At the heart of Marico’s digital strategy lies a transformation model that encompasses value enhancement, business process transformation, IT, consumer engagement, online sales and analytics. We have developed a digital framework that harnesses the opportunities offered by new-age technologies. The Company is using ‘innovation through digital models’ to enhance its sustainable profitable journey.
DEPLOYING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TO DRIVE REAL TIME FEEDBACK
Amber: CEO’s personal digital assistant
Amber is a chatbot developed to engage talent within the organisation and communicate with the new members. Employees can connect with her at predefined milestones throughout their tenure and are free to share feedback and experiences. With Amber, Marico is creating a digitally connected workplace that connects people, systems and processes. Since its launch this year, it has been used by more than 70% of the new members. It has provided an additional platform for members to voice their opinion and share their suggestions to help make Marico a better workplace.
Sales Mood-o-Meter: My Voice
A Sales Mood-o-Meter has been launched to take continuous real time feedback from the sales team. The bot listens to the members in order to address issues, engages key talent and records additional feedback from the frontline field force of Marico. It has been prototyped with the east sales team and 52 members have been using it regularly since its launch.
Maricognize Kudos Bot: Say Wow. Say it Now
Marico has successfully integrated its internal social rewards and recognition platform ‘Maricognize’ on Facebook@ Workplace. With the use of a Kudos Bot and its ‘Workplace first’ approach, Marico has enabled members to give top-down and peer-to-peer recognitions publicly and globally. The bot also enables members to redeem their reward points online. The bot was launched in February 2018 and was an instant hit with more than 800 uses within one week of its launch.
BUILDING EFFICIENCY WITH ROBOTIC PROCESS AUTOMATION (RPA)
We have leveraged latest advancements in technology like the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to improve efficiencies and drive accuracy through automating systems and processes across various functions of the organisation. Some of the examples are:
- Budgetary control process in Finance: RPA helped streamline the budget control process and significantly reduced the manual effort involved.
- Freight invoice reconciliation process in Procurement: Freight invoice reconciliation has been a manual and repetitive process which was streamlined using the RPA system thereby reducing the amount of time and resources spent on procurement-related activities
- Recruitment process in HR: Automation has helped simplify the recruitment process. We are currently piloting a bot which receives the search criteria, downloads profiles and resumes of relevant candidates and emails back the results to the recruitment team.
CREATING A COMPETITIVE EDGE WITH MANUFACTURING INTELLIGENCE
Manufacturing Integration and Intelligence (SAP MII) software with the vision of making manufacturing a competitive advantage for Marico. Our factories are fast getting digitised with the help of sensors and analytics dashboards which monitors and measures information quickly. This aids faster decision-making and faster action thereby improving productivity and turnaround time.
SAP MII was chosen as an integration platform for prototyping at two of our plants, Baddi, and Perundurai. The machinery was integrated to derive real-time actionable insights to drive sustainable business value. This also helped in increasing data transparency and accuracy by reducing manual reporting, along with facilitating faster business decisions.
DRIVING TRANSPARENT PROCUREMENT PROCESS BY AUTOMATING COPRA COLLECTION
We automated the copra collection process with the help of a SMS-based bidding solution which provided buying rates directly to the farmers. This enabled the farmers to share their bid quotations directly and thereafter bring the produce to the collection centre. This outreach helped create a transparent procurement channel.
EMPOWERING THE WORKFORCE WITH INTEGRATED APPLICATIONS
At Marico, we are motivated to nurture an empowering work culture that encourages people to learn and grow while making a difference to the ecosystem. We have built multiple learning platforms for our members – ILearn, Workplace, Innovation Jam, Digital Think Tank and Young Board – and in 2017 we introduced Membrain.
Membrain, a Talent Management Suite powered by SuccessFactors, brings talent processes on one platform, making them simpler, streamlined and integrated. It is a step towards automating the HR processes and enhancing member experience across the organisation by providing accurate and real-time access to information for faster and effective decision-making. The platform will also be used to collate and integrate information for career management.
