The Outstanding Consulting Firms in 2019

Interview with Insights Success
1. Enlighten us with the foundation story of the
company and also the brief details of the company’s
initial days.
Deflytics Software was founded in Nov 2012 and
started commercial operations in mid-2013. We named
the company “Deflytics” as the sum of 2 parts –
[DEF]Y and ANA[LYTICS] – with the core belief that
companies need to Defy their existing business
processes and use Analytics to bring change within
their organizations for better decision making. With this
aim, we set about seeking partnership with global
product companies in the analytics space. We knew
even then that Software as a Service [cloud-based
technologies] would be the next big wave and so we
aligned our partnerships with leaders in the analytics
space with a cloud-focused product offering.
In the initial few quarters of 2013, we faced resistance
from market to adopt cloud-based solutions due to
challenges inter alia on data security, scalability,
network, and bandwidth. Further, we faced stiff
competition from the strong presence of on-premise
vendors like SAP, Oracle, and IBM. Over the course of
next 2-3 years though, we had a good run with our
Mobile BI and EPM offerings landing projects with
some of the biggest and most prestigious enterprises in
India. We eventually had to pivot our business a couple
of times before we decided to focus exclusively on
Enterprise Performance Management marketplace.
2. Brief us about the Founder/CEO of the company
and the major contribution of him/her towards the
company.
Sanjeev Agrawal is the Founder & Director of
Deflytics Software. He has 22+ years of experience in
Sales, Presales & Consulting. He started Deflytics in
2012 and has been associated with the company since
then. He is responsible for overall strategy, operations,
and execution of the company. Under his leadership
and guidance, Deflytics has worked with over 35+
clients across India and overseas across a range of
EPM/BI projects. Deflytics has built expertise in
IT/ITes, Pharmaceutical, Manufacturing, Media &
Entertainment, Retail and Professional Services
industries. He has built a team grounds up to cater to
the challenging needs of planning marketplace, and
believes in open, inclusive work culture, likes to
empower the team to deliver professional work with
honesty, transparency, and integrity. He is pretty handson
and is actively involved in implementation projects
lending his expertise to clients.
3. Please share with us the initial struggle that
strengthens the current success of the brand.
Deflytics was incorporated in late 2012 with 3 key areas
of focus – Analytics [including Data warehouse and
BI], Mobile BI and EPM. It won its first EPM client
very early in its journey. Over the years, Deflytics has
worked with clients who are leaders in their respective
industries helping them put together processes and
framework for Analytics and Planning. Over the last
few years, it has pivoted its business to focus
exclusively on the Enterprise Performance
Management [EPM] market and has gained significant
traction. Deflytics is a team of the young, energetic and
vibrant workforce with industry knowledge and
experience along with professional educational
background like CA, MBA[Finance] or
MBA[Operations]. They connect with business team
speaking the language clients understand and co-relate
with. Deflytics ensures adherence to the highest
standards of delivery at an attractive total cost of
ownership. They deliver projects using the Agile
Methodology that allows the milestones to be
monitored, managed and course corrected without time
and cost overruns.
4. Tell us about the services you provide through your
venture.
We are an Enterprise Performance Management [EPM]
service provider. We work with clients to help them
PLAN and MANAGE their business BETTER. The
keywords here are PLAN, MANAGE and BETTER.
Our services are focused on bringing people, processes
and technologies together in a way that enables
companies to create a forward-looking plan [be it in
Finance, Supply Chain, HR or Sales] using levers or
drivers that impact their business. People collaborate in
making this plan keeping the strategic goals and
objectives of the company in mind. Actual performance
against the plan provides insights and information that
can help businesses drive their tactical decisions to
ensure velocity in their execution towards their overall
plan. The only thing constant in Planning is Change.
Businesses need to evolve based on market dynamics,
economic and political changes, and competitive
situations. This drives continuous change to the plan
through the re-forecasting process. This enables
25 | JUNE 2019