The Internet has been a big blessing for everyone. It has made everything easy and reachable. Apart from this, it has made us dependent on it. We simply cannot imagine a day without it.
One great thing that the internet has gifted us is calls, both voice, and video. You are missing someone, need to connect with your business partner, video calls are here.
Cloud telephony, is something that has brought us closer and made our lives easier. This has been of great help for businesses. It enables you to move your businesses’ phone services to the cloud.
There are many cloud telephony service providers in India to help you with your business. These include- Skycalls, Exotel, WebXion, MyOperator, etc.
In simple words, it is a phone system that works with the help of an internet connection. This helps to make and take internet-oriented calls from smartphones or desktops. This technology has replaced the conventional systems of PBX, EPBAX with the cloud.
Every call that a business receives gets routed through the cloud servers. This enables the features of IVR (Interactive Voice Response) and calls recordings without any extra equipment. Thus, saves the businesses from any added investment.
Cloud telephony is the communications hosted by a third party. This party is a service provider that is outside the organizations using them. Here the communications happen with the help of the public internet.
Cloud telephony shifts an organization’s phone system to the cloud. The use of the internet makes the communication process more efficient and wider. Here are certain benefits of using cloud telephony in a business:
Improved Access and Control:
Moving phone systems to cloud telephony provides improved control and access to data. One can access the business information anytime and anywhere when it’s on the cloud. Your data stays with you all the time so, there is a lesser risk of loss.
Always Updated
With cloud telephony, you do not have to worry about your business communication getting outdated. The technology keeps your business’s communication updated all the time. In this way, you don’t have to make any manual adjustments in your process. This saves time and improves efficiency.
Cost-Effective
Nowadays many cloud telephony service providers are available. This saves you from making any extra investment on hardware or telephone lines. You can opt for simple monthly plans that are less costly than the traditional process. Thus, cloud telephony makes the business communication system cost-effective.
Best Cloud Telephony Service Providers in India
Cloud telephony has made business communications easier than before. Modern businesses today like to rely on technology than traditional methods. Here are some of the top cloud telephony service providers in India:
Skycalls
SkyCalls – Best Cloud Telephony Service Providers in India
Skycalls offers EPBX telephone solutions based on the cloud. One can move their business communications to the cloud within an hour with this. This enables remote work and is cost-effective. Skycalls also ensure more productivity and a better experience for the customers.
It offers many services. For example- IVR, Bulk message solutions, missed call service, toll-free numbers, call centre solutions, etc.
Pulse
Pulse – Best Cloud Telephony Service Providers in India
Pulse is one of India’s leading cloud telephony service providers. This offers a new promising business communication, powered by cloud IVR. It makes the communication model simple and strong. It ensures great quality and a more guarded process without any huge investment.
It offers call conferencing, call monitoring, call management, IVR voicemail, and dashboard accessibility.
MyOperator
MyOperator – Best Cloud Telephony Service Providers in India
The cloud telephony service provider was founded in 2013 in Delhi. This enables automated call handling based on the cloud. This makes business-customer communication more advanced and secure.
MyOperator offers many features. These include call tracking, call reports, call recording, IVR solutions, and more.
Exotel
Exotel – Best Cloud Telephony Service Providers in India
Exotel is another popular cloud telephony service provider in India. It was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in Bengaluru. It offers cloud-based communications to Indian and Southeast Asian startups and enterprises. Its services enable the companies to keep up with the latest technology and deal with real-world problems.
Exotel offers services like number masking, automated calls, IVR solutions, and more.
CloudConnect
CloudConnect- Best Cloud Telephony Service Providers in India
The cloud telephony service provider was founded in the year 2018. It has its headquarter in Delhi. It helps to make the business communication process more efficient. This in turn contributes to sales empowerment.
CloudConnect comes with many features. These include call monitoring, conference dial-in, guest management, IVR, instant messaging, and more.
CallHippo
CallHippo- Best Cloud Telephony Service Providers in India
CallHippo is a popular Indian VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) based on the cloud. It was founded in the year 2013. This uses cloud computing to offer internet-based telephony networks for companies. It contributes to better sales and increased productivity. The best thing about CallHippo is that it is easy to use and cost-effective.
It analyzes calls through recordings, employee productivity, and customer acquisition cost. Its features include contact management, recording, third-party integrations, reporting and statistics, and more.
Servetel
Servetel – Best Cloud Telephony Service Providers in India
Servetel, an Indian cloud-based telephonic solution was founded in 2017. It is another popular and easy-to-use cloud telephony service provider. It offers innovative, convenient, and money-saving cloud solutions to the business communications model.
Servetel Communications Private Limited offers various solutions. These include IVR, virtual number, toll-free number, bulk messaging, and more.
Ozonetel – Best Cloud Telephony Service Providers in India
Ozonetel was founded in the year 2007 by a great team of technologists. Its cloud-based telephony solutions support various agents around the world. It was one of the earliest platforms to provide cloud telephony services. It has all the tools that ensure agent productivity and improved customer experience.
