Driven by innovation and frugal methodologies

From Internet cafés to appalam. That is the range of discussion Param takes me through, during a recent interaction over phone and email. “I have been a serial, techno-entrepreneur who has been actively delivering disruptive technologies since 1995,” says Parameshwar Babu, CEO, Param Projects For Perfection. “I created breakthrough software products in Java as early as 1997 that revolutionised Internet growth in India and consequently gained international acclaim. Within five years of the product launch in 1997, my products were sold to 30,000 customers worldwide spread across 80 countries. Notable overseas clients included the US Department of Defense (during the IRAQ war), various police departments such as of the Alabama state, local councils in states like New Jersey, as well as the NASA and the UCLA.”

The context of our conversation, however, is the recent deal Param signed with a firm in Bangladesh, during the investor’s meet organised a few weeks ago by the Confederation of Indian Industry, along with the Board of Investment, Bangladesh, and the India-Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce & Industry, in Chennai. Read on.

Tell us about the MoU, Param.

Param Projects Private Ltd has been developing cutting-edge ecommerce technologies and providing products/ solutions for a wide variety of businesses ranging from retail to entertainment sector. We have handled more than 600 clients globally during the last 6 years but the majority of them are from North America, Europe and Australia. Since most of our products/ solutions are specialised tools requiring support from other vendors in the ecosystem, we have always found it difficult to penetrate markets in India and other developing countries.

Fortunately, we had the opportunity to meet a group of delegates from Bangladesh during the month of June 2013. Aamra Technologies, a leading IT firm from Bangladesh was looking for advanced ecommerce companies. Aamra is a leading player in a wide range of IT products and services in Bangladesh and so they thought they would definitely benefit from partnership with specialised players like Param Projects. This relationship could be a great beginning for the growth of a new ecosystem.

How do your solutions benefit businesses?

Global giants like Amazon, and eBay have benefitted from advanced ecommerce tools but they have invested billions of dollars of money to develop these tools. In fact, every SMB (small and medium business) from any industry (be it food, retail, travel, etc.) can benefit in some way or the other if they get access to similar ecommerce tools and learn to implement them.

We, at Param Projects, help SMBs achieve these goals by providing indigenously-developed tools so that SMBs can reap some benefits without spending billions of dollars. Sometimes, our solutions require companies to change existing business models, change the way they interact with customers, develop new methods to capture leads and convert them. We strive to build a long-term relationship with entrepreneurs rather than look at them as mere clients.

You have done work for the hospitality industry, too?

Using innovations in GIS mapping technologies, we have enabled millions of customers around the world to search, locate and book hotels via Internet; this, through ParamHotels - http://paramhotels.com. This portal for the hotel industry provides an easy-to-use interface to browse, search and review thousands of hotels around the globe. One can find detailed route maps of every hotel listed in ParamHotels.com with high-quality photos, and also find locations/ tourist spots that are located in the vicinity of each hotel.

Is the appalam venture driven by a social urge?

During the last couple of years, I decided to nurture budding entrepreneurs outside the technology domain. I took over a small food-processing unit in Madurai that has the capacity to manufacture around 500 kg of appalam (the south-Indian dried snack food), and named it Sri Krishna Appalam. The product is now sold in a couple of retail stores in Chennai.

What drove me was the frustration with the fact that most SMBs could not afford to buy software technologies. I realised that to be the reason for the poor sales of my IT products within India. I also realised these small companies could not thrive because they failed to use modern management and cutting-edge technologies. So I decided to do my bit by identifying such companies in the food industry, mentor those entrepreneurs, and help them scale up.

Your advice for new entrepreneurs.

Personally, most of my entrepreneurial life has been driven by innovation and frugal methodologies since 1996. So I feel it’s essential not to get carried away by short-term goals. You should aim for long-term consistency. Whether you make it big or not, remember to innovate periodically, control your costs and most importantly persist long enough with this combination.