Interview with Ameen Khwaja, Founder and CEO, Latestone.com -

Ameen Khwaja, Founder and CEO, Latestone.com

Enterprises across business verticals recognise the role that information and communications technology (ICT) plays in their day-to-day functioning. An enterprise requires robust IT and telecom infrastructure to communicate not only with its customers but within the organisation as well. Driven by the need to ensure effective communication, reduce downtime, improve productivity and increase efficiency, enterprises are stepping up their investments to upgrade their ICT infrastructure. With the rapid proliferation of smart devices and the launch of faster networks, the most significant trends that have emerged are the adoption of mobile, analytics and cloud technologies. Leading enterprises in the sales and distribution industry discuss their IT strategies, emerging technology trends and future plans for IT infrastructure upgradation…

What are the technology changes that are shaping the sales and distribution functions across enterprises?

There are three distinct technology trends visible in the sales and distribution industry. The first is the growing popularity of mobile devices for conducting transactions online. Mobiles have helped enterprises target buyers any time. This has resulted in digital sales becoming the most important component of overall sales for enterprises involved in sales and distribution.

The second trend is the emergence of advanced analytics. Today a huge amount of data is being generated constantly. There are a number of solutions in the market that help enterprises leverage the available data. For instance, Google Analytics Premium helps enterprises optimise data and connect to the right consumers at the right time.

The third is the adoption of cloud computing, which has made it much easier to maintain IT infrastructure and run enterprise applications. The cloud is changing the way Indian enterprises operate by influencing the manner in which technology is delivered and consumed.

What is the company’s telecom and IT blueprint? What new IT infrastructure has it deployed?

Our IT infrastructure has three layers. The first layer, or the front end, deals with consumers who place orders on our portal. This is based on the Amazon Cloud Delivery Network. The framework that we are using is Java ERP. The second layer, or the middle layer, receives the order placed by a customer on the front end. The third layer is based on Microsoft Dynamics ERP, where we process our orders. This layer is involved in order management, warehouse management, seniority management, etc. Our IT infrastructure is based on 50 servers currently.

What advantages has the company gained from the new set-up? What were the challenges in implementing the new infrastructure?

We have recently enabled Time to First Render, an application that enables us to target our customers better. Currently, 85-87 per cent of our visitors access our portal using mobile devices. When a consumer logs in to our website through a mobile, our website becomes mobile friendly and downloads only limited data. It changes according to the size of the consumer’s phone screen. It also changes according to the speed of the customer’s mobile network connection. This has helped us achieve 30 per cent more visitor conversion. While there are many benefits of such a technology, it is not easy to implement a new technology as the benefits claimed may not materialise. We had to roll back one of the other applications that promised an increase of 30 per cent in the download speed of the website.

What is the level of adoption of applications such as CRM, SCM and sales force automation in the sales and distribution industry?

The online retail industry already has in-house platforms for running these applications. The successful implementation of these applications has helped the online industry deliver a personalised experience to its customers. However, the offline retail industry is yet to catch up with the online industry in terms of the adoption of these specialised applications.

What are the key emerging trends in the technology space for enterprises involved in sales and distribution functions?

While a number of applications are coming up quite rapidly, for the sales and distribution functions the use of social media will be the driving force. Platforms such as Google Advertising help enterprises target consumers more effectively.

What are the company’s future plans regarding the upgradation of its telecom and IT infrastructure?

We are a rapidly growing company. Therefore, we need to upgrade our IT infrastructure constantly. We currently have about 50 servers and plan to increase this number to 100 by 2017. This will require a change in the entire infrastructure diagram of the company. We will also be adding another middle layer to our IT architecture.