The 10 Most Recommended Retail Solution Providers in 2019 [ Business Magazine ]

www.insightssuccess.in 

VOL2 

COMPANY OF THE MONTH 

FEBRUARY-2019 

ISSUE 3 

Shivendra Dwivedi 

Founder & MD 

Maxtra Technologies 

10 

T 

h 

e 

Most 

Recommended 

Retail 

Solution 

Providers 

in 2019 

AJAY PRASAD 

FOUNDER 

RISE RETAIL & 

PAYMENT SOLUTIONS 

Engaging Customers for Thriving Businesses

From the Editor 

Personalisation for 

Finding the Best Fit 

ustomers today are spoilt for choices and retailers are trying every trick in their book to 

Cgrab their attention. With retail no more confined to brick and mortar shops, technology 

obviously plays a big role in creating new ways to engage with the customer. Of late, 

personalization is being seen as the new marketing weapon in the retail armoury. 

Personalization or customization is the act of tailoring a service or product as per the customer 

requirement taking into account specific individual or multiple needs. It is used to improve 

customer satisfaction, sales conversion, branding and up the website metrics. It is seen as a way 

to connect to the customers on a more personal level and cater to their needs by recognising 

what they want. 

With technology at its disposal, personalization has evolved from just addressing the customers 

using their first name. E-mails, custom designed products, in-store experiences, push 

notifications based on customer purchase trends are all examples of personalization being put 

to action by organizations. Using data analysis and Artificial Intelligence, curated emails are 

often sent to customers featuring products to their liking. Websites often reshuffle their product 

image placement based on browsing habits of the customer. Some even use AR and VR to let the 

customer try a look before they buy it. This all is meant to give the best fit product for a 

customer in minimum time. 

Technology is helping retail restructure itself. From basic stores, online stores to self-checkout 

stores, technology and personalisation are all about finding what the customer wants and giving 

it to them in the best possible manner. Sometimes even catering to them even before they 

themselves realise what they want. For retail, nothing boosts their sales like delighted customers 

and since ‘No One Size Fits All’, one must personalize! 

Sneha Sinha

Editor-in-Chief Pooja M. Bansal 

Managing Editor Rahul Niraj 

Executive Editor 

Sneha Sinha 

Art & Design Head Amol Kamble 

Associate Designer Poonam, Shweta 

Art & Picture Editor Rahul Kavanekar 

Co-designer Aparna Vanzul 

Business Development Manager 

Akansha Garewal 

Sales Executives Sonica, Ashwini 

Technical Head Swapnil Patil 

Technical Specialist 

Amar, Pratiksha 

Digital Marketing Manager Prashant, Rahul 

SME-SMO Executives Swati, Manoj 

Circulation Manager 

Tanaji 

sales@insightssuccess.com 

February 2019 

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RNI NUMBER: MAHENG/2018/75953

INTERVIEW WITH INSIGHTS SUCCESS 

& 

Engaging Customers for 

Thriving Businesses 

CXO Standpoint 

Expert's Opinion

Ahad Retail Ventures 

EffiaSoft 

RanceLab 

Walkins 

Xtreme Media 

A R T I C L E S 

Providing Platform 

India Rising

1T 

he 



RETAIL SOLUTION 

Providers in 2019 

Retail Solutions for Superior 

Customer Experience 

etail Industry has come a long way from barter system, pop-up stores, brick-mortar stores to the latest 

Ronline stores and virtual stores. A big thank you to technology and a great push from ever-demanding 

customers are to be credited with the change. 

Change is good, but to adapt it, one needs solutions that best fit their situation. In this issue of Insights Success, 

we enlist “The 10 Most Recommended Retail Solution Providers in 2019” which have taken it up as their 

duty to bring tailor-made technology to the retail industry. These solutions aim at bridging the gap between 

customer needs and retail offerings to create delight for both the parties. 

The Cover Story of this issue features Rise Retail & Payment Solutions which focuses its solutions on enabling 

retailers with consumer engagement and developing efficiency in office management. Maxtra Technologies is 

our Company of the Month that defines designs and delivers technology-enabled business solutions for global 

entrepreneurs and business. 

Also featuring in this issue are Ahad Retail Ventures, a trendsetter in the Retail and Fashion sector with a rich 

experience in fashion, luggage, and footwear accessories, EffiaSoft Private Limited which builds POS and 

billing solutions for MSMEs, Lomoso Solutions Pvt Ltd (Walkins), an AI based, easy to use, low cost, 

integrated, data analytics based customer engagement platform and available on mobile and web, RanceLab, a 

one-stop destination to shop for Retail Software and POS hardware products especially meant for the Retail 

Industry, and Xtreme Media Pvt. Ltd, a leading solutions provider in Digital OOH Technology and Convergence. 

The issue also highlights the viewpoint of Alvis Lazarus, CEO, Hesol Consulting on Supply Chain and Anand 

Asaithambi, Co-founder, Intuition Systems on Industry 4.0 . Read through the insightful interview of Sadique 

Ahmed, Founder and CEO, Pathfinder Software Solutions Private Limited. Our in-house articles FDI and 

the Indian Retail Sector from India Rising and Required: A Retail Solution for Indian Artisans from Providing 

Platform intend to bring you some retail therapy. 

We hope you enjoy reading this issue as much as we did while creating it!!

Ajay Prasad 

Founder

RISE RETAIL 

& 

PAYMENT 

SOLUTIONS 

Engaging Customers 

for Thriving Businesses 

“ In this age of the Customer, the only sustainable 

competitive advantage is knowledge and engagement 

with customers.” – Forrester Research 

Businesses change with changing technology, customer 

demands, innovative products, and competition. What does 

not change is the bottom line – Customer Connect and 

Engagement. A business is nothing without its customer. A 

product or service is what its consumers make out of it. If a 

product hits all the right chords with the consumers, it’s a hit. 

While it is easy for the big businesses to indulge in research, 

trend analysis and other market tools to capture what the 

customer fancies and how to get in touch with them, it is the 

small and medium enterprises (SME) that often are at a loss 

of means to connect. The other fact is that these businesses 

have a huge share in the market and their combined forces 

may at times overtake major players. With changing times in 

the retail industry, the need to empower these retailers with 

tools to capture and benefit consumers in a huge opportunity 

in itself. 

Rising to the Occasion 

Rise Retail & Payment Solutions is focused on creating 

solutions which enable small retailers with consumer

engagement and develop efficiency in office 

management. It addresses the core issues such as the 

need for enterprise skills, technology, consumer 

engagement, loyalty benefits that small and medium 

retail market lacks. 

The company’s solution portfolio is broadly divided into 

two major segments that are significant for any retailer to 

be competitive — Consumer Engagement and Office 

Management. The Consumer Engagement Solutions ride 

on a cloud-based system boarding the consumers once 

they come to a retail store and then further managing 

their complete lifecycle as a consumer. 

The two significant factors that Rise Retail & Payment 

Solutions stresses on to build a strong connection 

between the consumers and the retailers are Loyalty 

Benefits and Continued Communication (automated 

wishes or offer based messaging). It helps retailers in 

touching lives of consumers beyond a single transaction 

by sending relevant offerings. Additionally, the solution 

helps the retailers in creating an online database 

empowering them to understand the different customer 

categories and effectively target these for revenue 

optimization. 

Rise’s Office Management module caters to the basic 

operational need of a retail store such as basic invoicing, 

inventory management, staff productivity management 

etc. Other additional solutions like customer referral 

module, enquiry generator, credit management etc. 

increase the overall ROI for the retailers. 

A Multifaceted Leader 

Being an active sportsperson contributes greatly to one’s 

personality making one sharp, agile, critical thinker, 

responsible, focused and a leader. Ajay Prasad, 

Founder, Rise Retail & Payment Solutions is all these 

and more. He is- an avid sports person, and has led a 

cricket and a football team, a singer who sings for his 

soul, and a keen follower of National politics. A man 

with an opinion, he always believed in the need of 

creating an ecosystem for the SME businesses to help 

them grow and utilize technology to improve efficiency 

and consumer engagement. A management graduate 

from IMDR Pune, his initial career saw him working 

with MNC banks. He also managed the business for one 

of the JV of First Data for India and Sri Lanka markets 

utilizing his strong domain expertise. After 18 years of 

handling national level roles and creating new businesses 

in retail payments, finally, it was his time to work on his 

ideas, and a time to have a focused strategy with a longterm 

mission, hence Rise Retail was formed. 

Connecting the Dots: Industry, Retail Store and 

Consumers 

Indian retail industry looks very promising with its 

phenomenal growth rate making it essential to keep 

stability in this segment of SME. The higher mortality 

rate is a big concern which can be attributed to the lack 

of structured fund, knowledge transfer and cost factors 

for running a business. Being an unorganized segment, 

percentage of regional/ local brands is increasing and 

hence the need to digitize and tech-based solutions. 

