Siemon, a leading global network infrastructure specialist, showcased it’s Advanced Cabling Solutions and Expertise at 2017 BICSI Winter Conference, a conference catered to the Information and Communications Technology Community. During the event, Siemon displayed several WheelHouse Advanced Data Center Solutions that include plug and play fiber solutions such as the ‘LightStack Ultra High Density System’ and its innovative ‘LC BladePatch jumper’ with push-pull activation for easy access.
Siemon, an expert in ConvergeIT Cabling Solutions for Intelligent Buildings, showcased its innovative plenum rated zone cabling solutions that enables flexible converged infrastructures for data, voice, building automation and any IP device. Siemon’s digital lighting demonstration and feature-rich Wall Mount Cabinet with fully integrated and adjustable cable management were also displayed at BICSI Winter Conference 2017.
During the conference, Ms. Valerie Maguire, Siemon’s Global Sales Engineer, presented Siemon’s Best Practices for Networking Intelligent Devices: Zone Cabling and Coverage Area Planning, and provided an in-depth overview of zone cabling, its benefit for today’s converged networks and key design guidelines for a variety of building spaces.
Not only this, but also Siemon experts were also present on hand to answer technical queries and demonstrate installer-friendly solutions such as the ‘LightBow Termination System’ with its exclusive patent-pending termination tool and pre-polished mechanical splice connectors that together reduce termination time. It showcased how termination quality is ensured that simultaneously also enables easy verification.
About Siemon
Established in 1903, Siemon is an industry leader specialising in the design and manufacture of high quality, high performance low voltage infrastructure solutions and services for data centres, LANs and intelligent buildings. Headquartered in Connecticut, USA, with global sales, technical and logistics expertise spanning 100 countries, Siemon offers a comprehensive suite of copper and optical fibre cabling systems, cabinets, racks, cable management, data centre power and cooling systems and intelligent infrastructure management solutions.
Siemon Interconnect Solutions (SIS) is a Siemon business unit comprised of a team of dedicated technical sales professionals supported by Siemon Labs, mechanical, electrical and signal integrity engineers committed to solving industry and customer driven interconnect challenges. Siemon provides custom network infrastructure solutions to OEMs, leading manufacturers, value-added resellers and system integrators. For more details, please visit Siemon
Couple of weeks back, I switched from Google Keyboard to Xploree Keyboard, a keyboard that can do much more than typing! In simple words, Xploree is an intent based keyboard that is powered by AI, NLP, Machine Learning and host of other technologies. It is a product from Hyderabad based KeyPoint Technologies that has earlier developed adaptxt and has mastered the art of building a keyboard that ‘Users Want’!.
Xploree doubles up as an effective ‘Discovery Platform’ that learns from user’s intent. Since it is a keyboard app, it also does the job of a regular keyboard 🙂 Xploree App review was earlier published here, today we have an interactive session with Deepti M. Saxena, Sales & Marketing Director, KeyPoint Technologies. The Q&A revolves around Xploree, technology behind the app, learnings from adaptxt, etc.
What are some of the advantages of using the Xploree Keyboard over other traditional keyboards ?
Xploree is a smart mobile keyboard app that doubles up as a discovery platform. Powered by AI, the keyboard allows users to receive relevant suggestions and content while they chat, browse apps, etc. Even before users realize, Xploree gauges user’s intent & suggests recommendations based on who and what the users care about, current context [location, availability, etc.] and their likelihood to care about things when in a similar context.
Unlike other keyboards in the market, Xploree is the first smart keyboard app that augments predictions: not just that of words but INTENT. This smart keyboard app supports 110+ global languages including 29 indic languages thereby connecting people to content, products, services and solutions, almost faster than ideas can actually lead to words that too in their moment of need!
Can you share some details about the team behind the revolutionary Xploree keyboard.
While Sunil Motaparti, Founder & CEO- leads the business, Nutan Chokkareddy, CTO leads the technological innovations at KPT. Prima Dona, COO oversees company wide operations, with a special focus on scaling Xploree. Kiran Karthikeyan is the Vice President Product and is involved in the overall success of the product offerings.
Deepti M. Saxena is in-charge of Xploree’s nationwide sales and marketing activities. Today KeyPoint Technologies has over 100 enthusiasts working towards achieving the end goal-that is-making the mobile SMART with its INTELLIGENT KEYBOARD.
Can you please touch base upon some of the tech aspects of the Xploree Keyboard ?
First smart keyboard that identifies intents, categories and sentiment on the fly
Following the standards to handle context better [schema.org, IAB Taxonomy etc.]
Supports multiple languages and powered by NLP & Machine Learning [Neural Networks, Classification algorithms, recommendation systems etc.]
Ontology with frequent updates to capture trending topics
Captures and uses multiple contexts to provide the best discoveries
Application & Domain Context, Time Context, Location Context, User Context, Typed Text Context
Unlocking potential of mobile retail by integrating ability to buy products from within the app
Works across apps
Non-Intrusive. Follows EULA privacy policies
Available in SDK and SaaS models – to be consumed by third party applications
How secure is it to use the Xploree App since it gives suggestions in Real-Time [when typing], is there any data stored on any server ?
