Business process outsourcing essentially put India on the IT map. With stirrings of activity seen by early movers like American Express and GE in the late 80s and mid-90s, the momentum for India’s growth trajectory as an offshore hub for business process outsourcing was set. By 2000s, this space was roaring. In 2005, it grew at a rate exceeding 35% in India. With a 6% market share and employing nearly 400,000 people, the BPO industry was valued at $150bn globally. 

Anyone growing up in India in early 00s would likely know someone working in a call centre. It was one of the most sought-after jobs for graduates, and helped a sizeable range of today’s mid-level to senior IT executives richer and uniquely positioned to navigate IT business. Specifically, English language proficiency in India was becoming a huge draw for the middle class, as this was the core skill required for a career in a BPO, among others of course. But two engineers at the time – Umesh Sachdev and Ravi Saraogi, graduates of Jaypee Institute of Technology, stumbled upon what can today be called a billion-dollar idea – speech recognition, which is rapidly transforming the IT/ITes industry's standards of customer experience and delivery.

Their first venture, Singularis Technologies that specialized in mobile theft security, failed to take off. But like any good entrepreneurs, Saraogi and Sachdev went back to the drawing board, and mapped out a solid business plan following the guidance of Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala of IIT Madras and one of their earliest mentors.

Uniphore was born in 2008 – a future-first speech recognition solutions company that was keen on bridging the divide between various classes in India and enabling business transformation using voice.

Saraogi shifted base to Singapore with his family to support expansion of operations in Asia. He strongly believes in the power of voice-driven communication in bridging the gaps in development in India. Since inception, the company has steadily rolled out a stream of products and services in speech analytics, audio biometrics, fraud prevention and virtual assistance such auMina, akiera and amVOICE. “We have always been very rooted in our belief that voice is a preferred mode of communication for people. Augmented by the latest developments in AI, ML and deep learning, speech recognition has undergone a tremendous change in the 12 years we have been functioning. And the future only looks more exciting,” says Saraogi.

This future-first perspective has helped Uniphore gain investor support, international market presence and customer support. Some of its investors include the National Research Development Corporation, Indian Angel Network, YourNest, Chiratae Ventures, the Patni family, ITP Ventures, Infosys’ Krish Gopalakrishnan and CISCO’s John Chambers – making the investment in Uniphore the tech magnate’s first ever outside the USA. Today, Uniphore works with companies like Bajaj Allianz, PNB Metlife, BNP Paribas Wealth Management, Genpact, NTT Data, WNS and Motilal Oswal among others – covering a gamut of industries like ecommerce, banking, telecom, airlines and more prominently, IT/ITes.

Banking heavily on Conversational Service Automation as the future, Uniphore is keen to redefine customer experience in an age where attention and retention levels are hard to retain. Saraogi says, “We’re witnessing some massive shifts in consumer and enterprise behaviour, cloud and compute capabilities are far superior now, enterprises are eager to take on more risks, and consumers are becoming digitally aware. Yet, we have only merely scratched the surface when it comes to harnessing voice related capabilities – it’s a domain that continues to pique the interest of researchers, and even for us, allows a broad scope of coverage.” He explains that an organisation’s entire front office operations can be reimagined with the power of voice. And this systemic shift has been duly proven during COVID. With a pandemic throwing life out of gear across the globe, Uniphore was able to successfully aid its clients in real time, leveraging the power of AI and analytics to extract valuable insights for a better customer experience, and sustain customer engagement. “We are bullish about Conversational Service Automation revolutionizing the $470bn contact centre business, creating a plethora of jobs for knowledge workers and leading to the growth of new market leaders that can deliver superior customer experience using AI.”

With the verdict out on superior customer experience, many organisations are rapidly adopting strategies to ensure rollout of allied services that are cost-effective and time-sensitive. This month, NTT Data announced its collaboration with Uniphore to co-create intelligent automation solutions for customers, which could potentially generate more than $50 million in revenue in the next five years. In August, leading business process management company WNS stated it would be utilizing Uniphore’s advanced conversational service automation platform for its digital customer experience solution Expirius.

Uniphore is on track to bridge the divide between man and machine using AI and voice, with leaders like Saraogi firmly believing in the power of innovation, creativity and superior technical capabilities to steer the company through these winds of change.