In the virtual hub of technology, new trends and employment opportunities are developing every day. The old traditional methods of employment are being replaced by new modern methods. Virtual Assistant is the new form of job profile, which allows companies to hire a competent assistant in the virtual form. For some, it’s a new bizarre way and for some, it’s the new way of hiring. So now let’s find out the benefit of hiring a virtual assistantfor companies and what is the right criteria to appoint a VA or how to hire a virtual assistant.
Services That Virtual Assistant Provides to A Company
Virtual Assistants For Startups
A company can hire a virtual assistant to enhance its performance no matter with whatever size or location they are operating in. However, the problem lies here is the unawareness of the producibility and ability to work which can be performed by a virtual assistant. Although, due to this reason many of the enterprise owners don’t know how to utilize the skill set of a Virtual Assistant to the fullest. Moreover, if you are planning to hire a virtual assistant for your growing business needs, then you can demand the following services from them :
These are a few services that a virtual assistant can assist you with and there are various other services which can be utilized by business owners. Most of the tasks handled by a virtual assistant are admin-related, non-critical, and very often are not customer-facing. The company must be clear with their requirement and type of services they want from a virtual assistant before hiring for the job. The next step here comes is to find a virtual assistant with adequate qualities who can perform and finish the task within the stipulated time. The rules and methods to hire a virtual assistant online are very different from appointing the person to an office. So if you’re planning to hire a virtual assistant, then keep the following points in mind:
Use Online Agencies to Hire A Virtual Assistant
To hire a competent person with requisite skill a company should register with the professional websites that provide online services to appoint an assistant. They save your time and money from the hassle of dealing with incompetent employees and only provides you with efficient employees, who know their job well.
Advertise Online
If you want to hire fresher and innovative employees, then you can use the online medium to advertise a job and where you can interview numerous candidates to select the perfect person. The sites such as Truelancer, Upwork, PeoplePerHour provide the services to advertise online.
These were a few easy methods to hire a virtual assistant. However, an enterprise has numerous benefits from hiring a virtual assistant and especially the new startups utilize the benefit of hiring virtual assistant rather than appointing full-time employees.
Buffer, Meet Edgar, DrumUp, Post Planner, Content Studio
Faxing
HelloFax
Work Monitoring
TimeProof, Screenshot Monitor
Screenshots
MonoSnap, Gyazo
Graphic Designing
Canva
Screen Recording
Loom, Kap
Task Organisation
Trello, Asana
Collaborative Documents
Google Drive
Shared Folders
Dropbox, Google Apps, Huddle, pCloud, 15Five
Team Inbox
Front, Loop
Social Scheduling
Buffer, Doodle, Float
Calls
Skype
Meetings
Calendly, Join.me, UberConference, Brosix
Signing Documents
HelloSig
Benefits of A Virtual Assistant
The biggest benefit of hiring a person outside the company is to create secrecy. There are few secrets of large companies which they want to hide from their employees and in such situation, it is very good to hire a virtual assistant to handle a task.
Furthermore, a company can get diversification in the task and they can utilize the services of remote employees. Every person has a different approach to handle the same situation and this will provides them to gain different aspects of the same situation.
As we all know that startups have a limited budget and it’s very difficult for them to hire full-time office employees, so hiring a virtual assistant is a great idea to save cost and increase the return on investment. This is a win-win model for both the sides, as a virtual assistant get exposure to working with new startups.
Moreover, it helps an enterprise to stay ahead of their competitors, as your competitors will never know the source of your employees and it will make you better than the competitors.
The Virtual Assistant is new terminology and yet numerous facts are not clear about it. The benefits of hiring a virtual assistant are developing every day and the future is even bright and has lots of opportunities. Although, the Indian companies need to explore more of this system, as many western companies got success from it. Go ahead and hire a virtual assistant to get the best return on investment for your business.
A virtual assistant is a self-employed worker who specializes in offering administrative services to clients from a remote location, usually a home office. Typical tasks a virtual assistant might perform include scheduling appointments, making phone calls, making travel arrangements, and managing email accounts.
What Skills do you need to become a virtual assistant?
Virtual Assistant skills: Word Processing skills, Oral Communication and Writing skills, Computer skills, Self Motivation and Discipline, etc.
How virtual assistant works or What does a virtual assistant do?
virtual assistants provide support to their employer or clients in the form of answering emails, transcribing documents, preparing statements and letters, organizing files, coordinating schedules and calendars, making travel arrangements, etc.
For any company to survive in this ecosystem of severe competition, they must have a very strong business model backing their idea or innovation. A business model is often termed as a plan according to which a company operates, it includes target consumers, target areas, price, offers and future scaling. According to a management guru, “a business model is supposed to answer who your customer is, what value you can create/add for the customer and how you can do that at reasonable costs.”.
It also addresses competition in the market, how to gain the trust of customers, how to broaden their market reach and other various factors affecting the business. However, one cannot depend on a single business model to keep his company secure. Therefore, this article will provide you with insights into different types of business models which can be fruitful for an entrepreneur.
A business model is a framework that defines how you generate long-term value in terms of revenue by providing value (products/services) to your customers. It is a company’s core strategy for profitably doing business. Models generally include information like products or services the business plans to sell, target markets, and any anticipated expenses. The two levers of a business model are pricing and costs.
TYPES OF BUSINESS MODELS IN INDIA
DIRECT MODEL
Direct Model | Business Model in India
This type of business model includes, a seller directly selling to the consumer through different online portals or through dealers or middlemen. These middlemen are connected directly to the seller company and these dealers represent the company to the customers. For eg: the car dealers, each and every car company have a dealer and the customer buys a car and its accessories from that dealer if a customer encounters any problem he directly contacts the dealer and the dealer passes on the information to the company.
Another example is of selling smartphones through the online portal, where an interested customer can directly buy or pre-book the device. E-commerce giants are becoming exclusive dealers for various electronic & fashion commodities and a major chunk of their revenue is generated from this. The dealer settles for the commission on sales and the rest of the revenue goes to the supplier. The biggest impact this type of business model creates is, it leads people into entrepreneurship and results in increasing employment.
When a successful business forays into different parts of the world, it franchises itself i.e. a person buys the organisational business strategy of that company. By doing this the franchisor (a company providing its franchise) is able to expand itself into new geographical locations with ease without worrying about the capital. In return, the franchise (a person who takes up the franchise) is able to replicate all its prevalent strategies, business model, commodities, and brand.
The franchisee pays a royalty and licensing fee to the parent company and keeps the rest of the revenue for itself. This helps to attract the public in different areas. Sometimes the items being provided might change depending on the franchises geographical locations. The biggest advantage is that it helps in maintaining uniformity and leads to evolving the brand’s name.
The most suitable example from the business world is of Mcdonalds which has been able to scale itself and maintain its brand name through various franchises in various parts of the world. The menu might change from place to place but the hygiene, service, employee behaviour is consistent. However, this type of business model is a win-win model for both the end.
This is one of the newest and popular successful business models in India of recent times. Many successful unicorns are based on this business model. This model connects users with providers through a platform, using technology and analytics. It basically brings uniformity in payments, service, front-end technology and back-end technology.
A user can book the service through an app or website and the fulfiller (one who provides and fulfills your demand of service) accepts his request, fulfills his demand and accepts payment through listed portals. Ola and Oyo are the best examples of such type of model. The reason behind the success is uniformity of service, safety, good customer care and simultaneously boosting up micro-entrepreneurship.
These different type of business model is visible in OTT (Over the top) providers, where a customer can watch a few entertainment programs for free and have to pay for some exclusive programs. Freemium is derived from the word Free+Premium i.e. some services are for free whereas some are not. This type of business model is helpful in attracting customers to one platform to make them habituated to its environment.
The revenue model mostly consists of advertisements. Hotstar and Byju’s are one of the best examples, Hotstar provides few shows, channels and sports for free but to unlock other shows and movies which are exclusive they have to upgrade to their premium program. Same is the case with Byju’s learning app, where students can avail a few tests and video lectures for free but have to upgrade their membership in order to access other study materials.