Xploree follows strict EULA and data privacy policies and does not capture, store or map users’ data. We do it on the device in real-time and do not send any typed text to our server
The only data thread that hits the server is the context, which is never stored beyond the keyboard session.
Keypoint had earlier developed Adaptxt [which was also available on other platforms], what are some of the learnings developing Adaptxt that was carried over in development of Xploree
During building of Adaptxt we got to understand the nuances of different languages and how users express similar thoughts in variety of expressions. This helped us understand that language is not a straight math but an art to understand and predict next words or phrases. It called for nonstop iterations to keep improvising on the predictions.
For Xploree, we heavily rely on machine learning & sentiment modeling to churn different intents and expressions among zillions of text strings. To make the task simpler, we built lightweight NLP [natural language processing] that sits on the user device [not on our servers unlike other search engines] and does everything within the device without compromising on user privacy.
Xploree is built over Adaptxt by adding advance layers of intent technology and machine learning.
Who are some of the partners who are present on the Xploree platform
Zomato, Flipkart, Amazon, Shopclues, First Cry, Housejoy, CouponDunia, Daily Motion among several others.
Recently Google released GBoard that also uses NLP, Machine Learning, etc. what are some of the USP’s of Xploree vis-a-vis GBoard
Any other keyboard in the market do not promise to be as ‘smart’ as Xploree besides offering a personalized dictionary. Xploree does more than a normal keyboard by capturing intent and context thereby becoming a virtual friend to users:a friend who understands their intent, context, desires, motives and matches them to relevant recommendations in real time.
KPT has been primarily working on Keyboards [LIPI, Adaptxt, Xploree,etc.], how as a company have you seen the Keyboard(s) evolve over a period of time ?
KPTs’ passion for linguistics and technology has enabled the company to deliver a better user experience across all types of connected devices over the years. KPT has seen a lot of success in the last couple of years with regards to the in-house innovations.
Adaptxt is an industry leading predictive text application for smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices. Adaptxt was created with the aim of delivering a faster, error-free and personalized text input experience to users. Adaptxt won the Appy Awards for Productivity and Horizon Interactive Awards Silver for Best Productivity App. Adaptxt has been built for a pan-global audience and supports over 120+ languages.
Xploree, the latest keyboard app built by KPT is an AI and NLP driven discovery platform that offers unified hyper-context and intent precision on multiple screens, multiple apps and in multiple languages. Xploree will be the first ‘Made in India’ smart keyboard app that has taken predictions and discoveries to a whole new level.
KeyPoint currently has representation in key markets including U.S., UK, India, Japan and China and continues to grow with its latest innovation Xploree.
Are there plans on developing a stand-alone keyboard SDK that can be used by 3rd party app developers
We already have a stand-alone, off the shelf keyboard SDK available for the market and 3rd party developers. Currently, service is available only on request.
How many languages are currently supported by Xploree
Xploree supports 110+ global languages that includes 29 indic languages. Additionally, the smart keyboard also offers mix of languages such as Hinglish (English+Hindi) Tamlish (Tamil+Hindi), Bonglish (Bengali+English), etc.
Can Xploree work on low-cost Android handsets that have less RAM, less internal memory, etc. since there has been huge mobile penetration in tier-II, tier-III cities, rural areas, etc who might not have high-end phones.
Yes. We have considered those aspects while developing our product. Xploree works best with mobile phones with 1 GB RAM and android version 4.4 & above.
How according to you can brands [not only e-commerce] but advertisers, etc. utilize the growing eco-system of Xploree
By showing brand cards at the right time, Xploree brings brands and consumers closer. This happens whenever an intent is expressed on the keyboard. Even before the user types out his desire, Xploree’s smart algorithms capture user’s intent basis the context and matches them with relevant recommendations.
In other words, brands and advertisers will be sitting right there on the user’s keyboard waiting for a context to show up. Needless to say, Xploree’s growing user base which is close to 3 million currently will be the exposure bandwidth for brands and advertisers.
How has the response been for Xploree Keyboard on iOS [if it is available and if not, then any timeline on when it might be available]
Xploree is currently available only on Android-version 4.4 & above. So far, the responses have been overwhelming. Xploree on iOS will be out soon!
Xploree Keyboard app is available on Play Store & can be downloaded from here. If you have used the Xploree App, please leave your feedback/suggestions in the comments section.
Union Budget 2017 is just round the corner and all eyes are set on what schemes the government would announce in order to relieve the pain of demonetization. Today, we share pre-budget quotes from entrepreneurs and what are their expectations from the budget that would be announced on 1st February 2017.
Bhavin Turakhia, Co-founder and CEO of Directi
Bhavin Turakhia, Co-founder and CEO of the Directi group
2016 saw a slew of announcements made by the government. With the goal of putting our country on the path towards a cashless economy, the Union Budget 2017~18 should include definitive SOPs and tax rebates to encourage and boost e-payments. Moreover, to achieve the goal of financial inclusion, the government should also rationalize indirect taxes and charges levied with respect to digital payment transactions, and further incentivize companies operating within this space. To adapt to the need of time, government should also rationalize income tax provisions including provisions related to employee tax benefits such that payments/ documents in the digital medium are treated at par with physical instruments.
