Tag: Excess2Sell

  • Excess2Sell Success Story – How it is Easing the Selling of the Excess Inventory?

    Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by Excess2Sell.

    Verticals and domains dealing with the supply chain—where manufacturers, vendors, distributors, wholesalers, dealers, and resellers are involved— tend to have some unsold, overstock, and aging inventories left over. As per industry estimates, at least 20-30% of goods worth $500 billion – $600 billion in the Indian retail segment, end up as overstock. Excess2Sell is making the most out of this unsold inventory valued at approximately $30 billion.

    Excess2sell.com is an e-commerce platform where vendors, manufacturers, dealers, and wholesalers alike can put up their excess inventory for sale. The catalog of offerings includes, but is not restricted to, electronics, computers, industrial Goods, LED electrical, and home appliances, among others.

    Excess2Sell has grown at 150% CAGR since 2016. It has liquidated excess inventory of over Rs 2.23 billion (over $29 million) across India. With a revenue target of Rs 2000 crore ($267 Million) by 2023, Excess2sell is rapidly redefining the concept of selling excess inventory in India.

    StartupTalky interviewed Excess2Sell CEO Rajan Sharma to know the Success Story of Excess2Sell and also get a glance at the Excess2Sell Business Model, Funding, Revenue, How it started, competitors & more…

    Excess2Sell – Company Highlights

    Startup Name Excess2Sell
    Headquarters Mumbai
    Founders Rajan Sharma, Anant Chaturvedi, Navinder Chauhan
    Sector E-commerce
    Founded 2016
    Total Funding ~ $1 Million (Angel Funding on March 2020)
    Revenue / Turnover INR 100 crore (Third quarter of FY 2019-20)
    Website excess2sell.com
    Parent Organization Checkers Technology India Pvt. Ltd.

    About Excess2Sell
    Excess2Sell – Founders And Team
    Excess2Sell – Startup Story | How It Began?
    Excess2Sell – Vision And Mission
    Excess2Sell – Name And Logo
    Excess2Sell – Business Model And Revenue Model
    Excess2Sell – Funding And Investors
    Excess2Sell – Startup Challenges
    Excess2Sell – Competitors
    Excess2Sell – User Acquisition
    Excess2Sell – Growth and Revenue
    Excess2Sell – Future Plans

    About Excess2Sell

    Excess2sell.com is a comprehensive B2B platform marketplace for excess inventory management across verticals such as computer hardware and software, telecom, security, home appliances, apparels, lighting, kitchen items, etc.

    The platform acts as a bridge between the seller who is stuck with unsold inventory and the buyer who may be keen to stock or has a high demand for a given product in their domain. It provides sellers the opportunity to liquidate anywhere in India and helps them transact in a confidential, anonymous, and neutral manner.


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    Excess2Sell – Founders And Team

    Rajan Sharma, Anant Chaturvedi and Navinder Chauhan are the founders of Excess2Sell. While Rajan Sharma is the CEO of the startup, Anant Chaturvedi, and Navinder Chauhan are the Directors of Excess2Sell.

    Anant and Rajan have been working together since 2003. They were at D-LINK (India) and then at its subsidiary GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY till 2011. Post this, they were a part of Smartlink Networks wherein Navinder joined them.

    Rajan Sharma

    Founder/Owner excess2sell
    Rajan Sharma – Founder and CEO of Excess2Sell

    Rajan Sharma has been the Founder-CEO of Excess2Sell. He was previously associated with Priya Ltd. / PEAC SINGAPORE, in which Rajan closely worked with Intel, LG, WDD. It was a time when the PC market was in its nascent stage. D-LINK and GIGABYTE were two other companies in which Rajan spent a major part of his professional tenure.

    Anant Chaturvedi

    Anant Chaturvedi – Founder-Director at Excess2Sell

    Anant Chaturvedi is a Director of Excess2Sell. Chaturvedi has previously served more than one company and has taken up key leadership positions in them. He served as the Asst Manager Channels at Intex Technologies; Regional Manager – Channel Sales at DLink India; Sales and Distribution Head of India at Gigabyte. He also worked with Smartlink Network Systems and iRevo Multimedia as DGM – Sales & Distribution and Sales Head respectively.

    Navinder Chauhan – Founder and Director at Excess2Sell

    Navinder Chauhan is another Founder-Director of Excess2Sell. Chauhan has a Bachelor’s degree in Science with a majors in Botany and Chemistry from Bundelkhand University. and then obtained an MBA in Marketing from the same university. Chauhan also has a work experience at DLink and iRevo, where he served as the Marketing Head and the Vice President of Marketing. Apart from that, Chauhan also worked with many other companies like Aditya Infotech, Rashi Peripherals, Panduit International Corp., Smartlink Network Systems, and Cisco Systems, where he held several managerial positions in Marketing. CyberMedia was the company Chauhan started his career with, where he served as a Senior Marketing Executive.  

    Amit Kundra, who heads Excess2Sell’s tech division, has been supporting the trio in reviewing the company’s progress. His experience in a hyperlocal vertical at a Sequoia-backed start-up was immensely helpful. He formally joined Excess2Sell in 2018 and lent hand in designing and developing the mobile app. It is Rajan, Amit, and Anant’s cumulative cross-functional experience in product management, business management, brand building, and marketing, that has been pivotal to the success Excess2Sell is enjoying today.


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    Excess2Sell – Startup Story | How It Began?