Ozonetel comes with many modern solutions. These include auto-dialers, dashboards with live call monitoring, AI-enabled omnichannel solutions, complete call centre solutions, and more.
Conclusion
Whether big or small, every company needs a strong and efficient communication model. Hiring people to handle phone calls 24/7 can be difficult. So, indulging in cloud telephony services is important for any business. This not only makes the process cost-efficient but also increases productivity and reliability.
Now more businesses are looking for Interactive Voice Providers for their communications. In India, we have many cloud telephony service providers like Exotel, Pulse, and more. Thus, these help businesses with automated and updated communication solutions.
FAQs
What is Cloud Telephony services?
Cloud telephony is a phone system that runs over an internet connection.
How does Cloud Telephony work?
Cloud telephony works through a Voice Over Internet Protocol. The communication devices are hosted over the service provider’s premises and are made accessible to the customers through the cloud.
Which are the best cloud telephony services in India?
Top Cloud Telephony service providers in India are:
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 Ozonetel.
The internet has showered us with myriad useful tools, cloud communication being one of them. Cloud telephony is all about internet-based voice and data communication where telecommunication applications, switching, and storage are hosted by a third party that falls outside the organization using these. Cloud telephony is among the latest tech that moves your business phone system to the cloud, allowing you to manage your business calls without compromising on quality and cost.
An emerging player in this domain is Ozonetel Communications—a cloud software solution that replaces your conventional business telephone setup with their VoIP services and widgets. Get an insight on Ozonetel Communications Success Story, Revenue Model, Growth, How it began?, Acquisition and Future Plans.
Transform Customer Experience with Ozonetel Communications
Ozonetel is a pioneer in providing on-demand cloud communication services in India. The full-stack customer experience software was built from the ground up to solve the practical problems that keep call centers worldwide from making the most of their communications platform. It is mainly known for developing and launching the first cloud-based customer experience platform in the Indian marketplace.
The solutions offered by Ozonetel are KooKoo CloudAgent and KooKoo Interactive Assistant.
KOOKOO CloudAgent
It is a call center software solution functioning as an inbound and outbound call center. CloudAgent shifts a company’s entire contact center and related setup into a single browser, making it easier for the workforce to monitor, track and make critical decisions. Equipped with business intelligence, the KOOKOO CloudAgent ensures that businesses provide a world-class experience to their customers. It provides a platform for them to engage with their customers through multiple channels such as voice, email, chat, SMS, and social media.
Ozonetel’s inbound call center solution is bundled with the following features:
CRM Integration.
IVR flexibility: The KOOKOO speech API lets users speak to the IVR instead of punching numbers.
ACD software distributes calls, SMS, emails and social media messages based on customer needs and agent skill set.
Improves agent productivity time and cost per ticket.
Improves speed of resolution.
Exceed SLA’s, boost CSAT.
Reduces call queues by live monitoring.
Ozonetel’s outbound call center solution comes with interesting features:
Clients can choose from multiple power dialers as per their business needs. Ozonetel offers both progressive and predictive dialing modes. These dialers can double agent productivity.
Remote dialing.
Improves agent productivity.
Reduces unproductive work.
Burns through the call list.
Easy integration with third-party solutions.
Data to be dialed can be prioritized based on various parameters.
Supervisors can monitor the agents on a real-time basis.
Outbound IVR lets send personalized automated messages to a large database.
Number Masking to protect consumer privacy.
Ozonetel provides more than 70 reports that give a detailed picture of the call center operations. Currently, Ozonetel has ready-made implications for the major CRM solutions as well as social media integration with Facebook, Whatsapp and Shopify.
KOOKOO Interactive Assistant (KIA)
A first-of-its-kind widget enables customer service help desks to run voice calls and chat sessions in parallel. The KIA widget integrates with Zendesk, Salesforce, Zoho CRM, and all other CRM solutions to automatically capture lead details.
By integrating the Kookoo interactive assistant with its website, a company gets the following benefits:
Customers browsing the company’s site can instantly contact agents through a click.
On-call agents can send critical details to the customer through the live chat window.
Visual IVR lets customers connect to agents in the right department.
It automatically captures customers’ details in the CRM.
Murthy Chintipalati, Atul Sharma, Chaitanya Chokkareddy and Rajiv Bharathan are the people behind the technology of Ozonetel Communications.
Murthy Chintipalati, Atul Sharma, Chaitanya Chokkareddy and Rajiv Bharathan
Murthy Chintipalati is the Founder and CEO of Ozonetel. He started Ozonetel along with his co-founders by leveraging the core strengths of his team to solve the most pressing enterprise communication challenges. Even after a decade leading Ozonetel, he ensures being available in real-time to address his clients’ needs. He has been a serial entrepreneur for 25 years and is vested in starting his own initiatives in the software, hardware, semiconductor, systems spanning networking, security, telecom, embedded systems, and applications segments.
