She beat me to the only work table in the flat leaving me fuming to sit uncomfortably on our couch to take my own scheduled call at same time. It also upset her mother who had scheduled a doctor appointment at 10 AM in Hiranandani hospital expecting one of us to take her there. It then dawned on me that we need to sync our calendar for both home & office life brought about by remote work process that has now become part of our daily life. This incident set me thinking of posting this blog on our website to air my thoughts around our professional & personal life and the way to cope with it.

Creating conducive & healthy work atmosphere at home:

“Happiness begins at home” – So let me start with requirements of enabling work atmosphere at home.

High speed internet access, ergonomic desk setup, workspace, reliable computers, & smart phone for authentication are basic requirements taken for granted. In a city like Mumbai, where most of PayCraft’s employees are located, these facilities can be practically arranged. However, real estate is prohibitively expensive & carving out physical space in a cramped apartment is a challenge that employees have to deal with. It may not be so bad in India’s other cities but spacious homes are required for exclusive work space.

The other aspect to take care at home is summed in the personal situation that I described at the beginning of this blog. Giving equal importance to time management and planning for office & home is new phenomenon that pandemic has brought in for remote working from home ! Guys sync in your calendar with your wife and or children or there will be chaos at home .

Further, the din of daily chores, decibel levels of young children etc. cannot be avoided at home – so an 8-hour continuous working is not a reality in most cases. But commuting time to & fro to office ranging from 1 to 3 hours daily makes up for this in terms of overall time that can be dedicated to work.

With lack of physical movement & habit of working on couch/sofa comes health issues that needs to be addressed through exercise, yoga and proper sitting postures while working.

Orchestration:

Don’t get me wrong on this para heading – I don’t mean one of the buzzwords used to describe an IT system design type. What I meant here is a type of work that is akin to an orchestra performance on stage which is harmonious, well-coordinated and produce results that is pleasing and enjoyable. As in an orchestra performance which has an ensemble of instruments & performers, planning & coordination through proper communication are important hygiene factors for remote working – home or elsewhere remotely.

In a physical office environment, one can often get away without preparation & work planning for tasks for the day as supervision, checks & guidance available from supervisors, bosses and even peers may make up for it to a large extent. Such flexibility hardly exist in remote working work flows unless the teams are online continuously which is not practically possible.

Hence communication for briefing & preparation for every day work using remote real time IT enabled platforms (like slack, troop messenger, Twist etc.) for co-working is essential for effectiveness. It is all the more pertinent to distributed agile workforces engaged in SW development projects in PayCraft.

Essentials Tools for remote working:

In PayCraft we use standard off the shelf IT tools to helps us in going about our work efficiently which includes effective communication, collaboration and document management. In fact, for distributed remote workforces as in the case of software development as indicated in the previous para, right set of collaboration tools are essential – without which things can come to standstill.

For effective collaboration of our work force in SW projects, at PayCraft we use Confluence tool that stores and organizes all of your information assets around the projects we are doing. This tool is integrated with another versatile tool our project managers use i.e. the popular JIRA – an issue management platform that allows teams to manage their issues throughout their entire lifecycle. In Jira:

• Our agile teams can mimic a virtual scrum board, a tool that epitomizes agile experience for scrum teams to get instant view of project progress.

• They can also use the integrated virtual boards for creative real-time collaboration for their online activities by mapping out everything from project plans, to sprints and tasks.

Further, we also use Gitlab, a popular version control system which provides web-based repositories that help with code management and sharing local file changes with a remote repository.

For video conferencing we use another popular Microsoft product “Teams”, a remote collaboration platform which can present and enable discussions on various business matters including supporting stand in meetings use in software development.

Thus at PayCraft we are fully equipped with essential tools that facilitate clear communications, collaborations and support remote working in software project management & software development life cycle management.

Softer Issues of remote communication

As human beings, we connect with each other as part of personal, social & professional pursuits. It is this human connection with a team in an organisation that creates trust, confidence and makes working in teams a success. We’re individuals & at the same time social creatures and so will need the freedom and independence of working alone along with the structure and community of working with others.

So running virtual meetings calls for different skills and rules on the part of whoever is facilitating the meeting. For example in agile development, Scrum masters perform this role.

