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"Every Cloud has a Silver Lining"- says C.S.N. Murthy, Founder & CEO, Ozonetel

SME WORLD Bureau
Nov 2011

Cloud Telephony provided by Ozonetel

Cloud technology is here and everyone to be up there. Most of the SMEs, SMBs and BPOs have started adopting cloud telephony which is very useful for their business and expansion of it. They can now easily and more efficiently reach out to the tier 2 and 3 cities where access to internet is quite low or negligible. Cloud telephony also reduces the customer care service and is cost effective as business or enterprise does not have to go for long procedure. The technology offers huge scope for innovation as a service or solution provider.

Ozonetel Systems is a pioneer of the 'cloud telephony' technology in India, founded in 2007 by serial technology entrepreneur Murthy Chintalapati. It will enable enterprises to reach out to a huge customer base in India that may not access the Internet and finds it easier to avail products and services through the telephone.

Innovative Services

Ozonetel's flagship offering 'Kookoo.in' is India's first hosted telephony platform. Kookoo.in enables existing web/ e-commerce portals to use telephony as a channel to service customers in an innovative manner. Ozonetel encourages thousands of entrepreneurs to launch innovative services over the phone and leverage the platform with no upfront investment and is acknowledged as India's 'Twilio' among web application developers.

According to Ozonetel, Kookoo is an interface or an application interface program (API) between a user's web application and the caller. Ozonetel's primary offering is Cloud Telephony Services (CTS), through a suite of voice products such as Anytime Anywhere Agent call center software, Virtual PBR/ IVR, Wireless PBX, voice loggers, payment processing, etc.

By deploying Ozonetel' s unique SaaS technology platform, enterprises can get fully hosted voice services such as virtual call center, Virtual PBX/ IVR, voice broadcasting, call tracking and ongoing technical support, without having to invest in any premise deployed hardware or software. Once businesses experience cloud telephony, they quickly become indispensable as they remove the limitations of the current PBX and contact center equipment placed in offices and still give them scalability in a plug and play mode at affordable cost, creating enormous value. It is this opportunity that Ozonetel plans to capitalize on.

The following are some of their innovative applications:

CloudPBX – An app which provides Virtual (wireless) PBX to SMBs on PSTN Cloud and enables a business to integrate the workforce and allow them to be more productive by collaborating on the phones.
CloudIVR – Build your own IVR using KooKoo.in APIs
CloudAgent – is a virtual Contact Center solution built on PSTN Cloud. It enables Rural BPOs to set up call centers in Tier-3 cities or in villages for that matter and operate cost effectively domestic all centers in regional languages.
VoiceBuzz – This app was built to showcase how one can interface voice with social network sites like Facebook and Twitter. Anyone can download this code and build an 'inclusive' social networking platform predominantly voice as interface and network anyone who doesn't know how to use internet.

Most recently, Ozonetel Systems has unveiled the next version of Kookoo.in, Kookoo Telephony 2.0. The latest version now allows businesses to interact with their customers by integrating incoming and outgoing SMS.

SME WORLD had the opportunity to interview the dynamic serial entrepreneur behind Ozonetel, its Founder and CEO CSN Murthyand presents a wide range of thoughts ranging from his journey of entrepreneurship, his company to opinion on the future of cloud technology.

What is Cloud Telephony in layman's terms? Who can benefit the most? How cost effective is it? What is the future?

Ozonetel's flagship offering 'Kookoo.in' is India's first hosted telephony platform. In laymen terms, Cloud Telephony enables businesses to have communication infrastructure like PBX, Call Center, IVR on the Cloud infrastructure we have built with Zero Hardware Installation at their premise and without having to incur huge capital expense in the form of purchasing various hardware components and paying for the technical services to install & maintain.

They pay for what they use on monthly basis. They can scale the usage as their business grows without incurring upfront huge investment.