As a natural corollary to the demonetisation process, the time is ripe to increase the tax exemption limit and also the corporate tax limits. Steps should also be taken to help startups tide over its immediate effects. Furthermore, with the increase in cash flow within banks, advanced technological infrastructure will help facilitate seamless transactions and improve the overall banking system as we enter into the new financial year.
A startup hub, India is currently home to the third largest number of technology driven startups in the world. The previous year witnessed multiple markdowns in the country’s startup ecosystem and, therefore, to propel this forward, the PM’s flagship ‘Startup India’ project should receive an impetus in the upcoming budget.
Suchi Mukherjee, CEO & Founder LimeRoad
Suchi Mukherjee, CEO & Founder, LimeRoad
In general, tax slabs should be adjusted in a way that does not reduce the number of people covered in the tax net, but reduces the tax liability of individuals in order to provide them more disposable income that would help to increase the consumption in the country. To push digital economy, I wish to see cashless transactions to be incentivized further.
To boost MSME’s, limit of presumptive taxation should be increased to 5 crore. This action will simplify the procedure and conserve resources for small scale vendors.
The Union budget will be presented on 1st Feb this year. It has been a closely watched event with lots of promises and scheme announcements. The Indian citizen is expecting a populist,
Mr. Harish Thakkar, Executive Director- Imarticus Learning
pro-poor and middle class budget after having borne the shock of demonetisation. It was also evident from the PMs speech on 31st December-largely termed as mini-budget speech wherein he announced schemes to make-it-up to the poor for waiting in long queues.
Just as it has been in past years, there will be announcements and more allocations to the social sector and development of rural areas particularly for farmers, we expect a boost to digital payments particularly Debit/credit cards and internet banking. The salaried class has been eagerly waiting lower income tax rates year on year, may see finally a higher exemption limit or lower tax rates.
We also expect some tougher measures for tax avoidance and changes in filing of the Income tax returns, with a view to bring in more transparency of businesses particularly the unorganised small and medium enterprises and also to widen the tax base. Lower tax rates promulgate wider tax base and discourage tax avoidance.
As the PM in one of his speeches mentioned, Imandaar ki mushkilen kam hongi aur Beimaan ki mushkilen badhengi so an action packed Budget session is eagerly awaited just as the nation awaits PMs address. The drama unfolds in a few weeks.
Swati Bhargava, Co-founder, CashKaro.com
My Top Most Budget Ask – Increased Planned Expenditure for Better Infrastructure which can enable more women to join and remain in the workforce.
I personally expect the upcoming Union Budget to be very positive and favourable towards the poor, middle class and business community, particularly because these segments were most inconvenienced by Demonetization. In a bid to alleviate this pain, we can expect incentives on direct tax. This could mean lower personal income tax rates and lower corporate tax rates too. With Cashless economy taking center stage, the Government has already taken a number of steps to encourage electronic payments.
We could see Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley announcing a list of measures as incentives for digital payments which will benefit the e-commerce industry as a whole. We might also get clarity on the long standing topic of introducing GST. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s flagship project, Startup India might get a push in the upcoming Budget. We could see a new set of tax concessions on employee stock options, unlisted securities and convertible instruments.
Lastly, as a woman and an entrepreneur, I would be most excited to see increased allocation towards building infrastructure in India and increased planned public expenditure. This would go a long way in creating a safer & more conducive environment for women and furthermore in creating world class companies. Overall, as a taxpayer and a founder I am eagerly waiting for February 1.
Rakesh Deshmukh, Co-Founder & CEO, Indus OS
Modi-led government transformed the Indian industry outlook by initiating multiple programs. Today, Make In India, Digital India, Standup India and Startup India programs not only enrich entrepreneurial dreams but also provide financial aid for making it viable to create long term sustainable impact. We expect focus on these programs to be maintained in this Union Budget as well for positive investor sentiments and overall long term growth.
Additionally, India’s cashless dream is expected to come alive basis policy changes to enable infrastructure for 4G smartphone growth, formalization of UPI digital payment mode for its widespread application and additional Govt. initiatives focused on regional smartphone users.
What are your expectations from the Union Budget 2017 ?
Leading tech firm Novire Technologies Pvt. Ltd, in association with ‘Autoplant’ and ‘ITBS-Truck ka Load’, recently held its day-long annual customer meet Ignite 2017. The conference witnessed the presence of nearly 200+ key industry leaders, decision makers & IT Heads from leading Indian companies, including Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages Pvt. Ltd, Ultratech Cement, Jindal Steel & Power, Varuna, Essel Mining (Aditya Birla Group), Flipkart, HDFC Ergo, Jindal Saw, JSW Steel Ltd, Lupin, Reliance Industries Ltd., Philip India, Vadilal Industries Ltd & more.
