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As seen on AI News

Could you tell us a little bit your company, Infocepts?

On a mission to bridge the gap between the worlds of business and analytics, Infocepts was founded in 2004 by me and Rohit Bhayana, both with more than 20 years of experience in the Data and Analytics (D&A) industry. People often use the term business analytics as one phrase, but if you have worked in the industry for a long time and if you talk to a lot of people, you’ll realise just how big the gap is.

And that’s Infocepts’ focus. We are an end-end D&A solutions provider with an increasing focus on AI and our solutions combine our processes, expertise, proprietary technologies all packaged together to deliver predictable outcomes to our clients. We work for marquee enterprise clients across industries. Infocepts has the highest overall ranking on Gartner peer reviews amongst our competitors and we are a Great Place to Work certified firm. So, we’re very proud that our clients and our people love us.

The data & analytics technology market is evolving very fast. What’s your view of it?

I love being in the data industry and a large reason is the pace at which it moves. In less than 10 years we have gone from about 60-70 technologies to 1,400+ and growing. But the problems have not grown 20X. That means, we now have multiple ways to solve the same problem.

Similarly, on the buyer side, we have seen a huge change in the buyer persona. Today, I don’t know of any business leader who is not a data leader. Today’s business leaders were born in the digital era and are super comfortable not just with insights but with the lowest level data. They know the modeling methods and have an intuitive sense of where AI can help. Most executives in today’s world also have a deeper understanding about what data quality means, its importance, and how it will change the game in the long run.

So, we are seeing a big change both on the supply and demand side.

What are some of the key challenges you see in front of business & data leaders focused on data-driven transformation?

The gap between the worlds of business and analytics is a very, very real one. I would like to quote this leadership survey which highlights this contradiction. Talking about D&A initiatives which are adding value – 90% of data leaders believe their company’s data products provide real business value, but only 39% of business leaders feel so. That’s a huge gap. Ten years ago, the number would have been lower, but the gap was still the same. This is not a technology issue. What it tells us is that the most common roadblocks to the success of D&A initiatives are all human-related challenges like skills shortages, lack of business engagement, difficulty accepting change and poor data literacy throughout the organisation.

We all know the power of data and we spoke about business leaders being data leaders, but there are still people in organisations who need to change. Data leaders are still not speaking the language of business and are under intense pressure to demonstrate the value of D&A initiatives to business executives.

The pace at which technologies have changed and evolved is the pace at which you will see businesses evolving due to human-centric changes. The next five years look very transformational and positive for the industry.

Can you also talk about some of the opportunities you see in front of the D&A leaders?

The first big opportunity is to improve productivity to counter the economic uncertainty. Companies are facing financial crunch because of on-going economic uncertainty including the very real possibility of a recession in the next 12-18 months. Data shows that there are companies that come out strong after a recession, with twice the industry averages in revenue & profits. These are the companies who are proactive in preparing & executing against multiple scenarios backed by insights. They redeploy their resources towards the highest value activities in their strategy and manage other costs. Companies need to stop paying for legacy technologies and fix their broken managed services model. To keep up with the changing technology landscape, it’s important to choose on-demand talent.

Secondly, companies and people should innovate with data and become data fluent. Many organisations have invested in specialised teams for delivering data. But the real value from data comes only when your employees use it. Data fluency is an organisational capability that enables every employee to understand, access, and apply data as fluently as one can speak in their language. With more fluent people in an organisation, productivity increases, turnover reduces, and innovation thrives without relying only on specialised teams. Companies should assess their organisational fluency and consider establishing a data concierge. It’s like a ten layered structure instead of a very big team. A concierge which can help you become more fluent and introduce interventions across the board to strengthen access, democratise data, increase trust adoption.

Lastly, there’s a huge opportunity to reimagine how we bring value to the business using data. Salesforce and Amazon pioneered commercially successful IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS models in cloud computing that gradually shifted significant portions of responsibility for bringing value from the client to the service provider. The benefits of agility, elasticity, economies of scale, and reach are well known. Similarly, data & analytics technologies need to go through a similar paradigm and go one step further towards productised services, what we call at Infocepts – Solutions as a Service!

Can you talk more about your Solutions as a Service approach?

What we mean by Solutions as a Service is a combination of products, problem solving & expertise together in one easy to use solution. This approach is inevitable given the sheer pace at which technology is evolving. This new category requires a shift in thinking and will give you a source of advantage like how the early cloud adopters received during the last decade. Infocepts offers many domain-driven as-a-service solutions in this category such as e360 for people analytics, AutoMate for business automations and DiscoverYai (also known as AI-as-a-Service) for realising the benefits of AI.

