What Makes Saas-based Education Technology in India Effective

Published on Oct 1, 2019

Updated on Mar 3, 2020

Worldwide, the education and training industries spend over $4 trillion annually. Out of this, 85% of the expenditure accounts for delivery costs – i.e. the cost of building and infrastructure, teaching staff, etc. In India, the Union Budget 2018 allocated Rs 85,010 crore ($1.2 billion) for education. Despite this expenditure, the current education system is unable to deliver adequate skills to make students job-ready for the industry 4.0 era. Education technology (EdTech) bridges the gap between delivering education and making learning effective. Let’s look at how Education Technology in India can reform learning?

Education Technology: Skills that will be required in Future

Why EdTech?

The 2016 Trading Economics data reveal – 44.85 million people are unemployed in India; despite there being more than 1.6 million schools and 38 thousand colleges. This illustrates a gap in the existing education system and learning resources.

Although the expenditure on education is rising, educational performance is still weak. Cost-effectively improving the quality of education is the need of the hour. And ed-tech is an opportunity for upscaling ‘education’ at the global level.

EdTech is not just redesigning the textbooks in a digital format. The role of education technology also lies in developing applications in incorporating new learning architectures. Apart from revamping the learning architecture, cloud-based EdTech platforms can make learning material accessible to students anytime.

What Makes SaaS-based EdTech Effective?

Education technology encompasses several domains like reading materials, computer-based training, e-learning, and m-learning (learning through computer or mobile), teacher training, curriculum management, and back-office management. People also consider EdTech as Education Management Information System (EMIS). The following are the salient features of the Education Technology platform.

Scalability

In India, the classroom standards in the government-funded schools define the pupil to teacher ratio (PTR) in upper primary classes as 35:1. That is, a typical classroom should not accommodate more than 35 students. It is one of the reasons that many students do not get admission in good schools.

The SaaS-based Education Technology can make courses and learning material available to the students irrespective of their geographical location. EdTech platforms are easy-to-use and don’t require any preliminary training to use the software.

Engaging Learning Platform

To motivate students to learn without fear of grades and punishment is a daunting task. Unless the learning material is engaging, chances for its success is less. EdTech solves this challenge by deploying technology like virtual reality, gamification, and discussions on its platform. To bring the best of education, some education technology platforms also incorporate open learning models or open license content standards.

For example, EkStep – a non-profit initiative has created a collaborative platform to bring equal learning opportunities to every child, especially in rural India. It is an open platform where facilitators can join and create interactive courses for learners.

Education Management

An academic institute requires faculties, infrastructure, and efficient management for its smooth functioning. Technology in education is also making school management easy.

For example, Kreedo – an EdTech startup provides SaaS-based school and learning management system. It helps preschools with curriculum, teachers training, teaching material, child assessment, and other school administration tasks.

Faculty Training

Normally, teaching experience and educational qualifications are the only criteria for faculty recruitment in India. That’s why often faculties lack the skill to convey their knowledge to pupils effectively.

EdTech startups like flipClass track teachers’ performance and advise them on their technology platform. This application provides two types of feedback to faculties at the child’s level and concept level. It also assesses teaching against benchmarks.

Accessibility in Regional Languages

KPMG reports- video content will cover 80% of the global internet consumption. In India, consumers spend 50-60% of their average time on Hindi videos, 35-43% on regional videos, and only about 7% on English videos. Moreover, India homes 22 major languages and 13 different scripts.

To enhance conceptual understanding, materials available in learners’ comfortable language is a bonus. Language translations and curriculum in regional language are the additional benefits of education technology.

What’s the Future of Education Technology in India?

With over 3,500 startups, Education Technology in India is expected to reach $1.96 Bn by 2021.

While tier-1 cities boast of quality classroom education, tier-2 and tier-3 cities suffer a setback due to lack of resources. Ed-Tech can make quality learning accessible to rural regions. It can also help with teachers’ skill development, classroom infrastructure, and school management.

EdTech will make more use of technologies like Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), Blockchain and STEM (Science Technology Engineering Math) Labs to design interactive learning interfaces.

The insurance industry thrives on relationships—but it can only scale through efficiency, precision, and timely distribution. While much of the digital transformation buzz has focused on customer-facing portals, the real transformation is happening in the field, where modern sales apps are quietly driving a smarter, faster, and more empowered agent network.

Let’s explore how mobile-first sales enablement platforms are reshaping insurance sales across prospecting, onboarding, servicing, renewals, and growth.

The Insurance Agent Needs More Than a CRM

Today’s insurance agent is not just a policy seller—they’re also a financial advisor, data gatherer, service representative, and the face of the brand. Yet many still rely on paper forms, disconnected tools, and manual processes.

That’s where intelligent sales apps come in—not just to digitize, but to optimize, personalize, and future-proof the entire agent journey.

Real-World Use Cases: What Smart Sales Apps Are Solving

Across the insurance value chain, sales agent apps have evolved into full-service platforms—streamlining operations, boosting conversions, and empowering agents in the field. These tools aren’t optional anymore, they’re critical to how modern insurers perform. Here’s how leading insurers are empowering their agents through technology:

1. Intelligent Prospecting & Lead Management

Sales apps now empower agents to:

Prioritize leads using filters like policy type, value, or geography
Schedule follow-ups with integrated agent calendars
Utilize locators to look for nearby branch offices or partner physicians
Register and service new leads directly from mobile devices

Agents spend significantly less time navigating through disjointed systems or chasing down information. With quick access to prioritized leads, appointment scheduling, and location tools—all in one app—they can focus more on meaningful customer interactions and closing sales, rather than administrative overhead.

