Exclusive Interview with Kunal Sarkar, Vice President, PredictiVu Pvt. Ltd.

The 21^st century has introduced a data-driven culture in the tech-driven world through cutting-edge technologies. One of the major disruptive technologies popular in recent times is big data that deals with enormous volumes of complex real-time data such as structured, unstructured, and semi-structured on a daily basis. The global big data market size is expected to hit US$229.4 billion by 2025 with a CAGR of 10.6%. Big data analytics includes effective and efficient data management, data analytics, and data literacy to have a clear understanding of current market trends and customer behavior. Here is an exclusive interview with Kunal Sarkar, Vice President, PredictiVu Pvt. Ltd, which recognized the data literacy gap in the market and is determined to provide an AI-powered dashboard to automate and enhance performance for sales and business growth of the companies in need.  

Q1. Kindly brief us about the company, its specialization, and the services that your company offers.

PredictiVu is India’s first of its kind analytics firm that addresses the data latency and data silos challenges to deliver near-real-time business intelligence insights to marketing leaders, ten times faster than conventional methods. The data literacy gap within marketing restricts them from making better use of customer intelligence. Leveraging data-driven insights to make informed decisions has always been critical for marketing leaders to track KPIs and validate achievements. But the lag in data tracking has been a huge bottleneck. Rising innovation and competition along with changing customer behavior have created a need for business intelligence that is faster, flexible, reliable, consolidated, and gives a 360° view of the business environment. The reality is that, currently, reports and data sets such as sales reports, consumer insights, campaign performance, social and web listening, etc. are isolated, redundant, unidimensional and often directionless. This means that a brand’s internal teams grapple with the task of correlating details, creating actionable insights, and sharing results massively investing a humongous amount of time and energy there. To resolve and address such critical marketing challenges, the company has conceptualized and designed ‘Dynamic Marketing Optimizer’— India’s first such fully automated centralized next-gen AI-powered data visualization tool that can enable marketers to track data in near real-time, consolidate it and analyze insights 90% faster and apply these while their campaign is live and at a very micro level.  

Q2. What is your biggest USP that differentiates the company from competitors?

The tools and solution are designed to track and deliver insights with prediction ten times faster than the traditional methods that mean marketers can now arrive at better and effective strategies for their brands 90% faster. The dashboard is connected to 75,000 retail touchpoints across 100+ Indian cities adding 50,000+ customer data points every month delivers 5-point zero-latency smart business insights in a centralized form covering artificial intelligence, customer intelligence, marketing intelligence, ad intelligence, and web intelligence. Either you can find a service provider with analytical capabilities or pure-play data-specific expertise these days but there is no company offering both these know-hows at a macro and micro level. This is where PredictiVu is different from the competition. The company also offers the option to marketers to add third-party data from 100+ sources to its DMO, gauge and interpret market intelligence for specific campaigns, and answer some of the most complex questions.  

Q3.  Brief us about your role and contributions to the company and the industry.

Kunal Sarkar, Vice President, PredictiVu, describes two significant moments from his life that shaped his professional decision to create PredictiVu— the candid coffee table conversation with MD of a leading market research firm in 2009, on the unexplored analytics capabilities that’s limiting smarter marketing decisions that led to a deep discussion around marketing intelligence and what lies ahead with artificial intelligence and machine learning; the second came in 2018 while attending a market research event, where the topic of discussion still revolved around untapped potential of AI & ML within data analytics and how it’s under leveraged by brands. To a tech enthusiast like Kunal, it seemed like déjà vu and that the needle hadn’t moved in the last decade. For someone like him who has always been intrigued at the multidimensional insights that data can generate with appropriate deep drive analysis and more so with automation now, this seemed an opportunity that he has always dreamt of nurturing as a part of his profession. His next move was to pivot and lead a team to build the next-gen AI/ML-based automated data visualization tools capable of multi-dimensional, near real-time data mapping and business intelligence insights delivery for smartening marketing decisions. Post working as a Senior Analyst with marketRx which was later acquired by Cognizant, Kunal went to the UK to pursue his post-graduate education. In his next work stint at KPMG UK for a year as an Actuarial Analyst, he was extensively involved in providing consultancy to clients on various statutory filings and compliances. Post working as an independent Data Analyst for a year, he joined Market Xcel Data Matrix Pvt. Ltd. (India) in 2010, and in his role as a manager of the market research division, he took end-to-end responsibility of project completion starting from needs assessments, new product ideation, concept testing, pricing, ad testing and tracking, customer segmentation to competitive assessment and market sizing. Closely working on intricate data for clients, enhancing productivity and effectiveness by addressing marketing gaps gave Kunal immense confidence and knowledge bearing to spearhead innovations in data analytics later. When Kunal joined PredictiVu as Vice President in 2018, he was all set to develop one-stop solutions for CMOs and marketers that address the detected limitations and correlated marketing campaign performance with multidimensional granular levels to deliver near-real-time business intelligence insights 10 times faster than the traditional research. In his role, Kunal aims to lead teams to design analytics tools that can deliver exceptional marketing intelligence insights and reports by identifying customer preferences, competitor performance at a granular level for businesses to maximize ROI of marketing campaigns. In the next three years, Kunal believes, as a team, they will be able to create a deep impact in the way market intelligence is delivered today by designing one of the most coveted data analytics solution tools that will empower marketing breakthroughs for the leading brands in the smartphone, consumer durable, consumer electronics, pharmaceutical, and FMCG sectors.  