Atul Sharma is the Chief Technology Officer of Ozonetel. He is responsible for identifying the right technology for the platform, making it future-proof and highly scalable while keeping the overall cost affordable for the clients. He is also responsible for managing and driving the technology team for network, telecom, application, security, operations, delivery, pre-sales. He brings deep domain knowledge of self-service applications & Customer Interaction Management to bear on the solutions Ozonetel delivers.
Chaitanya Chokkareddy is the Chief Innovation Officer of Ozonetel. He works with the latest technological breakthroughs and sees what innovative products can be built on top of them. This includes grid computing, cloud computing, cloud telephony, WebRTC, No SQL databases, and now AI. He makes sure that the right technology can be used in the Ozonetel stack at the right time. He has more than 15 years of experience working with the latest tools and loves bringing the latest research to life and applying it to this industry.
Rajiv Bharathan is the Sr. VP of Sales at Ozonetel. He collaborates closely with clients to find the best solutions to their call center challenges. Since 1980, He has worked in sales across IT and Telecom with major companies like HCL, HP, Wipro, and Reliance Communications. He has been with Ozonetel since 2012. He is passionate about being in the thick of the action from landing new accounts to helping existing customers get more out of their platform.
Ozonetel Communications – Vision and Mission
Ozonetel Communications provides a cloud communication software suite as a service to their customers. The company envisions making business communication seamless, intelligent, cost-efficient and easily available. Its mission is to provide a scalable multi-channel communication platform on the cloud to enterprises & entrepreneurs on the OPEX/ transaction model, enabling them to provide value-added communication services to their customers.
Murthy Chintipalati, Atul Sharma, Chaitanya Chokkareddy had come back from the US and wanted to get their hands in entrepreneurship. They recognized that when businesses were in the initial stages of setup, they’d been extremely serious about the company website but would rarely focus on setting up the right business phone system. In fact, many businesses did not even have a proper business phone system. The trio realized that it was happening because setting up a business phone system wasn’t as easy as ABC. They then decided to make the process of “setting up a business phone system” as convenient as “setting up a business website”. With that in mind, Ozonetel Communications first launched the KOOKOO cloud telephony platform followed by CloudAgent, the world’s first cloud contact center solution.
Ozonetel Communications – Name and Logo
Ozonetel wanted to be a layer around telephony, thus come out as the amalgamation of Ozone (layer) and Tel (telephony). The name KOOKOO was conjured in a jiffy (the team wanted a name with lots of vowels, like Yahoo!).
Ozonetel Logo
Ozonetel Communications – Startup Launch
Murthy Chintipalati, Atul Sharma, Chaitanya Chokkareddylaunched their product at the Unplugged Conference. Their marketing strategy at the time revolved aroundblogging and networkingat startup events. Word-of-mouth feedback from satisfied customers played a major role.
Ozonetel Communications is a SaaS company and has a “per agent/per month” revenue model.
Ozonetel Communications – Funding
Ozonetel has not raised any funding to date. It is a Bootstrapped Company. Bootstrapping means building a company from scratch with no outside funding. All the fundings are invested by the owner itself.
Ozonetel Communications – User Acquisition and Growth
Ozonetel’s only hack has been customer happiness. Interestingly, the company does not spend anything on marketing. Most of its leads are generated through blogs and word-of-mouth publicity.
With over 1500+ enterprise clients across 20+ verticals, Ozonetel’s KOOKOO platform supports over 50,000 live agents and has handled over 3 billion calls.
Ozonetel Communications currently serves in India, the USA, UAE and South East Asia. Reputed brands like Food Panda, Practo, Big Basket, Uber, WeWork, Medlife, HUL, Healthcare at home, and Zomato are some of its top clientele.
Ozonetel Communications – Startup Challenges
The major challenge Ozonetel faced early on its journey was technical in nature. It couldn’t guarantee on-call quality with the store-bought PRI cards; it overcomes this obstacle by designing custom PRI card hardware.
Ozonetel considers US-based Twilio as a source of inspiration aside from the competition. The venture tries to stay ahead in its segment through innovation. Ozonetel launched the world’s first cloud contact center product and is now bolstering its existing solutions by incorporating AI.
Ozonetel Communications – Mergers and Acquisitions
Ozonetel acquired Yantrasoft, a speech recognition company, in 2014.
Ozonetel Communications – Future Plans
Ozonetel is looking forward to disrupting the contact center industry through AI-based techniques.
Ozonetel Communications – FAQs
What is Ozonetel?
Ozonetel is India’s No. 1 contact solution provider. It is a cloud-based telephony service provider that enables businesses to communicate with their clients effectively and efficiently via all the channels, i.e. chat, email, social media, call, SMS, on one platform with no capital investment. The solutions offered by Ozonetel are KooKoo CloudAgent and KooKoo Interactive Assistant.
How does Ozonetel make money?
Ozonetel Communications is a SaaS company and has a “per agent/per month” revenue model.
What is cloud communication?
