Enhancing Customer Experience and IP Security Using Artificial Intelligence: TBZ Case

Leveraging technology for better customer experience. As far as the digital roadmap is concerned, the company TBZ is extensively leveraging technology for retail.

We have got CRM solutions, mobile apps, and E-catalogue. We want to utilize all the technology available in the market. Earlier, we only had ERP. However, these days everything has become accessible due to technology and is fast paced,” says Pooraan Jaiswal, CTO. According to Jaiswal, this application of technology is aimed at providing the best customer experience. The company has launched a mobile app to keep consumers updated and connected. There is a unified communication in place. This is helping them understand customers better and keep track of communication with the consumers in the store as well as between employees and within various departments. The system gives complete visibility of the supply chain as well as the customers. It helps them spot trends and patterns, such as the kind of designs prevalent in a particular region and various factors affect the production line. This helps them avoid repetition of designs.

“This is a comprehensive database where we know the preferences of all our customers such as their likes and dislikes. Any feedback that we get is recorded in the system. We make all designs available to customers online. They have the option to pick and choose. They can also buy online. There is a lot of focus on consumer oriented technology. For example, every store has three to four iPads. We even show demos at people's houses. All aided by technology,” says Jaiswal.

Apart from customer facing aspects such as customer relationship management (CRM) solutions, Jaiswal is seeking to bring radical changes even in the manufacture and design of jewelry. The designs made on paper gets converted into a digital system. This is then made into a Computer Aided Design (CAD). After the CAD image is prepared, no stone is left unturned to give the design the look and feel. For this, technology like 3-D designing is used. In fact, before the physical product is made, a customer can get a feel of the real thing in all its aspects.

Protecting Intellectual Property through technology

Designing of jewelry is a big portion of TBZ’s business; thus, the need to protect it. It is an intellectual property. All the designs are stored and collected. There are specialized data banks and data centers for this purpose. Apart from securing their intellectual property, the data banks also help them with tracking products and designs as well as marketing.

“Earlier, there was just inventory. But, we have a huge manufacturing department and it was difficult to trace each and every product and their corresponding design. Now we tag every cycle of manufacturing. We are building a system so that if you have ordered a design and you want to know the status of the product at any particular time, you have the information. You know when your design will be ready. So, if a product or design gets stuck at any particular place, we know where it is stuck and then we can push it. We can also inform the customer so that they are ready about the situation,” says Jaiswal. All this has been automated. Moreover, there is a TAT defined for every process. When something gets stuck, it is automatically escalated to the manager.

Artificial Intelligence for design storage and security

Coming to artificial intelligence, the company is talking to IBM for a collaboration. They are particularly working at an AI which can capture all the attributes of a product and store it in their data base. The idea is to feed it with the data so that it can identify designs and help streamline the designing of products.

“Designs are just pictures. They do not have any content. We can use artificial intelligence for identification. Using AI for them will save manpower as well as time. It will also keep a track of what is available in stock. This can be enabled right from the moment a designer creates a design. The AI will capture all the attributes of the product,” says Jaiswal. TBZ is also testing artificial intelligence engines for predictive analytics.

“We want to map the sales cycle. Sales varies across time and region. As a retailer, we have to know how much to stock. We have all the data. We will feed this data into the AI. This will help us identify and assess and protect how much inventory we need at a particular time of the year. And how much we are able to sell,” adds the CTO.

Apart from the above, the company is also experimenting with Augmented Reality and other new age technologies to take customer experience to a whole new level.

Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri (TBZ) is one of the leading jewelry brands of India. The company is more than 150 years old and is making all out efforts for digitization. Pooraan Jaiswal, its CTO, has been taking quite a few initiatives in that direction to help the organization haul up its digital transformation journey.

Article first published on dynamicCIO.com