Tech startups in India

Tech startups in India building resilience amid disruption

by | Feb 27, 2021 | Covid-19, Technology

Tech startups in India have successfully played a pivotal role in healing the economy and reviving hopes.
Share to lead the transformation

Indian tech startups are setting a perfect example of building resilience amidst the crisis. Even though the havoc wreaked by the COVID-19 pandemic was unprecedented and resulting in severe pain, it is also true that the outbreak profoundly influenced indigenous innovations, new tech startup ideas, and digital transformation roadmaps in India. (See: Digital transformation deals put IT sector back on track)

When businesses were scrambling to find the best ways to deal with the crisis, Indian tech startups emerged as a force to reckon with. According to a recent Nasscom report, India added a whopping 1600 plus tech startups in 2020 and has become the third-largest tech startup ecosystem in the world after the US and China. 

Ravindra Kumar, IT Delhi Alumni AssociationRavindra Kumar, President, IIT Delhi
Alumni Association

“Fostering entrepreneurship and nurturing tech startups has always been a key priority area for IIT Delhi. We utilize technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI),
blockchain, and cloud to get all our students and alumni together and build a global outreach.”

Rajesh Kumar, Founder CEO of Sabzibhazi.com

“The last few months have been good for our business. As people moved to digital channels for their grocery shopping needs, we got thousands of new customer registrations, and there is substantial revenue flowing in now. We are planning to expand our operations and upgrade our app interface for better positioning.”

Akhilesh Shukla, TechshotsAkhilesh Shukla, Co-Founder and Editor TechShots.

“We saw a significant gap in the Indian news industry, lacking a common tech-news platform for enterprise decision-makers. And that’s how the idea of Techshots was born. Leveraging technology, we are delivering technology news and enabling technology decision-makers to make informed decisions.”

The number of unicorns (those who have a valuation of over $1 billion) is also growing steadily in India. In 2020 alone, 11 startups from India joined the unicorn club, which boasts of Paytm, Ola, Zomato, Cars 24, and 34 others.

The above figures are intriguing and contrary to the early fears raised by several industry observers. The Indian startup ecosystem was projected for a steep decline by many in March 2020 due to the Covid-induced bedbound economic environment. Technology interventions and innovative ideas played a pivotal role in resuscitating the growth path. (See: How is digital transformation shaping the new future?)

Turning the crisis into opportunity

When millions of citizens were confined to their homes, the rise of digital technologies created fresh opportunities. These technologies enabled people to do things efficiently and in a cost-effective way. Had it not been for the role of IT and tech startups in India, the impact of the crisis could have been more upsetting!

Amidst the widespread uncertainty and social distancing measures, the dependencies on digital solutions grew enormously. Whether it is healthcare consultation, retail, astrology, education, grocery supply, or entertainment, technology kept the economy running and helped us adapt to the new normal.

If Indian tech startups such as Byju, UpGrad, and Unacademy excelled in transforming the education and learning delivery, location surveillance apps such as Unmaze, Aarogya Setu, and Sahyog kept the COVID-19 virus in check. India also witnessed a massive surge in fintech and health startups as the demand for their services, such as contactless payments and telemedicine, grew much faster.

News aggregators such as InShorts, Dailyhunt, and TechShots have gained significant traction as people continue to switch to their personal mobile devices for real-time information and news.

Some of the new habits that people learned during the pandemic are likely to remain permanent, and this compelled many entrepreneurs to launch niche and specialized services. “Media consumption habits are changing quickly. Most consumers now prefer to receive their daily dose of news bulletin digitally in a crisp format. During the COVID-19 crisis, this demand reached a record level. We saw a significant gap in the Indian news industry, lacking a common tech-news platform for enterprise decision-makers. And that’s how the idea of TechShots was born. Leveraging technology, we are delivering technology news and enabling technology decision-makers to make informed decisions,” said Akhilesh Shukla, Co-Founder and Editor TechShots.

