Leading edge technology and business services firm Mindsprint, earlier known as Olam Technology and Business Services (OTBS), wants to focus more on the food and agriculture sectors as it has “deeper” domain and industry knowledge, its Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dharmendra Kapoor has said.
“We are already in touch with companies such as Bayer and Costco to provide them not only with produce but also technology service. We want to continue to gain the technology scale while working with them. At the same time, process manufacturing is a very adjacent journey for us because in many countries we process food also,” said Kapoor in an online interaction with businessline.
For example, Mindsprint, which took over OTBS two years ago, no longer delivers cashews to sweet manufacturers to make Kaju Katlis (cashew sweet). It supplies cashew powder, which ensures that no worker in the manufacturing units gulps the cashew kernel without anyone noticing.
Preventing theft
“There are many such places where we change produce into an intermediate form. This prevents food wastage and theft. We are looking to get into other processes. We tell the company that we understand the industry and can help adopt the technology better,” he said.
Mindsprint is doing similar things to Nestle, Mondelez, and other consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies to improve customer experience, integration and networking with suppliers.
In the process of working with CPG companies, the company is interacting closely with farmers. Mindsprint helps Starbucks and Costco get multiple produce from farmers. Sometimes, the firm directly supplies these produces and sometimes processes them to supply in a different form.
Solutions free for farmers
The company has a direct digital solution connecting farmers to the marketplace. The technology connects farmers with buyers. It provides a comprehensive activity of the farm and access to key resources.
“The digital solution works directly with the farmer to provide the intelligence they need. Similarly, there are other solutions for farmers. We do spend analytics a lot to help companies optimise their spending and reduce wastage,” said Kapoor, adding that this brings cost-efficiency to a business.
In the case of Olam and a few other customers, Mindsprint works closer with farmers and has implemented IoT solutions. This can help in identifying soil moisture or the yield on a particular farm. The company helps get payment online too.
Thousands of farmers are using Mindsprint solutions free of charge. This is because it helps the company sort out its supply-side issues. Mindsprint trains and guides them. Tutorials and documents are also available to help them, he said.
Mindverse
Mindsprint uses different digital platforms to cater to its clients. “We have nine solutions developed in-house. We also have a couple of industry solutions which we implement for Olam and others,” the company’s CEO said.
The latest the firm has come up with is Mindverse, which is a generative AI (artificial intelligence) which gets intelligence looking at multiple data sources and provides better solutions.
“It is an official intelligent solution we have developed and it has 10 different components to provide better intelligence. For example, in the case of farmers, it looks at weather conditions, what is happening in the adjoining fields or where to source seeds of predict trading in the market,” he said.
The solution has a chatbox which responds to businesses and farmers to help them become more effective. “This is the beginning stage of the solution (Mindverse). It will get more intelligent given the data we collect, accumulate the questions and answers and solutions provided to the users,” said Kapoor, who had earlier worked with Birlasoft, HCL, Ericsson and Hewlett Packard Telecommunications.
The company has begun implementing the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) in Olam and is helping other clients to implement it. The company was able to implement this since it had a solution “True Trace” which traces a material from producer to consumer.
Helping chocolate makers
With this solution, Mindsprint is helping its clients to overcome various challenges in the food supply chain. Recently, one of the world’s major chocolate makers faced the problem of not buying cocoa from places where child labour is being used. True Trace helps to provide complete visibility on the entire supply chain and it could even pinpoint wrong methods for processing cocoa.
While Olam is the largest customer, the company has begun to look for customers over the past 1-½ years. It has got about 10 customers who are provided different solutions. However, one solution that is demanded is the Commodity Trading and Risk Management (CTRM), the company’s own which provides intelligence on the price movement.
Mindsprint provides real-time data and has begun to even look at image analytics, which is at a nascent state using drones and Google’s platform.
The company practices environmental, social and governance (ESG) to bring buyers closer to farmers. For example, its Bake Well solution has helped bakeries and producers connect. This has helped the firm to track the demand and supply. “It’s one advantage of bringing these parties together on one platform,” Kapoor said.
Mindsprint’s technological solutions support about 65 countries. Its Bake Well has been adopted by quite a few countries. It can help create a network of bakeries. Some solutions such as SAP are being used by these 65 nations, while some are utilised by 10-15 countries, he said, adding that there could be good potential in India but automation is lagging.