    The idea behind Excess2Sell was conceived sometime at the end of 2015. It was to find a way and means to deal with inventory that remained unsold. Prior to founding the company, Rajan Sharma faced a force majeure situation in his last professional stint. It had to do with the product inventory at distribution points which in turn affected an entire location. The ageing inventory of stockists led to blocked capital and a slow turnaround time for sales. This was a problem faced by almost every stockist and wholesaler in the country and it was an opportunity that called for remediation.

    Excess2Sell was then conceived as a solution to overcome this situation. It was launched four years ago to tackle the issue that plagued the large Indian B2B segment: unsold and unwanted inventory.

    Post ideation and finalizing the business model, Rajan Sharma took almost 6 months to develop the back-end and front-end before the first transaction took place at the end of August, 2016. The team had been clear from day one about the need to build up its business through an organic approach. Excess2Sell focused on digital marketing and electronic marketing to reach out to its B2B database. This helped the venture kick start and scale up its transactions.

    Excess2Sell – Vision And Mission

    Excess2Sell wants to assist retailers and wholesalers across trade networks and channels in optimizing costs through excess inventory management using its portal, and provide an extensive store for buyers across India.

    The venture’s long-term vision is to provide a proven universal solution to businesses for liquidating unsold inventories and become a leader in the segment with its current business model.

    The core belief and ethos, which drives us is hard work, honesty and ethics.


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    Excess2Sell – Name And Logo

    The team wanted a name that would instantly signify its service and Excess2Sell seemed just right for accomplishing the objective. It firmly believed that this concept would be an enabler for the current ecosystem of vendors, distributors and dealers to re-distribute inventories from locations where they would languish, to locations where there would flourish;  hence the tagline, ‘excess inventory marketplace’.

    excess2sell logo

    Excess2Sell – Business Model And Revenue Model

    The Excess2Sell platform follows a ‘zero’ inventory model where sellers upload the details of their liquidation inventory online. The portal comprises registered buyers and sellers. Once the buyer confirms the off-take and makes the payment, the inventory procurement and dispatch are done. The platform generates revenue from the sales activity of goods. Every category has a pre-determined percentage of fees that is deducted as a procurement price from sellers. The average transaction is in the range of INR 5 to 8 lacs.

    The revenue stream is being explored further with the launch of a E2S Premium Membership in 2o18 where a dedicated buyer-seller ecosystem is being built on a subscription model.


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    Excess2Sell – Funding And Investors

    Excess2Sell has raised more than $1 Million in funding to date. Below are Excess2Sell funding details –

    Date Stage Amount Investors
    May 2018 Angel undisclosed Aashish Pitale & Harinder Singh
    March 2020 Angel $1 Million Private Equity investor Gautham Madhavan


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    Excess2Sell – Startup Challenges

    In the initial phase, the most challenging aspect was to ensure that buyers paid in advance for their orders. It took immense goodwill in addition to the credibility of the founders and the team to gain their trust and confidence. Today, word-of-mouth publicity is the biggest factor behind Excess2Sell consistently scaling up its operations. With over INR 150 crore worth of liquidations, Excess2Sell has proved the sustainability of its business model.

    Excess2Sell – Competitors

    Of late, many B2B companies have begun building their own platforms to tap into this relatively less explored market of excess inventory liquidation which is expected to reach $700 billion by 2020. However, Excess2Sell has taken the lead as India’s largest pure B2B online marketplace for liquidating ageing and unsold assets.

    Excess2Sell has distinguished itself by creating the only tech-enabled enterprise that connects the B2B overstock market across India. It has the largest network of dealers and distributors on its online platform which are referred to as buyers and sellers.

    When Excess2Sell was conceived, the market was fragmented and largely catered to the unorganized segment. At that time, deals occurred one-on-one between sellers and buyers. As of today, there is no other universal platform-specific to ‘excess inventory liquidation’ like Excess2Sell. As mentioned earlier, one of the biggest advantages Excess2Sell offers to both sellers and buyers is confidentiality, anonymity, and neutrality in transactions.


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    Excess2Sell – User Acquisition

    The fact that buyers and sellers transact Confidentially, Anonymously and Neutrally (CAN) has helped the platform grow from strength to strength. It is extremely critical in the company’s LoB( Line of Business) that the seller gets to offload their products anonymously and without disclosing the reason for their liquidating them. Liquidating products in the B2B space is often misconstrued as something being wrong with the product or with the demand for it, which is not at all true. It is mostly that the market, which may be in a specific geographic location and has not warmed up to it which is leading to blocking up the vendor’s operating capital. Excess2sell recognizes this pain point of the seller and hence CAN is a big plus for the user base. Excess2sell’s repeat buyer – seller rate is close to 70 per cent.


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    Excess2Sell – Growth and Revenue

    In the last three years, excess2sell.com has liquidated over INR 150 crore worth of inventory. In 2018 alone, the company mobilized excess inventory valued at over INR 85 crores.

    The platform has a business reach of more than 200,000 B2B partners across India and the registered partner base is around 30,000 today. An average of 3+ transactions occur every day with 3,600 active buyers and sellers. Excess2Sell currently operates from Navi Mumbai and is present in New Delhi and Pune as well.

    India’s B2B business base is 50 million strong and while it is a direct supplier of goods to the country’s 14 million retailer base, its reach remains stunted. E-tailing in India grew rapidly to become a $525 billion industry because it enjoys the advantage of being in the B2C marketplace. But the B2B e-commerce market is yet to realize its full potential and what it needs right now is a solutions based tech intervention. By offering a solution to address the pain points of the otherwise tech reclusive sector, Excess2Sell has given players in the B2B segment a reason and an incentive to come aboard.