With quarantine and lockdown rules forced consumers to stay indoors, online grocery delivery demand witnessed a massive rise throughout 2020. Along with established online grocery suppliers such as Big Basket, Grofers, and Amazon, agritech startups such as Otipy, Sabzibhazi, Freshokartz, Agrowave, among others, also made their presence felt.

“I started Sabzibhazi in 2019. When I first launched this company with my meager savings in 2019, it didn’t do well. The idea was to provide the freshest produce at a reasonable price using a new-age tech platform. Even though we did much research, but there were still no customers. It was a tough time. We didn’t go for fundraising as we didn’t want to be answerable to anyone. Moreover, we were not sure if we would get that much attention from venture capitalists,” says Rajesh Kumar Pandit, Founder CEO of Sabzibhazi.com, a South Delhi-based digital farm-to kitchen service provider.

Things changed quickly for Rajesh when India announced nationwide lockdowns. Many established players failed to meet the unprecedented surge in demand for online fresh produce. “The last few months have been good for our business. As people moved to digital channels for their grocery shopping needs, we got thousands of new customer registrations, and there is substantial revenue flowing in now. We are planning to expand our operations and upgrade our app interface,” an enthusiastic Kumar adds.

In the healthcare space, startups like Pharmeasy, CureFit, and EyeNetra attracted massive investors’ interest.

Innovative ideas fueling startups

Besides the above, innovative virtual event platforms Airmeet also garnered significant attention from enterprises. Businesses took their services for hosting various internal workshops, panel discussions, and customer events in a setting where physical events are restricted.

There are also pure-play data analytics firms such as Mu Sigma, which are growing exponentially. 

The tech startup culture in India is equally supported by the government and premier institutes like IIT. The Indian government has taken several initiatives recently to help the local startup ecosystem grow. Under the AatmaNirbhar Bharat vision, the government has eased regulations, announced tax exemptions, and set up a Rs 10,000 crore fund exclusively for startups.

“Fostering entrepreneurship and nurturing tech startups has always been a key priority area for IIT Delhi. We utilize technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, and cloud to get all our students and alumni together and build a global outreach,” said Ravindra Kumar, President, IIT Delhi Alumni Association, in an earlier interaction with Better World. (See: IIT Delhi can help develop an Indian equivalent of Google or Facebook).

The year also saw spectacular ideas such as anti-viral t-shirts and COVID-19 protective lotions unveiled by E-TEX and Clensta, two startups incubated at IIT Delhi.

Another startup that caught our attention was ATAI Labs; an applied AI company launched recently. The startup provides AI-based digital transformation solutions for the supply chain and logistics industry, which bring the data center capabilities closer to the source of data and enable AI inferencing, decision making, and analytics at the EDGE.  The 70-employee young Indian startup offers innovative solutions to augment maritime, retail, locomotive, and surveillance capabilities. (See: AI is a must now to speed up digital transformation)

Factors.ai is also an AI-based startup that focuses on providing marketing analytics for entrepreneurs and small-medium businesses. The startup was chosen as one of the 20 firms for the fourth cohort of the Google for Startups (GFS) Accelerator program in India last year.

An equally exciting tech-startup, The Water App, was launched to solve the water crisis in Hyderabad. The company leverages advanced technologies and intelligence to monitor supply chain management of water and deliver clean water at the doorstep.

Final thoughts

Before the pandemic, many enterprises were reluctant to go online entirely. But things changed quite dramatically. Across all sectors, there was no option but to accelerate the digital transformation.

Indian tech startups and IT companies proved that integrating innovations with adaptability models led to new pathways and behavioral models, bringing together enormous resilience and resolve.

At Better World, we believe that this is just the beginning. Indian tech startups not only took risks and found new innovative models but were also instrumental in adding thousands of new jobs at a time when people were losing hopes. In 2021, according to Nasscom, the Indian IT industry (along with the tech startups) is expected to add over 1,38,000 new hires, taking the total employee base in this sector to 4.47 million.

By leveraging technologies such as artificial intelligence, analytics, and cloud-based collaboration tools, these young tech companies will continue to bring the best of the ideas and tools to revive the economy and develop life-enabling solutions.