However, as Ajay points out, the industry lacks 

understanding of its consumer engagement needs and it 

has to move to next level of its current focus on new 

customers’ acquisition. 

Rise Retail has taken lead to bring the required stability

and is strongly dedicated to educate them on focusing on 

managing consumers using technology and analytics and 

focus on micromanagement. But the path is uphill as the 

industry, in this context, is still in the nascent stages and 

Rise’s initiatives are a little early. Educating businesses 

and making them aware of the need of consumer 

analytics and the need for tech derived system was the 

first set of challenges that the company faced. In spite of 

understanding the need businesses need sales to push for 

the decision. This has led Rise into a constant evolution 

journey making many modifications in its product, 

business model and propositions. As it ventures into the 

5th year of its strong presence in the industry, the 

company is witnessing the hard work and perseverance it 

carries being paid off. It is slowly observing more 

awareness in the industry and retailers getting sensitized. 

transforming our backend from single store to hierarchy 

based structure to give more flexibility, interactivity and 

command to its customers. 

Rise works on a defined market segment which has 

strong price elasticity and takes time for technological 

adaptation. Its expertise in this segment makes it 

competitive in terms of user-friendliness, pricing and 

bouquet of features that it offers. 

Rise is on a mission to improvise the way small retail 

stores run their business and impact the larger 

ecosystem. And this mission has received recognition 

Technology and Focus for Expertise 

Solution development at Rise is all about process 

orientation and feedbacks. As Ajay explains, “As a 

product model, we first work on the prototype of any 

feature/ product then look at technical stability and then 

the advancement work start. During this process, a realtime 

feedback is taken from the market in terms of 

product efficiency, user-friendliness and other key 

parameters.” 

The company keeps upgrading its 

methodology by making use of 

emerging technologies. It 

recently introduced an 

integrated invoicing 

solution which works 

through its loyalty rule 

engine. It is also 

looking at

1T 

he 





with the company being identified as one amongst the” 

25 Most Promising Retail Technology Service Provider 

in Asia Pacific in 2018” by a leading magazine. It also 

received the Pune Brand Leadership award by CMO 

Asia in collaboration with ABP News and Yes Bank in 

2018. 

A Note for Employees and Entrepreneurs 

Being a young company means significant dependence 

on individuals for Rise. Hence it is paramount that each 

member is aligned with the mission and vision of the 

organization. Employee motivation comes from the longterm 

focus, strong value system and a sense of creating 

something new in the ecosystem to serve society. Ajay 

himself firmly believes in contributing to the society and 

nation and for him, the journey has just begun. 

As an experienced entrepreneur, Ajay suggests that there 

are different business models which entrepreneurs work 

on. “My suggestion is to choose a product/ service which 

has a long-term impact on the society. Keep building up 

the value to make yourself stronger in offerings and 

returns.” Entrepreneurs must have a strong focus on key 

metrics i.e. staff productivity, cost and pricing command 

in the initial years. 

Expanding Horizons 

Like all successful companies, Rise Retail & Payment 

Solutions has a vision for innovation, growth, and 

expansion. The company is focused on horizontal growth 

which will help it to expand its portfolio of solutions and 

services at the same time. This could be achieved by 

creating a distribution system which is a first ever in the 

retail sector. Though many companies struggle to 

balance scalability and profitability, Rise Retail & 

Payments Solutions aims to perfect this balance by first 

building a strong base and then bring in the products. 

Web-enabled products and solutions are the company’s 

next project which would let them connect all the 

consumers engaged with the retail stores. Further, the 

firm also looks at expanding its retail base drastically and 

enabling it with payment solutions. Rise aims to reduce 

the loss of customers at small and medium retail outlets 

and build an enhanced brand image to pull customers to 

the outlets. This change in the ecosystem will bring lot 

more smiles to customers, who will be the ultimate 

winner of its effort.

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MAXTRA 

Technology Partner for Business 

After a lull of almost a decade 

for software opportunities in 

the Indian retail industry, there 

is a sudden storm. Traditional Retailers 

are looking for solutions that can bring 

them on par with online retail and 

giants. This pressure of going digital 

and being relevant to consumers has 

sprung up opportunities for the 

technology players. 

Leveraging this opportunity, Maxtra 

Technologies, started in the year 2008, 

defines designs and delivers 

technology-enabled business solutions 

for global entrepreneurs and business. 

It helps them to build products that 

solve their everyday problem through 

creative and conscientious use of 

technology. Understanding the 

criticality of a business decision to 

build new products, Maxtra, promises 

to do the very best and the right things 

for a project, user, and team. 

A Passion Driven Leader 

Shivendra Dwivedi, the young, 

dynamic and energetic entrepreneur, is 

the Founder and Managing Director. 

From being the young graduate from 

Rajiv Gandhi Proudyogiki 

Vishwavidyalaya to making Maxtra 

Technologies amongst most coveted 

software Development Company 

globally, Shiv, as he is popularly 

known as, has always decided to be 

unconventional at each step. He has 

created unprecedented milestones in 

business using the technology as his 

tool. His vision is to see Maxtra 

technologies as a globally respected 

corporation. 

Solutions for all Businesses 

Maxtra serves its clients with best-inclass 

services and customised software 

solutions for unique business needs. 

Being both a product and service based 

company; Maxtra thrives on creativity 

and cultivation of techniques by 

creating masterpieces in business 

development. It is now a globally 

recognised face of Digital marketing, 

website design and development, 

mobile application development and 

direct selling software solution. It likes 

to act as a helping hand to businesses 

looking forward to a future full of 

evolution, development and 

unparalleled quality service. 

Analysing the Retail Industry 

Describing the current set of 

challenges in the retail industry, Shiv 

describes an ideal business 

environment as one where principal 

companies and retailers don’t just grow 

individually, but together. With the 

growing demand for better goods, it is 

important for both entities to overcome 

challenges and forge a strong business 

partnership. The challenges right now 

are to keep running a profitable 

business with an eye for future 

innovations, timely changes to keep up 

with changing business environment 

and taking on digital transformation as 

a journey acquiring the necessary skills 

and knowledge and continue to 

innovate. 

Opportunities are never far behind 

challenges. Retailers now need to 

capitalize on technology to provide 

customers with easy access to their 

needs. With more customer 

empowerment, retailers will only 

survive if their business creates shared 

value that benefits shareholders and 

society. Social and environmental 

sustainability will strengthen the 

communities in which retailers operate, 

which will in turn appeal to customers. 

Maxtra will aim to re-design retail and 

other businesses so that all 

stakeholders (as many as possible) 

benefit: customers, 

associates/employees, shareholders, the 

communities it serves and those in the 

supply chain. 

Being Agile 

Talking about the technological 

advancements that are redefining 

14 FEBRUARY 2019

COMPANY OF THE MONTH 

industry standards, Shiv says, 

“Regardless of your personal 

opinion—Luddite or technophile—the 

rapid advance of technology isn’t 

going to slow any time soon. More and 

more small businesses that fail to 

adapt are going to find themselves left 

behind while the savvy ones who learn 

to keep up will reap the rewards.” One 

must understand how technology 

affects their business (for better or 

worse) and how to apply advancements 

in order to play them to an advantage. 

Maxtra offers its clients products and 

services that incorporate the latest 

technology in the offering. 

It aims to capture the incredible 

opportunity for companies to leverage 

influencers, who have built a loyal 

following and credibility within an 

industry, to market to enterprise 

decision makers. It is using analytics to 

gather industry-specific information 

that helps in identifying gaps in an 

organization’s performance and can be 

leveraged to achieve a competitive 

advantage. It is aiming to use 

Blockchain which represents a 

decentralized, encrypted secure system 

of record, with applications in 

government, HR and countless other 

industries. It is also developing mobile 

solutions to cater to every aspect of 

client business which can be handled 

from remote locations if a smart device 

or tablet is loaded with the correct 

software. Shiv says, “These 

technologies have incredible 

implications, and we’re just beginning 

to see their capabilities. More 

importantly, we’re just beginning to 

imagine real-world applications for 

their use.” 

Shivendra Dwivedi, Founder and Managing Director 

FEBRUARY 2019 

15

Creating an Innovative Work Culture 

Maxtra has full faith in its workforce. Shiv insists, “If a 

human mind can develop the technology, it sure has the 

capability to innovate it for use in varied business models; 

and that’s exactly what our people are capable of!” Maxtra 

takes care of five points when it comes to its employees - 

Clearly defining vision as a roadmap for the 

employees Giving employees what they want and need 

compassing tools, training, and support from 

supervisors. 

Communicate well and often during training sessions, 

memos, newsletters, FAQs, and regular meetings. 

Get everyone engaged in planning and decisionmaking 

Coach employees for success, and practice 

random acts of kindness. 

Feedback is another great motivator which should be given 

right away, to encourage more of the same performance 

when positive and to self-correct when negative. 

