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Engineering change
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Twenty two college students strike out on their own to give shape to a software brainwave
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PHOTO: M. PERIASAMY
THE YOUNG TURKS (From Left) B. Saravana Bhavan, G. Aswanthakumar and V. Manoj of Bhavansoft Corporation at work.
Bhavansoft Corporation. The name may not yet ring a bell. It is not a software giant doling out a princely bonus nor does its shares create a flutter in the stock exchange. What sets this fledgling software company apart is the people behind it. It is the brainchild of a few engineering students of the Kumaraguru College of Technology, Coimbatore. Barely couple of months old, the firm spearheaded by four final year Mechanical Engineering students of the college has now a strength of 22. The company was the idea of B. Saravana Bhavan, who became the chairman of the firm. For long a dream, the concept began to take shape after the Campus Connect last year. He was soon joined by three other classmates, C.D. Vinodh who is now the CEO, V. Manoj, the Marketing Head and G. Aswanthakumar, the HR Head.
But the going was not easy. "Motivation was a problem," says Aswanth. "There were not too many people to encourage us. Even friends made fun," he recounts. But all this changed once they set about their task.
The beginners decided to cash in on the popularity of sudoku - the number game, which seems to have got Coimbatoreans hooked. "Often we found our classmates busy with the puzzle in class," says Aswanth sheepishly. That's when the idea of a sudoku solver dawned on them. They developed a software that will assist in solving the puzzle. "We have decided not to sell the software and it will be sent to all who want it through e-mail," says Aswanth.
Apart from sudoku, the Bhavansoft guys have also ventured into the area of industrial software. "It is the area of optimisation that we are paying attention to as it offers a lot of possibilities," explains Saravana Bhavan. They have created software in the design and manufacturing field that will help small-scale industries.
The professional touch
It may sound a sound a little strange that a bunch of Mechanical Engineering guys were the ones to flag off a software firm in the college. While the boys believe that there are quite a few areas where they can pitch in effectively, they also brought in people from the IT, Electronics and Mechatronics Departments to ensure professional expertise. Bhavansoft Corporation today has members not only from other streams, but even from other colleges. "We have students from the Coimbatore Institute of Technology and VLB Jankiammal in the company now," says Saravana Bhavan.
This group of entrepreneurs is innovative in more ways than one. They have decided against having permanent marketing employees. Instead they will pay 10 per cent of their fee to the person getting them the orders. Bhavansoft, apart from developing products, also offers training programmes. On the software front, its plans include home managers, professional planners and more.
Meanwhile, the four pillars of the company aim to hand over its day-to-day running to an efficient rung of juniors in college as they take up jobs on attaining their degree.
"We plan to get back to Bhavansoft Corporation after six years," reveals Aswanth. But they will continue to be associated with the company and oversee the administration. "It is important to gain domain knowledge and other skills required to sustain a software establishment," he says explaining their decision to work elsewhere and then return to Bhavansoft. For details, contact mailbhavan@yahoo.com.
ANIMA BALAKRISHNAN
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