Many Indian SMEs today face problems of GST compliance and digitization. While millions of businesses want to make a digital shift, most of them lack the resources and technology to do the same. Thus along with sales, invoicing, inventory, and billing management, organizations also need to digitize their GST records to remain compliant. While certain solutions did help SMEs in streamlining their inventory and billing processes, most of them completely ignored the need for GST compliance.
Luckily, Logo CaptainBiz came to the rescue of such businesses by giving them a unified solution for GST calculations, inventory management, billing, invoicing, and much more at very nominal rates. The GST authorities of India too have praised and recommended their application called ‘CaptainBiz’, which helps SMEs streamline, process, and record all their business transactions digitally, much to the delight of such businesses.
Interview with Mr. Sumit Rajwade, CTO & Country Leader of LOGO INFOSOFT BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY PVT. LTD
We are lucky to have interviewed Mr. Sumit Rajwade, the CTO & Country Leader of LOGO INFOSOFT BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY PVT. LTD., and know about the company’s journey so far.
Here’s an excerpt from the interview:
Our readers are keen to know what prompted you to create Logo CaptainBiz? Tell us about your journey so far? What is your success mantra? Something you personally followed that helped you in your entrepreneurial journey.
Solving real-life big problems has always been a hugely motivating factor. GST reform is fundamentally changing the way business is being done. India is a top 5 economy – goods flow, money flows, but data does not. With Logo CaptainBiz we hope to change that.
What was your thought process behind the inception of CaptainBiz?
Primary thought – ‘empowerment.’ How do we empower and enable the 60 million non-GST and 12 million GST registered businesses and entrepreneurs looking towards digital as a means to do business in the simplest steps possible? Digital transformation for businesses of any size helps them to not only operate more efficiently but also discover new growth opportunities.
Most businesses talk about automating accounting. Accounting is a result of doing business. Accounting can come later but embracing business transformation is crucial for digitizing business. It also helps these businesses and entrepreneurs grow beyond current physical boundaries.
What was the biggest obstacle that you faced while working on starting CaptainBiz and how did you overcome it?
GST was rolled out progressively. Constant changes in compliance norms, GST as a new paradigm shift for India, was a big obstacle to overcome. Additionally, building customer education and awareness to actually consider ‘business software’ first, independent of ‘accounting software’ was another challenge we were cognizant of and excited to address.
What separates CaptainBiz from its competitors?
CaptainBiz is endorsed by GSTN, the government of India’s regulatory body, as a compliant software to do business transactions. Available on PC as well as mobile, combined with Smart Connect to seamlessly exchange data between CaptainBiz and accounting packages.
We are able to comfortably co-exist in the market, often complimenting other available software solutions to manage business accounting. Finally, in adapting to the Indian market, one CA can cater to multiple companies using the same (one) access credentials on CaptainBiz.
What are the 4 lessons that you need to remember in order to make it big in this industry?
To our mind, there are 4 key lessons,
- Customer relationship management and engagement is key to success. To do this, we have Live Connect (demo), dedicated Relationship Managers, and zero-hour Customer Support for company set up, all powering key features such as Customized Invoices, Pre & Post-Sales Transactions, Reports, and many more.
- Understanding our customers and harnessing insights from customer interactions to drive future enhancements in the product as well as positioning the product to similar market audiences, is key to scale the business. One size does not fit all, but a product like this needs to satisfy primary use cases that appeal to certain segments which in themselves are large.
- Simultaneous on-boarding of SMEs as well as downstream players. Representing large organizations (for example, suppliers billing customer companies or smaller stores buying products from larger distributors or trading partners) where CaptainBiz can be deployed at a mass scale to help cover a critical audience. This is an entirely compliant way to do business, aiding digital transformation for MSMEs and large organizations whose needs are all served by the same product (CaptainBiz). Additionally, the CaptainBiz platform sits on top of ERP grade engines which can support multiple users and simultaneously access large volumes of data.
- A Cloud-centric approach to ensure that we are always current with respect to security, compliances, bug fixes, and enhancements by pushing software upgrades.
How has Covid-19 impacted your business, and what is your strategy moving forward in the new normal?
All of our teams are working from home. Connected using cloud telephony, web conferencing platforms, collaboration tools, and CRM platforms that continue to help us ensure our business runs well. Although we are working remotely, we are able to function productively.
Covid-19 has also impacted our customers, forcing them to re-visit the way they do business. Inventory monetization, cutting down fixed costs, re-working supply chain with low touch and no-touch models have emerged as key new-normal parameters of business operations post-Covid. Our product is in tune with these emerging needs of our customers.
What new and exciting updates can we expect from CaptainBiz in the near future?
- The storeFront will enable our customers to sell and get orders by showcasing their product (and services) catalog online.
- e-Invoice readiness will allow downstream players representing large corporates (for example, repairs and maintenance staff or agents) to remain compliant.
- The rich API framework will provide an easy way to integrate add-ons in the CaptainBiz marketplace. The same core product will cater to different industries, with add-ons playing the right role in making the product suitable for that specific industry.
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