With tech centre in tow, Bunchball's ready to play

PUNE: Bunchball, the American company that pioneered the concept of gamification, has moved a part of its technology centre to India following the acquisition by BI Worldwide in April.

The Bunchball global team has been supported by the Global Technology Solutions delivery centre in Chennai in the past few months, said Michael Fiore, executive vice-president of worldwide sales and services at Bunchball.

“The engineering team works on feature development and custom deployments for clients along with providing Tier II tech support and some admin functions,” he said.


Most of the 150 team members are currently working on Bunchball, and the team could be expanded as the local business gains traction, he said. Fiore was recently in India to get the Bunchball office up and running.

After being acquired by BI Worldwide, which has a global presence in loyalty and engagement solutions, Bunchball has been leveraging the BI sales channel to expand its presence outside the United States which currently comprises 90% of its market “BI already has a holistic rewards platform that runs on the game mechanics.

We now have the capability to combine digital and offline means to drive positive behaviour which essentially makes us a complete package. Further, the access to the offshore research and engineering teams has helped us reduce product development costs and increase our tech reach,” said Fiore. Demand is being driven largely by the increasing numbers of millennial employees in the workforce who are naturally more inclined towards gamification, said Fiore.

There’s also increased demand for gamification solutions for the non-digital workforce such as shopfloor workers and drivers, he said. Bunchball created the gamification industry in 2007 with the introduction of Bunchball Nitro, the first technology platform to integrate game mechanics with non-game digital experiences.