Cloud communications are Internet-based voice and data communications where telecommunications applications, switching and storage are hosted by a third-party outside of the organization using them, and they are accessed over the public Internet. It is a totally fresh approach to building, deploying and scaling enterprise communication systems. Cloud communications have the potential to reduce expenses and provide higher quality services.
How are customers finding value in Ozonetel’s products?
Ozonetel helps contact centers go live in a day with a reliable platform that improves customer experience and agent productivity at a lower total cost.
How does Ozonetel see the road ahead in cloud telephony technologies?
Ozonetel is going to be about omnichannel and AI in the coming future. Customers can reach out to businesses on multiple channels like Whatsapp, email, chat, SMS, video, etc. and will expect a quick resolution.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
We will be using hangouts, zoom or other software for official meetings or calls.
Employees are encouraged not to step out of home for a meeting, event, public gathering etc. unless absolutely necessary.
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 :
We have urged all our employees to work from home during the current crisis unless absolutely necessary to work from office.
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.
Further we have encouraged car pooling amongst our employees instead of taking the local transport to and fro to work.
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 :
We have chalked out a comprehensive guideline to keep remote working effective.
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.
We are relying on online tools and digital meeting platforms for discussions, clarifications, and progress tracking.
We have full trust in our people and are working on creating a support structure for effective remote working.
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 :
As a precautionary measure, we have rolled out remote working directives for all our employees across regions until the situation settles down.
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.
With daily work reports and progress updates, we are making sure that the deliverables are not affected and business continuity is maintained as normal.
We are connecting with the teams and clients through teleconferencing and video conferencing on a need basis.
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.
For those who need to visit the office for any urgent requirement, we are ensuring complete hygiene within the premises.
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
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.
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.
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.
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!
We are leveraging on technologies like Google Hangouts, Slack and Zoomfor work from home arrangements and ensuring continuity of the work.
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.
Concerning best practices, employees need to prioritize communication. This involves multiple video chats and protocols for communication and escalation.
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 :
Have dedicated Work Space while working from home and setting a work schedule and sticking to it.
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.
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 :
Hit the shower- To set the tempo, prepare as if it’s a normal day at work. Take a bath and get dressed.
Communication: Video call is must.
Never work where you sleep.
Set up a workplace at home.
Don’t forget to log off- When the day ends, log off completely and take rest.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The COVID-19 pandemic has effectively brought normal life to a halt in whole world. Social distancing, work from home and a lockdown are the only ways to stop the spread of this virus. Situation is not different in India too. The Indian government has done the smart thing by implementing a 21-days lockdown along with an international and domestic flight ban, and a stoppage of the railway service. But, this lockdown, work from home will impact Indian economy.
Transportation has stopped, manufacturing units are closed, shops which sell non essentials are closed, so this will affect economy for sure. One of the biggest potential impacts to India’s employment and economy could be the shuttering of manufacturing plants and assembly lines in the tech sector. So, this will affect startups too.
MyGate is India’s leading security and community management solution for gated premises. MyGate helps residents to manage guest entries and delivery executives. We talked to Vijay Arisetty, Co-founder & CEO, on policies the company has adopted with respect to the recent outbreak of Coronavirus.
Quick access to medical expertise and credible information, particularly in the era of social media, is extremely important in the fight against coronavirus. We are very keen on raising awareness on the matter and ensuring the availability of qualified medical advice for our 1.5 million+ users, and found strong partners in digital healthcare platforms DocsApp and mfine who promptly agreed to offer online consultation via their nationwide doctor network. Their doctors were kept busy over the weekend, with 2800 consultations completed over the last weekend alone, at no cost to our users.
Rising Sun
Inatur Ayurveda & Aromatherapy manufactures Organic and Natural skin, hair care and wellness products. These are safer, eco-friendly, and more effective skin care products. We talked to Pooja Nagdev, Founder and CEO,on policies the company has adopted with respect to the recent outbreak of Coronavirus.
We have taken the following steps to ensure the safety of all our customers, our partners & most importantly our employees.
Our manufacturing facility, office and retail stores are being disinfected regularly.
All employees have been given complimentary gloves, sanitisers & masks which are to be used at all times, without fail.
Strict measures are taken against anyone working in an unhygienic way.
Zamit
Zamit- a one-stop platform that networks & supports school ecosystems to be future-ready. It is an information, engagement and interaction platform that networks schools, students, teachers, parents, and school service providers. We talked to Aarul Malaviya, Founder, on policies the company has adopted with respect to the recent outbreak of Coronavirus.
The various steps taken by the company are as follows-
Our HR has created a ready-to-refer document and shared it with every employee of the company which contains all the information related to the virus and preventive measures to be taken. (The information is taken from verified sources)
Hand sanitizers are being placed at every entrance of the office and in all cabins/rooms of the office. The employees are asked to wash their hands at regular intervals and only enter the office premises on washing your hands using waster or Hand sanitizers.
The employees have been asked to communicate using various communication platforms like slack, hangouts etc. as much as they can to maintain social distance.
