IDOS, which is part of LaunchPad at NSRCEL, enables businesses manage compliances in the accounting process through automation
The market, both India and global, has plenty of accounting software and software with a focus on digital lending and digital discounting of bills. However, few generate core data which is required for implementing digital lending and digital discounting. They usually pull data from other accounting applications like Tally, Zoho and other players, and manage the upstream processes of digital lending. The challenge regarding quality and reliability of data remains because the existing accounting software do not provide for compliance. Tax compliances and internal control compliances are currently managed manually and through disconnected systems and therefore the data quality is low, leading to low volume of successful loan disbursements on these platforms.
That’s the need IDOS fulfills.
Core team
IDOS comprises a group of Chartered Accountants, each with 15+ years’ experience in accounting, finance, taxation and audit, who have come together to functionally architect IDOS.
Cheruku Srikanth, Founder and CEO, functional architect and creator of IDOS, is a chartered accountant with over 20 years’ experience in audit, accounting and systems. Srikanth has worked at PwC and in the KPO sector before starting IDOS and has experience of managing accounting and financial management projects across multiple countries.
Alexander Reife, Co-founder and COO of IDOS, supported the building of functional architecture from a compliance standpoint and manages operations and business growth. Equipped with a PhD in Economics and Masters in Finance from George Town University, Washington DC, Reife has worked with the World Bank and in the international development sector for 20 years.
Sowmyanarayan Sampath, Co-founder and CFO, is a CA and CWA with over 25 years’ experience. He heads the Enterprise business vertical. Formerly the CFO for India at Munich Re and Chief Internal Auditor for Met Life, India, he worked for 12 years at Big 4 firms (PwC / Anderson & EY).
Sunil Kumar Namdev is the CTO. With over 15 years’ experience in designing, developing and managing applications on Core Java, Scala, JEE/J2EE, Linux, Oracle, MySQL etc., he has worked on different domains like Finance, Telecom, GSM, Workforce Management, Order Management, Number Portability, GSM Roaming Billing, Telecom Planning, OSS, Healthcare and Customization of ERP.
IDOS is size of business and sector agnostic. It is an accounting and financial management platform which encompasses all components of the accounting and finance process, including reporting and analytics.
The NSRCEL experience
Srikanth says, “We have been part of the Microsoft Ventures Accelerator and the Start Up Chile Global Accelerator and what we like at NSRCEL, IIM Bangalore, is the attention to detail when it comes to helping entrepreneurs with different components of business, be it goal setting, marketing, branding, etc. There is a detailed session to explain the concept, help us relate the issues to our business setting, follow up with 1*1 session to see how each of us need to implement what we see and experience in the group and 1*1 sessions within our own business. The key is in implementation / execution and not just theory. In other accelerators, the focus was not as much on how to implement and execute for our business. Even though we have a lockdown and we are managing everything online; the sessions are more intense and impactful. No other accelerator has showed as much focus on enabling us to correlate the learning to our business. Another key aspect worth noting is the overall coordination through digital means, by email, bootcamp, whats app whereby there is never a disconnect and we do not feel lost and there is someone always there to respond and help.”
Market approach
IDOS sells its product both in MSME segment as well as medium to large business segment. “For the MSMEs, we sell the product as off-the-shelf SaaS product with monthly subscription fee and for medium to large business segment which would require customization to meet their specific operational and process needs IDOS provides customizable version which can be hosted on cloud or on-premise,” explains Srikanth.
The key differentiator in IDOS is the way it enables a business (even MSMEs) manage compliances in the accounting process through automation. IDOS says they ensure that the data processed on the platform is accurate, reliable and compliant in real-time and then it feeds this data to all upstream processes, including reports and analytics, and also for value added capabilities like digital lending and digital discounting of bills.
Within the first year of launching the product, IDOS won marque customers, including two of the Big 4 Global Accounting firms, Fortune 500 Companies, domestic companies in trading, services and manufacturing sectors.
