Wildcraft Collaborates with IBM to Drive Higher Customer Advocacy

IBM has announced that Wildcraft India Pvt. Ltd, India’s foremost company in the manufacturing and distribution of head-to-toe products for trek-to-travel solutions, has selected IBM to implement a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) as-a-service-platform to drive customer advocacy and enhance customer experience.

The solution developed by IBM Services is powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Machine Learning (ML) capabilities and analyses customer interactions with Wildcraft India Pvt. Ltd at multiple touch-points. This 360-degree view of every shopper will help the company provide its customers a personalized shopping experience across all its channels.

The CRM-as-a-service solution ties into ‘The Circle’, Wildcraft’s customer engagement program which provides consumers with a single window to get all relevant information about the brands, products and services of Wildcraft. This initiative is part of the company’s growth plan to drive higher customer engagement by understanding their preferences.

As part of this new CRM solution, Wildcraft is introducing a virtual chatbot on their website and via WhatsApp. This virtual chatbot will be available in English and eight Indian regional languages (Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Kannada, Oriya, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam). The virtual chatbot will handle a high volume of inquiries, from general FAQ’s to questions about multiple topics including products, policies and procedures and even customer complaints.

“At Wildcraft, we have always believed in harnessing the power of the unknown. In the last couple of months, we have been able to reach out to some of the remotest areas in the country to enable everyone to be safe and be ready. A lot of these consumers are first time users of Wildcraft and it was necessary to create a mechanism to reach out to them effectively. Partnering with IBM allows us a robust technology driven platform to understand our consumers and their wants. This will help us make our products better and customise them according to the larger needs,” said Gaurav Dublish & Siddharth Sood, Co-Founders, Wildcraft India Pvt. Ltd.

“We are proud to partner with Wildcraft India Pvt. Ltd to drive customer advocacy for higher brand affinity. IBM’s CRM-as-a-service platform has equipped Wildcraft with a 360-degree view to map their customers’ journey - from prospect, to customer, to brand advocate. Every customer will be nurtured at each stage to harness the real power of CRM, in today’s challenging times of the COVID-19 pandemic,” says Kamal Singhani, Managing Partner, Global Business Services, IBM India/South Asia.

The virtual chatbot will authenticate users and facilitate user-specific information and transactions. In addition to understanding the intent of customer conversation through natural language processing (NLP), it will analyse the sentiment of customer responses and transfer the conversation to a live agent, if need be.

IBM Collaborates with National Skill Development Corporation to Offer Free Digital Skills Training

IBM has announced its collaboration with National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) to offer ‘Open P-TECH’, a free digital education platform, focused on emerging technologies and professional development skills. As a part of the collaboration, IBM will curate online courses from Open P-TECH platform and offer it to users via NSDC’s eSkill India portal  to empower Indian youth on various skills to succeed in future careers.

Under the partnership, IBM  will catalogue its 30 + Open P-TECH courses on eSkill India portal, with 60+ hours of learning, as a knowledge partner. IBM will provide online courses in emerging technologies like Cyber Security, Blockchain, AI and Machine Learning, Cloud, Internet of Things, along with professional skills, like Design Thinking to learners between 18 to 22 years for free.

Dr. Manish Kumar, MD and CEO, National Skill Development Corporation said, "The power of technology should be leveraged for reaching out to the youth with scale and quality. Online trainings through digital platforms like Open P-TECH and eSkill India need to be accelerated to overcome geographical and socio-economic barriers. Digital learning will enable higher participation of women in the labour workforce as the scope for employability will increase.  Overall, digital learning will boost prospects of employment and livelihood for the youth."

eSkill India is  a digital skilling initiative from NSDC that aggregates digital learning resources through various Indian and global knowledge partnerships, to enable access to best-in-class learning resources for the India youth. Currently, over 16 lakh minutes of digital courses and content is available across various sectors in multiple languages, providing learners with the technology and skills needed to prosper in a rapidly transforming digital world. 

Sandip Patel, Managing Director, IBM India/South Asia said, “As the pandemic is driving the digital transition to happen more quickly, there must be new forms of learning if we want to empower young learners with technical and market-related skills. Our collaboration with NSDC is a significant milestone to equip the next generation with digital skills. Open P-TECH will make foundational learning in emerging technology and professional skills for the youth more accessible. Aligned to the country’s SkillIndia mission, we are taking another step in the evolution of our digital education approach to help the next generation of professionals have the exciting future they deserve.”

