In an increasingly competitive global market, Quality and Compliance management is a key differentiator for customers. Karminn Consultancy Network Pvt. Ltd. is a NextGen consultancy leveraging the Technology and skills available today for empowering customers to consistently improve their business results through innovative, management systems and assessment solutions.
Karminn can do that with its differentiated platform EzyPro. EzyPro has four product variants that can be applied across healthcare and other industries. EzyPro’s innovative multi-tenancy cloud application design is powered with a checklist generator, quality indicator engine and now integrated with a QR code-based asset maintenance management feature and powerful dashboards.
Apart from improving cost and operational efficiency, EzyPro also facilitates process simplification, adoption of best practices, and continuous improvement. EzyPro’s cross-platform mobile App EzyProLite extends usability across many compliance frameworks/features.
The organization has a good mix of domain experts, tech capability, and gender diversity. EzyPro has validated its product since 2018, has over 3600 users, among their enterprise customers including marquee accounts.
The company’s mission is to provide enterprise customers a highly trusted information technology-based platform combined with a consulting service in Quality, Health, Environmental, and Safety (QHSE) management.
EzyPro’s vision is to deliver impactful experiences to customers and deliver management systems solutions aligned with the latest international best practices. Its service enables clients to leverage technology and data to make the most of the consultancy expertise it offers, in the domains it specializes in.
Team Behind Karmin
Krishnakumar N R, CEO and Domain Director of Karminn embarked on this venture post a long career in this domain. A former Director and Global Leadership Team member of Det Norske Veritas, a leading global certification body, he has extensive exposure to Management Systems and standards over several decades in many industries.
It was intending to disrupt the largely paper-based system and use of disparate excel sheets that the digital transformation idea in this area was conceived. By tapping the cloud, mobile, and data technologies the value of consultancy and advisory services gets multiplied. Recognizing that many enterprises would need to comply with QHSE and sustainability standards in the future, this cloud service is built to cater to a global clientele.
EzyPro consists of 11 members in the founding team with four women, comprising of Domain, IT tech, customer support, and sales. They have among US domain expertise, software professionals, and have worked as a team for more than 36 months, before the pandemic period. EzyPro’s SaaS product which is in the market has gained initial market traction and is ready to scale up.
Challenges Faced
The team at EzyPro realized at the beginning itself that pure-play consultancy services cannot be scaled, and many become less relevant with the advent of the digital era. Initially, EzyPro introduced a digital auditing platform so that customers and consultants in its network could deliver superior services. However, prospective customers told the team that they would rather have a platform that can perform unrestricted management system activities for self-use. This was how they pivoted to being a SaaS provider in addition. In Healthcare, new norms were being introduced and the ISO standards were under revision, so they focused to meet the needs of
Healthcare quality and operational compliance management.
The most important challenge EzyPro faced was to secure the product-market fit, focusing on solving specific customer priorities, the ability to craft technology solutions, and practically fulfill customer expectations are key to success. Since their startup chose a bootstrapped frugal path, this stretched the timelines but gave them options to experiment working along with customers.
Scaling-up in the market requires funding support, EzyPro is at that point now. However, the economic slowdown, pandemic, and delays in getting an effective sales and marketing team in place did impact customer acquisition.
B2B models based on consultancy and software as a service does take time to convert, however, the average revenue per customer is higher and so is the possibility of sustained customer retention, loyalty, and cross-selling. EzyPro is hopeful of greater traction post-pandemic, including from overseas locations.
Dynamics of Karminn and EzyPro
EzyPro sees three-four distinct trends post-pandemic, which are – “embracing the digital”, “digital asset management”, “critical process automation”, “enhanced monitoring and supervision.” Their service addresses these very well powered with technology. Any sustainable consultancy service in the future must deliver digital tools to enable the implementation of best practices at scale. In the future, new technologies like IoT, the application of AI/ML, and advanced data analytics will boost the scope of the offering. The team at EzyPro believes that the robust foundation that they have built will give them a competitive advantage.
Effects of the Pandemic
As a cloud-powered consultancy service, EzyPro was able to quickly move to WFH operations and continue maintaining the service to its customers. EzyPro adapted digital marketing and selling over zoom. From September 2020 itself, EzyPro has concluded new sales and even completed implementation, all remotely. However, there are postponements to buying decisions and implementation timelines do get shifted impacting cash flow significantly. “Hence to sustain, we need an infusion of funds from external sources or government schemes”.
Karminn’s Future Goals
“While we will continue to build and enhance the footprint of EzyPro’s digital solutions for QHSE/ESG, the concept of continuous improvements in this area will open new opportunities in all the geographies we will target,” the company said. Further, areas of sustainability, like energy, waste, water-saving initiatives will open new opportunities. The company will further strengthen its KPI and quality indicator data dashboards for superior management decision-making and enhance the value of its service.
Current Scenario of the Indian Consulting Services
It is fragmented with many players, outsourcing models, as also individual experts on specific assignments. Most sectors will embrace digital solutions, thus IT consultancy for digital transformation will also be in demand.
The concept of People, Planet, Prosperity, and principles of Governance envisioned in SDG and the World Economic Forum will open many opportunities to consultancies who can offer expertise and provide solutions in these domains. Thus, to sum up, the consultancy sector will have to embrace innovation, deliver relevant quality, enhancing consulting skills and create long-term value to customers.
Advice for Budding Entrepreneurs
For budding entrepreneurs, Krishnakumar advises: They must possess domain knowledge and experience in the team. They need to find customers continuously to fine-tuning the offering with minimum viable products and adapt to reach the product-market fit. For consultancy services, integrating digital solutions will differentiate. If entrepreneurs cannot build digital offerings, they must partner with providers. Consultancy services have very wide footprints hence focus is also important.
