Asmita Mukherjee - Hyderabad Established in 2016, Ecobillz is an AI-led Digitization B2B SaaS platform built to eliminate the use of paper by providing innovative real-time digital solutions and automating backend operations. As the hospitality industry rapidly amalgamated technology into its daily operations, the company saw a huge opportunity in the sector. Asmita Mukherjee spoke with Dr. Ameet Patil, Founder & CEO of Ecobillz Private Limited to understand the market in the current scenario.
Kindly brief us about your journey with Ecobillz.
Ecobillz is an AI-led Digitization B2B SaaS (Software as a Service) platform, which connects with the existing systems and software, accessing or reading data and streamlining them onto the Ecobillz platform to store, present, churn and automate.
Ecobillz.com–a NASSCOM 10,000 Startup and also part of 500 Startups was instituted with a strong mission to help large organizations adopt advanced digitization using AI in order to increase productivity with process automation and data mining while dreaming of saving trees and time—thus transforming the business to become more responsible. While Ecobillz today is adapted for the hospitality industry, the product can be assembled successfully for QSRs, hospitals (health industry) and the retail industry as well.
In our combined 25+ years of experience, we observed three important things and changed our course of operations and growth accordingly.
(1) We saw that automation was going to be a key driver of growth for large businesses.
(2) Businesses, despite using the latest technology in IT, are still inclined to continue age-old practices such as using paper and manual-driven processes
(3) Automation and Technology will have to boost Sustainability to survive the demands of nature.
What are the new technologies that Ecobillz has exclusively designed for the Hospitality and Tourism Industry? How is technology helping hotels to serve guests?
Ecobillz found that companies even when digitalised are not leveraging technology properly, and falling back on paper. The idea struck the promoters of the start-up while shopping at a retail super-mart. The teller handed them a one-feet long receipt which led them to think about the wastage of resources in business. Ecobillz was conceptualised to save paper and trees while imbibing digitalisation, and smart technology like Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics has been leveraged to digitize everything that is on paper while also providing full automation with the processes.
It provides Hotel guests with real-time service and seamless check-in/ check-out activities. The entire food ordering system, valet or laundry orders are fully digitised with minimum front desk interface.
We are also working on a paper-free and automated backend operation system for hotels with a technology-driven solution to fulfil the FRRO (Foreign Regional Registration Office) compliance seamlessly, without time loss. Along similar lines, we are also planning to penetrate other markets such as hospitals, retail, entertainment, and F&B businesses through innovative solutions.
Automation and AI are ruling the hospitality technology market. Apart from these, what are the other technologies that are grabbing attention?
Apart from automation and AI being implemented through each of the services, the other technologies that are grabbing attention in the hospitality industry are payment technologies, automated cleaning services and voice driven smart bots and smart security services. Apart from hospitality, technologies in the health sector and automobiles, especially solar and battery-enabled technologies will make a big splash.
According to you, will there be any job threats due to the massive adoption of AI and automation in the industry?
As the Hospitality industry has shifted its focus on using technology on a daily basis, the dependency on technology will see a spike and the industry will find itself looking for a different kind of manpower. We do not see a fall in jobs in the hospitality industry, but what we perceive is a tech-enabled working staff in the hospitality industry.
How is Ecobillz taking advantage of the increased adoption of tech in the hospitality industry and using this as an opportunity? Are there any new use cases identified in the market?
Ecobillz is riding the tech spurt and adoption spree. As of date, there is no hospitality or hotel chain that does not know about Ecobillz, at least in India. All the top luxury hotel chains in India are our customers.
Ecobillz dreams of impacting the Global Sustainability mandate by implementing this AI-driven SaaS platform worldwide and adding to the Made in India story. Ecobillz is currently working with 200 plus hospitality establishments across India and is also planning to expand globally across Europe, Africa, the Middle East, South East Asia and Dubai. Today Ecobillz is adding 10 hospitality properties every month to its existing list and sincerely aims that they could make a foray into the sustainability index of India.
The market is ever-evolving and due to our deep understanding of the hospitality industry, we are quick to spot new use cases/problems/opportunities and build solutions to address them. C-Form automation, real-time EInvoice IRN generation, and Comprehensive Automated Reconciliation are some of the few recently introduced products in our portfolio.
