“In my honest opinion, Lockdown was a temporary setback and a wonderful opportunity for the long term” – By, Mr. Sanjeev Jain, Founder of TNS (Technology Never Sleeps) Networking Solutions Pvt. Ltd

1. Please tell us about your journey of becoming the Tech Guru of India

I have had a keen interest in technology since a very young age. Even after completing my education, when I joined the family business, I used technology to take the business to new heights. This led “Delta Exports”to reach top position in the fragrance products industry. With my 25 years of experience, I have setup 7 businesses that are running successfully.  After my family business, I started my own venture called Technology never sleeps (TNS), an IT infrastructure business serving top customers like Honda, L&T, Renault, Delhi Airport, Railways etc. Now I am focussing on my third venture, CEOITBOX, where I train entrepreneurs on using cutting edge Technology to fully automate their business & run it from their smartphones. I have trained over 7000 entrepreneurs including owners & directors from companies like Honda, Okaya, Action TESA, Mikrotek, Anmol Biscuits on using cutting edge Technology to streamline their business and run it from a smartphone with complete automation. 

2. What is your vision for CEOITBOX ?

If you look at the top MNC’s like Apple, Google etc you will find that they are driven mostly by Indian’s. However, you will hardly find many Indian owned cos in the Fortune 500. Also, I feel that businesses that do not use Technology in the right way will die.

It is our mission at CEOITBOX to get atleast 100 Indian companies into the Fortune 500 companies in the world and create Global Indian brands by using cutting edge Technology and make India proud. This keeps us going and excites us.

3. How according to you does technological innovation help businesses grow?

In order to build and grow any business you need to skill yourself in using cutting edge Technology. Any entrepreneur can easily do this in 5 stages:

• Organize yourself:It is imperative that you, yourself become super organized using the amazing Tech Tools such as Reticular Activating System, Capture Tools, Time Boxing, Virtual Assistants, Email\Messaging Automation, Automated followups etc. This will allow you to get free from the routine and focus on critical growth activities.
• Organize your data:In present times data is the most valuable thing in a business. If you lose your data be it of the client, vendor or distributor it can mean major loss in terms of money as well as credibility. So, it is important to organize data in a way that is easily accessible by the authorized person as well as protected against internal\external threats.
• Organize your business:Most business is not growable in the first place because everything depends on the owner. For businesses to grow they need a structure and system of repeatable processes to ensure smooth-running business with maximum efficiency. Most entrepreneurs are re-inventing the wheel and finding their own solutions to common problems – How to get orders, how to manage production, how to get people to follow processes, how to minimize errors, how to get paid on time etc. I call these “Repeatable Systems” that can be created easily using opens source tech to solve all these issues permanently.
• Automation:Being a business owner doesn’t mean you have to do everything yourself or be involved in every action. It actually means to bring your business in an auto-pilot mode. The work must continue to happen even if someone falls ill or is not in office. In my opinion business should be  like an automated machine, each and every process can be automated so that they are more reliable and consistent. Machines & software are more suitable for auto-pilot, people are more suitable for creation and problem solving.
• Consolidation:For scalability it’s important that data can be accessed remotely from anywhere at any time by your team. It’s important that critical data is summarized and accessible to your and your team in a single place from any device.  If you can’t run your business from your phone/tablet or laptop remotely, then it will be difficult to survive let alone grow in these uncertain times.

4. How technology turned out to be a savior for companies during the nationwide lockdown?

In my honest opinion, Lockdown was a temporary setback and a wonderful opportunity for the long term. This pandemic has given people time to evaluate the services/offerings and how to deliver real value to their customers even during these times. This will only give a push to my ideology – “Disrupt your business yourself before you get it as a gift from someone”.

We are in the world of VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous), this Pandemic has only given us a glimpse into the future. Most businesses will not survive if they do not reinvent themselves. With exponential growth of Technologies such as AI, Cloud, IOT & Robotics, a huge amount of repetitive work will be automated. Businesses that do not add value in new and unique ways will be eliminated.

It’s time to sit back and re-evaluate your business. What problem is your business solving? Is it worth solving anymore? Can you solve it better than others using the latest technology? It’s time to automate all the routine work in your business and start thinking of the Next Thing for your industry/ domain

5. What are some of the Features of Google/ WhatsApp that companies can use to their benefit?

There are so many brilliant tools available in the world of Google. Mentioning below a few of the ground-breaking tools by Google and WhatsApp:

• Google Drive:The cloud-based platform by Google allows users to store & work on files on their servers, collaborate in unique ways and work from anywhere without buying expensive servers, software etc. The platform provides voice input, translation, confidentiality, free unlimited storage, video conferencing, workflow automation as well as offline capabilities for Windows, Mac, Android and iOS.
• Google Keep:Google Keep is another tool developed by Google which makes the user’s life easier, it is a note-taking service for PC, Android and iOS. Keep offers a variety of tools including text, lists, images, and audio. Users can set reminders, which are integrated with Google Now. Text from images can be extracted using optical character recognition, and voice recordings can be transcribed. CEO’s can followup on important projects by maintaining shared lists to keep everyone on track and reduce frequent communication by using Keep as a Capture Tool for their tasks, thoughts, information, ideas etc.
• Google Sites: One of the most amazing tools, Google Sites allows anyone to create simple web sites to service their customers, employees, dealers and distributors. You can also build a complete company intranet to build a virtual office in the cloud.
• Google Drawings:It is a free, web-based diagramming software developed by Google. It allows users to collaborate and work together in real time to create flowcharts, organizational charts, website wireframes, mind maps, concept maps, and other types of diagrams. Google drawing is as good as photoshop, so one doesn’t need to buy photoshop software and can simply work on Google Drawings
• Google Jam Board:Jam Board is an interactive whiteboard developed by Google, as part of the G Suite family. Your team can collaborate amongst themselves and with customers/suppliers on the virtual whiteboard from anywhere and any device to hold meaningful discussion without limiting themselves to a board toom.
• Yet Another Mail Merge (YAMM):The best and easiest mail merge tool for Gmail. Send mass emails with high deliverability directly from Google Sheets and Gmail. Through YAMM it is possible to send personalized emails to hundreds of recipients at once using your Gmail account. The user can also track emails opened, clicked, responded, bounced and unsubscribed in real time from the comfort of your spreadsheet
• Automated Lead Nurturing on Email\WhatsApp:Most of the businesses are only able to convert a fraction of their inquiries into orders. We have created our own software to nurture all these leads by sending automated messages based on the customers stage in the sales funnel.  Once you add new contacts this software will automatically start sharing interesting updates with them to build and maintain top of the mind recall. We have seen conversion increase by more than 5x for our customers by using Technology to automate one of the most laborious work in sales and provide a continuous stream of hot cases for your sales team.