“We have on-boarded over 15,000 MSMEs, in India, who use our software for accounting and financial management, and we are empowering these companies with value added capabilities which were not accessible to them earlier due to high costs. Businesses in USA, Chile, Brazil, France, UAE, Bangladesh, Philippines and Singapore have also registered themselves on IDOS,” says Srikanth.
Presently businesses are using different applications and processes for accounting, procurement, claims management, invoicing, reporting and analytics. Some of these tasks are managed manually and also compliance is mainly managed by depending on external support and help, which adds to the cost of accounting and financial management processes. IDOS, on the other hand, is an integrated solution which helps the business to manage all connected tasks and processes in a seamless manner. Some of the capabilities such as reporting, inventory valuation, procurement, analytics and automation of transaction processing, which was earlier available only in ERPs, are now being offered to MSME through IDOS at a low cost (under INR 1000 a month for five users).
In the enterprise version, IDOS has implemented “last mile connectivity” capability whereby companies which have implemented ERP and still have gaps in their processes, come to IDOS to help bridge those gaps and integrate with their existing ERP.
“We adopted a blue ocean strategy in our marketing and sales and created a huge sales platform at negligible cost of customer acquisition, through the concept of white-label, whereby marque companies white-label and sell our software under their branding. We have a global GTM Agreement with Microsoft and are a co-sell partner of Microsoft Corporation. We have such collaborations with marque companies each of who have focus on specific market segments and thereby our speed of scale has been significant. We have added 15 large ERP clients in last 90 days and also over 800 MSME customers even during lockdown period without any marketing and sales effort,” Srikanth says.
Mr. Bhaskar Pramanik, former Chairman of Microsoft India, joined IDOS as a strategic advisor in 2019 and guides product and growth strategy.
IDOS is a NASSCOM Emerge 50 winner. They won the Technology Innovation challenge of the Govt. of Andhra Pradesh, and were part of Start Up Chile, a global start up program.
IDOS, which is part of LaunchPad at NSRCEL, enables businesses manage compliances in the accounting process through automation
The market, both India and global, has plenty of accounting software and software with a focus on digital lending and digital discounting of bills. However, few generate core data which is required for implementing digital lending and digital discounting. They usually pull data from other accounting applications like Tally, Zoho and other players, and manage the upstream processes of digital lending. The challenge regarding quality and reliability of data remains because the existing accounting software do not provide for compliance. Tax compliances and internal control compliances are currently managed manually and through disconnected systems and therefore the data quality is low, leading to low volume of successful loan disbursements on these platforms.
That’s the need IDOS fulfills.
Core team
IDOS comprises a group of Chartered Accountants, each with 15+ years’ experience in accounting, finance, taxation and audit, who have come together to functionally architect IDOS.
Cheruku Srikanth, Founder and CEO, functional architect and creator of IDOS, is a chartered accountant with over 20 years’ experience in audit, accounting and systems. Srikanth has worked at PwC and in the KPO sector before starting IDOS and has experience of managing accounting and financial management projects across multiple countries.
Alexander Reife, Co-founder and COO of IDOS, supported the building of functional architecture from a compliance standpoint and manages operations and business growth. Equipped with a PhD in Economics and Masters in Finance from George Town University, Washington DC, Reife has worked with the World Bank and in the international development sector for 20 years.
Sowmyanarayan Sampath, Co-founder and CFO, is a CA and CWA with over 25 years’ experience. He heads the Enterprise business vertical. Formerly the CFO for India at Munich Re and Chief Internal Auditor for Met Life, India, he worked for 12 years at Big 4 firms (PwC / Anderson & EY).
Sunil Kumar Namdev is the CTO. With over 15 years’ experience in designing, developing and managing applications on Core Java, Scala, JEE/J2EE, Linux, Oracle, MySQL etc., he has worked on different domains like Finance, Telecom, GSM, Workforce Management, Order Management, Number Portability, GSM Roaming Billing, Telecom Planning, OSS, Healthcare and Customization of ERP.