MORE FROM BETTER WORLD

Tech Cos take M&A route for digital transformation supremacy

Tech Cos take M&A route for digital transformation supremacy

The sudden escalation of COVID-19 has disrupted the business operations of many enterprises, and businesses have realized that digital transformation is no longer an option; it is now indispensable for survival. In the new normal, where remote working is the norm, IT Services firms see a massive demand to support digital transformation initiatives.

Many traditional enterprises face significant challenges in implementing digital transformation in business. Hence, enterprises and IT services players are being approached by the companies to identify and fix the missing links in their respective digital puzzle.

Over the next three to four quarters, it is anticipated that most businesses will fast-track the deployment of digital technologies to support long-term business continuity, giving IT and Consulting firms an ample market opportunity.

Recent deals to accelerate digital transformation

In a recent development, global technology major HCL Technologies has signed an agreement to buy DWS Limited, a leading Australian IT, Business, and management consulting group, for about $115.8 million to expand its digital capabilities, mainly in Australia and NZ. DWS provides a range of IT services such as digital transformation, IT, commercial enterprise and management consulting services, and information and business analytics.

HCL is hoping to fortify its digital client portfolio in Australia and New Zealand with this acquisition.

The deal has once again demonstrated the growing trend of many IT majors firming up their digital transformation capabilities through collaboration or the merger and acquisition (M&A) route in recent times.

Earlier this month, Accenture announced the acquisition of Germany based technology consultancy SALT Solutions. IT Services major Infosys, too, subscribed to an agreement to purchase enterprise service management consultancy, GuideVision, for 30 million euros. (See: Infosys buys GuideVision to boost Dx capabilities). In July this year, global information technology, consulting, and business process services major, Wipro had also signed a deal to buy 4C, a leading Salesforce partner in Europe and the Middle East. (See: Wipro’s 4C buy to firm up its European presence). Simultaneously, we also had EY and IBM announcing their multi-year deal to help organizations accelerate their digital transformation goals.

Why M&A is the best bet?

Technology has enabled the customers to dictate terms even in a pandemic situation. And that’s what compels organizations’ to invest in new-age technologies such as cloud, data analytics, internet of things (IoT), robotic process automation (RPA), cloud-based workflow solutions, among others.

While there is a considerable demand for a comprehensive digital ecosystem, it is also true that IT Services behemoths don’t own all the capabilities to support digital transformation in business. They do not have time either to train themselves and support diverse IT frameworks in a cutthroat marketplace. To win market share in new geographic locations, improve competencies, and promptly add new offerings, M&A and strategic collaboration seem to be the most favored route.

By strategically acquiring relevant players, IT Majors can offer a range of new and specialized digital transformation services that can strengthen network performance, security standards, cloud methodology of their clients. Through acquisition and merger, solution providers can be in a lot better condition to aid their customers to harness the power of new-age technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence, and data analytics to achieve incomparable success.

In 2021, the IT and Telecom industry is likely to see more strategic alliances and M&As to beef-up their digital transformation influences.

 

 

Apple India debuts online store, eyes more market share

Apple India debuts online store, eyes more market share

American multinational technology company, Apple, has announced that its online store will be launched in India on September 23. This will be the company’s first-ever direct retail touchpoint in India. Apple in India currently sells its devices through third-party licensed partners in physical stores or online retailers such as Amazon and Flipkart.

“We’re proud to be expanding in India and want to do all we can to support our customers and their communities. We know our users rely on technology to stay connected, engage in learning, and tap into their creativity. By bringing the Apple Store online to India, we are offering our customers the very best of Apple at this important time,” said Deirdre O’Brien, Apple’s senior vice president of Retail + People, in a press release.

It is expected that the Apple Indian online store will sell Apple’s products at a discounted price and several freebies, especially during the upcoming Diwali festive season in India. To give a more personalized experience, Apple in India will also offer personal virtual sessions to all its direct buyers to understand the features of the new Apple product.

