with FinTechs to deliver innovative products. — Abhijeet Davane (@iamabhiee) October 9, 2018 #DigitalSuccess 4/4 e.g. would be, the collaboration between RBL Bank & Zeta offering meal vouchers as Prepaid Instruments, the partnership between PhonePe and Yes Bank offering UPI services. — Abhijeet Davane (@iamabhiee) October 9, 2018 #DigitalSuccess 1/3 Customer behaviour is changing. They are looking for services that can deliver at that moment and in a personalized way. To some extent, this demand is managed well by the insurance, Retail industries by developing mobile app and reading the data. — Abhijeet Davane (@iamabhiee) October 9, 2018 #DigitalSuccess 2/3 But, they haven’t been able to make the last leg (payments) seamless. They still need payment gateway integration and the customer needs to be transferred outside their app / website. — Abhijeet Davane (@iamabhiee) October 9, 2018 #DigitalSuccess 3/3 Open Banking is the solution to resolve and make the payment instant, seamless and within the same app/ web page. Help close the transaction immediately. Increasing the sale and can provide multiple payments options to simplify the experience. — Abhijeet Davane (@iamabhiee) October 9, 2018 Open banking can take different shapes for different businesses. It depends upon how that business visualize it and wants to use for. The broader the vision, bigger the impact, if done right. — Abhishek Rungta (@abhishekrungta) October 10, 2018 #DigitalSuccess 1/4 A key challenge to solve in platform business models is a chicken-and-egg problem. Platforms are multi-sided markets, and without users

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Growing Potential of Voice Search and Its Implication for Your Business

October 10, 2018

A ComScore estimate recently suggested that by 2020, 50% of searches will be voice-based. To further support that claim, 40% of adults already used voice-based search back in 2016. By the end of 2018, it is not really about why you should implement voice search, but how quickly you can do it. Web browsing is more personalized than ever, and Google has been at the forefront of bringing individualized web browsing experience to its users, including an emphasis on voice search. Google’s Voice Search has necessitated businesses to take voice search seriously and to implement it as quickly as possible. In this article, let us take a look at the implications of voice search on businesses and what you can do it stay ahead in the race. A growing number of people use voice search to find businesses By 2020, the number of people who will use voice search in the US will shoot to 21.4 million, according to Activate. Unfortunately, most businesses are not prepared for the increasing number of voice queries. Business implications: Technologies such as Siri and Google Voice Search learn to recognize keywords and voice commands by using natural language processing. Over time, these technologies learn users’ unique characteristics of voice, how they speak, their behavioral patterns, and even browsing interests. Businesses that are not ready to handle these hyper-personalized voice-based search queries will lose out in the long term. What you should do: Audit your current strategy and ensure that you focus on long-tailed keyword phrases most-likely used by your target audience. Brainstorm new keyword targets, and try to provide the best answer for each possible query. People type keywords but speak out conversational keywords While people type keywords to look for information on browsers, the way they search via voice is different. Search queries tend to be more conversational, and entire sentences or questions are spoken out during voice search. Business implications: Voice search reflects how people really speak a certain language. Their queries tend to reflect real-life usage of a language and thus, keywords tend to be conversational and long-tail+. Long-tail+ indicates that long-tail keywords need to be optimized for conversational queries. Older keywords that