All the employees are being given strict instructions to clean and sanitize their stuffs like laptop, bags, mouse & mouse pads, phones etc. using Antiseptic Wipes which are placed in every room/cabin of the office.
The cleaners are instructed to clean the office using an antiseptic liquid throughout the day in equal intervals of time.
Disposable gloves are being provided to the cleaners and the people managing the pantry. The gloves will be worn every time they are serving any food item to anybody in the office.
Time slots have been given to each department of the office for lunch in the pantry to avoid employee’s exposure to crowded areas.
Face masks are made available in the office for every employee. Whoever feels the need, someone who is coughing, sneezing, running nose or symptoms of COVID-19 will have access to the mask.
Lastly, info graphics, posters are set up across the office as a way of encouraging the employees to eat food & adopt practices which will help in immunity building of the human system.
CASA EXOTIQUE
The company 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, Founder, on policies the company has adopted with respect to the recent outbreak of Coronavirus.
After consulting with experts in the field, we have adopted a number of routines to ensure that the risk of any possible outbreak is minimized.
The workplace is routinely cleaned and sanitized to provide a safe working environment for our employees.
Travelling, especially overseas, has been restricted and is permitted only in urgent or exceptional cases.
We have also employed a temperature gun at the office so that in case anyone contracts the sickness, it could be detected at the earliest. This would help prevent the disease from worsening and would also prevent the infection from spreading.
We have also asked sick employees to stay at home and we’re providing flexible leave policies as well. The alcohol-based sanitizer has also been made mandatory at the workplace.
121 Experiences
121 Experiences specializes in experiential brand communicating solutions to drive behaviour changing consumer habits. We talked to Aniket Sharma, Co-founder & CEO, on policies the company has adopted with respect to the recent outbreak of Coronavirus.
Following policies have been implemented starting this week –
Office will be open from 11am to 4pm Monday to Saturday.
No visitors will be allowed within the office premise.
All employees who have laptops need to work from home; also they need to be available on phone calls and emails during office hours.
For those who cannot work from home, a rotational cycle for attendance will be applied.
Avoiding non-essential local travel.
Domestic and international travel must be prohibited.
In their endeavor to create the most authentic and memorable fan experiences across the world, MyStarHub provides a platform where fans can book personalized video shoutouts from their favorite celebrities. We talked to Swapnil Mahajan, Founder, on policies the company has adopted with respect to the recent outbreak of Coronavirus.
The safety of our employees is of utmost importance for us, and understanding the seriousness of the situation, we have been constantly tracking the turn of events.
We have been maintaining the highest hygiene standards within the office premises and communicating detailed guidelines for personal safety and hygiene.
Initially, we started by restricting travel and face-to-face meetings to only urgent ones. But as the coming few days are crucial for India to control the spread of Coronavirus, we have declared work-from-home for all our employees since March 18.
Sify Technologies
Sify is the largest ICT service provider, systems integrator, and all-in-one network solutions company on the Indian subcontinent. We talked to Praveen Krishna, Investor Relations, Public Relations & Corporate Communications, on policies the company has adopted with respect to the recent outbreak of Coronavirus.
At Sify we have taken certain precautionary measures to safeguard the employees like daily mailers on hygiene, use of santizers, awareness through WHO videos, reporting colleagues who might be coughing or sneezing inordinately, no physical contact with each other, etc – Specifically, these are the is what is being implemented.
People
Stipulation that everybody should sanitise their hands a minimum of 4 times in the day.
Report anybody who is coughing or sneezing inordinately.
No shaking hands
Hydrate with warm water regularly.
Precautions
Daily mailers on maintaining hygiene.
If in doubt, get it checked at the nearest designated hospital.
Recommended home quarantine for 14 days on the advise of a medical practitioner.
In the event of co-habited work space, they have to have sanitisers on the desk.
WHO videos on best way to avoid and if contracted what to do.
Videos on fundamentals, for e.g. how to wash hands, how to wear a mask when out in public, what to avoid etc
All events, offsites etc have been cancelled.
Travel
If carpooling, recommended to exercise caution and not drive other’s vehicles.
International travel has been completely barred.
Domestic travel is also being monitored with hot spots like Delhi, Hyderabad and now Bangalore not recommended.
Quarantine
Anybody who has internationally travelled in the last 30 days is quarantined for 14 days as a precaution and a report is shared with the travel and health authorities.
Team Pumpkin
Team Pumpkin is 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, on policies the company has adopted with respect to the recent outbreak of Coronavirus.
We were one of the first few offices to declare WFH for all our teams.
We had taken a note right from the beginning and have been preparing to tackle the situation.Initially, we created a COVID-19 response plan and shared it across teams to keep them aware of the probable actions according to the corresponding situations. This was shared along with detailed information about the transmission of the virus and guidelines to ensure safety.
Sensing the seriousness of the situation we had limited travel only to the critical ones and restricted in-person interviews and meetings at all our offices.
The use of the biometric machine has been completely stopped and attendance management is being done through the partner app.
