CxO of the Week: Nikhil Kothary, CEO, VAMS Global

CxO of the Week: As the COVID-19 Pandemic takes us with a storm, the effect on the economy is visible. Thus, the Government has opened several areas and companies to operate. But this brings a fresh set of problems. How do you manage the employees, or visitors coming to your office? Are they wearing masks or not? Keeping a log of their temperature, is that even possible? So, CIOL took an opportunity to converse with Mr Nikhil Kothary, CEO, VAMS Global.

VAMS stands for Visitor Authentication and Management System. As the name suggests, it is a product to maintain a log of the number of people visiting the office, factory, school etc. The company has developed a new product- VAMS Safeguard and here is what Mr Nikhil has to say about it-

"Our latest and advanced VAMS SafeGuard is very much Covid-19 ready system that can scan & detect high body temperature, mask enabled advance facial / palm recognition in combination with user-friendly pre-registration and walk-in processes, adhering to no touch no queue check-in and check-out process."

Further, he added, "Additionally, the systems can generate alerts in cases of emergency, integrated with Aragyo Setu application and optional declaration forms real-time visibility of people inside the premise. VAMS SafeGuard empowers organizations to face the challenging times with the most cost-effective, discreet and user-friendly solution increasing the safety profiles of all stakeholders."

Thus, we wanted to know what his take is on the pandemic, the industry and the future of world post-COVID19. Below are the excerpts of the interview.

1. How do you think the post-covid world would look like? And, how are you managing your offices?

Essentially social distancing, reduced staff (10-30% working capacity), mask compliance and body temperature scanning, and hourly sanitization will be the new norm. Once there is a relaxation in the Lockdown we will have every employee, visitor and contractors go through contactless registration in the VAMS Safeguard, scan body temperature, adhere to mask compliance and use QR code to enter the premise.

We'll have 3-4 hourly temperature detection and sanitization of common area. With a combination of Aarogya Setu app all details will be shared and available for audit trails.

2. What key problem does your product solve in the market?

As the world eases the lockdown restrictions, organizations and buildings must be prepared to reorganise their operations while ensuring the safety of their employees as well as customers. This is where VAMS SafeGuard comes into the picture. Identifying users with high body temperature or not wearing masks in real-time will help prevent the spread of the virus at corporates, commercial & residential buildings, manufacturing plants schools and other public meeting areas. Our solution combines a powerful thermal scanner and advanced face, palm and fingerprint recognition algorithms along with intelligent software that works across multiple segments.

The system can recognize individuals from a distance of up to 8 feet. It can record body temperature readings within a margin of error of 0.6 F from up to 18 inches away. It can scan and store up to 50,000 face templates. The device’s dual-lens IR and VL camera is designed to recognize faces both during the daytime and night. The software application manages all the users and their authorisations safely and securely with mobile app convenience.

3. Will VAMS SafeGuard be useful till COVID-19 exists or even after a vaccine is available? If not, what is your long term plan?

Yes, SafeGuard is a post covid product and will be useful even after vaccines are available since every organisation would still consider who and what kind of visitors/ contractors/ employees entered the premise for security purposes.

Currently, with VAMS SafeGuard we aim to cater to larger markets and different geographies in 2020-21. We have also identified new use cases for our VAMS SafeGuard application. So, we will complete the development in the coming quarter to help more segments work in a safer environment.

4. Tell us something about you as a leader and an industry player.

As industry leaders we must keep pushing the envelope, adding new features and embracing new technology. As the scale grows we should ensure that we keeping listening to the customers and market and ensure that we are always giving value with our solutions to our customers.

Innovation requires creative thinking, market awareness, risk-taking ability, skills & discipline. So, I have always focussed on the innovation element and believe it continue to be an area of investments and commitments.

5. Why did you choose to venture in the space of personalised office-security over other software developments?

It is not just office security but a larger perspective of securing premise and stakeholders (employees, Guests, visitors, staffs, contractors) through our VAMS visitor application system. We have Corporates, Commercial and Residential buildings, Manufacturing plants, schools, colleges, hotels, transportation and logistics pharma and healthcare sectors etc. as our a part of our client network.

6. What is the future of biometrics in Post-covid world?

Biometrics has always been there for more than a decade now. Fingerprint recognition and Facial recognition ( touchless/ contactless biometrics will soon become available including voice recognition, palm/ iris recognition

7. What is your take on "Vocal For local"?

Vocal for Local. There is no simple answer to this point. As a company, we believe our product can match any product worldwide. We already work in several international markets. So, with our global ambitions, it would be cynical to say Vocal for Local. Our earlier history wherein our car choices were limited to Ambassadors and Premier Padmini’s'. We must ensure that our Vocal for Local does not result in compromised products and features.

The other side to the story, especially in manufacturing, is the disproportionate domination scale provides. Also, to nurture a new manufacturing entity needs, it becomes very hard without support to achieve economies in scale. Further factors are manufacturing ecosystems and country infrastructure. Without all this, Vocal for Local runs the risk of buzzwords and unsatisfied sentiments.

Read about the previous CxO of the Week here.