'Empower your business with mobile marketing and solutions'

Top Stories

»	49% Indian startups now from tier 2, 3 cities: Jitendra Singh
»	'India ranks 3rd in global startup ecosystem & number of unicorns'
»	Tripura exported over 9K tonnes of pineapples in 2 years
»	CPI inflation eases to 6.71% in July, IIP falls to 12.3%
»	Rupee depreciates 12 paise to close at 79.64 against US dollar

Saurabh Gupta | 08 Aug, 2013
Mobile spectrum has opened up a whole new era of opportunities for both small and big entrepreneurs. Mobile marketing and solutions empower businesses to reach, engage & analyze their customers across the mobile horizon, Managing Director of VivaConnect, Vikram Raichura told SME Times in an exclusive interview.

Vikram Raichura has started VivaConnect as a small venture in 2001, a decade down the line it is an enterprise reaching corners of India. He defines the road map to revolutionize the communication experience through a blend of technology and innovation. This self-styled first generation entrepreneur aims at exploring the opportunities in Cloud Communications.

Excerpts of the interview...

Please tell our readers more about your group - VivaConnect.
Vikram Raichura: VivaConnect is India's leading Mobile Marketing & Solutions Company having the LARGEST infrastructure for Voice and Missed Calls besides SMS, Email and Mobile App Development. We simply love to take up the challenge of delivering innovative mobility solutions, producing AWESOME results for our clients.

How long are you in this sector?
Vikram Raichura: We started as a small venture in 2001, a decade down the line we're an enterprise reaching corners of India. Our unmatched mobility services and solutions empower businesses to reach, engage & analyze their customers across the mobile horizon. We've powered a BILLIONS of interactions till date.

You have started VivaConnect as a small and medium enterprise (SME). So what kind of challenges you have faced during the journey?
Vikram Raichura: As ours is a self funded company, back then we faced great challenge managing cash flow, hiring talent, setting up the systems & delayed customer payments. Also there were many ups and downs of the industry that had to be coped with. Especially when it came to implementing TRAI regulations in a very short span of time for our products & services. But with each challenge we kept evolving & developed as a Mobility solution provider. And here we are leading the segment market.

With the kind of products VivaConnect is developing?
Vikram Raichura: At VivaConnect we focus on maximum reach at minimum expenditure. Hence when we build products, we not only try to understand our clients requirement but we go ahead & put ourselves into their customers seats. To enable us understand what they prefer, what engages them, what may annoy them, etc.

Hence we contribute to businesses & Individuals through our platforms of Mobile Apps, Voice, Missed Calls & SMS services. We ideate, develop, and deliver "AWESOME" mobile initiatives and experiences for Brands, Television Networks and Enterprises creating a POSITIVE BUSINESS IMPACT. We meet the ever-changing & diverse customer needs on their most preferred device, THE MOBILE. Holding innovation & customization at the core.

Please elaborate this "VivaConnect's solutions empowers from masses to classes i.e TRING! TRING! Customers to TAP! TAP! Customers thus breaking all kinds of barrier".
Vikram Raichura: It's a lingo from VivaConnect's culture. TRING TRING being is an interpretation for our Missed Call, SMS & Voice based services. Which can be availed easily over any basic handset, surpassing the barriers of language, region & location. It works wonders for masses from rural areas who have a low level of mobile literacy. While TAP! TAP! signifies our Mobile Apps built for the mobile savvy users consumer base that comprises of metropolitan generation who swears by technology walking around with smart phone's & tablets.

Thus enabling the brands to connect with entire Pyramid of consumer's, breaking geographic & linguistic barrier while covering all the income groups.

Currently you serve 100+ SMEs and approximately 6000 users. How can VivaConnect help a small and medium enterprise (SME)?
Vikram Raichura: Frankly speaking, size doesn't matter to us. Every client is equally precious as it brings up a new challenge. Its always about the pain areas of client & how can we not just overcome them but also device a rigid system easing their future operations. We believe that mobile spectrum has opened up a whole new era of opportunities and businesses shall make the most of it.

Cost is a big issue for SMEs. How cost effective are your services?
Vikram Raichura: Our products don't demand customers to invest huge capital on infrastructure, on the contrary we have a state of art in house setup to save the trouble for our clients. If you checkout our products & services you'll witness that we have kept the technological jargons to us & facilitated our clients with pure output, as they desire. As we have pay per use models, hence SME cost factor is taken care of.

Who are your major competitors in the Indian market?
Vikram Raichura: Over the years we have devised multiple products, hence considering company as a whole we have competitors as such. But considering the vast IT segment of India, yes there is definitely competition with respect to individual products of ours. Our competitors differ in capacity of & capability.

In present scenario, what is the biggest challenge you have? And what will be the feasible solution for that?
Vikram Raichura: We believe both technology and life are ever evolving and take that as an opportunity to provide better services. IT sector is at its all time high and the prospects are brilliantly promising ahead. The challenge is and was always in molding the technology into proficient services & products. We embrace the technological advancements to delve even better solutions.

What are your plans to increase your market share?
Vikram Raichura: We are planning towards expansion by taking our business to global markets. Plus we are occupied with conceptualizing new products with better services & features. Not much can be talked about at moment as they are pretty much in a nascent stage.