    Excess2Sell has already achieved a turnover of Rs 100 crore in the three quarters ending December 31st, 2019. Starting from a revenue base of Rs 41.58 lakhs in 2016-17, it jumped an astonishing 3000% in 2017-18 to Rs 12.9 crores. The revenue for 2018-19 clocked at Rs.70 crores, which was again over 500% jump from the previous year.

    Speaking on the achievement made by the startup, which is just 3 years old, excess2sell founder and CEO Rajan Sharma said, “We have touched the magic figure of Rs.100 crore in our third year of operations, with one quarter still to go. Also with the 24×7 NEFT transaction facility made available from December 12th last year, we expect the next quarter growth to be significantly higher than the previous three quarters. We are increasingly upbeat about our performance this year, with the economy seeing signs of a revival from the slowdown. Though its early days to talk on the impact of NEFT transactions being made available 24×7, from whatever little data we have post-December 12th, it seems to have made a small positive impact on our sales figures. This has to be studied over the next quarter to actually assess the impact of the move on the industry.”

    Excess2Sell is still working towards achieving even greater revenues in the upcoming years and has a revenue target set at Rs 2,000 crore ($267 million) by 2023.


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    Excess2Sell – Future Plans

    The majority of buyers and sellers are reputed manufacturers, vendors, wholesalers, and dealers. Vendors of companies like Dell, HP, D-LINK, Intel, Acer, Apple, Motorola, and Samsung are among the authorized sellers on the Excess2Sell platform.

    Excess2Sell successfully closed FY19 with liquidation deals worth INR 70 crores and is looking to close FY20 at INR 200 crores with projected successful transactions worth INR 900 crores for FY21. Excess2Sell is also looking forward to increasing the number of its registered partners by 100% to reach 50,000.

    Our estimate of the branded packaged goods market size is $500 billion in the $2.8 trillion Indian economy. Even if we address only around half of this market and considering that we take 20 per cent of this as slow moving, that still is a $50 billion opportunity and the numbers are expected to double in six years from now.

    FAQs

    What is Excess2Sell?

    Excess2sell.com is a comprehensive B2B platform marketplace for excess inventory management across verticals such as computer hardware and software, telecom, security, home appliances, apparel, lighting, kitchen items, etc.

    Who are the founders of Excess2Sell?

    Rajan Sharma, Anant Chaturvedi, and Navinder Chauhan are the founders of Excess2Sell.

    How much is Excess2Sell revenue?

    Excess2Sell posted revenue of Rs 100 crore in the 3rd quarter of FY 2019-20. It has a target of achieving Rs 2,000 crore ($267 million) in revenues by 2023.

  • Founders Shared Their Plan To Manage “Work from Home”

    The COVID-19 pandemic has effectively brought normal life to a halt in the whole world. So, Indian government has used the formula “break the chain” to stop the spread of this disease. Indian government has ordered for lockdown and 1.3 billion residents of country to stay home. As a result, employees of many companies are working from home. But they need to follow best practices for working from home to be productive.

    But, it’s not easy for the company to let all employees to work from home. Company has to take permission from its client if employee can work on client’s information at home. Employees need laptop, a good internet connection, communication gear, work-related hardware & software. Of course, technology has made it easy as you can do everything online like meetings, attendance, etc. But, all companies have to make plans how they can make it efficient.


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    We talked to few companies about their planning to have “Work from Home” and effective best practices for working from home which they have applied for maximum output in the time.

    upGrad
    Casa Exotique
    121 Experiences
    My Star Hub
    Team Pumpkin
    Ozonetel
    Dineout
    Bridged
    CarveNiche
    Docttocare
    NowPurchase
    AppViewX
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    Excess2sell
    ZingHR
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    Metro and Metro
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    Effective Best Practices for Work from Home

    upGrad

    Founded in early 2015, upGrad offers online programs for working professionals. We talked to Mr. Mayank Kumar, Co-founder & MD of upGrad, about their planning to make work from home effective.

    Mayank Kumar- Co-Founder, upGrad :

    At upGrad ever since we have switched to the Work-From-Home model, the leadership team has been on their toes to make sure that their respective teams are communicating enough amongst their colleagues, maintaining the team bonding and synchronization. We have active video/audio calls and group conferencing to make sure that everybody stays updated.

    1. We’ve ensured that remote IT infrastructure (hardware and software) are made available as much as possible. To ensure that the work stays uninterrupted, employees can discuss with their manager and mail to IT help for support anytime.
    2. We will be using hangouts, zoom or other software for official meetings or calls.
    3. Employees are encouraged not to step out of home for a meeting, event, public gathering etc. unless absolutely necessary.
    4. We suggest them to exercise caution while using public transport for travelling inside the city and minimize your inter-city and intra city travels.

    At upGrad, we will be monitoring the spread, taking inputs from industry and govt. bodies and take appropriate decisions keeping your safety and business continuity in mind. We will keep employees posted from time to time about relevant updates.

    Casa Exotique

    Casa Exotique has been exploring the depth of Interior Designing and Styling with the help of a remarkable team of professionals who takes each and every turn to make your vision come to life. We talked to Ms. Bhawana Bhatnagar, Interior Stylist and Founder, about the plans to make work from home effective.