From a perspective of having focus & human touch in virtual collaboration & meeting, it helps if we adhere to the following guidelines:

• As far as possible, the participants in virtual meetings should be a focus group dedicated for a specific activity or task. Inviting observers or other participants not connected with the process and task could derail meetings with off-the cuff remarks, irrelevant interventions and so on. So it is important to have only the right people in the meetings to make it purposeful and effective

• It makes a lot of difference in having a human touch & connection if the camera on your system is on and participants can see each other’s faces during virtual meetings. It builds camaraderie in the team. Smiles on faces can lighten up the atmosphere. Same thing with mute button too unless there is too much background noise to the detrimental of the meeting itself.

Activities like standing up and discussing in one room about task planning, achievement, questions, clarifications etc. can also be virtually emulated on video conference apps. with both camera & microphone on.

• Conversations should be encouraged with all participants contributing rather than getting bogged down by an aggressive participant taking the stage all the time. With recording facility available on all these tech platforms, the need to document in writing can also be eliminated. When we converse to each other, thing that would have been recessed in the back of your mind just pops up and we ask questions or doubts that can be clarified over the virtual call.

Complex issues that need to be delved deeper should be taken up with bilateral or small relevant team video calls. Wider participants group calls have limitation of time and there is the danger of other participants switching off mentally if one particular piece of conversation takes the stage and time for prolonged time.

• Remember the team outings for offsite bonding before we all were confined indoors. In fact it is more important now to have regular offsites or team vacations as organisational behaviour demands connecting on personal levels too as a key to team work, organisational stickiness and job satisfaction.

Future Shock:

I am from a generation that was awed by reading the futurist Alvin Toffler’s famous book of 1970 – “Future Shock”(I still have a paperback edition of it in my private library). In 1980 he predicted in his sequel, The Third Wave that the home would “assume a startling new importance” in the information age, becoming “a central unit in the society of tomorrow – a unit with enhanced rather than diminished economic, medical, educational and social functions.” Though Toffler accurately saw technology’s potential, it would be some time before remote working became relatively easy – which finally happened with the advent of internet, improvement in telecommunication and explosion in Information technology & electronics that followed post the 1980s.

Amid the 1973 OPEC oil crisis and skyrocketing fuel prices, a University of Southern California research group led by Jack Nilles conducted a major study published in 1976 where he coined the term “telecommuting”. They concluded that technology would soon make it more economical for organisations to decentralise using telecommuting.
However the advent of technology still did not make “telecommuting” a big wave as much as it is now during the current pandemic situation. With a remote workforce, setting explicit deliverables and measuring performance based on how team members meet those deliverables is the biggest difference that we need to make in processes using the tools, techniques and behavioural changes explained in brief in this blog. The hardest part of being remote is to make an effort to establish that kind of culture in the organisation that I brought out in the para on softer issues of managing remote communication.

As we see PayCraft successfully navigating this disruption in workflows, through better collaboration, better teaming, better working, we may have to ask this question to ourselves:
“Do we really need that office space in Kailas Business Park in Mumbai ?

Happy teleporting !

P.T.Suresh
June 20, 2021

There are of course several answers to such casual questions thrown at us in this lockdown situation. Social media, particularly, “WhatsApp” communications are agog with ideas, suggestions and hobbies that can be tried at home such as writing, reading and most novel & popular of all i.e. Testing your culinary skills. To put it again in colloquial Hindi – “aisa lag raha hai Master chef program chal raha hai sabke ghar pe”. Of course, this unfortunate situation also gives us an opportunity of spending quality time with family and loved ones.

In reality, casual questions like “Kya chal raha hai?” etc. are actually a conversational prelude to dig deeper on how the situation with job and finances in these difficult times is. What actually is going on in their mind is “Is your job secure?” Are you getting paid on time with full salary?” and so on. I really do not blame them as this is a tragic outcome in the business world of MSME sector that this prolonged lockdown brought about by COVID 19 pandemic.

Thanks to the company I work for i.e. Paycraft Solutions, my response to these questions have been positive. It is just not about salary on time but I am also able to convey our work at home policy, the positive outlook of senior management, continuous engagement of HR with people – things that I am proud to share with my friends and relatives. The people orientation of the company gives me immense pride in working for my company i.e. PayCraft.