This model is a superset of another business model which is subscription-based. Subscription-based mainly involves individuals paying up for entire service without any selected free shows. These type of services lure customers by providing a free fifteen or thirty day trial period. The revenue stream is the amount customers have paid to avail that service and the subscription fee varies depending on the duration. Amazon prime video and Netflix suite best into this business model. These sites keep on upgrading themselves by providing fresh content from different vernacular and international languages.
This business model is one of the best business models in India consists of one company itself setting up different branches. This includes huge investments in real estate and products being sold through it. The advantage being, the company if successful is able to keep all the profits and revenue to itself. Also, it will be able to try a new service or product with ease along within preventing the dilution of the brand’s image and name. At the same time disadvantage being, initially, it will be tough to earn profits as most of the money has been utilized in the capital for setting up a new store. D-mart held by Avenue supermarts is a successful example for such type of business models.
Finally, various business model types or types of business models for startups are implemented by startups and companies, they differ in different regions. Talking about India, each and every company invests and builds its Indian business model with a sole aim of earning huge profits in long term. A business model if successful for one company in a specific domain does not guarantee the same success ratio for another player of that domain. So, keep in mind your vision, money, competition along with employee benefits while making a business model.
A business model should answer important questions about your business and set out a strong vision for the business. The key components of a business model should include relating to your target customers, the market, organisation strengths and challenges, essential elements of the product, and how it will be sold.
What is a business model strategy?
A business model is a system that consists of cycles of activity which fulfil the mission and goals of the company. It is the expression of a high-level strategy. It can be expressed very simply by a term such as.
A Virtual Assistant provides support services from a remote location. This means you will offer clients services on a day to day basis, as a contractor or as a self-employed. The job scope of a virtual assistant varies from one business to another. Small business owners, solopreneurs, busy professionals, and bloggers all use virtual assistants. A virtual assistant is anyone who offers services to other business owners in exchange for upon fee. After become a virtual assistant you have a happy life, a business that gives you money but also… time for yourself to do what you want.
Some traits that a virtual assistant must include:
Patience
Honesty
Discretion
Personable
Professional
Organized
Virtual Assistant
Virtual assistants consist of individuals as well as companies who work remotely as an independent professional, providing a wide range of products and services both to businesses as well as customers. Clients pay for 100% productive work and can work with virtual assistants.
Services provided by a Virtual Assistant:
Customer support
Community management and moderation
Project management
Processing online orders and refunds
Website design
WordPress maintenance
Graphic design and layout
Calendar management and travel arrangements
Social media management
Editing videos
Lead generation
Content creation for blogs and ghostwriting
Editing proofreading
Transcription
Content research
Keyword research
Performing outreach
Managing product launches
Creating sales pages
Data entry
Email management
Bookkeeping
Steps to Become a Virtual Assistant
Choose Your Business Structure
According to Small Business Law, there are different ways of starting a business. Which one of the small business structures are right for your Virtual Assistant business is an important part. You will consider the following points before starting a business:
Your physical location of the business
The types of clients you will be working with
The type of Virtual Assistant work you will be doing
Your risk tolerance
The different business structures available in your area
After considering these points you must decide on one of the small business structures. The small business structures you choose will depend on the nature and size of your business and should suit your needs.
The types of small business structure are as follows:
Sole trader or sole proprietor – A sole trader or sole proprietorship means one person owns the business. A sole trader does not have to register the business.
Partnership – A partnership is a business that has between 2 and 20 partners. The partners own the business together. If two or more people want to start a partnership, they should sign a written agreement. The agreement will contain three things: (i) what happens to the assets of the business if the partnership ends,(ii) how the partners will share the profits, (iii) what happens if one of the partners wants to leave the partnership
Company – Companies have to obey all the rules of the Companies Act, which is a long and complicated law. A company has shareholders and directors. Shareholders can be people or other companies. Shareholders put the money into the business and are the owners of the business. Directors are the managers of the business.
You should consider those services where your skill and area of interest matches. Then you gather your knowledge and find those services on the web. After you become expertise in those services if possible try to learn your services. By doing this you will get more clients and become an expert. The more specialized your services and the more experience you have, the more you can charge.
Decide on Your Pricing Structure
After focus on services you will give attention to the pricing strategy of your services. Also keep in mind that from the point of view of business owners, there are perks to hiring a freelance virtual assistant instead of a part or full-time employee.
Types of pricing types:
Hourly rate pricing – Hourly rate pricing is where you set a particular hourly price for your services, keep track of your time, and bill your client after the work has been completed.
Project-based packages – A Project-Based Package can be used when a client has a one-time project to complete, and you will charge them a flat rate fee for the project.
Retainer packages – A retainer is a monthly package for those who need reoccurring help in their business.
Usable hours packages – With this type of pricing method, your client will pay for a certain amount of hours, to be used at their discretion.
Advertisement for Virtual Assistant Services
Business owners have realized that social media are a great way of starting advertisement. Virtual assisting and social media management are growing bigger every day as a legitimate way to make money online. To find clients, social media marketing alone is not enough. The first step is doing some keyword research. This helps you develop a list of the words, phrases, questions, and topics your clients are thinking and asking about so that you can use them in your marketing.
The various ways of advertisement:
Have a well-designed website
Offer educational media opportunities like YouTube videos, Google chats Facebook live sessions, live webinars, and podcasts.
Blog about online business and your own experiences as a business owner
Advertise — online and offline
Create your freelance service site
Make connections on LinkedIn
Let others know about your services on social media
Being a teenager in the Covid times is the most frustrating thing ever. We get it, all your plans of earning and being financially free were masked due to the pandemic. However, let’s get real, things have been going a bit easier than the beginning of the year and nows the time to get back on track.
If you’re a teenager or an adult looking for an internship or a job and are aiming to outdo your own expectations here’s a personalized list of work from home job search portals that helped us get satisfactory jobs.
Work from home job search portals are not as easy as they sound. Currently, Millions of people are applying on all of the job search portals available on the internet no matter which language, crowd, or country they cater and for you to stand apart it’s extremely important for you to have a well-drafted resume. You can use several tools to draft a classy resume that makes your recruiter call you. Use tools like Canva or Google docs’s simple templates.
If you’re looking for getting experience and an internship for your side expenses, Internshala is perfect for you. Its recommended for teenagers who are stepping into the real world. Internshala also helps you draft a resume and uses that resume to suggest recruiters.
You can personally choose your preferences and chat with recruiters. Having a good fresher resume will eventually get you amazing opportunities to start out. Internshala is an amazing place for you to start your journey and explore more things that might interest you. The website also offers paid courses in case you’re interested to expand your skillset.
Benefits Of Remote Working
Naukri.com
Draft resume, give your keyword preferences and that’s another quality work from home job search portal for you, only if you’re willing to work hard. Alright so, Naukri.com is also an amazing job portal for serious jobs. The website recommends you jobs according to the keyword that you set. Here though, you have to upload your own drafted resume and just fill in your personal details.
The job portal displays your search appearances and recruiter actions taken on your profile. The job portal allows you to save or star mark the jobs you like and apply to them at your own convenience. The work from home job search portal notifies you if a recruiter wishes to connect with you. You can also view his/her past referrals and you can connect with them.
Linkedin.
Facebook for Professionals. That’s Linkedin for you in a nutshell. Having a LinkedIn profile is quite necessary these days. It keeps a professional record of you and helps you grow each day. You can follow your friends, relatives, teachers and even your idols and be in touch with them professionally.
Pro-tip, if you’re a beginner optimize your Linkedin the best you can since most employers will definitely ask for your Linkedin profile link, and leaving the space empty is a straight no. You can save alerts for your favorite companies and preferred job options. Recruiters to connect with potential employees on Linkedin.
Glassdoor
Glassdoor is one such work from home job search portal that values transparency, quality employees appreciate when they’re looking for potential employers. Glassdoor helps you get satisfactory information about the company’s ratings, salaries.
Amazingly, the website also sheds light on a company’s hiring process. Sign up for Glassdoor’s emails to get daily updates about jobs that are suitable for you to get financially free.
