As far as new technology adoption is concerned, Bajaj Electricals has implemented Blockchain with multiple banks. The company’s entire banking operations is getting integrated through Blockchain. The channel financing products, the discounting requirements, payments, etc
We have developed a CRM software in an after sales service kind of an application available on the web and mobile platform, for call center agents, outsourced service delivery franchisees and their technicians and the entire customer care internal team. This was one of the projects that gave us a tremendous impact because it helped us in improving our customer service delivery and satisfaction, which was a consumer centric initiative, which also helped us to have a control over technicians right from a geo tracking perspective to some kind of fictitious calls being recorded. Thus we got a good control over our service delivery costs. The IT department collaborated with other departments to seamlessly provide the services. Because of the mobile apps, the technicians are able to serve the customers more proactively than before. Even the call center agents were able to handle more calls due to the development of the intelligent software which reduces the number of screens required to navigate through to perform a particular action.
In 2016-17, we have also started on the digital transformation journey, which will have a long term impact. The focus was on customer centric digital transformation. We have engaged a consultant who will help us in working on six tracks – social media, cloud, analytics, IoT, web presence and multi channel. The consumer will be the focus in all these areas. Hitherto, the focus was on internal business operations and at the most, connecting our business partners. Traditionally, we are always selling through conventional channels like trade channels, institutional channel or modern retail format. We were connected only upto the channel point but unaware about our end customers. We know about a customer only if a customer logs in a call with the call center. To ensure that we know every customer, an analytics track has been introduced. The first phase started last year and the focus is on customer data acquisition. The customers are categorized as B2B and B2C. B2B includes Government institutions, private companies and builders. Bajaj Electricals also undertakes turnkey lighting projects like illumination of Victoria Terminus station or Wankhede Stadium, Bandra Worli Sealink, petrol pumps, etc. These are some of the big projects completed in Mumbai. We also do rural electrification and transmission towers in the B2B segment. The focus is both on B2C, end customers as well as B2B, our existing customers about whom we have some information but we want to increase the engagement with them, and give them a good experience from any channel – like multi channel experience. There are 2-3 initiatives for customer acquisition – the retailer bonding programme, which entails providing a PoS mobile app to every retailer and asking them to take a scan on the QR code, may be the mobile number and the name of the customer at the PoS itself. The retailers are given incentives if they get this information from the customer. Secondly, the customers can register their products on the website of Bajaj electricals. Customers are incentivised for registering on the website.
As a part of the digital transformation journey the focus is also on enhancing the customer experience in the B2B and B2C space through an initiative called ‘Project Evolve’. The company has built a state of art digital centre at their Sion office in Mumbai which will act as the fulcrum of BEL’s digital transformation journey. One of the primary objectives of this project is focus on improving customer experience and increasing consumer engagement across all channels.
Commenting to the media on the occasion, Anant Bajaj, Joint Managing Director, Bajaj Electricals said, “Digital transformations have become an imperative for all organizations in the present times. It can lead to tremendous improvement in business profits and help improve consumer experiences simultaneously. We live in a world where geographies are shrinking, communication is getting virtual and convenience is gaining more importance over everything else. Moreover, in this interconnected world, being the main driver of new age technologies, with the power of Artificial Intelligence, IOT, Analytics and machine learning, Bajaj Electricals endeavors to be at the forefront to provide consumers the best user experience & the most optimized conditions for living.
I am extremely thrilled to begin our digital transformation journey and would like to congratulate everybody who put in their smart minds at work to create this state-of-the-art digital centre possible.”
Shekhar Bajaj, Chairman and Managing Director, Bajaj Electricals added, “We hope to achieve improved decision making, efficiency, profitability and customer reach through this initiative. We are proud of our digital team to come-up with this unique and innovative solution which will revolutionize customer experience”
In 2017-18, the overall IT spending including security will be increased by 10 percent and 5-10 percent respectively. As far as new technology adoption is concerned, Bajaj Electricals has implemented Blockchain with multiple banks. The company’s entire banking operations is getting integrated through Blockchain. The channel financing products, the discounting requirements, payments, etc. As far as trends in the manufacturing sector is concerned, 3D printing will be a big trend. It can impact the designs of the manufacturing plants. Moreover, robotics, automation are going to make our manufacturing more productive. Thus the quality of the work will enhance. Bajaj Electricals is not heavily into manufacturing. It has outsourced to multiple suppliers. We are primarily a marketing company, focussing on consumer data acquisition, big data analytics, to analyse the customer’s entire journey. We want to increase the customer’s experience as well as enhance the engagement.