Based on the theme, Logistic 4.0: Preparing for the New Industrial Revolution, the conference debated and discussed how emerging technologies like mobile, cloud computing, Big Data and IoT are transforming logistics and supply chain services worldwide. Industry veterans discussed why a strong logistics sector is a pre-requisite for the success of the Indian Government’s Make-in-India initiative and technology adoption in the sector is at the core for bringing transformation in logistics.
Novire Technologies, a company of Indian origin started by NRIs had initiated the Make-in-India vision in the year 2007 and was rejuvenated & exited with the PM Modi’s vision of ‘Make in India’ initiative. It has adopted the vision as an integral part of its policies and is all set to give a boost to the logistic sector in India, with its intelligent end-to-end solutions. The company has embarked upon the journey and is catering to 200+ customers, which are accruing significant benefits like reduction in cost by 5~10%, increase in on-time deliveries by 20%, increase in asset utilization, improvement in customer satisfaction level by deploying smart IT solutions in the logistic sector.
Shedding light on the central theme Logistics 4.0, Hiten Varia, Chairman, Novire Technologies said
Manufacturing companies are moving into ‘Smart factory’ models [industry 4.0], which leads to manufacturing and warehouse units that rely more and more on the work done by machines. These machines plug into IoT networks to communicate with each other, and in the process allow us to access all aspects of the manufacturing/logistics chains.
Logistics 4.0 is the new paradigm of human-machine interaction in logistics that is being implemented by manufacturers to support their industry 4.0 trends. Logistics services will need to be able to communicate with the increasing number of automated processes at factories and warehouses to provide an ever increasing seamlessness in the transition of the product/service from the manufactures silos to the customers’ doorstep.
Due to the increasing use of cyber physical systems and IoT networks, big data analysis for human-machine interactions has never been this important. The current scenario of a segmented approach to logistics is ineffective and needs to be realigned with the trends that are currently being followed.
Technology fuelling business innovation
The conference further witnessed customers sharing their best practices and how they are driving innovation in supply chain with the use of technology. Arun Attri, CIO, Wonder Cement shared how his company achieved in-plant automation and is accruing significant benefits from it.
On similar lines Abhishek Singh, Akzo Nobel elaborated how the company has eliminated bottlenecks and optimized processes by implementing mobile technology in supply chain.
With our earlier manual process, improving on-time delivery, which is a key component of dealer satisfaction, was a challenge. We implemented mobile GPS device across all our warehouses to address the business issue. This has enabled web-based order and vehicle tracking for both sales and logistics teams. Post implementation, email and SMS alerts are sent to dealers regarding material dispatch, which has led to significant rise in dealer satisfaction. Further, vehicle utilization, detention and delivery delays have been substantially minimized.
Some of the early adopters of Logistics 4.0, have re-looked at their end to end processes and also adopted Novire-Auto plant’s end to end to plug the gaps in logistics and supply chain. V.V. Benugopal, CEO Panther Transfreight Limited and Ittaya Sirivasukarn, CEO OF INSEE Digital Company Ltd had partnered with Novire-Autoplant to implement their E2E Solution.
Swapnil Bagul, CTO of Writer Safeguard Pvt Ltd shared his company’s achievement by implementing IoT solution for their cash vans & ATMs. Additionally, Shidan Murphy, Angoss and Mrugank Parikh, Byte Prophecy discussed how Big Data can be leveraged to enhance business efficiencies and also presented real life use cases illustrating the use of Big data.
About Novire Technologies Pvt Ltd
Novire Technologies Pvt Ltd, founded in year 2004 by Hiten Varia and Suresh Sachdev, is in the business of developing and providing business solutions that are basically confluence of four major business trends-Mobile Technologies, Cloud Computing, Big Data and IOT. The company has a nationwide presence and has also recently forayed into international market with its first operations in Thailand. For further information, please visit Novire Technologies Pvt Ltd
DigitalOcean, a cloud platform focused on simplifying the complexities of infrastructure for software developers and businesses and Hasura, a technology platform that helps developers build apps faster are collaborating with IIT Madras to bring the second edition of IMAD [Introduction to Modern Application Development].
IMAD is a free online course designed by Hasura & IIT Madras which aims to combine theory and practice and encourages students to build applications on the cloud. After the astounding success of the previous offering of IMAD, DigitalOcean and Hasura have partnered again for the second edition of IMAD to encourage students to build solutions to local problems or launch their own business ventures.
The first edition saw participation from a wide gamut – from college students to faculty, from working professionals to retired professionals to stay at home parents. They cut across geographic barriers [participants came from 21 countries], age [7% of the participants were over 40] and gender [30% of the participants were women].
Speaking about the program, Prabhakar Jayakumar, Country Manager, DigitalOcean said
We partnered with IIT Madras and Hasura on the first edition of IMAD, which turned out to be the largest ever MOOC in India with more than 57,000 registrations. We are happy to continue our association with the launch of the second edition of IMAD and we look forward to equipping our next generation of developers with the knowledge and tools required to build their applications on the cloud.
Beginning from January 23rd, the 8-week hands-on course has been divided into five modules, and will go over the basics of the Internet, browsers, databases and web and mobile application development.
