Driving Excellence Through Process Innovation and Customer-Centricity
By Raghuvir Kamat, Assistant Vice President – Projects, Allied Digital
In a world that’s constantly transforming, the role of process excellence and customer experience has never been more crucial. As someone who has spent over two decades navigating the complex yet fascinating world of large-scale projects and customer-facing solutions, I’ve learned that success is not just about delivering results—it’s about delivering value consistently and sustainably.
“At Allied Digital, I lead with one core belief: that effective process management and meaningful customer relationships are the twin engines of growth.”
Whether it’s a Smart City project or a mission-critical technology deployment, I aim to embed these values in every initiative I take on.
Shaping Cities, Empowering Citizens
The opportunity to lead multiple Smart City projects has been one of the most fulfilling aspects of my journey. From modern surveillance infrastructure to integration of access control, fire alarm, public address, security, and other allied systems, our work is helping shape safer, smarter urban environments across India. These projects are not just about technology—they’re about impact. And that’s what drives me every day.
According to recent global reports, the Smart City market is expected to surpass $1.3 trillion by 2030, driven by urbanization, IoT, and sustainability initiatives. Being at the forefront of this movement is both a responsibility and a privilege.
Projects That Matter
Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to lead some of the most dynamic and large-scale public infrastructure projects across India, but it’s my time at Allied Digital that has truly defined the scale and depth of my project management journey.
Two projects that stands out both in complexity and societal value is Lucknow Safe City Project & Rajkot Smart City Sevottam Project. This initiative exemplified our commitment to building smarter, safer cities by integrating over 7000+ surveillance cameras, intelligent traffic monitoring systems, emergency response infrastructure, and centralized command control capabilities. My role involved end-to-end project execution—from initial planning, execution, monitoring, and stakeholder coordination, to compliance, testing, and final handover.
Lucknow Safe City project was primarily for Safety and Security of Women and Child. This was achieved with the extensive use of Analytics on Cameras. Around 40 different types of Analytics were deployed including Face Recognition system where criminal and missing person detection can be alerted to Police control, Surveillance such as Lane cutting, tendency of suicide attempts on bridges, detection of unattended objects, and the likes, Nuisance detection such as group of stunt bikers, lurking in public places, weapon detection, and many more similar analytical tools, Women Harassment such as fight against women, SOS signal by waving hand, Acid attack and so on. Implementation of this kind was challenging but successfully implemented. The implementation not only provides better quality of living for citizens but also a safe place with reduced crime.
Rajkot Smart City Sevottam project was not just a project. This initiative showcased our commitment to building smarter, safer cities by implementing a state-of-the-art Data Centre and pioneering the Smart Illegal Hawking Prevention System—the first of its kind across all Smart City initiatives in India. Under the Rajkot Smart City Sevottam Project, our Smart Illegal Hawking Prevention System received two prestigious national-level awards, recognizing its innovative use of AI-driven technology to improve urban governance. Rajkot Municipal Corporation received the following 2 awards:
- National e-Governance Award (Silver Category) - Application of Emerging Technologies for Providing Citizen-Centric Services (State/UT Level Initiatives).
- ET Government DIGITECH 2025 (Gold Category) - Best Smart City and Urban Development Initiative – AI-Enabled Smart Hawking System.
The primary objective of this project is to detect and alert authorities if hawkers, vegetable vendors, or lorry vendors are found operating in unauthorized areas. This is achieved through a virtual loop embedded in the AI cameras. Whenever unauthorized hawkers are detected, an alert is generated and displayed on the Smart Hawking application.
A web and mobile application for Smart Hawking has also been developed, which is used by the Encroachment department of Rajkot Municipal Corporation (RMC). Any alerts generated by the system are immediately received on both platforms. Upon receiving an alert, the Encroachment department takes necessary action to remove unauthorized encroachments, thereby resolving the issue and clearing traffic congestion.
Working closely with government stakeholders and our in-house engineering teams, we ensured seamless integration across departments and systems—something only possible with meticulous planning, agile change management, and strong cross-functional alignment.
Beyond Lucknow & Rajkot Smart/Safe City projects, I’ve been deeply involved in the execution of five other major Smart City deployments across the country, each with its unique landscape and set of challenges. I’ve also managed other high-impact assignments such as the Commonwealth Games in the year 2010, mission-critical data centre builds, Pan-India surveillance rollouts, and enterprise IT transformations for clients in both government and enterprise sectors. In the Commonwealth Games project, I was assigned the task of Surveillance and IBMS across 5 stadiums and 18 Delhi Markets.
Throughout these experiences, I’ve leaned on frameworks like PMP, Agile, and Six Sigma to drive efficiency, quality, and repeatability. But tools and methods aside, the biggest lesson I’ve learned is this: no project succeeds without trust, accountability, and communication.
The Power of Customer Obsession
Today, more than ever, customers are looking for value beyond the product or service. They seek partners who understand their pain points, anticipate their needs, and offer proactive solutions.
At Allied Digital, we’ve cultivated a culture where client experience is everyone’s responsibility. I’ve worked closely with both public and private sector clients, ensuring not just timely delivery but complete lifecycle support—from Sales handover when the project is awarded, consulting to post-deployment optimization. I actively promote a mindset where every team member is empowered to think like the customer. This approach has helped us improve satisfaction scores, retention rates, and long-standing partnerships.
What Keeps Me Going
I’m a lifelong learner—whether it’s earning credentials like PMP, PGDMS, or the PGP-AIFL in leadership, or staying on top of emerging technologies and global trends. But what truly excites me is mentoring teams, solving challenges, and transforming complexity into clarity.
I firmly believe that process is not a one-time setup—it’s a living system that must evolve with changing business environments. That’s why I’ve always pushed for process audits, SOP updates, and KPI-driven governance structures across the programs I lead.
As Allied Digital pushes forward on its AI-first and global expansion journey, I’m proud to be part of a vision that doesn’t just deliver IT solutions—it delivers transformation. Our focus remains steadfast: building solutions that scale, systems that last, and relationships that endure.