Proto.in Second Edition: Enterprise Solutions

Proto.in India startup action event started with an ‘Invocation’ – video featuring Amithabh Bachchan on the theme India Poised( by Times of India).

Ravi Naraina kicked off the session by drawing parallel between Proto.in and Woodstock
.

Vijay Anand, the Key Organizer of Proto.in introduced each segment and each startup in the segment.

The first company to present was TISS – TISS MSC SDN BHD from Malaysia. They offer data security solutions for enterprise equipment like laptops. Their USB stick(T3) based group sharable access key provides:

PC Ignition and Lock-down so the T3 SecurityKey-holder can leave his/her active pc in safety and prevent and track unauthorised access

They are at proto.in seeking partners for expansion and Venture Funding.

The next company to go on stage was AuthMe. Aditya demonstrated the one time PASTCODE based authentication method that uses SMS to deliver part of the (one-time)authentication password. The biggest challenge I see is proving that the method is hole free. At implementation level, scaling up and maintaining acceptable response time for authentication cycle might be an issue. My take is, interesting enough to dig deep into the technicals. Business wise, identity increasingly will play a central role in all kinds of human interactions, and it is unlikely that single method of authentication will emerge as the only way. There is need and space for alternative methods of managing identities and authentication is one important aspect of identity management.

MDT ( Multimedia Display Technologies, SDN Bhd) was next on the stage. Liew Choon Lian started off saying that RFID is the sexiest lady in stock markets worldwide. After getting the attention, he quickly added that MDT will soon release one cent RFID tags and sub ten dollar RFID readers. Wow! How is it possible? Choice of material and process – Simple! They have perfected a (patented) ink based process rather than silicon wafer based fabrication prevalent with RFID tags in the market. The Tx/Rx logic( the main Intellectual Property) is built as BGA( ball grid array) so that it is ‘safe from Chinese and Taiwanese’ Choon added with a sheepish smile admitting that he is Chinese!. Sub one cent RFID tag is the holy grail of AutoId industry and MDT is seeking funding for manufacturing and business expansion. And also seeking application development partnership. Very interesting. [ Note to self: Perhaps this will complement/augment my paper file tracking very well. ]

The next company to go on stage was ALTRION. Badri talked about how his product Altrion Business Performance Suite ( ALTRION BPS) offers business performance whereas SAP sells complexity. As I understand it, the software product will go well with what ever self deception ‘Best Practice’ the enterprise chooses viz., TQM, TPM, Sig-sigma, Balanced Scorecard, etc. Interestingly, the product is built on top of opensource so that the total cost of ownership is less( is it really true that opensource will reduce the TCO?) I’m curious to know how these plays compare well with (apparently)more disruptive offerings like Thingamy.com. ALTRION is looking for alliances and exposure( mindshare I guess – This is on reason I want Altrion to be benchmarked against Thingamy)