    Ms. Bhawana Bhatnagar- Founder, Casa Exotique:

    Given that we’re currently at stage two of the infection, we are actively separating sick employees and contractors from the healthy ones to prevent the infection from spreading any further. Also, sick employees have been given the Flexi leave benefits as well. As of now, we are waiting for the government directives and updates on the situation. If there is any indication that we are moving towards stage 3, then work from home will definitely be implemented.

    121 Experiences

    121 Experiences specializes in experiential brand communicating solutions to drive behaviour changing consumer habits. We talked to Aniket Sharma, Co-founder & CEO, about their planning to make work from home effective.

    Aniket Sharma- Co-Founder, 121 Experiences :

    1. We have urged all our employees to work from home during the current crisis unless absolutely necessary to work from office.
    2. We also understand not all employees can work from home due to their respective reasons, for them we are following a rotational policy. If there is a team of 4 then only 2 people have been asked to come on a single day.
    3. Further we have encouraged car pooling amongst our employees instead of taking the local transport to and fro to work.
    4. We have also relaxed office hours from 11-4 to ensure those who have to take public transport can avoid peak hours both ways.

    My Star Hub

    To create the most authentic and memorable fan experiences across the world, My Star Hub came up with the platform where fans can book personalized video shootouts from their favorite celebrities. We talked to Swapnil Mahajan, Founder & CEO, about their planning to make work from home effective.

    Swapnil Mahajan- Founder, My Star Hub :

    1. We have chalked out a comprehensive guideline to keep remote working effective.
    2. Besides maintaining a focus on clear communication, we have kept things flexible as we know that the one-size-fits-all formula doesn’t work when people are working in different settings.
    3. We are relying on online tools and digital meeting platforms for discussions, clarifications, and progress tracking.
    4. We have full trust in our people and are working on creating a support structure for effective remote working.

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    Team Pumpkin

    Co-founded by Swati Nathani and Ranjeet Kumar, Team Pumpkin, a 360 Degrees Marketing & PR agency commenced its operations in 2012 with a clear mission to help brands win in the Marketing and PR space. We talked to Ranjeet Kumar, Co-founder, about their planning to make work from home effective.

    Ranjeet Kumar- Co-Founder, Team Pumpkin :

    1. As a precautionary measure, we have rolled out remote working directives for all our employees across regions until the situation settles down.
    2. Team Pumpkin has always been a flexible organization, even before Coronavirus forced people to work-from-home, we had implemented the policy in our company. With our long-tested policy and a supportive environment for remote working, we are effectively maintaining our productivity levels.
    3. With daily work reports and progress updates, we are making sure that the deliverables are not affected and business continuity is maintained as normal.
    4. We are connecting with the teams and clients through teleconferencing and video conferencing on a need basis.
    5. To manage daily attendance, employees have been advised to download the app and do remote clock-in and clock-out throughout the remote working period.
    6. For those who need to visit the office for any urgent requirement, we are ensuring complete hygiene within the premises.

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    Ozonetel

    Headquartered in Hyderabad and Singapore, Ozonetel has several industry firsts to its credit in the area of Cloud Communication. We talked to Chaitanya Chokkareddy, Co-founder & Chief Innovative Officer, about their planning to make work from home effective.

    Chaitanya Chokkareddy- Co-Founder, Ozonetel

    1. Ozonetel Communications is a pioneer of cloud communication solutions and as per Dept. of Telecom (DoT) regulations, calls can be converted to VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) and connected to agents’ phones within the OSP sites’ local network. This will allow organizations with OSP license to extend the call from OSP site to be connected to agents’ phones at their home over VPN.
    2. VPN will allow access of all applications that are accessible to an agent at OSP site. Since Cloud Agent delivers all agent tools including a phone call in browser, it’s a seamless transition.
    3. We are helping all our clients/customers to set up this model of WFH. All those running IP based contact center like Cloud Agent can implement this, but for now it is limited by DoT for only who has the OSP license.

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    Dineout

    Dineout is India’s largest Dining out and Restaurant tech platform, helping more than 17 million diners monthly discover new restaurants, reserve a table, pay for their bills and get offers and discounts combined with a SaaS product offering to its restaurant partners manage their operations. We talked to Ankit Mehrotra, Co-founder & CEO, about their planning to make work from home effective.

    Ankit Mehrotra- Co-Founder, Dineout :

    Work from home as a policy is commonly followed by our teams in times of personal need but when we implemented self quarantine policy for the necessary folks, it seemed almost difficult to function. And a time like this where the entire office across all cities, including our Sales team who are majorly on field, to work from home is something we never imagined!

    1. We are leveraging on technologies like Google Hangouts, Slack and Zoom for work from home arrangements and ensuring continuity of the work.
    2. The start and end to our day is just like before with regular communication and synergy within teams and with clients via video conferencing.

    It continues to be challenging and we’re learning on the go, one day at a time with effective and ethical work practices virtually.

    Bridged

    Bridged uses a combination of AI and 13,000 strong highly skilled workforce to develop unique and vast data at scale significantly improving the quality of data models. We talked to Ashwin Chalam, Founder and CEO, about their planning to make work from home effective.

    Ashwin Chalam- Founder, Bridged :

    Employees at Bridged have recently started working from home, and we’ve put measures in place to ensure productivity does not decrease. We made sure that all employees have access to requirements such as a laptop, an internet connection, communication gear, work-related hardware & software, etc.

