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Consulting, Technology and Outsourcing Services

How has the industry in which you operate changed in the last six to eight months?
Like any other industry, there have been cost pressures and people have become selective in spending money.

Kishor Chitale Head India Local Business Services, Capgemini India

So in general, we don’t see a large expenditure being planned but even if it is planned, people are watching out very carefully on the returns on investments. They are selective in whatever people are buying. We are pro-actively going as a service offering to the market. The buying pattern has changed dramatically in terms of spending ability and selective spending.

In the last six months, what have you done to:
Manage costs
We are operationally focused on getting the best out of available resources, including optimizing workforce.
Get new business and retain customers
We are trying to bring the best of Capgemini global story in India. We are very strong in government and public sector globally. We are focusing on that sector which is the best bet at this stage in a downturn market where at least some amount of structured funding is being planned. That one area, which is a strong point of Capgemini, is helping us to prioritize our focus in terms of what value we can add to the expenditure that is being planned. The other area that we are focusing on is the power sector.

What innovations are you doing in services?
We are now well connected with our clients to understand their pain points and the strategies that we are working together to overcome the downturn. That is what we call techno-vision in downturn.

Staffing Solutions

Mohit Gupta Co-Founder, TeamLease

In the last six months, what has TeamLease done to:
Deal with the slowdown
At TeamLease, we view the downturn as an opportunity to build new muscles and provide training. While training is a way of life for employees at TeamLease, the downturn gives you the bandwidth to review, refocus and sharpen the proverbial saw. Teams undergo training audits to ensure each employee’s performance is audited and the short comings addressed through rigorous training.

Get new business
The slowdown makes companies more conscious of their outsourcing activity and volumes and likes to ensure that statutory compliances are strictly followed. This throws up opportunities to work the movement of business from the unorganized sector (over 93% of employment is in this bucket) to the organized space that we occupy. We are more aggressive in the market and also more selective of the clientele to ensure that the growth partnership is mutual and the platform strengthens to mutual satisfaction.

Manage costs
The focus and rollout of projects that had been put on hold because of the exponential growth of the past 5 years has not only improved customer satisfaction, but also controlled cost. Activities like Internal Training, Skill Upgrade programmes, technology upgrades and innovations have helped to rationalise on costs both in the short run as well in the long run on many counts such as pressure on supply becomes considerably less and with more realistic timeframe we get to focus on productivity and quality rather than throw more bandwidth at every problem.

Corporate Gifting

Nidhi Seth Director, Pinnacle Rewards and Recognition

What are you doing to get new customers?
Contrary to popular belief even in this time of recession, we have increased our marketing budget. We are spending this on collecting database through reference and sending direct mailers. We are using promotional e-mailer effectively by ensuring that we send them on a regular basis and let our customers know what are the new things we are doing.

What are you doing to retain existing customers?
Good customer service is the most talked about and probably least implemented but that is the reason why most of our customers stick with us irrespective of their requirement. Budget cut are a reality everywhere, so we have already prepared economical options which our customers can choose from.

What are you doing to cut cost?
Nothing much. There is not much scope as I started Pinnacle with very less money we never had extra money to splurge. We were always conscious about where we spend money be it for human resources or marketing. However at the product end based on the requirement of the customers, we are sourcing and making more cost effective products. Cost of raw material and labor in many cases have come down so automatically our customers get benefited from this.

What product innovations you are doing in view of the slowdown?
Shortly we would be launching our own range of promotional products and awards under a new designer brand name. We are developing this range based on our experience and customer feedback, we have received in the past nine years of running Pinnacle.

Venture Funding

Sanjeev Aggarwal MD, Helion Advisors

In the last six months, what have your portfolio companies done to:
Manage Costs and Get new customers
There are a few dimensions to this. One is to reduce the cost of failure by quickly discovering stuff that does not work. So, reduce the number of experiments around new products, new markets, and narrowly focus on existing products and services and customers. Also explore channel partners instead of direct sales to reduce your cost of failure. Rely on the web like SEO and search engine marketing as an additional channel of sales, substituting high-tech sales with tele-sales, and only when tele-sales yield positive response do you deploy high-tech resources. Reducing the extent of free trials in order to convert your customers as early as possible.