75F provides Internet of Things (IoT) hardware & software building products that makes office building more energy efficient, controlled and comfortable. We talked with Mr. Deepinder Singh, CEO, on policies the company has adopted with respect to the recent outbreak of Coronavirus.
75F Technologists and Sales Teams is working remotely to provide troubleshooting, ongoing training, best practices, and guidance to its customers.
Their Facilisight are fully operational through which customers can monitor, manage, and control buildings remotely through their desktop, tablet or 75F apps to lower set points, power down building lighting, or bring down unused zones or floors selectively to conserve costs and equipment.
75F warehouse are fully staffed, and their flexible cloud-based infrastructure will ensure minimal disruption to the business.
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, on policies the company has adopted with respect to the recent outbreak of Coronavirus.
At Dineout, our team is our extended family, and their health and safety always comes first! When the coronavirus outbreak first hit globally, we were as surprised as everyone else however we did start taking preventive measures right from the beginning.
Rigorous office sanitisation, availability of masks and sanitisers, as well as a Self-quarantine policy was implemented under which all employees (or family) with a travel history outside India, or those who have been in contact with affected persons or even flu like symptoms were asked to self-quarantine themselves for 14 days.
We also urged our teams to cancel any work related travel, reduce visitors and fever screening through IR thermometers at the entrance for the last 2 weeks.
We also practiced social distancing at all our offices by sitting at alternate work stations and maintaining 6 feet distance at all times.
From Monday, 16th March, we implemented work-from-home policy for our teams across all cities until March 31st 2020.
Our sales teams have also been advised to focus on virtual training and virtual client support for the next two weeks. In fact our teams are also having lunch together digitally!
In such challenging times, we continue to work together to overcome operational hurdles by leveraging technologies like Google Hangouts, Slack and Google Meets to stay connected virtually and ensure continuity of work.
Huddle
With a rich pool of dedicated experts and mentors to support the growth of early-stage ventures, Huddle enables the ventures to take their business to the next stage. We talked to Sanil Sachar & Ishaan Khosla, Co-founders & CEO, on policies the company has adopted with respect to the recent outbreak of Coronavirus.
The current challenges due to Covid-19, act as a reality check for a lot of startups and large ventures to realize who their real customers are and how valuable their product/service is. In an environment where doing less is helpful, there is a lot of reduction in spends which is funneling out and reducing customer base, which indeed has a detrimental impact on the cash flows of a venture. For us, we have taken measures to help our ventures from day one to create businesses that have a strong back end and therefore, not only those that can sustain during such unfortunate and unexpected times.
This period of isolation and in the day and age where social distancing is important, companies will see a reduction in funding, financing of their working capital due to reduced sales or utilization of their service and product, but the gain from this ‘downtime’ is to create sustainability within ventures through offerings that can add value despite the environment. We are prepared to support our startups through infrastructure and our team, with the resources we have to help them sustain and not succumb to any of these losses. At a time like this, is when our Huddle of portfolios are standing strong together to support one another. For us, we are preparing all the measures to support our ventures. Luckily we have not seen any decline in the speed at which our companies are working, and our onboarding of newer companies, because innovation is needed now more than ever.
Zolo provides fully managed, long-term affordable stay options with a warm and homely environment. We talked to Dr. Nikhil Sikri, CEO & Co-Founder, on policies the company has adopted with respect to the recent outbreak of Coronavirus.
At Zolostays, the safety and health of our residents and our employees is of out utmost priority. Since we operate a co-living model, we have come up with specific policies to tackle the spread of COVID-19 for both our employees and our residents.
For Employees
We have advised employees to ‘Work from Home’, if they are experiencing any kind of flu, cold, cough and breathlessness and have been asked to self-quarantine and get in touch with a doctor.
We have also encouraged hand hygiene by placing hand sanitizers around the offices and the commonly touched surfaces and objects are being wiped with disinfectants regularly.
We have also cancelled non-essential business trips and our efficient HR team regularly shares all the advisories released by the Ministry of Health and Family Affairs.
For Residents and HouseKeepers
We have initiated special training of the housekeeping staffs for the best practices of personal hygiene and sanitizing for COVID-19 prevention.
Personal Protective Equipment have also been provided to all our housekeeping and kitchen staffs including gloves and masks which are disposed off at regular intervals.
We have also provided hospital-grade disinfectants and cleaning agents approved by WHO for cleaning purposes.
All community activities have been suspended and a special trained support team is kept on standby to help the residents of any related COVID-19 instances.
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, on policies the company has adopted with respect to the recent outbreak of Coronavirus.
Ozonetel has adopted Work From Home (WFH) as one of their policies with respect to the recent COVID -19 outbreak. We believe that remote working model can be as efficient as working from office if we use the right tools. And since we can offer this option for our employees, we did.