are shorter will not be acceptable for voice search optimization. What you should do: Your keyword strategy should be conversational and should mimic the way people talk in real life. Imagine scenarios in which people might search for services and products your business might offer. Document and record queries that your customer service representatives frequently encounter when they speak to customers. Shortlist long-tail+ key phrases and create content pages that focus on these shortlisted key phrases. Increasing requests for specific information As Siri, Google Voice Search and other tools get smarter, people will continue to seek specific information via voice search. Generic web content will not rank very highly in voice search results. Business implications: As discussed above, people tend to speak out sentences or ask questions in a conversational manner when they search for information. Specificity of search queries will render previous content and SEO strategies quite redundant. What you should do: Optimize your Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page to reflect long tail and conversational keyword phrases. Natural sounding questions and answers on your FAQ page will tackle hyper-specific queries better. Apply correct schemas and use structured data markup to optimize your web content for voice search devices. Voice search is contributing to queries in the vernacular tongue Most voice searches tend to be local in nature, such as “Where to get the best coffee in Wickham” In addition, local search in vernacular languages other than English will constitute a large number of search queries. Business implication: If you do not optimize your content for local search queries, and if you do not take vernacular languages into account, you may lose out on a number of voice search queries. Most web users will tend to speak English in their vernacular accent or dialect, and they may even use languages other than English, depending on where your business is located. What you should do: Ensure that you claim your Google My Business listing, and enter your phone number, business hours, address, and business description. This helps in your business showing up when someone makes a voice search query. Secondly, optimize your content to suit local languages and dialects, and focus on local SEO. Voice searches mostly come from mobile devices While people prefer to type on their laptops or desktops, they tend to speak to their mobile devices, thanks to improved voice recognition technology. Google Assistant is currently available on more than 400 million devices, most of which are mobile. Business implications: Not being prepared for voice queries emanating from mobile devices can have real consequences on a business’ revenue. If your business is not mobile-optimized, and if the content is not optimized for voice queries, you may lose out on traffic arriving from mobile devices via voice search. What you should do: To begin with, make sure that your website is mobile responsive, and optimize your website for mobile queries. Improve overall user experience on mobile browsers such as fixing slow loading pages, making sure that videos can be played in full-screen when a user holds their smartphone horizontally and reducing the number of interstitials. A few points to remember Voice search is getting more popular than ever, and businesses need to change their current SEO strategy to include voice search. It is important to remember that voice queries tend to be conversational in nature and employ natural language. As the use of natural language results in more specific queries, optimizing FAQ pages with long-tailed keywords is important. In addition, voice search tends to be local and vernacular in nature, which necessitates local SEO, and content optimized for local visitors. Finally, it helps to optimize websites for a rich mobile experience as most voice searches come from mobile devices. If you need assistance implementing voice search strategies, contact us today.

