How do you see the regulatory scenario with respect to FDI in retail?
FDI in retail is a matter of time. There is an opportunity and there is a threatthe urgency to set up business results in companies engaged in land grabbing or vying for real estate space. Indian retailers are aspirational, in a hurry, and want to leapfrog certain stages of the evolution. There is nothing wrong in it, but companies should be careful to first look at putting in place a business process system and then plan to scale. There is a rush to get the eyeballs. I think that Indian retailers will take some time due to several factors like supply chain, warehouse management, and transport system. The Indian opportunity from a technology perspective is still a year or two away forretail solutions for a company like us. 

What is the latest from Manthan on the retail technology front?
Today, the best technologies in the market address business pain points better than others. In retail technology there is great need for an enterprise business intelligence system that addresses the business nuances, processes, and opportunities of retail. Manthan focuses on technologies that enable analytics and business intelligence for retailers. Our flagship product ARC is a business intelligence suite that is architected specifically for retail and is today a leading BI platform of choice for many retailers in North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. Also, we recently introduced this product in India and have since found much interest and favor among leading retailers. Total Hypermarkets was our first customer for ARC retail business intelligence.

What is your future plan for advancement in retail technology?
We will continue to focus on bringing cutting edge retail solutions and services in the analytics, business intelligence, and performance management space. Global retailers in mature markets extensively use business intelligence as a powerful weapon to survive and grow in their competitive environments. We believe that as the Indian retail landscape gets more and more competitive, retailers will leverage more from the power of analytics to operate and compete better. In addition to enterprise BI solutions, we will also focus on analytic solutions for specific areas such as customer loyalty and store productivity. We aim to be the chief analytics officer of retail organizations.

Sudesh Prasad