Order Fulfillment Software
INDIA
AI is artificial intelligence, more usefully and commonly defined today as machine learning. IoT stands for internet of things, where any object, however small, has its own internet address so that it can communicate, share data, and respond to request as if it were a mobile phone. Cloud is computing and data storage capacity on demand, directly analogous to electricity as a utility. Switch on and you get what you need without knowing where the power plant is or where your software and data are stored – they are “in the cloud.”
Chai Point is a rapidly growing Indian company that is both a leader in business innovation and in the forefront of applying these IT tools at POS – point of sale. Established in 2012, it is the largest hot beverage delivery firm in the country. From its inception, technology has been fused into its entire operations. It seems a bellwether for the industry in general.
Chai Point was set up to fill a massive gap in the Indian market (one shared with the UK). Though 83% of Indians were mainly tea drinkers and only 17% coffee devotees, coffee shops were everywhere and tea houses almost nowhere. Consumption of cha was 15 times higher than coffee.
Amuleek Singh Bijral brought a strong technology focus to his startup. He had been the country manager for a leading security software firm, RSA, and a Microsoft executive. He saw a number of opportunities in the problems of the tea market;
• Lack of product variety and distribution. “Same old brands across the market… most of the teas packets that consumers buy are usually nine-to-ten months old.”
• No standardization, unlike coffee: “Everyone makes tea, as per his or her own taste and belief.”
• Lack of communication: “No tea brands were bothered to educate the customer at the last mile.”
He started with retail stores, which now number close to a hundred. Surveys showed that customers were far more diverse in potential but constrained by products and distribution. More than 70% consumed their tea outside the home, mostly in the office. A third had tea four times a day. Chai Point needed to offer end-to-end-solutions to a broader market with varied demands.
The company launched four main innovations:
• Order fulfillment for calls placed not just direct but through food delivery and restaurant ordering platforms, such as Zwiggy and Zomato.
• Chai on Call (CoC): hot tea sachets ordered directly via the company’s website or mobile apps.
• CPG: Tea packets freshly packaged in the store.
• Box C: a tea (and coffee) dispensing machine with full internet connectivity by plug-in socket, AI software (learning and hence customization) and IoT (connectivity) to serve customers in their offices.
Box C provides a wealth of information: tea quality and status, when to refill ingredient inlets, cups sold since the last reset, Data is sent to the central server every five minutes to provide inventory and performance indicators. Tea, milk, temperature, water acidity, etc. are monitored and AI-adjusted. AI maximizes details about customer behavior while IoT manages the machine functions.
Box C uses the standard Android operating system to open up new services via mobile phone, including a prototype dispenser to be located just about anywhere – hospitals, airports, and public spaces.
Box C is not “advanced” technology. It uses standard hardware, software and communication protocols that are ultra-advanced in their combination and packaging and in their tailoring to the firm’s business model. All data are stored and accessed via Amazon’s AWS, reducing the need for complex data center and network operations. None of Box C is futuristic. The message for other tea retailers and service providers is the adage “The Future is Now.”