Tjori
Imbibing cultural and traditional crafts from around the globe, Tjori is a platform for treasured designs across apparel, footwear, bags, decor, and jewellery. In keeping with the essence of our brand, it also offers a range of organic and ayurvedic skin care products, using secrets whispered through generations. We talked to Mansi Gupta, Founder & CEO, on policies the company has adopted with respect to the recent outbreak of Coronavirus.
We at Tjori are trying our best to create awareness and precautionary measures for our Tjori family, our employees, our vendors and our customers.
The measures taken under the office premises are that of compulsory mask on everyone who enters the office, a sanitization process for our vendors and customers who walk-in for their respective needs. The sanitization process contains the simple steps of handing a surgical mask and using an alcohol derived sanitizer has that helps killing the viability of the office.
The everyday cleaning processes has amplified and now every two hours a thorough cleaning is done.
The people who are ill have been given grace leave in-order to help them recover without any stress.
Packman Packaging
Packman Packaging is one of India’s largest manufacturers of corrugated boxes, corrugated rolls, bubble rolls, bubble pouches, courier bags, POD jackets, duct tapes, e-commerce shipping bags and more. We talked to Gaurav Jalan, Director and Founder, on policies the company has adopted with respect to the recent outbreak of Coronavirus.
Packman Packaging is trying what it can by implementing some of the things not just for the betterment of its employees but in a broader aspect its customers as well. Packman Packaging has already implemented certain work policies that include everyone from the workers and the management.
Packman Packaging is primarily working as a manufacturer so in the manufacturing unit, Packman Packaging has adopted a policy where the workers are being asked to work in shifts so that there will be a lesser number of attendances at a given time.
It will also ensure that every worker has a proper space to work because it is not crowded as it used to be before the pandemic days. As of now, this seems to work well.
Packman has a huge advantage because of its online store. And because of that the majority of the staff related to IT and customer service the marketing and sales teams are working remotely from their homes most of the time.
As for the senior management teams are concerned, the employees are working on a rotational basis. The management team members are working on alternate days. This way it not only helps the normal flow of work but also, ensures everyone remains safe.
The most important thing Packman Packaging has assigned its guards an added responsibility that whoever is entering the premises of the office and manufacturing unit he is making sure that everyone is getting their hands sanitized and wearing masks.
Also, there has been a floor manager assigned who is monitoring that everyone is washing their hands with sanitizer and wearing masks for every exit and entry in the respective floors.
Sick employees are advised to stay at home as much as possible.
Bridged.co
Bridged uses a combination of AI and a 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, CEO, on policies the company has adopted with respect to the recent outbreak of Coronavirus.
We’ve educated our employees on best practices (such as washing hands often and limiting physical contact) to implement during this health crisis.
We’ve placed hand sanitizers across spaces in the office, and even requested employees to practice social distancing and avoid unnecessary travel.
We’ve implemented a work from home policy.
With these efforts, we hope to flatten the curve by reducing the probability of our employees catching the virus, which is essential to mitigating this pandemic.
Covid-19, which has shaken the whole world has brought everyone’s life at halt. This highly contagious disease is spreading so fast that Indian Government has ordered 1.3 billion residents to stay home. In this lockdown period, all malls, theaters, companies, shops, restaurants, manufacturing units are shut. This will affect businesses and economy badly. Many companies have told their employees to work from home. But, its not possible for all companies like manufacturing units, theaters, malls to let their employees work from home.
People are also scared of going out. This coronavirus has made people’s lifestyle slow and it will take time for everyone including companies to come back on track after this long period of lock down. COVID-19 has put slowdown to a business everywhere. Travel, Hotel, Events, and Entertainment are the sectors that are suffering. But on the other hand, other sectors such as eCommerce, EduTech have benefited immensely.
How Industry and Customer Behavior will Change after Coronavirus Fight?
We have asked few companies about changes in industry and customer behavior with respect to their company after this coronavirus outbreak.
At this time people have become more aware and going back to the basics. I see that with respect to FMCG ethical labelling will be enforced and people will more watchful of the ingredients they are consuming. The trend for natural and organic care will be the rise.
Indi Collage
Anuradha Singh
At the moment people are more inclined towards online shopping but once the epidemic comes under control we expect to see more of experience based buying & shopping as a social interaction
Tres’Chic Academe
Chitra Balasubramaniam, CEO
Since we operate online most of the time doing business the customer satisfaction is high & this corona virus situation has made us realise our step taking our business online earlier & given us good dividends by doing so.
CASA EXOTIQUE
Bhawana Bhatnagar, Interior Stylist, Founder
There is no denying that business has taken a real hit because of the spread of this menacing disease. Many business firms are closing their stores, and numerous art and design fairs have been either canceled, postponed, or their upcoming plans have been modified. Moreover, due to the hindrance brought about in the global business, overseas procurement has become impossible. Due to this, the supply chain is going to be affected and this will change the dynamics of business. Customers are looking at products customized for them, made locally by us.
MyStarHub
Swapnil Mahajan, Founder & CEO
Well, we are already experiencing a shift from traditional gifts to personalized online gifting due to the digital revolution. With isolation being the key preventive measure in checking the spread of Coronavirus, digital gifting solutions will certainly get a boost.
