Reizend provides Analytics solution to one of the entities of a business group with over 28 different businesses across the world. Here we provide data analytics in the Plantation vertical. They are one of the leading producers of CTC, Orthodox, Organic and Green Teas, Rubber and Pepper in India having more than 3000 hectare of plantation area and having a field workforce of more than 11,000 who produce 14 million KG of tea annually. They have estates both in North India and South India.

The company was finding it difficult to manage this huge workforce and to efficiently measure the productivity of the manpower deployed on the field. Management of manpower becomes the most crucial and difficult task, especially in tea plantations, which is a manpower intensive industry. Tea leaves are very delicate in nature and to ensure the best quality, timely field applications such as manure, growth promoters, weedicides and pesticides are of utmost importance. They were also finding it difficult to ensure the process compliance to ensure quality output in the expected quantity. Unplanned absenteeism of the workers was another burning concern. To address the above-mentioned pain areas, Reizend had to extract the relevant data. They had these data spread across different systems. They had some of their data in their ERP while the field related data was captured in another third-party application. The budget and norm files were maintained as Excel sheets. We had to extract the relevant data from all these different sources and do data validation and data cleansing activities to achieve the desired objectives.

Reizend conducted a detailed business analysis activity for understanding their business processes in depth and to identify the problem areas. This was achieved by a team of Business Analysts, Data Scientists and Technical experts. In this workshop conducted by Reizend, all the pain areas of the company were listed. A detailed discussion was conducted on each of the pain areas noted and these points were prioritized based on its criticality and its impact on the business. By the end of the workshop, Reizend helped them identify those KPIs which had the most impact on their business keeping the least priority items apart. Most of the pain points revolved around cultivation and hence, utmost importance was given to the field activities.

Subsequent to identifying the KPIs, a focused discussion was conducted on those KPIs to elaborate further. Each KPI was coined in such a manner that it will have a clear-cut output, an insight, a decision-making point and a positive business change. These KPIs were given life through easy-to-grasp visualizations incorporating the suggestions from the users. Along with the dashboards, certain email alerts and notifications were also given to users which would help them stay compliant with the Norms for better operational efficiency.

Embracing data analytics is a cultural change in itself. Reizend understood this and we worked hand in hand with the customer to enable each user to get used to the analytics culture of decision-making. We extended all the hand-holding support to users and helped them slowly transform to a new and improved work culture. Following were some of the key takeaways of the successful implementation of the analytics solution:

• Very good improvement in terms of the yield from the fields. Able to meet targets without slippages.
• Quickly identify the low yield fields and see the root cause and take appropriate corrective actions.
• Very limited schedule slippages as field managers get advance notifications.
• Good improvement in the quality of the leaf as it is treated in the right way as per the Norms.
• Visible improvement in the health of the fields due to stringent quality control measures taken using the timely notifications by the system.
• Right amount of people deployed in the right fields for the right jobs gaining maximum productivity.
• Control absenteeism of the workers to a great extent by employing right controls with the help of the portal.
• Able to take swift and informed decisions purely based on the real facts backed by data rather than based on intuitions or assumptions.
• A clearly visible change in the work culture. Manual books were avoided, and reviews were conducted using our Data Analytics solution to evaluate the exact state of affairs.
• More accountability among the field workers and office staff.