IDOS is size of business and sector agnostic. It is an accounting and financial management platform which encompasses all components of the accounting and finance process, including reporting and analytics.
The NSRCEL experience
Srikanth says, “We have been part of the Microsoft Ventures Accelerator and the Start Up Chile Global Accelerator and what we like at NSRCEL, IIM Bangalore, is the attention to detail when it comes to helping entrepreneurs with different components of business, be it goal setting, marketing, branding, etc. There is a detailed session to explain the concept, help us relate the issues to our business setting, follow up with 1*1 session to see how each of us need to implement what we see and experience in the group and 1*1 sessions within our own business. The key is in implementation / execution and not just theory. In other accelerators, the focus was not as much on how to implement and execute for our business. Even though we have a lockdown and we are managing everything online; the sessions are more intense and impactful. No other accelerator has showed as much focus on enabling us to correlate the learning to our business. Another key aspect worth noting is the overall coordination through digital means, by email, bootcamp, whats app whereby there is never a disconnect and we do not feel lost and there is someone always there to respond and help.”
Market approach
IDOS sells its product both in MSME segment as well as medium to large business segment. “For the MSMEs, we sell the product as off-the-shelf SaaS product with monthly subscription fee and for medium to large business segment which would require customization to meet their specific operational and process needs IDOS provides customizable version which can be hosted on cloud or on-premise,” explains Srikanth.
The key differentiator in IDOS is the way it enables a business (even MSMEs) manage compliances in the accounting process through automation. IDOS says they ensure that the data processed on the platform is accurate, reliable and compliant in real-time and then it feeds this data to all upstream processes, including reports and analytics, and also for value added capabilities like digital lending and digital discounting of bills.
Within the first year of launching the product, IDOS won marque customers, including two of the Big 4 Global Accounting firms, Fortune 500 Companies, domestic companies in trading, services and manufacturing sectors.
“We have on-boarded over 15,000 MSMEs, in India, who use our software for accounting and financial management, and we are empowering these companies with value added capabilities which were not accessible to them earlier due to high costs. Businesses in USA, Chile, Brazil, France, UAE, Bangladesh, Philippines and Singapore have also registered themselves on IDOS,” says Srikanth.
Presently businesses are using different applications and processes for accounting, procurement, claims management, invoicing, reporting and analytics. Some of these tasks are managed manually and also compliance is mainly managed by depending on external support and help, which adds to the cost of accounting and financial management processes. IDOS, on the other hand, is an integrated solution which helps the business to manage all connected tasks and processes in a seamless manner. Some of the capabilities such as reporting, inventory valuation, procurement, analytics and automation of transaction processing, which was earlier available only in ERPs, are now being offered to MSME through IDOS at a low cost (under INR 1000 a month for five users).
In the enterprise version, IDOS has implemented “last mile connectivity” capability whereby companies which have implemented ERP and still have gaps in their processes, come to IDOS to help bridge those gaps and integrate with their existing ERP.
“We adopted a blue ocean strategy in our marketing and sales and created a huge sales platform at negligible cost of customer acquisition, through the concept of white-label, whereby marque companies white-label and sell our software under their branding. We have a global GTM Agreement with Microsoft and are a co-sell partner of Microsoft Corporation. We have such collaborations with marque companies each of who have focus on specific market segments and thereby our speed of scale has been significant. We have added 15 large ERP clients in last 90 days and also over 800 MSME customers even during lockdown period without any marketing and sales effort,” Srikanth says.
Mr. Bhaskar Pramanik, former Chairman of Microsoft India, joined IDOS as a strategic advisor in 2019 and guides product and growth strategy.
IDOS is a NASSCOM Emerge 50 winner. They won the Technology Innovation challenge of the Govt. of Andhra Pradesh, and were part of Start Up Chile, a global start up program.