Enabling efficient collaboration within email to multi-channel helpdesk software, Hiver aims to solve biz pain points: VP Kumar Shailove

Responding to the pressing need for efficient collaboration within emails, Gmail-based customer service solution Hiver keeps in mind the pain points faced by businesses and ensures minimal friction for users who no longer need to switch to different tools, says Vice President, Engineering, Kumar Shailove.

"Hiver is a fully self-served, easy-to-onboard, and easy-to-learn SaaS (Software as a Service) offering, served from the cloud infrastructure," Shailove told PTI.

Pointing out that emails are central to communication, he explained, "This collaboration would entail enabling individuals to work on team-assigned tasks, assign tasks to each other, track task statuses, and notify team members about task progress – all within their native environment, Gmail." It was crucial, he added, to avoid forcing users to switch between and learn different task management software.

The start-up relies on Amazon Web Services (AWS) to help run software services 24x7 without interruptions to users. The AWS-edge and an exceptional customer success team have enabled Hiver to continuously improve in building a ''great product with efficiency'', Shailove said.

Excerpts from the interview: Q: What was the idea behind building Hiver? What were the customer problems the company was looking to solve? A: Email is a quintessential communication channel that businesses use to handle various use cases, both within and outside the company. For instance, they utilise it for communicating with customers, vendors, partners, potential hires, and more.

Typically, businesses resort to adopting dedicated tools to address this challenge, but they often find themselves still resorting to writing emails from within these tools.

The founders of Hiver developed their product with these pain points in mind. They aimed to solve this problem directly within the email platform, ensuring minimal friction for users, as they no longer need to switch to different tools.

There was pressing need for efficient collaboration within email. This collaboration would entail enabling individuals to work on team-assigned tasks, assign tasks to each other, track task statuses, and notify team members about task progress – all within their native environment, Gmail.

As email is central to communication, it was crucial to avoid forcing users to switch between and learn different task management software. Therefore, the decision was made to integrate the entire solution within the Gmail canvas.

This approach allows people to continue using Gmail as they normally would, while benefiting from the added advantages of Hiver operating seamlessly inside the Gmail environment.

Q: What were the major milestones for the company? What is the total market size you are going after? A: As Hiver progressed in developing its email-based collaboration software, approximately six years ago, we recognised that many existing customers were utilising the product not only for collaboration but also to provide support to their customers.

It was during this time that we realised the product was exceptionally well-suited for the email-based help desk space. Consequently, Hiver decided to reorient its product strategy and develop more comprehensive capabilities to cater to the needs of customers in the helpdesk domain.

A couple of years ago, we further realised the necessity to expand our offerings beyond just email-based helpdesk solutions. We embarked on building support for other communication channels such as Chat, WhatsApp, Voice, to name a few. Today, we are proud to say that Hiver has successfully transformed into a multi-channel helpdesk software, accommodating various customer support needs.

Q: At what rate is Hiver growing? What are the major geographies and industry verticals that you are targeting? A: Hiver has experienced exceptional growth in recent years, successfully expanding its customer base to over 2,000 businesses globally. The Hiver product has garnered widespread acclaim, with primary markets in the Americas, Europe and the Middle East.

Over the past couple of years, Hiver has also made significant strides in gaining traction in developing markets, particularly in South-East Asia and the Indian subcontinent.

Q: How does Hiver plan to expand its operations in the coming years? A: Over the past few years, we have developed a robust collaboration engine with advanced capabilities that allow for the effective and efficient management of a system of records and workflows. We firmly believe this powerful engine can be adapted to address a wide range of use cases beyond customer service, including finance operations, people operations and IT support management.

In the coming years, we remain committed to leveraging the potential of this collaboration and workflow engine to address these diverse use cases and to create exceptional products in these areas.

Q: What is the digital infrastructure supporting Hiver's operations? A: It is the founders' vision to make people's lives easier by building the world's best Gmail-based collaboration software, and the immense passion and perseverance displayed by all Hiver employees over the past 10 years have led to the existence of such a remarkable product in the market.

Hiver is a fully self-served, easy-to-onboard, and easy-to-learn SaaS (Software as a Service) offering, served from the cloud infrastructure. We fully rely on AWS to help us run our software services 24x7 without any interruptions to our users. Our intention is to consistently utilise more managed infrastructure and application services from AWS, which enables us to maintain a lean team of effective and talented engineers while efficiently serving our customers and providing them the best in-product experience.

Q: How has Hiver leveraged new technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) to stay ahead? A: Hiver has incorporated several essential features into its product, powered by our AI engine in the backend. Affectionately named `Harvey', this AI engine empowers our customers and their support agents to significantly enhance their efficiency in serving their clients. These cutting-edge features pave the way for more efficient and streamlined customer support experiences.

Q: What did cloud technology allow you to do that you couldn't before? A: Since its inception, Hiver has been hosted on cloud infrastructure and technologies, and we take great pride in making that decision from the very beginning.

Throughout my interactions with many people in the industry, I consistently observe their struggles in coping with high scalability, maintainability, uptime, and cost efficiency due to their continued reliance on on-premise infrastructure solutions. This reliance makes it exceedingly challenging for their solutions to scale with the growing needs of the market in a cost-efficient manner.

Utilising managed cloud technologies empowers us to maintain efficiency and deliver solutions at a rapid pace, as we are not burdened with building everything from scratch. This advantage allows us to focus more on innovation and enhancing our product offerings.

Q: What benefits have you experienced running on AWS? A: AWS offers exceptionally high levels of uptime and availability promises, a vast variety of managed technologies, ease of use, and a widespread reach in terms of knowledge of the platform. These advantages, combined with an exceptional customer success team, have enabled us to continuously improve in building a great product with efficiency.

(This story has been produced by PTI in collaboration with Amazon Web Services).

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)