De facto Aims to Target the Domestic Market | Komal Kapoor

Komal Kapoor | Chief Strategy Officer| de facto infotech informs about his strategies and future plans

What are your roles and responsibilities as CSO of de facto infotech?

My primary role is to execute the strategy by anticipating what all are the possible challenges and what are the strengths of the organization? Also what is the potential market? How do we leverage the technology and also to implement, OKRs and CFRs, which are actually the objective key results and also having conversations, right amount of feedback, and working on those in order to ensure that the growth is in the right direction.

What are the key technology solutions used by of de facto infotech?

The key solutions include Microsoft applications, business applications, Azure, which is for infrastructure services. We have modern workplace which offers a solution on communication and collaboration. And then we have business applications which are customized solutions.

What are the current solutions and services offered by the de facto?

We offer solutions which include modern workplace for communication collaboration. This application is for operational excellence and Microsoft Azure for infrastructure services.

In the current WFH scenario what are the measures initiated to keep up employee morale?

While the lockdown was on, we introduced quite a few initiatives. One was a weekly communication and calls with all the employees at de facto. We made sure that we were speaking to them, if they are having any internet challenges or they are feeling lonely or there are anxiety issues.

We also got a psychologist and had sort of a virtual town hall via Teams. We even sponsored Internet connections as well as Netflix so that our employees, when they are feeling bored can be entertained.

We introduced certain contests, had quiz competitions and interactive sessions.

There were also some learning sessions that we had, and quite a few inspirational emails sent from my desk. We also had precautionary measures because the first thing was about health and safety, whether it was mental safety, or physical safety. When the lock down was announced, we got like 4 hours. So, we made sure that in those 4 hours, whosoever did not have a laptop with them, we provided them either with laptops or we actually transported desktop to their home so that there is continuity of work.

And there were few employees who were staying as paying guests, so for them, we made sure that they have food and other facilities.

What are your roles in strategizing on –

Sourcing models: We go to our resources for any good references or we go to our vendors. We also subcontract and engage freelancers.

Solution development:  We go to different markets, catering to different geographical needs. You can work anywhere across the globe using a customized solutions and for any industry, whether it is retail, manufacturing, transportation, healthcare, pharma, education.There is no such industry that this product cannot cater to.

Supplier selection: We have a selected niche set of partners who complement us in providing services.

We always see that what will fit within our costs and also what would be a good value add to our clients. So that is the criteria for choosing partners. We do not want to have a partner who does not ideologically align to us because that way we would not be able to cater to a customer.

Contract negotiation: Have to be viable with the business requirement and profitable for us, so those are some of the terms and conditions.

We work sometimes on timing, material models, sometimes on fixed price model.

Mobilization of resources: Communication, clarity engagement, regular feedback are some of the initiatives that we deploy.

Implementation: CFR – Continuous communication, feedback and recognition is what we use or whether we talking to our customers or whether we are talking to our employees.

Development: Planning and execution is one thing that is key for us and enablement of resources, whether it is a human resource or material resource.

Assurance: We keep reiterating on our mission and vision because if our employee, these are not aligned to the mission and vision, then you would not be able to attain it and everybody’s contributing to it, so they need to be aligned. So we keep reiterating it and we keep doing the check, whether we are aligned, whether we are going in the right direction and as the CSO,  that is where my role comes into.

Benchmarking: Networking is one thing that we do on a regular basis. We are part of different groups, whether it’s the Microsoft group or, HR group or industry partners, when we interview and we get resources, that’s also a good mode of benchmarking, what our competitors are offering. We also have a very dedicated learning and development program, so that our resources are competitive and we can benchmark their competence against in other companies.

How are the dynamics of contracts and SLAs change in a post COVID world?

We have given relaxation and ease to our customer in terms of payments.

Go-to-market strategy of de facto infotech:

You want to tap in on the plethora or the wide scope of a client base that we have.

This product is such that it is not dependent on any particular area, an employee’s lifecycle or weather of operating a business.

You can deploy it everywhere and it is ease of solution for everything, whether somebody is trying to introduce digital transformation, because that is a necessity now, or whether they are trying to streamline, we offer innovative technical solutions.

So that is our go-to-market strategy, we want to tap the big potential.

Right now at the moment we are serving clients globally through our offices from US, Australia, and India and now we want to expand our base and, maybe take it to other geographies as well as also tied with our like-minded partners in India as well. Maybe tap on more on the domestic market, because at the moment we have been catering specifically to the international market.