The key benefit for students from this course will be to help broaden their technical skills, which is a pertinent need amongst graduates today. The participants who take an exam at the end of the course will be eligible for a certificate from IIT Madras and course toppers will be provided with internship opportunities in premier tech companies.
Registrations for the course are open until January 23rd, for more details please visit here
About DigitalOcean
Founded in 2011, DigitalOcean is a cloud platform that is simplifying the complexities of infrastructure for software developers. DigitalOcean has become the second largest and fastest growing cloud computing platform in the total number of public facing apps and websites, according to Netcraft.com. The company has raised $123 million in funding from Andreessen Horowitz, Access Industries, IA Ventures, CrunchFund, and Techstars. The company is headquartered in New York City with data center regions throughout the world, including one in Bangalore (India). For more information, please visit Digital Ocean
About Hasura
Hasura.io is a technology company that builds tools for developers to build apps fast. For example: a working backend of an app like BookMyShow can be built in under a day. Apps built on Hasura are built on some of the most cutting edge technologies today adopted by companies like Pokemon-Go, Netflix, SoundCloud & Flipkart. Hasura abstracts away these tools to help developers set up a sophisticated architecture in a few clicks. Building on Hasura is the fastest way for a developer to go from an idea to a live application that is inherently production grade and cloud native! For more information, please visit Harusa
Expanding its leadership in helping customers thrive in a changing technology landscape, NetApp announced the opening of its Bengaluru, India, Global Center of Excellence to further innovation in data management for the hybrid cloud era.
The new engineering facility, located in the technology hub of Whitefield, is home to one of the company’s largest R&D teams. It also houses the company’s first startup accelerator program, called Escape Velocity, that will help nurture technology startups. As one of the first all-steel buildings in India, the facility and its surrounding campus are a model for sustainable design.
Mr. Siddaramaiah, Chief Minister-Government of Karnataka on this occasion said
Bengaluru is the technology, science, and knowledge capital of India and this is a matter of great pride for all of Karnataka. The State Government offers its complete support to technology companies in establishing their centers here. I am very happy that NetApp has invested in a great future with their new campus.
He inaugurated the center in a ceremony attended by government and civic officials, NetApp employees and senior company leaders from around the globe.
George Kurian, NetApp CEO said
The innovations that come from our Bengaluru Global Center of Excellence will help customers around the world get ahead of the competition by enabling their data-powered digital transformation strategies. Our continued investment in India, with its highly skilled talent, collaborative government and global business partners, strengthens our ability to succeed in the new era of hybrid cloud.
Talented team helps customers maximize value of data
NetApp has been in India for 15 years, fueling advancements in the company’s portfolio of flash, cloud, and next-generation data center solutions that help manage and protect the world’s data. The Bengaluru team’s mission includes expanding NetApp’s line-up of Data Fabric solutions and services that maximize control and improve the secure movement of data across the hybrid cloud. The diverse skills of employees and partners available at the new center will further innovations in these areas. NetApp India has been ranked as one of the top 50 best places to work since 2009, and the new campus provides an inspiring, collaborative and state-of-the-art environment for its engineers to develop new offerings even faster.
Startup Accelerator Program expands Data Fabric ecosystem
The new NetApp startup accelerator program, Escape Velocity, will house and help nurture technology startups.
Deepak Visweswaraiah, Managing Director of NetApp India & head of NetApp’s worldwide Data Fabric & Manageability Group said
The digital revolution is creating a need for partnerships to fully support customer needs. As we evolve our Data Fabric approach, the Escape Velocity program will help to share our technology expertise and business acumen with innovative startups who will add to the robust cloud data management ecosystem our customers need. With our support, these startups will be on a path to win in a dynamic global IT environment.
New facility designed for collaboration and sustainability
The Global Center of Excellence is uniquely designed to create a collaborative environment that inspires employees to be their best. With a 12,000-square-foot data center and engineering laboratory, employees can access the latest and most sophisticated technologies across the world. The 15-acre campus incorporates a million square feet of workspace that supports multiple collaborative options with hi-tech conferencing capabilities, a 1,000-seater auditorium, and informal meeting areas to foster teamwork.
The center is also one of the first all-steel buildings in India. It was built with 7,000 metric tons of nearly 100% recyclable steel, which reduced water waste during construction. Sustainable features are built into every design feature to optimize energy usage creating carbon savings of over 12000 tons per year, which is same as planting as many trees a year. In addition, the construction processes applied resulted in a saving about 1500 tons of CO2. With over 70% of land area free for open, green spaces, and all possible water recycled through an ‘eco-pond’, the campus is a benchmark for green buildings.
Beyond its work amenities, the campus supports multiple recreational and convenience options to support employees’ active lifestyles. Sports offerings include football and tennis, and for personal fitness, a gymnasium and yoga program. A ‘mall street’ allows employees to buy daily conveniences, pay bills, book tickets and visit doctors at work.
