Please introduce your company and give a brief about your role within the company.
Embitel Technologies was founded in 2006 and I’m one of the founding members. Our company is deeply into digital transformation services. We help our clients migrate to digital and we have a very strong presence in the digital commerce domain. We cater to one more vertical: IoT, or the Internet of Things. In this, we cover the gamut of sensors, gateways, mobility and cloud, with which we help our clients grow on the digital platform. In digital commerce, we set up omnichannel platforms based on Magento or SAP Hybris for B2B and B2C companies across sectors. We’ve been particular about not working on too many platforms—we’ve focused on the two leading platforms that together comprise probably 40% of the global market.
So, whether you want to do commerce on a conventional online platform or do something really out of the box, we provide the complete online scale.
Mention the objectives or the parameters critical in determining the time frame of developing an ecommerce app.
In the case of Hybris, we have developed a rapid deployment solution (RDS), which means we already have a solution that satisfies 70% of the clients’ generic requirements—ones that are essential to all businesses for e-commerce. This solution cuts down the costs for clients by significantly reducing time to market. While any typical implementation will take a minimum of 6-7 months, with this Hybris solution, we can go live in 100 days.
In the case of Magento implementation of the application is not a challenge, we can do it within 3 months. The challenge here is the need for many plugins, which ones and how many depends on the client’s requirements. So, once again, we have identified the popular plugins and integrated them with the core Magento platform in an Embitel solution called Magento Extended.
How much effort in terms of time goes into developing the front end and back end of an application?
It depends on the project. Sometimes clients will get the front end design developed by their creative agencies and the back end might require a lot of customizations .
What is your company’s business model–in house team or third party vendors / outsourcing?
We have a complete in-house team. We provide end-to-end solutions: from design and user experience to the application, mobility and cloud. We also offer 24x7 server management for upkeep of the client’s website.
How is your business model beneficial from a value addition perspective to the clients compared to other companies' models?
Through pre-integration, we offer two major advantages: reduced development time and quality. We have reduced the time to market significantly in the cases of both, Hybris and Magento. We’ve built ready-made solutions which have proved beneficial. We can post it to the client and the client can view it--no need to wait for months to see what is going to be delivered at the end.
Are there any specific industries that you cater to?
Around 70% of our projects are for retail—food & beverage, grocery, jewelry, fashion, electronics, healthcare, and even marketplaces. We also have projects in the financial and telecom sectors.
What are the key parameters to be considered before selecting the right platform for an application?
We have a Strategy & Consulting team that consists of Business Analysts, UI/UX designers and developers, and architects. Over the years, they’ve compiled a list of over 30 parameters which we discuss with the client and assign weight age to each criterion. Then a score is calculated. The entire process is very transparent and the client determines the right platform for his business himself.
We then conduct a two-day workshop to understand the client’s requirements in detail and explore the feasibility of implementing the application with the required features. Our clients understand the challenges involved, customizations required, and which out-of-box features will suffice for the chosen particular platform. The client gets a report of the pros and cons of each platform as per his requirements, and this allows him to make an informed choice.
Which CMS do you prefer to use?
There are many CMSes available in the market, both open source and enterprise editions, which we have customized and integrated with Magento, such as Drupal, Wordpress, Liferay, etc. As for Hybris, it has its own WCMS and PIM modules to manage content for various channels.
What kind of payment structure do you follow to bill your clients? Is it Pay per Feature, Fixed Cost, Pay per Milestone?
We have different models. One is a milestone-based payment structure. Sometimes we go on a payment structure based on amortised cost for, let’s say, 3 years. We convert the CAPEX into OPEX. The client just gives the monthly fee and the same fee continues for the decided time period. During this period, we provide services of customizations, improvements, development, maintenance and support.
What do you think is the future of the e-commerce industry?
We have been in the e-commerce industry for the last 10 years. I believe the e-commerce market is going to grow at a very good rate. We are more focussed on the services sector, so I see things going well considering the current scenario. We are very sure of working smoothly with corporates, venture-funded companies, and we’re catering primarily to these 2 markets.