Now that I am at it, let me take the opportunity to say a few things about the company and what we do. Paycraft is developing and deploying payment solutions completely indigenously which is the need of the hour to go digital – to quote our Prime Minister verbatim “Atma Nirbhar”. Though, digital wave has been going on since past few years in India, this pandemic situation has made everyone go for it more aggressively to maintain social distancing – another word coined by our PM.

I tell them that Paycraft is making a difference by building solutions of open loop payment cards issued by banks in new use cases affecting public – i.e. in public transport as well as general retail. When this concept still does not register fully with my caller who keeps asking me to be more elaborate, I then start singing like a bird as in my work at PayCraft in project management function, my biggest task is communicating and convincing the client of the solution.

I try then addressing other approaches like saying it is an “all in one” card for payment and ticketing in public transport that will save commuters the trouble of keeping multiple cards for various daily routine uses. I then go on to describe in terms of a typical regular daily routine in the daily life of an office goer, who travel by metro every day to work and back home. To save my time from purchasing ticket every time and reduce number of contacts to outer world, I opt for open loop card which can be used easily by just tapping it on entry/exit gates. But I am a frequent shopper also, and a believer of carrying minimum cash in my wallet. So yet again, I use the very same card for that purpose too. Can life not be better, if I have a single card, which could help me with my purchases, online payments and the travel tickets as well? 

As an employee it gives me immense pride because I am part of this system that is going to help change ordinary people life and makes it much easier and safe too as there are no more handling currency that can also act as medium of transmission of many germs and viruses. Paycraft, as a payment company, is in to other products and solutions too and interested readers may please visit our website paycraftsol.com

Aur… baaki!!! Kya chal raha hai……!

Making it easy and safe for them to express themselves

Making people realise they can speak freely in a constructive manner at workplace is an intangible effort that is perceived rather than conveyed. The current open and transparent culture fostered by senior leadership in PayCraft encourages employees to express themselves freely. It stems from our belief that people on the job are better placed to identify improvements in systems, processes or teams as nothing can replace the experience of a workplace.

The rather informal culture fostered by PayCraft senior management encourages the employees to talk about their mistakes or ask questions, however trivial, without any judgement coming their way. We work towards creating an environment where our people can suggest things or come up with ideas for the betterment of their teams or org.

We make them comfortable to discuss problems knowing that such a discussion with only lead to solutions resulting in engaged and energised employees who are motivated to contribute towards the growth of the organisation.

Employee Feedback Surveys

We take regular feedbacks from people through surveys where they have an option to answer anonymously as well. These surveys are short and simple for people to be able to understand easily and fill quickly. Few critical questions more or less remain the same from last year for us to be able to compare the satisfaction score on certain aspects. The surveys have open-ended and close-ended questions for employees to express their opinions freely.

Skip levels

We do regular skip levels with teams as well as individuals over their supervisor to obtain their suggestions and feedbacks which is a desired best practice as part of 360-degree feedback system in progressive organisations. These discussions involve HR dept. directly interacting with people about:

⦁ Things they appreciate and are happy about
⦁ Obstacles they find challenging to overcome and things affecting their efficiency levels
⦁ Ideas or suggestions on various fronts

The feedbacks from such interactions are handled with discretion and action taken in a positive sense to correct a situation with the sensitivity and maturity.

Townhall Meetings

We do this quarterly regular company-wide gathering where all employees meet with leadership to discuss high level company matters and share business updates of the past month, quarter or season. Some of these include:

⦁ drive alignment around company mission and strategy
⦁ celebrate milestones and the people who made them possible
⦁ give everyone a chance to ask questions

We view Town hall meetings as a unique chance to connect to our remote colleagues with headquarters and make them feel part of the company and community. We celebrate people and uplift team spirit by rewarding and felicitating achievements and milestones of people in the company. We give them opportunity to express new ideas and suggestions thus giving a voice to everyone. In fact, it is not out of place to say that company culture shows and grows at meetings.

Going forward we intent to make this process more democratic by making employees contribute to the agenda and co-create the next Townhall program.