While celebrations have been put on hold and people are staying indoors, getting a personalized video message from one’s favorite star on a special occasion will be a unique gift to cast off gloom in the environment and bring some cheerful moments to make the day memorable. Especially in the current scenario, being able to send and receive these celebrity video shoutouts that too without any fear of being exposed to the virus will gain popularity to keep the celebratory spirit on.
Just like every other industry, the digital media and advertising sector is also strongly impacted by the virus outbreak. Since consumers are locking themselves indoors to stay safe and social distancing has become the norm of the day, there is a likely boost expected in the consumption of content online. Internet penetration has already taken B2C marketing online, the isolation mandate due to COVID-19 will now de-popularize out-of-home advertisement and also lead B2B ad turn towards digital.
As people keep avoiding social gatherings and public places, they eventually would rely more on social media and therefore, the digital media consumption will increase significantly. Social networking platforms will shine even brighter during the need to stay connected and access content. And above all, digital marketing will provide immense opportunities for businesses to create leads without traveling and having any face-to-face interactions.
We are already seeing many companies curious to understand how the work from home model can work for their industry. We have executed Work From Home facility for Acko General within a quick time span. We do think this might act as a point where companies start thinking about their backup for remote functioning.
Dineout
Ankit Mehrotra, Co-founder & CEO
The pandemic has severely affected our operations and we’re seeing a heavy downfall in demand of our services at the moment. Social gathering is the key to our industry, while social distancing is the key to fighting this virus today and we’re strongly promoting it on all our platforms.
While we are not sure of the full consequences of the ongoing crises, this is certainly going to affect consumer behaviour as far as the F&B industry is concerned. Consumers will take some time to gain the confidence to go out again. The key is to provide for the safety and confidence for our diners once the pandemic subsides. We need to go above and beyond to make customers feel safe and engaging with them over the topic. A slew of measures can be taken as per the protocol prescribed by the Health Ministry, including increased access to hand sanitizers and hygiene procedures, body temperature checks for everyone at the premises, etc.
Meanwhile, we stand strong with our partners and are hopeful and positive for the betterment of the situation. We shall be ready with the help of technology to help serve both our diners and restaurants stronger and better than ever.
Packman Packaging
Gaurav Jalan, Director and Founder
It is too early to say currently, the industry is still operating as much as it can. But if it becomes a prolonged situation then there might be some issues but they will be temporary not permanent.
There might be a possibilities that sales of packaging materials may dip a bit because of several advisory such as not going outside a designated territory in that case several businesses that uses packaging materials will be affected.
One may also see rise in online sales that may still boost the packaging industry as it will open an avenue for supplying their products to several e-business platforms.
For Packman, their customers are the assets so it will ensure that it can continue its services to its clients and customers. In general one should be prepared and monitor where the company and industry will go in these tumultous times. Customers also understand what is going on so we are sure that our customer will still view us in the same light as they do.
We expect potential and present clients to become conservative with their expenses. Businesses will not be looking to experiment much (with good reason) and will only want to work with teams that have a proven track record and can satisfy critical requirements.
The coronavirus outbreak doesn’t change the fact that businesses are in the information age, and they will need access to high-quality data. Bridged’s USP is that we provide businesses across industries (primarily AI/ML and financial services) with a cost-effective and scalable data solution. During these trying times, we will leverage that.
With respect to the co-living space that we operate in, we will most likely see a decline in the number of bookings as this is a pandemic situation which has been declared by the World Health Organization and social distancing is the need of the hour. However, we do have single room occupancy which could also have higher response rate for our prospective customers and existing residents to shift into.
The online education market is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of around 44% between financial years 2019 and 2024, these trends are expected to disrupt the industry going forward. Keeping current trends in mind, ed-tech services will offer immersive and industry-specific learning across larger groups. Online learning and personalization of education will garner prime importance.
ZEUX Innovation
Hemal Gathani, Co-founder
Post the COVID pandemic, we will see the world becoming even flatter. COVID will teach people how to work remotely. And companies would want to take advantage of the best available talent from across the globe at the right price with the location not being a factor.
We will also see a surge in spending on digital initiatives. Industries would want to digitize everything possible. But going digital won’t be a differentiating factor and won’t necessarily lead them to success. Companies that provide the best user experience on digital channels will take a lead.
This is the time to invest in enabling best in class user experience as not only businesses will be compelled to go digital but there will be a massive shift in user behavior to do more things online.
Tjori
Mansi Gupta, Founder & CEO
The most important thing is to inform the customers about the exact reality of the scenario and give guarantees and assurances about the safe guarding of their money and products. Nobody loses anything because of this and all people need to realise that we are just at a halt for the next 21 days’ post which all activities would resume better than normal.
The pre planning done at any situation always help the company and we are also banking on ours, but at this unforeseen times we solve every problem as it comes. Through this platform I wish to advice people to stay indoors and safe.