IBM’s Open P-TECH, a free digital education platform, focused on emerging technologies and professional development skills, was launched in India in March 2020. The platform equips learners and educators with foundational technology competencies, along with workplace learning skills. Under the partnership, Open P-TECH platform will offer courses to  develop soft skills, interpersonal skills, problem solving — a set of 11 key skills which are generally not available in a college curriculum, but are  high in demand and are valued in the job market. Currently available in English, the platform will soon be available in various Indian languages - starting with Hindi, followed by 10 Indian languages including Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Punjabi, Gujarati, Sindhi, Urdu, Bengali. 

The partnership will offer both learners and educators with direct access to digital learning resources in various trending specializations, thus providing a great way to jump-start career exploration including earning industry supported digital badges. Students can share these digital badges on their online resumes.

In India, previously, IBM has partnered with Directorate General of Training at the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Central Board of Secondary Education, Niti Aayog and State Department of Education, and State Skills Missions to impact more than 4 lakhs learners and students across 22+ states through its education and skilling initiatives.

Open P-TECH is now available to students and teachers worldwide. Register here: https://open.ptech.org

Will Infosys-Telstra deal cause job losses in India?

Bangalore-based software giant Infosys will pick up most of IBM Global Services’ multi-million dollar applications support contract with Australian software giant Telstra, after the latter’s deal with the former was scrapped following telco reducing its outsourcing partners from four to two.

According to The Australian, the decision to shift from IBM to Infosys could result in hundreds of job losses locally and in Bangalore, where IBM operates outsourcing centres.

IBM GS staff was told the scratching of the vendor’s software support would represent about 50 per cent of its one billion dollar, six-year deal with Telstra, signed in early 2006.

Telstra’s decision to drop IBM was a big surprise to IBM GS staff, who expected the contract to continue until 2012.

The deal was lost not because of performance issues but because Infosys low-balled the IBM offer, sources said.

Telstra has been reviewing its IT outsourcing contracts with Satyam, EDS, IBM GS and Infosys since last year, when the telco announced it would trim its list of major IT suppliers from four to two in an effort to reduce costs and streamline its providers.

Earlier, Telstra had ended one of its information technology outsourcing contracts with International Business Machines Corp (IBM). It has now roped in Infosys Technologies for the same.

IBM Global Services' multimillion dollar applications support contract with Telstra has been scrapped as a result of the telco reducing its outsourcing partners from four to two, as per an Australian media report.

The decision to shift from IBM to Infosys could result in hundreds of job losses locally and in Bangalore, where IBM operates outsourcing centres, the report said.

The Australian reported that IBM staff were told the scrapping of the vendor's software support would represent about 50% of its $1 billion, six-year deal with Telstra, signed in early 2006.

Less than a week ago, Telstra terminated its IT outsourcing contract with fraud-hit Satyam Computer Services. Telstra is the second major Australian company to do so after The National Australia Bank decided in February to suspend future work with the Indian outsourcer since the disgraced Indian outsourcer's accounting scandal came to light.

The IBM India spokesperson could not be reached for comment while the Infosys communication person said, "We are in our silent period and will not be able to comment on the issue."

Agencies

Sanjay Sharma Joins ACME Tele Power As VP

Sanjay Sharma has joined ACME Tele Power Limited as vice president and SBU Head for IT Solutions. In addition, Sharma will also be responsible for the sales and marketing function for the company's IT Solutions business globally.

Prior to this appointment, Sharma was vice president of the IT division at Samsung India.

Talking about his new assignment, Sharma said, "The ACME business is going through an exciting growth phase, where the company is looking at significantly enhancing its presence in India and overseas through Innovative energy solutions. I am happy to be associating with ACME at this time and look forward to an exciting and rewarding experience at ACME."

ACME Tele Power Ltd. (ATPL) provides comprehensive passive infrastructure solutions to wireless telecom players both in India as well as overseas. The company focuses on innovation and R&D. ATPL has developed a range of innovative products that help provide cost-effective, energy-efficient, integrated, passive infrastructure solutions to telecom companies.

Manoj Kumar Upadhyay, managing director, ATPL, said Sharma's appointment will give a fresh impetus and a new direction to the company's IT Solutions business. The company will benefit from his rich experience in India and overseas.

Sharma brings with him over 18 years of experience in the IT industry, of which the last three years were with Samsung and the pervious nine years have been with IBM Global Services. Within IBM he worked on various assignments in the solutions sales and marketing field, for the Indian and Asia-Pacific markets. Prior to his assignment at IBM, he worked with Multi Tech Computers, handling the channel sales function there.

Sharma holds a Bachelor's degree in telecommunications (1989), master of business administration (1991) and is an active member of IEEE and other computer societies. He has undergone professional training at Harvard Business School on strategy, sales and marketing methodologies.

CXOtoday