VIBE

We have our very own Social Media platform at PayCraft! We make use of this to celebrate birthdays, work anniversaries or make announcements for get together etc. We also use this platform to congratulate people on their promotions, rewards for performance etc.

There is not a day in PayCraft where such employee personal landmarks are not announced. In fact, so effective is this media that many employees have thanked us for reminding them of their birthdays or reminding them that they have completed this many number of years in the company! The forum has become a sort of time keeper of employee personal landmarks – so to say.

Informal but empathetic

There are occasions where employee would need to have face to face formal meetings or one-on-one feedback sessions with senior management and we encourage these occasional parleys as a positive step forward for giving the opportunity for employees to provide input or express grievance that could not be redressed at his or her supervisory levels.

Office setting are a bit too formal and Senior leadership can be intimidating to some staff. So, we have a practice of holding discussions either in a relaxed setting or a nearby café and frame it as a simple chat. There are occasions when even our founders have even taken it a step further by having a chat with such employees over a glass of beer in a nearby pub.

This can help open a two-way discussion whereby our people not only use their voices more freely but can also hear back directly from management about their suggestions and other aspects of the business.

Representative Participation

We understand that having all employees speak at once can be difficult for management as it may be overwhelming them with ideas and complaints. So, to help get past this we use a representative participation scheme in which employee representatives can meet with managers to discuss what a group of employees would otherwise want to convey on a subject. This process is again informal not part of formal structure like similar representative participation of employee unions etc which are part of Industrial Relation discipline in organisations.

The above measures taken by us to improve communication in PayCraft are tempered with following deliberate but subtle guidelines for each of the communication forums to make it more effective and useful overall:

⦁ Focus on Key areas:
In Skip levels and Surveys, we make sure we target key areas like – intent to stay, work involvement, pride in company, career progression, recognition, leadership, management support, learning and development, resources, pay and benefits, work life balance etc. are covered.
In town hall meetings, we make sure the discussion and talks are around high-level company matters, sharing business updates etc.
In the one to one meeting with senior management, even emotive issues are allowed to be discussed giving opportunity for the employee to vent out deep and personal pent up problems and torments.
The whole idea is that each forum has its own subtle objectives and the conduct of such processes is centered around those.

⦁ We just don’t hear– We try to listen

Not listening to employees can result in employee frustrations and even attrition. Not listening to client requirement can render our IT systems suboptimal. Therefore, it is imperative for us at PayCraft to listen to employees at work place and to clients in the market. So, from both perspective effective listening is important for organisational survival and growth.

In PayCraft, senior management with years of wisdom and experience also understand that talking too much about their background and knowledge on any subject can quickly shut down a conversation and discourage employees from sharing information—and without their perspective, as an organisation, we’re more likely to make the wrong decision. We also try to adapt our message so that people with personalities will be more receptive to what we have to say. Some people are more naturally expressive and comfortable talking an issue out. Yet others are more reflective and prefer time to analyse the situation and think through a solution. These sensitivities are well understood and put in practice at PayCraft.
Summing up, we believe and practice that effective communication is important to discuss critical issues that the business is facing and engage people in fulfilling their commitments, improve our ability to share information, solve complex problems, make quality decisions, and exchange ideas thus enabling us to build strong relationships inside and outside of the organization

A little foresight:
In the initial phase of the outbreak in India, the paralysis of China set us thinking of what will happen in this country too. A quick huddle of the Senior management and decision was taken to procure enough laptops on hire for 3 months in case of an eventuality to work remotely from home, particularly for the software development team. These machines were hardened for use with firewalls to work in our secure environment and matching USB based internet access modems were also procured. Out communication network was also strengthened and secured by the IT infra team simultaneously. So, when the lockdown ultimately happened, we were ready unlike many other IT companies and avoided loss of productivity.

The tools helped
PayCraft had also instituted use of project management, system monitoring & collaboration tools like Redmine, Jira & Confluence in the normal IT business operations. These tools proved to be valuable for remote control & monitoring of work being done by multiple teams working on different projects and sprints. With less of disruptions, interruptions and no travel time weariness, we noticed a significant rise in output measured as number of lines of codes, timely completion of sprints etc. The IT support and operations team too worked without a hitch or client dissatisfaction round the clock like business as usual.

