5G Poised to Fuel Supply Chain Innovation

There is a great deal of hype around the 5G technology and this hype should be taken seriously because 5G is widely believed to be smarter, faster, and more efficient than 4G. Although this much-talked-about technology is a long way away from being widely deployed, it is seen as a potential game-changer across the global marketplace.

5G brings to the table several key differentiators such as ultra-low latency, exponentially faster data speeds, more reliability, massive network capacity, increased availability, more uniform user experience among others. It has the potential to offer speeds up to 100 gigabits per second and is set to be as much as 100 times faster than 4G. No wonder, the technology has generated a lot of excitement among businesses and technology influencers.

5G for Supply Chains

The fifth-generation technology has so much to offer to the supply chain space – its sheer speed and its ability to handle volumes of data will have a profound effect on supply chain management. According to a recent survey conducted by Ericsson, 5G subscriptions are expected to touch 190 million by 2020-end and are predicted to reach 2.8 billion by 2025.

The technology promises to take supply chain innovation to the next level by leveraging technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), robotics, and drones across the supply chain. IoT technologies can help accelerate supply chain management by identifying chips, sensors, communication devices, cloud computing networks, and data analytics engines all working together to drive better decision-making.

5G will help businesses drive better visibility across their supply chains. It will also drive real-time data-sharing among all supply chain parties as well as enable organizations to streamline operations and accelerate production. Further, 5G technology is set to drive substantial cost-savings and ensure peace of mind for various supply chain stakeholders. Logistics companies can richly benefit from the 5G technology as they can leverage this technology to label, track, and record all shipments automatically and effectively address issues such as lost cargo, misplaced items, etc.

The much-hyped technology can also help optimize inventory and warehouse management, wherein its high-speed network ensures a more transparent and efficient process of collection, delivery, and archiving of goods and products. It can also optimize critical processes as well as pave the way for remote maintenance and control.

5G can be also handy in ensuring seamless fleet management operations. This technology owing to reduced latency enables real-time vehicle status updates, collision avoidance, leveraging emergency services in the event of an emergency, etc.

Conclusion

One can understand the keenness of organizations to hop on the 5G bandwagon but they cannot overlook the strong need to reinvent some of their existing data infrastructure and embrace analytics solutions suited to the task ahead. This will ensure that their supply chains are well placed to make the most of the new opportunities.

The power of 5G can transform all facets of supply chain operations. It is critical for businesses to understand the digital technology landscape and its benefits – often considered a key barrier to modernizing the supply chain. Only digital technology-savvy businesses can expect to reap the maximum benefits out of 5G technology.

Given the constantly-evolving market environment, the need of the hour for businesses is to work with all their partners as one virtual organization with shared information, shared processes, and shared decision support. Businesses that adopt such a collaborative approach will emerge as winners over the long-term.

Accelerated Focus on Digital Transformation Shaping the Future of Software-As-A-Service

The growing demand for disruptive applications and platforms across varied industries has reinforced the need for software organizations to deliver products with improved speed-to-market but at a reduced cost without compromising on quality. There is also an increasing customer demand for products that can seamlessly integrate across multiple systems. 

SaaS is no longer a nice-to-have, but a business necessity. The Covid-19 pandemic has prompted organizations to fast-track their decisions to shun the legacy IT infrastructure that has inherent challenges and shift to the cloud because it helps organizations achieve their larger objective of enhancing operational efficiency and delivering an elevated customer experience. The growth story of the SaaS market is poised to get only bigger in the years to come. According to a Gartner report, spending on SaaS cloud services is predicted to reach $145.3 billion by 2022. Further, if Gartner’s findings are anything to go by, SaaS is set to be the largest market segment over other cloud service models such as Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) that are predicted to touch $106.8 billion and $71.5 billion by 2022.

Our Customer Experience

At Innover, we are focused on consistently delivering engineering excellence to our customers. We solve customer business problems day in and day out. We helped a technology company by seamlessly building teams with their clients and delivering exceptional software development and support. 

We have forged long-lasting relationships with other customers as well. Our focus has been not just to solve customer problems but also to go beyond the scope of the task and suggest improvements. Our engagements have helped our customers accelerate business growth.