FlexJobs is a popular work from home job portal. The website requires you to get a membership to keep your resume in the highlights. The membership can be easily purchased on a weekly, monthly, and yearly basis.
Flex jobs does flex the number of days since the posting of the job so that you can be well acquainted with your time of submission. Having one of the largest databases, Flex jobs cater to people searching for part-time and full-time jobs seeking audience. Unlimited access to the website costs $14.95 a month however, fresh members can get a discounted price.
Industries That Work From Home
Remote.co
Sara Sutton, the founder and CEO of Flex jobs also founded Remote. co. Remote. co focus its attention solely on work from home opportunities and doesn’t show much need for locations or telecommunication as the jobs simply work from home, jobs which have no need for your physical presence. Data entry, teaching, healthcare etc are some jobs that are made easy to find on remote. co. One can add personalized listings on the job search portal according to difficulty and pay levels.
We Work Remotely
With more than 2.5 million monthly visitors, We Work Remotely claims to be one of the largest job search portals in the world. Unlike some work from home job portals, We Work Remotely is referred by high-end companies such as Google, Amazon, and Basecamp.
This site doesn’t have a fancy interface and that makes searching convenient for remote jobs. The site also provides a number of work resources which include a list of companies and a job title of the top 100 remote companies which are currently hiring.
Elance and oDesk merged together to form the work from home job portal called Upwork. Both the parent websites were quite famous in the freelancing arena. Now, Upwork claims itself to be the world’s largest freelance talent marketplace. Freelancers looking for jobs at Upwork create profiles which highlight their skillset and experience along with their portfolios and job history.
Upwork connects clients and freelancers by allowing the clients to post job listings ie. the type of work they want to be done. They can view freelancer’s profiles and choose a freelancer that they think will get their work done. Freelancers here can work online and get paid once the commission is done without any offline communication.
Fiverr
If you’re a freelancer, this website should be your go-to. If you looking out to build your portfolio or starting out to gain some experience and earn while doing so Fiverr can be great for you! Most jobs or assignments on Fiverr cost around 5$ or in increments of 5$.
Fiverr is an absolute banger work from home job portal as it helps you meet potential clients from literally all fields. Here, the potential clients might post several jobs with the title “Edit my food advertisement” if you’re an editor looking for editing gigs your freelancer version would say “Will edit a food advertisement”. This work from home job portal focuses more on gigs and freelancing.
Ever fantasize about having a swiss army knife that will do the task for content creation, research, SEOs, and promotion. It is one of the jobs that seem to be time-consuming, but when you have someone in your assistance, then it feels more flexible. It brings me to the thought of centralizing your attention to this tool named as FRASE.
Frase will always be there on your account to keep the audience involved visiting on your webpage and answer the queries popped by the bizarre visitors.
Frase is an AI-based tool that supports you in optimizing your SEO, identifying all the questions raised by the visitors, and instantly create and boost up detailed content briefs for answers with the Google search console, and also an SEO-friendly content.
SEO, Content Strategists, Publishers, Marketing Agencies, Content Marketers, E-Commerce.
Frase will be your assistance not to disappoint your visitors and always get a satisfying answer for them. The cherry on the cake, there is Frase Appsumo lifetime Deal in which you only have to pay $69 and enjoy Frase for a lifetime.
Let’s have a brief look at what Frase is capable of doing things for you and your audience.
Frase Features
Located and Respond to the Queries Visitors always come with new queries and doubts while surfing on your webpage, when you’re not there. That time, Frase will recognize the problems underlined by the viewers and quickly generate and enhance content capable of answering those questions, and abruptly provide answers to puzzled site visitors.
Recognize Topics With Great Potential Frase will recognize the topics that will eventually bring you potential and curious visitors and also bunch up all the questions arisen into groups. When data is collected and arranged based on ranking, clicks, and impressions, then it becomes a more easy-going way for users to get assuring solutions.
Do Research Work On your Account Frase will do the research work on your behalf to collect and optimize answers to your audience seeks from popular websites like Google, Quora, Reddit, etc. That makes your job easy to keep the readers involve on your webpage.
12- Second Flip and Flop Stop wasting time on quarrying and collocating data from different sources, as Frase will do this errand in just 12-seconds and get you the brief of every content you asked.
AI-Centred Content Enhancement Frase will enhance your segment with the help of an AI-based system and take your viewer’s rate to the next stage.
Built-in Editor Frase has a built-in Editor that will quickly point out the errors in the content and also provide improvement opportunities to correct your mistakes with the help of detailed recommendations.
Boost Up your Chat Experience Frasequestions will give you an accurate intuition about people’s engagement in your business via chat with the help of AI. This thorough perception will make your analysis more intense and results in the generation of more relevant content and huge audiences on your webpage.
Frase Pros
Super easy to use.
Assists significantly on the research process.
Pocket friendly.
Amazing customer support.
Proprietary tools make work easy.
Clean, reliable, and robust for good content.
Helpful right from the start.
Create complete content briefs in just 12 seconds.
Perform AI-assisted content optimization that can bring you from the bottom results page to the first.
Frase Competitors
Basis of Comparison
Frase
SEMrush
Market Segment
Small-Business (68.8% of reviews)
Small-Business (63.0% of reviews)
Price
$39.99/month
$39.99/month
Meets requirements
4.6/5
4.5/5
Easy of Use
4.4/5
4.2/5
Ease of Setup
4.7/5
4.6/5
Customer Support
4.8/5
4.6/5
Frase Integrations
Frase can easily integrate with the below mentioned popular websites –
WordPress.
Google Search Console.
HubSpot COS.
Mailchimp.
Google Drive.
Frase Ratings
Below is the rating provided by the popular review site g2 and Capterra:
Overall Use 4.6/5 Ease of Use 4.4/5 Quality of Support 4.7/5 Ease of Setup 4.7/5
Frase Pricing
Normal Price
AppSumo Deal
$469 per year
$69 for lifetime
Frase Appsumo Deal
30 documents per month.
1 user.
All the premium features.
60-day money-back guarantee.
Frequently Asked Questions (F.A.Q)
What is Frase?
Frase meaning: Frase is a tool, powered by AI, uses for research user intent, generating content briefs, and boosting content for SEO.
Who are the potential users of Frase?
Frase’s customer base is split almost between: 1. marketing/content agencies who want content research. 2. In-house marketers who are looking to provide better content.
What is Frase Lifetime Deal?
In frase lifetime Deal, you just have to pay $69 once and enjoy Frase for a lifetime with the following benefits:
All premium features included.
30 Documents per month.
What is a ‘Document’ in Frase?
A document is an AI-powered content creation instrument in Frase that you can use to get content briefs and enhance existing content.
What integrations are available in Frase?
Following are the integrations available in Frase – 1. WordPress. 2. HubSpot COS. 3. Google Search Console. 4. Mailchimp. 5. Google Drive.
How to Optimize Content using Frase?
Create a new document.
Import content.
Render document and process the competitor’s content.
Freelancers need to adapt to a world that is constantly evolving. Nowadays, a lot of remote workers consistently try to find the very best of tools for quick completion of tasks. Ranging from security applications to encrypted instant messaging platforms, freelancers are always on the prowl to combine effective administration with the satisfaction of clients.
A mistake new remote employees make is thinking talent is the only thing that can propel them forward. The best remote workers have great mental health, optimize productivity by having an array of tools, constantly keep learning, and are great at managing finance and lessening expenses.
Best Freelancing Tools
1. Oak Meditation
Oak Meditation is an application used by some freelancers to effectively lessen stress. There are periods in a freelancer’s life when the workload becomes so much that sleeping hours get shortened. To get through these periods, you need to reduce pressure and anxiety. A relaxed mind, of course, produces much better results for clients.
Oak Meditation can aid a freelancer in enhancing his/her mental health. This way, you can be more focused and productive during the day (or night) by pausing all of your activities. The application even contains a breathing and exercise feature to diversify your activity during the day.
A Virtual Private Network is a security tool that encodes the online traffic flowing in and out of your device. Basically, the functions of VPNs include data encryption, which is effective in keeping your online traffic private and your information protected.