Advising the Entrepreneurs 

For entrepreneurs, Shiv says that it is important to know 

one’s passion in order to ensure that the work is done and 

finances are arranged. It is equally important to innovate by 

putting one’s passion to work in creating an organization 

that stands out from others. One should also look for ways 

to positively impact the team and align their goals with 

company culture. Entrepreneurs should also remember that 

“You can do anything, but you can’t do everything. Taking it 

step by step allows you to grow within your means. Use 

your money wisely and know when to say no.” 

Expanding Networks 

Maxtra Technology’s future growth plans include 

expanding its network of customers and to increase its 

products and services verticals for them. In order to expand 

its business, it intends to make strategic alliances with other 

companies that are a strategic fit with its business. It 

strongly believes that there are still significant opportunities 

to further expand into both the local and international 

market. To leverage on those opportunities it intends to 

strengthen its sales and marketing network by enlisting 

experienced marketing and sales personnel and 

participating in more transnational trade fairs. 

Shiv concludes, “For us, technology is not about services 

or products we build. Those are not the end goals. 

Technology is a democratizing force, empowering people 

and businesses through information and analytics. Looking 

for the future, we will move from mobile first to AI first 

world.” 

“We want to 

be the most 

innovative 

software 

company in 

any market 

we choose 

to operate 

in, no matter 

what 

country or 

industry” 


Providing Innovative 

Retail Solutions 

Sadique Ahmed 

Founder and CEO 

he retail industry today needs innovative and out of box solutions to cater to the ever growing demands of the 

Tcustomer. These solutions needs to be quick , adaptable and futuristic keeping in trend with the times and 

technology. Pathfinder Enterprise Solutions Pvt Ltd is providing the industry what it needs to win over the 

consumers. 

In an interview with Insights Success, Sadique Ahmed, Founder and CEO, narrates the story of Pathfinder. 

1. From an Entrepreneur to a business tycoon, kindly brief us about Mr Sadique Ahmed and share a glimpse of 

his professional journey to our readers. 


Interview with Insights success 

Mr. Sadique has been an 

Entrepreneur, Product Evangelist, 

Mentor, and a domain Leader in 

retail who helped the company to 

continuously innovate solutions with 

experience in building innovative 

technologies helping maximize the 

potential for Airports, Shopping 

Centres, Retail, Governments, and 

Aviation. He Started the company 

providing POS Solutions to small 

and medium businesses then 

reinvented itself to provide enterprise 

solutions to large businesses and now 

oversees the transformation of 

“Pathfinder” from a technology 

platform to a knowledge platform 

with an experienced team of veteran 

subject matter experts supported by a 

large Data Science team, the 

combination that is adding 

tremendous value to clients globally. 

2. Kindly brief us about your 

company and its inception story. 

Founded in 1994, started offering IT 

Solutions ranging from Business 

process management to 

infrastructure, security and 

networking. In the year 2000, we 

forayed into retail domain to offer 

POS solutions, then we innovated, 

the much renowned “XtreMe 

Imperium Solution” for Shopping 

Centers & Airports in 2008, which 

became the foundation for the huge 

success of Pathfinder. We got 

recognized by the shopping centres 

and Airports and received an award 

in 2012 for executing the best EPOS 

solution in Rajiv Gandhi 

International Airport ,Hyderabad 

India. As an organization, we are 25 

years old and about 10 years back we 

pivoted to providing data solutions. 

Our journey began with solutions for 

Airports helping them with capturing 

sales data and then running analytics 

on it. We realized that shopping 

centres would also benefit immensely 

from a solution like this. We are now 

present in over 100 shopping centres 

in India and are leaders in revenue 

assurance for shopping centres and 

airports. With our solutions being 

used in over 15 Indian airports, 3 

International airports, we are now 

acquiring international airports as our 

clients. Our latest innovation 

“RAPPO – Customer Engagement 

Platform” is no less than a disruption 

in the retail world. Currently we have 

direct global offices in India, Dubai, 

Singapore and Portugal. We work 

through partners in other countries 

who help us expand and penetrate 

new markets. 

3. What are the distinct products 

and services provided by the 

company? 

Our product suite consists of our 

“P+ Platform” which consists of our 

Enterprise Applications (Revenue 

Assurance, Lease & Contract 

Management, Facility Management), 

Data Sciences (Customer 

Engagement, Footfall & People 

Analytics, Blended Insights) and 

Consulting & Advisory services. 

4. What is your view about the 

current opportunities and 

challenges in the Retail 

Industry? 

There has been a shift in consumer 

behavior owing to the new channels 

of retail spoiling customers for 

choice. Brick and mortar retail are 

evolving and innovating to catch up 

with the consumer’s aspiration and 

cater to the modern customer. 

Consumers need an uplifting sensory 

experience which revolves around 

brick and mortar retail. In the next 

few years we will see technology 

blending seamlessly between online 

and offline stores. If you notice 

many successful online brands are 

now adopting offline channels and 

the reason is simple, they need to be 

there, where the customer is and 

give them a real-time experience of 

the brand and the products being 

offered. 

While this transformation occurs, the 

need for retail to adopt new 

technologies in Data Science is what 

will give them an edge over 

competition. From communication 


19

to engagement, data science is going 

to drive consumers to retail and focus 

on what the consumers want. 

5. How is the company 

incorporating technological 

advancement for offering better 

solutions? Please mention awards 

received, if any. 

We recently won the International 

Airport Review Awards for the 

“Revenue Generation” category. This 

was a great achievement for us as we 

won against large global competitors. 

With our data science being offered 

as a platform along with our 

enterprise solutions, clients realize 

the potential they gain from having 

data & insights ona single platform. 

Imagine a shopping centre, where 

decisions on new stores, trading 

density, sales performance etc., 

which took 100’s of man hours is 

now available in real-time. When 

customers can look at forecast of 

future revenues, this helps them gear 

up to run the appropriate campaigns 

on our platform itself. The data on 

conversions, ROI is all available on 

our platform, making it simple for 

management, operation and 

marketing teams to run, manage 

profitably. 

6. How does the company keep 

employees motivated and 

handles it’s societal 

responsibility? 

When you see a customer delighted 

with our offerings, being able to 

quickly realize business outcomes, 

make decisions on the fly, our 

employees know the feeling of a 

satisfied customer and that’s what 

motivates us all. Our HR team runs 

programs internally to keep 

employees participating in events, 

knowledge sharing sessions from 

senior leadership, so that everyone is 

on the same page. While having 

multiple offices is an advantage, we 

offer our employees the choice to 

work from locations that is closer to 

them to reduce the carbon footprint 

of their travel and saving time for all 

of us. 

7. What would be your advice for 

the budding startups and 

entrepreneurs in the industry? 

Find a market where your offerings 

could have an impact and focus on 

solving customer problems from day 

1. Find partners or gain the domain 

expertise and figure out the value 

proposition that makes it essential 

for your target customers. Be ready 

to pivot when you know you have 

taken a wrong turn. 

8. Brief us about the company’s 

future perspectives. 

We are driven on solving customer 

challenges with data sciences. This 

has led us to expand our data 

sciences offerings for global markets. 

With our focus on working with 

airports, shopping centres and, 

retailers we see a future where 

intelligent customer engagement 

drives business growth. 


Required: 

A Retail Solution 

for 

Indian Artisans 

India has been considered as a land of 

culture, colours and art. Art and handicraft 

have been an integral part of the Indian 

lifestyle from time immemorial. Statues and 

artefacts found by archaeologists at various 

ancient Indian civilizations are a proof to it. 

From handmade household items to delicate and 

exquisite showpieces, Indians are in love with 

their handiwork and so is the world. 

A Huge Potential 

The Indian Handicraft market is huge and stands 

at over thirty thousand crores. It employs over 

six million craftsmen and artisans of rural and 

urban areas. This sector includes a plethora of 

art forms like jewellery making, handmade 

fabric, cosmetics, fashion accessories, painting 

forms, pottery, idols, various forms of 

embroidery and more. This makes India a large 

player in the international market which exports 

over ten thousand crores worth of handicraft 

goods. This export segment is the largest chunk 

of the handicraft market. The other segment 

comprises of NGOs working in association with 

the Government for the overall development of 

artisans. The final segment is that of artisans 

which work and market their products locally 

and comprise of individuals or small groups. 

This categorization reflects the unorganized 

nature of the sector. The resultant is the lower 

than expected appreciation and cost that these 

deserving artisans receive. Having no access to 

the retail and global market, they have to settle 

down with the bare minimum sale price they get 


P R O V I D I N G P L A T F O R M 

via the middlemen who pocket a large share. 

Retail to the Rescue 

The Retail Industry which is the meeting point for product 

and the customer can play a much bigger/pivotal role 

bringing due credit to the handicraft sector. Retail as a 

sector is in a better position, has better reach among 

customers, and uses varied payment methods which can 

prove to be a focal point in bringing organized changes to 

the handicraft sector. Here’s how the retail industry can 

help leverage the handicraft and art. 

