Interview. India’s openness to new technology and its adoption are unmatched: Rupesh Lunkad of TeamViewer

Covid amplified the requirement for a remote work environment and gave us a real push. Our customers trusted us to get remotely connected to offices, their customers and plants. So that was a start.

Customers also learnt that things that were earlier not done through remote are now possible. For instance, BFSI operations. We are now seeing WFH is possible in banks too. Specifically from a remote connectivity perspective, there was leverage of the learnings from Covid that customers want to use.

They want a hybrid environment as not everybody is required in the office. But remote connectivity is only one part of this. Over the last five years, we have also invested in multiple areas to take connectivity to the next level.

From ‘people to people connect’, we are now talking about ‘people to things connect’. Now, people in Chennai or Hyderabad can connect to a machine in Mumbai, Pune, or anywhere in the world through our enterprise connection and operate that machine. We have seen great traction for this offering in the IoT space.

So any device can be made smarter using the remote connection and enterprise connection provided by TeamViewer. The third thing is ‘people to data connect’. It is a fact of life that 80 per cent of people globally are not working in the office, and thus are not using data. They don’t have direct access to data available in the backend system.

We took this opportunity to use augmented reality to create industrial metaverses; to get data to people who are at the plant, on the field, and at the warehouses; and to connect them to the systems to access data and to take decisions or act. This piece (augmented reality) is taking us to the next level.

Reducing cost is the mantra of today. Global leaders talk about this and the need to be sustainable. These are two big principles that guide Teamviewer too. What we have done is we have reduced the need to travel. That is where augmented reality has come into the picture.

To give you an example, SRF Ltd, which, as you know is a big player in the chemicals and process-based industry with operations all around the world, has a centre of excellence in Chennai. There are two aspects to this. One, in today’s scenario, skills are limited. Of course, there is skill coming in, but the experience is what counts.

So SRF has decided that experienced people need not be located in every location. For a process industry, maintenance is an important function. A person who knows a machine inside-out can be in Chennai and there could be an issue up North.

Of course, he can take a flight out. But this will add to the cost, increase the carbon footprint, add to the time-lapse and so on. So what SRF does is that from Chennai, it gets immediate access to the problem area, say a machine in Delhi.

So using augmented reality, a person from Chennai can see what an user in Delhi is seeing through augmented reality glasses to perhaps make some changes in the machine or to prescribe some solution.

This, he can do with multiple people like customers and vendors at multiple places at the same time. With the IoT device, he can actually operate and maintain a machine that is located anywhere. All these are contributing to cost and time savings and sustainable operations. 

You are right! India is primarily an SMB market. The volumes that you see in the market are largely due to the presence of SMBs. In the IT space too, you see smaller managed service providers doing big business. This is where our remote connection tool is coming in handy.

From a market penetration standpoint, we have our network/channel partners who reach these businesses in every nook and corner and help them understand these technologies.

We have also put our solutions on the net so that anybody can just swipe their card and access them. So we have made sure that anybody with any need has easy access to the solutions provided by TeamViewer.

Yes, of course. Government participation, for one. The government is exploring lots of areas for using augmented reality. Because of the digital movement that the Prime Minister has promoted, I see a lot of engagement with government departments.

We recently did a pilot project with Central Railways on the inspection of wagon wheels using augmented reality technology. It was like science fiction. The project was received wonderfully well. Similarly, in the BFSI sector, we have enabled something called ‘co-browsing’.

This helps banks, insurance companies etc to better support some of their customers who could be senior citizens to fully explore the services of these providers.  

Within APAC and even across the world, the openness and adoption that I have seen in India are incredible and unmatched. Customers in India want to test more technology. And it starts from the top, be it government or enterprises.

So India will always be among the early movers. So you introduce something here and they immediately want you to do a pilot. India now knows technology is the way to simplify business. Augmented reality is a good example.

Hyundai, our partner, was among the first in Asia to look at smart factories and how to use TeamViewer to build a smart factory. Similarly, any customer we talk to here immediately wants to explore all the possibilities. SRF is another good example of this.

Customers elsewhere are looking at Indian use cases and trying to replicate them.

You know that there is zero probability of a recession hitting India. That’s a big reality that all of us are aware of. It’s a no-brainer for any organisation not only to stay invested in India but keep increasing the investments. Also, India is a forward-looking market.

Investments are also happening here in the areas of infrastructure, manufacturing, health, and telecom. So you will need IT support. That is why the demand for digital is only going to grow from here.

We are just five years old in India and have lots of headroom for growth. We are also leveraging our partnerships with companies like SAP, Siemens, Microsoft, and Google to grow the market.