Internal Process Improvement
It had been an ardent desire of the PayCraft’s functional Directors on Board to bring in improvement in the planning & implementation process of Goal Setting, Budgeting, Performance Management etc. both in quality as well as timely execution. With office assistants to Board Directors confined to their homes and improved availability of quality time, we at PayCraft have been able to complete these key business processes in a much satisfactory way and almost on time. Of Course, collaborative meeting management software like Microsoft Teams, Google Duo etc. aided this exercise a lot.
The lull in client demand for change requests and field implementation has created the space and time for internal code reviews, optimizing IT infra and so on.

Learning and Development
In the past, senior management personnel at PayCraft, who comes with their rich professional experience, domain expertise and wisdom of business did not have the time at their disposal to share and impart knowledge in a formal and structured manner to their teams. This lockdown situation has given them quality time to interact and share knowledge through e class room sessions on weekly basis. Further, work related business strategies and proposals are now discussed in depth and decisions taken with full involvement of senior management.

Knowledge Management Improvement
The lockdown situation has been well utilised by our IT Infra team in improving the IT system that enhances the Knowledge management processes. They have ensured availability of Groupware systems like communication tools, conferencing tools and collaborative management tools for managing group activities within the organisation. They are working on migration of data warehousing system that supports the IT application and data mining process. These steps go a long way to help PayCraft better manage storage and retrieval of knowledge, improves collaboration etc.

The above measures may not solve all internal and external challenges to business as a whole brought in the wake of COVID pandemic we believe will certainly will prepare the organisation for being efficient and competitive in the difficult times expected in the short to medium term. We are also looking at cost saving measures in VPN network, rentals etc. based on the confidence generated on “work from home’ practices, usage of cloud based productivity apps instead of legacy Operating system based apps etc. are the positives takeaways from this experience.

Will current practices persist, or will it be back to business as usual?
This is a challenge that is applicable in general to all organisations that have learned to cope with remote working and management. While the coronavirus pandemic has demonstrated the utility of cloud-based, scalable products to ensure business continuity in organisations like PayCraft, lessons learnt may not completely transform our operations to accommodate a complete shift to work-from-home for many – instead we believe that the future of remote work will likely be a combination of “in-office” and “at-home” working days.

To be frank, at PayCraft we always had a mental barrier on “work from home” policy fearing productivity and security. This pandemic has led to a shift in trusting our employees and erasing those fears. In our thrice weekly business continuity plan meeting, among other things, we discuss a lot about our people, their work and personal well-being. These are portents of cultural change in the organisation for the good and we are proud to have adapted well to the change and challenges posed by this global pandemic.

It is not that local city planners and Govt. haven’t noticed and acted upon the need to have an interoperable and modern ticketing system for Mumbai. I recall the first real attempt by the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) happened a decade back (~2009-10), when a JV of KPMG advisory services and Sequoia smart solutions was hired to assist them in this endeavor. However, at the same time, Ministry of Urban Development, New Delhi had also started the process of bringing out standards and specification for common mobility card (CMC) for the country as a whole. In the din of endless debates & consultations that accompanied this move, this novel and unique initiative by MMRDA could not take off – but kudos to them for having the foresight a decade back to improve ticketing system for larger public good in commuting in the city of Mumbai.

Fast forward to 2016-17 from 2009-10, when Govt. at central and many states finally decided to adopt open loop payment specifications that payment banks adopt for general retail payments with some modification for transit in line with global trends. This specification is the widely talked about National Common Mobility Card Specifications (NCMC) in India. “Rupay”, the domestic card scheme of National Payment Corp. of India, very soon brought out a Rupay Contactless payment card scheme tailored to suit interoperable cashless ticketing urban public transport. It is reliably learnt that other payment schemes like Mastercard and VISA are also bringing out their version of card specifications conforming to NCMC.

With the payment schemes laying the foundation for card and ticketing systems interface which are interoperable as well as the rules that govern security, standardization etc. as per EMV standards norms, the stage was set for the Banks to enter the fray.