As a freelancer, you might feel the need to leave your home to work in public areas. However, public Wi-Fi networks are often unsecured, making it vulnerable to various attacks as hackers can easily spy on the network. A VPN protects you from this by ensuring that your information flows through a secure and private tunnel.
3. OpenOffice
As a freelancer, you might need to do a bit of writing. OpenOffice is a free tool that allows you to write and save documents on your PC or external hard drive. It also comes with an array of tools comparable to that of Microsoft Office.
OpenOffice contains a unique feature that can be beneficial to freelance writers. The feature eases the conversion of a file to PDF, making OpenOffice a great platform for eBook, pamphlet, and guide writers.
4. Dropbox
Dropbox is a tool that allows users to synchronize the entirety of their files on the cloud through drag-and-drop. Sometimes, when working as a freelancer, you might need to share files with your client. If the website usually has downtimes, this could ruin the perfect experience you strived to create for your client.
Dropbox puts an end to these worries with the consistent management of its service. You can place all of your work files on Dropbox to have them all in the cloud in case you lose your computer. What’s better, all of your files would be accessible from any device once you login to your account.
When you post content on Twitter, you might observe that at certain periods, you get more likes, mentions, and retweets. This shows that to effectively maximize reach to potential clients, you need to post engaging content at the very best of times during the day.
Tweriod is an analytics tool that shows you the periods your Twitter followers come online the most. If you can catch your followers at a great time, you can get them to retweet your post.
If you’re usually too busy and may forget to go online on Twitter during peak periods, the next tool on this list is for you.
6. BufferApp
BufferApp is a tool that allows you to schedule your tweets. This way, while you’re working jobs for clients, tweets can be automatically sent out during the periods of the day your followers are online the most, improving your engagement.
With the application, you can schedule a tweet from the start of your day and tailor the schedule to very specific times. You can also use BufferApp with your Facebook account to schedule posts.
7. Audible
Learning is one of the skills a freelancer needs to acquire. Evolution is a part of human nature and is very necessary, even for freelancers. Audible helps you learn by improving your interest in reading books.
The service allows you to listen to books through audio. With books, you can constantly improve yourself, ensuring you take advantage of the many opportunities around you.
If you’re not so keen on reading fine print but still feel like consuming books, you can use Audible.
Conclusion
A remote worker that is averse to the numerous changes in the freelance industry could find his/her job invitations dwindling over time. The major way freelancers remain productive while also handling several tasks from clients is through an arsenal of tools.
If you’re a freelancer, you can use tools like BufferApp, Oak Meditation, Dropbox, OpenOffice, and Audible to improve mental health, productivity, and knowledge.
The application of technology to food innovation forms the core of the foodtech vertical. Nicolas Appert’s improvement in 1810 of the canning procedure is an early example of foodtech innovation. The emphasis was on safeguarding sustenance. The procedure wasn’t called canning at that point, and Appert didn’t know the rule on which his procedure worked. Canning has majorly affected foodtech conservation strategies.
Louis Pasteur’s exploration of the deterioration of wine and his portrayal of how to keep away from decay in 1864 was another example of foodtech development or food based startups. Other than examining wine deterioration, Pasteur explored the creation of liquor, vinegar, wines and brew, and the souring of milk. He focused on warming milk and milk items to pulverize food deterioration. In his investigation into sustenance innovation, Pasteur turned into a pioneer of bacteriology and paved way for preventive measures.
Food sustenance using tech was dull before 2018; however, it has rebounded from the stagnation. From a daily request volume of 3.7 lakh in 2017, as mentioned by RedSeer Consulting, the number expanded to 15 lakh as of September 2018. Unmistakably, the hunger for Foodtech is developing among buyers and speculators. After a phase where footech ventures like Tiny Owl, Yumist, and Dazo shut operations, things are now looking positive.
“In the last six to eight months, numerous littler players have come in, while taxi aggregators have stretched out their administrations to the Foodtech accumulation space. With Ola gaining Foodpanda and Uber propelling Uber Eats, the challenge has increased in the market,” says Rohan Agarwal, a commitment administrator at RedSeer Consulting.
Swiggy is the market chief in the sustenance accumulation space, timing around six lakh everyday orders, while Zomato is at a close second with near 5.2 lakh orders daily. Uber Eats, given its extension binge, has figured out how to topple Ola’s Foodpanda with around three lakh orders, while the latter serves nearly 2.5 lakh orders every day through its mobile app and website.
In October, Foodpanda propelled its conveyance administration in 30 new urban areas, taking its aggregate to 50 urban areas crosswise over India. The target is to convey foodtech services in 100 urban areas. Foodpanda was acquired by SoftBank-supported Ola in December 2017. At the time, the taxi-hailing stage declared it would put $200 million in Foodpanda’s sustenance conglomeration business. Be that as it may, Ola’s rival has ended up being a considerable opponent in this space. Propelled in May 2017, Uber Eats put its focus on clients and baited them with heavy limits and first-request offers.
Food Tech Industry in India
At present, Uber Eats is accessible in 37 urban areas in India and Southeast Asia and plans to multiply rapidly. “At some random topography, buyers can browse more than 30 foods on a normal,” says a Uber Eats representative. The more settled players, Zomato and Swiggy, have been growing their impressions. Zomato is looking at the level II-III urban areas for development. “We have our services in 59 urban cities in India. Our transient objective is to twofold down on our development by growing to more level of II-III urban areas in India and building profundity in level I advertises,” says a Zomato representative. “We have extended to 37 such urban cities in the past four months, and the reaction has just surpassed our desires.”
Then, Swiggy conveys sustenance in 45 urban areas across India through its conveyance armada of more than one lakh riders. The aggregator claims to have a relationship with more than 45,000 cafés. Regardless of how reassuring the pattern, the reality remains that dedication sidesteps the Foodtech tech space. Purchasers rush to those offering the best arrangements or limits.
Foodtech aggregators get a lot of their income through the commission charged on requests. Contingent upon the request size and the city, aggregators charge 15-30% commission to the eatery setting up the foodtech. Recuperating the expense of activity stays a test. Aside from commissions, in-application publicizing and reliability projects are different wellsprings of income for the aggregators.
Some of them have begun facilitating cloud kitchen systems to get an advantage. Consider the Swiggy Access program, which permits its café accomplices to set up kitchen spaces in territories where they don’t have a nearness. Propelled in 2019, it appears to have worked for the organization. “We have Swiggy Access kitchens in different cities like Bengaluru, Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, and Hyderabad. Around 70% of our accomplice cafés are hoping to work with us in more than one Access,” says Vishal Bhatia, CEO of new supply, Swiggy. Over the long haul, Swiggy plans to convey as much as 20-25% of its requests from these conveyances from Access kitchens.
India is a leading opportunity for foodtech companies. That is why many foodtech companies In India have already started their journey. So, the list of food tech companies in India are:
Food Panda
Foodpanda | Foodtech Companies In India
The Big Daddy of em’ all! Foodpanda is India’s most popular foodtech startup. It has a solid national nearness by tying up with more than 2000 sustenance sellers, for example, Wendy’s, Burger King, Subway, Biryani Blues, and Southy. They have a broad scope of worldwide and national cooking styles in their menu. Foodpanda has an effective operational procedure and uses exclusive innovation to follow sustenance request conveyances until the client’s entryway.
Zomato
Zomato | Food Tech Industry in India
Zomato is one of the successfulfood startups in India which is driving sustenance tech organizations alongside Foodpanda and Swiggy. It has more than 42,000 cafés recorded several urban areas in India, and it additionally works in more than 23 nations. On the off chance that it lives up to its guarantee, Zomato will become the principal Indian food startups or organisation. Its technique is substance-driven with low client obtaining costs, and a greater part of its income originates from promotion and publicity.
Swiggy
Swiggy | Food Startups
Bangalore-based Swiggy was established by Sriharsha Majety, Nandan Reddy, and Rahul Jaimini in 2014. Swiggy has more than 9000 eateries under its umbrella. It is one of the biggest food tech startups in India. The client gets convenient conveyances and constant following of their requests using Swiggy’s application at no additional conveyance charge. Swiggy doesn’t have a base request approach for each eatery it is tied up with over its application.