Beneficiaries of Cloud Telephony could be e-commerce portals to SMBs/SMEs to Domestic Call Centers. Kookoo.in enables existing web/e-commerce portals to use telephony as a channel to service 740+miliom mobile users in an innovative manner which otherwise limit them to 60million internet users. SMBs/SMEs benefit most by integrating all the mobile and distributed work force under cloudpbx and route the calls to appropriate person based on IVR flow regardless of his/her place. The owner of the business can keep track of all the incoming & out going calls in real time by accessing our portal. The owner also can track any missed call, which is unattended to.

SMEs can operate their call centers out of Tier-2 or Tier-3 cities and reduce cost of operating support and help desks as the dependency on internet is eliminated by adopting Cloudagent, an application on KooKoo platform, which is wired around PSTN/TDM.

It is very cost effective from a business perspective as they don't need to incur huge capital expenditure. They can pay on per usage basis and can start as low as 2 ports and scale to 100s and 1000s of ports which is otherwise not possible with existing hardware solutions.

The future lies in entrepreneurs with Web programming skills to develop innovative applications easily using web technologies like PHP, JAVA without understanding the complexities of telephony and enable their customers to access services over telephone, with complete control on their data and its security. KooKoo.in allows thousands of entrepreneurs to launch innovative services over the phone and leverage the platform with no upfront investment.

How did the idea originate which led to the formation of Ozonetel?

Ozonetel was founded in 2007 with an aim to provide solutions in voice space. India has a voice user base of 740 million while internet penetration is just around 60 million. Also a huge digital divide exists in terms of ability to use Internet only if you know English. A person with Rs 2000 mobile phone and speaking in a regional language like Hindi, Bengali, Kannada, Tamil, Marathi is not in a position to reach out to businesses to transact over internet. Moreover SMBs/SMEs cannot afford solutions available from leading brands to create a platform to interact with the huge voice customer who are not on Internet. This made us venture into creating and hosting a scalable voice platform called KooKoo.in. It addresses various communication needs of businesses like VirtualPBX, Virtual IVR, Virtual Contact Centers, Virtual Loggers and Payments over IVR.. Small Businesses can buy what they want on Opex basis without having to incur huge Capex and on top of it have a team to manage the Voice infra if they have to do it on their own.

We wanted to simplify the telephony app development so that this platform could be used by entrepreneurs and other businesses that have in-house skills like Java/PHP and develop their own apps without having to understand the complexity of telephony and learning a new language like VXML. They know their business logic and how to create a self service app using abundant Java/PHP skills available in the market without depending on us. They can host these apps in their network and interface with our Cloud Telephony platform and serve 740million voice users – be it in-bound or out-bound.

From what size of enterprises does Cloud Telephony pick up maximum demand? Where is the main opportunity in terms of market for this technology?

Cloud telephony helps both large and SMB enterprises. Large enterprises in different locationscan function as a single company who can call each other by dialing extensions or by using an on screen click-to-call interface if they are accessing computers. They can transfer calls to one another in the same way. It facilitates SMBs to run without having an office in place as it delivers calls to mobile numbers. Cloud telephony provides a landline for businesses and turns mobile phones into extensions of office phone systems.

Estimates suggest that its addressable market is over $ 2 billion, covering 740 million voice users and 50 million SMEs in India. Considering that our customer can launch services by developing applications in web programming languages without worrying about telephony complexity, the opportunity is huge.

What is the scope of cloud telephony services in India, and how has the uptake of the same been thus far?

Presence of Cloud telephony services in India is like a blessing for the most of the organizations. If we notice, India has 50 million internet users but there are 740 million telephone subscribers. This declares that Internet users are only 10% of the telephone users in India. Cloud Telephony Services (CTS) helps through a suite of voice products such as Anytime Anywhere Agent call center software, Virtual pbx/ivr, Wireless PBX, voice loggers, payment processing, etc. In future it is predicted that the growth of cloud telephony offerings will enable SMBs/SMEs/ large enterprises like FMCGs, Financial Services use the telephone as a communication tool to service diverse customer base in India.

Many SMEs operate (factory etc.) from remote locations in India as there are certain benefits like availability of land etc but infrastructure – wise a lot is left desired. How exactly would cloud telephony services be beneficial to enterprises and rural areas from where many SMEs operate?

