Building a Business OS, revolutionizing workforce efficiency: TrackOlap

In this exclusive interview, Dataquest speaks with Udit Agarwal, Founder and CEO of TrackOlap, a SaaS-driven company transforming workforce and business process management through intelligent automation and location science.

Since its inception in 2017, TrackOlap has evolved into a comprehensive business operating system that caters to both SMEs and large enterprises. Udit shares insights into their product evolution, the importance of privacy-first design, the impact of AI on workforce analytics, and how TrackOlap is solving real-world business challenges across sectors like FinTech, IT, construction, and agritech.

Excerpts:

DQ: Can you please talk about your role at TrackOlap, and the projects you have been handling recently?

Udit: We started TrackOlap about few years back in 2017 as a science company. We identified many pain points faced by enterprise customers and SMEs in managing their businesses.

The main project we are handling right now is our SaaS platform. Our goal is to improve workforce efficiency and provide business transparency, enabling growth. We offer a complete ecosystem of tools, including field force automation, sales management, customer and lead tracking.

Businesses often struggle with multiple disparate systems. For example, they use separate tools for HRMS and Salesforce, which creates inefficiencies. We have developed a complete business OS to address this issue.

DQ: TrackOlap utilizes location science to enhance employee efficiency and business automation. How does this integration help transition from traditional work management practices while ensuring data privacy and accuracy?

Udit: In a traditional workforce, field employees visit customers, but managers lack visibility into their exact movements. Employees may claim to have visited 50 places when they actually visited only 10. Our location science ensures accurate visit tracking, increasing business value through more customer engagements.

Previously, businesses relied on Excel sheets or WhatsApp messages to report visits. Now, our automation ensures real-time reporting, allowing managers to track performance seamlessly.

DQ: Features like real-time tracking and screen monitoring help businesses maintain oversight. How do you balance managerial oversight with employee autonomy while fostering a culture of trust?

Udit: Monitoring is essential for business success, but it's not about micromanaging employees. It's about understanding business performance.

We have two modules: field force monitoring, which ensures employees genuinely visit assigned locations, and a remote work monitoring system. The latter became prominent during COVID-19 when employees worked from home.

This system provides managers with insights into employees' activities, ensuring transparency. Employees are fully aware of the data being tracked, which occurs only during office hours on work systems. This creates a win-win situation for both employees and employers, fostering trust and accountability.

DQ: Many companies have a ‘Bring Your Own Device’ (BYOD) policy. How does your solution work in such scenarios?

Udit: Our application supports BYOD by tracking activity only when employees ‘punch in’ for work. Once they log in, tracking begins, ensuring transparency.

Sensitive data, such as banking transactions, is not recorded. Our system has built-in intelligence to exclude personal information from tracking, ensuring privacy and security.

DQ: TrackOlap caters to various sectors such as IT, construction, agritech, and HR tech. How does your platform customize solutions to meet unique workflow and compliance requirements?

Udit: Every industry has specific use cases. Over the last eight years, we have learned from customers and designed a highly dynamic platform.

Users can create workflows and collect industry-specific data without coding. We also offer pre-built workflows tailored to different industries. Our system continuously evolves based on customer feedback.

DQ: With rapid advancements in AI and IoT, how is TrackOlap incorporating these technologies into its product roadmap? Are you launching new products for additional sectors?

Udit: We are early adopters of AI, using it primarily for analytics. Instead of navigating dashboards, users can ask AI-based queries in natural language, such as "How many employees punched in today?" and receive instant insights.

We are continuously enhancing AI features to improve automation and decision-making.

DQ: Given that you cater to both SMEs and large enterprises, what differences do you see in use cases? How do you scale effectively while maintaining performance and usability?

Udit: Over 50% of our customers are SMEs, but we also serve large enterprises.

Big companies allocate dedicated resources for product implementation, while SMEs need self-explanatory, easy-to-use systems. We provide extensive documentation, video tutorials, and 24/7 support for SMEs.

Our platform is highly scalable, built on high-performance cloud infrastructure. Whether we onboard 1,000 or 10,000 customers, our technology scales automatically without manual intervention.

DQ: With increasing emphasis on data privacy regulations like the DPDP Act, how do you ensure compliance while protecting sensitive employee data?

Udit: We take compliance and security very seriously. Our privacy policy aligns with regulations such as the DPDP and GDPR. Legal aspects are covered in our master agreements.

From a security perspective, I come from a banking background, so I understand the importance of data protection. We encrypt data both in transit and at rest, conduct regular security audits, and follow industry best practices.

DQ: Apart from workflow management, what additional products does TrackOlap offer?

Udit: Our platform includes inventory management, payroll processing (including Indian payroll), WhatsApp Business integration for customer management, and process automation tools.

We are also developing an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) and a performance management system based on customer requests.

DQ: Which industries are the highest adopters of your solution? Which sectors are most focused on employee efficiency?

Udit: FinTech is one of our biggest adopters. Many enterprises in the sector use TrackOlap to optimize efficiency. We also serve manufacturing, IT, and other industries with diverse use cases.