Faasos
Established by INSEAD graduates Jaydeep Barman and Kallol Banerjee in 2011, Faasos food tech startup has its presence in more than 15 noteworthy urban communities over India. An ideal case of a disconnected chain that went on the web, Faasos has a kitchen with master culinary experts.
Established in 2014 by Rashmi Daga, who by chance happens to be a veggie-lover, FreshMenu works in Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, and Gurgaon. FreshMenu began with a modest one kitchen and has nearly 30 kitchens today serving universal food. It plans to expand to 80 kitchens in the coming years. It has a proficient group of 500 representatives in their kitchens who cook in-house, and have their very own conveyance group.
Box8
Established by two IIT graduates Amit Raj and Anshul Gupta, Box8 the Indian food startup serves credible Indian food much like how pizzas and burgers are conveyed to clients, for example, quick, simple and in a box Box8 has structured the ‘Across the board’ dinner box, a cutting edge, satisfying Indian feast which can be eaten anywhere at any time. Box8 has given an Indian curve to everything, from wraps and sandwiches to curries. The USP lies in item improvement.
Box8’s paranthas are produced using whole wheat and cooked in a negligible measure of oil. None of its dishes is broiled. It has a collection of frozen yoghurts, feast boxes, wraps, sandwiches, plates of mixed greens, and treats. 85% of the exchanges are from rehash clients, making Box8 a commendable contextual investigation for a long-haul supportable model.
HolaChef
HolaChef is the food startup in India which wasEstablished by IIT-Bombay graduates Saxena, Anil Gelra, and Ritu Rana, Mumbai based Hola Chef is sponsored by Mr Ratan Tata who has been placing his cash in a few advanced organisations recently. HolaChef conveys home-prepared food to its buyers while dealing with the total coordination of the sustenance, for example, bundling, stockpiling, and conveyance. It has developed from a humble 200 requests for every month in 2014 to more than 1 lakh orders each month in 2016. Almost 66% of its all-out requests are through the application available for Android and Apple phones.
Gurgaon-based Yumist was established by ex-Zomato CMO Alok Jain and Abhimanyu Maheshwari, a prepared F&B business person in 2014. At present, Yumist caters to the locales of Delhi, Noida, and Gurgaon. With an intense blend of foodtech, coordination, and innovation, Yumist possesses and controls the whole sustenance conveyance store network. Yumist considers the “dabbawala” and “corporate bottles” as its essential rivals and intends to reconsider the cost of its suppers to draw more clients and beat challenges. Yumist has shut down operations in Bangalore and plans to grow in Mumbai and Pune. It was in the news recently for raising Rs. 12 crores.
Cook Gourmet
This novel Gurgaon-based startup was launched by Sanny Chaudhary and Daman Singh Kohli. Cook Gourmet offers expert-curated plans comprising of different delicacies. These hand-picked plans are conveyed in an ice-pressed box, the cut vegetables and meat vacuum-fixed with the goal that they stay crisp until you cook them in the solaces of your home. They stay fresh up to 3 days when refrigerated. Indeed, even an amateur in cooking can expertly cook with the instructional exercises given in Cook Gourmet’s offerings.
At present, the Indian food services is a $50 billion industry when contrasted with the US Food Services Industry, which is worth almost around $600 billion. Large scale patterns like family units, more ladies joining the workforce, and higher expendable livelihoods are going to make the food tech industry in India develop at a high rate.
With Zomato and Swiggy getting to be unicorn triumphs and online Foodtech conveyance requests crossing 1 million in daily conveyances, it is unquestionable that the Indian sustenance tech and administrations industry is a hot topic currently.
Skip The Queue – Foodtech Industry
Moderateness And Openness
The normal individual expends three dinners every day and roughly 90 suppers per month. Out of this, in India, individuals eat out or get sustenance conveyance possibly 3-4 times each month. In nations like China or Singapore, this can be as high as 50 dinners a month ate out or conveyed, as there are more decisions, quick conveyance, and reasonableness from sustenance organizations.
A normal individual in India might want to spend between Rs 50-200 for their normal supper, and Foodtech conveyance organizations are attempting to hit the sweet spot of this range. Foodtech conveyance coordinations are showing signs of improvement and less expensive, with the growing number of orders and higher thickness of the populace in urban areas.
Expanding Number Of Homegrown Eat-in Chains
Dominos India with over 1,000 outlets, is doing Rs 3,000 crores yearly. Eatery networks like Barbeque Nation are accomplishing more than Rs 500 crores in business every year. There will be a lot more eat-in chains, with more than $1 billion yearly incomes, from India soon. Bunches of these eat-in chains like Farzi Cafe, Mamagato, Saravana Bhawan, and Yellow Chili have started extending outside India to scale quickly.
There are heaps of conveyance kitchens like Faasos, Box8, FreshMenu, and Biryani By Kilo which have more than 10-20 outlets each and is extending quickly. Given the high rental and CapEx required to eat in eateries, no one but kitchens can give better quality dinners at progressively moderate costs to clients, all in the comfort of clients’ homes and workplaces.
Biryani Is The Newest Pizza
Biryani is a conveyance class, specifically in India, will outperform pizza soon because of its taste, flavorful fragrances, and better life span.
Enormous Retailers And Taxi Companies Are Gathering
Premium friendliness brands around the world like Zuma Dine-in/Lounge and Nobu, with a couple of outlets each, do around $200 million in yearly deals or more. Huge organizations like McDonald’s and Starbucks accomplish more than $20 billion in deals. Overall foodtech conveyance organizations like Deliveroo, Delivery Hero, GrubHub, and Just Eat are huge unicorns today. Enormous retailers like Amazon and on-request taxi organizations like Uber and Ola need a bit of the sustenance conveyance for advertisements. Recurrence in foodtech utilization is a lot higher than most other web-based business classes, including taxi administrations.
According to RedSeer Consulting, the foodtech industry grew 150% from $120 million in 2015 to $300 million in gross product esteem in 2016. The business remained at a similar level in 2017 even as the foodtech vertical slithered again into a period of recovery from the unpleasant days. As per RedSeer,, the industry is on course to touch $2.5-3.5 billion by 2021.
The sustenance conveyance space saw 63 arrangements worth $274 million in 2015. The number of arrangements tumbled to 43 in 2016, adding up to $78 million. Although 2017 saw 20 subsidizing bargains, the combined estimation of those speculations was $124 million.
Fund Raised By Foodtech Companies in India
A commercial center totals and publicizes cafés other than maintaining a tech-driven coordinations foundation to convey sustenance. Then again, a cloud kitchen is a fairly intricate instrument where administrators endeavour to fabricate various parts of the foodtech business such as brand, tech foundation, etc.
Zomato, Swiggy, and Foodpanda are the prevailing commercial centres in India, while FreshMenu, Box8, Faasos, and HolaChef are unadulterated play cloud kitchens.
While Zomato and Swiggy keep on commanding the business, Ola’s pledge to infuse $200 million into Foodpanda India to grow its business is probably going to make it the third solid player in the game.
While Ola has the imperative capacities regarding coordinations, organize, and on-ground foundation, it is to be seen whether it can transform sustenance conveyance into a beneficial business. Ola had propelled two sustenance related activities in 2015 (Ola Cafe and Ola Store) and the shut the same in 2016 to concentrate on its central business.
Sustenance conveyance and other foodtech organizations in India commonly work on razor-slight edges. Foodpanda just as its fundamental adversaries, Zomato and Swiggy, are making misfortunes. Foodpanda, in any case, has lost less on each rupee in income than Zomato and Swiggy in 2017.
Bundl Technologies Pvt. Ltd, which runs Swiggy, timed income of Rs 133 crore in 2016-17, a six-crease increment from Rs 20 crore in the earlier year. Its misfortunes extended to Rs 205 crore in 2016-17 from Rs 137 crore the earlier year as costs increased dramatically. The three-year-old startup is one of the most encouraging sustenance conveyance players in the market right now.
