Category: DigitalSuccess

New Age Pharma: Opportunities And Challenges

September 25, 2020

While the seismic impact of the CoronaVirus pandemic has shaken the world to the core, incremental and breakthrough innovation in the Pharmaceutical Industry is providing a ray of hope. At this point, healthcare organizations are overstretching their capabilities to battle out the crisis. On the other end, the protection of their frontline staff becomes a concern. Precisely, “Covid-19 is a Humanitarian Challenge”, quotes Mr. Sudarshan Jain, the Secretary-General of Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance. Moreover, tight scrutiny measures to support the ongoing efforts of developing the vaccine & repurpose existing drugs to counteract COVID have brought in a series of unprecedented changes in the Pharma & Healthcare industry over a couple of months. Amidst this stringent lockdown and logistics issues, the industry is experiencing disruptive innovation driven by digital inventions. Technologies like AI, Big Data, Analytics, along with progress in Robotics have fast-paced the digital revival in the Healthcare domain. Alongside it has triggered several challenges down the line. In the current premise of Covid-19, when Digitization is reshaping the business model of Pharma, we have a power-packed session with the top industry leaders offering insightful takes on the current scenario. The Biggest Challenge to the Road Ahead In an industry, which is increasingly people-driven, digital transformation cannot be an overnight process. Also, automation won’t replace it completely. It can only augment the process of healthcare. However, Covid-19 has definitely played the catalyst for this change. According to O.P Singh, the President of Sales and Marketing at Cadila Pharmaceuticals Ltd, “transformation from physical to digital even in the COVID scenario won’t be too easy. Instead, Pharma can be a mix of both, offering a “Phygital” experience.” What Drives the Digital Shift in Pharma As a matter of fact, most of the innovations are happening outside the domain of traditional Pharma. It involves a wide spectrum of products and services, which are leveraging digital models while foraying in the Pharma domain. No doubt, the innovations are amplifying the healthcare capabilities with a deep analysis of data for outcome-based solutions. Starting from the invention of biosensor technologies to portals and a suite of smart tools, multiple exciting breakthroughs are coming to the scene. It enhances the self-monitoring capabilities and patient adherence – which further rationalizes clinical decision-making and treatment success. Adding to that, comes data and analytics fuelling a profound transformational shift. Are the traditional pharma companies falling behind the race? We cannot ignore the fact that COVID 19 has already initiated a sea-change in the way healthcare is delivered so far. “Following breakthrough innovations in Robotics nowadays, it is used for sanitizing clinics, which was unthinkable years before”, says Rahul Avasthy, who is leading the Digital Transformation journey of a Fortune 500 Pharma Company. On the other hand, Mr. Singh believes that Robots cannot fully replace human emotions especially in an industry, which is essentially people-driven. But, it’s true that Digital platforms have empowered patients with more accessibility, which we could not think of years before. From discussing mental health ( which is largely a taboo when talked about in public) topics to routine consultations with doctors, everything has become more accessible with more personalized solutions. Rise of Telehealth: Especially in the COVID crisis, Telehealth making timely and responsive care accessible while maintaining the social distancing norms. Leveraging the Predictive Analytics model, it helps in better prognosis, thus helping doctors to come up with a proper treatment plan well in advance. With every passing day, telemedicine is taking pharma communication “ beyond the pill” and providing customized support & education to the end-users. Open Doors to Microlearning: Digitization is making Microlearning in Pharma a reality. It makes the vast knowledge bank accessible, which was originally owned by a specific group of Pharma Companies. It results in better R& D and aids in more accurate clinical trials. The Takeaway According to Abhishek Rungta, CEO of INT. “at the end of the day, the most important thing is people’s transformation. People don’t change overnight. Habits and mind-sets are created over decades, it takes time to adapt. So is true when it comes to the adoption of digital in Pharma. No doubt, the change has been initiated but will take time to shape up as full-fledged business model.

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Agile And Outsourcing Product Development. Get It? Else, Forget It!

