Jakarta. Companies across the globe are ditching pen and paper in favor of today’s technology to streamline their operations. And it is software-as-a-service (SaaS) startup Nimbly Technologies’ mission to help these organizations digitize and automate their manual processes and workflows.

Meet Daniel Hazman, the founder and CEO of Nimbly Technologies. 

Daniel is a seasoned professional with 15 years of experience in retail and supply chain operations at top companies like Walmart, General Mills, to name a few. But it was a visit to one of the world’s largest retailers back in 2018, when Daniel had his Eureka moment. 

At the time, Daniel was pitching the retailer about his previous startup — a gamification platform. He then discovered a more urgent pain point after finding out that the retail giant had yet digitized their operations.

 “The company had over 8,000 stores in the US and sent hundreds of field consultants weekly to ensure all stores were implementing the appropriate standard operating procedures. All of it was done manually with pen and paper,” Daniel told the Jakarta Globe in a recent interview.

 “I was surprised that large enterprises still have not digitalized processes like retail execution for frontline workers. That was the light bulb moment for me. I decided to pivot my startup into operations management software called Nimbly Technologies, with the mission to help organizations streamline their operations and be more nimble,” he said.

According to Daniel, automated and data-driven platforms enable businesses to continuously develop more effective operating models and achieve operational excellence. Digital operations also help organizations reduce operating costs and improve user experiences. 

Daniel's first-hand experience in many industries had given him an intimate understanding of the challenges in last mile execution.

“We build our product to resolve those challenges while simplifying the frontliners’ day-to-day tasks and providing management with real-time visibility all the way down to the store, shop floor, or plantation level,” Daniel said.

“Consequently, not only has Nimbly been able to deliver cost-saving efficiencies and stronger revenues, but we’re also seeing more motivated frontliners."

Since it was founded in August 2018, Nimbly has worked with over 150 corporate clients in Asia and the Americas, including convenience store chain 7-Eleven, fast food giant KFC, and agricultural company Cargill. 

But Nimbly will not stop there, as it sets itself ambitious goals for 2022.

“We plan to grow by several hundred percent this year,” Daniel said.

To this end, while Indonesia remains a strong focus, Nimbly is seeking to expand and go deeper in key Southeast Asian markets like Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore. 

Another strategy to achieve the hundreds-percent-growth target is to move further upmarket to upper mid-market and enterprise clientele. As well as offering a suite of products for frontliners. 

“Based on our deep customer and market understanding, we see a large opportunity for an ecosystem solution to help frontline workers drive consistency in product quality and customer experience,” Daniel said.

“We bucket these solutions into three core product lines: Smart Routine/Audit, Smart Force and Smart Insights, which include things like digitized checklists, automated workflows and issue management, learning and management system, attendance and productivity, customer feedback, sentiment analysis, et cetera,” he added.

Last but not least is to focus on customer loyalty and social proof, according to Daniel.

In 2021, tech media TechinAsia named Nimbly as one of the 50 rising startups in Southeast Asia. To date, Nimbly has over 80 employees spread across 6 countries. As a leader, Daniel said he liked inspiring his team with a vision and then empowering them to achieve it together.

“I encourage our colleagues to have an owner’s mentality and to take pride in their work. We have a results-based culture, of which diversity and inclusion are strong elements,” Daniel, who worked as the Asia regional director at the Sustainable Trade Initiative, said.

To Daniel, timing and the team itself are among the key success factors for startups. He also named key insights in the chosen domain, as well as resilience and persistence as the factors that could determine startup success.

“I believe God designed us all with passions and purpose. In my case, I have an innate desire to build solutions that create shared value and contribute to societal improvement,” Daniel told the Globe, when asked about who inspired him in his work.

“I’m motivated knowing that Nimbly can help change organizational culture and upskill people to drive the local economies forward because businesses, no matter the size, have the unique opportunity to be a platform for transformational change in the communities in which they operate.”

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