Cloud telephony network provides SMEs and other businesses the ability to operate with single number and forward them to as many multiple locations as they wish or to a single telephone line. So, a single line operated from anywhere, looks like it has local sales and support presence across regions of the country. Cloud telephony helps businesses to set up rural BPOs in smaller Tier II & III cities and towns; an important requirement to make domestic call centers a viable business opportunity. Companies have been unable to scale their domestic call centers due to lack of good broadband and internet services in smaller towns. Now with the presence of Cloud Telephony it is possible to develop India's potential domestic call center market and open employment opportunities in rural BPOs.

-Cloud Agent solution, based on the cloud computing model help the companies to reduce capital expenditure by eliminating physical brick and mortar workplaces. It helps in eliminating the geographical restrictions on agent recruitment and introduces efficiencies unmatched by its competitors.

How FMCG players in India can make use of cloud telephony service.

FMCG companies are always on the lookout for increasing their efficiency and reducing the cost while improving the customer satisfactions. FMCG companies can utilize this platform to make automatic outbound calls to all re-sellers and do order booking either using IVRs or through an Agent on the phone. This will increase the sales for the company as the process is automated instead of traditional way of someone from distributor office visiting the re-seller to book the order in person.

FMCG can use the platform to improve the way the customer support calls are received and routed to nearest franchise or dealer instead of going to a call center and then getting routed to appropriate dealer. Moreover, the calls could be answered in the regional language as a result of routing to nearest franchise in real time and in the process improve customer satisfaction.

How cloud telephony service will give rise to social infrastructure and lucrative employment opportunities in Rural BPO where there is no internet thus helping in inclusive growth and tapping our growing unemployed manpower.

Cloud telephony network helps to set up rural BPOs in smaller Tier II & III cities and towns; an important requirement to make domestic call centers a viable business opportunity. Companies have been unable to scale their domestic call centers due to lack of good broadband and internet services in smaller towns. Now with the presence of Cloud Telephony it is possible to develop India's potential domestic call center market. Cloud Agent solution, based on the cloud computing model help the companies to reduce capital expenditure by eliminating physical brick and mortar workplaces. It helps in eliminating the geographical restrictions on agent recruitment and introduces efficiencies unmatched by its competitors.

What are your plans for the future of Ozonetel?

At present Ozonetel has Data centers in Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore, Delhi , Kolkata, Pune,Mumbai and Cochin and we are planning to cover 22 circles in next two quarters. We intend to raise our first round of VC investment to do more R&D and come out with further innovative services which our customers can use out of the box. We are expanding our ecosystem with partners who can bring complimentary services and offer to our customers as one stop solution. Today, we have SMS partner for in-bound, out-bound SMS, TTS for multiple languages, Speech Recognition, a BPO partner who can handle manual agents, Mchek/EBS for payments processing etc.

What other technology or application are you dealing in now which would be a defining factor in future of communication and technology?

Other applications we are dealing as of now for the factor of future communications and technology are as follows:

CloudPBX is an app which provides Virtual (wireless) PBX to SMBs on PSTN Cloud and enables a business to integrate the workforce and allow them to be more productive by collaborating on the phones. It also helps customer calls routed to appropriate person through IVR and without manual intervention. Even their mobile phones could be configured as extensions. It enables business owner to keep track of incoming and outgoing calls. A missed call or unattended call is lost business. CloudPBX enables owner to track all missed calls through SMS alerts and service the customer before competition could address the same opportunity.

CloudIVR– Build your own IVR using KooKoo.in APIs.

CloudAgent is a virtual Contact Center solution built on PSTN Cloud. A basic telephone (or a mobile) and a laptop with a data card will make a house wife or retired person to be an agent for a SMB. In fact, CloudAgent enables Rural BPOs to set up call centers in Tier-3 cities or in villages for that matter and operate cost effectivley domestic all centers in regional languages.

VoiceBuzz –We build this app to show case how one can interface voice with social network sites like facebook and twitter. Anyone can download this code and build a 'inclusive' social networking platform predominantly voice as interface and network anyone who doesn't know how to use internet.