Q4. How is IoT/big data/ AI/ robotics evolving today in the industry as a whole? What are the most important trends that you see emerging across the globe? 

The Indian big data industry has grown significantly in recent years with an expected CAGR of 35.1% in the forecast period 2021-2026. This massive surge in the AI demand across industries is primarily due to the enhanced computing power, digitization, and increase in data storage capabilities. Different sectors have seen different penetration and adoption of analytics that have defined the revenue generation from these sectors. The biggest adopter has been the telecom and smartphone segment after IT. But, in the case of the smartphone multi-brand retail business especially the offline segment, data information at a deeper level has remained limited and in silos. This hypercompetitive, volatile, and dynamic segment that has emerged as the biggest market for smartphone brands aiming for visibility in smaller towns and cities now, will need more comprehensive and faster business intelligence. Why? Because this segment is huge, untapped, and consists of an insatiable consumer demand poised to witness a double-digit growth by 2021. Unexplored analytics capabilities that are limiting smarter marketing decisions can become a huge impediment for capitalizing on growth. With new business models and brands emerging in the post-pandemic world, accurate data mapping, analysis, faster delivery from data intelligence partners will become a fundamental need and the trends will be reflected in more progressive advanced tools and solutions that will deliver next-gen intelligence.  

Q5. Please brief us about the products/services/solutions you provide to your customers and how do they get value out of it? 

PredictiVu’s DMO can track data in real-time, consolidate and analyze insights with a 360-degree approach to deliver advanced level highly optimized data-driven intelligence. Analyzing proprietary, weekly consumer purchase data on a near-real-time frequency, PredictiVu’s market intelligence and web insights capabilities can empower and boost marketing performance, sales, and business growth for marketers. Now marketing leaders can access 5-point zero-latency smart business insights under– artificial intelligence, customer intelligence, marketing intelligence, ad intelligence, and web intelligence with PredictiVu’s DMO and increase ROI by optimizing marketing mix and spend even while the campaign is running.  

Q6. What are the key trends driving the growth in big data analytics/AI/machine learning? 

Gaining a competitive edge is immensely critical now and doing that means keeping abreast with the latest trends. This can happen only when exceptionally agile, faster, accurate, and comprehensive insights are received in near-real-time. This is the trend now which will become the new basic shortly. The need for advanced predictive analytics tools and solutions that can play on the speed and accuracy will drive the growth in big data analytics/AI/machine learning. From enabling more accurate, real-time analytics and improving consumer experience to minimizing customer churn, AI and machine learning will have to innovate on algorithms and programs that can harbor intrinsic benefits to the marketers in real-time.  

Q7. How is your company helping customers deliver relevant business outcomes through the adoption of the company’s technology innovations?

The core team of PredictiVu consists of experts in the market research, technology, and analytical verticals who are further powered by some of the leading advisors in the field. So not only does the team understands the pain points of the marketers from the ground up but also improvises and applies the required additions to the existing tools and solutions to deliver what will really make a difference to the marketer. The tool can help marketers in correlating the details, provide access to all the relevant data points to reach decisions, reduce the burden of technical and analytical know-how. Using PredictiVu’s tool, a marketer’s time to collect and analyze business intelligence is reduced by 90%.  

Q8. What is your roadmap for the offline Smartphone (MBO) retail market? 

Currently, the company is connected to 5,000 retail touchpoints having a presence in 100+ Indian cities. PredictiVu’s DMO keeps adding 100,000+ unique consumer data points every month. Going forward, the plan is to expand the base to 150+ cities in India, where 1,500,000+ unique consumers per month and 75000+ retail touchpoints.  

Q9. What are the business benefits of handling data analytics & implementing a real-time decisioning platform?

In today’s competitive world, real-time decisioning technology can play a critical role in keeping customers happy, reducing churn, and improving the customer experience in the face of ever-increasing expectations. These advanced tools aid marketers in anticipating customer and market behavior faster and respond proactively. This further enables them to tailor content and opt for a delivery channel that best fits the preferences of the customers. These insights help in adjusting a promotional campaign while it’s live and attract effective results. Using near real-time data leads to a quick, efficient, and trackable marketing process and hence business gains.