In 1935, the lifespan of a company featured on the S & P 500 was 90 years. Today, it is 18 years.
Every two weeks, a company goes off that system. Even as we focused on the weekly, monthly, and quarterly, we started to lay the foundation for making Netcore Cloud an enduring great company.
Our journey began somewhere in the latter half of the 90s. India had broken the shackles of red tape, and custom-raj and the fruits of a globalised economy were yet to be delivered at its doorsteps.
In the year 1997, Netcore Cloud (Previously known as Netcore Solutions), started as the tech wing of India World Communication which had a slew of portals such as Khel.com and Samachar. Com, etc., under its wings. The technical base for the parent corp. was laid by Netcore, using an open-source platform, which helped further in building a mailbox server for the employees.
Satyam’s 1999 acquisition coincided with Netcore’s mailbox pitch to a lot of organisations that were averse to using the established names such as Lotus Notes, MS. Outlook, etc. We were one of the first players to offer cloud-based anti-spam, antivirus Statistical Analysis and Data Visualisation (SAS). In 2006, following the growing popularity of mobile phones, we launched an SMS marketing platform, which is now recognised more easily as bulk SMS. Shortly after, as internet and mobile phones grew, we ventured further into campaign management, personalization solutions as well as combining the benefits of email, SMS, web push notification for a more unified experience. More recently Whatsapp integration and Voice Solutions have gained immense popularity amongst our end-user, Apart from these our contextual nudges, In-app messages and walkthroughs have enabled our customer-base to deeply enhance their engagement with their audience.
Finally, in 2015-16, Netcore debuted its Omni-channel customer engagement and retention platform, a marketing automation tool with an aim to keep customers engaged across several channels without compromising messaging or brand retention. With the acquisition of companies like Boxx.ai in 2019 and Hansel.io in 2020 respectively, Netcore marched ahead, constructing capabilities such as Software Development KIT (SDK) around the personalised service boom.
People-first mindset; valuing assets that matter the most
Throughout our illustrious journey, Netcore Cloud has never allowed itself to lose sight of the three basics : customer focus; employee focus, and sustainable growth for the long term. From the days when SMS and emails were the norm, customer choice and behaviour have always been Netcore’s best source of feedback and learning to chalk out new routes in product development and provide a world-class customer experience. Acquiring Boxx.ai and stepping into bespoke product advocacy was one of the moves in that direction.
Likewise, people have remained at the core of its purpose. Even during trying circumstances, Netcore had gone against the standard tide of mass layoffs and stood by the employees – don’t let go of people just because there’s a downturn.
Transforming adversity into an opportunity
Be it the dot-com bubble of 2000 or the financial recession of 2008, Netcore Cloud has always contemplated those crises as windows of opportunity to observe and learn where others had failed.
Indispensable to our core values, Netcore has always believed in holding its ship tightly, staying by employees’ side and learning – when things are bad, it won’t always be this way. Our people have remained the nucleus of our purpose. On the other end, managing costs formed the remaining half of its strategy to stride through troubled waters.
Finally, a sales strategy fine-tuned to close open deals completes the package in dealing with a highly volatile state of affairs.
Thinking beyond inorganic growth opportunities and making them work
The highly competitive and complex nature of today’s business discourages the segregation of sales and marketing roles. Treating both the roles very seriously as time-honoured tools of growth, Netcore has been successful in making these work in tandem. When it boils down to acquisitions as well, Netcore has upended the drift with successful acquisitions such as Quinto, Hansel, boxx, etc., by taking the founder and team members of the acquired group on board.
In fact, remaining integral to our future growth plan, Netcore has now invested over $100 million in Unbxd Inc.to augment the overall digital experience.
As we move forward, by empowering it with apps and micro websites, user-friendly platforms such as Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) have once again turned the spotlight on email. AMP helps in increased interactivity and improves dwell time on the email, improving engagement significantly, and reduces any cybersecurity threat that may occur due to multiple page navigation. According to Netcore Cloud’s recent report – Email Benchmark Report 2022, sectors like banking, e-commerce have shown the highest adoption of AMP interactive emails in 2021.
Thriving across two long decades
Today, as we look back on our journey over the last 25 years, we can proudly hold our heads high. How many times have you come across a Martech company that has helped and supported over 5000, B2C brands, creating one of a kind, stunning digital journeys across a range of products that has helped them not only in engaging and retaining valuable customers but also approach each acquisition with aplomb? Needless to say, it is staying true to our core value of customer and employee focus, alongside time-bound product enhancements, that helped us chip a dazzling narrative in India’s digital story.