Key Takeaways of SaaS

Low Upfront Cost

A key reason why organizations prefer SaaS over traditional on-premises solutions is its low upfront cost. This cost factor has been instrumental in the rapid shift from on-premises to SaaS. The subscription model of SaaS works well for organizations and significantly reduces the time they would have otherwise spent on customization and implementation. It also eliminates the need to shell out a big software license fee as is the case with on-premises solutions.

Scalability

SaaS provides organizations with enhanced scalability – it also drives seamless integration across multiple systems. SaaS is a huge benefit for organizations that are embarking on an expansion journey (acquiring new companies, product lines/facilities, etc), as they can easily adjust and scale to meet their business needs without having to worry about improving their hardware. The SaaS model is also advantageous for organizations, whose volume production is cyclical in nature. SaaS nips any technical issues in the bud in case of any increased software usage as that responsibility lies with the SaaS vendor. 

Faster Deployment 

SaaS can be deployed at a much faster pace as there is little to no hardware involved, unlike an on-premises solution. It can be deployed across multiple regions, subsidiaries, and divisions – SaaS helps organizations avoid costs associated with those rollouts. Since these solutions do not require additional hardware, it effectively means that organizations do not have to waste time in procuring & installing IT infrastructure and VPN access across multiple sites. 

Ease of Accessibility

Another advantage of SaaS is its accessibility via the internet – it can be accessed anytime, anywhere, and across any platform. There’s no need for multiple builds of the same software for functionality across platforms, which effectively means there is no learning curve for cross-platform users.

Hassle-Free Software Upgrades

Software upgrades can be frustrating for organizations in an on-premises setup. Purchasing upgrades and new software versions to access new features and services can be a costly exercise. But with SaaS organizations do not have any such concerns as software upgrades are taken care of by SaaS vendors. Of course, the cost of those services is typically included in the monthly subscription fee but in most cases, these subscription fees are far lesser than frequent full-package upgrades. 

No Maintenance Headache

An exciting feature of SaaS solutions that gets organizations excited is that there is no maintenance burden. Even if there are downtimes they would have a low impact because SaaS vendors have access to a much larger workforce than what most companies have access to, which can restore any failure on track in very little time. This is in stark contrast to an on-premises solution, wherein the IT team has to invest a lot of time and money to maintain an on-premises system and administer regular check-ups to avoid unnecessary downtime and ensure the system is up and running when you need it.

Future SaaS Road

The Covid-19 pandemic may have left a trail of destruction all around but it has accelerated the adoption of cloud-based technologies – among all cloud service models Software-as-a-service (SaaS) is set to gain prominence in the times to come as organizations accord high priority to their digital transformation initiatives. The increasing focus among organizations on scalability, ease of accessibility, and cost reduction will ensure that SaaS remains the most preferred road over traditional on-premises solutions. Yes, SaaS is set for the long haul!

How Augmented Reality Can Reshape the Future of Supply Chains

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.

Conclusion

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. 

How Purpose-Driven Banking Can Drive Customer Trust

Over many decades banks and financial institutions have invariably focused on shareholder interest - they have considered 'Volume is King' as a success mantra but they now need to think beyond that. Banks are increasingly under the pump to respond to growing demands from customers and communities to think beyond profitability and come up with initiatives for the well-being of the society. This is where it makes sense for banks to hop on to the 'Doing Well By Doing Good'bandwagon. Banks are cognizant of the fact that merely helping customers take smart financial decisions cannot be their only prime focus in the long run. The global banking space is evolving at a fast clip, and want to bank with organizations that not just operate with the highest integrity but also infuse substantial socially responsive investments.

Realization has dawned among banks that their business strategy must revolve around setting and attaining societal goals by driving convergence between their business performance and the larger interests of the society. Such an approach can help banks emerge as socially responsible organizations. 'Doing Well by Doing Good' isn't about banks doing the right things for the customer and the society - such purpose-led banking initiatives can enable banks to unlock substantial value and competitive advantage besides helping them secure their continued existense in an uncertain future. 

The importance of 'Doing Well by Doing Good' is not lost on banks but it cannot be denied that banks have made tardy progress in walking down the 'Doing Well by Doing Good' road. This is largely owing to their overwhelming focus on delivering shareholder interest. It is crucial to note that banks while adopting a purpose-driven banking approach need to rewire its entire business and there is a degree of reluctance among banks to take this route since it involves a large strategic transformation, espeically during pandemic times. According to a Deloitte survey, 87% of executives believe companies perform best over time if their purpose goes beyond profitability. Another research study revealed that 72% of consumers are more likely to be loyal to companies that lead with purpose.

