Indian SAAS Ecosystem: Oodles of Promise

Cloud-based solutions are gaining increasing prominence among businesses across the globe. And among these cloud solutions, one that is emerging as a must-have solution for organizations is software-as-a-service (SAAS). The SAAS market has been witnessing exponential growth not just globally but across India as well and holds so much promise for the future. The software-as-a-service industry globally was valued at around $100 billion in 2019 and is expected to touch around $400 billion according to a recent study conducted by a prominent industry body. The increase in cloud consumption, growing need for scalability, and digital technology adoption will be the key growth drivers of the SAAS market. And to throw up an Indian perspective, one cannot deny the fact that software-as-a-service is witnessing soaring popularity among Indian companies. According to Bain & Co.’s India Private Equity Report 2020, along with the Indian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (IVCA), the Indian SaaS market is forecasted to touch more than $20 billion by 2022 from $6 billion in 2019.

Clearly, the Indian SAAS growth story is earning global attention – it is estimated that the country’s SAAS landscape comprises more than 1,000 companies – more importantly, SAAS funding in India has grown at 15% CAGR over the last 3 years. Interestingly, the Indian SAAS companies are developing and offering solutions that are not just catering to the domestic market needs, but also to the global business needs. This can be gauged by the fact that Indian SAAS firms are deriving 75% of their revenues from global sales – it only reinforces the point that these solutions are not made just for the Indian market but also for addressing the global business requirements. 

The country has as many as six SAAS unicorns (companies that have a valuation of more than 1 billion). Freshworks was the first Indian SAAS company to attain the unicorn status in mid-2018, followed by Zoho – one of the SAAS pioneers in India. The year 2019 saw enterprise contract management solution provider Icertis and data management company Dhruva enter the unicorn club. HighRadius became the first enterprise to achieve unicorn status in 2020 and the fifth Indian SAAS unicorn, and in mid-2020 Postman emerged as the six Indian SAAS unicorn.

There is little doubt that the country will produce more Unicorns in the SaaS space. In the Indian context, it is a given that business-to-consumer (B2C) enterprises will continue to top the valuation charts, largely owing to the way software product enterprises function. The good thing about the Indian SAAS ecosystem is that Indian enterprises are carving out a presence across all levels. For example, Druva is serving large enterprises while Freshworks is catering to mid-sized enterprises, and then you have Zoho addressing the needs of less than mid-sized or smaller enterprises. And one thing that comes out to the fore is that the country’s SAAS ecosystem derives its strength from increased maturity, capital availability of capital, and abundant technical talent.

It is important to note that Indian SAAS enterprises started off their journey targeting the US market but over the years our SAAS companies are also catering to small and medium businesses in India and this has been possible owing to an increasing willingness among Indian enterprises to hop on the technology bandwagon as well as pay for it.  It is all about having a scale in the domestic market.

There is a general line of thought that the Covid-19 will dent the current valuations of SAAS companies, which effectively means that every player will end up losing revenue and the market will witness consolidation over the long-term. There is another perspective thrown around that heavy investments made in cloud companies has led to inflated valuations. Clearly, there is a need to address this as overcapacity and overfunding in cloud companies could impact the business if it went unchecked. It is also observed that in the current Covid-19 environment enterprises with robust balance sheets and those that are free from too many cost overheads will stay well positioned in the long run.

The Indian SAAS story has oodles of promises and many more frontiers are poised to be conquered notwithstanding the Covid-19 blues.

Importance of Augmented Reality for Supply Chain Resiliency

Organizations are increasingly adopting a customer-centric approach aimed at providing faster, reliable, secure, and accurate services across their supply chains. This is where Augmented Reality (AR) has emerged as a go-to-technology for organizations to optimize their supply chains.

Augmented Reality can drive enhanced efficiency across supply chains by performing traditional tasks faster and more effectively by leveraging camera and sensor-enabled AR smart glasses and devices. This technology has the potential to address various supply chain pain points as well as streamline work processes at the individual and organization levels. Further, the physical restrictions imposed on account of Covid-19 are only going to accelerate the adoption of AR.

According to a study conducted by MarketsandMarkets, the Augmented Reality market is estimated to grow from $10.7 billion in 2019 and is projected to reach $72.7 billion by 2024 at a CAGR of 46.6% over 2019-2024. These projections further drive home the importance of AR across industries.

