With the COVID-19 pandemic still being a disruption to normalcy, most events are still on hiatus. But we at INSYNC didn’t stop. With hope for a COVID-free year ahead in our hearts, INSYNC was glad to be able to come back with its annual event – INSYNCHRONY 2021. We adapted to the pandemic scenario and made our INSYNCHRONY event a success by adopting a hybrid model. To the uninitiated, INSYNCHRONY is the biggest annual corporate event at INSYNC. It marks the end of the previous financial year and lays down the roadmap to achieve success in the coming year. The event is a platform for each department to highlight its breakthrough innovations, showcase new products developed, get updates about business partners, get customer insight and bring new team members in sync.
With the upcoming second wave of the pandemic, the safety of all the team members was of utmost priority. To ensure the safety of all the team members, the INSYNCHRONY 2021 event was conducted as a hybrid event. The hybrid model allowed team members to join both in-person and online through Microsoft Teams. The user-friendly UI (User Interface), stable video streaming capability, and glitch-free performance of Microsoft Teams meant everyone digitally joining in on the event enjoyed had a seamless experience. With 80+ team members joining from both office and home for the six-hour-long event marked the event’s success.
With the global shift brought on by the COVID pandemic, both businesses and customers have to adapt to the changing tides. With customers getting accustomed to the comfort and convenience offered by the digital marketplace, companies are moving into the eCommerce industry to stay competitive. Both new and existing businesses are focusing on providing a superior online experience to their customers like never before. But providing a robust online experience is no easy feat. Building a rugged integrated eCommerce platform from scratch is an uphill task for most businesses. To help companies get started with a robust eCommerce platform, that comes with out-of-the-box integration with other business process applications, INSYNC developed INSYNC Commerce in 2020.
INSYNC Commerce is an integrated end-to-end B2B eCommerce platform. The solution provides to the user not only a robust B2B capable eCommerce platform but also streamlines all their other business processes and operations through seamless data integration. INSYNC Commerce was a flagship product launch for INSYNC in 2020 and remained a key focus area. The popular iPaaS solution by INSYNC, APPSeCONNECT, also saw a lot of feature updates and enhancements. How these products helped merchants grow their businesses even though the pandemic and the key milestones achieved, all were highlighted at INSYNCHRONY 2021.
Event Highlights of INSYNCHRONY 2021
The Age of Digital B2B Commerce
With the COVID-19 pandemic locking people up in their rooms, digital stores came to the forefront. The pandemic has drastically accelerated the shift towards the digitalization of the industry. A study by Gartner predicts that, by 2024, 15% of the B2B organization will use digital commerce platforms to support both its customer and sales rep in all sales activities.
Due to the COVID pandemic, supply chains have been disrupted. Many customers are not able to get the things they need in time. By adopting a digital infrastructure, businesses will be able to better communicate any delays to their customers and even supply customers the insight to order beforehand while stock is still available.
Businesses are looking into methods of digitalizing their business process. The pursuit of finding improved ways of implementing business process digitalization has led to the development of many new digital commerce technologies and trends. Some of the upcoming trends in digital commerce technologies include:
- B2B sales and commerce platform evolution.
- More online revenue from services attached to products.
- Increased diversity for digital commerce go-to-market.
- More success with third-party marketplace models.
- Global digitalization to efforts to reduce cash.
Another avenue of digitalization is through automation through business application integration. The benefits provided by the integration of business-critical software applications through cloud services have led to the widespread adoption of iPaaS into the industry. An iPaaS or an Integration Platform as a Service is a cloud-based integration tool that connects all business applications to enable streamlined bi-direction data flow across all applications. The global iPaaS market has grown at a steady CAGR of 40.4%. The CAGR for the forecasted to reach $4,054.8 million by the year 2022.
Gartner also predicts that by 2022, at least 65% of the larger organizations will be implementing a Hybrid Integration Platform to power their digital transformation. To cater to this rising demand for a cloud-based integration APPSeCONNECT by INSYNC has seen several feature updates, such as ProcessFlow, to supply businesses the tools to integrate and grow effortlessly.
Growing and Scaling the Established Ecosystem
A business is not just an organization but a complex ecosystem consisting of employees, customers, business partners, and much more. How well the business grows is depended on the growth of the ecosystem. If the ecosystem experiences healthy growth, then the business grows along with it. Keeping that in mind, five key areas have been found for the growth of the business ecosystem.
- Growth through Channel Business
The previous financial year showed significant growth of deals made through channel businesses. Channel deals saw twice the growth and revenue increased by 30%. Thus, to achieve exponential growth in the B2B market, channel business is the only way to go. - Focusing on Strategic Accounts
Strategic accounts involve customers that are not only profitable but also have the potential for expansion. These accounts have the prospect for us to provide to them a wider range of services in the future. The aim is to provide to these accounts long-term solutions and better services, nurture them and acquire new logos. - Optimize the customer life cycle
This involves the entire experience the customer receives throughout while working with us. The customer journey starts from the very moment they land on the website and continues as long as they are working with us. So, it is crucial to perfect the customer experience so that they can receive the best-in-class service and reduce customers from churning out. - Provide a wider range of solutions
Offering just a single type of solution to the customers limits the range of strategic accounts that we can supply services to. With INSYNC Commerce, we have expanded into the market of digital eCommerce solution providers. This improves our reach and increases the return on investments for the strategic accounts. - Focusing on existing customers
Existing customers act as the safety net and insurance for every company. Businesses can run sustainably due to the long-term support and commitment of these customers. So, it critical to provide them with the best-in-class customer experience. A satisfied customer is also likely to bring in business as well. According to Esteban Kolsky, a renowned analyst, 72% of customers will share a positive experience with 6 or more people. On the other hand, if a customer is not happy, 13% of them will share their negative experience with 15 or even more.
Staying Connected Even in the Pandemic
The pandemic had isolated everyone. But INSYNC made great efforts to make sure everyone felt connected even in the darkest of times. All main events were carried out safely as online or hybrid events. Last year, the annual Hackathon, one of the biggest events at INSYNC was the first hybrid event. Team members joined the event both from home and office to make the 36-hour long Hackathon event a success. Other events such as our pre-Durga Puja event of Agomoni, Diwali, Secret Santa, and many more were conducted virtually. Birthdays were also not left out. Custom gift boxes were sent to all team members on their birthday to make sure they felt connected even if they could not celebrate their birthday with everyone.
Embracing the Age of Remote Hiring
As INSYNC grew in the last year, the need to expand the team also came along with it. But with the pandemic still ongoing, offline job interviews meant a health risk for all. So, for the first time ever, INSYNC conducted its recruitment process digitally. With the help of Microsoft Teams, job interviews were carried out digitally through voice calls and video conferences. With the help of online interviews, INSYNC was able to successfully grow the team with new talents.
While the big stage presentation and the magnificent food were missed due to INSYNCHRONY being a hybrid event this year but set forth the roadmap for the coming year and provide a platform for the new employees to know and interact with each other. With fun games and quizzes, the new team members were able to comfortably ease into the team.
INSYNCHRONY 2021 marked a major milestone for INSYNC. Learning from the earlier pandemic year, INSYNC was now equipped to face the uncertain times brought on by COVID. With new products under our belt, a vision for a brighter future ahead, and the hope to return to the earlier extravagance of the physical INSYNCHRONY event next year, INSYNC concluded the event.
INSYNC will strive to continue providing the most innovative technology and business application integration tools for organizations.
Hope to see you next year in a COVID-free world.
Till then, stay safe, stay home.
Get started with your B2B eCommerce store and gain a competitive edge in the market! Also, connect all your business applications under one single platform to automate the business process!
