Digital Solutions in India 2019
12 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ AUGUST 5, 2019
module. Additionally, Kriya for Books also provides a dash-
board view of titles in production and enables the publisher
to have complete control and visibility into the entire process.
“This is particularly important given the longer production
cycles and complexity of books compared to other publication
formats, such as newsletters or journals,” COO Sowmya
Mahadevan says, pointing out that Kriya has a subscription-
based pricing model for different formats.
Kriya is built with the ability to support custom workflows
based on client requirements. Mahadevan explains, “We look
at any customization request as it applies to our philosophy of
converting production to a profit center. We carefully consider
and implement such requests and share the results with our
community. As a result, Kriya is always evolving per industry
needs and not based on specific client needs.”
As for the time needed for a publishing client (or stake-
holder) to get comfortable and up to speed with Kriya,
Venkataramani says that the publishing platform is built to
be as intuitive as possible. “We are constantly challenging
ourselves to improve the user experience. We have added
guided workflows, enhanced user interfaces, navigation tools,
help guides, alerts, and notifications. These have enabled our
authors to use Kriya with little to no training and to complete
their review. Our publishers also have a similar experience and
are able to get up to speed with Kriya very quickly.”HurixDigital
Kitaboo, HurixDigital’s flagship product and interactive
e-book platform, continues to undergo enhancements to reflect
changing industry needs
and the latest technology.
“We have added aug-
mented reality and created
Kitaboo AR to stay ahead
of the digital publishing
curve and help our clients
to deliver more varied con-
tent on digital platforms,”
CEO Subrat Mohanty says,
adding that Kitaboo AR
“has seen considerable
traction among publishers
and enterprises, a few of
whom have signed up for
customized development
of the AR feature.”
Kitaboo now has more
than six million users in 25 different languages across 20 coun-
tries. “Over the years, we have added new features and upgrades
based on the latest AI/NLP technologies and development,
resulting in Kitaboo growing from strength to strength,”
Mohanty says. Aside from having a client roster of who’s who
in the publishing industry—including Grupo Anaya,Gyldendal, Macmillan, McGraw-Hill Education, Pearson, and
Profil Klett—Kitaboo is known for winning multiple industry
awards, especially the Brandon Hall Group Excellence Award
for six consecutive years since 2012.
As for Kitaboo’s payment gateway, it is a bespoke feature
that is built based on client requirements. “Kitaboo can enable
a PCI-DSS-compliant payment-solution integration for
e-stores and online commerce. This helps publishers reach out
to consumers directly and monetize their content seamlessly
behind a pay wall,” explains Mohanty, whose company also
offers a comprehensive K–12 digital content library with more
than 2,500 science and mathematics videos.
These instructional learning nuggets, he says, are based on
a global K–12 curriculum, developed by experts in various
subjects, and approved by teachers. The videos have been
tested in classrooms worldwide, and they can be customized
to the language needs of various markets along with the
English-language edition.
Then there is Kitaboo Insight, HurixDigital’s mobile-first
training platform for enterprises, which continues to gain
traction among training and development teams in various
organizations. It enables enterprises to deliver training con-
tent to employees via mobile devices while helping to create
interactive digital content that is tailored to organizational
goals.
Recently, Mohanty has created a new team (Hurix
Technology Services) to focus on AI and NLP-driven content
solutions and products. “In the longer term, our focus is on
offering scalable cloud solutions, mobile and web applications,
QA testing, managed cloud solutions, and Big Data analytics
to publishers and enterprises.”Impelsys
At Impelsys, projects with key partners such as the American
Heart Association and Laerdal Medical have strengthened its
goal to build a company whose larger mission goes beyond
making a profit. “We want to be an entity with a purpose,
which is to make an impact
by spreading knowledge
through technology and
making the world a better
place for everyone,” says
Uday Majithia, assistant
v-p of technology, services,
and presales. “We want our
technologies to touch as
many lives as we can and
help people to learn and
grow professionally and
personally.”
The company’s platform
iPC Scholar (previously
known as iPublishCentralUday Majithia, assistant v-p of
technology, services, and presales at
ImpelsysSubrat Mohanty, CEO of
HurixDigital