Let us understand how Augmented Reality can serve as an enabler for organizations to build resilient and cost-effective supply chains.

Warehouse Optimization

The biggest USP of Augmented Reality is in driving efficient warehouse management. According to a report released by DHL, warehouse activities (such as packing, storage, and put-aways) represent around 20% of all logistics costs. AR smart glasses and devices ensure a faster order picking process by enabling workers to adopt a heads-up approach while performing their tasks. Such an approach ensures that workers’ hands are free and they can stay focused on their tasks. The AR Vision picking software provides every piece of information needed by workers to carry out their jobs such as what items to pick next, how many items to pick, where to pack them in their fields of vision.

AR enables remote users to have a glimpse of what the wearer is seeing, which effectively means that OEMs, consultants, repair experts, offsite managers, etc can extend their remote helping hand to any worker. This can help keep a tight rein on unnecessary travel and downtime-related expenses.

The AR-enabled heads-up approach ensures enhanced safety – it can also play a crucial role in minimizing errors across warehouses. AR devices overlay virtual models and instructions on any user’s field of vision, which makes it possible to directly issue instructions to the task at hand and receive specific, visual feedback on how to complete the work. It is largely owing to the clarity of these instructions that workers are less prone to committing blunders.

Transport Optimization

Augmented Reality can pave the way for increased efficiency across logistics operations. AR-enabled scanners and sensors help logistics companies scan and document errors, damages, and product issues for regulations and compliance. The power of AR can be harnessed in optimizing container loading as well as it reduces the need for physical cargo lists and load instructions. It facilitates loading instructions on a heads-up display with step-by-step instructions on how to efficiently load a container.

Maintenance & Repair

Augmented Reality can be exceedingly handy in detecting machine breakdowns at warehouses. AR smart glass devices with their enhanced image recognition capabilities can identify any machine breakdowns in sorting and repackaging of goods. This technology also ensures timely maintenance of systems and is instrumental in preventing any major malfunctioning or delay in supply chains. Let’s cite an example of a forklift breakdown in a warehouse, wherein a worker can contact the concerned person over the phone, who can see the breakdown via the camera-enabled smart glasses and fix it in real-time.

Training & Learning

A key aspect of Augmented Reality technology is that it can quickly train new employees and even brush up skills of even seasoned employees to learn a new task, thus driving heightened worker productivity. AR smart glasses help workers in prompt and accurate identification of items through their various dynamic inspection functions. In case any worker is encountering any problem while performing a task, the worker can pull up information on the smart glasses to identify a solution instead of exiting the work area to find a helpful guideline, checklist, or diagram.

Aftersales Services

Augmented Reality drives higher efficiency in aftersales services. It provides a 3D imaging of the product and can map the defect – what’s more, customers can leverage the internet or database to fix the defect. This eliminates the need for organizations to have a sizeable number of skilled laborers to fix such issues as well as reduce repair costs and time for the customer as well as the company that provides repair services.

Future of Augmented Reality

The globalization of supply chain management and the inherent complexities associated with them have created a pressing need for technologies such as Augmented Reality. Organizations are starting to realize the importance of leveraging AR in supply chain management and although this technology is still in its nascent stages, there is no denying the fact that AR has a massive potential to enhance the sustainability of supply chain management.

Demand Sensing - A Game-Changer for Forecast Accuracy

In a hypercompetitive marketplace, organizations are straining every nerve to keep up with evolving customer expectations, the rapid pace of innovation, and cut-throat competition. All these prevailing market challenges drive home the importance of accurate demand forecasting for organizations to drive business growth. 

Accurate demand forecasting methods hold the key for global supply chains to be agile, resilient, and future-proof. Traditional demand forecasting methods largely bank on historical sales data and a few seasonality variables and have obvious limitations in predicting demand. These long-standing demand forecasting methods leave out volumes of structured and unstructured data that may have an impact on demand as well as fall short of factoring in constantly changing consumer preferences and external market events. Traditional demand forecasting methods are not always 100% accurate, time-consuming, resource-intensive, and can be a costly exercise. Traditional demand forecasting methods are not considered adequate enough to predict demand, especially near-term demand. Such traditional demand forecasting methods result in frequent stock-outs, overstock, blocked working capital, and more importantly, an unhappy customer experience.     

