Gramener: Turning Data into Actionable Insights Through Visual Analytics

Founded in 2010, Gramener advises clients on data-driven leadership – specifically in data management, analytics, dashboard design and data visualization. Gramener works with Global Fortune 100 customers in a quick, non-intrusive manner, & help unlock hidden insights from data using cutting-edge visualisations to develop foresight for critical business decisions. Gramener's services help business users get insights through analysis of data, leveraging Machine Learning (ML) & Artificial Intelligence (AI) and automated analysis, and through visual intelligence via modern charts and narratives (NLG).

Gramener takes design first and consumption focused approach to problem-solving. The right mix of technology and people skills combined with a willingness to transform makes Gramener unique. The company's proprietary offering, the Gramex platform is a product-builder that rapidly creates custom Visual Analytics Solutions across business verticals, use cases and solution features.

Gramener co-develops industry-specific products through partnerships. Products which help an advertiser pick the right mix of channel distribution for advertising budget to increase ROI, for the Central government using an online dashboard to monitor public grievance on near real-time basis, & for firms to govern their RPA implementations using a smart command centre.

Inspiration Behind Inception

"Why don't we do something together"? With that, & individuals with a similar mindset, the company was started. It had aspirations in the rural space. Hence "Gram" "ener"! With a solution for data visualization, the Gramener team needed a customer. In comes Airtel. Countless meetings with Airtel team, & one resulting meeting with their regional CEO, led him to sign the papers on the same day and giving a week to deliver a prototype. It was delivered in three days, & Airtel became the company's customer. There was no looking back from there. Gramener now has more than a hundred customers, & operations in Asia, Europe and North America.

An Experienced Visionary

S. Anand Co-founded Gramener and initially served as the Chief Data Scientist. Now CEO, Anand provides technology leadership and strategic direction at Gramener. He leads Gramener in translating technology and innovation into processes and products that transform businesses.

Acknowledged as one of the top data scientists in India, Anand believes, "Tools are never the concern, the motive and the execution is". Anand holds a Bachelor's degree from IIT Madras and an MBA from IIM Bangalore. He has previously worked with IBM, Lehman Brothers, and Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

Translating Data into Actionable Business Insights

Gramener developed the company's proprietary platform, Gramex, which supports automatic data cleansing, analytics, visualization through libraries built with years of data science experience. Currently, it is a solution builder. Soon it'll be a full-fledged plug & play, device independent intuitive product. The product will provide advanced analytics/BI/AI etc. services with appealing visuals. And, not many companies in India are working towards that.

Gramener addresses clients current & future needs. The company's solutions on RPA governance, Election Analysis, have been received well, & act as standalone products. Benefits provided by the company include extensive analysis of data with appealing visuals, handling of large datasets, and offering economic solutions.

Gramener assists its clients in identifying business problems, prioritizing key areas and applying data-driven problem-solving approach using Gramex. It allows the company to combine the best in class data science components to solve business problems.

Recognition Worth Striving For

Gramener has been recognized and rewarded for its contribution to the clients and the analytics industry. A few of these include:
Awards: Express IT Awards, 2016 | Leading Technology Company at Deloitte Fast 50, 2016 | Gramener's Autolysis Among NASSCOM's Top 50 Emerging Products | "Most Admired Big Data Startup", #BigData #Analytics Summit 2016 | Aegis Graham Bell Award for Innovation in Analytics and BI, 2015 | Red Herring Top 100 Asia winner, 2013

Recognitions:"25 Most Promising Big Data Companies" –CIO Review | Top 10 Analytics Firms to Work For: Analytics India Magazine, 2015 | Mentioned in multiple Gartner reports | "Market Guide for Data Science and Machine Learning Service Providers", 31st October 2017 | "Market Guide for Social Analytics Applications", 12 December 2016.

Overcoming Business Challenges

The journey for every bootstrapped startup is the same. Problems of cash flow, the right set of people, etc. are always there. Aside from the aforesaid, Gramener had its own share as well:

•  Creating a niche for visualization during the company's early years. No other company was concentrating on that. The company took a shot at it, & so far it has paid off

•  Finding people who had knowledge of the full stack i.e. visualization, analytics, & coding. It was extremely difficult to discover such people or people who were willing to take up extra skills

•  India as a market with more for less attitude. The company had to deliver the best value, and at the same time price its solutions economically

AI and ML to Revolutionize Industries

Anand believes the speed with which newer uses of technology are being uncovered makes for a very promising and unimaginable future. AI service providers are offering data science platform for free. This gives anyone with an idea and focus to launch a business at scale and do things they have not done before.

An Indian FMCG major known for its retail stores ran an online-only campaign on World Shots day 23^rd April and increased the sales of a particular product category by 500%. Such experiments are commonplace today due to easy access to BI/ AI software combined with large computing power at economic rates. It won't be far when an AI-driven fashion designer, or a fashionbot, would understand consumer trends from Instagram, Facebook etc. and combine that with customer preferences to design clothes.

Opportune Future with Big Data Technologies

For the next 5-10 years, the company hopes decision-makers will get comfortable with reliance on recommendations made by AI systems. Today, it is largely missing due to the lack of transparency in how AI systems work. Greater attention would be paid to ethics while adopting AI/ML/DL technologies. Also, the human in the loop will not be eliminated. An AI application would be able to recommend what to pick between A & B but it would still be up to a human to choose.

Gramener would like to offer the company's existing and prospect customers greater business value. The company wants to be the preferred technology partner in their Data Science journey.