Leveraging Enterprise Digital Transformation with Technology
Having catered to the enterprise sector, what has been your observation about the Indian market’s trends for IT adaptation in the enterprise sector?
We have seen tremendous adoption of IT in the Indian enterprise sector over the last decade led with what has primarily been a mobile-first strategy. If we look back about two decades, India was lagging quite heavily in this space compared to Western economies where various IT solutions especially ERP, SCM and enterprise IT solutions were implemented on a large scale.
All of that changed with the advent of initially the web and more significantly the smartphones. The rapid adoption of smartphones triggered an equally robust adoption of IT in the enterprise sector. This is also reflected in the fact that while a decade ago, our entire customer-base was outside India, today we have a much healthier 50-50 mix of Indian and Foreign clients. Q3 Technologies is doing some amazing cutting-edge work in the Indian enterprise segment with AI, ML, IoT, Chatbots, Automation, and BI-Analytics.
How is automation molding the Indian market trends according to you? Do you believe it is beneficial? Your views.
I see an aggressive push from CIOs of large Indian enterprises for automation, and that is hugely beneficial for the sector at large.
While the primary drivers for automation in the more advanced economies of the world have typically been workforce and cost-reduction related, Indian CIOs are looking at it more from the point of view of increasing productivity, enhancing efficiency and improving customer experience. The market trends therefore also reflect automation adoption in areas where employee efficiency and productivity increase can be realized. Our approach for automation is to start with a Proof of Concept (POC) for the customer, which helps in realizing the potential ROI and creates customer confidence.
Blockchain has evolved drastically in the past 5 years? Do you think that the Indian market is ready for adaptation to such a high-end tech-solution? What future do you foresee for blockchains in India?
While a number of pilots and POCs are already in the works, for India to adopt blockchain technology at scale, it will need a regulatory structure and government support. Along these lines, NITI Aayog, co-hosted the International Blockchain Congress (biggest blockchain conference in Asia) last year. Events such as these will eventually lay the groundwork for blockchain adoption in the country.
Having said this, blockchain has the potential to be a revolutionary technology which will eventually lead to a paradigm shift in virtually all industries including Retail, Banking, Healthcare, Education, Logistics, Real Estate, and Governance. Indian customers are slowly treading the path of Blockchain adoption with smaller simpler “blockchain-inspired solutions” to understand its applicability and scale.
Your views about Data Protection Bill?
India is very rapidly moving towards becoming a digital economy, and thus the Data Protection Bill allowing rightful and lawful possession and processing of data is a key to get us there. I think it is an excellent initiative at calling out data protection obligations while drawing on learnings from global privacy regimes and trying to remedy some of the issues. It lays down key provisions to promote transparency and hold data fiduciaries/organizations accountable for their actions. The Bill’s mandate on data localization will help Indian software services companies in the long term
How beneficial do you think AI and ML for the Indian market? Which segments of operations do you feel has the need for these technologies more?
As the Indian market is gradually maturing towards adopting cutting-edge IT solutions, AI-ML is here to stay and evolve. It has several applications in the Indian market – many of which we are actively working with our clients. These applications are in the fields of camera vision, facial recognition and object identification, augmented analytics with the help of trends and behavioral patterns and predictive modeling (for e.g., with respect to sales and inventory forecasting and equipment maintenance and fault prevention). Another area where AI and ML are being extensively used is in Natural Language Processing (NLP) and the use of bots and chatbots.
The use of advanced digital technologies like AI and ML are allowing Indian companies to compete and win in the global marketplace.
What challenges do you come across while operating in India? How are you mitigating them?
To my mind, we do not come across any India-specific challenges that are fundamentally different from operating anywhere else in the world. Every country provides some opportunities and some challenges and we put in plans to mitigate those challenges as part of our business strategy. In fact, the overall support from the regulatory standpoint has improved drastically in the last couple of years, thus helping the Indian IT industry.
What plans of expansion does Q3 Technologies have in the pipeline?
Q3 has emerged as a serious challenger to the existing service providers in India over the last few years. With a very large number of marquee clients in India, Europe, US, APAC, and the Middle East, Q3 is poised for even greater growth momentum in the future. With the recent large investments that Q3 has made in our expansion at the Mahindra SEZ in Jaipur and our new office in the Mumbai, Q3 has aggressive expansion plans in India and in overseas markets over the next few years. We have also recently started our Sydney and Dubai sales offices, with which we now have a presence across all the major geographies
What initiatives are you taking in lines with the Government of India’s Digital India mission?
Q3 is an active member of various GOI initiatives specifically with respect to the Digital India mission. Members of our senior management team have been participating and speaking at various forums like: FICCI, CCI, and GeM where we provide industry-specific insights and participate in technology showcases and tries to give best of our contribution to GOIs agenda of Digital Transformation. We are working closely with several Government departments for developing AI-ML, Chatbots, and BI-Analytics based solutions