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Power of Digital DNA

September 27, 2018

Making a Foray Internet came to India in 1995. I got introduced to the Internet in 1996 when I entered college and wanted to send an email to a friend. On deeper exploration and on using tools like Lynx, IRC, and Email; I felt a sense of connectivity with the world. I could make friends worldwide sitting right here in Kolkata, that too in real time. I took an immediate liking to it. I soon ventured into digital business in 1997. I started with domain registration, web hosting, and website design. Fast forward to 2000, when I returned to India after my post-graduation, the local market for technology services were in doldrums due to the dot-com crash. I again revisited the digital toolbox, and this time for digital marketing, and built a business which was born in India, but grew up in the globally connected Internet world. We were soon working for clients around the world and running our entire operations on the Internet – starting with marketing, sales, development, delivery, billing, and payments. We have a partnership approach. We become part of our client’s business – in their good and bad time. We work as a team to make the most of the leverages they have and find solutions to the problems they face. We strongly believe in – If our client wins, we win. We have the intrinsic ability to build scalable, secure and properly functional projects and products from our global clients. At no times, the ability to simply deliver projects as per the promise is a big differentiator, because it is as common as we may think. It is important to understand that the culture inside the company, reflects in the perceived brand outside the company. This has been our biggest differentiator – a humble, grounded, customer focussed, honest, technically sound business, which works behind the scene to make its client win. Ahead of Competition We operate out of all major metros of India, thus can provide seamless pan-India servicing to our clients and have the most extensive service range under one roof, making us a full-service provider. Thus, you do not need to coordinate between multiple agencies to get a simple project done. Our major delivery hubs are in Kolkata and Chennai, which helps us rationalize the costs, and hence enable us to pass the benefits to our clients. Last, but not the least, we are fundamentally a digital company since inception; hence carry the DNA for digital. It is unlike many companies, who jumped into the bandwagon when the buzz of “Digital” became loud. We are fundamentally a digital company since inception; hence carry the DNA for digital. It is unlike many companies, who jumped into the bandwagon when the buzz of “Digital” became loud. Industry Outlook Digital industry has grown exponentially. It has been phenomenal. However, we are still seeing the tip of the iceberg. Digital is synonymous with the transition at par with the agricultural age, industrial age, for mankind. The markets are maturing. However, we still get very excited at times, without thinking about the practical implications, and hence get into the hype (boom) and depression (bust) cycle. I think it will continue. At one point in time, it was big vs. small, then it became fast vs. slow, and now it will be digital native vs. non-digital. The industry still needs to educate the talents and businesses in digital in the right way to make the most of this wonderful disruption, else they stand disrupted. The Indian market has been a follower, but it is picking up. In India, most businesses still consider technology to be an “Expense” in their P&L books. It has to change to “Investment” in their Balance Sheet. However, things are changing for good. The change is visible, albeit slow.  East Calling We believe that eastern India is now on a growth curve compared to that of the rest of India. In fact, East India has the most to gain from digital forces, as they are great levelers. It provides the same benefit to all its users, and the onus is on the user to use it effectively. To help businesses and professionals use it in the right way, we have started organizing Digital Success Summit. We organized the first edition of the summit at Hyatt Regency Kolkata on 10th August earlier this year. The next year’s event is planned for 8-9th August. Key Challenges The two major challenges we face as a global technology service company from Kolkata are : 1. Getting the right talent for strategic roles 2. Trust in a low trust world, in a low-entry-barrier industry, which results in   some poor performers to bring a bad name to the entire industry Improving Bottlenecks It is critical that the education system is revamped. If it is not done in time, the demographic dividend will become a demographic disaster. Besides this, we must teach each citizen about their responsibility to represent their country in a globally connected world. No two incidents are independent anymore. Every action by everyone has an impact on the other person – small or big. Goals to Cherish My organizational goal is the work on continuous improvement of the Indus Net group of businesses by getting like-minded people together, forging partnerships in new geographies, excel in quality and explore newer horizons as the industry evolves. We are also looking at decouple revenue-manpower growth which is a hallmark of IT service companies. We will do it through moving up the value chain, invest in IPs and Product development and create unique propositions which are business critical in select business verticals. I plan to keep learning, do some trekking and write a few books! Future Environment The future is digital. And we will be playing a critical role for ourselves and our clients in shaping the future. The future is also about pluralism and one single organization will not be able to control or shape it. Therefore, we believe in our

