Every year, millions of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in India collectively lose billions in productivity and potential deals due to outdated, inefficient manual processes. Hisabing, a Chennai-headquartered SaaS company is on a mission to solve this problem by helping small business owners streamline their operations, enhance customer relationships, and drive them toward greater growth in an increasingly digital world.
Hisabing is part of the DukaanTech revolution in India.
What is DukaanTech?
The term ‘DukanTech’ describes the new wave of products and startups empowering SMBs—or ‘Dukaans’ (meaning shops in Hindi)—to digitize their operations. India is home to over 60 million ‘Dukaans’, which are the backbone of our economy, contributing nearly 30% of GDP.
Despite their importance, many SMBs still rely on outdated systems and manual processes that stifle their growth and competitiveness.
Picture bustling shops and warehouses with shelves stacked to the ceiling with inventory and just a handful of employees frantically trying to track and manually manage hundreds of transactions daily, using account notebooks and Excel sheets! This is the reality for many traditional SMBs in India.
The result? Chaotic and error-prone business operations that lead to lost business opportunities and missed growth potential. Hisabing is out to change this.
Khuze Siam, the founder of Hisabing, is dedicated to solving the operational chaos that plagues India’s SMBs. Hisabing’s simple, intuitive platform is designed to simplify Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) for businesses, especially those in the industrial hardware sector.
While the platform currently serves a niche market—retailers, wholesalers, and distributors of industrial hardware—Hisabing is built with scalability in mind, adaptable to a wide range of SMB use cases.
To explore the under-represented DukaanTech market in India, we visited the users of Hisabing. We gathered information about their day-to-day operations and challenges, and how Hisabing helps them close more deals and build customer relationships.
The Ground Reality: Life Inside SMBs Using Hisabing
Our journey in this exploration started on Broadway, officially known as Prakasam Salai, a historic road in Chennai known for its cluttered storefronts selling everything from toothpicks to industrial tools, hardware, and spare parts. We were accompanied by Thillai Rajan, a CRM and ERP expert, and Hisabing’s customer success manager.
“A lot of Hisabing’s customers are clustered in busy commercial hubs like Broadway,” Thillai pointed out.
Here, on these busy streets, businesses often operate in tight, noisy spaces where workers rush through cluttered warehouses. Their offices may be basic, but they get the job done.
We visited long-term customers of Hisabing, including AM Hydraulics, All India Hoses and Polymers, Raj Engineering and Vibrators, and Universal Engineers. The employees were bustling with energy, juggling multiple tasks, and always on the move.
Fathima at Universal Engineers, for example, doesn’t have a clearly defined designation and handles everything from documentation to sales, showing how small business employees wear many hats. “Time is always tight,” she says.
The insights gained from speaking with Fathima, along with other employees and business owners, shed light on the everyday struggles SMBs face:
- Overwhelming Workload: With limited employees, small businesses often assign one person multiple tasks—managing documents, sales, accounts, and customers. This overload leads to mistakes and inefficiencies.
- Lack of Centralized Systems: Disorganized processes, scattered records, and a lack of streamlined systems make managing accounts confusing, error-prone, and time-consuming.
- Error-Prone Manual Processes: Manual handling of invoices, accounts, and quotations often results in errors and unprofessional outputs, damaging the business’s credibility.
- Unreliable Data Storage: Storing data in physical books creates inefficiency, risks data loss, and makes updating and retrieving records tedious and slow.
- High Hiring Costs: Hiring and training employees to manage manual processes increases costs, time, and operational burdens on businesses.
- Licensing and Access Barriers: Requiring software licenses for multiple devices and physical access to systems adds inconvenience and high costs, limiting efficiency and affordability.
How Hisabing Simplifies Operations for SMBs
“Hisabing cuts through the chaos of small business operations, especially for industrial hardware businesses, by streamlining everyday tasks,” says Thillai.
With the help of Hisabing, quotes, invoices, payment tracking, and customer follow-ups—all those tedious tasks scattered across multiple platforms—are pulled together into a single, cloud-based platform that works on both desktops and smartphones.
By consolidating everything into one easy-to-use system, Hisabing removes the hassle of juggling spreadsheets, accounting books, and outdated tools.
Thillai pointed out how Hisabing offers multiple benefits to overwhelmed SMB owners and managers:
- Improved Operational Efficiency: By automating repetitive tasks like invoice generation and payment tracking, businesses save time and resources, allowing them to focus on growth.
- Eliminating Errors: The platform reduces manual mistakes, ensuring accuracy in invoices and quotations, which enhances professionalism and trust.
- Streamlined Management: Centralizing operations allows businesses to organize, track, and manage transactions in real time from one platform.
- Cloud-Based Convenience: Hisabing removes the need for multiple software licenses, offering a cost-effective and flexible solution that’s accessible from any device.
- Secure and Organized Data: Transitioning from paper-based records to secure cloud storage reduces the risk of data loss and ensures easy access to up-to-date information.
- Lower Hiring and Training Costs: With an intuitive interface, employees can quickly adapt to the system without requiring extensive training, reducing both hiring and training costs.
User Testimonials: A New Era of Convenience and Professionalism
What stood out from all of our conversations with business owners and staff was their appreciation for the simplicity and efficiency that Hisabing brings to their daily operations.
Mohamed, a manager at AM Hydraulics, praised the mobile-friendly features of Hisabing. "The platform’s mobile accessibility lets us manage tasks on the go," he explains. "We can generate invoices, collect payments, and track customer interactions without being tied to a computer in our office.".
"With Hisabing, generating quotes and managing invoices is so much simpler and more efficient, allowing us to focus more on sales. The simple interface also eliminates the need for additional training, saving valuable time and resources."
The Socio-Cultural Edge: Connecting to Language and Community
To truly understand how deeply Hisabing connects with its users, we need to look no further than its homepage. The message on the site—Hisabing se sales badhao meaning “Increase your sales with the help of Hisabing”—is delivered in Hindi, a strategic choice that speaks volumes about the company’s approach to localization.
This decision was further validated during our interaction with Hisabing users at Broadway. Although Tamil is widely spoken in Chennai, we found that many business owners and employees in George Town, particularly in the hardware sector, were more comfortable conversing in Hindi.
By tailoring its Go-To-Market (GTM) strategy to include Hindi in its homepage messaging, Hisabing demonstrates an astute understanding of its primary users. Localization is not just about language; it’s about making the product feel relevant and accessible. This thoughtful approach ensures that users feel at ease and connected to the value Hisabing offers.
Key Insights for Leaders Building DukaanTech Products
From our experience with Hisabing, several key lessons emerge for other companies building products for the DukaanTech space:
Simplicity and Ease of Use: A simple and clean design that allows users, even those with minimal technical experience, to quickly perform tasks without needing extensive training and reduces the learning curve for new hires in SMBs.
Universal Accessibility: Mobile access is crucial for businesses that operate in fast-paced environments. Products that allow users to manage tasks from their smartphones or tablets provide flexibility even when they are working remotely.
Efficiency: Automating manual tasks frees up time, letting businesses focus on growth and customer engagement. It simplifies operations and boosts efficiency.
Cultural Sensitivity: Considering the cultural and language preferences of users is key to improving their experience. Localized language options can make products more relevant and personalized to diverse communities, increasing adoption and satisfaction.
The best tools aren’t always the loudest–they’re the ones that quietly get the job done. Hisabing excels in fitting seamlessly into the busy lives of its users, offering simple, effective solutions that drive real growth.
