Omnistream sees opportunities in Southeast Asia expansion

SINGAPORE-BASED start-up Omnistream Pte. Ltd. said its cost-structure model will attract more conglomerates in the region as it expands into Southeast Asia, including the Philippines.

“We are outcomes-focused and the only enterprise technology company that allows customers to pay us based on outcomes. We call ourselves outcomes-asa-service,” Omnistream CEO and Founder Wendy Chen said in an earlier e-mail interview.

“We’re proud of being able to offer this model because it means that we’ve thoroughly tested our technology and our methods for the realities of emerging markets... We see a lot of demand for this in Southeast Asia, especially among conglomerates, because there has been a legacy of large foreign consultancies and/or technology providers who have come in and implemented solutions that do not work at all in the realities of these emerging markets,” she added.

Omnistream only earns whenever a client profits from its solutions to guarantee a “win-win for all.”

Founded in 2013, Omnistream is a Singapore-based retail dataanalytics start-up which had raised 2.2 million SGD in seed funding to help with talent recruitment, product development and geographical expansion in Southeast Asia.

The company offers automated market insights delivered from the merging of multiple internal and external data sources. These insights are based on real-time data analytics which help offer retailers recommendation on customer persona; and suggestions for retailers to measure the impact of every product on total category performance: dynamic assortment, outlet location, store layout, stock selection and marketing, among others.

“One of our bestselling features is new store site selection and assortment planning for localized conditions. Whether a new store has a two-year payback or a 20-year payback depends primarily on external factors,” Ms. Chen added.

On its website, the company claims being able to achieve boosting retail firms to grow 24% in revenues.

The company focuses on the Southeast Asia-based retailers who are trying to expand “aggressively.”

Omnistream said it is currently in discussions with Philippine companies but declined to disclose further details on their identities and the deal pending a closure.

Asked for trends Omnistream sees in the Philippines, Ms. Chen said: “I think a strict definition of e-commerce misses the biggest opportunities in the Philippines. Although reliable infrastructure, payment networks, logistics and so on may not exist yet, waiting for these to be built before executing on an e-commerce vision misses the opportunity.”

“I think in the near future, we will see more offline-enabled e-commerce business models, primarily those that leverages on the existing retail and/or convenience networks,” she added. —