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How Data Influences Media and Marketing Today

September 27, 2018

Market research has always been the basic tool to design and develop strategies and campaigns. However, traditional market research consumes a lot of time and requires special skills to process and analyze and to derive insights. Marketing campaigns in the past weren’t accurate because market samples did not truly represent a population, and both advertising and marketing strategies weren’t quite accurate. Campaign failures and losses can be tied down to incorrect insight or partial insight into a market’s needs and demands. In addition, most marketing agencies depended on print and TV to disperse marketing messages until the recent past. Digital media changed all that and democratized the process of marketing and advertising, while contemporary data techniques have taken digital marketing to the next level. Thankfully, newer data analytics techniques have not only reduced marketers efforts to crunch data but have also ushered in a new era in which marketing campaigns are highly personalized, scalable and democratic. In this article, let us take a look at how data has influenced media and marketing, and how there has been a complete paradigm shift. Integration of tools Software integration has led to richer insights and predictions, as there is a larger sample of data to analyze. Cloud-based solutions have helped companies to implement affordable integration solutions across departments. Integration has also brought together disparate software solutions such as CRM, ERP, and HRMS which help businesses to access more detailed data and predict outcomes accurately even on the go. Current marketing and advertising initiatives depend on such an integrated approach to make the correct move. An increasing number of agencies use MarTech solutions to predict better campaign outcomes, and this is possible because of modern data analytics. MarTech consists of marketing automation tools such as Marketo, HubSpot, MailChimp, SalesForce, and Insightly. It also includes data and intelligence tools such as FullContact, Cloudinary, Decibel, among many others. In addition, predictive analysis tools help us make better predictions and foresee campaigns even before campaigns are launched. This allows us to have defined outcomes in mind. Some of the most important predictive analysis tools used today are Microsoft’s Azure Machine Learning Studio, SAP Predictive Analytics Software, IBM Predictive Insights, among many others.  These tools can be integrated with each other, or with other enterprise software solutions for richer insights. Personalized marketing and advertising Earlier, personalized marketing was a challenge and a number of efforts never yielded the desired results. However, thanks to social media, it is easier to curate customers and people with specific interests and capture their sentiments easily. All this data can now be crunched and analyzed for better insight, leading to highly specific marketing and advertising campaigns. There are a number of marketing automation tools that help you personalize advertising. HubSpot and MailChimp can be used by both small and medium-sized businesses to personalize campaigns, while Marketo is a value addition for larger organizations. All these tools use data to take personalization to the next level. In addition, you can use Google Optimize 360, which helps you create custom segmented customer experiences. Forbes also listed Clearbit, Kickbox, Quickmail, Buzzstream, and other tools in its list of tools that help personalize marketing and advertising. In short, these tools help to gain better insight about customers and market, which helps personalize marketing and ad campaigns even at the micro level. The advent of MarTech and AdTech In the last couple of years, technologies that assist in automating and turbocharging marketing and advertising processes have been given the terms of MarTech and AdTech. Both these technologies have helped thousands of agencies to provide better campaign results, automate most marketing processes, and process data in a useful manner. The advent of MarTech and AdTech has also resulted in marketing Big Data. Various market-related data is constantly added to Big Data, and data analytics continue to derive richer insights. Most importantly, MarTech tools like GetResponse, Autopilot, iContactPro can be integrated with ERP and CRM for more coherent insight. After all, both frontend and backend need to be in sync with marketing campaigns for the message to reach effectively to the right audience. It is important to note that while marketing technology tools can up your data game, it is really up to you how to use the insight your derive. For example, integrating a digital asset management (DAM) with Adobe Creative Cloud can provide insights into how designers influence the marketing process. Or, you can choose to integrate Oracle Eloqua with an ERP like Sage 100 ERP or SAP Business One to better understand how order processing trends can improve future campaigns. Data helps launch hybrid and omnichannel marketing campaigns Most marketing campaigns tend to take a hybrid approach, combining online with offline. A survey conducted by Vistaprint Digital showed that 29% of businesses ignore either offline or online marketing practices, favoring one practice more than the other. However, a hybrid approach that uses both the practices is always more beneficial. Some of the ways you can use data analytics to spur offline marketing success are by analyzing QR code usage, proximity marketing using Bluetooth technology, and tracking URLs and web traffic generated from offline visits to actual stores. Using data analytics to track these behaviors will help to launch more cohesive omnichannel marketing campaigns, which bring an integrated shopping experience to customers. Facebook and Google have come up with tools which help advertisers to understand the effect of online advertising on offline sales. They can predict and track online to offline conversions. Data is here to stay for the long haul As you can see, data tools have changed the game when it comes to marketing and utilizing media tools. While we are no longer reliant on traditional media platforms, and digital platforms have long become mainstream, data analytics has ensured that digital marketing will continue in a forward path in the months to come. All these trends will help agencies to develop and implement marketing and ad campaigns quickly across digital media platforms. Dissemination of marketing communication

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Five Ways to Transform Your Business through Right Digital Infrastructure

