From ‘Speech Expands Reach’ to ‘Interactions Simplified’

A company that is eleven years old is normally not seen as a startup. Yet, it is heartening to find Mohan Ram .C, Managing Director of LatticeBridge Infotech Pvt Ltd, looking back at the 4,000+ days of his company’ existence as a journey of ‘4,000 startups with continuous innovation’. He recounts to YourStory the early successes of his company, strategy shifts over time, and the vision for the future.

First, the story of your journey as an entrepreneur, the major turning points, and plans going forward.LBIT was formed with a core team on speech recognition. We grabbed limelight, touching lives of million+ train travellers by launching the 133 Railway Enquiry service. Someone even recently remembered LB as a company that gave speech-based train info.

We started with ‘Speech Expands Reach’, and midway we changed to ‘Human Interactions Automated’, to now ‘Interactions Simplified’. We are now automating speech, handwriting, and touch-based applications. In speech, we have voice biometrics based product called ‘Sure Identity’, and we see a great future for this product, with current security requirements.

We focussed on the telecom sector from 2006 and grew very fast like the industry, and fell faster with the fall of the industry on the whole. Now, many big brands have vanished from the scene, leaving companies like ours in the lurch. We are now searching for alternative avenues to keep ‘alive’.

Our vision for the company is to open new vistas, again touching millions of people with projects like track-and-treatment of diseases in rural areas, combining Digipen, voice alerts, and biometrics. Also, we have found that Indian market is not paying enough for useful and enhanced customer experience technologies, but there are huge opportunities overseas. For instance, Singapore Airlines and DU have proved to be the most profitable projects of company. In days to come, however, we will have big Indian projects as well as overseas projects to execute.

What are the challenges that your line of work faces?We are continuously challenged for new innovation and new solutions to meet the pain points of the customers and giving a unified experience using the Integrated Customer Interaction Management platform. Setting the right expectation and getting there is a challenge. Localisation and regionalisation of our technology to work in a complex social structure like India is very challenging. Over the 4,000+ days of the company’s existence, it has been like 4,000 startups with continuous innovation!

Lessons that you would like to offer for new entrepreneurs.

Do not rush to market without having proper strategies and a fall-back plan. Expect failure, yet be optimistic to succeed. Be patient and have a lot of courage to face the challenges. It is very easy to start an enterprise; but, to close it and get out is a big problem. Have a trusted team in place for the growth of the organisation and create a cohesive unit, with responsibilities clearly defined for each one in the management team. It is better to test the concept with limited resources and prove the concept, before plunging in full. Avoid taking funding, till you are in a commanding position to take money at your terms (it is very difficult, but, not impossible).