    1. Concerning best practices, employees need to prioritize communication. This involves multiple video chats and protocols for communication and escalation.
    2. Employees should update their teammates on the status of tasks at hand and inform them when they won’t be available during lunch breaks, casual rests, etc.

    CarveNiche

    CarveNiche is an innovative edtech startup, which is using latest technologies such as machine learning and advanced data analytics to personalise learning for K-12 education. We talked to Avneet Makkar, Founder & CEO, about their planning to make work from home effective.

    Avneet Makkar- Founder, CarveNiche :

    1. Have dedicated Work Space while working from home and setting a work schedule and sticking to it.
    2. It is very important to not get distracted and be disciplined about your work as this way, one would be able to finish tasks at hand effectively and efficiently.

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    Docttocare

    Docttocare allows the users to schedule their surgery appointment with the right doctor or hospital, which is best for their health and which is cost-effective. We talked to Sugandha, Founder of Docttocare, about what advice/suggestions she has for effective work from home.

    Sugandha- Founder, Docttocare :

    1. Hit the shower- To set the tempo, prepare as if it’s a normal day at work. Take a bath and get dressed.
    2. Communication: Video call is must.
    3. Never work where you sleep.
    4. Set up a workplace at home.
    5. Don’t forget to log off- When the day ends, log off completely and take rest.
    6. Work for 6 hours, that are more productive when WFH.

    NowPurchase

    NowPurchase offers a curated B2B e-commerce platform with over 50,000 industrial goods. The company has also developed a unique NowPaaS (Purchasing as a Service) for regular buyers where it combines its e-Commerce offering with a purchase management SaaS platform. We talked to Naman Shah, Co-founder, about their planning to make work from home effective.

    Naman Shah- Co-founder, NowPurchase :

    Understanding this and also the fact that with Work From Home employees can only spare 3-4 hours/day, we decided to start an initiative to complete the ignored but important work- CRM and Management Software implementation.

    AppViewX

    AppViewX is a modular, low-code software application that enables Certificate Management as well as Network Infrastructure Automation and Orchestration using an intuitive, context-aware, visual workflow. We asked Anand Purusothaman, Founder, about their planning to make work from home effective.

    Anand Purusothaman- Founder, AppViewX :

    Giving our team the flexibility to define work hours based on their family priorities, especially in this situation, has helped immensely. With kids off from schools and the mounting household chores, we made it clear that we understood this unique situation and supported it. This has gone a long way. We also conduct frequent virtual connects with leaders, informal coffee chats with the team, wellness initiatives and business updates to keep the team reassured that the business is on track, to ensure that they stay connected.

    LegalWiz

    LegalWiz is focussed on helping early-stage startups and small businesses stay compliant and maintain legal hygiene while maintaining the highest transparency on deliverables. We asked Shrijay Sheth, Founder, about their planning to make work from home effective.

    Shrijay Sheth- Founder, LegalWiz :

    We had planned well and hence were prepared. Team leads were giving full responsibility to ensure that operations and work protocols are maintained. That said, a team of 3 has been deployed to assist any team-member with any problems they may face. I am personally available to any team member who wants to connect and we have frequent discussions on coping with confinement and making work easier.

    Tips for Managing Remote Teams effectively

    Excess2sell

    Excess2sell is India’s Premier and leading b2b excess inventory marketplace which covers multiple verticals. We talked with Mr Rajan Sharma, Founder & CEO, on about their planning to make work from home effective.

    Mr Rajan Sharma- Founder, Excess2sell :

    Fortunately, we are a tech based start-up and are fully geared to take our work home. So in terms of technology WFH is not much of a problem area for us. However, the complete lockdown has ensured that there is no movement of goods and hence not many fresh deals will happen during this period. We will definitely see the effect on our bottom line this quarter and probably in the next quarter too.

    ZingHR

    ZingHR is one of the oldest HRM providers. ZingHR is one of the few global ventures which offers almost all web/mobile-based modules from Hire to Retire Solutions with state of the art tech supporting those applications. We talked with Prasad Rajappan, Founder and CEO, about their planning to make work from home effective.

    Prasad Rajappan- Founder, ZingHR :

    Work from home is an unavoidable situation which we think can be utilised to focus on performance and achieve outcome-oriented results. “Results are the only true sign of excellence.”  We think the best part right now that everyone can do irrespective who they are as follows:

    • Inspire people
    • Ask them to stay indoors
    • Practice hygiene
    • Unlearn and Relearn
    • Support peers and family
    • Not to spread Fake News
    • Pray

    Primus Co-Work

    We are a hyperlocal, proptech, consumer business which partners with restaurants, that open only during the night, to convert them into co-working places from Mon-Fri/10am-6pm, and have an mobile app using which the customers can look up a co-working place across multiple pincodes, make payment online and book a seat. We talked with Shardul Bayas, Founder, about their planning to make work from home effective.

    Shardul Bayas- Founder, Primus Co-Work :

    Talk to the team members over a call 2-3 times a day, do a zoom call every alternate day, checking with the team to ensure things are normal, doing followups on the work and preparedness.

    Mamaearth

    Mamaearth is Asia’s first Madesafe certified brand that offers 100% toxin free & natural baby and mama care products. We talked with Ghazal Alagh, C0-founder, about their planning to make work from home effective.

    Ghazal Alagh- C0-founder, Mamaearth :

    The first thing we did was to define a tiered policy. We figured out how much of each job role could be done from home (if at all). We then defined goals and deliverables— first as an organization, then on a team level, and finally at the individual level. We continue to do break this down on a monthly, weekly, and even daily basis. This helps everyone at the organization become much more aligned with their goals as we work from home.

