Using low cost IT to create disruptive digitization for the masses

1. Voice Portal Services- Digital Disruption for the
masses
Sunil Nair
Capgemini India

2. While Digital technologies are rampant and now easily accessible but there is whole lot of people who
either do not have access to internet and smartphones(The Remote Rural mass), are not computer savvy
and some who do not want to be connected to Internet and Smartphones. The only technology that has
become all pervasive is mobile communications and this is where large firms can make good use of this
bridge to connect to their consumers to drive sales and branding and do Corporate Social Responsibility
There are sections of people like the baby boomers, homemakers and even the young generation who
are not always connected to the internet but want to remain connected through some medium, they want
their voices to be heard and they want to hear other’s voices, they want guidance, they want to put in
feedback,suggestions.To address this important problem, a Voice Portal Services which is like an
interactive Radio Station available on mobile(Any type/model) and can be used that enables consumers
to report about a product issue, to provide suggestions, to put in social opinions, to listen to social
guidance on health issues, on career guidance, on recipes, on beauty tips and their value based content.
 Drive the creation of a Voice Portal that supports instant Listening and publishing through all
pervasive mobile phones
 Build a platform which can be used by some of Key clients to drive sales and branding through
Consumer Community
 Drive Research and Development through Communities
 Improve customer service through instant connections with consumer community
 Provide a platform for Convenience stores to order, feedback, suggestions
 Provide a platform for accessing social voices.
 Provide a platform for guidance on health, education, public affairs
 Back office Analytics and Insights
While the technology for building interactive voice services (IVR) has been around for a long time, what
distinguishes VoicePortal Services is the ability for callers to contribute information to the system. Most
IVR platforms are designed for callers to listen to messages, but on YourvoiceMatters, they can also
record their own messages for others to hear. Their platform includes a moderator's interface that enables
privileged users to review the recordings, and optionally annotate or edit them, prior to making them
public.

3. Implementing Voice Portal Services is not difficult since these technologies are being used by NGO’s like
CGNET Swara(cgnetswara.org/), GramVani(www.gramvaani.org) who provide the social media
platform equivalent to Facebook/YouTube/Twitter for rural areas. MIT had initiated such a project and the
technology used is open source.
The difficulty in implementing Voice Portal Services is not the technology but the skills required for
content moderation, publishing to websites and to IVR hence it needs digital content moderation and
marketing skills and this where IT companies can play a major role in doing content moderation and
publishing the content through mobile channel and web.
Consumers/Citizen/Sales rep can speak and listen to Community radio station
Content is moderated, Radio Jockey, Content syndicated and published on radio and web. When
Consumer selects a number on mobile then there is a small running brand advertisement of a company
at the start, consumers can select specific numbers on mobile to do whole lot of things .
Imagine if we use such a technology for CPG/Retail clients wherein consumers can instantly using their
mobile phones(Any type/model) can record their voices of feedback, report in complaints, listen to social
issues, listen to recipes, listen to beauty tips , listen to health tips, imagine sales reps of CPG/retail
companies using it for reporting store feedback, reporting complaints about products, using it for
recording forecast, collect daily reports from staff on sales and distribution and ordering replenishments.
To use it, Consumers can call a phone number using any mobile (or fixed line) phone. Callers are
prompted to press "1" to record a new message, and "2" to listen to messages that have already been
recorded. Once a message has been recorded from the field, professional, trained digital content
publishers can access the system using a Web-based interface, review and verify the report. Approved
reports are then made available for playback over the phone.
 Content publishers can also make Voice content available for listening
 Consumers/dealers/sales rep can dial numbers for specific usage for e.g. Entertainment, redeem
coupons, Beauty tips, Health issues, Education, Social issues, advise on sustainable solutions,
Ordering(ePos)… and so many other options
 This initiative is not only a CSR program but can become a base for branding for the Client, for
the IT companies and increase the Product brand and thereby increase sales
 Play Ads in each segment at the start of selection.
 Consumers can also be advised to reach out to websites to know more about products, to know
more on social content.
Leveraging consumer connect using low cost mobile devices which is being used by 2 NGO's in India,
using loudblogs and Opensource telephony and using moderation facility for User generated content
management, using mobile for recording messages, for listening to any channel on demand, giving a
missed call to a telephone number to access this facility. The airtime costs about 0.016 $ per
minute,about 10-12 moderators and content producers.
Merck uses this kind of model--http://samhita.org/gramvaani-giving-voice-to-the-masses/