There is a lot of buzz around AI. What does AI mean for the world of D&A and how real is the power of AI?

Oh! It’s very real. In the traditional BI paradigm, business users struggled to get access to their data, but even if they crossed that hurdle, they still needed to know what questions to ask. AI can be an accelerator and educator by helping business folks know what to look for in their data in the first place.

AI-driven insights can help uncover the “why” in your data. For example, augmented analytics can help you discover why sales are increasing and why market penetration varies from city to city, guiding you towards hidden insights for which you didn’t know where to look.

Another example is the use of chatbots or NLP driven generative AI solutions that can understand and translate queries such as, “What are sales for each category and region?” Thanks to modern computing and programming techniques combined with the power of AI, these solutions can run thousands of analyses on billions of rows in seconds, use auto ML capabilities to identify best fit models & produce insights to answer such business questions.

Then, through natural language generation, the system can present the AI-driven insights to the user in an intuitive fashion – including results to questions that the user might not have thought to ask. With user feedback and machine learning, the AI can become more intelligent about which insights are most useful

In addition to insights generation, AI can also play a role in data management & engineering by automating data discovery, data classification, metadata enhancements, data lifecycle governance, data anonymisation and more.

On the data infra side, models trained in machine learning can be used to solve classification, prediction, and control problems to automate activities & add or augment capabilities such as – predictive capacity & availability monitoring, intelligent alert escalation & routing, anomaly detection, ChatOps, root cause identification and more.

Where can AI create immediate impact for businesses? Can you share some examples?

AI is an enabler for data and analytics as against being a technology vertical by itself. As an example, let’s look at the retail industry – use cases like store activity monitoring, order management, fraud/threat detection, assortment management have existed for a while now. With AI, you can deliver them way faster.

In media, some of the use cases that we are helping our clients with are around demand prediction, content personalisation, content recommendation, synthetic content generation – both text & multimedia. AI also has vast applications in banking. We again have fraud detection, and coupled with automation, now it’s not just detection but you can also put controls in real time to stop fraud.

We have also implemented AI use-cases within Infocepts. We leverage AI to increase our productivity & employee engagement. Our HR team launched ‘Amber’, an AI bot that redefines employee experience. We use AI assistants to record, transcribe and track actions from voice conversations. Our marketing & comms teams use generative AI tools for content generation.

The advancement we have seen in the tech space in the last few years is what you will see in the next 3 to 4 years on the people side. And I think AI assisted tech processes and solutions will play a huge role there.

What advice would you give business leaders who are looking to get started with AI?

Embrace an AI-first mindset! Instead of the traditional approach of tackling complex business problems by sifting through data and wrestling with analysis for months before you see any results, it’s important to embrace an AI-first mindset to get things done in no time! AI-driven auto-analysis uncovers hidden patterns and trends so analysts can get to “why” faster and help their business users take actions. The auto-analysis gives data teams access to hidden patterns and the dark corners of their data. Let your AI tools do most of the grunt work faster than your traditional approaches. And now with Generative AI technologies bolted on top of these solutions, you can make it conversational using voice or natural language search capabilities.

Solutions like Infocepts DiscoverYai does just this. It gives organisations the opportunity to make smart choices based on data-driven insights. Our process starts by identifying clients’ objectives and then leveraging advanced AI strategies that quickly assess data quality, highlight key relationships in your data, identify drivers impacting your results and surface useful recommendations as well as provide an impact analysis resulting in actionable recommendations that have maximum impact potential – all delivered through an effective combination of tried-and-tested practices along with cutting edge AI driven processes!

Secondly, to gain the most from AI-driven insights, you’ll need to be ready for a little experimentation. Embrace getting it wrong and use those discoveries as learning opportunities. Hackathons/innovation contests are a great way to generate quick ideas, fail fast and succeed faster.

It’s also essential that your team can confidently understand data; this enables them to recognise useful actions generated by artificial intelligence without hesitation. So, while you use AI, ensure that it is explainable.

Lastly, help your organisation set up systems which will make sure your AI models don’t become obsolete in an ever-evolving landscape – keep upping their training so they remain ready to take on even harder challenges!

About Shashank Garg

Shashank Garg is the co-founder and CEO of Infocepts, a global leader in the Data & AI solutions. As a trusted advisor to CXOs of several Fortune 500 companies, Shashank has helped leaders across the globe to disrupt and transform their businesses using the power of Data, Analytics and AI.
Learn more about him on LinkedIn.