As indicated by a few media reports in November, Japanese telecom and Internet aggregate SoftBank was in discourses to contribute around $200-250 million (Rs 1,288-1,610 crore) in the homegrown foodtech conveyance stage. Reports additionally demonstrated that Chinese e-rear Alibaba likewise was investigating a conceivable interest through Ant Financial, its money related administrations member.
Another media report in November recommended that Flipkart and Tencent were investigating alternatives to co-put $100 million into Swiggy. There were additional reports of a potential Swiggy-Zomato merger.
Swiggy has raised more than $155.5 million until this point. It raised $80 million in a Series E round driven by South African innovation aggregate Naspers. Swiggy is additionally supported by Accel India, SAIF Partners India, Bessemer Venture Partners, Harmony Partners, and Norwest Venture Partners.
Zomato posted an income of Rs 332.3 crore in 2016-17, up 81% from Rs 183.9 crore in 2015-16. It limited its misfortunes to Rs 389 crore from Rs 590.1 crore. Zomato, in any case, isn’t only a Foodtech conveyance organization yet additionally offers café postings, table reservations, and different administrations.
The year likewise observed cloud kitchen administrator FreshMenu break into the best-five club of online foodtech organizations, on account of a noteworthy increment in income for 2015-16. It got a fix on the cloud kitchen model much before other foodtech businesses and has adhered to it.
Future Of Foodtech Services In India
Development in the market is foreseen by expanding discretionary cashflow, developing normal family unit pay, and rising pattern of twofold salary no-kids idea. Supported by developing web entrance from 10% in 2011 to 27% by 2015, expanding cell phone clients from 123 million in 2014 to 167 million by 2015, combined with maturing internet business market and rising youthful working populace, the food tech advertise in India is foreseen to develop at a vigorous pace.
Journey And Future Of Foodtech Industry
Another point of interest for foodtech organizations in India is the developing youth populace, fundamentally in urban districts of the nation. The nation has a huge base of youthful buyers who work in offices and don’t have the time to cook.
In India, the idea of requesting foodtech online is gaining pace due to benefits like conveyance of sustenance at the doorstep of the client, choice of interchange instalment techniques, and consistent declaration of alluring cashback/limits offers.
Growth Of Foodtech Industry in India
Based on activity type, the India foodtech market has been sectioned into two classes: café-based and sustenance aggregators. In 2015, eatery-based (i.e., café-based) ruled the general market and is foreseen to keep up its strength throughout the following five years.
The foodtech aggregator section is relied upon to outpace café-based fragments sometime soon. Foodtech aggregators go about as a middle person between clients and eateries and give the alternative of browsing various cooking styles from different café and sustenance outlets enlisted with them.
“Yum Foods, Jubilant Foodworks, Zoamto, and McDonald’s are the main players in India food tech showcase. These players are foreseen to keep up their strength in the market through 2021, transcendently because of their future extension plans. With expanding private value and investment subsidizing, the food tech organizations are centring towards growing their business in Tier II and III urban communities crosswise over India.
With developing challenge, online sustenance requesting organizations are concentrating on giving quicker conveyance in significant metro urban communities to expand their client base.”, said Mr Karan Chechi, Research Director at TechSci Research, an examination-based worldwide administration counselling firm.
Food technology is a branch of food science that deals with the production, preservation, quality control and research and development of the food products.
What is the food tech business model?
the Indian food-tech industry has evolved immensely and engineered new ways to make profits. Prominent companies viz. Swiggy, Zomato, and Uber Eats have built up new business models, which enable them to serve better, besides merely focusing on the food delivery business.
How technology has affected the food industry?
By using tech to improve processing and packaging, it can improve the shelf life and safety of food. The use of machines in the food industry also ensures quality and affordability. By using machines, it drives down the costs of keeping the food fresh and increases productivity.
What are the food tech startup ideas or What are the tips to build food based startups in India?
Tips to build your food based startups in India or food tech startup ideas:
Focus on the product and keep it simple. Get busy in your kitchen to make small batches and go out to make people trying your product.
Start selling from day one & ask for feedback.
Be obsessed with gathering data.
Review feedback and be ready to go back to the drawing board.
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Icertis is a software company that provides contract management software to enterprise businesses. The company is headquartered in Bellevue, Washington with 12 offices globally, including an engineering office in Pune, India, new offices in Singapore and Sydney, and 3 support centres, with the most recent one opened in Sofia, Bulgaria.
With Icertis, companies can accelerate business by increasing contract velocity, protect against risk by ensuring regulatory and policy compliance, and optimize the commercial relationships by maximizing revenue and reducing costs.
Icertis is a provider of a contract management platform for enterprises. It covers the full lifecycle of contract management capabilities beginning with intelligent contract setup and then continuing with authoring, approvals, negotiations, and all other aspects of ongoing contract operations. With Icertis, companies can accelerate business by increasing contract velocity, protect against risk by ensuring regulatory and policy compliance, and optimize the commercial relationships by maximizing revenue and reducing costs.
“Contract management on the cloud reduces friction and increases the value of a contract by bringing all stakeholders on one seamless platform,” Samir Bodas(Co-Founder of Icertis) says.
The AI-infused Icertis Contract Management (ICM) platform is used by companies like 3M, Airbus, Cognizant, Daimler, Microsoft, and Roche to manage 5.7 million contracts in 40+ languages across 90+ countries. Icertis claims to provide intelligent contract authoring. In the future, they intend to use blockchain technologies to enable basic contract management functions through a shared ledger, which would offer universal performance tracking and ratings
Icertis – Logo and its Meaning
Icertis’ logo includes a cloud structure with “Applied Cloud” written in it that means Icertis provides AI-infused Icertis Contract Management.
Logo of Icertis
Samir Bodas and Monish Darda started off building multiple cloud-based applications but scaled up when they homed on a contract management solution that has them competing with biggies like SAP and Oracle.
Icertis – Founder and History
Icertis was founded in 2009 by Samir Bodas and Monish Darda.
Co-Founder of Icertis
The Icertis Contract Lifecycle Management (ICLM) product has been built on the Microsoft Azure cloud-computing platform and is aimed at improving contract management efficiency and compliance by providing access to contract lifecycle information across many device types including smartphones and tablets. According to Microsoft, which has deployed ICM globally, the system can assist in the management of “hundreds of thousands of contracts”.
Icertis claims to provide intelligent contract authoring. In the future, they intend to use blockchain technologies to enable basic contract management functions through a shared ledger, which would offer universal performance tracking and ratings.
In March 2020, Icertis announced the appointment of Pranali Save as Chief Human Resources Officer.
Icertis’ mission statement says, “At Icertis we are passionately committed to a values-driven approach to doing business – in our mission to be the contract intelligence platform of the world, how we get there is as important as the destination.“
Icertis – Recent News
Icertis is strengthening the ‘Beating Heart’ of Business with Contract Intelligence
Icertis Adds Former Airbus and BMW Chief Procurement Officer Dr. Klaus Richter to Board of Advisors
Icertis Named for Second Year in a Row on Deloitte’s Prestigious 2020 Technology Fast 500™
Icertis – Business Model
The business model of the company is an annual subscription model based on the total number of contracts drawn up and tracked. The India market provides 10 percent of the company’s revenues. Icertis has a 500-member R&D team in Pune. It also employs another 200 members in the US.
“At that moment we and the team began to focus only on that, and worked to scale up fast,” recalls Samir, who was CEO of Aztec Soft (acquired by MindTree) before starting up Icertis in 2009.
The Icertis Contract Management (ICM) platform helps companies transform their commercial foundation, ensuring compliance, improving governance, mitigating risk, and enhancing user productivity. This ultimately improves the bottom line. The platform is used to managing 5 million contracts by 3 million subscribers at companies like 3M, Daimler, Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft, Roche Wipro, ABB, Infosys, and Airtel in 40+ languages across 90 countries.
Icertis – Revenue and Growth
The India market provides 10 percent of the company’s revenues. Icertis raised its first round of funding, of $6 million, by the spring of 2015. There has been no looking back. In the first round, the company had a pre-money valuation of $22 million. It has a valuation of $500 million today and has raised $96 million.