October 14, 2019

In today’s world, Agile methodology and outsourcing product development are hot topics. The beginning of the 90s witnessed the starting of outsourcing product development. Companies jumped at the opportunity to save bucks by hiring top talents at reasonable rates. Agile methodology, when infused later in the 90s, became the cherry on the cake.  Agile is a well-known methodology and most development teams prefer it. It all started in Oregon in the spring of 2000. A group of seventeen software professionals got together to talk about how they might shorten development periods and get new products to market faster.  We have studied the scaling up of the Agile method at most companies, including small firms. Larger companies like Spotify and Netflix were born agile and have become more so as they’ve grown. Also, big shots like Amazon and USAA (the financial services company for the military community), are already in the transition from traditional hierarchies to more-agile enterprises. The CollabNet VersionOne 13th annual State of Agile Report shows a 71% increase in project cost reduction as a primary reason to adopt agile. There was also a 27% increase in “Project Cost Reduction” as a reported benefit of implementing agile.  Additionally, there was a 74% increase in accelerated software delivery from which we can easily conclude that the talent pool became smarter than ever. What is outsourcing software product development? Software product development outsourcing means assigning a third-party company for a particular or all operations linked to a product’s development and maintenance.  The outsourcing vendor provides necessary skills and resources for providing solutions during the product development lifecycle.  Is it possible to implement Agile in outsourcing product development? Many experts had a misconception that the Waterfall approach is the only feasible option in product development outsourcing. Customer satisfaction is a top priority for the Agile method, which aims to accomplish it by delivering software or solutions early and frequently.  Usually, Agile methodology uses practices like: DevOps Scrum Crystal Extreme Programming  However, while outsourcing, implementation of Agile methodology can be challenging. But it’s not impossible either! After all, overcoming challenges will help you achieve success.  Challenges in implementing Agile in product development outsourcing  As we discussed earlier, following Agile methodology can be challenging while outsourcing. So, here are a few challenges that you may face: Insufficient Agile Experience Does your outsourcing vendor follow Agile methodology? This is the first thing that you need to ensure. Due to its growing demand, many IT outsourcing companies are adopting Agile methodology. So, try to choose an outsourcing vendor that follows the Agile way.  The absence of a team structure Teamwork is an integral part of Agile methodology. It requires cross-functional teams to collaborate to provide outcomes to the end client. Assigning software development to individuals can obstruct the Agile way. Because a single person cannot collaborate in the same way as a team. So, make sure to assess the teams of outsourcing vendors. And find out whether they are compatible with Agile or not. Focusing on groups rather than individuals might assist you in developing a network that allows you to remain flexible. Not having clear communication The Agile method is largely reliant on open, continuous communication. So, managing an outsourcing team might be difficult. One of the most efficient methods to tackle this problem is through email or video conferencing. Besides, you can schedule a few team visits every year to better connect with your offshore development team. “We are trying to figure out how to transition from our regular, current cubicle kind of workspace to a more collaborative workspace,” Rajesh Gopinathan, CEO at TCS, tells ET Magazine. Source: Targetprocess blog Why might this be? What led to the rise of the agile manifesto is that people slowly started to realize that the waterfall approach they’ve used with their outsourcing vendors is not that great after all. Fixed price contracts stopped making sense as they do not guarantee real value. The more labor is outsourced to other countries, the higher are the costs. Hence, the main point for outsourcing which is cost-saving loses its foothold. There’re other even deeper-lying consequences. On one hand, the country which outsources – or businesses in this country, not the country itself – they save bucks but lose in the long run as they do not grow their own engineering minds, let alone all the problems that you have working with remote teams – yes, we have all this telecom and internet in place, yet face-to-face communication is irreplaceable. If you often go on business trips to the outsourced destination to talk to your team – again, it’s more costs. Well, the crux is not about how good or bad outsourcing is. The companies which outsource on the other hand – have legacy outsourcing teams. They need to get going as well, to stand up to all the funds they’ve already invested in their outsourcing partner. Agile adoption at INT. 80% of the projects of INT. in FY2020 are classified as Agile. The remaining 20% are the projects whose life cycles are highly predictable. In such cases, the client was clear of the feature set and scope. Eventually, it led to the outcome being divided into a known set of deliverables. These projects usually follow the traditional Waterfall model. Scrum framework adoption at INT. A major chunk of Agile projects at INT. use a Scrum framework. Those Agile projects that do not follow Scrum are typically small (<5 persons). In those teams, the Scrum framework can become a ‘heavy’ process load. In such cases, lighter processes surrounding agile processes are followed. Client Process Adoption at Indus Net Technologies (INT.). Process adoption before working with INT: 31% had a full process in place at the project start 25% had a partial process in place at the project start 46% had no process in place at project start Process adoption after working with INT: 75% had a full process in place 14% had a partial process in place 11% still do

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Digital Success Summit 2019: What to Expect

July 18, 2019

A stimulating conference program focused on digital innovation and transformation. Over the years Indus Net has partnered in digital systems with a number of established players. We regularly innovate in Cloud/Data center, AI, Cyber Security, IoT & Mobile Technologies providing organization with the opportunity to keep in pace with global trends. Our Digital Success Summit V2.0 on 8-9 August 2019 with the theme, ‘Growing Digitally, Growing Profitably’ will encompass 7 deep dive workshops on Day 1 and back to back sessions by speakers from around the country on Day 2. Attend Day 1 to gain actionable insights on How to leverage businesses through powerful storytelling with Indranil Chakraborty The need and know hows for digital innovation with Abhishek Rungta How you can leverage content marketing to build your consumer base with Shubho Sengupta Learn the sorceries of social selling with Kiruba Shankar Get your digital marketing right with Aji Issac Mathew How can you use a combination of storytelling, imagery, and testimonials to boost business with Soumitra Paul Learn the best branding practices for your brand sustenance with Laeeq Ali Attend Day 2 to learn from discussions with the likes of Amit Ranjan is Co-Founder of SlideShare, which got acquired by LinkedIn. Since then he has worked with Government of India to build the DigiLocker project, which is used by more than 10 million citizens. Amit has always been passionate about building outstanding products that sell themselves. Learn from him about building virality into the product or service design. A star teen entrepreneur, Atreyam (Leo) Sharma who has been addressing leading technology events globally since 2014, including TEDx talks in India and Luxembourg.He started coding at the age of 11 and the following year, Co-Founded Workshop4Me. Vikas Malpani, a serial entrepreneur who also co-founded, India’s leading property listing platform-CommonFloor.Com. He is ranked as Business World’s India’s Hottest Young Entrepreneur & has won MIT TR35 Young Innovator Award for his growth advices. And hear many others speak on how to make your product or service viral, sales team management hacks, how to build and manage a remote team, consumer marketing on a shoestring budget and about personal branding Why Should You Attend? We are flying in a delegation of 500+ representing 100+ business covering the country, providing your organization with the opportunity to reach an audience including Enterprise CEOs, CIOs, CISOs, MIS / IT Directors PLUS Cloud Operators, Telcos, SPs, etc. Our Summit provide a highly efficient, cost-effective and proven formula for tech industry CEOs and senior execs, to learn through networking in a single location, in just 48 hours.

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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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