The inherent shortfalls associated with traditional forecasting methods have brought on the need for a demand forecasting solution that can better grasp ever-evolving market changes and help predict demand with a substantial degree of accuracy. And this need for a high accuracy-focused demand forecasting solution can be addressed by the next-generation automated Demand Sensing solutions that are poised to transform the demand forecasting space in years to come.

Automated Demand Sensing solutions are considered the next big thing for predicting demand. Unlike traditional forecasting methods, Demand Sensing leverages a wide range of different inputs that affect data and demand plans in the short term and breaks that demand plan into daily buckets so that forecast managers can take immediate decisions.

Demand sensing is considered a more effective approach than traditional forecasting methods because the former counts on more up-to-the-minute information for forecast accuracy. It generates demand signals by monitoring customer sentiments and their conversations that enable organizations to meet consumer demand while driving the lowest cost possible across their supply chains. This much-hyped demand forecasting solution harnesses the power of emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning and analyzes real-time consumer demand information from point of sale systems, warehouses, and shipment locations as well as factors in weather, disruptions, etc to predict demand. Demand Sensing applies complex mathematical algorithms to automatically recognize demand patterns and spot complicated relationships in large data sets. 

Demand Sensing helps organizations to substantially enhance demand forecast accuracy resulting in higher levels of customer service, provides a more responsive framework for supply chains to fulfill demand near-term with precise execution, reduces overall inventory costs, enables organizations to gain a much leaner and efficient supply chain, and augment profitability. 

The true value of Demand Sensing can be realized in a well-integrated and synchronized supply chain. This demand forecast method will serve no purpose if supply chains are unable to quickly adapt and respond to anticipated fluctuations. 

Why Businesses Need to Leverage the Power of Digital Transformation?

In a rapidly evolving business landscape, organizations are pulling out all the stops to adapt to evolving customer needs as they are run the risk of being left out by newer, more nimble competitors. The fiercely competitive marketplace makes it imperative for businesses to embrace Digital Transformation (DX) to augment their operational efficiency and profitability.

Digital Transformation has moved way beyond being just a buzzword. DX is no more a matter of choice for organizations and has become a strategic priority to cope with evolving market dynamics. The significance of DX can be underpinned by the International Data Corporation (IDC) report that stated that worldwide spending on Digital Transformation is forecasted to touch $2.3 trillion by 2023, which drives home the point that enterprises are focusing on digital transformation as a long-term investment. 

It is important to understand why Digital Transformation is imperative for organizations. DX if implemented appropriately, can provide businesses an enhanced customer experience, in terms of maintaining real-time communication with customers. Further, owing to its metrics-tracking and data analyzing capabilities, DX enables organizations to leverage data-based insights to rework their strategies and processes for delivering even better results as well as take better and faster decisions.

Digital Transformation also substantially enhances the business agility of businesses and positions them in the highest state of readiness to continuously improve and innovate its processes and operations. Data security is often considered a pain point for businesses, but a committed DX strategy can help businesses address such data security concerns. Digital Transformation can be handy in empowering the workforce and helps businesses drive productivity improvements among its employees. DX also eases collaboration challenges of enterprises (who work closely with various industry stakeholders) by facilitating a transparent workflow that enables them to achieve operational efficiency.

Although enterprises are aware of the importance of Digital Transformation initiatives, its implementation has not been on expected lines. According to a study conducted by Everest Group, 73 percent of organizations failed to deliver any business value from their DX efforts. This is largely owing to lack of strategic planning among businesses, resistance to change, absence of a customer-centric approach, reckless technology adoption, and focusing on agility without understanding it or being adequately prepared for the same.

So then, what do businesses need to come up with to ensure a successful Digital Transformation implementation? Firstly, organizations need to showcase an unflinching commitment towards ensuring a successful DX journey. It is generally observed that organizations achieve a fair amount of success in its phase I of DX implementation but somehow are not able to retain that focus in phase II to lack of adequate push from the top management. At times, enterprises find competing priorities a big roadblock in the smooth DX implementation. Businesses will stand to gain if they accord high priority to their DX initiatives through its entire phase. Further, organizations will be better off if they break the entire Digital Transformation initiative into small projects and goals that can deliver measurable goals aligned with their vision and strategic intent. Organizations need to focus on how their operations need to change to deliver improved experiences to customers as well as employees while focusing on implementing technologies. 