E-commerce has been a huge game changer as now electronics, furniture, books, grocery, professional home services, etc. are all available on the push of a button. Apart from the entire digital experience, what makes it more unique is the speed with which the parcel is delivered to the customer! In today’s hyper-competitive environment, logistics definitely plays a very crucial role since a few days of delay [in delivering the shipment to the customer] can result in a bad customer experience.
The Trust Factor comes into picture when you are sending important documents to some or planning to shift to a new house. Though the Indian logistics market is expected to touch USD 307 billion by 2020 [Source], it is still disorganized and none of the existing logistics companies have multi-modal logistics options i.e. shipping via road, rail, air, ocean, etc.
This is where Jyotheesh Kumar & Dr Sharad Nair saw an opportunity and started ValueShipr, that offers customers (B2C) and Businesses (B2B) various shipment options namely Surface, Ocean, Rail, and Air. Their platform leverages IOT and Big Data for efficient tracking & shipment of consignments. In simple words, ValueShipr is a Logistics Platform ecosystem connecting SHIPPERS with Loads to TRANSPORTERS.
Today we have a chat with Jyotheesh, Co-founder & CEO of ValueShipr about his journey, learnings while building ValueShipr, funding, scaling up, etc.
So, let’s get started with the Q&A….
How and when did you come up with the idea of ValueShipr ?
In 2014, I was out to transfer goods for a personal matter as well as for office related requirements, wherein at the end of both the tasks, I was left with a deep irritation due to the experience. That’s when I realized how disorganised, unprofessional and customer unfriendly the whole logistics framework in the country was. Coincidentally Dr. Sharad Nair [the co-founder of ValueShipr] who is a director of another logistics company happened to meet me on a chance meeting and we just kind of exchanged notes and our frustration. One thing led to the other and our frequencies matched. We drew a rough blueprint on the problems, the solution and the opportunity this presented. By end of 2015, we had a framework of business model and the number churning was done and ready. The official curtain on this project was raised in April 2016.
Can you give a small background about you, your start-up and its founders ?
Mr. Jyotheesh Kumar
ValueShipr is heralding in an innovative logistics platform ecosystem on On Demand Logistics marketplace by aggregating, organizing and bringing Transporter Partners and Clients-Shippers to harmoniously conduct business. The company is founded by Jyotheesh Kumar who brings in close to 20 years of experience in diverse and varied business roles. The company has received seed funding in 2016. The platform focuses on Multi Modal Logistics Solutions [Surface, Ocean, Rail, and Air] for cargo movement and brings together consignors, consignees, fleet owners, transport companies, warehouse owners as well as agencies on one common platform and enable them to transact and manage their business. Leveraging technology and diverse experience, ValueShipr focuses on delivering quality service by facilitating goods, cargo and parcel movement for every load capacity, at competitive price, flanking every shipment or freight with latest technology and outstanding customer service.
ValueShipr was conceptualized by Dr. Sharad Nair and myself. Dr. Nair and I have known since we were in school. Thus this venture brings us together after a gap of 20 years. At ValueShipr, I am the Chief Executive Officer of ValueShipr, I am responsible for the day to day functioning of the company and ensuring that the company is successfully able to meet the requirements of the industry by providing seamless and easy to deploy solutions while also meeting the business objectives. Leading and mentoring a team [currently over 25] I oversee products, technology, businesses, marketing & PR, digital channel & marketing, distribution channels, project management & technology, CRM and business development owing to the proficiencies established due to my vast and diverse experience, I always look towards empowering vertical owners across multiple functional areas to take responsibility and keep raising the bar.
Dr. Sharad Nair the co-founder of ValueShipr has over 19+ years of work experience in private banking and wealth management. Dr. Nair is an active investor who has successfully help ed several start-ups bloom their venture into well-established organisations. At ValueShipr, Dr. Nair brings in his rich work experience and is the sounding board for all key decisions made at ValueShipr.
Does ValueShipr own the vehicles or it operates in a marketplace kind of a model ?
ValueShipr is an innovative logistics platform, aggregating, organizing and bringing ‘Transporter Partners’ and ‘Clients-Shippers’ to harmoniously conduct business on ‘On Demand Logistics’.
The platform would be focusing on Multi Modal Logistics Solutions [surface, ocean, rail, and air] for cargo movement. The stakeholders of logistics industry like consignors, consignees, fleet owners, transport companies, warehouse owners and agencies look to us to provide a common platform and facilitate them to transact and manage their business.
The focus is on aligning and blending technologies to systematise and organize with-Digital Sourcing, Internet of Things [IOT], cloud, CRM, document automation, GPS tracking, analytics, Artificial Intelligence [AI] and other value added service systems inherently as features of the platform
Interchangeability, Omni-channel access to platforms 24*7, CRM, Safety and reliability would further augment the user experience manifold for users of ValueShipr
ValueShipr caters to first-mile or last-mile delivery or both ?
ValueShipr is agnostic to the modes and being a technology led transportation platform can conform to both the requirements of transportation in the supply chain throughput.
What are some of the business verticals i.e. cargo, warehouse, inter-city logistics, etc. that ValueShipr caters to ?