    Other than that, we realize this is a time of a lot of panic and fear. As a parent myself, I know that having children at home constantly, and not having access to domestic help, can also interfere with productivity at work. So we’re enabling more flexibility within the organization.

    We’ve also allowing space for people to articulate their issues – we’ve defined a specific time when people can just talk about what they’re going through. At the same time, we’ve also made space for coming together as a community and sharing positivity — whether it’s through online games, contests, or just sharing photos and videos of our home office, and the small joys of coming together in this challenging time.

    Metro and Metro

    Metro & Metro is one of the leading manufactures of shoes and allied product in india. We talked with Meenakshi Kalsi, Business Partner, about their planning to make work from home effective.

    Meenakshi Kalsi- Business Partner, Metro & Metro :

    We can only handle the communication with the customers and the suppliers. But the manufacturing part is totally at the standstill as that requires labour to be present. To assist my team we are supporting them financially and taking care of their needs. There’s a regular meeting done through zoom video calls to check up on them.

    Simply Fresh India

    Simply fresh AI technology in farming for growing, nourishing, picking and processing. We talked with Sachin Darbarwar, Founder & CEO, about their planning to make work from home effective.

    Sachin Darbarwar- Founder, Simply Fresh :

    Almost all our corporate employees are working from home which includes teams like – HR, finance, IT, marketing, sales and legal. All our department heads are doing a wonderful job of connecting with their teams virtually and making sure the workflow is smooth as much as possible. We are making use of technology to stay connected and have video calls and group conference calls to maintain the business continuity. It is important during these time that we stay connected virtually and make sure we adhere to needs of our team as required.

    Cosmo Films

    Cosmo Films is a global leader in specialty films for packaging, lamination and labeling applications. We talked with Mr. Pankaj Poddar, CEO, about their planning to make work from home effective.

    Pankaj Poddar- CEO, Cosmo Films :

    We being a continuous process plant and also film suppliers to the food packaging industry; come under essential services and hence we have obtained permission to run operations with minimal manpower. Our remaining functions like Sales, Marketing, IT, Finance, Purchase, and HR are working from home to provide backend support to the plant for smooth operations.

    As employees are working from home due to COVID 19, we have made necessary arrangements for our employees like the availability of laptops and systems, printers, required stationary and internet connectivity.

    Ecolab Digital Centre

    Ecolab Digital Centre focuses on finding solutions to real-world problems around water safety, energy conservation, food security, and healthy environments. We talked with Malahar Pinnelli, MD, about their planning to make work from home effective.

    Malahar Pinnelli- MD, Ecolab Digital Centre :

    We have always been using Video Conferencing to work with the US team, now we have started using those with the team here. Each manager connects  with their team every day and that rolls up to the Managing Director. We have every 2 days a week, a mandatory video call to make sure people are still visually connected.

    Surmount Business

    Surmount Business practices targets to become a strategic partner to entrepreneurs and enterprises to help expand businesses beyond their existing roots, professionalize their operations and enhance their Capital Efficiency. We talked with Niraj Bora, Founder, about their planning to make work from home effective.

    Niraj Bora- Founder, Surmount Business :

    We organize long video calls instead of just audios, play some games online weekly with the team, and keep in touch more often in order to keep the enthusiasm alive. We have also increased training sessions online in order to keep learning ongoing. People also get more negative be reading and hearing daily cases and hardships on media, so I have tried sharing cover-19 recovery stories discussion with teams as well. A piece in last Sunday’s ET covered that very well and sharing with everyone gave positivity to the team mindset.

    For some out of office chats, we have WhatsApp group where team posts any new thing they do like cooking, new indoor game, etc.

    FAQs

    What is a work from home model?

    The Work From Home model allows employees to work remotely. Employees get the flexibility to work from anywhere. It is location-independent.

    What essentials do you need to work from home?

    • Computer/Laptop with webcam and mic
    • Proper Internet Connection
    • Essential Software/Tools as per the work/business requirement

    How do you connect with employees working from home?

    In the WFH model, a virtual office for employees is set up. Offices use the best video conferencing and team collaboration tools to connect with employees. A shared portal for employees is created to share personal as well as professional updates.

  • 5 Founders Share Their Strategies On Keeping Data and Business Cyber Secured While Working From Home

    Covid-19 has shaken the whole world and brought everyone’s life to a halt. This highly contagious disease is spreading so fast that Indian Government has ordered 1.3 billion residents to stay home for more than 40 days now. Malls, theaters, companies, shops, restaurants, and manufacturing units are all shut. Businesses and economy have taken a severe hit. Many organizations have asked their employees to work from home.

    A company has to take permission from its client if the employee has to work on the client’s data from home. Employees need laptop, a good internet connection, communication gear, work-related hardware, and software. Technology has made it easy to do everything online like meetings, attendance, etc. Data security is of prime concern when working from home.

    We asked a few founders about how they are keeping data and business cyber secured.

    Also read:  

    Keep Data and Business Cyber Secured 

    Sequretek

    Sequretek is a Mumbai based Indian cybersecurity company with offices in Gurgaon, Bengaluru, and the United States. We talked with Pankit Desai, co-founder and CEO of Sequretek, about how to keep data and business cyber secured with work from home, or WFH, becoming a norm.