The development may come as a surprise for many as to why it took Apple in India so long to launch any retail shop. While the delayed launch in the second-largest telecom market in the world can be ascribed to Apple’s low market share in India, other factors, including the local government guidelines, also went against Apple’s direct retail aspiration in India.

The Indian government recently relaxed the rules that companies must source 30% of components locally to sell their products directly. This easing is a significant relief for Apple, which also plans to launch its physical stores in the country soon.

“Apple has been operating in India for more than 20 years, and its ongoing investment and innovation support almost 900,000 jobs across the country. Apple’s App Design and Development Accelerator in Bengaluru has supported thousands of local developers. Today, apps created by developers in India have become even more critical to everyday life as people seek to stay engaged and connected from home,” the company notes in a press release.

Apple strategy: tackling premium price conundrum

 With the number of smartphone users in India estimated to reach around 800 million in 2021, the outlook of India’s smartphone market looks enticing. Many smartphone players, such as Xiaomi, Vivo, and Samsung, have flourished in the Indian market because of their cost-effective products. Apple, however, still has only 2 percent of the market share, with the iPhone maker pricing puts it in a luxurious product section.

Due to the price-conscious nature of the economy, Apple’s premium products in the country are out of the reach of many potential buyers’. And eventually, this low-cost juggernaut doesn’t let Apple increase its relative earnings in India.

Apple has taken several measures to lower the cost of its products in India. In July this year, Apple’s manufacturing partner, Foxconn, started assembling the iPhone 11 in India, a move that helped the company to save about 20% duty that the New Delhi charges for every imported product.

Besides, it has also collaborated with various banks and financial institutions to offer its premium products at an attractive price-points or through cashback offers.

Planning the next steps for growth

Given India’s strong focus on strengthening local manufacturing capabilities, and offering considerable incentives to companies which set-up their industrial units in India, Apple is now refreshing its strategy to boost its prospects here.

Various unsubstantiated reports indicate that Apple is planning to upsurge its manufacturing footprints in the Indian market. This is primarily because of the trade war between the US and China. Many American telecom companies are cutting down their output in China and moving to countries like India, the Philippines, and Malaysia.

Apple is also aware that the COVID-19 disruption may result in an extended delay in iPhone demand from European countries and the US. Hence, it is wise to build new business models and markets to mitigate the future growth crisis. (See: Will Apple bite India’s manufacturing bait )

 

Tech Mahindra gets new blockchain accreditation

Tech Mahindra gets new blockchain accreditation

Indian IT Services firm, Tech Mahindra, has been recognized as a Hyperledger Certified Service Provider (HCSP) for blockchain capabilities by Hyperledger and the Linux Foundation. Tech Mahindra says that the certification reinforces Tech Mahindra’s capabilities to provide blockchain technology support and setting up scalable blockchain networks for commercial deployments. The company claims that it was one of the 18 blockchain service providers globally to have received this certification, which is considered the gold standard in the open-source community.

Tech Mahindra has deployed over 25 blockchain platforms using Hyperledger projects across industry verticals such as banking and financial services, media and entertainment, telecom, retail, manufacturing, oil & gas, healthcare, and travel & logistics. The organization also has to credit the implementation of one of the world’s largest blockchain networks covering 500 million+ subscribers in India to fight spam calls and text.

The company has been engaged in over 250 global Blockchain deployments, with over 100 core blockchain team members trained on Hyperledger. The company is extensively focusing on developing and deploying several transformative implementations for governments, large and mid-sized enterprises across diverse industry verticals that have enabled customers to solve complex business problems.

“In order to successfully navigate and strategize in this ‘new normal,’ organizations must leverage technologies like blockchain to address this unprecedented challenge and create a competitive edge in the market. As part of our TechMNxt charter, we offer a holistic blockchain ecosystem to create industry-leading applications and enhance customer experiences. The recognition by the Linux Foundation as a Hyperledger Certified Service Provider is a matter of great pride for us to demonstrate our differentiated capabilities globally. This will provide us a definitive edge over our peers to position Tech Mahindra as a partner of choice,” says Rajesh Dhuddu, Blockchain and Cybersecurity Practice Leader, Tech Mahindra.