There is no denying the fact that organizations cannot expect to survive without unlocking the power of Digital Transformation. DX has and will continue to remain an integral part of the day-to-day operations of organizations. 

Cloud Solutions Emerging as More Preferred Option over On-Premise Systems for Organizations

Organizations are increasingly looking at ways to stay ahead of the competition and see leveraging technology as one prime focus area as they strive to drive their business performance to the next level. Typically, for organizations embarking on business expansion, often grapple with roadblocks such as small team size, the unpredictability of demand, limited resources, etc. And to address these challenges, cloud computing solutions are considered the most preferred route for organizations in pursuit of business excellence.  Let us try and understand all the buzz surrounding cloud computing and why companies are so excited about shifting to a cloud computing model from an on-premise model. Cloud-based services offer on-demand computing services over the Internet on a pay-as-you-go basis, which effectively means that organizations instead of having to manage their files and services in a local storage device, would be doing the same over the Internet in a cost-efficient manner.

An on-premise model has far too many limitations, in terms of scalability. Companies end up shelling out a lot for an on-premise setup and are also bogged down by lesser options. Further, organizations find it exceedingly challenging to scale down when a need arises in an on-premises model and are hit hard by lack of flexibility. This also has the potential to trigger heavy losses, in terms of infrastructure and maintenance costs. Cloud-based solutions enable organizations to avail the pay-per-use model, wherein they only pay for whatever service they leverage – not just that, cloud solutions provide easier and faster provisions for scaling up and scaling down. There are many other factors why an on-premise model is witnessing a steady decline. On-premise systems require a lot of space for storing servers not to speak of power and maintenance issues that go with it. Cloud computing solutions are offered cloud service providers who take the responsibility of managing and maintaining servers, thus driving significant savings, in terms of space and money for organizations. Dealing with the frequency of scheduling software releases can be a big task in an on-premise setup, but a cloud environment facilitates automatic software updates. 

Data security is a big focus area for organizations, and this is where on-premise setups are losing out to cloud-based solutions. On-premise systems have lesser data security owing to the complicated combination of physical and traditional IT security measures. Cloud solutions offer better security as well as eliminate the need for constantly monitoring and managing security protocols. In scenarios of data loss, cloud computing has robust data recovery measures in place and can offer faster and easier data recovery unlike on-premise setups, where the data recovery chances are far lesser. In addition, data cannot be accessed remotely in an on-premise setup, while data can be accessed and shared anywhere over the Internet in a cloud environment. On the maintenance front, an on-premise system requires dedicated teams for hardware and software maintenance, thus loading up the cost of organizations substantially. Cloud solutions, on the other hand, are maintained by cloud service providers and thus saves your maintenance and resource allocation costs by a considerable degree.

Cloud-based solutions have three deployment models – Public Cloud, Private Cloud, and Hybrid Cloud.  Public Cloud offers a cloud infrastructure to the public over the Internet and this infrastructure is owned by cloud service providers. Private Cloud refers to the cloud infrastructure being exclusively operated by an organization and it can be managed by an organization or a third party. A hybrid cloud is a combination of the functionalities of public and private clouds.

Cloud computing essentially offers three service models – Infrastructure-as-a-service (IAAS), Platform-as-a-service (PAAS), and Software-as-a-service (SAAS). IAAS is a cloud service model where users can access basic computing infrastructure – it is commonly used by IT administrators. IAAS will be the go-to-service model for any organization requiring resources such as storage or virtual machines. Under the IAAS service model, the onus is on organizations to manage the application, data, runtime, malware, and o/s, whereas components such as virtualization, server, storage, and networking are handled by cloud service providers. 

Another cloud service model is Platform-as-a-service (PAAS) that provides cloud platforms in runtime environments for developing, testing, and managing applications. This service model enables users to deploy applications without the need to acquire, manage, and maintain related architecture. The PAAS service model will be the go-to-service model for any organization that needs a platform to create a software application. Under the PAAS model, you are required to handle the data and applications while cloud service providers handle the other components such as runtime, malware, o/s, virtualization, server, storage, and networking. 