    In the pre-Covid 19 era, employees working across companies were issued laptops and other devices which were checked for security flaws and appropriate end point protection were loaded into them. The entire network architecture and end point devices were periodically patched and checked for security lapses. As WFH was enforced without any notice, companies didn’t get the time or the option to issue cyber safe devices. In some cases, there weren’t enough devices to allocate. Thus, employees are relying on personal laptops, tablets, and other gadgets over unpatched home networks and accessing, sharing, and trading possibly sensitive information with each other to do their work. One of the main concerns we see is that the same devices are being used for personal reasons like searching for a plethora of information—from coronavirus updates to online purchases in your free time. So if hackers gain access to personal devices, they can acquire log details, texts, and there is a good chance that your credentials have been siphoned off. Those credentials can then be used to carry out various attacks. We are aware of certain cases where significant attempts have been made to steal credentials. In order to not be compromised, you can try a few things to help protect your system from such malicious attacks:

    1. Hygiene: Start treating your personal assets as if they are corporate issued. Try not to access any external storage devices and websites that you would not be permitted if you were working in your corporate environment.
    2. End point security:
      – Enterprises should make sure that all the devices (both company issued and personal) that are being used to access the company’s network have updated security software with auto-enabled patching. Use freely available antivirus software or 30/90 days trial version products, if needed.
      – Avoid using Windows 7 as most security products don’t support this operating system anymore. If you are still using it, ensure that the antivirus software is enabled. Windows 10 would be preferred as it comes with in-built security features.
      – Freemium antivirus: Avast / total AV; 30/90 day free trial: Norton/McAfee/ TrendMicro. Also, check out www.cert-in.org.in.
    3. Network security devices and rules will need to be reconfigured to support external communication:
      – Enterprises should ensure that the security monitoring capability understands the difference between company owned and personal devices that are now plugged into the network. It will help understand any abnormal behavior and can bring down the number of false positives that may otherwise create a worrisome situation.
      – Install a firewall if one doesn’t exist. Options range from low end to expensive ones.
      – Review the rules on firewalls to ensure they are valid and no gaps exist. For every mobile user, create a policy on the firewall for access. Secure the communication with VPN technology.
      – Most firewalls have a VPN feature. Use the same or open-source options. Try multi-factor authentication to prevent any abuse of credentials.
      – Enterprises can also implement geofencing to restrict traffic within their networks. For example, if most of the employees working from home on a project are from Mumbai, then the company can make sure that any IP outside the city will not be allowed to access the environment.
      – Also, lock the specific set of assets to an environment so that people from outside that particular geography can’t access specific environments.
    4. Datacentre:
      – Make sure your servers are patched and all recent vulnerabilities are fixed. Servers need antivirus software too.
      – All your OS/DB/network devices are hardened.
      – Review your applications and make sure they don’t have any loopholes which can be exploited.
      – Ensure proper credentials and authentication mechanisms exist for your applications.
      – If feasible, take up services of security monitoring that can help you identify credible threats.
      – Windows Defender is free with all Microsoft operating systems. WSUS is free for Microsoft patching.
      -Several open-source vulnerability scanners are available: Burpsuite/Wireshark/NMap.

    Surmount Business

    Surmount Business targets to become a strategic partner to entrepreneurs and enterprises and help expand beyond their existing roots, professionalize their operations, and enhance their capital efficiency. We spoke with Niraj Bora, the founder of Surmount Business, about how to keep data and business cyber secured with respect to the WFH culture.

    Dropbox, google drive, etc. tools are safe for file sharing and also provide real time sync, separate team login, accidental delete recovery options, etc. as well. They have these options that makes sharing very convenient. Communication and project management tools like zoom, slack, and MS teams have good functionality and are helpful for work allocation, tracking progress, email and chat integration, cloud integration, etc. Paid subscriptions further increase the utility to include call recordings, multiple team member logins, etc.

    Also Read:

    Excess2sell

    Excess2sell is India’s leading B2B excess inventory marketplace which covers multiple verticals. We spoke with Mr Amit Kundra, Technology Director, about how to keep data and business cyber secured when WFH is becoming a norm.

    Work From Home (WFH) has been the biggest challenge across businesses during the lockdown, especially in India where businesses still run the traditional way. The lockdown imposed on us due to the COVID-19 has left us with no choice but to WFH and since most businesses, especially the SMEs had never experienced this way of working prior to now, it has been a paradigm shift for enterprises. In such times, the only way to achieve business process continuity is through digital transformation, work automation, and mobility.

    We at Excess2sell.com managed to keep up the processes going in this crisis situation as our E2S Ecosystem has been architectured in such a manner that majority of our business processes are automated , run independently, and are tightly integrated with each other which had really helped to continue with our tech development, member on-boarding, activation, CRM support process and departments, and most importantly, customer facing apps seamlessly running without any hindrance factoring all security aspects.

    On the Infrastructure side, we decided to manage it out by categorizing it under two heads with strict guidelines:

    1. Use your own laptop.
    2. Company desktop / laptop with guidelines issued to all employees.
      • To beware of phishing emails.
      • To avoid use of public Wi-Fi.
      • To ensure home Wi-Fi routers are sufficiently secured.
      • To verify the security of the devices that they use to get work done.
      • To avoid clicking links in emails from people they do not know.
      • To avoid installation of third-party apps should be confined to bonafide app stores.
      • Daily backups.

