TaskTrek - An Office Communication And Information Management Suite From Loginworks Softwares

A powerful communications platform designed to eliminate the grievances of everyday email, TaskTrek is a new service launched by Loginworks Softwares: A software development enterprise operating out of Ghaziabad. In addition to its communications model, TaskTrek is highly customizable and can be tailored to meet specific client requirements.In conversation with Preeti Juneja, of TaskTrek, YourStory explores the idea and people behind this startup. Read on.

Tell us about yourself and your startup.

Loginworks Softwares is an indigenous software development company, established in 2006 by Mr. Dheeraj Juneja: Founder and CEO, Loginworks Softwares.

We provide companies with end-to-end IT solutions across sectors and products. Our services include data mining, website to m-site conversion, customized software development, software maintenance, website design & development and applications for mobile devices to name a few.

When did you launch and how big is your team?

The company was established in August 2006. Our team of 14 members comprises designers, content writers, marketing professionals and developers with a thorough experience in classic asp.net, SQL server, HTML, CSS and Javascript.

What are the core services Loginworks provides?

There are two services that form our core business: custom software development and the TaskTrek service. TaskTrek is a new addition for customers in India from the SME / SMB segment. It is a fairly new concept and gaining grounds in our domestic market.

What is TaskTrek? How did the idea and name come about?

TaskTrek is an office communication and information management suite. On TaskTrek, all your communication and information gets collated in one place. You can communicate or share messages or files both ways, with your team, clients and external stakeholders and all communication gets documented here in a seamless fashion. With TaskTrek, you can organize all your work related data in a consistent manner, monitor your activities and manage your resources with fine grain tools and a customized reporting system.

We conceptualized TaskTrek about three years ago and started using it internally and made it available to our clients about two years ago. However, it was only in July, 2010, that we officially launched TaskTrek in India for our customers here.

As for the idea, we recognized a need for a highly customizable, one-stop solution that is easy to use, affordable, easily integrates with businesses hierarchies and includes a communication system. TaskTrek addresses this need. Our aim is to provide a robust solution that can help cut email clutter and problems arising thereof.

What are its key features and what do you have planned for the future?

Some of the key features available on TaskTrek are as follows:

• Web mail integration – Accessing and responding to emails from within TaskTrek
• Two way communication: Grouping all internal and external communication together seamlessly
• One window for all your work: Dashboard that comes equipped with a host of functionalities for faster performance and quick access
• Heavy File share: You can share heavy files, upto 1 gb, with both internal & external team or clients
• Customized reports: Reports section is customizable and free of cost. We can develop report templates as per client needs and embed in the system

In the due course of time, we will make available the following features for our customers:

• Chat and minutes of the meeting (MOMs)– to chat with team and faster way to record MOMs
• Edit online option – you can edit your documents online and save
• Desktop client widget of TaskTrek to install in individual computers

We plan to reach out to the masses, further categorized into three – Hosted packages for SMEs, Product packages for SMEs and Packages for single users like freelancers.

Are you looking to launch any other services as well?

We’re always looking out for greater opportunities. However, at this time there is no news to share on this front.

Tell us about the number of subscriptions so far.Over the last year, TaskTrek has acquired a handful of reputed brands and there are more in the pipeline. SME, CRY (Child Rights and You), Karnataka State Police Housing Corporation and Actimedia to name a few.

How do you market the software to the relevant audience? Do you plan to do business by M-commerce as well?

Let’s break our efforts down with a list:

• So far, we have been actively engaged in PR to promote TaskTrek.
• When we launched, we had done outdoor promotions, with our hoarding on DND toll.
• We have also intensively promoted TaskTrek via social media.
• Our entries for TaskTrek in reputed award functions have given us tremendous publicity in addition to two titles: Best Digital Application of the Year – WAT Awards 2011; Best use of PR by private sector entity – corporate by Exchange4media.com
• We have engaged in partnerships, and executed a discount coupon promotion with SME World magazine.
• E-mailer promotions and online promotions have also played an important role and will only grow in coming times.
• The newly launched website of TaskTrek last month has give the brand an identity.
• We do plan to partner with telecoms operators for enterprise business solutions and are willing to partner with like-minded brands, not restricting ourselves to profitable opportunities.

What challenges do you face as an entrepreneur in this space?

TaskTrek is a change that needs realization of need, acceptance of new application and continuous usage of application to see the positive difference that it brings with it.

Talking of challenges, there is only one and it is not technical in nature. It is about getting an entrepreneur to convince his / her team to understand the need for TaskTrek, and use it to their benefit. It is the team in totality, who has to use TaskTrek and if they don’t accept it, an entrepreneur can’t do much to change his situation.

Tell us about the kind of feedback that you received from users so far.

We take pride in saying that TaskTrek has been well received by our audience, media and other technologists in the space. The media reviews and positive feedback from customers and prospective clients are a testament to the quality of our product.

We have often had people tell us that they haven’t seen anything quite as simple and easy to use and yet so effective. It makes me smile when they ask us where TaskTrek was developed. We are proud to say it is our homegrown product and service that we see huge potential in for our Indian SME audience.

Are there any other similar softwares in the market? What are your differentiators?

There is a need gap and we are here to fill it. We don’t see any competition here.

TaskTrek is essentially a communication and information management solution, and not a dominant project management or a document management tool for managing projects and analyzing them through various detailed reporting modules.

TaskTrek is affordable to use. It costs just INR 100 per person per month to start using TaskTrek. This low cost factor is a key decision director for any startup.

Client data on TaskTrek is not on cloud but on our private servers.

Anything interesting that you would like to share with our readers? Any key statistics /market trends?

Statistics show that SME marketing is flourishing and majorly contributing to the Indian economy but not well versed with the latest technologies can help them speed things up.

• According to the SME Chamber of India, it is estimated that there are 35 million SMBs in India and they contribute 45 per cent of the industrial output, 40 per cent of exports, 42 million in employment, creating 1 million jobs every year.
• According to IDC, the SMB PC spending in India was estimated to be Rs. 5,515 crore in 2010.
• According to the Symantec 2010 Global SMB Information Protection Survey India Findings, the SMEs on an average spent approximately Rs. 1, 48,000 on IT in a year.
• Though there are opportunities abound for the SME market to adopt technologies that will advance their operations and expand their sales capabilities. From project management tools to document management tools to functional tools (HR, Finance, etc.) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) are available but uncommon to find a communication management tool that can take in aspects of all the above.

For more details, please visit http://tasktrek.in/ and share your feedback and comments below.

- Abhilasha Dafria