Prabhuzantye: Lower Internet Cost Will Support Africa’s Digital Revolution
Head, Business Development, Middle East and Africa, Freshworks, Saurabh Prabhuzantye, in this interview with Peter Uzoho, explained that higher penetration, better speed and lower cost of mobile internet will continue to drive digital revolution in Africa
Do you think countries in Africa are taking the right steps toward having digital economies?
Africa has digital economies. In fact, they are leaders in mobile economies and the west has not caught up. We skipped the computer wave and went straight to mobile. The best example is M-Pesa. Ten years after M-pesa’s launched, Apple is still struggling to drive mobile payments in the United States. Higher penetration, better speed and lower cost of mobile internet will continue to drive this revolution.
But why do firms still have preference for foreign software?
Foreign software firms have an unfair advantage - access to capital and experienced talent that has been there, done that. Fortunately, the gap is shrinking. With more software engineers joining the job pool and gaining experience, the advantage is vanishing. These days, good software firms can be built outside the USA. There are examples - Skype from Estonia, Atlassian from Australia and now Freshworks from India.
What sort of value has Freshworks added to the IT space in its African markets?
Freshworks has helped clients to improve engagement and empower the teams to deliver exceptional customer experience for end users in the region through multiple solutions. Freshworks recently announced the immediate availability of Freshworks 360, a fully integrated cloud bundle that brings together sales, marketing, and support applications to provide users with a full, easy-to-use customer engagement experience. I’d like to quote the co-founder and CEO of Freshworks, Girish Mathrubootham, who said, “For too long, small business and many enterprises have been left out in the cold when it when it comes to customer engagement software. Sales, marketing and customer support professionals have been forced to use bloated, siloed customer relationship management (CRM) and support systems, while HR and IT have been beholden to bulky products with unnecessary features and exorbitant price tags. While we are thrilled to announce this new revenue milestone, we are on a mission to put easy-to-use business software in the hands of the people who need it and Freshworks 360 is a major step in helping us do exactly that.”
Freshservice, our information technology service management (ITSM) tool was able to address customer pain points like the absence of self-service, lack of transparency, lack of automated workflows & lack of a robust IT knowledge base.
With new trends like the Consumerization of IT – what are the growth areas that Freshworks foresees for the African Market?
Employees expect enterprise IT software to be as easy-to-use as Whatsapp. They expect a good user experience, context that helps them do their work, and collaboration with other teams. The software has to work for them. They don’t have to work for the software. And Freshworks believes in delivering these values through all the products which are developed on these basics principals of delivering exceptional experience, easy to use and something which is not heavy on pockets.
What are the IT trends that have made Nigeria a strong market for the company?
The market is sitting at an inflection point where consumers are coming online, businesses are coming online, and this is changing how business is done.
Firstly, the business angle. Whoever had retail stores now have to sell online and ship. This means inventory has to be managed and displayed online, payments have to be made online and customers have to be engaged over chat and email, not phone. Secondly, the customer angle. Previously, customers only spoke to businesses. Now customers talk to other customers and to the world. This means businesses have to be present on facebook and twitter and participate in these conversations.
The important of support is amplified; you can say customer support is the new marketing.
Who are some of your biggest clients in Nigeria and what has been their feedback about your products?
Some of the biggest clients in the region are Sterling Bank, Godrej, Pagatech, Dafabet, and Jab Jab Group to name a few. Freshdesk has been effective in helping them to provide their clients a great customer experience through fostering better engagement through all channels of communication. Freshworks customer engagement platform enhances team efficiency and improves business productivity for our clients. Our clients are in love with our product and absolutely love how Freshworks platform simplifies their life and help them serve their customers better.