PerksMe - Adding Value to Employee Rewards & Recognition

This story is sponsored by IBM

The employer-employee relationship is a complex aspect of any organisation. It is critical for operational and human resources teams to understand what makes some employees perform better than others.

In the late 1990s, new entrants in the food services and facilities management companies, revolutionised employee engagement by introducing the meal voucher concept. These could be exchanged for products and services at select malls, restaurants and even at gift shops like the popular Archies chain.

This acted as an important tool for rewarding and motivating employees. Companies in the BPO and IT sector were quick to adopt these schemes, as they provided a hassle-free service. Users praised the convenience, prompt delivery of the coupons, followed by the efficient service.

Soon, to extend their benefits, companies tied up with retail chains and outlets so that corporate employees could get additional discounts and offers while shopping. This made these schemes very popular.

On the flip side, considering that pre-paid paper vouchers can get torn or lost, time-consuming to use at retail counters and expensive to mail and distribute, companies recognised an opportunity for further improvement, and by late 2000, came up with a card system.

However, gone are the days of vouchers and pre-paid card mechanisms. Today, we live in a digitised era where almost everything is managed through e-wallets. In addition, employees like a facility that enables them to choose their rewards, which in turn builds a stronger connection with the employers.

PerksMe is one such start-up that is bringing a digital transformation into the eco-system of rewards and fringe benefits that employers offer. This start-up offers an online platform for shopping, wallet-as-a-service and an integrated mobile application to manage company perks. Corporates can load perks for their employees individually or in bulk into the PerksMe wallet. Employees can also top up their PerksMe wallet.

PerksMe, which captures and analyses data in the backend, uses IBM Bluemix™ to offer reporting and predictive analytics solutions to its clients.

“The array of services that Bluemix offers is far more than its competitors. It’s like an incubator for start-ups. We use Bluemix’s API management to build our tools. The biggest advantage of Bluemix is having the analytics and reporting engine, mobile application and content manager all under one roof. It also helps to synchronise it all across multiple channels,” said Deepesh Karnatak, who heads operations at PerksMe.

Bluemix helps in optimising resources and product development costs for start-ups like PerskMe by offering users a catalogue of infrastructure services, boilerplate apps and a host of essential add-on services.

PerksMe, which is less than 18 months old, has tie-ups with online merchants like Goibibo, Infibeam and others who offer additional discounts while shopping. Its client base includes Hilton Hotels, the Marriott and SnapFitness, among others.

To learn more about how start-ups in India are redefining the digital payment ecosystem on the IBM Cloud development platform, signup for the IBM India Onward event.