Banks are indeed taking purpose-driven banking seriously. Swedish automaker Volvo announced that it will phase out all petrol diesel, and hybrid options and only sell electric cars by 2030 in its quest to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC) framed a policy to stop funding coal-fired power plants owing to climate concerns and improve the society by donating money to philantrophies every year. Capital One, Ally Bank, and Alliant Credit Union waived overdraft fees - a move that is sense a huge sigh of relief for customers already bogged down pandemic-related challenges. Mascoma Bank also resorted to purpose-driven banking and provided its employees paid time-off for voluntering. 

Banks must not merely straitjacket themselves toward delivering financial services and must demonstrate committment to make a positive impact on the customers. Banks can do well by doing good by leveraging customer data and act as trusted advisors of their clients on budgeting and spending, helping them skirt detrimental spending habits and protecting them from bad actors. Of course, all of these can be achieved by banks by harnessing the power of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and cloud services. These emerging technologies aid banks to understand customer behavior and help them take smarter and safer financial decisions at all times, while providing cushion against any financial crime.

The bottom line is banks must put their thinking cap beyond profitability and carve out initiatives for the betterment of the society. And by doing so banks can strengthen customer loyalty and accelerate their ROI.   

Robotic Process Automation: Driving Operational Efficiency and Improved Customer Experience for Banks

There is a heightened focus today across the global banking sector on leveraging new-age technologies to stay ahead in a highly competitive marketplace. This is largely because the banking sector has been under a great deal of stress to optimize costs, boost productivity, address the shortage of skilled resources as well as deal with the ever-increasing employee costs. Further, the sector is grappling with other issues such as payment of regulatory fines and slow working procedures that have resulted in a significant amount of customer dissatisfaction. All these have posed roadblocks for the banking sector to offer reliable and more secure banking services to its customers.

The rapid shift from traditional banking to digital over the last few years or so has been accelerated by the growing need for banks to look for cost-effective and fast alternatives with their larger objective of accelerating operational efficiency through an improved customer experience. Robotics Process Automation (RPA) is being seen as the game-changer for the sector as it provides banks with the much-needed alternative to enhance their competitive edge.

The Covid-19 pandemic may have thrown normal life out of gear but it has led to a proliferation of digital banking services, which is poised to be the future of the banking sector, wherein RPA is the enabler banks need to offer low-cost and high-quality services without compromising one bit on security. According to a study conducted by McKinsey, up to 25% of banking processes are expected to be automated over the next few years – what’s more, RPA software for the banking sector will post a business revenue of $900 million by 2022. These projections indicate the impact Robotics Process Automation will have on the sector and help banks not just augment their operational efficiency but also build goodwill among their loyal customers.

So why has Robotics Process Automation generated so much buzz for the banking sector? Well, it can be attributed to the myriad benefits this automation technology offers. RPA has the potential to swiftly execute customer-facing as well as back-office tasks, ranging from sending emails, opening & closing applications, and transmitting information from one system to another. It obliterates manual, repetitive work that reduces the productivity of banks, minimizes the occurrence of risks, and engages customers with real-time scenarios, helping deliver an augmented customer experience. The best part about embracing RPA is that it requires minimal investment as banks do not need to modify their underlying legacy IT infrastructure.

Challenges in Adoption of RPA

Of course, there are challenges that come in the way of RPA adoption such as resistance to change, process standardization & organization misalignment, compatibility with legacy infrastructure, and lack of legal regulations governing automation. But the benefits of RPA far outweigh these challenges.

How Robotic Process Automation Can Drive Value for Banks?

Let us take a deep dive into how RPA can help scale up the efficiency of the banking sector.

Driving Customer Service to the Next Level

A large chunk of customer grievances across various customer service centres is repetitive in nature. The sight of long wait times and delays on the part of banks to provide information can be frustrating for customers. RPA can help address customer queries with a quick turnaround time. It helps banks save time and effort and also provides customers with the best possible solution.