The need is to bring a common retail platform that gives 

these artisans an opportunity to directly interact with 

customers. 

The retail industry can help showcase quality products are 

various malls, shops and online retail portals. 

Their marketing agencies need to up their act by advertising 

and creating awareness about the handicraft items, its 

capability and unique items that can help customers 

enhance their lifestyle. 

They can get in touch with the artisans to teach them about 

designing and packaging their products in an attractive way. 

Dedicated malls or shops that showcase traditional crafts 

work can be set up at all major tourist spots to give local 


and foreign customers a closer look and direct access to the 

various items. 

Showcasing the products at important places like airports, 

malls, tourist spots, and trade shows will generate more 

awareness and new customers. 

Handiwork Needed 

Thankfully, today, the young minds are recognizing the 

opportunities that lays untapped in the handicraft sector. 

The Government too is looking for ways to the boost 

handicraft through its initiatives like Make in India and 

Gramin Haat. Many young entrepreneurs are getting in 

touch with the artisans and providing them with a platform 

to showcase their potential in the global market. They have 

introduced the artisans to technology and utilizing it for 

their benefit. Using technology is making them create 

newer markets globally. Imparting marketing and designing 

knowledge to artisans is also important. They can also be 

guided to incorporate new and modern designs in their 

traditional methods to create more globally appealing 

fusion craft ware. Dedicated workshops can be organised to 

take the art forms to more people and get more people 

involved with this sector. These steps are all necessary to 

keep the traditions alive and stop the attrition that craft 

villages are facing in search of better livelihood. 

- Sneha Sinha 

23

Ahad Retail Ventures 

A Catalyst for Indian Retail and Fashion Industry 

The Retail Industry is in a 

disruption phase globally. In 

India, the share of organized 

retail business is expected to touch 

approx twenty per cent by 2020 and 

the Indian E-commerce Industry is 

likely to touch a hundred billion US 

Dollars mark. With the consumers 

becoming more aware and spoilt with 

opportunities, the future belongs to 

those who are able to define and cater 

to the long term needs of the 

consumers with product & fashionoriented 

benefits. Catering to these 

new-age customers who want 

services and brands at the snap of a 

finger or rather click of a cursor is 

Ahad Retail Ventures. 

A Brand is Born 

The company was formed with 

humble beginnings in 1978 at 

Bangalore through the efforts of 

Ifthikar Saleem, a Bangalore based 

reputable entrepreneur, Retailer and 

Realtor. He initially started with 

Dolphin Stores at High Streets of 

Bangalore and over the years slowly 

evolved into what it is today. He is a 

seasoned expert with over four 

decades of experience in the Retail 

and Real Estate industry. He has 

received a plethora of awards and 

critical acclaim for his immense 

contribution to the Industry including 

Indira Gandhi Priyadarshini Award, 

Rajiv Gandhi Excellence Award, 

Nations Pride of the Millennium 

Award, A listing in the 100 Most 

Influential Retail Leaders. Under his 

watch and leadership, Ahad Retail is 

on the verge of ushering in a 

renaissance in the industry. 

Offering Premium Services 

Ahad Retail Venture offers services in 

Franchising; Space Consulting; and 

Retailing. 

It is revered as one of the frontline 

franchise companies delivering 

excellent franchising services to 

international brands. It comes to 

terms with the primary objectives, 

brand value, uniformity, customer 

handling, sales push plans, events, 

and culture of the client. In 

franchising, it offers the best of its 

talent, expertise, prime real estate for 

a great in-store experience. 

Location is a prime factor for a retail 

store’s success. At Ahad Retail, local 

and offshore clients receive the best 

real estate and space consulting 

services. Its in-depth findings on the 

locality, client's contenders, and set 

target, help them position rightly and 

assisting them to make a choice, 

negotiate and run the retail store. 

For retailing solutions, it develops a 

strategy that takes care of location, 

kind of store and its chain, selling, 

in-store experience, sales and aftersales 

services for client’s products 

and to be sure it’s one huge success. 

Overall, it offers an end-to-end retail 

service. 

Ahad Retail Ventures today is a core 

member of the ‘Retailers Association 

of India’ and has over 100 employees 

on its payroll with an unrivalled 

experience of partnering with over 40 

International and premium brands 

over the years. Today, it facilitates 

retail for brands including Creyate 

Custom Clothing, U.S. Polo, Delsey 

Paris, Fab Alley & Indya, Flying 

Machine, Ed Hardy, the Children's 

Place and many more across high 

Streets, Malls & Luxury Malls with a 

rooted presence in Bangalore. 

A Progressive Strategy 

In the mainstream for four decades, 

Ahad Retail Ventures understands the 

importance of staying in sync with 

changing times. So adapting to new 

and better technologies is considered 


1T 

he 





Ahad Ifthikar 

Director 

“ Indian Retail is coming 

of age with many new 

Indian Retail houses 

learning from the 

international markets 

Ifthikar Saleem 

Founder & MD 

“ 

Motivating the Millennial 

vital. Its backend operations recently moved onto a custom 

built cloud system allowing it to streamline the process and 

resulting in better efficiency and effectiveness in 

management. It has also been using technology across for 

CRM, Social Media Marketing, Partner Management, as well 

as vendor management. All of these IT adoptions has helped it 

stay in pace with the industry. It has also adopted Omnichannel 

across a few of its stores through its business partners 

and this has certainly helped it improve its performance and 

top line. 

Maintaining the Lead 

Ahad Retail Ventures is an equal and social employer. It is 

complete with all necessary labour rules and regulations of 

the government. Its employees are its assets and it treats them 

with respect and dignity in order to enable them to achieve 

their career ambitions. It also ensures that the employees 

engage in regular mentoring and feedback sessions to 

continually improve themselves and ensure that the customers 

get the best-in-class service. 

Years of experience has made Ifthikar a role-model 

for the young ones who are looking to carve their 

own niche in the retail space. To such youngsters, his 

motivational message asks them to “Stay focused on 

the profit. Focus on Sustainable growth. Stay 

Bootstrapped. Contribute to the society.” 

Projecting Future 

Ahad Retail Ventures is currently at an exciting phase 

in the growth story. It has evolved and repositioned 

itself as a premium and luxury retailer in the market 

over the years and the future looks bright and 

beautiful for its esteemed clientele. It is growing and 

actively evaluating opportunities that are aligned 

with its business plans and its vision. 


25

Expediting Efcient, Intelligent and Affordable Technology 

Founded in 2012, EffiaSoft 

Private Limited is a Point Of 

Sales (POS) and Billing 

platform development company based 

out of Hyderabad, India. The 

company’s vision is to be omnichannel 

at every billing point in order to enable 

MSMEs to adopt technology faster by 

reducing the fear and cost of 

technology. The company works 

together with leading payments, 

hardware and retail distributors and 

strategic business partners to bring 

global networks and competencies to 

provide solutions to the whole Micro- 

Small-Medium business segment. 

A Visionary Founder 

Koushik Shee is the passionate 

technocrat behind EffiaSoft. An M.S. 

in Computer Science, he took to 

computer programming at an early age 

of 13, and now has over two decades 

of coding experience. EffiaSoft is his 

3rd startup after his two self-funded, 

single-man start-ups received 

moderate success but provided him 

with a vast experience and exposure on 

entrepreneurship. Before the 

entrepreneur bug hit him, Koushik 

served at Oracle managing enterprise 

software architecture, algorithm, data 

structure, design patterns, R&D and 

project management. He had also 

developed multiple Govt, NGO and 

freelancing project since his college 

days as part of his programming 

hobby. 

Best-in-Class Software Solutions 

EffiaSoft has led global products and 

solutions in billing, POS, inventory, 

purchasing, CRM, accounting, 

e-commerce and end point 

aggregation. The company’s flagship 

product called “Just Billing” platform 

has been used to generate 5 Million of 

tax invoices amounting INR 60 

Billions of transaction value just within 

less than two years and organically 

without any marketing expenses. It has 

enabled end-to-end solutions for 

Retail, Food & Brewarages, 

Distribution Supply Chain, Inflight 

Retail Management and smarter SME 

toolkit by financial institutes. The 

solution is also being used by Fortune 

500 companies from Retail, FMCG, 

Oil & Gas, Airlines and Shipping 

industries. EffiaSoft is amongst the first 

to deliver GST based retail and 

distribution billing software at the 

national level. Just Billing is rated 

highest 4.7 stars in the Google Play 

Store in the POS segment by the 

customers. 

Other solutions by EffiaSoft include: 

• Retail Management Software -- 

Multi-Channel Retail Management 

System & point of sale software. 

• Restaurant Management Software -- 

Multi-Channel Restaurant 

Management System & point of sale 

software. 

