Integrated Digitisation of Product Management Process

What smart techs do you use for data management of your clients? How are these techs evolving and your segment?

Customer data management is at the core of SmartProject. We rely on Azure Data management services as well as hand-full of home grown artificial intelligence technologies to manage data. Backbone of data security is the adaptable encryption and key management facilities available on MS Azure. Analytics and visualization is powered by the consummate Azure Power platform. Thus customer’s data, throughout the lifecycle such as the storage, accessibility, analytics and visualization are taken care of; leveraging the MS Azure capabilities. We have extensive investments in developing cloud neutral AI capabilities that can help organize data intelligently, easing out the arduous process of cleansing and classifying data. On the governance side of the future data management, we believe, has no human users. The size of data streamed in from modern IoT powered devices has grown exponentially, making it impossible to manage without such automation in data governance.

What is the geographical expansion of your clientele in locations?

We are in 37 countries with 6 fully-owned subsidiaries so we already have a strong presence in the Middle East, APAC and of course India, the locations where we were pioneers in this space, and of course we are continuously expanding. Our current focus is on North America and South America, to that end we are investing quite heavily in sales and marketing to expand our presence in those markets. In regions where we don’t yet have a presence or where there are language barriers we're building up a network of partnerships and alliances, which will help us expand our reach in such markets as well.

How much has your company grown in terms of revenue growth % in last 1 year?

Last year we achieved double digit growth. After the pandemic, the demand for digital solutions ramped up, we saw the industry beginning to understand the need for digitisation, which means a much bigger potential market for us. We're also seeing customers open up to new tech like AI, and that means our ready-to-go AI-enabled PMIS solution is exactly what the industry needs right now. So we are expecting good growth in upcoming years as well. We are also considering expanding into other industries and verticals, but that is still in a nascent stage.

What are the challenges in this field? How do you resolve them?

The biggest challenge we face the lack of awareness about the role of digital technology in project management. There's a misconception that pocket digitisation (ie digitising only certain aspects of project lifecycles) is good enough, or it’s the only practical solution, but that couldn't be further from the truth. The industry needs integrated digitisation of the entire project management process, design to handover, only then will they see the results they're hoping for, and that kind of technology is now both available and affordable. But it’s hard to convince project organisations who've been doing things a certain way for decades if not centuries, especially as in this industry people tend to trust a fellow builder over a software company. So breaking through that barrier is difficult. That's why most of our business is still through word-of-mouth. So yes, it's a tough misconception to break - but we're trying.