Spice Digital: Serving the Underserved Demography with Innovation as Heart Date:   Tuesday , November 24, 2015 The mobile financial industry is set to undergo a dramatic transformation in the next two years. Though the voice-centric Indian network is inching towards Data, only 20 percent of our population has access to smartphones, internet and 3G services. Bridging this digital gap with path-breaking solutions is Spice Digital Limited (SDL), a leading Value Added Services (VAS) provider, who has been thriving on innovation since 2000, when mobile was a sunrise industry. For instance, Spice Digital\'s path breaking service for mobile banking for India\'s largest bank – SBI, since 2010, paved the way for NPCI to do similar for all banks on *99# utility allowing any consumer to access mobile banking via any mobile device was unveiled by our PM in 2014. Through another great utility service for Railways has been able to offer best in class customer information system on 139 (voice) but more importantly on text (SMS 139 and USSD *139#) powered by Spice Digital, leading to a huge uptake of over 400 Million transactions till date. First to launch mobile ticketing on simple SMS on 139 was also well received by masses, given large section of society can\'t access internet SDL has put up over 10,000 internet kiosk in the rural market to not only generate that many job opportunities but also great savings for people wanting to do simple stuff like booking Railway tickets, recharge, utility payments. It was a nightmare for many to give up on the day\'s wages, travel to a city and spend whole day queuing up and many times ending up paying touts. All that is over! Your neighbourhood store now allows for all this in minutes at minimal service fee. Endowing Telecom Operators with a Competitive Edge Intended to \'Thrive on Innovation\' in the booming cellphone industry, SDL was born as Cellebrum (Cellphone + Cerebrum - brain) with the vision to help telecom providers to acquire customers via offering VAS. Being a subsidiary of Spice Group, it became Spice Digital in 2008 for branding purposes. Constantly evolving in the past 14 years, the Noida-based company endows the operators with a competitive edge by helping them deliver innovative VAS solutions for their end-customers to use their phone more. Bringing many innovations like Music on Mobile (Mobile Radio), Mirchi on Mobile (Radio Mirchi), BGM (Back ground music during call), Live feed from religious shrines on mobile to name a few in the early days. SDL has delivered various product and services over IVR, SMS, USSD, WAP & App with over 50+ operators across 30 countries worldwide & over 40 Enterprises. In the ever evolving VAS arena, SDL has chosen to provide mobile utility solutions to the telecom operators that enable them to maximize their Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) and reduce the cost. For large operators akin to Airtel, Idea and Vodafone with huge customer base, managing customers individually with a large team of customer care executives is extremely expensive and nearly impossible. But impossible is what SDL excels in. For example, the company empowers Vodafone to offer a service, where customers can do self-service, while SDL manages around eight crore transactions for them everyday via USSD; thereby reducing customer care cost by hundreds of crores every year. SDL has an innovative roadmap empowering Self-service over Mobile Apps and Social Media networks for next-gen users. \"Using big data analytics, our campaign management products shift through tons of data for various services offered by various cell phones to help our operators acquire customers for their 3G and 4G services. Unique offerings of iPEN, intelligent Post Event Notification, based on predictive analytics approach of recommending Next Best Action to customers, eases product discovery for the customer based on individualistic needs besides creating new opportunities for brand promotions and mobile advertising. Having secured the prepaid instrument license from RBI in April 2015, we have launched SpiceMudra, Mobile Wallet services,\" says Saket Agarwal, Global CEO – Services, SDL. Entire focus for the company remains the \'serving the underserved\' and accordingly DMT services have been launched under Spice Mudra, helping the cause of the migrants within India. Pleased to share that with competitive advantage of the most advanced technology & our counter presence, we have surpassed the 500 Million worth on transaction in the month of October-15. Work Hard, Party Harder On contrary to common perception, besides fair compensation people also need job satisfaction, power, freedom & enrichment of knowledge in multiple technologies & domains. Heedfully quenching all these thirsts has aided SDL to maintain an excellent retention rate, where over 20 percent of the SDLites are with the organization for more than five years. Dwelling in a specialized cutting-edge technology domain, SDL conducts weekly knowledge sharing sessions and frequent job rotations to help SDLites learn required competencies in every function. Out with Old, In with New The company that plans to replicate its existence in more geographies also aims to keep innovate products that are relevant for tomorrow\'s market and discard the offerings that has lost their relevance. Realizing it can\'t produce everything itself, SDL periodically invests on enterprising teams that are capable of making exceptional products. Last year SDL has invested in three such opportunities. Having reached the apex, SDL will keep pioneering much yearned solutions to bridge the digital gap and do everything possible to not vacate the podium. Panel: Key Management: Saket Agarwal, Global CEO – Services Being the driving force behind SDL\'s industry-leading position, Saket adeptly orchestrates new partnerships & strategies, stays involved in product design lifecycle and inspires teams; owing to his sharp business acumen, quiet leadership, people friendly attitude, 20 years of hands-on experience in telecom industry and evolved perspective. Geographical Presence: With offices in Noida (Headquarter), Parwanoo, Kolkata, Punjab, Mumbai & Dehradun, Spice Digital caters to customers across 30 countries including UAE, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Indonesia and Philippines among others Offerings: Mobile Value Added Services &Technology Solutions for Mobile Operators, Enterprise Solutions (SMS, Voice, Cloud & Healthcare), Mobile Advertising and Retail Solutions (Travel Solutions,Utility Payments, Domestic Money Transfer, Online Parsad, Spice Haat – India\'s First Assisted e-Commerce Platform&Mobile/DTH Recharge) Clients: Airtel, BSNL, etisalat, Nepal Telecom, Tata Docomo, IBM, KPMG, SAP, SBI, LG, Videocon d2h, Apollo Munich, Hero Honda, Titan, Yahoo and Government of India among numerous other.