You are a serial entrepreneur. Please share with our readers your entrepreneurial journey focusing on your philosophy of being an entrepreneur, idea generation, availability of opportunities, gathering seed capital, obtaining funding at later stages of your projects, the obstacles that you had to overcome, the lessons that you have learnt and where would you like to see yourself in future.

We were looking at pain points to be solved leveraging team's core strength in enterprise voice and we found one in voice space addressing SMB/SMEs. We incubated the idea over last couple of years with personal funds and bootstrapping ourselves with revenues earned by delivering services totelcos and other enterprises in the same space.

All along we knew that getting funds from VCs is going to be a challenge as they look for credible team, customers endorsement of the product/service and of course, the scalability of venture. Hence, we decided to make sure all the above are in place before we approached them. There are very few VCs who are willing to fund in early stage.

Getting right team members with right start up temperament to work in a product company is the key to taste success.In the early stages one tends to de-focus as every opportunity looks very appealing. Marketing and Sales is very crucial to succeed as they can quickly bring first few customers to define your product/service.

Entrepreneur should assemble a right team with complimentary sills of technology & marketing and most importantly acquire first few customers rather than look for the investors.

We are aiming to be the market leader in the cloud telephony space in India and neighboring markets. To achieve this goal, we need good amount of funding to invest in data centers and to increase marketing & sales efforts.

What personal capabilities or attributes helped you in your journey till date?

Since I have been an entrepreneur for last 15 years it was not difficult to incubate ideas without looking for investors. But assembling a team in India without funds is a challenge. There are very few people who are ready to go through start up journey.

Did you seek and avail the help of any funding agency like SIDBI/ VC/ Private Equity etc. to start your venture? What has been your experience in this regard?

No. However we are planning to raise $3 million venture capital funding to help in expansion of physical infrastructure such as data centers to support more businesses. Now we have the capacity for 1000 ports through which clients are connected to cloud telephony and we have planned to increase the number of ports to 6,000 by the end of this year. We will use part of the fund raised to increase sales force.

Are you open to being acquired by another company who might be interested in a strategic acquisition to leverage its position?

We are all set to build a company for long term.It all depends on who that strategic partner would be and what value they bring to the table.

What are some other areas where you wish to contribute with your innovations?

We have pioneered the Cloud Telephony in India. We want to be the platform of choice for entrepreneurs/businesses to build innovative apps and viable businesses for themselves using voice as a medium and offer value added services to 740mil+ mobile & landline users with value added services. We want to enable crowdsourcing of call centers for mutual benefit of businesses and agents. We want to enable rural BPOs with our platform so that they can service domestic call centers and in the process they generate employment in rural side. We want to enable NGOs to utilize this platform to address issues like healthcare, education and other pain points prevailing in rural side where digital divide is huge. Vision is to bridge the huge digital divide which exists in India through this platform.

N. Murthy,
Founder & CEO, OzoneTel

Slutions having built voice applications for large multinationals thus paving the way for starting Ozonetel, which is among India's first and few cloud telephony service providers.

The innovative technology Kookoo.in (co-founded by Mr. Murthy and Mr. Atul Sharma) will enable businesses use the telephone as a next generation communication tool and reach out to a large customer base in India that is easily accessible on the telephone, vis a vis the internet.

Murthy is also paving the way for a number of small and mid-size growing organizations, to adopt hosted telephony services instead of the traditional PBX, and managing it for them with a completely off-premise deployment, thus helping them reduce their costs significantly.

Mr. Murthy has strong exposure as a serial technology entrepreneur at Silicon Valley. He is acknowledged as an entrepreneur who identifies industry pain points and builds successful business ventures that address the market need. Murthy started his first venture Intoto in 1997 at SanJose, California. Intoto developed security technologies that were licensed to OEMs like Nortel, HP, AT&T, Motorola, Redback and others.

Masters in Electrical engineering from IIT, Delhi (1985), Murthy had successful stints with ECIL Hyderabad, AT& T (US), and NEC, before venturing to become an entrepreneur. Murthy has firm growth plans for Ozonetel and plans to leverage the growing market potential for cloud telephony services and solutions in India.

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