Arundhati Bhattacharya joined US-based software major Salesforce to head its India unit as the chairman and CEO during the most difficult times. On April 1, when she took over, the entire country was under a complete lockdown to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus and the business sentiment was also quite low. Just over a month into this role, this former chairman of SBI, is more optimistic than before about the adoption of newer technologies in the country, though she agrees that there could be short-term challenges owing to the pandemic.

“In the short-term, it is going to be challenging (due to the pandemic). But, the future is very bright in medium to long-term. In India, there is a lot of demand and it will drive growth for Salesforce,” said Bhattacharya.

Currently, Salesforce has offices in Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Gurugram and Mumbai with more than 2,500 employees. The Hyderabad centre of the San Francisco-headquartered firm, which provides global support to enterprises, is the largest for the company in India.

The veteran banker also said that the company would stick to its earlier hiring plans and was planning to come up with new product launches in banking and insurance segments. “As we have not seen that sort of demand slowdown, there is nothing on the table of not taking in necessary people at this point of time. Rather, our Hyderabad support unit has received clearance for another 100 staffers. So, it will all depend upon the business.”

Salesforce is among the first global employers to take the no-layoff pledge owing to Covid-19 crisis.

During the time of Covid-19 pandemic, Bhattacharya said, the CRM (customer relationship management) software company has come up with several offerings for enterprises to effectively manage themselves. One such product has been launched in the healthcare space which helps hospitals regulate their patient intake and care. Also, Deloitte has implemented the Salesforce platform for Odisha government's healthcare programme. “It is helping the Odisha government to monitor hospitals, hospital supplies and patient status among others through this service,” she said.

For reopening offices safely after the relaxation of lockdown, Salesforce recently released Work.com, which allows corporates to monitor employee locations and allocate them into shifts to avoid any kind of gathering.

In the coming months, the firm is planning to increase its focus on banking and insurance space. “Earlier products are more on the NBFC (non-banking financial company) side. Now, we will be definitely looking at banking and insurance space far more closely,” she said.