Nabendu Das, Head of Engineering & Product Management, Tally Solutions, offers an in-depth look at the company’s transformation from a basic accounting tool into a comprehensive business management software suite. Serving 2.5 million customers globally, Tally has established itself as a leader in empowering SMEs. With the upcoming release of TallyPrime 5.0, the company continues to push the boundaries of innovation, focusing on simplicity and efficiency to meet the evolving needs of businesses.
Please share a brief overview of Tally’s journey since its inception.
Founded more than three decades back by Mr S.S. Goenka and Mr Bharat Goenka, Tally has focused on providing business management software for the SMEs in the country. Over time, we have built a customer base of two and half millions, and a robust partner ecosystem of thousands of partners that caters to these customers. We took a leadership position as a software product of choice among Indian SMEs, and we expanded internationally as well. Our large customer base, robust partner ecosystem and our employees constitute our pillars of strength.
The product has had a unique journey. Starting from a single user accounting product, it added multi-user capabilities early on. Inventory and compliance functionalities were added. A new programming language TDL was introduced, making customisation of Tally a smooth exercise. In 2017, GST functionalities were introduced. The latest avatar of TallyPrime was introduced in 2020. And, as of August 2024, we are very close to releasing TallyPrime 5.0 .
What is the role of technology in the digitisation of fintech and accounting?
India’s digital revolution has been exciting. Our Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) has taken center stage globally. In simple terms, we have moved from traditional tenets to new digital conventions across industries. Especially in the financial services and business management ecosystem, digitisation has redefined the dynamics of the ecosystem, simplifying processes and operations for users and businesses. Whether it is UPI, or the digital lending framework, or NBFCs leading in tech adoption; the financial services industry has witnessed quite a transition. Successful technology helps us transition to the next level of convenience. At Tally, we focus on technology in order to create unique product experiences for the users, creating unparalleled convenience and simplified digitisation.
What are your current product portfolio and how are you leveraging technology to create solutions for the MSMEs in India?
TallyPrime is the core business management software in our product portfolio, which is used by millions of SMEs. TallyPrime Server and TallyPrime developer brings up the rest of the product portfolio. Additionally, we have created a suite of surround offerings like TallyEdge, TallyCapital and TallyPrime on AWS.
The key consideration while developing our products are the non-functional capabilities – like simplicity, flexibility, speed. This is where our technology helps us build robust differentiators. We have created technology to build some unique experiences, for example: (a) A database that requires no setup effort. (b) A product that does not restrict to a unidirectional workflow. (c) A product that can be customised by partners independently.
What are some key measures to secure data and your views on data breaches?
Data privacy and security is at the core of our design. We take a lot of care to ensure that your data is safe and secure. In cases of both ‘data-at-rest’ and ‘data-in-transit’, we have ensured the highest standards of data security. As we continue expanding into multi-device and multi-cloud, Tally’s promise of data security remains a core tenet of our design.
What are the key challenges for a technology and product ecosystem that you foresee in the future?
As avenues expand for digitisation of customer’s operation, financial and compliance; it becomes a challenge for customers if they have to go to multiple software and portals to access their data. The key challenge comes if these different sources of data are not in-sync. It requires a lot of time and effort from the user to reconcile among these; a time which would have been better spent on running the business.
Another key challenge for SMEs is fitment of new technology. Cutting edge technologies like AI, ML, cloud frequently do not come at price points suitable for SMEs, and many times do not solve the use cases needed for SMEs. It is important to look at this, so the SMEs can benefit from the latest technologies.
What are some of the key tech trends currently dominating your industry and how do you foresee the future of tech in the next decade?
We see a seamless connected digital world as a key trend for SMEs. Building technology which integrates the different aspects of business in a single place, will make it super-convenient for the SMEs. Whether the business is accessing banking services online, or filing GST returns online, or managing inventory across multiple online channels and so on; we believe that the tech connecting all of these together will be an important aspect of the future. At Tally, our focus on connected services is targeted to solve this for our customers.
Another trend that would specifically hold relevance for MSMEs, would be streamlining operations across their business network. This involves seamlessly exchanging communication and data between suppliers and customers.
Thirdly, using artificial intelligence to its maximum possible potential while mitigating the associated risks of misuse and safety, would be another significant trend in the industry.