Hyperledger launched the HCSP program in November 2019. The program requires the blockchain technology professionals in an organization to enroll for an online, performance-based test consisting of a set of performance-based problems to be solved in a command line.

“Our Hyperledger Certified Service Provider (HCSP) program is designed to meet the growing demand for implementing Hyperledger-based solutions. As an HCSP, Tech Mahindra is now part of a global network of blockchain experts with the training and proven expertise to deploy Hyperledger DLTs (Distributed Ledger Technology) quickly and efficiently and to ensure ongoing success. Tech Mahindra has already played an active role in developing and deploying Hyperledger technologies, and we look forward to the work they will do as an HCSP,” says Brian Behlendorf, Executive Director, Hyperledger.

For Tech Mahindra, Blockchain has been a big focus area in recent times. It recently entered into an agreement with Amazon Web Services (AWS) Blockchain for creating solutions in the aerospace, healthcare, and telecom sectors. This year, Tech Mahindra launched a new blockchain-based contract and rights management system (bCRMS) targeted toward the media and entertainment sector on IBM blockchain. The platform has been developed to help media companies to track revenue, royalty, payments, manage rights, and check plagiarism, among others.

Infosys buys GuideVision to boost Dx capabilities

Infosys buys GuideVision to boost Dx capabilities

IT services major Infosys has recently signed a definitive agreement to buy Czech Republic-based enterprise service management consultancy, GuideVision, for 30 million euros. The official statement by Infosys states that the deal is likely to be closed during the third quarter of fiscal 2021.

GuideVision is one of the largest ServiceNow Elite Partners in Europe and offers strategic advisory, consulting, implementations, training, and support capabilities for the ServiceNow platform. This acquisition will enable Infosys to leverage GuideVision’s established ServiceNow training academy and nearshore capabilities for its clients in Europe.

“This acquisition is an important milestone in our journey to build capabilities relevant to the digital priorities of our clients. This move reaffirms our commitment to the growing ServiceNow ecosystem. The combination of scalable and agile near-shore capabilities of GuideVision in Europe, and their unmatched delivery excellence, complements our effort to help global enterprises navigate their next. We are excited to welcome GuideVision and its leadership team into the Infosys family,” says Ravi Kumar, President, Infosys, in a statement.

Founded in 2014, GuideVision serves over 100 enterprise clients in the ServiceNow platform. Its offerings also include a proprietary smart data replication tool for ServiceNow, called Snow Mirror. Infosys itself is a ServiceNow partner and has been recognized as Global Service Partner of the year by ServiceNow for the last two years.

Santa Clara based ServiceNow delivers a cloud computing platform for businesses to manage their digital workflows for enterprise innovations.

Infosys Acquisition: Way to strengthen future capabilities

With the remote-work getting increased traction, digital transformation acceleration has become a central focal point for most of the enterprises. In such a setting, the Infosys acquiring GuideVision is a significant move for the Bengaluru-headquartered company to strengthen its position in the US and Europe, and fortify its digital transformation capabilities.

ServiceNow empowers the IT and operations team of a global enterprise to receive, track, and respond to varied requests of an employee of an organization, irrespective of his location. And they are gradually taking prominence amongst most of the global companies.

Infosys understands that it needs diverse capabilities and solutions to meet the unique demands of its clients and to stay relevant. Time and again, the technology major has made it clear that it will continue to take the digital acquisition and transformation partnership route to stay ahead of the competition. At its recent annual general meeting, Infosys’s CEO Salil Parekh commented that the company was actively exploring acquisitions in areas such as data, analytics, and cloud to further make substantial inroads in the digital capabilities.

GuideVision is Infosys’s third acquisition of this year, after buying Salesforce platinum partner Simplus for $250 million, and US-based product design and development firm, Kaleidoscope Innovation for $42 million.

