According to a study by KPMG in India and Google in May 2017, Internet and smartphone penetration in India has been growing exponentially, with the number of internet and smartphone users expected to rise to 735 million and 470 million, respectively, by 2021. The rapidly increasing access to technology has transformed the framework of education, especially over the last decade. While technology can act as a catalyst for greater learning, it must be paired with the right tools to enable the right kind of interaction. Established in 2012 by a group of education technology specialists, Bridge People offers world-class technology solutions to Higher Education, Research and Government institutions that work towards excellence.
Headquartered in Chennai, Bridge People realized that there are issues at the grassroots level which were being ignored and needed to be addressed in the education space. "One area identified, for example, was, the ability to write better research papers and dissertations without plagiarizing. This was the need of the hour for Higher Education Institutions to compete with global peers in an era where their credential is assessed by global ranking agencies like THE, QS World University Ranking or the homegrown NIRF ranking. To address the issue of being able to publish faster, effectively and efficiently Higher Educational institutions need a tool that would allow them to articulate innovative ideas to a global audience. With a vision to bridge this gap, Bridge People has engaged with Grammarly Inc, USA, the World's No.1 Research Writing Tool and Plagiarism Prevention Database," says Suresh Narayanan, Director- Technology solutions, Bridge People. Today, Bridge People has over 250 premier institutions, universities and research labs which are benefitting from the use of Grammarly. The firm is not just the exclusive sales partner to Grammarly but it also offers L1-L2 levels of technical support to subscribers across customer accounts. With a dedicated support desk in over seven Indian languages, the help desk follows global best practices in tracking customer issues through proper ticketing and closure follow-ups. The company ensures that all the escalations are addressed by the management with a clear eye on customer satisfaction.
"The rapidly increasing access to technology has transformed the framework of education, especially over the last decade".
'Customer First - Always'
Bridge People believes in walking the extra mile with its customer and puts the customer first as a policy. As an organization, Bridge People makes it a point that it's their responsibility to ensure the adoption of the product or solution that they provide to a customer. Some of the useful products offered by the firm are Grammarly - a Research writing software and citation audit tool; Library Resources - an end to end subscription services to digital library resources ranging from e-Books, e-journal, Digital Journal Archives and e-Content; Lecture Capture Solutions - state of the art solution that helps in creating MOOCs courses rapidly without compromising quality; Content Creation Studio Infrastructure; Teacher Training Labs; Accent Training Labs; Language Learning Solutions and K-12 Smartclass Solutions. "The challenges that our clients face are inherently attached to delivering the quality of education and research output. At Bridge People, our focus clearly has been towards fitting our offering in those spaces. If I have to explain, our offerings span across the life cycle of an institution touching its nerve centers from Library, Professional Development, Research, Innovation, Publishing, MOOCs, Studio Infrastructure, Language Skill Development, Digital Content, and Technology based content delivery. All of our initiatives are focused towards excellence in academic or research outcomes," mentions Jagadeshwaran V, Director - Service Delivery, Bridge People.
Today, Bridge People has 99 percent returning customers, thus allowing the firm to scale considerably faster. "We respect the fact that it's easy to lose a customer but getting one is the most difficult. The habit of customer first is inculcated in the company's policy. Our employees are mentored to respect customers and why they need to take extra efforts even if there are activities not defined on their KRA that is needed to deliver a world-class service delivery. We understand the importance of services and our executives and engineers do not shy away from walking that extra mile be it early part of the day or later after work hours," shares Karthik R P, Director - Key Accounts, Bridge People.
Elevating Learning Experience with Skilled Team of Professionals With its cumulative expertise of over 200 man-years in education and related developmental areas, Bridge People has served more than 250 clients including names like Indian Institutes of Management - Consortium, Indian Institutes of Science Education Research - Consortium, Indian Institutes of Technology, Jawaharlal Nehru University, SRM University, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Dept. of Atomic Energy, NOKIA, PHILIPS, TATA Trust and many more. The firm believes that their phenomenal growth has been possible due to its customers who have recognized their services and more with their partners who have put their trust on the firm's capabilities and knowledge of the market.
Bridge People aspires to be a leader in the Education Technology Solutions space with a clear eye on innovation and new product development. The firm focuses on innovative products and has invested in product development activites with a clear eye of IPR. Some of the products are in advanced stages of release and Bridge People expects to have these products launched in id-2019. "All products are developed for India from India, and clearly we wish to take our products from India to the world and multiple ideas are currently on the drawing board. The objective will be to deliver real life, made to purpose products that work for institutions," speaks Mahesh C N, Director - Finance, Bridge People. The firm clearly has an eye on scaling its operations and aspires to reach out more than 3000 customer accounts over the next five years. Bridge People is now in discussions to generate funding for the scale-up activities which are in various stages with multiple funding agencies; the objective is to generate gross revenue of 100 crores in the coming years.
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