• Distribution Management Software -- 

Multi-location distribution 

management & aggregation system. 

• Inflight Retail Management Solution - 

- Inflight retail sales, billing, inventory, 

automation, reconciliation and 

aggregation. 

• Bank Smarter SME ToolKit -- 

Replacing card processing Electronic 

Data Capture (EDC) devices for 

merchants with smarter devices not 

just to process payments but also to 

manage the day-to-day business by 

merchants. 

Meeting Challenges and Greeting 

Opportunities 

Koushik considers MSME sector as the 

most vibrant and dynamic, yet an 

underrated sector. It promises high 

growth potential for the Indian 

economy but is lacking the required 

support it needs to be more competitive 

at National and International level. The 

MSME share to the total Gross 

Domestic Product (GDP) is about 37%, 

provide employment to around 40% 

workforce and they also contribute to 

43% of exports based on the data 

maintained by Ministry of Commerce. 

Yet they face a number of problems 

such as inadequate and timely banking 

finance, skilled manpower, limited 

capital and knowledge, non-availability 

of suitable technology, ineffective 

marketing strategy, constraints on 

modernization & expansions, etc. 

But with recent changes in government 

policies to technological advancement, 

MSME is looking forward to 

leveraging the e-commerce trend, 


1T 

he 





“ 

• IBM “Global Entrepreneur” 

• Google “Startup Launch” 

Actions 

speak 

louder 

than 

words 

Koushik Shee 

Founder 

“ 

adoption of technology, taking advantage of Government & 

financial schemes, social media and mobile phones. 

EffiaSoft is providing in its own capacity to embed the 

social and cloud platform to open up vast opportunities for 

revenue growth and operational efficiency. 

Backing Technology 

EffiaSoft boasts of a multi-tenancy, multi-level aggregation, 

rapid business application development framework, multilayer 

Service Oriented Architecture and simplified DIY 

model. Its agility lets it adapt to the latest technology in less 

time providing the following benefits to clients: 

• Technology: Mobile, Cloud and Blockchain. 

• Cost: SaaS multi-tenancy, negligible CAPEX, low OPEX, 

• Functionality: End-to-End business solution and 

compliances for MSME 

• Platform: Solution for various business verticals and 

business needs 

• Pre-configured workflows for 45+ business verticals in 

retail & food 

The Company has been awarded and recognised for the 

technology innovations by - 

• Certificate of Recognition from Startup India, Govt of 

India 

• Red Herring Asia 2016 Winner 

Life @EffiaSoft 

Koushik says, “Monday blues, Friday meeting, and early 

morning town hall... is NOT what Effians do at the office! 

Our young energy doesn’t allow us to do boring stuff! We 

follow a three-step cycle for making our workplace – 

Freedom, Learn, Grow”. At EffiaSoft, people do not work 

as individual employees, but as a team, as a group and as a 

dedicated member determined to achieve the goals. The 

company works with its products and services to bring 

socio-economic changes for a better and efficient business 

ecosystem. 

Mission Future 

EffiaSoft has been able to create the unique billing 

technology platform and solution model, which will 

continue to keep its competitors one step behind and ensure 

success in the upcoming years. EffiaSoft is now present in 

India, Singapore, Dubai, and the United States and in 

Africa. Koushik says, “We are now focusing on expanding 

into new markets such as Africa, South-east Asia and 

Middle-east Asia. From the technology side to be the 

number one also in the future, we are investing in 

innovations using machine learning, artificial intelligence 

and big data.” 


27

India r e t a i l 

revolution 

Relevance of brick-mortar stores in Industry 4.0 

The 4th Industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) is the age of artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, automation, 

and biotechnology. The idea is to use machine learning algorithms to train machines or computers, to 

mimic human learning in certain tasks. In some cases, even more effectively than a human, creating 

machines with context-specific intelligence. Industry 4.0 is built on the foundation of the previous information 

and digital age which has generated large scale datasets. The ultimate goal of AI is to analyze this data, to create 

intelligent machines with a certain level of perception, cognition and intuition to mimic human-like functioning 

in some jobs. We can derive actionable insights that can significantly improve the business, reduce inefficiency, 

and uncover hidden patterns, personalized solution. Some examples of this perception intelligent machine 

include voice recognition tools like Alexa, and Siri and facial recognition tool in iPhone X series phones. 

Examples of cognition intelligent machines include Google’s partnership with US DOD to make smarter drones 

for surveillance and defence, Tesla’s foray into autonomous vehicles, IBM Watson and Lantern Pharma are 

leveraging AI technology for mapping right cancer drugs to the right cancer patients using a genetic signature 

with a very high predictive accuracy. One such example for the intuitive machines is India based Intuition 

Systems’ POS. Intuition is an award-winning POS and business management technology group in India with a 

core foundation of data, AI, robotics, software, hardware technologies. Intuition was founded in 2012 when Asai 

brothers couldn’t find a modern easy to use affordable POS system for their previous restaurant businesses. The 

complexity, data, security aspects of the business naturally took Intuition towards integrating machine learning, 

automation and intuitive user experience in their POS software and hardware. 

Data-Driven Retail Industry 4.0 

As Industry 4.0 unfolds, the retail sector will have a tremendous impact. Every part of shopper journey is 

digitized and has evolved into customer-centric. Some of the advantages of retail Industry 4.0 include better 

digital payments, instant loan approvals for customers and retailers, RFIDs, connected stores, actionable insights 

driven by data and deep learning, biometric security, interactive interface, seamless workflow, automation and 

integration, smart warehouses, personalized customer experience (PCE). Amazon and Alibaba are leading this 

retail revolution globally in e-commerce. For example, the new Amazon GO is an example of cashier less 

connected stores leveraging AI, computer vision and RFIDs. Amazon Go is generating volumes of big data 

tracking every customer movement as soon as the customer enters the store translating that into actionable 


CXO Standpoint 

ABOUT THE 

AUTHOR 

Anand Asaithambi is a mechanical engineer and serial entrepreneur with 

specialization in n-tech and food-tech. He co-founded two innovative 

companies including Intuition Systems. He is skilled in software app 

development, robotics, design, UI/UX, product management and marketing. He 

led Intuition systems from a start-up to a leading POS, billing and business 

management platform company in India. 

insights, better ROI, new services, products, personalizable and easy solution. Chinese e-commerce giant 

Alibaba brought almost all of brick and mortar stores in China to the internet, a massive social revolution in 

itself connecting Chinese retail, small and medium businesses domestically and internationally in one platform. 

Data from 2010 shows that all major brick and mortar retailers including Target, JC Penny lost value while 

Amazon gained 1910% during this period by embracing and implementing new emerging technologies faster 

than anyone. 

How is retail India embracing digital transformation in Industry 4.0? 

Digital India and Make in India initiatives heralded a new era in India’s retail revolution 4.0. The central theme 

of retail 4.0 is empowered retailers and personalizing customer experience (PCE). Many startups are leading 

the way in the digital transformation of the retail sector including Flipkart, PayTM, Razorpay etc. In terms of 

POS and payment industry, Intuition’s IVEPOS is leading the way with the core objective of empowered 

entrepreneurs of small and medium businesses and personalized customer experience. Using Intuition’s 


29

IVEPOS, now brick and Mortar retail stores can seamlessly manage Omni channels, derive actionable insights, 

manage and automate supply chain, track stocks and automated inventory management, personalized customer 

experience (PCE) and marketing, data-driven In-store experiment. IVEPOS is also emerging as a payment, data and 

business aggregator connecting with third-party services consolidating all in one connected POS system. These 

features provide better in-store experience for customers, improved operational efficiency, and increased profits for 

retailers. In addition to these new features, some of the other key features of this app include ease of billing, 

payments acceptance including payment wallets, KOT(Kitchen Order Taking), KDS(Kitchen Display System), user 

management, product management, AI-Analytics, Real-Time cloud-based reporting, accounting and GST 

compliance & tax management, CRM. 

Obstacles against retailers in Industry 4.0: 

Previously, this enriched data-driven technology suite leveraging AI and automation was not available for brick and 

mortar retailers and they had to rely on bulky, expensive legacy solutions resulting in inefficient processes and huge 

losses. Another recent obstacle for this new age retail transformation is flooding of the market by unintelligent 

mobile and digital POS devices, mass made in China and sold as an alternative to conventional legacy systems. 

Although cheaper, they are basic devices that do not offer any actionable insights, prone to crashes, security 

breaches, not easily serviceable, basic functionality without embracing emerging technologies of Industry 4.0 thus 

creating more problems and expenses long term, not a real solution. Retailers are not willing to invest in new 

technology and skills thus losing out to competition that invests in Industry 4.0 digital technologies. Data shows 

30% of small businesses fail within 2 years of formation (https://www.investopedia.com/slide-show/top-6-reasonsnew-businesses-fail/). 