Soon, banks started taking notice of this huge pan India opportunity of nearly 50 to 55 million daily ridership in urban transport which roughly translates to about 30 million consumer commuters spending nearly Rs. 28,000 Crores a year on ticketing transaction alone. Wow! This kind of spending rival the fancied General Retail Payment industry crowded with issuers, acquirers and payment schemes jostling for market share for the last several decades.

A beginning in this direction of was made though experimenting with open loop payment instruments, when two of India’s largest private banks i.e. Axis Bank for Kochi Metro and ICICI Bank for Amdabad BRTS decided to take the plunge in 2017 by securing contract for ticketing. However, the commercial aspect of the tender from said Public Transport authorities stipulated winner Bank monopoly in issuing tickets and hence the concept got limited to their base of card customers. Further, digital ticketing acceptance was not factored in rendering the whole exercise not very commuter friendly. Nevertheless, we need to acknowledge the vision of these public transport authorities for taking this significant step in the annals of Indian public transport in urban areas.

The single Bank model for issuing open loop instruments as tickets for travel soon morphed in to bank agnostic issuing for open loop tickets in view of public demand and Govt. directives. Public Transport organisations in Mumbai and a few other cities like Chennai, Pune etc. are currently moving in this direction. The only operating Metro Rail transport currently in Mumbai that connects eastern and western suburbs of Mumbai and operated by Metro One Operation Pvt. Ltd (MOOPL), a joint venture company owned by Reliance Infrastructure and RATP Dev Transdev Asia with half a million ridership per day has already commenced work in this direction. They have forged a partnership with Axis Bank, Mumbai and could be the first to be off the block in this mode that promises better customer experience in buying tickets for travel in Mumbai. Down south, Chennai Metro too has taken the initiative in changing their legacy Automatic Fare Collection System to issue and accept open loop bank cards and is expected to go in to a bank model for ticketing there.

These developments augur well for urban public transport in Indian and to put it euphemistically in the Indian context – “The Juggernaut seems to finally move for a better experience akin to the royal “Rath Yatra” ride of Lord Jagannath in India

Note:
The ridership statistics and ticketing values quoted in this paper are derived and extrapolated from following sources that are in public knowledge: –
⦁ PWC Payment Newsletter June 2019
⦁ https://www.metrorailnews.in/entire-mumbai-metro-network-to-start-by-2026-modern-infra-man/
dated 29.1.2020

Conservative estimates put across that about 55 million ticketing transactions takes place every day in India in public transport – The bulk of which is manual involving human to human transaction of payment and ticket media handling. This is a recipe for disaster as far as contamination of infectious disease is concerned and in fact is the prime reason for Govt. directive for almost complete lockdown of public transport for the time being.

Such massive human contact with potential for spread of infectious disease can be avoided if public transport organisations themselves takes immediate initiatives and institute incentives, systems and process that will encourage people to use digital contactless payments for buying tickets. Once such systems and processes are stable, it should be followed up with complete switch over to only digital and electronic payments doing for ticketing in a time bound manner. While a full-blown account on how to go digital in public transport is beyond the scope of this blog, here is a set of broad set of prescriptions and pointers on the approach for public planning and safety:

⦁ Go Open
⦁ Go Contactless
⦁ Go Interoperable
⦁ Go Mobile

On a first glance, the above bulleted pointers could very well be mistaken for a company or brand names of Fin. tech. companies operating in transit and ticket booking. But on reading through further, the reader will understand that what I have pointed out are some main contours of next generation ticketing in public transport.

Go Open:
Go Open is open loop ticketing of Bank/FI issued payment instruments like pre-paid, debit, credit and charge cards in physical and digital form. This will obviate the need of ticket counters and touch screen kiosks in the long run – which among things also will limit continuous and large human interaction involving sick commuters transmitting infectious disease to the ticket staff or the touch screens of Ticketing machines and they in turn infecting other healthy commuters while buying tickets. Let everyone use their default bank cards.

PayCraft has pioneered the design & development of open loop cards for transit in India and manages the system deployment and operation this for leading banks in India

Go Contactless:
We need to encourage more Contactless Interfaces and Interactions in public transport. While default bank cards can reduce or eliminate contact interfaces at ticketing counters and touch screen machines, the step of travel authorisation should also be contactless with no human to human or public touchscreen/keypad interfaces.