"Our core values are innovation, commitment and integrity."

BY TEMEL KAHYAOGLU

(Published in The Produktkulturmagazin issue 3 2018)

Riversand just released a cloud-native suite of Master Data Management solutions helping organisation create a data and analytics foundation to drive successful digital transformation. This was really the driving factor behind the company’s decision to completely rethink and rebuild a master data platform that would meet the future needs of the digital era. Riversand CEO & founder Upen Varanasi talks about his vision of the future and how the bold decisions he had made several years ago led to the company’s own transformational journey and a new MDM solution.

Where do you think the market is heading?

Well, we are truly in the digital era. The markets are rewarding companies that are leaders in this digital landscape. This is forcing all companies to truly embrace digital transformation. A key aspect of this transformation is the role of data. Data are the new ‘fuel’ of digital transformation. What matters is how enterprises can leverage data and unlock their power to create better and faster business outcomes. Turning data into insights is a key factor. Another important aspect is to understand the complexities of the information supply chain. Simplifying the flow of data is critical to drive better and faster business outcomes. Let’s take an example from the retail/CPG space: enterprises want to better understand their customers (utilizing customer insights through AI), create and sell products and services that meet and exceed customer expectations (product positioning through AI), meet their customers across all touchpoints (channel management), secure their customer’s information (privacy), and interact with trading partners to creating cutting-edge product differentiation (cloud and AI).

Why did Riversand decide to shift gears and embark on what became a two-year transformational journey for the company?

We understood the need to envision a new kind of platform to handle the trends occurring in our industry. We focused on creating a data-driven, multi-domain Master Data Management System that has a contextual master data modelling environment on the one hand and the ability to handle scale, velocity, and variety of data for handling master data as well as transaction and interaction data on the other hand. Additionally, the system embeds AI to drive better insights and outcomes and it is built on the cloud, which gives the capability to integrate data and process across hybrid clouds. Since business users are the target group of our system, we took care to ensure a highly business-friendly user experience and the provision of apps that actually solve the ‘final mile’ problem – PIM and customer domain solutions are each apps built on this same platform. Our goal was to create a platform and solutions that can be quick to implement, provides insights and recommended actions to business users, and automates many of the more mundane data-management and stewardship functions. We believe we can provide enterprises with the critical capabilities from the Master Data Management and Product Information Management space to differentiate themselves in the marketplace.

What are the core values of Riversand?

Our core values are innovation, commitment & integrity. We have consistently strived to bring leading-edge innovation to the market. We have dared to step back at times in order to take a bigger leap forward. What helps is that we have had a long-term view of our company and the industry we play in. We have been in business for eighteen years and have been committed to this space and to our customers all along the way. Integrity in everything we do is key in dealing with our stakeholders – employees, customers and partners – and has been our focus since inception. We might not get things right all the time to begin with, but we will always make it right with our stakeholders over time.

What do you see as your company’s biggest strength?

Our people, our passion for this space and our long-term thinking give us an incredible edge against our competition. We are blessed to have a team who have shaped this company over many years and who are invested deeply in the company and this market space.

What would you say sets Riversand apart? How are your technology and approach different to the other MDM and PIM vendors in the market?

The path we have chosen provides clear benefits for our customers with respect to our competition. Among the key points of differentiation are the fact that we provide a single platform to help implement MDM and PIM initiatives, so there is no need to create further silos of data and processes. Also, we future-proof both business users and IT users with a platform that is flexible and future-enabled. Our system is built for the cloud and SaaS eras; hence, upgrades are easy and done by us. This means that customers can scale with pay-as-you-go models. The built-in AI engine is based on a big data stack to drive insights and actions for better business outcomes. With that big data technology stack, enterprises have the ability to scale with data and handle both its variety and velocity. The app-building toolkit (SDK) helps customers and partners build their own apps so that they can solve their ‘final mile’ problems in addition to the core apps we are actively building. Plus, we offer a completely new and extremely business-friendly user interface and experience that people love to use!

Where is the company today along this journey that began over two years ago?

Our new solutions were introduced as a kind of soft launch with a select few customers over the past year. The feedback and insights we received during this year were extremely useful in becoming enterprise-ready. We are now in a position to launch our platform to the broader market. Over the next two quarters, we will be further enhancing our offerings including: the analytics/AI platform, app SDK for partners and customers, launching additional SaaS apps and entering additional vertical markets. We also look forward to creating robust partner ecosystems for these vertical markets.

What’s next for Riversand – what do you envision for the future?

We are really excited about the potential of our new master data platform, and we look forward to working with our current customers as well as new customers to help them with their digital-transformation journey. We are disruptors in our space, and we will continue to establish ourselves as a larger, bolder and leading global brand.

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UPEN VARANASI

Upen Varanasi sets the overall strategy and vision for Riversand. He brings extensive experience in the areas of PIM, PLM and Content Management. A University of Missouri and IIT alumnus, Upen holds Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees in Mechanical Engineering. 

Riversand Technologies Inc.
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Picture credit © Melvin Thambi