Taking augmented reality to the workfloor

Plutomen Technologies, an Ahmedabad-based startup floated by its founder CEO Keyur Bhalavat, and four others, is betting big on its upcoming product — an augmented reality based remote assistance (ARMS) platform. It allows remote intervention in real-time to carry out ordinary maintenance procedures or resolve technical failures. The company, which had an initial rough ride during the real estate sector slowdown post-demonetisation is now back on its feet with a bang.It is now planning to open overseas sales offices in Canada, US, Singapore, Australia and UAE — the markets from where it gets 40% of its business.
Past journey: A DIPP recognized startup, Plutomen Technologies Pvt Ltd has been offering services to various industries by using augmented reality, virtual and mixed reality (now collectively known as eXtended Reality – XR) for the last five years. Plutomen is the second venture for all promoter directors on board. Bhalavat had earlier floated a company called Oryden Techlabs that was later acquired by Squareyards. The company’s clients include Adani Ports, L&T, Arvind, Bajaj Allianz, Milacron, KHS, Rohan Group, Prima Automation, Thermotech, among others.
Next steps: Six months back their core team took a strategic call and decided to shift focus from being a service-oriented company to a solution & product-oriented company. "With initial focus on manufacturing and engineering industries, process industries, oil & gas, utilities/renewables, smart cities etc, we are set to launch our SaaS based Products: Plutomen ARMS – and Plutomen VNotes – Augmented Reality (AR) based Virtual Sticky Notes," Bhalavat said. "It will alter the way service field engineers operate," he added.
Challenges: The company was started in November 2016, the very month when demonetization took place. "The initial 6 – 8 months were very tough. We focused on creating use-cases of this technology (AR/VR or eXtended Reality) across various sectors," Bhalavat said. The other big challenge was educating customers about the emerging technology, he added.
Secret to success: "I read somewhere that historically, the most disruptive and long-lasting products were not built through a single, emergent technology," said Bhalavat. Rather, they were built through a combination of existing technologies, innovation and new business models that appealed to customers, he adds. While brainstorming early this year (based on market trends and client feedback) the promoters of Plutomen found that AR was evolving from being a ‘delight factor’ to a ‘utility-driven factor'. "This pushed us to pursue our current business model," said Bhalavat.