About Infocepts

Infocepts enables improved business results through more effective use of data, AI & user-friendly analytics. Infocepts partners with its clients to resolve the most common & complex challenges standing in their way of using data to strengthen business decisions.
To learn more, visit: infocepts.com or follow Infocepts on LinkedIn.

Pune, India – September 15, 2022 – Infocepts, a global leader in end-to-end data analytics solutions organized a data engineering hackathon in collaboration with MachineHack, an online platform for machine learning and data science competitions.

Over recent years, eCommerce has acted as a disruptive force for the retail industry and changed shoppers’ buying behavior. From personalizing shopping experiences to making informed decisions, retailers are turning to data for answers. Through this hackathon, Infocepts sought solutions from participants to address the most pressing problems online retailers face.

Running from August 27 to September 09, 2022, this hackathon was targeted towards data engineering and data science professionals across the globe to tackle important problems on a deep dataset that captures the online behavior of eCommerce shoppers. The participants used their data engineering skills to parse through millions of retail eCommerce data points and make sense of shoppers’ purchasing habits.

The hackathon saw 500+ participants competing with zeal and they presented a variety of solutions to win the top prize, an all-expenses paid trip to Retreat, Infocepts’ annual workcation in Agra.

McLean, Virginia—Jul 08, 2022— CDO Magazine has featured our Senior Director, Ben Dooley in the Leading Data Consultants for North America List 2022. The award recognizes the instrumental role consultants like Ben play in enabling organizations to become data-driven.

It is an honour to be recognized as a Leading Data Consultant in North America by CDO Magazine. Solving business challenges with advanced data solutions is my passion! “, said Ben Dooley on this recognition.

CDO magazine is a global publication with focus on data and analytics content desired by C-suite executives. The magazine connects CDOs throughout the globe and has created a platform where the best ideas, innovations, companies, and leaders are celebrated.

McLean, Virginia—June 28, 2022— Infocepts’ Aparna Prabhudesai has been named the 2022 ‘Diversity Leader of the Year’ as part of the ‘Women in IT Summit & Awards series – Asia Edition’ organized by DiversityQ in association with Information Age. With this award, Aparna who heads OD & Leadership Development at Infocepts, joins the advocates and role models who are working towards a more inclusive tech sector. The award panel recognized her as a tech leader who goes above and beyond with her work, expanding far beyond just gender diversity.

Diversity & inclusion is not just about women in the workplace, it is also about taking cognizance of two other major contributing groups that have very minimal representation, the LGBTQ community and persons with disability” commented Aparna after she was announced as a winner. She also took the opportunity to thank Infocepts for giving her complete autonomy to drive various diversity and inclusion initiatives in the company.

The complete list of all award winners can be viewed here.

Nagpur, India—April 17, 2022— The year 2022 marks the first year of the annual Infocepts Foundation scholarship program that includes a grant of INR 50,000 for each recipient and a 360-degree career guidance program. The guidance program includes regular mentoring sessions, internship opportunities, projects, and assignments. The goal of the scholarship program is to achieve a seamless campus to corporate transition and advance career opportunities for the recipients.

The Infocepts Foundation received more than 500 applications. After a rigorous evaluation process, 24 engineering students specializing in Computer Science, Information Technology, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Data Science & Data Analytics were selected for the scholarship program. The selected students are enrolled in some of the best engineering colleges such as Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT), Yeshwantrao Chavan College of Engineering (YCCE), Ramdeobaba College of Engineering, G H Raisoni College of Engineering and many more.

The scholarship ceremony was organized at Infocepts’ MIHAN, Nagpur campus and presided by Shashank Garg, Co-Founder & Director and Smrita Dubey, Chief People Officer. The event was also attended by top representatives from the educational institutes, Infocepts leaders, members of the press, and the recipients’ parents.

During his address, Shashank Garg shared his experience on what career opportunities data and analytics offers. He appreciated the students for their achievement. Smrita Dubey shared more insights about Infocepts’ social initiatives. Dr Micah Aiyub, Head Social Initiatives, Infocepts, shared that the scholarship program goes beyond covering fees to secure a promising future with a special focus on all-round development.

The recipients’ parents expressed their heartfelt gratitude to Infocepts. Some of them explicitly mentioned the difference Infocepts Foundation’s scholarship program had made to their lives considering the hardships they were facing since the Covid-19 pandemic.

The event concluded with felicitations for college dignitaries and Hi-Tea.

Nagpur, India—April 17, 2022— Infocepts, a global leader of end-to-end data & analytics solutions has been named the ‘Best Exporter of the Region” in the 4th edition of VIA & SOLAR Vidarbha Udyog Gaurav Awards 2021. The awards program honored entrepreneurs and industrialists for their efforts and untiring work in bringing development and providing employment in the region.

