Productivity as a result of WFH has actually increased

The way Internet has allowed to transact remotely, blockchain will enable remote transaction with trust, feels Siddhartha S, Founder of IN-D.

What changes in the technology industry do you see that will happen as a result of the COVID-19 crisis? What areas will see the biggest change?

Technologies that enable remote working will obviously take off. This means that there will be more focus on Artificial Intelligence for sure, as managing processes remotely many a times will involve understanding of unstructured data and automated decision making. I also believe that the way Internet has allowed to transact remotely, blockchain will enable remote transaction with trust.

You have solutions like video KYC, digital on-boarding and zero-touch operations. How can they help?

Unlike many KYC solutions that are basically workflow solutions, IN-D's KYC solution is based on our core AI engine—which can understand each document, check for consistency, has the intelligence to adapt to a company's policy or a new country that it may be entering. Same is true for HR Onboarding using IN-D where the AI engine can also read and understand degree certificates and marksheets, as well as relieving letters, offer letters, etc. to establish employment history. The same engine can also facilitate zero touch accounts payable by processing invoices and receipts.

How are you personally coping during the lockdown and what are your tips for both WFH employees and enterprises to ride through this crisis?

IN-D always had policies that were WFH friendly. WFH policy has enabled us to recruit a high percentage of women and allowed our staff to work remotely since commuting takes at least 3-4 hours every day. In the current situation, we proactively announced office closure on March 13, 2020 to ensure that during the weekend of March 14/15, 2020, all our employees were back in their hometowns, almost ten days before the formal lockdown to follow the norms of social distancing. Fortunately, our productivity as a result of WFH has actually increased in many ways. We will only resume working from the office premises after June 30, 2020 when all of us are comfortable with situation.