 

 

Tik Tok Ban news: Could Oracle acquire TikTok

Tik Tok Ban news: Could Oracle acquire TikTok

Enterprise software major Oracle seems to have won the fiery bidding for TikTok’s US operations after Microsoft’s confirmation that TikTok has rejected its acquisition offer. Speculations are rife that Oracle is close to becoming ByteDance’s technology partner. It is, however, not clear whether TikTok video-sharing social app’s technical partnership with Oracle also includes majority ownership rights.

“ByteDance let us know today they would not be selling TikTok’s US operations to Microsoft. We are confident our proposal would have been good for Tik Tok video users while protecting national security interests,” says Microsoft in a statement.

The Beijing-based video-sharing social network giant had been facing a ban threat by the US government due to data leakage and security fears. The Trump government had earlier given a Diktat to TikTok to either sell its American operations to a US company or shut down the local operations.

The development has left many industry onlookers flabbergasted as Satya Nadella-led Microsoft was the favorite to ink a deal with TikTok for its US operations from ByteDance. Not only does Microsoft have a fat purse, but it also delivers the best capabilities and engineering science to address the data protection concerns brought up by the US.

Given the ongoing geopolitical tensions, many Chinese companies are facing heat in countries like India and the US.

Earlier this year, Washington had barred telecom equipment major Huawei from selling next Gen 5G equipment and solutions in the US marketplace. India, too, had banned over 100 Chinese apps, including TikTok, early this year, traveling along with a border clash between the two nuclear-armed neighbors.

Tik Tok ban: India’s response

It is highly unlikely that India will revoke the ban on TikTok’s operations unless Oracle acquires a majority stake in TikTok’s global operations as well as addresses New Delhi’s concerns related to security, data privacy, and user permissions.

India was Tik Tok’s largest overseas market, with over 200 million users when it shut down its operations in the country. The industry is abuzz with the reports that TikTok is exploring a backdoor entry in India through a local partner.

It would be interesting to watch if Oracle, the world’s second-greatest software company by market capitalization, can succeed in getting TikTok back in the Indian ecosystem.

Google’s new kid in India

After India banned TikTok in June this year, several companies tried to create TikTok clones to tap the massive audience who were left in the lurch after the Tik Tok ban in India. Surprisingly, none of the local alternatives were able to entice users and disrupt the authority TikTok enjoyed in the short-video segment.

Now, in the latest attempt, Google-owned YouTube has launched a new feature called Shorts, in beta version in India as an advantage of the Tik Tok ban. YouTube says that Shorts is a new way to express yourself in 15 seconds or less. “We’re excited to announce that we are building YouTube Shorts, a new short-form video experience right on YouTube for creators and artists who want to shoot short, catchy videos using nothing but their mobile phones,” the company says in its official blog post.

Clearly, even if Tik Tok fails to earn a rejoinder, the competition in the short-video format is not going to stop in India.

 

 

 

Online project management tools: Top office suite analysis

Online project management tools: Top office suite analysis

In the wake of the work-from-anywhere scenario, cloud-based Team management software platforms are witnessing a substantial uptake. Industry onlookers expect this market to see an average of 25% y-o-y growth for the next three years.

The collaboration and productive project management tools enable businesses and professionals to leverage the power of the cloud to deliver the day to day business tasks virtually from the workplace of their choice. These solutions allow organizational teams to create documents, spreadsheets, and presentations in the cloud and collaborate online through chat, video conferencing, and cloud storage to accomplish various day to day tasks.

While Google’s G-suite and Microsoft owned Office 365 are primarily ruling the team management software market, there are many others, such as Zoho workplace, IBM, and Hancom, eying to make a splash in the productivity suite market.

For the solution providers, the typical market opportunity in this place can be segmented mainly into three categories: individual professionals, small and medium businesses (SMBs), and large enterprises.

The Enterprises and IT leaders have many elements to look at before building a deployment decision. Motivators could include factors such as licensing costs, backup, security, purpose, empowering the mobile workforce, or ease of use.

