‘Pandemic Accelerates Digitalisation, Especially in E-com, Edtech’

The pandemic has accelerated pace of digitalisation in the country and segments across the board — from e-commerce to supply chains — evolved in the way they cater to requirements of customers, Salesforce India CEO Arundhati Bhattacharya said on Thursday.

Speaking at the India Global Forum 2021, the CEO of the customer relationship management platform said skilling is extremely important in this digital age. “India was already on a digital journey, but what could have taken 2-3 years longer, has actually been compressed into a matter of one year... subsequent to the pandemic... companies — 100 per cent of them — realise digital has become a must-have, it’s not something that’s just good to have,” she said.

Bhattacharya noted segments that have seen the “fastest changes” include e-commerce, edtech, health services and supply chain. “The fastest changes, I think, have taken place in the area of e-commerce, where people are understanding they need to own their customers. We’ve seen a huge amount of change in the edtech sector because children have not been able to attend schools and every edtech company has actually evolved very rapidly.

“We’ve seen a lot of changes in the health sector, nobody could ever imagine the kind of virtual consultations that we are doing with doctors at this point of time,” she said.

The former State Bank of India Chairperson highlighted that supply chains and dealer networks have also witnessed rapid changes. “So changes are there in every single sector. I can't really think of a sector that hasn’t evolved,” she noted.

Bhattacharya said providing access to affordable internet and skilling are necessary for the digital age. She said some reports suggest that reskilling employees costs six times less than hiring from outside.

“So, if you even look at the cost structures, companies themselves needs to take up the reskilling work... As for the public at large, there are very many free platforms (where people are upskilling themselves),” she added.