OfficeNet from Netcomm has evolved into a broader HRMS covering the entire employee lifecycle. According to Sonali Chowdhry, CEO, OfficeNet, it starts with core HR, payroll, attendance and employee self-service and extends to recruitment, performance management, learning, travel and expenses, talent management and mobile HR. In an exclusive conversation with Rajneesh De, Group Editor, APAC Media & CXO Media, she explains that OfficeNet allows organisations to manage different aspects of the employee lifecycle on one platform while also getting a unified view of their workforce.
How do you trace the genesis of Netcomm?
My journey with Netcomm began around 2000, when we were primarily working on website development and technology solutions for businesses. Over time, clients started approaching us with a very different requirement, they wanted internal intranets and employee portals that could make HR processes easier and more accessible.
Around 15 to 18 years ago, when HR automation was still at an early stage, we began seeing the potential of this space through our work with larger organisations such as Dabur, Havells and Indorama.
That led us to build Officenet. What started with payroll and employee self-service gradually evolved into a broader HRMS covering the entire employee lifecycle. Over the years, we have continued to build on that foundation, adding new modules, analytics and technology-led capabilities as the needs of organisations and their employees have evolved.
What are the different modules available in the OfficeNet portfolio today?
Today, Officenet offers a comprehensive HR technology platform that covers the entire employee lifecycle. It starts with core HR, payroll, attendance and employee self-service and extends to recruitment, performance management, learning, travel and expenses, talent management and mobile HR. The platform also brings together workflows, knowledge management, analytics and employee engagement capabilities.
What makes the platform valuable is that these capabilities are connected.
Organisations can manage different aspects of the employee lifecycle on one platform while also getting a unified view of their workforce. This allows data from one function to inform decisions in another and is particularly useful for large and distributed organisations that need to manage HR at scale.
How would you explain the use cases of each of these modules?
I look at the modules as different stages of the same employee journey, rather than as standalone functions. It starts with recruitment and onboarding, where organisations manage hiring and joining formalities. Once an employee is onboarded, attendance and leave help manage workforce availability, while payroll takes care of salary, tax and statutory compliance.
As employees progress in the organisation, performance management helps teams set goals and track KRAs, while learning and development supports their growth. Travel and expense management takes care of the operational requirements around travel and reimbursements, while Employee Self-Service gives employees easy access to everyday HR services such as payslips, leave and tax declarations.
The real value comes from having all these processes connected. When data from across the employee lifecycle sits on one platform, organisations get a much clearer view of their workforce. It also allows HR teams to identify patterns around attendance, performance and productivity and take more informed decisions rather than looking at each function in isolation.
Which are some of Netcomm’s marquee customers today and what are their use cases?
We work with more than 500 organisations across India and across a wide range of industries. Some of our clients include Dabur, LG Electronics, Havells, JBM Group, Amber Electronics, Vishal Mega-Mart and Bajaj Auto.
Manufacturing is an important segment for us because these organisations typically manage large, distributed and multi-shift workforces. The use cases vary depending on the nature of the workforce. Organisations with large field or remote teams, for instance, benefit from mobile attendance and employee self-service, while multi-location organisations use our knowledge management and HR workflows to standardise processes and improve access to information across sites.
What are your unique differentiators compared to larger competitors like SAP Concur and Oracle? Can you give examples of any winbacks?
Our biggest differentiator is the combination of enterprise-grade functionality with a highly localised and adaptable approach. We understand Indian payroll and statutory compliance, as well as the operational realities of large and distributed workforces, particularly in manufacturing. At the same time, we can adapt the platform to the way an organisation works rather than expecting the organisation to completely change its processes around the technology.
Our customer-centric approach is another important strength. We work closely with our clients, which allows us to respond to their feedback and continuously improve the product. Furthermore, our mobile-first capabilities and our experience in managing shopfloor and distributed workforces are also areas where we have built strong expertise.
We have had instances where customers who were evaluating other platforms chose to continue with Officenet or return to us. For us, that is a strong validation of the product, the relationship we build with customers and our ability to evolve with their needs.
What are the key pillars of your GTM strategy? How critical has referencing been for your growth?
Customer references have played a very important role in our growth. It is normal for potential clients to visit a few of our existing customer sites and seek feedback on their HRTech adoption challenges. We encourage exchange of experiences and share success stories on the Officenet implementation journey.
What is the proportion of your greenfield and brownfield customers? How are you approaching cross-selling or upselling to the brownfield customers?
Greenfield Customers who are first time users of HRMS software take longer to adapt to automation, and we spend more time in helping them establish their HR processes. On the other hand, Brownfield clients normally move cautiously as they switch to our platform because of a bitter experience with a previous Software vendor. Better support services and our ability to customise the solution is a key differentiator which helps us pitch !
How are you leveraging analytics to provide more predictive outcomes for your customers?
Historically, HR analytics was largely about reporting what had already happened, headcount, attendance, payroll or employee data. With OfficeNet, we are using the data generated across different HR processes to go a step further and identify patterns that can help organisations understand their workforce better.
For example, organisations can look at employee tenure and understand the typical lifecycle of an employee, identify where attrition is higher and analyse the patterns that may be contributing to employees leaving. The same data can help identify concerns around attendance, performance, productivity or workforce availability.
When these data points are looked at together, HR gets a much clearer picture of what is happening within the organisation and where attention may be required. Power BI integration further helps management view these insights through real-time dashboards.
What will be some of your key focus areas for the next few quarters?
We are working towards upgrading our Product techstack in order to strengthen the security aspects keeping in view the DPDP compliance guidelines.