Retail Industry 4.0 and digital transformation is here in India with a merchant and customer-centric goal by 

leveraging data and emerging technologies. Retailers both small and big should embrace this change to survive and 

be successful in this new age. 


FDI 

the 

& 

SECTOR 

he Retail Sector is one of the biggest contributors to India’s GDP. It also has a high rate of employment. A 

Tretail store is the final frontier of the manufacturing to consumer chain. It sells products to the customers for 

final consumption. Derived from a French word, it means “to cut again”. Simply put a retailer cuts off small 

portions of a big production for sale and consumption by the customer. The shop at the corner, a multi-brand store or a 

single brand store is all retail shops. With the internet taking over the world online retail stores are now popular too. 

The Current Structure 

The Indian Retail Sector is mostly unorganized with small, family shops making almost ninety to ninety-five per cent 

of the sectors. The organized sector counts for only five to ten per cent. Moreover, all the retail stores are currently 

indigenous or have Indian nationals as their owner and proprietor. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in this sector has 

long been a matter of debate. FDI is understood as an investment made by a company in one country into a company 

based in another. The investing company can either set up a company on its own or establish one in collaboration with a 

native country. 

FDI in Indian Retail 

Retailing can be multi-brand or single-brand. A store or showroom that gives consumers many options under one roof 

is a multi-brand retail. An exclusive store or a store that houses products pertaining to a single brand is a single-brand 

store. Currently, the Indian Government has allowed up to 51% FDI in multi-brand retail and up to 100% FDI in singlebrand 

retail after years of contemplating on the possibilities and disadvantages. These investments are subject to 

permissions from the Government Authorities. The demand for FDI was long being pushed by the major players 

wanting to encash the phenomenon of globalization. But the government had its own share of apprehensions. Slowly it 

did open up the avenues with certain terms and conditions. 

The Yay and 

e Nay Sayers 

FDI in Indian Retail has always been an arguable issue. Those in favour deem it as a powerful catalyst which can make 

the retail sector organized and competitive in a healthy way. Opening up for foreign companies will bring growth to the 


India Rising 

economy by funding foreign currency in 

the Indian market. The new infrastructure 

requirement will call for more 

construction and help the real estate 

market. The financial needs will be met 

by the banks thus boosting the banking 

sector. Being an organized market needs 

people who can help it maintain the 

quorum thus facilitating and opening up 

more job opportunities. Big retailers 

generally get in touch directly with the 

producers or the farmers removing the 

middlemen. This brings greater benefits to 

the farmers and better price for their 

produce. It will also improve the supply 

chain management system and create a 

pool of skilled manpower. The 

consumers are to get benefit due to 

more options and better pricing. 

Those against FDI are 

worried about the 

displacement, and job 

loss of thousands of 

small and mediumsized 

retail shop owners. 

They also fear the reverse effect 

or draining out of Indian revenue to 

foreign countries, thus weakening the 

Indian economy and growth. Another 

concern is that the initial prices may be lowered 

to lure in the customers and once the companies 

achieve a monopoly, they can hike the rates as per their 

wish. Similarly, for farmers, too much dependency on the 

companies may lead to lower prices in the longer run. 

Changing Times 

With changes in the global market, growth in purchasing 

power of Indian and their demand for quality products, the rise 

of organized retailing is imminent. The market is growing and 

is at peace with the unorganized section as shown by Indian 

Retail Brands which have been in operation for some time. 

Online retail is another segment that is rising by leaps and 

bounds. FDI can surely be given a chance to bring world-class 

products to Indian customers. They can also provide a great 

platform for the local produce. The slow and steady pace of 

opening the market can give a fair idea of how things are set to 

play in the market. With proper planning, transparent processes, 

correct channelling of information FDI can bring about the 

required and positive changes required in the Indian Retail 

Market and the economy as a whole. - Sneha Sinha 


33

RanceLab® FusionERP 

Simplifying Retail Business Practices 

The Retail Industry in India 

accounts for more than ten per 

cent of the GDP. It has a place 

for small neighbourhood shops, big 

and international players as well as 

retail chains. With growing purchasing 

power and exposure of consumers to 

goods in both national and 

international market, the industry is 

growing even more. To meet growing 

demands, and digitization, retail stores 

have to be more organised and tuned to 

the customer’s choices and 

preferences. 

Simplifying Retail 

Founded in the year 1996, RanceLab 

has evolved as a one-stop-shop for 

Retail Software and Point-of-Sales 

(POS) hardware products for the retail 

industry. It offers networking services 

and customized software and reached 

its 100th installation mark with a team 

of just six members in four years of 

hardship and learning. 

The Exponent and the Industry 

The company is a handiwork of Navin 

Ladha, Founder and CEO, and a food 

connoisseur by passion. He has over 

fifteen years of experience in various 

IT related products, services and 

solutions, specializing in Retail and 

F&B businesses. His efforts in 

delivering IT solutions have reaped 

consistent growth in sales and profits 

of over five hundred retail stores, 

restaurants and food courts. 

Navin and RanceLab have kept up with 

India’s retail industry that has been 

growing steadily over the years. The 

retail industry has witnessed many 

regime changes from malls to multistorey 

shopping centres that offer 

shopping, entertainment and meals 

throughout the day under one roof. 

Retail business is showing an 

accelerated growth, with retail growth 

not only to cities and metro but also in 

Tier-II and Tier-III cities. The 

purchasing power of consumers is 

growing in categories such as clothing, 

cosmetics, shoes, watches, beverages, 

food and jewellery. 

The opportunity is also marked by 

challenges like consumers choosing 

multi-channel shopping experiences, 

and expecting a perfect experience. 

Retailers, on their part, need an 

extraordinary experience to keep their 

customers and a silent marketing 

infrastructure makes receiving 

messages expensive and difficult to 

manage. There are many technologies 

to increase marketing and sales, but 

they do not seem to work together. 

Overall, RanceLab addresses these 

challenges and helps bring growth to 

retail businesses. 

Serving the Industry with 

Distinguished Products 

RanceLab has three distinct products – 

FusionRetail (its flagship product), 

FusionResto and FusionPMS which 

are ready to use software for the retail, 

restaurant and hotel business 

respectively. Apart from these, it also 

has FusionERP which is an all-in-one 

integrated ERP for Retail and 

Hospitality businesses and FusionMobi 

- a suite of Mobile Apps for Tab 

Ordering, Mobile reports, Customer 

Feedback and Kitchen/Service Display 

System. Its expertise also lies in 

working with hardware products 

consisting of the latest range of 

barcode and POS products. Marking its 

presence in over 40 countries with 

35000+ installations, the company 

today has offices in India, UAE and 

Africa. 

As a company, it always ensures that 

the products are not just market or 

industry ready but also future ready, 

meaning it not just looks into 

customer’s current requirements but 

also supports its growth down the line. 

It constantly works towards improving 

its products by inculcating the latest 

trends and business practices. 

Its journey has been marked by several 

appreciations for its work, which keep 

the momentum going at RanceLab. 

Navin says “It motivates us and keeps 

us going forward.” It received the 

‘Best Value Software’ by COMPASS 

and also ‘Innovative Software 

Developer Company’. It was also 


1T 

he 





“ By using IT solutions 

at its best, our 

mission is to be a 

global retail 

solution provider 

Navin Ladha 

Founder & CEO 

“ 

recognised as the ‘Best ISV - Retail Solution (East) 2018’ at 

ITPV Partner Leadership Summit, “Emerging Company 

from East” by NASSCOM in 2012 and “Innovation on 

Display” by Khadhya Khurak. 

Being a Holistic Company 

With so much happening in the industry, the workforce 

commitment has increased. The Corporate Social 

Responsibility (CSR) has become the most important 

outlook for any organization where it seems more attractive 

to employees but all the organization looks for is the 

workforce who thinks and has the potential to make an 

impact. The best thing that the employees at RanceLab are 

motivated for is the creative ways of working and bringing 

out practical as well as logical ideas. The organization 

supports and gives the workforce the space for their 

creative ways and they are never constricted from their 

innovative working ways. This brings up better employee 

engagement relations and also brings a feel-good nature of 

the organization’s CSR involvement. 

Inspiring the Young Guns 

“Many a time I have found that people lack focus. The 

enthusiasm and passion that they start their venture with, 

seem to fade away as it progresses, they succumb to the 

challenges that the industry and the market throw at them.” 

He shares the mantra as “The mantra is to believe in 

yourself, your product and your company and to not give up 

on your vision that you started with.” 

Chalking out the Future 

RanceLab’s future lies in recognizing what the customer is 

going to demand and how retailers plan to meet that 

demand. Navin muses, “What the organization looks for is 

the main source of consumers, what they focus on and what 

they need. As we believe that the future industry will be 

more automated, the technological inclusion will have 

Block-Chain, Artificial Intelligence, Natural Language 

Processing and more.” 