September 4, 2018

While most businesses have adopted digital infrastructure to some extent, many still do not have a holistic plan to transform their business using the right digital infrastructure. Studies show that most businesses tend to retain legacy tools while implementing the digital strategy, and what really happens is, there is a complete mismatch between digital and non-digital, leading to subpar organizational performance. In result, companies see results that are satisfying in some areas, while creating new risks and liabilities in others. Businesses need to have a 5-pronged approach towards digital infrastructure. This will help look at their entire business infrastructure as a single entity and build a strategy around it. In fact, the right strategy will help your business to transform itself into a lean and uber-efficient machine that can give your competitors a run for their money. Most importantly, having a digital strategy will help you to focus better on your business and enter new avenues. In this article, we describe our 5-pronged approach to make use of digital infrastructure in the right way and optimize your business to achieve new heights. Evaluate existing hardware and go for a major upgrade One of the first things you need to do in order to assess your hardware situation is to examine how your network infrastructure is. Network infrastructure includes both software and hardware components and is an integral part of IT infrastructure. For your software components to work efficiently, your enterprise network needs to be top notch. Evaluate existing routers, operating systems, network security applications, network operations, IP addressing, wireless protocols, etc. At the same time, evaluate data centers as well, as most businesses use subpar services which are often exorbitant. Consider seeking an external vendor’s help in choosing the right data center for your business requirements. To transform your business using the right data center, begin with creating a strategy. Implementing agile IT organization is crucial to this process, as is virtualization and cloud. Intel’s whitepaper recommends evaluating aging infrastructure by computing various metrics and KPIs. Please bear in mind that agile infrastructure can either be virtualized or nonvirtualized, and this solely depends on your organizational requirements. Nevertheless, virtualization is key to having a successful cloud strategy, which we shall discuss next. Move to the cloud whenever possible Today, you can practically move every legacy technology to the cloud and reap the benefits of reduced costs, increased efficiency, and access to technology which you previously didn’t have. Software as a Service (SaaS) helps you to access and use software programs which were probably out of reach for you if you are a small business. If you are a large business, SaaS is equally important to reduce dependency on physical infrastructure and keep your business agile and scalable. SaaS models offer pay-as-you-go schemes, which allow businesses of all sizes to scale or downscale depending on their situation. In addition, the cloud can also help you to access infrastructure via the cloud. Storage, data centers, and even networks can be used on an infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) model. Cloud computing helps businesses to eliminate organizational flab and grow lean and agile. If you are a service provider yourself, consider using PaaS (platform as a Service), which helps you to develop new applications and tools on cloud-based platforms, instead of having to invest in expensive platforms. In short, cloud computing provides the technological impetus required to make your business grow quickly. Integrate what you can With more businesses using tools to automate processes, ERP, CRM, and HRMS tools are almost an integral part of every successful business. However, they create unique problems of duplicate entries, repetitive manual exchange of information, and a continued lack of coordination between departments. Integrating these tools using available APIs is a popular method to reduce duplicate entries and increase automation. Most importantly, data can be shared between integrated tools, leading to richer insight and more accurate predictions. If you have an eCommerce business, for instance, you can integrate your ERP with your CRM, so that purchases made by customers online is immediately reflected the inventory department, which can replenish stocks automatically. The possibilities are endless, and such a heightened level of coordination is only possible when you integrate software tools. Before you decide to integrate, make sure that you have an integration strategy, and that you have spoken to vendors who will be able to do it for you efficiently. Integration strategy also involves training your staff so that they use the new interface effectively. In addition, you will also have to account in for security-related ramifications. Implement Internet of Things, Blockchain, and Artificial Intelligence These may seem like disparate terms often used by IT honchos, but they are very important for businesses of all sizes. IoT, or Internet of Things, uses sensors embedded in devices to intelligently communicate with servers and perform functions that ordinary devices cannot. These can further be connected to smartphones so that device-users have more control over how they interact with it. In a business perspective, sales and marketing teams can use IoT-enabled devices during promotional events, while logistics and product-handlers can use IoT enabled product tracking. Blockchain is another digital technology which can help businesses immensely. You can use smart contracts to ensure security, and distributed ledgers allow you to process transactions in a safe and secure manner. Blockchain has a number of applications for businesses, right from identity verification to automated approvals. Artificial intelligence is another emerging technology that has now become mainstream for business use. Regardless of the size of your company, you can use AI-enabled chatbots for customer service, social media management, and certain marketing tasks. These technologies are accessible, affordable, and easy to implement. Businesses only need to decide to embrace them before their competitor does. Focus on digital governance and security To ensure business success, it is not enough to have the best infrastructure in place. Digital infrastructure’s success depends on how secure it is against various kinds of threats, and how wisely you are

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Blockchain as the Newest RegTech Application – An Opportunity to Reduce Financial Institutions’ Burden of KYC

