Ephlux: Connected Customer Experience using Internet of Things

M. Ali Nasim, CEO

Digital transformation is a much talked about topic these days. But most companies are not clear on how to contextualize it within their business context and how to make it co-exist with their existing IT investments such as their ERP applications. Ali Nasim, CEO of Ephlux, talked to CIO Applications about how Ephlux helps businesses embrace digital transformation through cutting-edge IoT, machine learning, and AI solutions within their business and IT context, creating unparalleled customer experiences and enhancing the customer journey.

Can you tell us about the challenges that your clients are facing?

Businesses have a plethora of technology assets with heavy capital expenditure on these assets. Bringing the assets together for a common business goal can be a tough challenge in the ever-changing, competitive world. We believe that companies can initiate their digital transformation journey while leveraging their existing ERPs and custom proprietary applications. Organizations can capitalize on their existing on-premise infrastructure while adopting innovative technologies such as cloud, IoT, AI and machine learning, and line-of-business modern SaaS-based CRMs, without compromising on security or long-term viability of their technology investments.

Can you please elaborate on the solutions and services provided by Ephlux?

Ephlux provides pre-integrated solutions for customer experience, Internet of Things, machine learning, and Industry 4.0. These solutions co-exist with both cloud-based and on-prem ERP applications like JD Edwards, Oracle E-Business Suite, and SAP. As a member of Oracle’s IoT Customer Advisory Board, we actively help customers with their digital transformation initiatives.

Our core IoT-based solutions include asset monitoring, Industry 4.0 production monitoring, plant and equipment maintenance, and fleet monitoring. We also provide end-to-end IoT-based solutions for businesses by integrating frontend consumer-facing applications with backend enterprise level applications like CRM and ERP solutions.

For example, our asset monitoring solutions allow businesses to provide proactive service through capital asset management in ERP utilizing predictive analysis. We have paired such solutions with proprietary machine learning models, predicting outcomes by obtaining sensory data on the condition of assets, thus helping manage the overall lifecycle of the organizational asset.

Our solutions also include production monitoring through IoT-based data collection. We integrate IoT based production monitoring with shop floor modules in an ERP, allowing real-time monitoring of the production line to minimize quality and inventory-related problems.

Using machine learning, we predict equipment failure and inventory shortages as well. Other IoT and machine learning solutions include fleet monitoring which has particular benefits for the e-commerce industry.

If you’re not living on the edge – you’re taking too much space

We are also conducting R&D by combining IoT, AI, and machine learning in the healthcare sector. Our data scientists are working on predicting patient experience to improve patient journey. We have a few machine learning initiatives in the pipeline that could be particularly transformational in the healthcare sector.

How has Ephlux been at the forefront of the market in helping its clients?

Ephlux was founded in 2006 as an integrator of customer experience and consumer-facing applications with backend ERP applications. With this experience under our belt, we ventured into integrating IoT and AI to make the customer experience connected and proactive by integrating them with CRM. We help customers utilize their ERPs like JD Edwards and Oracle E-Business Suite within the digital transformation landscape.

We know that organizations want to realize ROI on their current investments. We help companies do exactly that while helping them capture data points using sensory data from appliances, equipment, and assets by utilizing machine learning platforms like Oracle’s built-in adaptive intelligence, Google AI, and IBM Watson, and building machine learning models.

We realize that there are many players in the IoT, ERP, or consumer-facing applications domain. But we at Ephlux bring a combination of all three of these, building hybrid, end-to-end integrated solutions across the customer journey. Our expertise lies in bringing hardware and firmware engineers, data scientists, ERP and CRM specialists, and process engineers together with marketers and psychologists to fulfill our vision of “connected customer centricity.”

Can you share a customer success story?

We have quite a few success stories to share. We worked with a construction company that was utilizing maintenance modules in their ERP. Most of their equipment’s maintenance data was entered manually at the end of the shift. With the help of sensory data integrated with machine learning algorithms, we built an integrated solution that helped identify potential errors, expediting value realization through proactive equipment monitoring.

Similarly, we worked with a consumer appliance company where we integrated their field service application with condition-based monitoring of the appliances through IoT, enhancing the consumer journey. This also had the potential to reduce the company’s maintenance and repair costs significantly.

We have similar such examples in many industries such as logistics, engineering, construction, healthcare and more.

What are the future goals of Ephlux?

We have agile teams, situated in different parts of the globe. We have our presence in the U.S., Canada, UK, Singapore, and in Pakistan. This helps us to target key strategic markets—the western hemisphere with USA, Canada, and the UK, and the eastern hemisphere with the Asian and APAC market.

In the near future, we plan to capitalize on our brand within our areas of expertise and conduct more R&D on machine learning models, beyond customer experiences. Currently, our passion project is in the healthcare sector where we are building machine learning models to help the industry with various healthcare problems and enhancing care delivery while reducing cost. We also plan to build more partnerships in different markets to fill the gaps in the areas of IoT and AI.