RanceLab is and will continue to be the preeminent 

provider of world-class technology to its customers. 

Exploiting new technology to bring more simplicity and 

ease to the frequent and habitual business processes is what 

it believes in. The company is all set to provide assistance 

and bring growth to the retail industry over the coming 

times as a completely automated solution. 

For any startup or the aspiring entrepreneurs, the key to 

success is to keep moving forward consistently. Navin adds, 


35

Supply Chain 

e Magic Wand 

ecades before we all believed that ‘Quality comes with high Cost’; then the Japanese showed us that ‘Doing it 

Dright the first time’ increases the profitability. TPS (Toyota Production System) showed us how to work leaner, 

produce quality products at less cost as well as to provide world class customer experience. Seeing the success 

of TPS, every organization started to reference TPS and build their own lean production systems. Clearly, those days the 

lean production systems created the much-needed competitive edge for businesses. The benchmarks are broken quite 

often, and the bar was kept rising every now and then. Decades passed by and now almost every big organization has 

mastered the art of lean manufacturing. Thereby, slowly lean manufacturing has lost the status of secret recipe and the 

competitive edge is lost. The gap is filled by none other than the Supply Chain Management. Supply Chain is one of 

the key discussion points in every board room and a lion’s share of the Budget is getting allocated to build the supply 

chain for the future. 

As of today, we can loudly & confidently say ‘The Organization with the most successful Supply Chain is the Winner’. 

Evaluating a Supply Chain 

The Supply Chain has 3 main functions within – Sourcing, Manufacturing and Distribution. The success of Supply 

Chain is measured by – 

1. Reaction time – Supply Chain is packed with uncertainties, no matter how well you plan. The successful Supply 

Chain reacts and re-aligns almost real time to ensure the performance is seamless. 

2. Efficiency – Supply Chain has numerous sets of activities bundled together in a sequence. With multiple if and then, 

the flow is very complex. The successful Supply Chain is efficient by having full control on each step within the 

process. 

3. Cost – Sometimes we may feel cost is always a sub set of the above two. Partially it is true; by being efficient we save 

cost. But the point here, the successful Supply Chain has the most updated method of performing the processes and 

thereby cost efficient. 

Starting from Supply Chain Basics till the new trends like IoT and Industry 4.0, all are well aligned to this. For example, 

in a Nutshell the IoT Supply Chain adds value by aiding in real time decision making which is aligned with the reaction 

time. 

Building a Supply Chain Brick by Brick 

Though it sounds so simple, building a Supply Chain from scratch is not a cake walk. It needs a lot of careful 

considerations, quantitative analysis and design. One wrong assumption in a Supply Chain can back fire very badly. Let 

me quickly tell you two blunders in Supply Chain Design: 

1. The biggest blunder ever an organization could do is taking decisions here by experience. Each Supply Chain 

decision must be backed up well before you implement – that’s why Supply Chain Design extensively uses 

Simulation and Modelling tools. 

2. The other blunder is blindly implementing a Supply Chain Solution which worked well at another organization. The 


About the Author 

Alvis Lazarus is Chief 

Executive Officer at Hesol 

Consulting, an Award 

Winning Supply Chain & 

Management Consulting 

firm from India. Senior 

Leader in Supply Chain & 

Logistics with almost two 

decades of SCM hands-on 

experience in devising 

Country Level and Global 

Supply chain strategies, 

Solutions design and spear 

heading Supply chain 

Implementation across 10+ 

Countries. He holds the 

distinction of driving Supply 

Chain Solution Design & 

Implementation across 

various industries such as 

Automotive, FMCG, 

Pharma, Health Care, F&B, 

Agriculture and E- 

Commerce. Global 

Exposure on handling 

Operations and leading 

Supply chain, Warehousing 

& Logistics Projects across 

EMEA, APAC & AMERICAS 

Regions. 


37

ssumption is here is it worked well for my competitor and it will work for me as well. It is terribly wrong. Supply 

aChain Design and Solutions are developed for an organization and hardly we can replicate it from external source. 

This applies for any Supply Chain Design, ERP, Tech Product, Automation, IoT, Processes etc. 

The crucial take-away is to stay away from these blunders and build the Supply Chain for your organization to cater to the 

demand and expectations of your customers. 

Though the detailed explanation of Supply Chain design takes pages, I have consolidated all the nuances in setting up of a 

supply chain from scratch into 4 Main steps: 

1. Network Modelling 

2. Facility Design 

3. Process Design 

4. Process Controls 

Network Modelling 

This applies to a new supply chain set up or for an organization which is expanding or entering a new category of business. 

Network model is a key exercise which is the base for all the supply chain implementations in an organization. Supply 

Chain Network Model takes in the input of demand, supply, service fill, KANO Model (customer needs) and other 

parameters to chalk out the Supply Chain Map for the Organization. A Supply Chain Map will have all the detailed ways to 

service your customers at the optimum cost such that the business is yielding the targeted profit margins. 

Facility Design 

Facility Design includes the set up of Manufacturing Hubs, Warehouses, Transit Hubs and all other infra needed as per the 

Network Model. Facility Design starts with Space Calculation and delivers Space Utilization to the brim, efficient Product 

Flow and Material Handling. Each square foot that is leased is arrived at scientifically and every square foot leased is 

designed to the detail on the activities to be done. 

Process Design 

Unless each step in Supply chain is documented well and presented at POU it is very difficult to train the resources and 

standardize the output. Process Design uses the right tools like FDM, VSM or PROCESS FLOW DIAGRAMs to document 

the processes. The most efficient form of Process Design is standard work which document the steps, timings, equipment, 

method and other useful information. 

Process Controls 

I still remember what my Quality Guru said – “You can’t control What you don’t Measure”. Process Controls are set at each 

crucial node within the Supply Chain. They track performance and report on the same. Basis the report, all the 

underperforming areas are acted upon by performing a root cause analysis and setting up an action plan to correct them as 

well as prevent the issue from reoccurring. 

These 4 Steps applies for a new design as well as existing supply chain improvement projects. In a New design all the 4 

Steps are followed to build a Supply Chain and in an existing Supply Chain improvement project, these 4 Steps are 

followed to arrive at the gaps and fix them. 

Effective Implementation of Supply Chain through these 4 crucial steps will ensure a happy smile on your customers. This 

will also give the organizations the much-needed competitive edge which your competitors can’t copy or follow in a short 

period of time. 

With that I conclude that ‘Supply Chain is the Magic Wand in the current business world ’. 


Empowering Small Businesses with Technology 

Shopping or Retail Therapy as 

some would like to call it is very 

dynamic and trends change with 

the customer, country, economic 

conditions, technology and more. But 

there’s no denying that the Retail 

industry is indispensable and a big 

contributor to a country’s growth. The 

last few years have seen Indian retail 

space change significantly with 

affordable internet, smartphones and 

arrival of online shopping. While the 

bigger market players have embraced 

the changes, the smaller peers are yet 

to change and adapt. 

Fixing Small Business’ Big Problem 

The technological empowered change 

in consumer buying behaviour has left 

the micro, small and local businesses 

in a fix as they are finding it difficult to 

compete with big retailers and are 

losing footfall and a repeat business. 

Lomoso Solutions Pvt Ltd, 

Ahmedabad, is a technology startup 

empowering these businesses with 

affordable and AI enabled technology 

for customer engagement. The local 

businesses have a huge market share 

but are lagging due to poor customer 

engagement outside their business 

premises. Lomoso came-up with an 

affordable technology solution 

Walkins –an AI based, easy to use, 

low cost, integrated, data analytics 

based customer engagement platform 

available on mobile and web. 

Lomoso’s Walkins is a brainchild of 

Gaurav Sutaria and Taral Shah, 

Co-founders and childhood friends 

sharing enthusiasm, risk-taking 

capacity and passion to help society 

and complimenting each other’s 

capabilities. Gaurav’s stronghold is 

sales and marketing and Taral chips-in 

with his expertise in cloud computing 

and is an AWS certified system 

architect. 

Of Hits and Misses 

The story of Walkins starts with the 

problem of sales in the local business. 

The first solution introduced was 

OneHop but its market fitment or 

acceptance was not as per mark and 

was scrapped. Team Lomoso then 

leaned down on operations, took no 

salaries for months and with high 

resilience and conviction, kept 

building, motivating everyone, 

aligning everyone with company’s goal 

and vision, continuously staying in 

touch with customers, taking feedback 

and making a product and business 

roadmap more specific, measurable, 

and attainable. 

The resultant was Walkins, a powerful 

technology platform which provides 

various customer engagement tools to 

small businesses, simplifies all the 

tools and techniques using integrated 

technology and helps them connect to 

their store walk-ins. It also collects 

their store’s data, digitizes and 

organizes them and stores it on a 

centralized location for reuse. The 

beauty is the ePage, a dynamic micro 

website with built in SEO and browserbased 

notification and a customized 

loyalty program, which helps 

businesses to reward their customers 

on each trade and encourage them for 

the repeat visit to their store at the right 

moment. 