These are facilitators in the value chain that are essential to complete the transportation of goods. We offer value added services viz; warehouse, packaging, loading, Insurance, intra city logistics to complement our services.
From customer’s perspective, tracking a parcel becomes very important. What are some of the technologies that ValueShipr uses in order to ensure safe & timely delivery ?
At ValueShipr, one of our core USPs is that we are involved through out of cargo movement, so we have built technology [IOT based GPS system] alerts, notifications right after the trip is confirmed until the delivery to the consignee is made. Besides this, we have a call center which is monitoring any aberrations/deviations during the trip on our dashboard and intervening with the driver/pilot to make sure that there is nothing amiss and the consignment is safely delivered.
ValueShipr has multi-modal logistics solutions (Surface, Ocean, Rail, and Air), how & when as per the experience at ValueShipr, should a customer opt for these options ?
So these modes are requirement based-meaning the determinants are-type of goods, geography, time, warehousing, packaging, price etc. are considered whilst taking a decision on which mode to opt for. Needless to say they have their own format that needs to be considered while adopting the right fit for transportation.
Can you please take us through the steps on how a transport company can partner with ValueShipr ?
Registering with ValueShipr is very simple. Transport business owners could just visit ValueShipr or download the ValueShipr mobile app from the Android store or else call 8655012255 to register. Post this stage, transport owners will need to share a few documents, which they could upload, scan or ever send us whatsapp images to fulfill the requirements. After verification and confirmation we schedule a boarding call led process on familiarization to help the person/transporter completely acclimatize with the process.
Most of the startups [tech & logistics] are focused on solving the last-mile problem, how much according to your experience is it critical to focus on first-mile as well ?
There are problems and challenges in all strata of society and this presents an opportunity to solve the problem. We know necessity is the mother of all inventions and ideas. Having said this, when you look at the challenges that surmounts any activity, one realizes the loss of efficiency and productivity in the entire throughput.
Both First Mile and Last Mile activities are vital cogs in the Supply Chain and cannot be wished one over the other.
Talking about logistics, there are companies like Delhivery, E-kart services, DHL [the traditional couriers], Post, etc. what according to you are the USP’s that customer can get if they ship via ValueShipr [either in terms of value/efficiency, etc.] ?
All the names mentioned above are respected companies in the logistics arena and are fairly entrenched in the 17% organized marketplace. ValueShipr firstly focuses on cargo goods>30 kgs and above and is a technology led platform focusing on enabling and empowering the 83% unorganized logistics players to efficiently undertake business and enhance their business.
Customers using ValueShipr gets-validated transporters, transparent transaction system, shipment tracking, proper documentation, payment options and access to call centre’s in a complete package
Can you please share details on the funding of ValueShipr ?
The company has received seed funding in 2016.
Does ValueShipr also cater to reverse-logistics [especially for big ticket items items like furniture] shipped by e-commerce partners using your services ?
We have factored this as a part of the plan and will be launching it suitably in 2017.
At the moment, ValueShipr caters to how many cities in India ?
Currently ValueShipr services are available across 18 cities in India, by March 2017, we will be adding another 10 more locations.
As ValueShipr operates in marketplace kind of model, how do you ensure that your driver partners deliver the best experience [in terms of on-time delivery,etc.] to your customers [considering that all the truck drivers are un-educated and their style might not go well with customers] ?
Firstly at the time of transport partner enrollment, we look to ensure the transport owner provides us with their best drivers. Also at ValueShipr we also focus on getting transport owners who are involved or is a driver himself. Secondly we have a process of continual engagement with the driver during the transactions from our control centre to ensure compliance’s. Shortly in 2017, we plan to kick of the hygiene training program for drivers of our partners at select centres whereby they would be sensitized on the operational effectiveness and conduct for good services.
Currently ValueShipr [partner & customer app] is present only on PlayStore, any plans of launching the iOS version of ValueShipr ?
Our Business plans have factored in the iOS application; however our surveys have shown a higher presence of Android phones amongst our user groups. We would like to understand the market feedback while we look to develop the app for the iOS platform.
Are there any existing competitors of ValueShipr, how has the response been so far from the users [both logistics partners and retail users] ?
As far as the intercity model is concerned, we understand that there are a few players both in the transaction and classified models. However we are committed to provide the most unique logistics in the current market place with a powerful transaction led technology backbone. The entire innovation, algorithm, machine learning, BI, IOT framework are all developed internally.
What are the initial challenges that you faced once you started working on the idea [or turned an entrepreneur] ?
Like in every entrepreneurial journey, idea validation, funding, product and work flow finalization, resources, identifying right scalable technology, go to market and distribution have all been challenging and continues to be so even to this day.
What are some of the growth hacking techniques that are being used for ValueShipr and some tips for our readers ?
Growth hacking is a coinage of the Digital Revolution. Every startup that posts its A/B testing phase will look at means of rapid scale up at the shortest possible time, all at the back of limited financial resources and distribution. The growth hacker or simply the marketer is that messiah whom the team looks up to, who is deft in using multiple channels, focused strategy and execution ability and create vitality, to carve out distribution scale for the company.
