Launched in 2015, Bizongo is a vendor digitization platform with embedded financing for brands and enterprises.
The company focuses across made-to-order segments including packaging, textiles, apparel, electronic components & other contract manufacturing goods as its product portfolio and has a network of over 6,300 partner factories across the categories.
SMEVenture Spoke to Ankit Tomar, who is the Co-founder & CTO, of Bizongo where he helped us understand why it was important to digitally transform the vendor ecosystem, integrating it with customer’s end-to-end supply chain processes. He says this will deliver agility and transparency across the entire value chain.
Ankit further elaborates on Bizongo’s tech-first solutions that have powered numerous Indian manufacturers across the sectors to automate their supply chain, access working capital and increase their clientele.
In one such offering, in a bid to enable 100,000 MSMEs turn ESG compliant by 2025, Bizongo has recently launched its ESG scorecard for MSMEs. With this, Bizongo has become the first B2B marketplace to offer ESG-related intelligence, helping Indian MSMEs meet the demands of conscious global customers by driving more environmentally friendly and inclusive business operations and manufacturing products with the ethos of ESG.
SMEVENTURE: What are Bizongo’s core offerings and how does it plan to expand its services in the coming years?
Ankit Tomar (AT) Over the years, Bizongo has amplified its tech stack by introducing newer offerings to enable manufacturers and enterprises across verticals, such as textile, agriculture, consumer durables, FMCG, and metals, to expand their manufacturing potential and combat procurement challenges. In one such offering, Bizongo has secured a patent for its innovative technology, InLocate 6.0, a high-precision internal positioning system. The granted patent, InLocate 6.0 will enable live location visibility, process monitoring, deviation alerts and provide data-driven insights on inLog, allowing MSMEs to run their factories and warehouses in the most productive and cost-efficient manner.
At Bizongo, we keep on growing our core platforms, along with accelerating the software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform, with the sole focus on helping MSMEs scale their business by digitizing supply and procurement and offering tailored solutions. Going ahead in the future, the service expansion will be lines on the same, enabling the sector to achieve the Government of India’s vision of an Aatmanirbhar Bharat
SMEVENTURE: As digitalization is the way forward for every organization, how is Bizongo bringing MSMEs to the digital platform and what are the challenges ahead?
Ankit Tomar (AT): With the Indian government hoping to have 25% of the economy’s output come from manufacturing by 2025, Bizongo has always aimed to help manufacturers, including some of India’s largest factories and warehouses. With its technology platform, Bizongo has become the ‘operating system’ for the Indian SME ecosystem, by building a considerable moat in digitizing their production capability, compliance, e-way bills, order management flows with their customers etc. Digitally transforming the vendor ecosystem and integrating it with customer’s end-to-end supply chain processes to deliver agility and transparency across the entire value chain.
While it initially started with bringing automation across the packaging industry, over the last three years Bizongo has expanded to several other segments, including Textiles & Fashion, Consumer durables, consumer discretionary, fashion & lifestyle, retail, home & personal care, pharma and automobiles. With sophisticated technology to encourage businesses to go online, Bizongo has been successfully able to provide end-to-end optimized solutions and become an ideal destination for all business transactions
Despite the limited growth capital making technology adoption and digital transformation challenges faced by the MSME’s, Bizongo’s tech-first solutions have powered numerous Indian manufacturers across the sectors to automate their supply chain, access working capital and increase their clientele.
SMEVENTURE: What kind of tech implementation has helped Bizongo enhance its efficiency in terms of performance and quality? Any SaaS application Bizongo implemented and kind of benefits?
Ankit Tomar (AT): Bizongo being a SaaS-based platform leverages technology to enhance its efficiency in terms of performance and quality. Through the implementation of various tech solutions, Bizongo has been able to improve its operations and provide better services to its customers. Businesses are often faced by the problem of sourcing the right products, managing multiple vendors and orders, keeping a track of all the purchases; all of which eventually result in a lot of inefficiencies in their supply chain. The company provides tech platforms like Procure Live & Partner Hub that enable it to streamline processes such as procurement, vendor management, inventory management, etc.
These tech implementations include AI-driven analytics that helps vendors identify the right products. Furthermore, they have implemented data-driven decision-making systems to ensure that the right products are sourced at the right price, hence streamlining the entire process and reducing manual errors. This also enables Bizongo’s customers to reduce costs associated with bulk procurement by automating the process and tracking orders and managing inventory in real–time.
The use of digital vendor management has also helped Bizongo enhance its service. This technology has enabled them to manage their vendors more effectively, as well as track performance metrics in real time. With this system in place, Bizongo ensures that all vendors are meeting the same standards for quality and performance.
SMEVENTURE: Each new digital ecosystem is unique and every organization has a fair understanding of its Tech Stack. What is the role of AI in this space and in what areas has Bizongo implemented AI. If you can specify?
Ankit Tomar (AT): The digital ecosystem is constantly evolving and it has become imperative for organizations to have a clear understanding of their tech stack. The use of AI in this space is becoming increasingly popular and organizations are leveraging the power of AI to gain a competitive edge. AI can help in streamlining processes, automating tasks, and providing insights into customer data that can be used for better decision-making.
AI also helps in managing vendor relationships by automating the process of selecting vendors based on their qualifications and capabilities. This helps in reducing time spent on manual searches and enables enterprises to select the right vendor quickly. Additionally, AI can also be used to monitor vendor performance over time and make adjustments as necessary. Overall, AI plays an important role in digital vendor management by helping businesses make informed decisions about the vendors they choose to work with and providing valuable insights into customer data that can help them stay ahead of the competition.
By Gargi Chakravorty
Lead Content Specialist | www.smeventure.com