The Best Exporter of the Region award was presented to Infocepts in recognition of our socio-economic contributions to Vidarbha, our market position, innovativeness, delivery of end-to-end data & analytics solutions to leading global organizations and our CSR focus.

This award is yet another milestone that is bringing us closer to our vision of being recognized as a global leader in D&A solutions and seen as an aspirational career destination for current and future associates.

Here are some more of our recent recognitions:

Analytics India Magazine (AIM), India’s leading technology magazine that covers analytics, data science and big data related developments has listed Infocepts in its list of Top 50 Companies in India for Data Scientists to Work For in 2022. Having won the Great Place to Work® recognition in December 2021, this is Infocepts’ second recognition in the workplace category.

Infocepts received this distinction from among hundreds of employers surveyed and ranked by AIM based on how well suited a company’s policies are for their employees across five parameters – Learning & Support, Productivity & Engagement, Benefits & Well-being, Rewarding Excellence and Diversity & Inclusion.

The report also recognizes Infocepts as among top 15 employers in Rewarding Excellence – attracting the right data science talent and motivating them to stay at the firm and continue working with a drive. Some key highlights of Infocepts data science competency include:

  • Dedicated data science competency with focus on predictive modeling, cluster analysis, NLP, network analysis, recommendation engines, computer vision use cases
  • Twice a year data science bootcamps to upskill/cross-skill associates in AI/ML
  • 80 hours of mandatory best-in-industry skills training on latest tools and advanced analytics & data science concepts
  • Strong partnerships with AWS, Alteryx, Dataiku and other industry leading tools for our key learning and development initiatives
  • A dedicated ‘Associate Development Program’ designed for Career Development and mentorship for all associates
  • A ‘Smart Learning Path Framework’ to help all associates assess their current skills and evaluate skill requirements to go to the next level of their career track

AIM’s Top 50 Companies in India for Data Scientists to Work For index helps organisations understand where they stand in creating a favourable work environment for their data science professionals. The study details a company’s incentives and people programs such as training and development, benefits and well-being, productivity, diversity to help data scientists looking for new opportunities find an ideal match.

The desire to deliver an exceptional customer experience (CX) is stronger than ever among organizations across the globe. The successes achieved by leading customer-focussed businesses with their CX initiatives vindicate the need for others to follow suit. In a bid to overcome challenges faced by customers and identify the most desirable intervention for better CX, companies have begun aggregating data from their Voice of the Customer (VoC) programs and mining their dark data to build unified Customer Data Platforms (CDP).

As the long way to the top continues to be dictated not necessarily by legacy or size but by CX, Shashank Garg, our Co-Founder and CEO provides first-hand wisdom from our learnings in this Forbes article. Read on to know more about the 5 strategies you can use to plan your CX initiatives for 2022 and beyond.

  1. Invest In Understanding Your Customer Data
  2. Mine Dark Data to Anticipate Customer Needs
  3. Unify Customer Data
  4. Build Recommendation Engines to Personalize Experiences
  5. Enhance User Experience with Mixed Reality

Talk to us to know more about how Infocepts can help you implement these recommendations.

Digital transformation is widely seen as an initiative all organizations should indulge in to stay relevant. Business managers are operating from a position of FOMO in the wake of the successes experienced by dominant players while adopting digital technologies to overcome pandemic challenges. As they find themselves caught up in a gold rush to onboard promising technologies, managers are prone to skipping crucial steps required for undertaking successful projects.

Ben Dooley, our Senior Director, provides some interesting insights on the subject in his article for Harvard Data Science Review. Ben has noted them from his interactions with top executives of leading enterprises. He has listed key considerations for managers to map their organization’s digital transformation strategy. Follow this link to be better informed.

Discussion Topic: Rapid Digitalization in the ITES Sector

On Friday, the 3rd of March 2022, Our Global CIO, Rajendra Jodhpurkar was invited to be a panelist on Cloud Roundtable Conversations hosted by CNBCTV18 and Microsoft Azure.

The roundtable conversation occurred around the ability of organizations to use technology to:

  • Make operations agile for hybrid work environments
  • Build robust backups in case of unprecedented disruptions
  • Implement recovery strategies to avoid business interruptions
  • Secure networks and applications from unauthorized access

Adding to the discussion around security breaches, Rajendra observed that “The weakest link is people, if you are not careful in terms of which email you are clicking, is it a phishing email and if you are not aware about it then no matter what kind of technology you have, it’s not going to help you. So, we are spending a lot of time in building that awareness.”

Play the video to indulge in this interesting conversation.