Icertis has raised a total of $211M in funding over 5 rounds. Their latest funding was raised on Jul 17, 2019 from a Series E round.
Date
Amount
Round
Lead Investors
Jul 17, 2019
$115M
Series E
Greycroft, PremjiInvest
Feb 8, 2018
$50M
Series D
Meritech Capital Partners
Mar 29, 2017
$25M
Series C
B Capital Group
Mar 10, 2016
$15M
Series B
Ignition Partners
Apr 28, 2015
$6M
Series A
Eight Roads Ventures, Greycroft
Icertis – Competitors
Top competitors of Icertis Contract Management are:
Conga Contracts
DocuSign CLM
Apttus Contract Lifecycle Management
PandaDo
SAP Ariba
Agiloft Contract Management Suite
Qwilr
SurveyMonkey
Icertis – Challenges Faced
“I think there are a lot of hurdles that companies have to jump over. It is easier for startups and companies in general, as compared to 10 years ago but still there are a lot of filings that need to be done. The government should make it easier for innovators to innovate, make it easier for entrepreneurs to create companies as at the end of the day, entrepreneurs create employment,” Bodas said.
Icertis isn’t the lone player who has found challenges in the industry and finds lack of government support. According to a spokesperson of Icertis there’s no institutional support for the players in the deep tech contract sector.
Icertis said it would use the fresh capital to expand its technology platform to address wider use cases. It said it would also expand its blockchain framework that integrates with enterprise contract management platforms to solve challenges such as transparency in supply chain and certification compliance. Its revenue is at about $100 million currently — another key area it intends to scale.
The firm, which claims that five of the world’s most valuable companies are its clients (one of which is Microsoft), said it would also scale its sales and marketing efforts to reach “every leading company in the world” and expand its partner ecosystem. It is also looking to acquire startups that are a good fit to its contracting business.
Icertis lets users manage almost all kinds of contracts. Companies use Icertis’ products to handle procurement, sales and corporate contracts, including non-disclosure agreements. In addition to helping users create contracts, Icertis’ software also tracks when terms are met, ensures regulatory compliance and automates administrative tasks like sending renewal reminders.
Icertis – FAQs
What does Icertis do?
Icertis is a provider of a contract management platform for enterprises covering the full lifecycle of contract management capabilities beginning with intelligent contract setup and then continuing with authoring, approvals, negotiations, and all other aspects of ongoing contract operations.
Who’s the CEO of Icertis?
Samir Bodas, is the CEO and Co-founder of Icertis.
When was Icertis founded?
Icertis was founded in 2009.
Who are the founders of Icertis?
Icertis was founded in 2009 by Samir Bodas and Monish Darda.
Where millions of users interact simultaneously, the demand for robust, scalable systems capable of handling high-volume transactions is paramount. The ability to create seamless and reliable gaming experiences hinges on the architecture that underpins these platforms. Among the most critical components driving this success are microservices, modular, independently deployable services designed to ensure scalability, resilience, and efficient transaction processing. By leveraging cutting-edge technologies and innovative design principles, industry experts are revolutionizing the way online gaming systems operate, meeting the growing expectations of users while maintaining performance and reliability under immense loads.
The gaming industry, known for its rapid pace and high stakes, demands innovative solutions to remain competitive in a market that thrives on user engagement, reliability, and seamless functionality. Among the professionals shaping this dynamic field is Nitya Sri Nerolle, a seasoned software developer with 4.5 years of experience delivering transformative results in high-transaction environments. Her technical expertise, combined with strategic foresight, has made her a pivotal figure in advancing gaming platforms to new heights of efficiency and scalability.
Nitya began her career after earning a degree in Computer Science from Osmania University. Her professional journey includes roles at leading companies like Ivy Software, where she developed software for GVC Holdings Inc., a prominent entertainment company, and CDK Global, where she worked on the research and development of the Autoline Rev8 product. At GVC Holdings, her contributions extended beyond technical execution, as she played a key role in building scalable microservices that supported millions of concurrent users while mentoring team members and streamlining onboarding processes.
The migration, which involved transferring a large-scale gaming platform’s infrastructure from Jibrata to Dublin, required meticulous planning and execution. “Despite challenges posed by increased user traffic and pandemic-related constraints, the migration achieved an impressive 99.9% uptime, supporting a 30% surge in user activity without any service interruptions” she stated. This project underscored Nitya’s ability to manage complex, high-stakes transitions with precision and foresight.
Moreover, Nitya also spearheaded critical integrations for third-party gaming providers, such as Airdice and NetEnt, enhancing the gaming catalog by 15%. Her work involved developing and deploying RESTful APIs to ensure seamless real-time transaction processing. By optimizing API response times by 20%, she contributed to faster transaction processing and a superior user experience, even during peak loads. These integrations not only expanded the platform’s offerings but also strengthened its position in a competitive market.
Her expertise in resolving critical production issues further highlights her impact. Whether delivering hotfixes during major gaming events or proactively debugging systems to prevent downtime, Nitya has consistently demonstrated her commitment to reliability. Her quick action and technical ingenuity have prevented revenue losses during high-traffic periods, maintaining the platform’s reputation and user trust.
Notably, one of Nitya’s strengths is her ability to balance technical complexity with practical implementation. For instance, she overcame the challenge of ensuring scalability and reliability for APIs handling millions of concurrent users by designing APIs using the Java Spring Framework with optimized database queries in Oracle DB. Similarly, her systematic approach to integrating third-party services allowed her to deliver incremental updates without disrupting ongoing operations.
Her contributions to the industry extend beyond her technical achievements. In February 2019, Nitya published a paper titled “Integration with Modern AI Techniques for Personalized Web Search”, showcasing her commitment to advancing AI-driven personalization. She remains an advocate for integrating real-time analytics and AI-powered insights to enhance user experiences and detect fraud.
Looking ahead, Nitya identifies several key trends shaping the industry. The shift toward multi-cloud and hybrid architectures is essential for ensuring scalability and resilience in high-transaction systems. She also emphasizes the growing importance of event-driven architectures for handling asynchronous transactions and improving responsiveness. Her firsthand experience highlights the value of modular design, continuous monitoring, and automation to create seamless, future-ready systems.
Through her accomplishments, Nitya Sri Nerolle exemplifies how a blend of technical expertise, leadership, and a forward-looking mindset can transform the gaming industry. Her journey serves as an inspiration for professionals navigating the challenges of high-volume, high-stakes environments, showcasing the remarkable potential of innovation and dedication.
There is a plethora of team chat applications out there, but that also means that you will have to look for the one that suits your needs best. Pandemic or no pandemic, official work requires team collaboration, especially on occasions such as building projects, presentations, or even planning out an event. Team communication is extremely important in such tasks. This begs the question, which team chatting applications should we use instead?
What makes an exceptional Organization Chatting Application?
To filter out the best team chat application for any organization, we should consider a few things in mind. To begin with, we all know that for different team chats or office chats, we need diverse platforms for group chats.
In addition, one should also keep in mind that the corporate messaging app needs to be organized. For instance, some messages need to be seen by the entire company, others at the team level. Furthermore, the office instant messaging system demands good search and filter options along with excellent navigation and control.
In conclusion, a business chat app should offer exceptional video and audio chat so that employees can converse easily. There are various features that we expect from a team conversing application, while some are complimentary, some are provided at a cost or a subscription.
Here we discuss the top 5 Teams Chatting Applications, for you to decide which suits you best.
Slack
Rating
4.5/5
Platforms
Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, Linux, and the Web.
Slack Communications Platform
Slack is a popular Teams Communication Platform that offers safe and secure collaboration and chats among your colleagues. You can form different channels for diverse niches or projects, similar to Discord. You can also contact us through video conferencing or collaborate over a voice call. You also get to integrate your internal tools with slack, for a more efficient workflow.
Features Offered by Slack
Create dedicated channels for individual topics, projects, and events, and use those channels solely for the assigned purpose.
Slack saves your previous data, so if you need to navigate an earlier project or a chat, you can probably find that on Slack.
