‘Elixia Connect’, India’s first WhatsApp-driven, end-to-end technology-powered logistics marketplace, has been launched by Elixia Tech, a premier incubator of high-end technical innovations in the field of logistics and supply chain. Shippers and transporters will be able to engage and negotiate on a common platform to meet their on-ground logistics needs with this app. Rajesh Rajgor speaks to Sanket Sheth, founder of Elixia Tech, to know more about the company’s products and services
Elixia Tech was incorporated in 2011 with the goal of developing high-end supply chain technical solutions. Using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), the company provides interconnected soft bots for logistics, warehousing and inventory that regulate supply chain planning and execution to lower costs for goods before, during and after transit and provide actionable business intelligence. Under the umbrella of supply chain control tower, Elixia Tech launched its first product in the telematics domain and has since built a fully digital and efficient suite of supply chain solutions.
Today, the company has hundreds of customers in the FMCG, pharmaceutical, chemical, 3PL, and other industries. It recently launched a new product – Elixia Connect – India’s first WhatsApp (WA)-driven, end-to-end technology-powered logistics marketplace. This platform maintains real-time availability of vehicles and shipments and perfectly matches shipper and vendor requirements, resulting in a win-win situation for both. Its USP is its operational simplicity. Its cloud-based mobile software gives customers improved insight and control over their logistical processes at any time and from any location.
Extending the Reach
Elixia Connect will assist the company in broadening its reach and horizons. It will assist companies save money on transportation without sacrificing service. This mobile app is designed to engage with users in nine Indian regional languages, namely, English, Hindi, Marathi, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, and Bengali. In addition, Elixia Tech has API interfaces with 50+ GPS providers to ensure that shipment tracking is always up-to-date. Elixia Tech’s connections also include an e-way bill module that allows customers to generate, extend and retrieve e-way bills for all of their journeys from a single platform.
Elaborating about the new development, Sanket Seth, founder of Elixia Tech, says: “We spent 18 months to conceptualise and launch India’s first technology-driven logistics marketplace Elixia Connect. Our goal is to help companies leverage the potential of technology. We want Elixia Connect to be the ‘go-to’ application for all transportation needs in the logistics and supply chain, including the cold chain. Our objective is to be the ideal solution provider for all shippers and transporters of all sizes and scales, and to bring uniformity to the digitisation of day-to-day logistics operations.”
Structuring the Logistics Industry
The logistics market in India and overseas is mainly unstructured owing to manual data management and coordination, which slows down and results in inefficient operations. Sanket adds: “We can help India save up to Rs 10 lakh crore by 2022 thanks to this technological revolution. Within the first year of the product’s debut we anticipate a gross merchandise value (GMV) of around Rs 105 crore in transactions.” Elixia Tech has been focusing on logistics and supply chain control tower since its inception in 2011. It works with companies who want to streamline their logistics operations. Sanket asserts: “To assure on-time delivery of their consignments, logistics businesses track vehicles using GPS; nevertheless, this is insufficient. To keep ahead of the competition, they must provide excellent customer service, arrange timely vehicle maintenance, manage operations and reconcile all transactions in order to have real-time profit visibility. Our cloud-based logistics automation system enables customers to digitalise their businesses from beginning to end.”
It all starts with Elixia Tech’s digital journey, where consumers can use the company’s site or mobile app to place orders. For owned, dedicated or market vehicles, this is followed by automatic freight calculation and consignor note generation. Trips can be generated for both part and full truckloads. “After calculating trip costs, including tolls, loading, unloading and detention and driver expenditures, the journey is then financially closed with real-time proof of delivery document upload, storage and delivery alerts to relevant stakeholders as well as driver and vendor settlement. Customer invoices are generated automatically and payment reminders are sent to customers at the end of the process,” Sanket adds.
A Holistic Approach
“This suite is connected with Elixia Speed, a GPS-based vehicle telematics solution, to give all stakeholders complete insight of the whole operating process, decreasing human intervention and increasing efficiency. It is extremely beneficial to clients in the pharmaceutical, FMCG and cold chain segment that we work with,” he further states. In addition, Elixia SIM card tracking system is specifically designed to track and trace market vehicles by just using a driver’s SIM card without any hardware installation. Elixia Tech’s fleet maintenance helps customers maintain all vehicle documentation as well as renewal reminders.
“It also aids in the creation of job cards and the recording of all workshop-related activities such as tyre and battery replacement, spare parts maintenance and servicing, and inventory management, as well as reminders for periodic replacement servicing. By assisting customers in analysing expenses incurred on automobiles, clients can record and recover any past expense on any vehicle done during its lifetime,” informs Sanket. Elixia Tech’s costing and accounting module provides corporates with a profit and loss statement for all their logistical operations. It provides a consolidated view of overall revenue, expenses, customer receivables, vendor payables and profitability for the organisation.
All of these modules, when paired with a management suite, can provide the senior management with critical information about the organisation’s performance, including net profitability, operational efficiency, expense and revenue trends, budgeting and data-driven intelligence for decision-making. “These are a few methodologies through which companies are helped by us to reduce their operational costs. So, if clients are looking for a strong tool that combines superior cloud-based technology with online and mobile compatibility and can be modified to meet their specific needs, our ERP is a great place to start,” Sanket points out.
Moving Ahead
We all are aware how people started adopting technology like anything during the ongoing pandemic. Everyone went digital and hence the demand for e-solutions for many logistics operations grew during the last 22-24 months. Sanket reveals: “Today, we are doing about 47 projects in parallel for various customers. We have put in relentless effort to bring the project lead time from 3-4 weeks to one week. We started integrating and customisation as per the information from customers. Our system has successfully integrated lorry receipts (LRs) and proof of deliveries (PODs) for many corporates and this is just the tip of the iceberg. Today, we have helped eliminate manual intervention for many companies’ supply chain.”
“Our clients include companies like Mondelez, Ferrero, Monginis Foods, UPL, Pharmeasy, Sanofi Pharmaceuticals, All Cargo, Maersk and Schneider Electric, amongst others. In order to further expand our product portfolio, we are mulling to expand to air and sea. Drone delivery is something which we will be starting to actually work on couple of months from now. There are strong plans and investments which we will be doing to actually start working on drone control tower. Our drone controllers shall be an extension to the existing supply chain controller, helping us manage the show when it comes to aviation and sea,” Sanket informs.
Elixia Tech has raised a million dollars in a round of funding from one of the venture capitalists and is also firming up plans to expand beyond India. “We would be starting up and scaling our operations in Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, Dubai, Qatar and the UAE. Currently, our team comprises of over 120 people, based at Mumbai. With a strong foundation and HR manager that drives the organisation towards output, we will add more employees. We are sure that we would also further diversify into segments like cement, steel and automobile transportation,” concludes Sanket.