2. Seamless Policy Servicing, Renewals & Claims

Sales apps centralize post-sale activities such as:

Tracking policy status, premium due date, and claims progress
Sending renewal reminders, greetings, and policy alerts in real-time
Accessing digital sales journeys and pre-filled forms.
Policy comparison, calculating premiums, and submitting documents digitally
Registering and monitoring customer complaints through the app itself

Customers receive a consistent and seamless experience across touchpoints—whether online, in-person, or via mobile. With digital forms, real-time policy updates, and instant access to servicing tools, agents can handle post-sale tasks like renewals and claims faster, without paperwork delays—leading to improved satisfaction and higher retention.

3. Remote Sales using Assisted Tools

Using smart tools, agents can:

Securely co-browse documents with customers through proposals
Share product visualizations in real time
Complete eKYC and onboarding remotely.

Agents can conduct secure, interactive consultations from anywhere—sharing proposals, visual aids, and completing eKYC remotely. This not only expands their reach to customers in digital-first or geographically dispersed markets, but also builds greater trust through real-time engagement, clear communication, and a personalized advisory experience—all without needing a physical presence.

4. Real-Time Training, Performance & Compliance Monitoring

Modern insurance apps provide:

On-demand access to training material
Commission dashboards and incentive monitoring
Performance reporting with actionable insights

Field agents gain access to real-time performance insights, training modules, and incentive tracking—directly within the app. This empowers them to upskill on the go, stay motivated through transparent goal-setting, and make informed decisions that align with overall business KPIs. The result is a more agile, knowledgeable, and performance-driven sales force.

5. End-to-End Sales Execution—Even Offline

Advanced insurance apps support:

Full application submission, from prospect to payment
Offline functionality in low-connectivity zones
Real-time needs analysis, quote generation, and e-signatures
Multi-login access with secure OTP-based authentication

Even in low-connectivity or remote Tier 2 and 3 markets, agents can operate at full capacity—thanks to offline capabilities, secure authentication, and end-to-end sales execution tools. This ensures uninterrupted productivity, faster policy issuance, and adherence to compliance standards, regardless of location or network availability.

6. AI-Powered Personalization for Health-Linked Products

Some forward-thinking insurers are combining AI with health platforms to:

Import real-time health data from fitness trackers or health apps
Offer hyper-personalized insurance suggestions based on lifestyle
Enable field agents to tailor recommendations with more context

By integrating real-time health data from fitness trackers and wellness apps, insurers can offer hyper-personalized, preventive insurance products tailored to individual lifestyles. This empowers agents to move beyond transactional selling—becoming trusted advisors who recommend coverage based on customers’ health habits, life stages, and future needs, ultimately deepening engagement and improving long-term retention.

The Mantra Labs Advantage: Turning Strategy into Scalable Execution

We help insurers go beyond surface-level digitization to build intelligent, mobile-first ecosystems that optimize agent efficiency and customer engagement—backed by real-world impact.

Seamless Sales Enablement for Travel Insurance

We partnered with a leading travel insurance provider to develop a high-performance agent workflow platform featuring:

Secure Logins: Instant credential-based access without sign-up friction
Real-Time Performance Dashboards: At-a-glance insights into daily/monthly targets, policy issuance, and collections
Frictionless Policy Issuance: Complete issuance post-payment and document verification
OCR Integration: Auto-filled customer details directly from passport scans, minimizing errors and speeding up onboarding

This mobile-first solution empowered agents to close policies faster with significantly reduced paperwork and data entry time—improving agent productivity by 2x and enabling sales at scale.

Engagement + Analytics Transformation for Health Insurance

For one of India’s leading health insurers, we helped implement a full-funnel engagement and analytics stack:

User Journey Intelligence: Replaced legacy systems to track granular app behavior—policy purchases, renewals, claims, discounts, and drop-offs. Enabled real-time behavioral segmentation and personalized push/email notifications.
Gamified Wellness with Fitness Tracking: Added gamified fitness engagement, with rewards based on step counts and interactive nutrition quizzes—driving repeat app visits and user loyalty.
Attribution Tracking: Trace the exact source of traffic—whether it’s a paid campaign, referral program, or organic source—adding a layer of precision to marketing ROI.
Analytics: Integrated analytics to identify user interest segments. This allowed for hyper-targeted email and in-app notifications that aligned perfectly with user intent, driving both relevance and response rates.

Whether you’re digitizing field sales, gamifying customer wellness, or fine-tuning your marketing engine, Mantra Labs brings the technology depth, insurance expertise, and user-first design to turn strategy into scalable execution.

If you’re ready to modernize your agent network – Get in touch with us to explore how we can build intelligent, mobile-first tools tailored to your distribution strategy. Just remember, the best sales apps aren’t just tools, they’re growth engines; and field sales success isn’t about more apps. It’s about the right workflows, in the right hands, at the right time.

An Overview of Education Technology in India

Why EdTech?