Slack lets you manage remote teams from other companies just like yours, with a comprehensive message archive feature, so you do not have to shuffle between tabs.
Slack can be further integrated with applications such as Office and Google Drive, with over 2200 integrations available, to manage tasks more efficiently.
Security is of paramount importance in the data-driven world and slack knows this. Slack also offers complete control and visibility with encryption keys.
Pricing for Slack
Standard Plan
Plus Plan
Enterprise Grid
Used by SMEs and costs $2.67 per user per month when billed annually and $3.20 when billed monthly
Used by larger businesses and costs $5 per user per month when billed annually and $6 when billed monthly
Used for big enterprises and industries and offers custom pricing
Offers unlimited message archiving and applications along with group video calls with screen sharing
Offers user provisioning and dis-provisioning, and single sign-ins using SAML
Offers unlimited workspaces, data loss prevention, and offline backup providers
Use Slack connect to collaborate with other organizations
Allows for data exports for all messages
Offers message compliance of HIPAA with file collaboration
Ryver
Rating
4.4/5
Platforms
Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows.
Ryver Teams Chatting App
Ryver is an easy, simple, and affordable team collaboration platform to organize meetings and communicate with a single application. Ryver allows group messaging with unlimited file sharing, task management with unlimited tasks and boards, along with audio and video calls with screen sharing. Also, like Slack, it offers a single sign-in through SAML and direct support during regular work hours.
Ryver offers Forums for open discussions, Teams for private or project-based conversations, and people platforms for one on one communications.
Allows you to chat, organize conversations by tasks, and call over voice and video calls for better communication.
Ryver offers a number of integrations such as Dropbox, Google Drive, and applications using Zapier, while also offering new Streaming Services.
Ryver does not limit your work. It also offers unlimited chats, tasks, video and audio calls, teams and forums, and file sharing to ensure your work goes on without obstacles.
Ryver uses SSL-based encryption to protect your data, as well as AWS cloud service security features.
Pricing for Ryver
Starter Plan
Unlimited Plan
Enterprise Plan
Costs $49 per month and allows up to 4 users
Costs $79 per month and allows unlimited users
Costs from $149 per month with a custom plan and allows unlimited users
Offers unlimited chats and file sharing along with task management
Offers unlimited chats, file sharing, and task management with custom invite links
Offers unlimited chats, file sharing, and task management with premium support and Single Sign-On
Offers up to 12 member guests
Offers unlimited users and member guests
Offers advanced team management and a dedicated testing sandbox
Microsoft Teams
Rating
4.3/5
Platforms
Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, and the Web.
Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams is another chat application for business, that helps groups stay organized and connected with a suite of features. Teams allow you to chat, video conference as an attendee or a presenter, make audio calls and collaborate with file sharing. Make the best use of Teams with screen sharing and Together Mode, like in the above image. Moreover, teams help you organize workflows and are available in 53 different languages.
Teams help you to leverage AI during meetings and webinars and display the context of the meeting, with quality audio and video.
Teams allows you to organize and host live events with members of as many as 10,000, within your organization or outside of it
Invite anyone with an email to your video conferencing with just a link, and enhance your productivity in real time.
Teams also allows you to record meetings, chat during live meetings, turn on captions in real-time, and many more functionalities, making it the perfect team collaboration application.
You also get to manipulate your background like blurring it or even changing it, to have a more focused meeting.
Pricing for Microsoft Teams
Microsoft Teams Free Version
Microsoft 365 Business Basic
Microsoft 365 Business Standard
Office 365 E3
Is free of cost
Costs Rs125 per user per month
Costs Rs660 per user per month
Costs Rs1320 per user per month
Allows for chat and collaboration
Allows for chat and collaboration with some features of meetings and calls
Allows for chat and collaboration with some features for meetings and calls
Allows for chat and collaboration along with unlimited meetings and calls
Partial features with productivity applications and security
Partial features with productivity applications and security
Full range of security compliance and productivity applications
Full range of security compliance and productivity applications
Does not offer administrative features or support
Does not offer administrative features or support
Offers a suite of both administrative features and support
Offers a suite of both administrative features and support
Flock
Rating
4.4/5
Platforms
Android, iOS, and the Web.
Flock Team Chat
Flock is a team communication application that offers seamless collaboration among colleagues and organizations, with an all-around suite of features. With the help of custom channels and team directories, organize conversations and use productivity-enhancing tools, all in the same place. Flock can be efficiently used for different domains including Sales, Marketing, and Human Resources, offering you excellent customer support.
Features Offered by Flock
Chat with colleagues, make voice and video calls, and share screens in real-time, to collaborate without feeling distant.
Create dedicated channels for focused communication public or private and view all your new messages at once, regardless of the channel.
Flock allows you to send personalized voice notes, and search, share, and pin your channel history, for any important messages or notifications.
Flock also allows you to share files up to 100 MB on your device or cloud, and offers a minimum of 5 GB space for users for file storage.
Flock also offers a number of security features such as data retention, Authentication, Administrative features, and managing permissions.
Pricing for Flock
Free/Starter Plan
Pro Plan
Enterprise Plan
Is free of cost with basic features for small teams
Costs Rs199 per user per month for midsized teams and companies
Costs Rs349 per user per month for larger enterprises
Unlimited chatting with individuals and groups and up to 10k searchable messages
Unlimited chatting with individuals, groups, and searchable messages
Unlimited chatting with individuals, groups, and searchable messages
Up to 10 Public channels and 5GB storage space per team
Unlimited public and private channels with 10GB storage space per team
Unlimited public and private channels with 20GB storage space per team
Offers single team admin and one on one video calls
Allows multiple group admins, video calls for groups, and screen sharing
Allows multiple group admins, video calls for groups, and screen sharing
Rocket.Chat
Rating
3.9/5
Platforms
iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Rocket.Chat is a team communication hub that helps you collaborate with colleagues, manage data and enhance productivity. Be it file sharing, chatting, or audio/video conferencing, Rocket.chat helps you do all of that on an ideal and unified platform. Moreover, Rocket.chat is fully customizable and can be tailored to your needs, while also offering ML-based message translation in real time.
Features Offered by Rocket.Chat
Rocket.Chat allows you to integrate with WebHook integrations and plugins with popular applications such as Drupal and Pidgin.
With an open source code for Rocket.Chat, you can customize the interface any way you deem fit, and tailor it to your specific needs.
AI-powered real-time message translation in over 50 languages ensures everyone is on the same page, regardless of ethnicity.
Rocket.Chat offers secure conversations with CCPA and HIPAA compliance along with moderators who can manage permissions.
Rocket.Chat also allows for an omnichannel strategy, allowing you to integrate other communication tools, to serve your clients.
Rocket.Chat Communication Platform
Pricing for Rocket.chat
Community Version
Pro Plan
Enterprise Version
Free version for small teams to offer centralized communication
Costs $3 per user per month for SMEs for business communication
Custom pricing for larger enterprises and high scalability
Allows for up to 1k users and offers a custom domain
Allows unlimited users with a custom domain
Allows unlimited users with a custom domain and scope for scalability
Offers public, private, and broadcast channels
Offers all features in the free version along with guest users and end-to-end encryption
Offers all features in the Pro plan with secured push notifications and audit panel
You get queue management, chat tagging, integrations API
Real-time monitoring, Facebook, and Whatsapp integrations, and Omnichannel proxy API
Offers the use of Analytics API, priority assignment, and chat routing
Conclusion
These top 5 team chat and office communication tools, and there are many more out there. Team chat apps are a natural communication solution for contacting and communicating with staff members, both for small employment and big institutions.
FAQs
What is the best group chat platform?
Slack, Ryver, Microsoft Teams, Flock, and Rocket.Chat is the best platform for group chat.
What apps are good for group chats?
iMessage group texting and chatting on iPhone.
Google Messages group texting and chatting on Android.
Messenger on Facebook and Instagram.
WhatsApp.
WeChat.
GroupMe.
Line.
Signal.
Is there a team chat app?
Yes, Slack, Ryver, Microsoft Teams, Flock, and Rocket.Chat is an example of a Team Chat App.
Ashwini
