How this Chennai-based startup is realizing digital dreams for enterprises globally

Most businesses today are at that critical juncture where embracing Digital technologies is absolutely crucial to their staying relevant. While some walk the path fairly comfortably, some need to tread more cautiously and might need a bit of hand holding. That is when the role of digital transformation partners becomes so important.

While large IT vendors are swiftly gauging the trend and chasing opportunities in the digital technology space, there are some small and niche players that are successfully weaving digital stories for their enterprise clients, without the backing of an army of tech professionals.

Contus is one such eight year old, Chennai-based company that is riding high on the digital transformation wave. Started off as a bootstrapped company in 2008, with just two employees, it currently has 200 plus engineers and has already enabled digital transitions for companies across 40 countries globally. In India, the company has served majors like Mahindra and Dr.Reddy’s.

Sriram Manoharan, Contus

Early mover advantage

Contus largely drew its strength from being an early entrant in the space. Sriram Manoharan, Co-founder and managing director, Contus says, “SMAC started maturing into a known digital strategy only in the last 5 years. Contus was already into SMAC-based digital transformation by this time, which helped us gain the first-mover advantage. With time, we have evolved as a dynamic organization with diverse capabilities that can service the demands for digital transformations of enterprises of any size.”

Also the company has been able to build a balanced portfolio of products and services. “We create products largely for the eCommerce industry. Apptha - a digital marketplace for all kinds of eCommerce extensions was the first product we released officially. This was shortly followed by Contalog, an omnichannel digital commerce platform targeting the growing eCommerce retail industry,” adds, the Co-founder. According to Contus, these are the two products that helped it solidify its position as an innovative digital transformation partner in the e-Commerce retail space.

“The unique trait of our product line is that they are positioned to target group customer segments as pre-built solutions that can be customized and perfected as standalone apps or solutions,” reveals, Manoharan.

Contus’ services revolve around leveraging the combined prowess of Social, Mobile, Cloud and Analytics (SMAC). Mobile app development, eCommerce development, open source servicing, web development and cloud solutions are its other key service areas.

With Digital transformation increasingly being hailed as the next growth driver for organizations, the company is expecting significant growth in demand for its products and services. “In industries like healthcare, eCommerce, automobile, hospitality, etc. digital transformation is being adopted on a war-footing basis. Middle East, North America and Asia-especially India- are regions where this trend can be witnessed at an exponential growth rate. By all means, the demand will scale up even higher in the coming years, as creating a digital connect with customers will become inevitable for all businessesh,” adds, Manoharan.

Integrated digital transformation strategy

The Co-founder also shares a word of advice for companies that are looking at embracing digital transitions. “For charting out a successful digital transformation journey, a tangible roadmap detailed with short-term and long-term mission and vision is a must. The roadmap must be structured to achieve definite goals like improve productivity, reduce costs, reengineer business processes, and grow customer engagement,” says, Manoharan.

Digital transformation strategy should be such that it utilizes all the four elements- Mobile, social, cloud and analytics. “Most organizations tend to regard launching a mobile app to be the end of digital transformation. Other avenues like cloud integration, social connect and analytics must also be explored to derive maximum results from the digital transformation efforts,” adds the Co-founder.

Once the strategy is in place it becomes easier to direct organizational resources towards achieving the milestones in digital transformation.