YourStory in conversation with entrepreneur Kundan Singh of Cultivate IT Solutions about their products, GurukulXpress & BusinessXpress

Kundan, define Cultivate IT Solutions for us.

Cultivate is an IT consulting and solutions company that provides end-to-end software development, design and consulting services to a wide range of customers. Strategically, our work is divided into three major streams - IT services, product development and digital content publishing. The underlying mission in all our ventures is to create value for our customers, our people and the society by providing innovative services to everyday challenges faced by businesses and individuals.

How did the business idea for Cultivate come about?

Cultivate was founded in September 2009 to provide IT services for clients in the telecom and healthcare industry. At a time when recession had forced businesses around the world to move towards low cost yet high quality services, we created an opportunity using our expertise in telecom and healthcare sector to create innovative solutions that addressed key issues and ultimately, helped clients free up the much-needed cash.

Later, we moved in to the product development arena with the business idea of bringing in affordable enterprise applications for SMEs. The name 'Cultivate' was coined to signify the mission of the company to cultivate a culture of IT best practices in businesses, especially Indian SMEs - who have been traditionally lagging in adopting latest technology for their business needs.

What is your background?

I have 7+ years of experience in the IT industry and I also hold an MBA degree from the University of Cranfield - a top tier global business school in the UK. I have gained extensive expertise in developing and implementing high impact IT-enabled business change programs while working in close collaboration with clients in telecom, FMCG and technology industries.

Tell us about your products, GurukulXpress & BusinessXpress.

One of our first in-house products - GurukulXpress, a customisable school information management solution - has been adopted by several schools in India. We are working to expand the solution to create a complete school ERP which can be offered as an off-the-shelf solution to any school and college around the globe.

BusinessXpress, which is our web based ERP solution, is still under development. But clients in the UK have already shown interest in buying such a solution, which takes management reporting at the core of the architecture to facilitate superior decision-making in businesses. In addition to business functionalities, user experience, security and performance are other major benefits of this product. This is our first product which is on the cloud and will be available on SaaS concept.

You had mentioned that you also do some work in digital content publishing. Can you throw light on that aspect of your operations?

We are working on a portal for the education sector in India. It is in the early stage of inception and we want to position it in the online market to address the growing need of students and young professionals. The mission is to help them in their academic journey, by offering information and advice on all stages of education and providing them an opportunity to network with like-minded people online.

So, how has the acceptance been for your concepts?

We have technology partners in India, UK and Canada - Tally, Archon systems and TSIT are a few examples. We are also startup partners of Microsoft under the BizSpark programme. In addition to this, we are enhancing business relationships with big names in India and UK who are bringing repeat audience back for us, both as clients and business partners.

We are working on two long-term development projects hand-in-hand with our UK partner and this has been a repeat business. Hence, we can confidently say that there is an acceptance of our IT service offering.

Where do you see the IT solutions space and Cultivate five years from now?

In the coming years, business IT solutions will need to break the physical boundaries of the organisation and spread its reach via different media like web, mobile devices etc. Cultivate will play a key role in bringing such services with rock-solid security and reliability in market place.

We see Cultivate playing a leadership role in enabling businesses, in India and abroad, to focus on their key strengths and core business while supporting its day-to-day operations with global quality IT solutions. The idea is to lead the market for customisable, scalable and cost effective business applications that can be adopted by small and big businesses.

What is Cultivate IT Solutions’ revenue model? Are you looking to raise funds?

Cultivate has been funded by the founding members of the company and we have a recurring revenue stream from the current IT services offering, which is helping us fund the other ventures. I foresee a need to raise funds in the near future when we plan to aggressively market our concepts and bring some of our services to market on a large-scale, having crossed early adoption stage.

How big is the Cultivate team? Are you looking at hiring?

Cultivate has 5 full-time and 4 part-time employees. Most of us have post-graduate degrees in IT and management and collectively, we bring a wealth of industry knowledge and expertise to apply to our solutions. We are currently looking to expand our design and business development teams to meet the requirements of our growing business.

We at YourStory wish Kundan and the Cultivate team all the very best. To know more about this product tech startup, check out http://cultivate.co.in/. Also, do let us know what you think of this story. You can write to us at [email protected].

Sriram Mohan | YourStory | 16^th May 2011 | Bangalore