Honeywell India, a technology company, has launched a new business entity — Impact by Honeywell — to take affordable and easy-to-use automation and digital technologies to the middle segment in India. The company had till now focused only on the large enterprise segment with a portfolio for premium companies in India.
The company will now develop products and solutions that are developed locally and tailor-made to meet the needs of the SME sector in India. Post-Covid, the SMEs have increasingly felt the need for automation to keep operations running with reduced staff while maintaining productivity.
The company created a new facility in Pune for this business with a dedicated engineering team and a startup culture to remain nimble and agile. The existing business model was geared to serve enterprise level businesses so they incubated the new business with a new team. Impact by Honeywell has started building the product portfolio for this customer base, which includes products and solutions for productivity, cost control, revenue leakage, quality and compliance.
Akshay Bellare, president, Honeywell India, said significant investments are being made in this business and they have been on a hiring spree for this entity. They would also consider investing in dedicated manufacturing if it was needed and depending on how fast business scaled up, he said.
Bellare expected it to become an important business for Honeywell in India and account for 10% of total revenues in two to three years. There will be no stripping down of existing products but products would be developed ground-up to address the pain points of the Indian SME segment. These would be easy to install, easy to use and affordable.
According to Bellare, there was a large customer base spread within and beyond tier-1 and tier-2 cities and significant potential for adoption of automation, digitalisation and smart products and solutions by SME or mid-segment customers. Impact by Honeywell starts off with products and solutions for healthcare, e-commerce and supply chain verticals.
Warehouse automation, digital safety, productivity solutions and asset health monitoring are some of the new products of the company. The health monitoring solution was developed in response to Covid-19, but now has wider applications for the pharma industry. The BluTag 360TM is a digital tracking and shipment condition monitoring solution for vaccines and drugs. The Universal AC Controller battery-operated device saved 30% energy bills for buildings that did not have centralised AC.
The company will be using partners, e-commerce platforms and technology to reach potential customers. On the supply side, they would be leveraging the global sourcing teams available with Honeywell to access semiconductors and electronic components for automation and digitisation products.
