By Fakir Balaji
Bengaluru, June 26 (IANS): Growth of electronic-commerce and mobile-commerce is pushing enterprises and organisations to use video platform for rendering smart services to their new-age customers.

"Banks, hospitals and tech firms have begun to reap benefits of using video as an interactive platform to serve customers, check patients and hire employees, saving time, energy and costs," Talview chief executive Sanjoe Jose told IANS here.

While technology convergence has made enterprises and netizens use voice over internet protocol (VoIP) for visual interface through Skype, Google Hangout, FaceTime or Webex, the start-up (Talview) coded software tools for enabling the service sector use asynchronous video as a dedicated interactive platform for their constituents.

"Video commerce is the new wave in the B2C (business to costumer) segment as its inter-active platform is helping sectors like banking serve customers better and hospitals to reach out to patients quicker and allow enterprises to hire new employees faster," Jose said.

If automatic teller machines (ATMs), internet and mobile banking are helping customers avoid going to banks for a slew of services, a video platform will help them to virtually interact with the branch manager or an official concerned for quick service.

"From personal to online, banking has evolved into a technology-driven service where old customers are wooed for their loyalty and new-age customers are lured to avail benefits of virtual banking," Jose said.

For instance, leading private banks like ICICI, IndusInd and Federal use video links as visual communication in customer engagement to deliver best of service and address customers' concerns at the earliest.

"In a world of connected devices, time and distance do not impact business or in serving customers across verticals as video interaction will help find solutions and address grievances without personally visiting a bank," Jose said.

Similarly, doctors of state-run and private hospitals will be able to serve patients better and diagnose them early on a video platform, saving time and energy.

In the healthcare sector, online interaction and consultation through a video link will benefit doctors as much as patients, as both don't have to travel long distances.

"Hospital chains like Narayana Hrudyalaya and Apollo in the city are using a video platform to screen patients from across the state, enquire their illness or disease symptoms, seek details to ascertain their problem and recommend medicines or treatment including admission," Jose said.

Insurance is another vertical for video commerce as agents will have to engage with customers regularly to win their trust for investing in life and healthcare policies.

"In the rapidly changing technology space, post m-commerce and application commerce phase, video commerce will redefine B2C engagement as two parties interact directly and look for quality, service and cost-savings," Jose said.

New range of services such as online shopping, home maintenance and e-learning will be able to grow using video interactive tools.

"About 60 enterprises including a few Fortune 1,000 firms use our software products, tools and solutions to serve their respective clients worldwide," Jose said.

Jose, who incubated the software product firm in 2011 as Interview Master Ltd, with three co-founders, invested Rs.60 lakh seed capital in 2013 and raised an unspecified amount in 2014 from Mayfield Ventures for 20 percent equity stake in his fledgling company.

In the IT industry segment, many Indian and overseas firms have started using video platform to interview candidates, shortlist and hire best among them directly or through a human resources vendor.

"Video commerce space is a $50-billion market worldwide and is mushrooming in India at a fast pace, thanks to volume-driven competition within and across sectors," Jose added.

"Innovation and disruptive technology are making v-commerce a buzz word owing to its ease of use and convenience across the value chain."

V-commerce will soon replace conventional way of interactions for service providers and customers, eliminating commuting, scheduling and waiting and saving time and cost for both of them.

As more people start using internet services for video communication through any device, video commerce will soon leapfrog with the advent of 3G and 4G bandwith.

In the education sector, v-commerce enables students to study online and attend experts from home, anywhere and anytime.