Communications technology company, Zoom Video Communications, which shot to prominence during the pandemic, has since evolved to become a larger collaboration platform. Sameer Raje, general manager & head, India & SAARC, Zoom Video Communications, talks to Christina Moniz about the company’s transition journey and the significance of the Indian market. Edited excerpts:
While Zoom was used extensively for personal and official work during the pandemic, how are you reinventing the brand to cater to current customer needs?
The meeting component continues to be the heart of the platform. However, over the last couple of years, Zoom has turned completely into a collaboration platform. There are two components. The first is Zoom Workplace, a complete platform that covers meetings, chats, mail, calendar, employee productivity and engagement tools. The second is business services, where we have certain core focus areas such as virtual agents, webinars, events, contact centres and the ability to integrate all these into applications of your choice. In a nutshell, from a single application, Zoom has transformed into a huge platform that helps companies elevate their customer and employee omnichannel experience. AI, which is integral to our technology, cuts across all our offerings and functions. We introduced our Zoom AI companion six months ago at no extra cost for our users with paid subscriptions. The feature provides meeting summaries in your inbox, synchronised chats, emails, etc. and is available in various languages such as English, Hindi, Tamil and Telugu.
Reliance Consumer Products Limited unveils new Campa Cola campaign
Govt mulls relief on retrospective GST on e-gaming
Gauri Khan collaborates with Bisleri for exclusive Vedica Himalayan Sparkling Water label
Sussanne Khan collaborates with Sternhagen for exclusive bathware collection launch
Zoom leads the global market for video conferencing with about 50% share. How are you taking on platforms like Google Meet and Microsoft Teams?
The proof of the pudding is in our performance and our customers can see the difference we offer. Moreover, we allow users to fire up a Zoom meeting right from a Teams chat, or join a Google Meet from Zoom. That’s another major differentiator for us, because we are not asking customers to use only one technology or platform. We are giving them the freedom to make their own choices. When it comes to collaborating, we are the best in business.
What role has the Indian market played in Zoom’s growth journey?
India is not only a strategic market for Zoom globally but also is a strong contributor for the company. We are investing heavily in India. We now have two development centres in the country, in Chennai and in Bengaluru. The one in Chennai is an R&D facility that primarily drives product development and research, while Bengaluru is a global tech support centre. It would not have been possible to invest heavily in this country with two centres if India wasn’t a strong contributor to our global business.
We have big plans for this market too. We will bring the Zoom Phone to India soon; it allows users to transfer calls across devices and even transition a voice call into a video conference without interruption. We also plan to introduce the Zoom Contact Centre, an omnichannel cloud contact centre solution that helps businesses deliver prompt and personalised customer experiences. Further, there is the Workvivo platform for employee engagement that we recently acquired. We plan to bring that to India as well.
What sort of work are you doing with brands in India?
We work with a diverse range of customers, from small firms to multinational ones. For example, we recently did something unique with Lenskart with a video contact centre. Basically, with our video centre, customers could walk into a Lenskart store and if needed, connect with an ophthalmologist from the store itself. We have also worked with pharma brands like Glenmark.
We also work with governmental and public sector enterprises. We worked with the Goa Police to put cameras on their personnel, and manage the law-and-order situation on New Year’s Eve a few years ago. One of the key features during the CoWin app launch by PM Modi on Zoom was that it had live translation in different languages.
The Indian market presents certain challenges like internet connectivity especially in remote locations. To what extent have you been able to tackle this?
In the last couple of years, connectivity has improved across the country. That is not to say that challenges do not exist in remote areas, but there has been significant improvement in tier-III and IV markets in recent years. Today, customers can also use Zoom Voice, which is our platform for video, voice and chat. In fact, Zoom Voice sometimes works more effectively than local networks in certain regions.
Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook
