Tata Steel Helps Home Builders Break New Ground

When Tata Steel put digital transformation on its agenda, the $21 billion multinational corporation set a bold ambition, mapping 12 strategic initiatives, prioritizing 6, and scaling 3 (one each in Retail, B2B, and what the company dubs “B2ECA,” i.e., Emerging Corporate Accounts). 

Tata wanted to address its current goals, which include maintaining its leadership position in the B2B and B2C segments as it expands in adjacent segments, and also position for the future by adopting global best practices for digital supply chains, dynamic pricing, salesforce productivity, and many other capabilities. 

We worked with the company to create a digital roadmap that could satisfy both elements of this aspiration, using our Radar 360 Strategy, which includes a uniquely powerful “Today-Forward, Future-Back” approach.  The results included a $100-plus million gain in incremental revenue and $30-plus million in EBITDA within the first year. 

Dream. Click. Build.

One of the most notable achievements within this transformation was the creation of Aashiyana, an e-commerce platform that enables consumers to purchase products directly from Tata Steel Ltd. (TSL). The vision was to make buying steel as easy as buying appliances, cement, or any other component of a new home. 

As it explored this new e-commerce approach, Tata was motivated to address some of the inherent complexities in the process. As Peeyush Gupta, VP of marketing and sales for Tata Steel Ltd., explained, “Anyone who wants to build their dream home has to go through a nightmare. You don’t know where to buy the materials, whether you are buying the right materials, or at the right prices. If we can go to a consumer and say, ‘Let [us] give you a product that is authentic, and has a price guarantee, and comes with a delivery service,’ we can create a very good business.” 

“Tata wanted to sell steel the way other packaged products are sold in India: in smaller amounts, directly to the consumer,” says Bain Partner John Sequeira, “This was quite unique and had never been done before.” 

Tata believed that Aashiyana (which can be interpreted as "a house") could help Indian consumers solve several home-building challenges, from understanding where and how to start the home-building journey to visualizing designs, finding builders, estimating the required quantities of materials, and executing purchase and delivery. 

The company brought in data scientists and analytics experts and launched Aashiyana in just six to eight months. The portal is designed to be both easy to use and comprehensive, offering consumers a step-by-step guide to building their own homes. Because it provides that kind of value, Aashiyana, with about 80,000 users a month, has not only boosted Tata’s market share but also its customer NPS scores and cross-selling opportunities. 

“Aashiyana creates additional reach for us,” Gupta says. “We can supply to anywhere [in India] in 72 hours, so we are now digitally present in the entire country.” 

As impressive as Aashiyana has proved to be, it is just one of several digital transformation initiatives at Tata Steel. Another project, Compass, is a digitally enabled supply chain visibility solution for the company’s B2B customers, while DigEca addresses lead management and cross-selling analytics for small and midsize distributors of Tata’s products. Financial, adoption and advocacy metrics are strong for all three efforts, and Tata’s digital ambition will continue to unfold along other dimensions as well.