The third and most popular cloud service model is Software-as-a-service (SAAS) that offers cloud services for hosting and managing software applications. SAAS addresses all software and hardware requirements and saves you the hassle of owning IT equipment. Unlike the IAAS and PAAS services models, the SAAS service model handles all the components of the solution – data, applications, runtime, malware, o/s, virtualization, server, storage, and networking.

Clearly, the popularity of cloud-based solutions among organizations is immense and only indicates its significance in driving digital transformation among businesses. In fact, a recent study revealed that the global cloud computing market size is expected to grow from $371.4 billion in 2020 to $832.1 billion by 2025, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 17.5% during the forecast period. These projections sum up of the massive potential of cloud solutions going forward. 

How Organisations Can Leverage IAM Solutions to Steer Clear of Security Breaches

Organisations are increasingly grappling with challenges of ensuring their data and resources are secure and not exposed to security breaches such as identify theft, identity spoofing, etc through internal as well as external sources by grant of unmonitored access to applications and devices their users need. 

Organisations are realising how a security breach of sensitive business data can have a massive negative impact and this precisely explains why organisations across the globe are substantially investing on resources to secure their company data. Broadly-speaking, companies face challenges of securing their company data against employee actions, securing company data against malware and finally the cost of implementing and maintaining robust secure measures. These security breach challenges have necessitated the need for providing organisations a safe and secure place to store identifiable information and ensure their assets are secure. And this is where digital identity and access management (IAM) comes in handy as it serves as a single pane of glass and helps easily mitigate security breach challenges.

It may be pointed out that in any typical IT architecture there are multiple identity data stores, multiple administrative points, multiple data synchronisations and replications, which result in data redundancies and where users have to get individually authenticated on all applications every time they access.   

A close look at an IAM-enabled environment brings to the fore the fact that IAM has the capabilities to reduce multiple data identify stores to a single and centralised identify data source centre, which further eliminates the need for multiple data synchronisations and replications. Further, IAM also serves as a single administration point and more importantly offers a single sign-on (SSO) option to multiple applications 

Identity and Access Management (IAM) is often misunderstood as having the same features as Privileged & Access Management (PAM). Both IAM and PAM are different. IAM takes care of business’ everyday users or customers, controlling the access and experience that those users are granted within an application, while PAM protects users with privileged access to sensitive data.  There is little doubt that security threats are a big concern across organisations. A study conducted by Cybersecurity Insiders in 2018 revealed that 90 % of organisations feel exposed to internal attacks. What is more alarming is that another survey also indicated that 75 % of security incidents result from internal risks.

IAM Capabilities

• IAM offers complete identify lifecycle management like user creation, credential management, entitlement, provisioning management, compliance, auditing and reporting under one umbrella

• IAM facilitates access management – it ensures authentication, authorisation, single sign-on (SSO), password management are properly segregated as processes

• IAM enables role management wherein roles are created, fine-grained and managed

• IAM helps security leaders to define performance metrics as well as implement periodic or real-time automated audit to meet compliance guidelines

• IAM is of huge help in the area of distributed workforce, where providing remote access to corporate resources could lead to secutiy threats, if not handled well. A comprehensive and centrally managed IAM solution ensures high visibility and control needed for the distributed workforce to an enterprise IT administration team

• IAM can help administrators consolidate, simplify and control access privileges where critical applications are hosted in traditional data centres, private clouds, public clouds, etc

• IAM can consolidate and centralised corporate directories as well as streamline the synchronising process

• IAM enables dispensing with the manual provisioning and de-provisioning as it can fully automate the provisioning and de-provisioning process, thus providing IT full power over access rights of employees, partners, contractors, vendors and guests

IAM Benefits

• IAM helps organisations grow their business by adopting a holistic IAM strategy, wherein customers are managing their own identities and authorisation and organisations always have accurate and up-to-date customer info

• IAM can pave the way for an outstanding customer experience – a key element for achieving online service success – IAM can help improve customer experience, which in turn, improves loyalty and ensures repeat business and builds a positive business reputation