    Since security was a bigger concern than the speed of work while allowing employees to WHF and ensuring business process doesn’t get stalled, we immediately actioned Privilege Access Management and transitioned our tech development completely onto offline mode. All new developments and product enhancements work are now being carried out on a separate secured Temporary Cloud bucket besides the ones regularly used considering best practices and team collaboration is happening via Slack.

    Track of every login to the system, Multi-factor authentication, bitbucket and webmails monitoring processes should be strictly followed. Access to All High Availability Production Apps and environments is/should be restricted to a bare minimum mode and only VPN connectivity should be permitted in case of any critical or urgent release need.

    To make communication smoother and faster with customers as well as internally, WhatsApp is being used as a part of enterprise communication along with SMS and email channels. Customers send their documents through WhatsApp or emails and they are tagged through Mobile or Web apps. Other tools that we recommend for efficient collaboration of the team in such times are Slack or Zoom.

    These are hard times for businesses and IT budgets will be impacted in more than one way. But considering the new working normal and moving forward, businesses should invest more in IT to enable employees and customers to operate seamlessly in such unavoidable circumstances in the future. Businesses will definitely benefit by enabling and allowing complete digitization and mobility.

    The need of the hour for every business moving forward is to be pro-active in defining business specific digital solutions rather than being reactive to similar kind of crisis conditions in future.

    Volksara Techno Solutions

    Volksara Techno Solutions Pvt. Ltd. is an all-in-one provider of remedies pertaining to the comprehensive security and safety solutions and integration of products, systems, and services. We spoke with Saily Lad, Director, about how to keep data and business cyber secured when WFH is becoming a norm.

    Due to the extraordinary circumstances we are navigating, working from home has become the norm for a lot of people and companies, possibly for the first time in their lives. This has not been a common practice in the past and hence, there is a severe lack of a strong cybersecurity policy and standards to keep one’s data safe. In fact, every time an employee connects to a corporate network from their homes, they are creating access points that can possibly be exploited by hackers. When this happens over 1000 times on a single network amid lockdowns, it becomes increasingly difficult to guarantee security of each and every connection.

    What we can do in such a scenario is to encourage employees to use a VPN at all times, especially when working with sensitive data. Additionally, we should encourage the use of cybersecurity tools that are capable of performing simulated attacks across remote connections in order to assess risks. This can greatly help determine the extent to which our current settings and defenses are effective, and what changes need to be made to keep our organisations and data safe.

    TechChefs Software

    TechChefs Software focuses on product engineering and multi-cloud engineering. Pratap Simha, the founder and CTO of TechChefs Software, discussed about how to keep data and business cyber secured by working at home.

    Today we live in a world where everything and everybody is interconnected. Technologies like cloud, automation, artificial intelligence, robotics…to name a few, have made life much easier to stay connected with one another, both at an individual and at an enterprise level. But these advancements have also brought security threats which can post significant threat to data, confidential information, and everything else. Fortunately, a host of antidotes are available— the basic ones being Firewalls, antivirus software, anti-spyware software, and password management software.

    Over and above these, there a host of tools/activities which when diligently followed can have a significant impact on staying secure:

    1. Encryption of data and creating back-ups:
      The two most important aspects in staying secured are (1) to prevent sensitive information/data falling into the hands of hackers and (2) rendering the data useless if it falls into the wrong hands.
      Here, encryption plays a significant role addressing the issue. In parallel, creating a robust data back up to fall back upon in the event of any breach.
    2. Safeguarding the hardware:
      Much has been spoken about security from the software aspect. Theft of computers/laptops can also pose a threat. It therefore becomes important to secure the hardware system with a complicated and difficult-to-break-into password. Virtual Desktops on the Cloud are gaining popularity amount enterprises and eliminate the aspect of hardware theft.
    3. Cyber Security Insurance:
      Insurance for data, a relatively newer concept, is gaining popularity. At the end of 2019, cyber security was valued at USD 1.97 Billion with projections to be at USD 3.05 Billion by 2022. According to a joint study by PwC India and Data Security Council of India (DSCI), the average cost of a data breach in the country has gone up to INR 11.9 Cr, an increase of 8% from 2017. The losses incurred due to breaches can be best mitigated by investing in cyber security insurance. It is estimated that the yearly cyber premium is in the range of Rs. 80 – Rs. 110 crores with IT/ITES and Banking & Financial sectors as early adopters.

    Internally, creating a security-focused work place culture and educating all employees about the pit falls of an unsecured network makes it binding on every employee to be responsible for data security.

    ADDA

    ADDA is a must have for apartment residents. The App by ADDA is fully integrated with the ADDA SaaS platform which is meant for Community Administration. We spoke with San Banerjee, the co-founder and CEO of ADDA, about how to keep data and business cyber secured when WFH is becoming the new norm.

    There should always be a single secure entry point into all the digital systems and all other online systems should authenticate with this system. Email from Google Apps is ADDA’s single secure entry point and also serves as the company email inbox. We follow a default two factor authentication system that cannot be turned off by employees. During on-boarding their registered cell phone number is set as the second authenticator.

    The other online portals we use like CRM, Support Ticketing, etc are all synced to the single Google mail for authentication. For an in-house system, whenever employees log in, an email with a 6 digit OTP is sent to their company email inbox. Without this OTP the internal systems will not be allowed. Also, if more than a preset number of tries are exceeded, we deactivate the account and also send an email to the admins. When an employee leaves, deactivating the company email is sufficient and that automatically removes their access to all other portals instantly.

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