Our mission is to empower companies to maximize business outcomes, says Khadim Batti, CEO, Whatfix.
Bengaluru: In an email interaction with The Sunday Guardian, Khadim Batti, CEO and co-founder, Whatfix, opened up on a host of issues. Excerpts:
Q: Why are Digital Adoption Platform (DAP) solutions critical for digital business transformation? How can it become the defining solution for the current work from home economy?
A: The pandemic has accelerated the pace of digital transformation, which has been at the top of boardroom agendas for quite some time. The current crisis has emphasized the need to enable entire workforces to work remotely. It is complicated to work remotely, especially when you consider the shift in learning and support dynamics that many companies offer. According to a Forrester study conducted before the pandemic, organizations attribute a lack of CRM adoption to people-related factors, with 49% attributing this to slow user adoption. As organizations deploy more software than ever before, digital adoption becomes crucial.
Digital Adoption Platforms (DAP) are designed to guide users through the use of sophisticated tools so that enterprise-grade software can be used to its full potential. Today, when it is impossible to turn to the person on your left and ask what the next step in your process is, in-app guidance is vital to keeping businesses running smoothly. For example, Whatfix offers a unique Digital Adoption Platform that provides in-app guidance, intelligent nudges, automation for quick adoption of new software solutions and increasing productivity.
Q: How are you prioritising workplace learning for employees to help them keep up in a rapidly changing environment?
A: Talent development is a core fundamental of Whatfix culture. We believe that our people are our asset. We are constantly looking at multiple ways to develop and equip our talent for future challenges. This includes setting skill frameworks for teams, mapping of competencies for roles to enable employees to bridge their gap areas. We are in the process of designing a “Manager Development Program” that would enable managers to work more efficiently with the team.
We plan to implement a “Whatfix Mentoring program” to encourage people to choose their mentors and develop skills/potential through structured 1:1 connections. Our company encourages employees to pursue certifications relevant to their roles and responsibilities. We have rolled out Whatfix Educational assistance policy, which enables our employees across the globe to upskill themselves in the forms of courses and certifications.
Q: The pandemic has given unexpected challenges to almost every sector. According to you, what lessons can be learned?
A: As organizations accelerated their pace of digital transformation to counter the challenges of a global pandemic, 2020 has been a year of disruption and introspection. We have been continuously innovating and supporting our customers’ evolving needs during this time. With our investments in technology and expansion into new markets, we provide our customers with the tools they need to navigate the digital transformation journey. With companies investing heavily in software solutions as part of their drive towards digital transformation, Whatfix is a safeguard of their investments.
Q: How was Whatfix affected due to the pandemic? How is it recovering?
A: The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the pace of digital transformation across industries. The adoption and optimal use of critical platforms and tools is a crucial part of digital transformation. Whatfix plays a significant role in ensuring that an organization’s entire employee base is onboarded and uses the tools at their disposal, effectively.
As a result of our SaaS offering, businesses were able to increase output while reducing the costs of tech enterprise tools. As a company with the majority of its employees based in India, yet selling to global organizations, we were well-equipped to keep everything running smoothly from a customer support as well as sales perspective.
Additionally, Whatfix implemented the Helping Hand Initiative, an effort to support impacted customers’ continued need to onboard, train, and ensure workforce productivity virtually during the Covid-19 crisis by offering business continuity solutions at no cost.
Q: It’s been more than 7 years since Whatfix was launched. How is your journey so far?
A: Our growth has been on a strong upwards curve, with Whatfix being a global leader in DAP today. Since last year, most of our customers have moved their entire workforces to remote working, requiring them to find new ways to engage their employees remotely. Gartner has recognized our category, Digital Adoption Solution and positioned us as one of the pioneers in the space.
We have been recognized by Deloitte and Everest Consulting as well in industry reports on this category. Whatfix has been featured in the LinkedIn Top 10 Indian Startups 2020 list, showcasing how we have emerged as one of the leaders in the digital adoption solution category.
A few days ago, Whatfix announced the acquisition of Nittio Learn, a learning management system that will improve the company’s application training capability by making learning more personalized, adaptive, and rich.
The announcement came amid record quarters, achieving quarterly growth of 100% on a year-over-year basis for the past two consecutive quarters. Whatfix also raised $90 million in Series D funding from SoftBank Vision Fund 2. With the Series C funding in 2020, Whatfix’s valuation has tripled to a ballpark figure of $600 million.
Q: What are the challenges that you faced?
A: We are building a new category, Digital Adoption, and have been successful in doing so. While many understand the problems we solve, they don’t necessarily understand that there is a solution available to them. The main challenge that we are currently tasked with is solving this. We are invested in our mission to empower companies to maximize business outcomes by eliminating technology complexities for their users.
Q: What are your post Covid plans?
A: As the demands of the digital adoption space increase, we shall grow our teams to meet our customers’ evolving needs. We shall also re-invest in the development and technology we provide so we can continue to innovate. Our DAP is sector-agnostic and can be integrated with almost any application, giving us a unique advantage.