Improvement in Compilation Procedure

Banks typically have the onus to strictly adhere to the rules and regulations, monitor the activities of their staff, report issues, and initiate steps when needed to prevent money laundering. Adhering to every single rule can be a tedious exercise, but RPA drives a smooth process by collecting a large amount of data and compiling it automatically, aiding banks in saving time and freeing up employees who carry out such mundane tasks.

Efficient Report Automation

A key aspect of banking operations is to present an accurate and error-free report for all stakeholders. RPA enables efficient report automation by collecting information from multiple platforms, confirming their authentication, and then producing the information in a specific format as per the banks’ needs.

KYC (Know Your Customer)

The KYC compliance is a long-drawn-out process for banks and slow and delayed processes can leave scope for a high level of customer dissatisfaction. According to a study conducted by Thomson Reuters, banks shell out around $384 million annually on KYC compliance. This explains why banks are turning towards RPA that can aggregate customer data, evaluate and validate it, and helps banks wrap up the KYC process in a shorter duration with fewer errors.

Effective Fraud Detection

The arrival of RPA has led to a significant increase in fraud detection, which makes it exceedingly challenging for banks to keep a check on every fraudulent transaction. RPA bots are capable of identifying new frauds by effectively leveraging the ‘if-then’ algorithm. RPA software completes the overall review within a few minutes and can identify even a minute of fraud in the system. It can also assess customer risks and warns them via notification to prevent further fraud attacks on their banking services.

RPA Road Ahead

There is no denying the fact that Robotics Process Automation has driven a significant improvement in the services of the banking sector and enabling banks to deliver an experience that is high on customer satisfaction. Of course, RPA can be a costly investment initially but it offers great long-term value, enabling banks to effectively execute smart banking operations and achieve good ROI within a few months.

Organizations Must Accord High Priority to Effectively Handling Supplier Risks

The supplier universe has evolved over time with organizations sourcing goods and services from suppliers separated by geographies, different time zones, diverse cultures, different geopolitical situations, and regulations. 

The expansion of the supplier universe is a far cry from decades back when suppliers of various organizations were located in close proximity and working relations were based purely driven by trust. The rapid globalization over the years has made supply chains more interconnected, which has led to increasing complexities within the supply chain.

Complexities across global supply chains have significantly enhanced supplier risks. Organizations are now wary about supplier failures as they can have major ramifications. Supplier disruptions such as natural disasters, economic crises, geopolitical risks unforeseen incidents at plants, labor disputes, etc. can not only hurt the profitability of organizations causing losses running into millions of dollars but also trigger reputational damage. The scourge of Covid-19 brutally exposed the vulnerabilities of suppliers and underpinned a pressing need for organizations to build agile, resilient, and future-proof supply chains.

Clearly, supplier risks are a critical issue that needs to be addressed by organizations. Over the years organizations owing to a lack of robust processes have been struggling to identify and successfully manage supplier risks. Over time organizations have counted on analytical models that leverage only historical data to assess supplier risks and failed to provide a warning about potential threats. This explains why organizations have not been able to effectively mitigate supplier risks. The need of the hour for organizations is to adopt a risk intelligent approach, wherein they proactively mitigate avoidable risks, and gear up with effective response strategies to counter unavoidable risks. 

Organizations will do a lot of good to themselves if they obtain accurate information about suppliers’ key performance indicators such as on-time delivery, uninterrupted supply of raw materials, supplier defect rate, compliance rate, purchase order accuracy, etc and accordingly, segment their suppliers based on various criteria. Such a threadbare supplier assessment exercise can help organizations come up with efficient supplier risk management strategies to minimize disruptions, as well as steer clear of monetary and reputational damages.

An effective risk management strategy cannot be a way forward for organizations without leveraging analytics. Analytics help organizations anticipate a possible disruption. Even if any unforeseen event cannot be predicted, it can sound out the fastest possible alert for a company to initiate necessary action and cushion itself from a potential disruption. This is where Predictive analytics comes in handy for organizations – it analyses large volumes of data sourced from across the business by applying hundreds of variables. Predictive analytics enables organizations to take suitable decisions based on the potential scenarios offered by analytics and ensure that their supplier ecosystem stays healthy at all times.

Effectively managing supplier risks is easier said than done. However, a proactive strategy well-armed with analytics-backed improved response measures can help organizations stay alert and skirt unforeseen supplier risks or at least minimize them.

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.