The Industrial Temperament 

There is a big opportunity in India for 

Retail solutions as shown by statistics 

which says there are thirty small and 

micro businesses and eleven retailers 

amongst thousand citizens. Being 

meticulous, Lomoso surveyed the 

market to find out the current 

challenges and how Walkins can solve 

them. They found that small businesses 

do not gather store visitor’s 

information; have digitized customer 

data; use digital medium; adapt to 

technology and use business insight. 

To solve these issues, the Walkins 

platform provides - easy to use, and 

affordable solution; collection, 

digitization, organization and storage 

of store visitor’s info, at a centralized 

location; meaningful communication 

on customer’s preferred medium; 

Business intelligence, providing insight 

into business to make future decisions. 

Embracing Technology and 

Recognition 

The company believes in having a 

hyper-scalable technology architecture 

which is able to meet the changing 

requirements and allows plug and play 


1T 

he 





“ 

Execution is the 

most important 

mantra of success 

Gaurav Sutaria & Taral Shah 

Co-founders 

“ 

of new features or services with a minimum effort across 

the entire customer base. Walkins was created to provide 

this convenience to stores. Its focus is on Business Insights, 

software integration and use of emerging technology such 

as BOT, Artificial Intelligent and Machine learning. The 

company has also developed an IP named RoamingSE, for 

internal use, created to automate Feet-on-Street process. It 

captures all information about sales team from store visit to 

follow-ups, meetings, payment, collection and lead 

tracking. It believes in automation and has automated all its 

process whether it is for monitoring, code management or 

deployment, testing, helping it to save lots of efforts and 

avoid any human errors. 

The company won the Grand Challenge in Vibrant Gujarat 

Summit. It has also been recognized as a start-up by the 

Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion under 

“Start-up India” and as an innovator by “Start-up Gujarat”. 

Besides, a prestigious “Trend Setter” certificate by Gujarat 

Innovation Society truly defines its success voyage. 

Working as a Family 

Gaurav and Taral treat employees as colleagues and an 

integral part of the start-up, building a team of passionate 

and talented dreamers making sure that the team stick 

together as a family and support each other during difficult 

challenges. Everyone is aware of his or her duties and 

works in line with the company’s goal. They sit with 

individuals and regularly provide them with feedback on the 

area of improvement, discuss their growth and recognize 

and reward great performances and successes. Various 

events are organized for the whole team and it is made sure 

that work-life balance is maintained and that people are 

working happily. 

Walking Towards Future 

Being a startup company and into the entrepreneurial shoes 

themselves, Gaurav and Taral advise budding ones to take 

some risk, develop a business plan and take a plunge with 

full passion. “Just remember three words adaptation, 

resilience and conviction”, they added. 

Lomoso and Walkins journey to provide ammunition to 

small businesses in customer engagement and empower 

them with the latest and greatest technologies to fight 

against the common issues continues. As a step towards the 

future, it has started with the affordable SaaS model for 

quick and better adaptation. Its vision is to not only build a 

product for its customers but also for the end consumers 

and provide them with the better deal at right time on a 

right medium and convert it into commerce over 

conversation. 

trackwalkins.com 


41

Xtreme Media 

Digitizing Retail Advertisement 

When someone mentions 

Times Square, the first 

image that pops in one’s 

mind is a cross section bejeweled with 

billboards and advertisements. The 

flashier they are the better and not to 

forget that most of them are digitally 

synced with today’s time. Digital 

displays might be LCDs, LEDs or 

other technologies and display digital 

images, mostly advertisements and 

information. These are placed at high 

vantage points at public places and 

other outdoor locations. Digital 

signages, as they are popularly called, 

is a very visual and effective method 

of displaying text, image or video or 

all combined. 

Promising this razzmatazz of 

advertising to the Indian Market is 

Xtreme Media Pvt. Ltd., a digital 

display solutions company, started in 

the year 2009 with the mission of 

creating ‘WOW Factor For Brands’. It 

is now a leading brand with more than 

four-hundred LED displays and is 

powering more than twenty-thousand 

digital signages across India. It is an 

innovator and a front runner with 

many innovative projects under its 

belt and a trusted brand. 

Total Digital Advertising Solutions 

Xtreme Media is a total solutions 

brand offering hardware, software, 

content and services for Digital Out 

Of Home (DOOH). It offers varied 

solutions under its two flagship 

product lines – LED Displays and 

Digital Signages. Its products are 

custom made to suit the requirement 

of industries like retail, smart cities, 

corporates, BFSI, advertising, 

transportation etc. It provides Indoor 

& Outdoor LED video walls with 

eleven product series and twelve 

different software products. All these 

solutions are designed and integrated 

as per the particular industry needs. It 

designs its own ancillary hardware & 

services such as media players for 

digital signage and content services 

for LED video walls. 

From Inspiration to Inception 

Sanket Rambhia, Founder and 

Director, is a techie turned 

entrepreneur. He completed his 

Masters in Computer Science from 

Drexel University. While in the US, 

working for Blackrock for 4 years, he 

was inspired by the Times Square to 

incept a company which can build a 

remarkable digital display landscape. 

So he returned to his roots in India to 

establish a Digital Display Solutions 

company - Xtreme Media. A firstgeneration 

entrepreneur; his vision 

and passion not only turned this small 

project into a company of over a 

hundred professionals but also made 

Xtreme Media the most preferred 

brand in the Indian market. 

Retail Advertising: Going Digital 

According to Sanket, “Retail is one of 

the most lucrative sectors for any 

company in the digital display space 

and we are no exception.” Many of 

Xtreme’s new product launches are 

specific to retail which include 

transparent LED video wall, an 

excellent storefront display. Its crowd 

analytics software uses the facial 

recognition technology to provide 

insights on customers and triggers the 

right ad on the digital display. 

Interactive Wayfinding Solution by 

Xtreme is an instant hit amongst the 

malls which helps visitors to navigate 

easily and find desired stores. Indian 

retail scenario has a lot to catch up to 

when compared with the international 

market which is quite mature. He 

continues, “Retailers need to attract 

and engage users to sustain; our 

solution is smart, dynamic and eyecatchy 

a perfect combination for 

retail.” The challenges that are still 

prevalent are ‘the expenditure’ and 

‘the change in the mindset’ as many 

retailers are yet to get comfortable 

with their POP and window displays 

going digital. Digital displays are a 

one-time investment which offers 

higher ROI in the longer run with 

either no or minimal recurring cost, 

which retailers are now accepting 

slowly and gradually. 


1T 

he 





“ With technologies like 

facial recognition, 

AR and beacon, 

retail will be soon 

transformed into 

the digitally empowered 

world. 

Sanket Rambhia 

Founder & Director 

“ 

Ideas Need Efforts 

Xtreme Media embraces new technologies for software 

with open arms to create new products. It is working on 

beacon based indoor navigation system, facial 

recognition, machine learning and advanced analytics. 

For large format LED video walls, it is bringing the beauty 

of various form factors and concepts which can enthrall 

the viewers. Its endeavours have won it 1st runner up title 

for “CNBC Awaaz Masterpereneur India 2014”, and it 

was listed as” Top 50 innovative companies” and ” Top 

100 SME’S” by leading media publications. 

WOW at Work 

Xtreme Media is a young organization and the similar is 

reflected in its work culture, where innovation is always 

encouraged It believes that “happy employees are the key 

to happy customers”, it regularly organizes gaming 

session, sports outings and picnics. Xtreme Media is also 

associated with few NGO’s through which it arranges 

blood donation camps, donations etc. Sanket adds, “We 

encourage our employees to strike a balance between 

professional life and health, we have yoga and meditation 

sessions regularly which keeps the stress level low and 

happiness levels high.” 

Every startup begins with an idea and transforming that 

idea into a successful company depends on its leadership 

and team. Sanket advises that having a strong core team is 

a must. Every entrepreneur must wear many hats when 

they begin, which includes grass root level operations too. 

He adds,” What makes a startup stand out is their ability 

to change and adapt quickly which becomes a base for 

innovation, so don’t hesitate to experiment which is true 

for a technology-driven industry like us.” 

Pushing Limits to Reach New Heights 

For Xtreme Media, retail has been the second most 

contributing sector to its revenues, with a majority of the 

most innovative projects coming from this sector. It is 

expanding its local presence to reach maximum cities 

directly rather than through partners. It has many new 

products in the pipeline which can contribute positively to 

digital display landscape and encourage more and more 

brands to accept digital displays as their mainstream 

medium to communicate and promote their brand. So the 

New Year will see Xtreme Media bringing a new ‘WOW 

Factor for several Brands’. 


43

The 10 Most Recommended Retail Solution Providers in 2019 [ Business Magazine ]

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