CXO of the Week: Paramdeep Singh Anand, CEO FieldAssist

FieldAssist is an integrated sales and distribution platform that seamlessly connects CPG businesses to the broader value chain. The SaaS company is transforming the Go-to-Market strategies of CPG brands globally. It empowers a company's top management with actionable analytics, leading to faster decision-making and firm execution of their on-field strategy. It began operations in 2014 with a simple SaaS solution for the CPG industry's most complex problem: the on-the-ground visibility of salesmen.

FieldAssist has evolved from a sales automation platform to a one-stop shop for all sales and distribution operations. Over a period of time, the firm has upgraded its tech stack with many new-age technologies such as AI and ML.

In a recent chat with Paramdeep Singh Anand, CEO FieldAssist, he talks about his startup journey and what FieldAssist has been up to. Here is everything you need to know.

Introduction.

FieldAssist is a SaaS-based sales and distribution platform that is empowering relationships for CPG brands across the end-to-end value chain. From distributors to retailers, salesmen to leaders, all stakeholders are connected digitally through an integrated platform which simplifies how sales are planned, processed, and predicted, and distribution is discovered, developed, and deployed. Headquartered in Gurugram, India, and with clients in 10 countries in Asia and Africa, FieldAssist is a 'Proud Partner to Great Brands,' delivering ready insights and powering GTM strategies for 550+ CPG brands including Godrej Consumers, Saro Africa, Danone, Tolaram, Haldiram’s, Eureka Forbes, Bisleri, Nilon’s, Borosil, Adani Wilmar, Henkel, Jockey, Mamaearth, Emami, Chings, and Philips among others. Everyday over 100,000 users reach 7.5 million outlets using FieldAssist’s technology- built for all. It is making the CPG industry a technology-driven powerhouse.

Are there any ideological principles that your organization follows to maintain the brand value?

CPG industry is the most complex one, highly distributed and logistics driven. To drive efficiency in this rapidly changing world you need more than a technology vendor you need a partner who’s committed to your long-term success. With deep market research, close association, and almost a decade of experience working closely with great brands, we understood our clients trust us not just as any other vendor but express confidence because of the expertise, innovation, and experience we bring to the table for them.

Working from that perspective, we are not perceived as a vendor in the industry that merely offers transactional products and services. We work in close collaboration with our clients to solve their problems with technology. In that sense, we are more of a partner - a proud partner to 550+ great brands. By being a partner, our focus remains on growing revenue and business of the client brands by creating new technologies, connecting their teams and channel partners across the end-to-end value chain, and in the process, conquering the complexities of the future today for them so that only a least possible amount of unexpected incidents disrupt the flow of operations.

Considering the pace at which the SaaS market is growing, how important is it to keep innovating to stay in the game?

It is very important indeed. However, at FieldAssist we look at it from a different lens. Instead of running after innovations for profit, we strive for innovations that solve problems of the industry, bring efficiency and empower everyone within it. When we work and innovate from this perspective, we are of course innovating nonetheless but most importantly, we are solving key problems that many may choose to ignore simply because it may not rake in instant profit at an early stage. To exemplify, during the Covid breakdown, almost every thinkable activity requiring physical presence was halted, numbing sales and distribution as we knew it. Taking note of the grave impact it was leaving on brands salespeople who were stuck at home and its lasting effect on channel-partner relations, we immediately launched solutions like contactless SFA, and market intelligence surveys among others which could be processed without physical meetings.

What is one thing that puts your product apart from the crowd?

One of the major things that separate our products from our counterparts is our constant strive to make them better, so as to include more features and solutions for complex and critical CPG problems. Our team is in constant touch with the market, visiting the field regularly and spending hours conversing with industry and brand stakeholders irrespective of the grade. This is something we encourage across the organization, especially for our recent on-boarders who join the ongoing research and market understanding activities. The product teams at FieldAssist are a bunch of upscale, dedicated to making our UI/UX more interactive, and easier to understand, and contribute phenomenally to the experience every day. Time is of prime importance to us because it is to our partner brands. We ensure the interface has a smoother flow where every key detail is accessible with minimum effort. It is the emphasis on building and fueling the growth and profit center for our clients, increasing sales and revenue, thereby raising ROI by means of our solutions that do the rest.

What exciting things are coming up from your side in 2022?

Currently, the industry is working in silos, with disconnected operations. In the future, this disconnect may make operations grow redundant in the way data is recorded, analyzed and deployed across functions. We are working on removing silos, connecting functions and empowering relationships across the CPG partner ecosystem with data and ready insights derived from digitally connected platforms. Our two new products, FA ModMart and FA DMS are two steps in that direction. Former is a deep analytics platform for CPG brands with a presence in organized retail outlets.

It enables constant availability of their products on the retail shelves, intelligent visibility of the product, smart placement propelling ROI calculation in real-time, and easy tracking of the competition. Later, the Distributor Management System is bringing advanced rural and urban capabilities to CPG brands. It’s connecting brands and distributors with advanced AI capabilities, easing inventory and order management, quicker claim settlements, customized reports, one-click delivery confirmations, and much more. Both products are going to stand connected to offer unified insights to the brands.

What helps you stay updated, interested, and inspired?

When FieldAssist started operations, there were only a few consumer goods companies owning automated sales and distribution processes. FieldAssist, in fact, was one of the early disruptors offering a SaaS-based automation platform for small, medium, and enterprise brands. After 8 years in the industry, we say that plenty of CPG problems of the modern day still need solutions, be it for the rapidly growing smart-home appliances industry or the network-oriented paint industry, or the workflow-inclined lights industry. These use cases are strong enough to keep us interested in the industry and inspired to deliver.

Topped by our quest to be the proud partner to great brands - brands that conquer complex challenges, innovate fearlessly, delight customers, and build new trends. There are numerous great brands not just in India but globally that are facing similar challenges in scaling up and growing with data-backed go-to-market strategies. As I keep reading and understanding evolving market dynamics including ever-engaging conversations with industry leaders, consultants, and experts, the natural inclination to make these challenges fade away with technology brings enough inspiration to keep going.

What change is your company bringing to the industry?

In a few words, it is solutions, speed, scalability, and accelerated growth that we are bringing to the industry. Expanding upon it with an example, there was a common problem in the CPG industry where all the bulk data from excel sheets and sales reports were processed to get insights. It would take multiple days and even weeks depending on the scale of operations and geographies. Today, with our technology solutions, those insights and intelligence are gained within seconds without anyone having to process the data. Technology does it for them.

Technology-backed solutions and solutions-backed speed are there not just in insights but in almost every other sales and distribution operation of CPG brands. Be it ten times faster claims management for distributors or stock replenishment, smarter go-to-market strategies for specific beats or tapping the market’s performance in real-time, highlighting exceptions across geographies within seconds, or tracking competition with advanced image-recognition technology. The list is endless. All this leads to elevated scalability and ultimately growth because companies are able to expand operations owing to speed in delivery and real-time market intelligence.

Technology-backed solutions and solutions-backed speed are there not just in insights but in almost every other sales and distribution operation of CPG brands. Be it ten times faster claims management for distributors or stock replenishment, smarter go-to-market strategies for specific beats or tapping the market’s performance in real-time, highlighting exceptions across geographies within seconds, or tracking competition with advanced image-recognition technology. The list is endless. All this leads to elevated scalability and ultimately growth because companies are able to expand operations owing to speed in delivery and real-time market intelligence.