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| Aseem Joshi |
As
a regional head for Honeywell’s Sensing & Productivity Solutions business,
Aseem Joshi has been developing strategies and spearheading sales and marketing
teams to grow business. Aseem came to Honeywell from Eaton, where he worked in
various roles, including Plant Manager, Marketing Manager and APAC Marketing
Strategy Manager for their Hydraulics business.
Prior to Eaton, he was an
Engagement Manager with McKinsey & Company and later associated with IBM as
an Industrial Engineer. He has an MBA from INSEAD, MS from Virginia Tech and a
BE from Pune University. Married and having 2 children, Aseem is currently
based in Pune.
Aseem speaks to K Ramanathan on Honeywell’s AIDC market in India, notable product launches, and
how technology can help retailers meet omni-channel challenges. Excerpts…
What is the current market
size and demand for AIDC products in India? What is Honeywell’s contribution in
terms of meeting the demands?
According
to “India Barcode Scanners and Printers Market Forecast & Opportunities,
2017” the revenues of the barcode industry in India are likely to grow at a
large Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of around 30% during the period
2011-2017. This presents many opportunities for companies in the AIDC space,
including Honeywell. Going forward, Honeywell AIDC is at the forefront of
Internet of Things (IoT) for retail and e-commerce sector.
Honeywell
has been and continues to working with our channel, our solution partners and
with a number of customers across Indian sub-continent to identify and address
their business challenges, through automation. One example includes India Post,
who we are helping to automate their 130,000 post offices across the country.
By integrating scanning technology, Honeywell assisted India Post to leverage
our world-class AIDC technology.
How
do you envisage Honeywell’s overall growth in the next five years in India?
Honeywell has been in India since almost 100
years, successfully working with our customers in a diverse range of sectors
across India, supporting growth through technology and innovation. We have
almost 15,000
employees (including 8,000 engineers) in country and physical presence across
50 cities. Our 7 manufacturing locations
and 5 global technology & engineering centers will continue to contribute to
our commitment and growth along with our customers.
The retail sector is a priority for Honeywell
Sensing & Productivity solutions. This is because Indian retailers, 3PLs
and transport and delivery businesses here, like their counterparts around the
world, have seen rapid growth and increasing operational pressures as a result
of the rise of omni-channel. The increasing number of consumer shopping
options, including online, in-store and click and collect, as well as the small
piece orders, the increased number of delivery destinations that have to be
reached in shorter timeframes, pose challenges for local retail businesses.
To
help address these operational pressures Honeywell will increasingly work with
Indian retailers so that they have the right systems and technologies in place
to keep pace with the omni-channel. We are in a vantage position to
enable brick-and-mortar retailers, be it neighbourhood groceries or
hypermarkets, adopt technologies that are most suitable to their needs : bee it
around from POS to mobile couponing, queue-busting to cross-selling and from
in-store to back-end.
Honeywell Sensing & Productivity
Solutions will also in the coming years be concentrating on developing and
delivering end-to-end solutions that enable seamless measures, controls and
collection of data across all business systems and devices. Business connectivity
and data collection allows for optimisation of workflow processes and worker
productivity and accuracy.
Honeywell will leverage our heritage of
industry leading technology and innovation, and work with our partners to
invest in hardware, software, cloud technology and analytics solutions that
best support true business connectivity.
What
are the latest offerings from Honeywell for Indian POS market?
Being at the forefront of innovations in
custom-engineered sensors, switches and controls, and productivity solutions
built around high performance data collection hardware for more than 40 years,
Honeywell Sensing & Productivity Solutions prides itself on delivering best
practice technologies to businesses across India.
Honeywell’s acquisitions of Intermec and
Datamax-O’Neil highlight our ambition for continuous investments that
strengthen the depth of our technology solutions and portfolio. Today,
Honeywell offers the most comprehensive range of products in the industry, with
over 50,200 products, including controls, global tracking, printers, scanners,
mobility, RFID, Voice solutions, sensors, software and electromechanical.
Honeywell
Sensing & Productivity Solutions allow businesses to manage their data,
assets and workers in order to optimise performance and processes in every
corner of their facility.
Our
Orbit 7120 presentation scanners and Eclipse 5145 are already brands by
themselves! Last year our thermal desktop printer PC42t was also very well
accepted by the end-users.
This
year, Honeywell is releasing a number of exciting technologies in the retail
space, including the Solaris 7980g scanner, which meets the needs of the
growing mobile payment trend. The scanner has the ability to read 2D barcodes
off mobile phones, as shoppers increasingly want to use their mobile devices in
place of credit cards and loyalty cards.
For
retailers after an affordable scanner, Honeywell has also released the Voyager
1602g pocket 2D Bluetooth scanner. The ergonomically designed Voyager 1602g
scanner can be coupled with tablet-based retail POS systems, mobile POS
solutions, inventory management, backroom/stockroom and in-store customer
engagement.
Can
you tell us how technology can be a game changer for retail sector?
Honeywell solutions are
designed to help retailers compete in an increasingly competitive environment
by increasing store associate productivity, reducing operating expenses and
increasing customer loyalty.
Honeywell’s innovative
solutions are primed for many key retail applications including store
operations, fixed Point of Sale, omni-channel fulfillment, in-store mobile and
warehouse.
The retail worker of
today is not tied to one station and is instead moving throughout the store.
These workers need technologies, such as the Voyager 1602g, which enable mobile
productivity and accuracy with ease. A mobile barcode scanner has the power to
not only increase productivity and accuracy, but also allow workers to interact
with customers and provide a much higher level of service.
Customer service is also
being improved with the launch of mobile payment offerings like Apple Pay and
Google Wallet. This means customers and retailers benefit from a faster and
more seamless check-out experience. With the use of a 2D barcode scanner such
as the Solaris 7980g, consumers can now pay for their goods with a simple tap,
while simultaneously earning loyalty points, discounts and promotions directly
to their device.
Those retailers who
invest in 2D barcode technology will be best placed to provide the best
in-store shopping experience for their customers as mobile devices become more
commonplace for payment.