ValueShipr believes in adding value to all associated stakeholders in the ecosystem and therefore is fully focused on massive reach out using multiple channels viz; traditional methods, digital marketing, social media, micro market campaigns to create awareness, acclimatize prospective clients and create the experiential effect of the assets with the consumers. While there is a sense of urgency, however we are clearly customer oriented and want to repose their faith and trust in the product.
When according to you should an entrepreneur look out for external funding ?
My personal view is that after validation of the MVP and there is a steadfast traction established, should one look at funding for growth.
2016 has overall not been a good year for startups [falling valuations, shutdowns, demonetization impact, etc.], how do you see 2017 from start-up perspective and how should a start-up founder deal with such down-time ?
If solutions are built with a core focus of solving ‘identified problems’ and the concerned startup/entrepreneur has validated the proof of concept, it has nothing to be concerned about. Events, economic cycles of upward and downward trend would happen and that is the nature of the beast. However every start-up founder has to be resolute in his focus on their objectives and they could tide over any surprise challenges.
Some tips for aspiring entrepreneurs and something that keeps you motivated every day for your start-up ?
Every aspiring entrepreneur has to mentally be prepared for an action packed life. I would personally call every start-up CEO a ‘Chief Everything Officer’ so much so that the events on a daily basis hardly leave them with any time to spare.
He is a lonely ranger out there, possessed by his idea, convincing both internal and external customers to toe his belief & ideas and deliver. Due to the nature of complexity of challenges, there could be stress, anxiety and frustration at times. Keep doing the good work since it’s only through your belief that your team and customer will begin to believe in the enterprise. Hence every startup entrepreneur needs to have the ability of self-motivating themselves. I would recommend that entrepreneur try and lead a balanced and disciplined life to the best possible extent, give time to your physical well-being, inculcate reading habits, spend quality time with their family and also bake in sporadic travel plans.
Do give ValueShipr App a shot and share across your feedback/questions in the comments section. If you have any questions for Jyotheesh & his team about ValueShipr, entrepreneurship etc., email them to himanshu.sheth@gmail.com
MSD Telematics Private Limited, a Gurugram based telematics solutions firm, announced the acquisition of Heuristics Info Systems in an all cash deal. Sparrow Business Solutions LLP, a boutique corporate finance firm acted as the exclusive advisors to MSD and Heuristics on the transaction and TRA Law acted as the legal advisor on the deal.
This investment will fuel our ability to deliver greater value to customers by enabling us to offer complete bouquet of services. We are excited to have the Heuristics team join us in this exciting journey. Together we look forward to grow multi-fold in the next few years. Heuristics gives us the ability to now service international clientele with innovative and robust software solutions.
With the tremendous growth in Transport Tech and Logistics Tech space, telematics as an industry will see fabulous growth in the years to come.
Siddharth, investor at MSD Telematics said
It is time we function as business intelligence partners for the customers, helping them drive operational efficiency while reducing costs and risk. Telematics companies need to create unique positioning products that help customers grow their business. We need to educate customers about numerous applications of telematics and collaborate towards increasing penetration in the domain for a sustainable growth and benefit of all the stakeholders.
Heuristics, founded in 2008 by Amit Dubey and Pradeep Rai offers Vehicle Tracking System and Mobile Application software while providing unique cost effective quality solutions to various industry segments. Following the acquisition Amit Dubey, Founder Partner Heuristics Info Systems, would be joining MSD Telematics as a board advisor.
This is probably the start of consolidation in the industry. Few large players will emerge in the next few years to take leadership positions in the USD 120 Million telematics market in India.
About MSD Telematics
MSD was founded by two friends Ashmeet Singh and Siddharth in 2011. MSD focuses on telematics integration, GPS based tracking/remote asset management, mobility solution and all M2M solution based products. Company caters to various industrial verticals like logistics, transportation, schools, public distribution system etc. Telematics solution is offered under the brand name traQmatiX.
MSD serves corporate and government corporations by offering customized solutions on OPEX basis and on a turn-key basis. MSD counts HPCL, State Election Commissions, State Food Corporations and Excise Departments as some of its clients.
About Sparrow Business Solutions LLP
Gurugram, Delhi NCR, India based Sparrow Advisory was set up in late 2014. Sparrow Advisory serves clients in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Sri Lanka across sectors including Auto Components, Water Treatment, Renewables, Consumer Goods, Vacation Rentals, Fitness Industry and Data Analytics.
I personally expect the upcoming Union Budget to be very positive and favourable towards the poor, middle class and business community, particularly because these segments were most inconvenienced by Demonetization. In a bid to alleviate this pain, we can expect incentives on direct tax. This could mean lower personal income tax rates and lower corporate tax rates too. With Cashless economy taking center stage, the Government has already taken a number of steps to encourage electronic payments.
Today, Make In India, Digital India, Standup India and Startup India programs not only enrich entrepreneurial dreams but also provide financial aid for making it viable to create long term sustainable impact. We expect focus on these programs to be maintained in this Union Budget as well for positive investor sentiments and overall long term growth.