Also increase the variable compensation and if possible hire some people on 100% variable compensation, which means they only get rewarded if they bring business. The second aspect is to focus on purchasing. So renegotiating vendor contract. The third part that we have seen across most part of our portfolio is voluntary cuts taken by top management team. In some situations, it is as high as 50%. So it acts at two levels. One, the management costs generally tend to be a reasonable number and two, it sends the signal across the entire organization. These are the things that folks are doing to manage costs.

What innovations are they doing in terms of products and services?
The trend that I see is that people are doing a better job of packaging services and selling those as a solution. The good example is the travel industry. You can sell air travel separately. You can sell hotel booking separately. But if you offer a holiday package in which your air and your hotel and sightseeing is all bundled under one head. So that is a solution. So folks are taking more complete offering to the customers. That is the innovation that I am seeing.

HR Software

Tushar Bhatia, President, Saigun Technologies

How has your industry - HR software - changed in the last six months?
Because of the recession, the focus on productivity has increased significantly. This has increased the demand for good HR Software. Earlier, organizations used to look for niche solutions to meet their different HR needs (strategic & transactional). Now organizations are asking for unified and integrated platforms which can offer complete solutions. With global M&A on the rise, organizations are looking for HR software that can manage varying policies, multiple languages and currencies - all under one platform. HR Software maturity is rising.

What are you doing to get new business?
Significant increase of marketing activities - especially those where we can track the results; increase in sales teams; qualitative improvements in the sales processes by continuous training; targeting new geographies; and targeting new segments.

What are you doing to retain existing business?
Major improvement in product and adding new features based on individual client requirements; meeting customers to understand where our product can add value to their operations. Adapting the product to meet these requirements. For instance, we may create personalized reports for specific customers to meet their analytical needs. Improving the engagement level of the end-users of our software by improving user-interface and providing training.

What are you doing to manage costs?
Multiple steps were followed such that we could continue to improve on the margins. Asked each department / function to submit reports on a periodic basis; then worked with each manager to see where we could trim our budgets and implemented suggested changes aggressively; communication with employees on cost reduction strategies - for instance switching off ACs when nobody is in office.

Juice Bar

Siddharth Jaiswal Co-Founder, Joos

In the last six months, what has Joos done to:
Get new Business?
We have started targeting customers by participating in college campuses, fairs, etc. At those stalls, we are offering drinks at a much subsidized rates to attract more customers to try out our products. We have also started offering different combos and schemes.

Retain existing customers?
To retain our customers, we have started customer loyalty programs. We are giving discounts to customers who have been coming regularly to our store.

Manage Costs?
We have also been working towards managing our costs. Like for example, earlier we used to prepare juices directly from fresh vegetables or fruits, but now we are converting fruits and vegetables into pulp and then storing them in deep freezers. This helps in cutting costs because these fruits and vegetables maybe firstly not available off season or secondly be available at higher prices. This way, the pulp can be stored for around two-three months. This has helped us in reducing cost by approximately 20%. Beside this, we have also reworked on our transportation cost. We now procure our fruits and vegetables from a nearby source.

What innovations have you made to your products?
We have come up with more natural mocktails, sandwiches and salads. We have also introduced more combo deals in our menu. Besides, we have introduced deals such as customers who opt for monthly deals have some price benefits over those who buy at our retail counter.

Managed IT Services & Solutions

Ranjan Chopra CMD, Team Computers

What have you done in the past six months to:
Get new business
We have set up a marketing department which is focusing on brand building, generating leads, electing right fit customers. We have been participating in several customer events, the CIO community and now the CFO and CEO community also. Becoming customer centric, closer to feeling the pains, sensing needs and offering solutions.
Retain existing business
Adding more value, reducing rates at times.
Manage costs
We have re-looked at all contracts and renegotiated, innovated, moved to smaller spaces, done more with less. Become religious about cost budgets.

How has your industry changed in the last six months?
Focus on what the customer needs, not on what you have to sell, become buyer-centric. Most companies have had to revise business models and those who haven’t are in the process of extinction.

What product or service innovations have you done / are you planning to do?
An example: We had a call center staffed with 10 people, built a smarter web based application which customers are now directly accessing which has helped us cut down call center strength to 3 people without sacrificing customer satisfaction.

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Promotional products
written by Promotional products, September 01, 2010

You've got a good team on board!

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