• IAM enables organisations to enhance their business agility. IAM with its single sign-on (SSO) provision and centralised authorisation management can always ensure secure access to systems without creating additional security siloes

• IAM can go a long way in trimming an organisation’s customer service-related costs. IAM enables customers to manage their own identities and authorisations, which eliminates the need to call customer support teams for activities such as customer registration, creating new identities, authorising and de-authorising employees, activating OTP services, resetting passwords, etc

• IAM also addressed the security breached caused by people inside organisations – IAM can limit damage caused by such insiders by ensuring these users only have access to system they work on and they cannot escalate privileges without supervision 

• IAM plays its part in connecting people with application and devices - a key requirement for digital transformation but in doing so can trigger security threats. IAM can manage the complexities associated with connecting with people with various applications and devices by enforcing stringent security policies with strong authorisations.   

It’s only fair to assume that Identity and Access Management (IAM) will have a critical role to play in organisations staying security breach-free. IAM will pave the way for organisations to not just enhance operational efficiency, but also augment their business growth.  

Supply Chain Digitization No More An Option for Businesses

Supply chains serve as the backbone of the economy and play a pivotal role in the success and failure of any organization. The global supply grid is highly interconnected and any kind of disruption at one touchpoint has the potential to derail the entire supply chain and its operations.

Global supply chains have always been grappling with various challenges and have remained vulnerable to disruptions, demand-supply imbalances, and ever-evolving customer expectations. The scourge of Covid-19 has brutally exposed this fragility and left enterprises with no option but to step into overdrive mode, and introspect their existing supply chain models.

Clearly, there is a pressing need for enterprises to build an agile, robust and resilient supply chain. A resilient supply chain will enable enterprises to weather the prevailing market challenges and thrive in the future. This brings into focus the strong need for enterprises to ride the digital transformation wave in their pursuit of staying relevant and competitive. 

According to a study conducted by Gartner, only 21% of global CXOs believe that they have a resilient supply chain while 55% are still in the planning phase of building supply chain resiliency.

Enterprises need to accord high priority to risk management - they must focus on identifying risks and threats in their existing systems and put in place risk management tools and frameworks to avert any untoward situation. Further, organizations will be better served with developing a risk-awareness culture as well as a prompt and effective contingency plans. 

Enterprises would also do well to assess the risk profile of their suppliers and should chalk out adequate contingency plans for its high-risk suppliers. After all, a smart supplier management process shall stand businesses in good stead for the future.

Leveraging digital technologies is no more business differentiator but a business imperative for businesses to foster their future growth. Organizations can bank on advanced data analytics as the latter can provide real-time visibility into your supply chain activities. Enterprises by leveraging data analytics can anticipate future demand and can scale up or scale down their production accordingly.

Organizations can use IoT to avail real-time shipment tracking and storage condition monitoring that improves the forecast accuracy of shipment delivery, resulting in increased customer satisfaction, better warehouse planning and risk mitigation.

Blockchain can also help business add value to their supply chains, in terms of driving real-time load traceability, smart contracts, fraud detection, etc that can drive more trust, transparency and efficiency in the overall supply chain. Businesses can count on robotics and automation tools which can help streamline and accelerate tasks and processes that were once performed manually. This can significantly reduce worker fatigue, increasing efficiency and driving economic benefits.

There is an increasing focus among solution providers to build a reliable data pipeline for analysis instead of just focusing on new data gathering. These solution providers leverage analytical and statistical models to derive business insights and generate measurable benefits.

Businesses can make their supply chains more resilient by applying technology accelerators such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, Artificial Intelligence & Advanced Analytics, Robotic Process Automation, Distributed Ledgers, and Augmented & Virtual Reality. All these technology accelerators help organizations in attaining better demand forecasting, inventory management, capacity planning, and dispatch optimization.

Businesses are having to cope with ever-evolving customer expectations, the rapid pace of innovation, and cut-throat competition in pursuit of shaping up a resilient supply chain.

Clearly, supply chains have moved away from the long-held perception of being a back-office support function. It is no more about delivering a wow product or service but more about delivering a great customer experience that is more personalized and engaging.

Digitizing supply chains is no more an option for organizations. It is a must-have for organizations to stay relevant and competitive in a fiercely competitive marketplace.