August 17, 2018

Regulatory challenges have often caused unnecessary inconvenience and delays within the financial services industry across the world. Compliances issues affect every financial service today, and many businesses have often paid enormous amounts in terms of fines, legal fees, and loss of business. The need for compliance and stringent regulations are necessary, especially in a world that is increasingly becoming prone to fraud, security threats, and cyber threats. Governments and regulatory bodies are right on their part to expect compliance from financial institutions, one of which is the ubiquitous KYC document (Know your Customer document). While financial service providers have meticulously collected KYC documents and ensured that they comply, the process has often been long drawn out, complex, and often mired with bugs and technical issues. Most KYC compliance happens digitally, and companies often repeatedly seek KYC from customers, often leading to opt-outs. Technology can help fix this issue for financial service companies, and one way is using RegTech. RegTech is short for regulatory technology and makes use of cloud computing technology delivered via a Software as a Service (SaaS) model so that businesses can easily process KYC documentation quickly and efficiently, at a lower cost. What is going to change RegTech even further is the use of Blockchain. In this article, let us take a look at how Blockchain is changing RegTech, and helping financial institutions to process KYC documentation quickly and efficiently. What exactly do the RegTech companies do? So far, companies that offer RegTech solutions have been working with regulatory bodies alongside their clients, financial institutions. By combining the goodness of cloud computing and big data, RegTech companies have made available sensitive information often required to validate KYC documents. Many RegTech companies have also used predictive analytics and big data to comb through previous regulatory failures and predict future risks that financial institutions should consider. Most RegTech companies have focused on creating analytical tools that sift through big data to pick sensitive information that could help financial institutions to comply better with regulatory authorities. RegTech companies offer solutions ranging from KYC validation to alerting money laundering activities and preventing cyber hacks and data breaches. Simply put, RegTech companies monitor digital transactions in real time and identify irregularities to prevent fraud and other risky events from taking place. Financial institutions alone cannot identify, predict, or avert these risks, nor will they be able to comply with all the regulations, including KYC processing. Using Blockchain for KYC processing Blockchain, which is a distributed database stored on a particular network, and accessible on all computers authorized to do so, is a technology that is picture-perfect for regulatory compliance. In Blockchain technology, every file is split into parts called blocks, and each block needs to be validated individually by the entire network. Smart contracts are based on this technology, and for a contract to be processed, all parties involved need to provide their digital signatures. As all data is encrypted, security is always ensured. In addition, as data is stored across a network and not just on a single computer, hacking or tampering with data is impossible. Most importantly, Blockchain data is immutable, and all changes made to the original database can be tracked. In the financial services arena, this quality is very important because customers simply cannot make changes to their financial history if something had gone awry previously. KYC documents can be processed in an error-free, encrypted, and automated environment, which simply is not possible in other technologies. RegTech applications using Blockchain can integrate both KYC and anti-money laundering steps for commercial usage, and this can be made available to companies both publicly and privately, depending on regulatory requirements. How Blockchain helps companies to reduce KYC burden Blockchain applications can be delivered as cloud-based RegTech apps via a SaaS model to financial institutions so that they can conduct their KYC operations to meet regulatory compliance. Let us take a look at how Blockchain can help financial institutions to reduce the burden of KYC: Identify and verify client information KYC requires financial institutions to identify their customers’ personal details such as name, address, nationality, birthdate, etc. Such basic data can be verified with the help of an identification card that is approved by regulatory bodies. Blockchain digitalizes information and validates such information by cross-verifying digital identities from various sources already available to the Blockchain. In other words, Blockchain not only helps customers to manage their digital identities, it also helps financial institutions to conduct basic KYC seamlessly. While KYC for individual clients using Blockchain is quite straightforward, it gets a little complex for professional entities. Professional entities require the KYC processing of directors’ identities, and other key persons (or corporations themselves) involved. Avoid risk by screening high-risk individuals Most financial institutions gain access to only the basic information of a customer. This basic KYC is not enough to avert risky situations such as money laundering, payment defaults, frauds, financial bankruptcy, etc. Banks can easily screen high-risk individuals if they subscribe to a Blockchain database that stores and validates information related to previous risky financial behavior. In addition, Blockchain-based RegTech apps can also predict future risky behavior by combining predictive analytics and big data with Blockchain. If a customer has had a questionable financial history, for instance, a Blockchain would confirm this to the bank or insurance company, which can decide not to lend a loan or approve an insurance claim. This mechanism can also help in averting money laundering and fraudulent activities, helping financial institutions to comply with regulations. Determine the inherent risk of customers A number of financial relationships require a much deeper insight about the customer or client. The KYC team will need to process questionnaires that probe negative press releases, criminal activity, political opinions and alliances, and a variety of other publicly available information. However, the KYC team simply cannot put all these unrelated datasets together and arrive at conclusions regarding the risk a customer poses. Regulators often prescribe the criteria for determining a customer’s inherent risk, and

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