Quest has been participating in bauma CONEXPO INDIA (bC India) besides being a successful exhibitor in EXCON and IMS. This edition, the company saw increased number of exhibitors at its stall as against the expo’s previous edition, according to Santhosh H.S., Senior Business Manager, Quest Informatics Pvt Ltd.

How has IT automation in construction equipment evolved over the years?
IT automation was predominately used for setting up standard ERP processes across different entities & its supply chain in the past, challenges were related to establishing most current data and level of accuracy, advent of Mobile devices helped in bringing people & workflow to make new age solutions with more updated data and helping faster decision making, now IoT enabled machines are bringing in great deal of data accuracy and speed thus helping in extracting critical BI data points. This greatly helps equipment manufacturers come up with ways and means to proactively provide Aftermarket solutions and services to keep the customers engaged and leverage the benefits, thus providing high customer satisfaction and repeat orders, with highly predictive approach be it managing Machine Service or Inventory or equipment sales. At Quest Informatics we are well positioned to providing not only technology benefits including Cloud, AI, VR apart from IoT, mobility but also our deep knowledge in CE’s aftermarket business transformation which helps in
providing most feasible, workable, cost effective and quick implementation benefits to the OEM’s.

How open is the Indian market for such kind of automation and how important is it in India?
Indian market is ripe for value for money digitisation which is practical and implementable solutions have demand in this market. Construction equipment companies in India are looking at new age solutions similar to what Quest informatics offers, which can co-exist with legacy ERP systems to address the gap in data accuracy on time along with machine and people connectivity, with extensive usage of smart phones by population, high internet availability, good cloud infrastructure, market is very much ready for automation and willing to leverage these benefits.

What are the considerations while choosing IT automation for CE?
Key considerations are to see whether the current IT systems are able to cater to future digital needs to reach their customer with most accurate data and with high speed to provide proactive and predictive solutions to their customers are:
1. Identify systems which cannot be replaced.
2. Identify replaceable systems which are absolute and do not help in the digitisation vision.
3. Identify gaps in non-replaceable systems and how these gaps can be addressed by IT partners.
4. Whether the IT partner is capable of interfacing with-replaceable systems.
5. Identify IT partner who is specialised and fully understand the CE business.
6. Whether IT partner can provide solutions on Cloud/Web, Mobility, IoT, BI, AI etc.
7. Whether IT partner can provide modular solutions which can co-exist with non-replaceable systems.
8. How quickly the implementation can be achieved with IT partner, how many different partners are involved and whether all partners fully understand the CE business while handling product licensing, Implementation, Post Implementation support, upgradation and customisation.
9. Whether IT partner carries strong customer reference with long term and sustained relationship.
10. Overall cost involved in deploying required solutions.

How will CE automation enhance value for money for users?
With CE automation, users/end-customer is truly the satisfied and has full knowledge, on the progress of all the issues he has raised at any given point of time, customers also get BI data to enhance their decision making.

Users is well informed on the schemes, new product information so that they make informed decisions thus enabling high level of customer satisfaction, all these can be achieved by touch of a button and with new age predictive and proactive solutions user issues are addressed quickly, thus increasing machine running time and reducing downtime ultimately helping them reach their project deliveries with a high level accuracy.

Innovation and enabling superior customer experience will drive sustainability and future marketplace success.
Santhosh H.S., Senior Business Manager, Quest Informatics Pvt Ltd