To help you decide the best fit solution for your organization, Better World provides a quick online project management tools comparison of the cloud-based productivity solution offerings of three top players: Microsoft, Google, and Zoho.

Microsoft 365: For team management

Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) is simply the cloud-based variant of the Microsoft Office application suite. It includes email, document creation/editing, contacts, calendars, IM, online meetings, video chats, and web interface.

Many large enterprises prefer Microsoft’s 365 because of its well-established presence in both desktop and online productivity suite arena. Moreover, Microsoft’s consistent focus on industry-centered innovations, flexible buying options, and full integration capability with Windows always help the company get brownie points from its loyal users.

Microsoft also offers Team, a collaboration platform that enables enterprise users to share documents, conduct online meetings, and collaborate in real-time.

Familiarity with Outlook: One of the vital components that operate in favor of Office 365 adoption is the strong brand recall and understanding of Outlook email client amongst corporate workers. Most of the corporate workers are comfortable working with the Outlook email client. And organizations do not desire to produce unnecessary anxiety and disrupt their business continuity by switching to any other productivity partner.

One Drive: MS’s enterprise-grade cloud storage platform, One Drive, offers seamless user experience in terms of hosting documents and files in Online, On-Premises, or Hybrid cloud. Moreover, the enterprise search engine capability also enables users to track and find relevant documents or files at their convenience by inserting appropriate keywords.

Fully integrated with Windows: Additionally, Microsoft’s core resources, i.e., Word processor (MS Word), chart editor (MS Excel), and presentation editor (MS PowerPoint), have always been favored by the traditional computer users. All the online documents are fully integrated with the offline edition of MS Office without any fears related to formatting errors. They also include plenty of pre-built templates for enterprise users.

Many Office apps and services are also available on the pay-as-you-use model. Thus, some companies buy a basic plan and then add different services according to their business need.

Click here to know more details about the various plans offered by Microsoft.

Google’s G-Suite: For office management

Google sticks with a cloud-native and browser-centric approach and has already proved its productivity suite mettle in the consumer space. With G Suite bouquet of offerings, it is right away taking big strides to further beef up its enterprise market share.

Google’s G-Suite includes offerings such as Gmail for business, audio, and video conferencing capability, interactive and shared calendars, spreadsheets, presentations, auditing accounts, log analysis, among others.

Clean interface: The most crucial advantage that the company offers is the clean, simple, and intuitive email interface. Granular controls can be implemented by IT heads of what data or files can be portioned out and what necessitates to be checked. Nevertheless, one of the areas which annoy users is the poor integration of Gmail with Contacts and Calendar apps, something which may be intricate to navigate.

Team Drive: Google’s productivity suite of offerings includes Team Drive, a shared space repository, which allows a specific set of users or teams to search, store, access, and download files and documents from any entitled network device.

On-the-go collaboration: While Google apps (Docs, Sheets, and Slides) may lag behind Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint) in terms of characteristics and pre-built templates, they outperform MS Office when it comes to the on-the-go collaboration. Google’s robust online ecology and experience enable the company to drive a seamless and smooth document live collaboration experience for its users.

Click here to know more details about the various plans offered by Google.

Zoho Workplace: Cost-effective for SMBs

Hyderabad based global engineering firm, Zoho Corporation, has gathered much interest in recent times. The company offers Zoho Workplace, a single unified cloud office platform that brings together collaboration, productivity, and communications tools and integrates them into other business processes.

Launched in 2005, Zoho’s office suite includes word processing, presentations, spreadsheets, databases, note-taking, and web-conferencing. To compete closely with Google and Microsoft, the company has recently integrated its nine existing productivity tools more firmly than ever.

With over 15 million users in 150 countries, Zoho is still seen as an emerging player in the productivity suite market and not necessarily a threat to the tech behemoths, Google, and Microsoft. Nevertheless, it provides a significant advantage to SMB’s and independent professionals as it is the least expensive amongst all three.

Click here to know more details about the various plans offered by Zoho Workplace.

 

 

 

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