Bob Dylan once said, "What's money? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do." Santhosh Palavesh's entrepreneurial journey stands as a testament to this wisdom.
Santhosh started his career as a short filmmaker. His deep interest in this field motivated him to learn the tricks of the trade. What started as a passionate hobby paved the way for the founding of UMM Studios, a digital firm devoted to designing and delivering technology-enabled business solutions to diversified industries.
Established in 2010, the firm quickly gained a strong foothold in the market. March 2017 marked a significant turning point in UMM Digital's journey as it merged with Ideomind, another prominent digital product and service company. This strategic move was orchestrated under the visionary leadership of Mr. Kishore Janakiraman, the Founder and chairman of VIP Global Realty, who played a pivotal role in investing and facilitating this merger.
The newly merged entity, Ideomind-UMM, operating under Ideomind Private Limited, has been established as a global digital product and service company with a strong emphasis on cutting-edge technology solutions. Its strategic objectives include expanding its product-oriented operations to account for up to sixty per cent of its portfolio, while the service-oriented segment will comprise up to forty percent of its business activities.
Ideomind-UMM is a state-of-the-art 360-degree digital firm focusing on building and marketing digital products. The Company helps businesses by offering end-to-end technical business solutions from ideation of the products to positioning them in markets to enable them to focus on their core business activities completely.
The Company operates across three verticals, namely Digital Branding, Technology, and Digital Marketing; and its rich portfolio of service offerings envelops nearly all key areas in these three domains.
Branding encompasses the complete journey of transforming a brand concept into a tangible visual identity and establishing its market position. Technical services encompass a wide range of offerings, including product consulting, mobility solutions, web application development, and custom Agile development solutions using various technologies.
On the other hand, Digital Marketing offers comprehensive services such as digital strategy consulting and execution, e-commerce marketing, digital product launches, and search and social media marketing.
The Company has obtained a strong foothold in the market with its unique mobile solutions that are delivered by a team with unparalleled expertise.
As quoted by Mr. Kishore Janakiraman, Founder & Director of Ideomind, "On the digital front we are now helping Corporations in smoothly transitioning to mobility, and we are also helping a lot of start-ups on the technical fronts to help evolve their ideas into products."
The team at Ideomind-UMM comprises highly skilled professionals who, with their expertise deep-rooted in cross-functional domains and keen insights, get a comprehensive understanding of the businesses across varied verticals and their strategies.
The firm has achieved success in nearly forty mobile app deployments, more than seventy-five E-Commerce deployments, and more than twenty-five Agile deployments. It has also developed more than two hundred and fifty websites in the past three years of operation.
The websites and apps developed by the company always create a buzz in the market when launched due to their uniqueness. One of the websites, built for Zorba, was nominated for 'the Best Website Award', and three apps have won awards, including one from the 'PayPal Startup Tank Award'.
Today, Ideomind-UMM boasts a valuable client base covering nearly three hundred customers, including corporate giants such as Larsen and Toubro Limited, Royal Bank of Scotland Plc., HCL Technologies Limited, Tata Consultancy Services Limited, and more.
In addition to establishing a robust online presence for global visibility, the team's personalized client-centric approach throughout the project, coupled with their profound expertise in various industry sectors that seamlessly merge with technology during solution implementation, are the pivotal elements that have contributed to the company's impressive customer base growth.
It's worth highlighting that a significant portion of the company's customer acquisition comes from referrals by existing clients. Santhosh Palavesh firmly believes that each client's business is their life and deserves the utmost care and priority.
"Ideomind is all set to reach out to global markets and the opportunity out there is massive on the digital front," adds Founder Director Kishore Janakiraman.
This core value is ingrained in the culture of the organization. As quoted by Mr. Palavesh, "Ideomind-UMM's work is more than design and build. We believe it's about the organization behind it. Our team, with its deep-seated expertise in cross-functional domains, gives a considerable amount of time for a better understanding of the organization, before initiating the process for building a digital business strategy. We are not just service providers; we believe in adding value by looking at the larger perspective of the business and the client's position in it. Here at Ideomind-UMM, we believe in strategy-driven design and transformational experiences and insights."
The business, which was started with a minimal investment of twenty thousand rupees, made its way to a humongous turnover of seven crores, having followed a completely organic model.
Within seven years, the company achieved significant milestones that stimulated the company's growth and helped it scale up. As nearly eighty-five per cent of business comes through referral, every project is taken seriously, and every successful project is a milestone.
One of them, which shines more, is a social digital initiative platform for a spiritual organization, 'Infinitheism', where people from all over the globe commit to eleven tons of weight loss online.
Some of the major project acquisitions with corporate giants such as Larsen &Toubro, HCL &RBS bank also turned out to be growth stimulators. With the merger and funding, Ideomind-UMM now focuses on global digital transformation projects from across the globe. Furthermore, the firm has established itself as a reliable technology partner for a lot of IIT-incubated start-ups.
Ideomind-UMM has received numerous accolades for its sincere effort toward developing sustainable solutions and empowering businesses with advanced technology in this rapidly changing business environment.
The firm has been acknowledged as one of 'India's Top 20 Digital Marketing Agencies by Silicon India in 2016'. European Business Assembly nominated Ideomind-UMM for the European Quality Award, and Flipkart chose it as an Advertising Partner in 2016.
It has been recently nominated as one of 'India's Top 25 Enterprise Mobility Solutions Providers', by CIO Advisor.com. Santhosh has bagged various awards, and the major ones include the Rashtriya Udyog Ratna Award in 2012, the Mother Teresa Excellence Award, the Bharat Sevaratna Award & the Indira Gandhi Puraskar in 2013, and the Quality Grade Awards of Business Excellence in 2014.
Ideomind-UMM has also bagged several awards for developing Unique Apps. 'AppZuri', an Aggregator Platform for Customers to reach out to the Best Salons and stylists, was hailed as 2015's Best UI/UX Award under the Technology Category from MADDYS. 'Fizz Chennai', an app for offers and deals on food, drink, spas, and entertainment, received the 'Best Startup Award' from PayPal Start Tank.
'Random Mouse', an app for pre-booking parking spaces, has been recognized by IIT Madras Startup Incubator Cell. Another app, 'Greenie', an IoT-based mobile app that monitors energy consumption, has been honoured by Indian Electricity Board for the company's turnkey solutions.
Following the recent merger, Ideomind-UMM has swiftly introduced its inaugural product, IDEOSPRINT, which is India's first SAAS (Software as a Service) application designed for restaurants, stores, chemists, and other retailers. With this achievement, the company is now gearing up to extend its market presence into the UAE and Europe, offering innovative solutions.
