Capillary Technologies:- Harnessing the power within data

Information deluge. Data overload. Making sense out of noise. Customer engagement. Analytics. Capillary Technologies, one of the exciting new companies in this field which was also a part of our Tech 30 Report, deals with customer information and its analysis. YourStory spoke to Krishna Mehra, co-founder of Capillary Technologies, to know more about the inside dynamics at Capillary.The founders Krishna Mehra, Aneesh Reddy and Ajay Modani are all graduates from IIT, Kharagpur and founded Capillary Technologies in 2008.

Prior to starting Capillary, Krishna was a key member of Microsoft Research. With Capillary, Krishna defines the Services Matrix, the Product Vision and Strategy for the company. He also heads the Capillary Subsidiary in the Middle East. Aneesh, who was previously with ITC, is responsible for Capillary’s Business Development across the country and also heads the subsidiary in England, while Ajay, who quit Danieli to start up Capillary, handles various roles ranging from Operations to Client Servicing.

Capillary’s solutions have been developed to help retailers engage better with consumers and keeping the current generation of consumers in mind – both in terms of mobility and connectivity. The key benefits are the way they enable engagement over the mobile and the fact that the platform enables instant gratification in real time.

The Products

!nTouch, the enterprise offering includes advanced analytics and account management which helps retailers generate a lot more aggregate insights across all of their stores and drives engagement through a network of stores. Capillary is typically able to show a 3% Same Store Sales Growth within a period of 3–4 months.

TruTouch was launched recently and it is a product specifically designed for SME retailers. These products are hosted on a cloud platform so retailers don’t have to invest in any technology or servers. The analytics is more operational with clear actionable data that would help customers run meaningful engagement and promotions.

Clientele and Reach

Capillary’ solutions have been deployed in more than 6000 stores for its 100+ clientele. Capillary works across different verticals with some of the biggest names in India, Raymonds, Pizza Hut, The Mobile Store, Woodland, Puma and Gili.

Capillary has expanded their business in Dubai, London and Singapore and their solutions are doing well with the 20-odd retailers outside India.

How is it done?

A number of proprietary Business Intelligence tools that enable better data capture, analysis and customer engagement – all on real time enables Capillary to harness the power within data. “Our key differentiator includes Point of Purchase Analytics, in-store analytics which can be run from cashier terminals itself”, says Krishna.

“We also have several patent pending technologies in the area of continuous engagement over a customer micro-segmentation. For instance, a high loyal customer preferring spicy food can be communicated to entirely differently as compared to a one-timer who ordered a very light meal”, adds Krishna.

The parameters defining customer engagement

The specific parameters that maintain customer loyalty and build engagement are convenience, customization and non-intrusive ability; the idea is to focus on the customer’s demographic, psychographic and purchase behavior profile and map them into a relevant micro-segment and drive engagement based on their past history. Capillary uses existing customer loyalty data to enhance business and reaches out to the customers at the right time with the right offer through the right medium. These engagement programs are run off different channels like mobile, email, microsites and social media.

The pricing

A per POS (point of sale)-per month pricing model lets clients to pay based on number of stores/POS where the solutions are being used every month. The solutions require Zero Capital Expenditure and begin to realize Return on Investments within two to three months of implementation.

Tackling the privacy issue

The Capillary platform has many various options through which the customer would receive only the kind of information he/she wants to. The retailer’s tools are able to capture communication preferences of their consumers. And in terms of data security, Capillary’s ISO 27001-2005 certified security management system ensures that the confidentiality, integrity and availability of customer's systems and data are never compromised.

The secret to a great team

Capillary hires from premium institutes like the IITs, IIMs and NITs and are growing fast, from 30 to 150+ in less than a year.

The hiring process is fairly rigorous and the focus is more on attitude and people they think would fit best into a startup rather than just the skill – because finally in a startup, just like cricket, it’s not just about hitting the ball but the follow through as well. Also, there’s a great bit of freedom on how the individual can contribute best as they have a pretty flat organizational structure.

The journey for Capillary has been upwards ever since inception and it’d be great to keep an eye on the growth graph of this company. More about the Capillary journey later. So stay tuned.

– Jubin Mehta